One year to the day...

Today we mark our one year anniversary of our Australian adventure, meaning that Tom and I have now spent 4% of our total lifetime living down under. When I put it like that, it doesn't sound very long, but I'm really proud to reach the one year milestone and only hope that time starts to pass a bit more slowly so that I can savour the time we have left here.

To mark this special occassion, we thought we'd go all out and do something really memorable. A weekend away perhaps? Maybe a nice dinner in the city? Actually, we've eaten an omelette and chips at home whilst I complete Tom's tax return! The moral to all of this, is that no matter how many photos I post of cute Aussie animals, beautiful sights and adventurous travels, the reality of life down under is sometimes very similar to back home, just sunnier.

We've come a long way in a year towards settling into our new lifestyle. My marks of our success include driving without the sat nav (and only sometimes getting lost), expanding our friendship group beyond our beloved Canadian besties (although still not really venturing too far beyond the North-American theme), and chosing Australian X-Factor over the UK version.

Over the past 365 days we have travelled to almost every state (Northern Territory still to go), eaten in more restaurants than my waistline cares to imagine, driven exactly 10,999kms in our car and had gained two mascots in the form of a piggy bank called Beechy and cuddly penguin called Nab Nab. We've laughed the days away with new friends and thankfully not cried too many nights away at home. The highlight of it all however is the times we've shared with those of you back home. Nothing beats sharing the life we love with the people we love, whether it's in person, on the blog or via one of our numerous apartment-tours over Skype.

Here's to another year of Melbourne-fun. Thanks for reading, and more importantly for not forgetting about us - we haven't forgotten you x

Sugar and spice and all that’s nice...

.. that’s what little girls are made of! Aren’t they? Well that’s what our weekend was made of anyway..

Sugar

Friday was all about sugar, when I organised a cake sale at work in aid of the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Having October as breast cancer awareness month is a global theme, and so Australia is in full swing for fund raising and awareness. I wanted to do something here to continue our fundraising efforts from back in the UK, but don’t have the contacts or the team to put together anything the size of The Big Pink Ticket. What I do have however, is an army of willing cake-bakers amongst my colleagues!



Despite only 48 hours notice, I managed to rally eight willing bakers, register myself with the charity and get permission to sell cakes to a captive audience of 80 or so colleagues. I pitched the sale immediately after a two hour meeting, and at the 11am ‘munchies’ weak spot! Needless to say, the caramel slice, chocolate truffle muffins, lemon slice, chocolage hedgehog, rice krispies cakes, Anzac biscuits and everything else went down a STORM! We raised over $500 for breast cancer research, which testified that Australian’s are just as good at putting their hands in their pockets for a good cause at the Brits.. especially if there is food involved!

I was a bit cheeky when pitching the sale, and told my audience that our first cake had sold for $50 (this was not a lie) to encourage high donations. The facilities team were even cheekier back to me though, and complained that I had broken the rules by bringing 'external' food into a meeting room where only internal catering was permitted. “Erm.. excuse me? Can you see the big sign saying ‘cake sale for cancer research’?” Some people never cease to amaze...

Spice

On Saturday night, Tom, Tamara and I had girls night at our favourite brunch spot, St Ali! I know, I know, Tom isn’t a girl.... but just take a look at the cocktail he ordered, then you might think otherwise!


St Ali epitomises Melbourne – it’s located on a back street in an unmarked building and yet inside it’s lively, exciting and yummy! The best of Melbourne’s culture, vibe and atmosphere is hidden in places like this, and after many a successful Sunday morning brunch we thought we’d try their evening fayre – pan asian curries. It didn’t quite live up to expectations, but I needed to write about the fact that we went for a curry in order to include the ‘spice’ part of the rhyme in the blog!

And all that's nice....

Actually, this part isn’t just nice – it’s amazing! On Saturday afternoon Tamara took me wedding dress shopping and I found... THE ONE. I am very excited and relieved that I managed to find my perfect dress so quickly, as I will now not have to traipse around dress shops with bossy shop assistants telling me what they like and don’t like. THE ONE was located on only the third bridal shop visit, and after a total trying on time of about 2.79 hours. This might sound like a long time to some of you, but I think in the history of bridezilla’s, this is probably up at the quicker end of the scale. You will be relieved to hear and probably familiar with the fact that I spent considerably longer chosing my husband-to-be...

