Blogs from Albert Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Oceania

With us all suffering with self-induced headaches form prior the night’s entertainment, we got up and prepared our hampers of food for the Grand Prix and made our way to the circuit by tram.Much to our surprise Mark had even suggested the idea of buying a ticket for the final day with minimal pressure from us! With the sun beaming on us we took our seats in the stand and started to gorge ourselves on the well food we’d prepared whilst watching the very entertaining RedBull Race Off race which at times was a full contact sport! Next was the final of the Ultimate Speed Comparison with last McLaren having a staggered start from a V8 Challenge car and a fast road going Mercedes-Benz, with the intention being they all cross the finish line at identical ... read more

We arrived in Melbourne again following a 4 hour flight delay on Friday night and we were back at our friends house, where we stayed at Christmas. It was so wierd, 3 months had passed and it felt like we had never been away from 133 Cubitt Street. At 06:30 the following morning I was awakened by the distant sounds of an F1 car screaming around Albert Park; that is the best wakeup call ever and if only I could have recorded it for an alarm. Not sure what Nat would have thought every morning. The walk up into Richmond for my hair cutting was one to remember, the empty streets of the semi industrial suburb were broadcasting the engine noise right to me. Every wall and window seemed like the car was right behind it, ... read more

We were a little late waking up but we caught the tram to the F1 track via the CBD to arrive for 9.30am. We collected our tickets from the box office and headed into the event. There was already a long queue forming for the pit lane walk, so we made our way towards the back of the queue and managed to find a couple of stalls giving away free sausage sandwiches, muffins and water, which we happily stocked up with. We also collected our free event merchandise which turned out to be an insulated coffee cup which Jo was very happy with. The queue for the pit lane walk went down quickly and we were soon following the masses down the pit lanes and taking photos of the teams working away in their garages. After ... read more

Day 249 - Melbourne City Despite the heat we slept really well last night in our new spot on the drive! The only drama might have been if we woke in the night needing a wee but we didn’t so everything was fine. We heard Grant go off to work earlier this morning and when we snuck into the house through the back door we found the girls were up too so sat with them for a while as they watched TV. As luck would have it they were watching the Disney Channel and up popped the ‘What a Life’ program that just happened to be all about Darren Morgan and his drag racing family. Darren is a Top Fuel driver here in Australia and his kids are already doing very well in their Junior Dragsters. ... read more

I've walked Bodhi. I've investigated all the advertising boxes on Dictionary.com and learned the spanish word of the day--precioso (beautiful, lovely, precious). I've cleaned the grout with my old toothbrush, de-spider-webbed the hammock and even stayed awake through Compass (okay, those last ones were just day-dreams, but I daydreamed). Essay is not writing itself but I thought I'd post my ten favourite-ish Mexico photos for you all, seeing as there are none on there already, and it will be a taster for what's to come. Three sleeps to go .... 3 essay writing windows to go ... why does every silver lining have a cloud?... read more