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Published: January 20th 2014
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Happy New Year everyone and g'day from Melbourne!
I arrived in Melbourne on 10th December and will be here until March time. Spending most of my time relaxing and exercising and,as nice as it sounds, I have started to miss teaching at school. In Asia, it was so cheap it was so easy for me and Stu to do so much that I wouldn't really miss being at work, but Australia is so expensive it is difficult to do things often when I don't earn an Australian wage. I went for an interview last week so hopefully I get the job. That way I'll have a few more pennies to spend!
After my first week here, I went to Adelaide to visit my Aunty Steph and my cousins whom I have never met which was lovely. One of the the best things we did was go to the outdoor cinema! We hired long beanbags to lay on, had a picnic and watched the new disney film, Frozen, which I really enjoyed. It was such a lovely atmosphere as there were fireflies in the sky and a cool breeze as we laid there. At one point, it started to rain
but it soon passed. In fact, it added to the atmosphere of the film. You could almost have called it a 4D film!
So back to Melbourne. First of all, I'll start with the weather. It is a little like England where you have many seasons in one day(apart from the snow)! My sister,Sophie, and her boyfriend, Martin, live near the beach so there is quite often a cold breeze from Antarctica. It has mainly been sunny and warm but we have had some crazy windy days where you can see sand zooming past you! Sophie has taken me around a few places in Melbourne. It is quite an arty place to live, where graffiti is encouraged on side alleyway walls. I have seen so much amazing graffiti and found it really livens up and gives character to the buildings. Graffiti definitely doesn't need to be a bad thing! Melbourne also has a fantastic range of food places to eat. If you are wanting food from a particular part of the world you will find it here! Too bad it isn't as cheap as Asia because I would be out everyday trying it all...probably a good thing! Sophie and
Martin have taken me out to some lovely restaurants. I look forward to when Stuart gets out here in March so I can take him out.
There are also lots of different beaches you can visit around Melbourne. I like to go down to the beach for a run or to sunbathe where I watch kite surfers flipping in the air, paddle boarders floating by, wind surfers, people sailing and even sky divers falling from the sky. I love those days when I see so much activity going on. It's definitely a great place to live if you are sporty. Myself and Sophie are having a go at stand up paddle boarding this week; I'm really excited to give that a go! Hopefully I won't fall over too much!
In St Kilda, where Sophie and Martin live, there is a place where fairy penguins live at night. When it gets dark, the penguins return from their adventures of the day and come to nest in the rocks. Sophie took me one night and we spotted a couple of fairy penguins. I didn't see them too clearly so we will go back another time as Soph said they can
sometimes pop out and walk right in front of you! I will have to refrain from touching them!
A couple of weeks ago, we went to a magic show called The Illusionists. The performers were amazing. The show was funny and awe inspiring. It definitely made you want to see more. One of my favourite acts was when one of the performers brought out suitcases full doll parts. He had a box with a spike in it to place all of these parts of the doll together. The head fell off and rolled into the audience. As soon as the head was placed back on to the doll's body, it turned in to a real person and walked out of the box! Crazy! The show is touring the world so I would definitely recommend it!
Last Friday, we went to the Australian Open.We got to see Serena Williams and David Ferrer play. Our seats were towards the top of the arena but the view was fantastic- and we were in the shade. It was 40 degrees while the players were playing! I know I was super hot so I have no idea how they played in the heat!
Thankfully, Martin had frozen some water in a bottle for us the night before so we used this to cool us down during the match! The atmosphere there was fantastic and I'm really glad I got to see some top ranking players. I was really hoping I would get to see Djokovic but he ended up playing in the evening. I got talking to a lady and she said Djokovic would be on the practise courts at 5pm. Me and Soph said we would go down there early and we got some fantastic spots at the front at 4.30pm. 5pm arrived and all of his entourage arrived with camera men, there must have been over one hundred people crowded around the court. At 5.20, we were then told he wouldn't be coming out! We had been waiting nearly an hour in the heat, definitely not impressed. Loads of people around wouldn't move just in case they got it wrong but when all the cameras packed up we knew it was time to move. So disappointed but I suppose he is in a competition and has to think about his game. We heard he appeared on the practise courts the next
day and pulled some children over to play tennis with him! He was obviously trying to rebuild his reputation...not jealous at all haha.
This weekend we went walking to a place called Albert's seat and to a small town festival. To get to Albert's seat, we drove to to the top of a steep, windy road with Sophie's car that doesn't have much power so that was an interesting journey up! It was worth it though as the view of the peninsular below was beautiful. We saw strange droppings as we walked around the park and apparently koalas lived there but we couldn't spot any! We then went to a free festival where there were bands playing, food and drink stalls and rides. Myself and Soph decided to go on a ride called Kamikaze which I thought looked the scariest. I was definitely scared and I felt like I was going to fall out every time we went upside down. At one point, we got to the top of the ride and hung upside down for a whole minute! It felt like forever and I started to worry we were stuck. It didn't help that I was lifted out
of my seat and was trying my hardest to use my 'strong' muscles to keep me down on my seat! Turned out to be a great workout for my arms but I don't think I would go on it again :S
Next weekend, we are off to the Great Ocean Road. Really excited so will keep you updated once I have been. Hope you are all well and having a lovely new year so far. Lots of love xxx
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Australian Open
Nice photo