Obviously I can’t tell you too much about THE ONE – however Nab Nab approves, and if any of you would like advance warning so that you can plan your outfits to coordinate with me, purple pom-poms are the way to go!!

That’s what little girls are made of....

There had to be a lovely little girl at the end of all of this, didn’t there? This week our Melbourne-friends Neil and Sarah welcomed baby Amelie Grace into the world! Neil and Sarah are also English, and given the lack of family in town as a result, our visiting rights were elevated up the pecking order and we got to go and have a cuddle at the hospital yesterday.


Amelie Grace is the second Amelie to feature on our blog – Amelie number 1 was born to also-English friends Ella and Andy last September. I’m already considering a bulk Moonpig order for personalised birthday cards...

It was lovely holding a newborn again - not since Dora was born have I had a cuddle with a bub so small. The hospital visit definitely put the fear of God into Tom that I would be wanting one of our own very soon. Fortunately for me, Tom is an atheist, so God’s presence will not linger too long!

Congratulations to Neil and Sarah, and we hope you have a very happy time as a family.

Spring sunshine

I composed the original opening paragraph to this blog entry in my head during my morning shower. It was the morning of the AFL Grand Final replay between St Kilda and Collingwood. I wanted to tell you about how Tom and I had witnessed a little piece of Australian history. A historic premiership title for St Kilda. A classic game in the record books of Australian Rules football.

Unfortunately, and as you might have gathered, I’ve had to rewrite.

Tom and I were lucky enough to be one of the 93,000 fans with tickets to the game. We arrived early at the historic MCG (as historic as you get in Australia), with painted faces, banners ready and nerves a plenty. The anticipation was huge, and Lionel Richie entertained the crowd before the match on a bright sunny day.

As it turns out however, we paid per over $300 for the privilege of watching our team get totally smashed. The St Kilda team managed a paltry one goal in the first half, and it was clear at half time that the Magpies would defeat the Saints in both spirit and score. There was none of the drama of the first final game last weekend, and as the chants of the St Kilda fans died, the gap in the scoreboard increased. In the end, we were defeated by 56 points.

A solitary Saints fan comtemplates the Collingwood masses

Our view of 'the G' from the nosebleed seats!

Our favourite, Nick Riedwolt in practice. He didn't kick a ball like that all game.

Nice hunks of muscle warming up! (You see why I like this game now?!)

Go Saints! Go back home and get some practise in before next year!

On a more positive note, spring has arrived here in Melbourne! This weekend we have basked in glorious sunshine and mid-20s temperatures. The first signs of a suntan have started to appear, and our garden chairs have made their first appearance on the balcony. Today we drove along the coast to luxurious Brighton (the Sandbanks-suburb of Melbourne) and met Tamara for a walk on the beach and a diet Coke in a cafe (gosh, aren’t we daredevils?!).

Tamara biking, us driving, back from Brighton. (We are a lot lazier than the Canadians!)

Pretty beach huts.

I don't think we'd be allowed to paint a beach hut like this on Branksome Beach.

A solitary umbrella.

Summer clothes are out!

The English Rose and the Canadian Sweetheart!

Along with the spring weather has come an annual attempt at self-improvement on my part. In an attempt to boost the health of both body and mind I have started a new healthy eating regime, have been making sure I get to the gym, and have even visited the dentist for a spring clean – only here in Australia they don’t call it the dentist – it’s a ‘dental spa’. Hmmm, the only ‘spa’ like quality of the dentist in my opinion is the price! To counteract all the good that this is doing, Tom and I have started a new wine tasting course (intermediate level, don’t you know! – I still don’t have a clue what I’m tasting, fear not) and have been doing lots of eating out.

