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Published: February 8th 2009
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BBQ at Mick and Stephanie's
Mick showed us how it's done So off to Melbourne we went. Peters' brother Mick and his Fiancee Stephanie live on the coast south of Geelong which is south of Melbourne. They rented a house for the family in Ocean Grove and rented a minibus/car for us. They picked us up from the airport and brought us straight to our door. It was a lovely big spacious house which was just a short stroll to the ocean and a lovely big beach.
That evening we had a nice BBQ and Mick and Stephanie came bearing Micks' Home-Brewed Cider. I'm not a cider drinker at all, but this was good stuff. I brought a bottle back to Maeve who was left back in Sydney. Thanks Mick.
It was great that my family got to experience the great Aussie tradition of having a BBQ, indeed we had at least 10 of them in the 3 weeks they were here. It's a really relaxed, easy and delicious way to eat but you do need the weather for it and a good Mozzie spray. On most ocassions we had the weather but not the mozzie spray.
On the Saturday we headed up to Melbourne to meet up with 3 of Dad's
cousins Bernie, Betty and Angela who've been living in Melbourne for years now. They had a big party (relations and friends of our relations)for our arrival and we had a lovely day catching up on life either side of the world. It wasn't long before the embarrassing stories of when they used to babysit us came out, I think it was the drink talking, personally. The hospitality was first class and the day flew by and before we knew it we were packing up to go home, some/one of us the worse for the drink.
On Sunday we had a really nice BBQ over at Mick and Stephanies. Mick's a dab hand at BBQing now and the food was delicious.
On the monday we headed out to Gippsland to meet up with farming friends of Dad's from England. Alan, Frances and Edward Jefford left England in 1980 to set up a farm in Australia. It was really great to see the enterprise that they've set up for themselves over here and it was interesting to see the similarities and differences of dairy farming in Australia compared to home. Dad and I had the grand tour of the farm and got
to see the herd, one of the best in Australia I'm told. That night Frances cooked a delicious meal of Roast beef, potatoes, gravy, peas and beans and yorkshire puddings. The yorkshire pudddings were the only things not produced on the farm, it was one of the nicest meals I've had in Australia. Frances gave me a guided tour of her pride and joy, her garden. There were all kinds of fruit trees and veg growing in the garden. The next morning Dad and I picked oranges from the tree in the garden and ate them fresh - wow!!
Alas it ws time to head back to Ocean Grove.
On the Wednesday we headed off to drive the Great Ocean Road. It was spectacular we started off in Torquay (not in Wales) the surfing capital of Victoria. It's where Billabong started off and is full of Rip Curl, Quicksilver etc. etc. shops. We stopped somewhere along the way to drive little motor boats and go swimming.Then we headed out along the road with land on our right and the ocean and Antartica on the left. We ended up in Angelsea (Again not in Wales). It's a really nice seaside resort
that was full of fish and chip shops and camp sites. We had some Shark and chips, the kids went mad in the playground and then had an ice-cream before heading back home. That evening we had yet another BBQ with King Island Steaks - supposed to be the best beef in Australia. It was a lovely evening and unfortunately our last.
On the Thursday we spent the day relaxing, just packing, cleaning and getting ready to go back. I was flying back to Sydney at 9.00pm and the rest were heading back to Ireland at midnight.
It was great to have them all over for the 3 weeks and I think they really enjoyed it. I'm surprised that the kids travelled so well and by and large were on the best behaviour. It was great to show them how great Australia is, pity it's so far from home or Mam might have braved the journey. For the 3 weeks they were here it never rained and the summer started to heat up a bit. Now that they've left, Melbourne is in the middle of it's worst heat wave since 1908, 42C+ for 5 days in a row, it
was 45.5C in Adelaide the other day so that was a close shave for them. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody when we get home, including 3 new arrivals due soon. Until then we've some serious traveling to get on with.
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