Earlier in the week we took advantage of a special offer at Melbourne’s branch of Nobu, and dined there with the Canadians. During the course of our meal we were surprised to see a group of three ladies walk in wearing tracksuits and sit down in the booth next to ours. Nobu is not the kind of restaurant where you wear a tracksuit, and if you or I rocked up in such attire, I’m pretty sure we would be politely declined a table. So naturally this raised eyebrows, and after much hushed discussion and a little bit of Googling, we figured out that we were dining next to a dressed-down, baseball cap-wearing Missy Elliott! We all found it very amusing that whilst in one of the finest Japanese restaurants in town she ordered fries with ketchup and diet Coke...

We were also treated to a meal out with Tom’s second cousin Merryl and her new beau Bill. You should all know about Merryl by now, as she is a regular blog character. However you might not know that she was sadly widowed a couple of years ago. Merryl is full of enthusiasm and life, so we are very happy that she has found someone to share this with! No pressure Bill, but now that you are on the blog, there is no turning back!

We have rounded off the evening with a series of Skype calls to Tom's family back home - first Peter and Sue, then Anna, and finally Anne. We were especially touched by a plea from seven year old Rosie for us to come home soon!

Oh when the Saints...

The last Saturday in September is an important date in the Australian calendar. It is the date on which the Australian Football League Grand Final match is held. The whole of Victoria, the home state of AFL, stops for this event and visitors to the city would be forgiven for thinking that a 2.30pm curfew had banned local residents from leaving their homes (or a pub). When Tom and I arrived in Melbourne in October last year, many people expressed their sympathy that we were three weeks too late to catch the infamous ‘Grand Final weekend’. To me, at that point, having to endure a weekend of anything connect to the word ‘football’ sounded like torture, and I was really rather pleased with myself that our timing had worked out to fortuitously.

That was then. One year on however, I have been officially enchanted by the WONDER that is Aussie Rules football and Grand Final weekend is all of a sudden a rather more attractive event than I ever thought it could be. I’ll forgive you if you have fallen off your chair at reading this news, and if you had placed a bet 12 months ago on me ever enjoying a sport with the word ‘foot’ in the title, you would now be very rich. There are just some things about the AFL that I find so much more captivating than the British ‘soccer’ equivalent – and no, it’s not (just) the very short shorts worn by the muscular males.



Here are eight reasons why I think that AFL (Australian Football League) is better than EPL (English Premier League):

1. The scoreboard – in AFL a team scores 6 points for kicking the ball between two central posts (a ‘goal’), and 1 point for kicking the ball between two outer posts (a ‘behind’). In any game you can expect between 10 and 20 goals, and the scores frequently enter triple figures. I’ll take that over a nil-nil draw any day!

2. No acting – an AFL sportsman is tough. The tackles are fast and hard and yet the players always get up and keep playing – none of the diving and acting that you see in football. We have watched an AFL player get stretchered off in a neck brace with concussion, only to rejoin the game 25 minutes later – how about that Ronaldo?

3. The seven umpires – the most respected people on the pitch, especially by the players. How novel is that? I personally find the umpires very amusing to watch as well – from the hand gestures and semaphore flag waving used to indicate a goal, to the backwards sprinting to keep up with the game.

4. The draft system of giving the lowest finishing team in the league the first pick of the best new players means that a Manchester United equivalent will never occur in the AFL – fairness rules, and I like it!

5. Watching an AFL game at the stadium is a family friendly event. Supporters for opposing teams can sit together without threat of violence and there are signs kindly asking patrons to mind their language. Now that’s what I call civilised – not a football hooligan in sight!

6. On the topic of civilised match watching – it is easy to park at an AFL stadium, there is healthy food available (as well as the traditional Aussie meat pie, if desired), the tickets are reasonably priced and readily available, and one of the stadiums even has a roof in case of rain!

7. The players are true all-rounders – athletic, talented and articulate! They can all give brilliant post-match interviews and you never get that sinking feeling that happens when a fit soccer player actually opens his mouth to speak...

8. And finally, I have no choice – EVERYONE in Australia has an opinion on AFL and a team that they support. In the UK I can ignore football and still be respected as an individual, but here in Melbourne that is just not possible – either in social situations or the workplace.
(Please note I have tried to avoid offending all of my family and in-laws favourite teams by drawing my comparison against the EPL and not any leagues inhabited by Southampton, Bournemouth, Norwich City, Ipswich or Coventry.)


Anyway, that’s enough rambling – what I really wanted to blog about was Grand Final weekend 2010!

So to recent events – yesterday was our first GRAND FINAL WEEKEND (GFW hereafter), and it was extra special as our team, St Kilda (affectionately known as The Saints) were competing in the final against the Marmite team of the AFL, Collingwood (ie you love them (as 90,000 people do), or you hate them). Tom and I have become very passionate about St Kilda, which most locals find quite hard to believe. We are constantly ribbed for jumping on the bandwagon of a team that is doing well, as well as being accused of being fair weather supporters. When asked in the run up to the GFW if we’d ever been to a Saints match, I was proud to be able to confirm quite the opposite!

Tickets for such a hallowed sporting event are few and far between, despite the stadium holding 100,000. Unless you are a fifth generation Aussie descended from convicts, or have a spare $10,000 to spend on eBay, you don’t really stand a chance. So instead we took up an early position in our local Pub (appropriately named ‘The Local’), along with a couple of hundred other Saints fans and 3 or 4 lonely Collingwood outcasts.

With Collingwood (the Magpies) as the firm favourites, the Saints had a tough game on their hands, and after a strong start from the Pies, Saints trailed throughout the game. We always remained in contention, but were consistently 2 or 3 goals behind. Tom was a ball of nerves the whole time, and he was shouting so loud at the screen I think the players could potentially have heard his words of encouragement 5km’s away in the stadium! With 6 minutes to go (context: in a 100 minute long game), Saints FINALLY took the lead, but it was short lived and with 90 seconds on the clock the Pies scored again to regain the lead by just one point. In a last ditch shot on goal the Saints could only secure a behind, which made it a tie at 68-68! We all watched the final seconds tick away in what was to ultimately become what was the first Grand Final draw in 33 years.

I was exhausted, Tom was gutted, and everyone else was drunk!

Instead of playing extra time like ANY other sport, both St Kilda and Collingwood now face a rematch next weekend – GFW2! What a money making machine for the TV networks, league and stadium – they must be laughing. The players certainly weren’t, with both teams visibly angered by their failure to secure a win in a match full of opportunities. Tom and I will be back next week for more of course – how lucky to get two grand finals in our first year in Melbourne.

Next week we might even get a shot at parting with hundreds of dollars to watch the game first hand, as fewer tickets are allocated to corporates and more to the REAL FANS... I will report back in due course!

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Tamara was the only person game enough to join me with the facepaint!

Jordan and Amanda

Tamara and Richard

Pat and Tamara

Even Baby Ben joined in (the son of my colleague Sam and his wife Lou)

Wedding preparations from afar...

It is now less than two years until TomKat will be united in holy matrimony! Actually, it won't be very holy because we are going to have a civil ceremony, but I imagine it will be marginally more holy than our current 'living in sin' arrangement.

With only 709 days left to prepare (panic!), I have been keen to lock down the essential plans to make sure we get our preferred suppliers on the big day. After finding a venue, my next stop was looking for a photographer. Although Grandma Papparazi is appropriately nicknamed for the role (my dad's mother *loves* to take photos), I didn't think she'd relish the role of official photographer, so I was lucky when someone that I follow on Twitter mentioned Mister Phill. Phill is a Dorset based photographer who specialises in 'reportage' photography, or as his tagline reads 'I compose stories of wedding days'.

I've been reading his blog for a couple of months now, and if you ever get tired of our blog (surely that will never happen, but just in case), then I'd recommend that you pay a visit to http://www.misterphill.com/photography/ for some light reading and stunning wedding photography. Hopefully in two years time you can return to that same link and and read Phill's story of our wedding day.....

Muffin Time

This afternoon I made chocolate truffle muffins, inspired by a recipe in one of the Aussie food magazines that we read. Tom photographed me with one of them as we both resisted the temptation to tuck in!

Photo Blog: Millie, Rosie and Jamie at Phillip Island

August 8th 2010, Phillip Island, VIC, Australia