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

Melbourne, a perennial top of the pops in the World’s Most Liveable City surveys. Well-grounded, chic, efficient and abuzz with the spark of urbane youth, its Bohemian vibe could make some of Europe’s finest blush. It may not have Sydney’s natural good looks but it addresses the imbalance with character. Sydney has the silicon but Melbourne has the substance. Melbourne also pumps its chest with a self-proclamation as “Sporting Capital of the World”. Plenty of cities might justifiably dispute that claim but there’s enough sporting armoury for this to be more than mere hyperbole. One of the premier dates on the calendar is the Australian Open Tennis, a fortnight of wham-bam-thank-you-mam action where it seems the entire city comes out to play. The Oz Open is the party everyone wants to say they’ve been to. Anyone ... read more

Na 3 maanden onze weg gevonden te hebben in het prachtige Zuid-Amerika, waarin we met het openbare vervoer langs hostels reisden en de Spaanse taal onder de knie probeerden te krijgen, keken we uit naar het volgende avontuur: met ons eigen camper busje rondtrekken, genieten van de ultieme vrijheid in het relaxte Australië. In Australië verwachtten wij een mooie mix van zon, zee, strand en natuur en keken we erg uit naar reünies met familie en vrienden. Onze aankomst was meteen goed! Vlak voor kerst kwamen we in Melbourne aan, waar Gie (de zwager van Koos) ons stond op te wachten. Gelukkig kwamen we ’s avonds aan, want het was die dag 41 graden! Een kleine week hebben we in Melbourne bij Marije (de zus van Koos), Gie en de drie kinderen gelogeerd. Hier hebben we ... read more

With the serious on track action starting today we woke up early to finalise our picnic preparation and Mark’s arrival from the UK. Soon we had our hamper packed with fresh Focaccia rolls, Frittata, Lamb Kebabs and cunningly disguised bottle of wine to wash it all down with!On time Mark arrived at the apartment for a quick shower and change before we headed out for a quick breakfast to catch up on the last six months. With the whole of the Melbourne CBD to explore and a long list of sights to see, we sent Mark off on his way and we headed to the circuit for a prearranged viewing from the James Boag bar with complementary beer! From the raised bar we took in the parade laps by the Ferraris owners club before the Porsche ... read more

With the experience of the first day behind us we up a little earlier and prepared some lunch time snacks before catching the trams back to the circuit, with Jo taking a coffee in her shiny new insulated cup!! Considering it was only day 2 of the event, we were surprised by the increase in numbers in people queuing to get into the track, nether the less we passed through the bag checks pretty quickly and made our way to our seats to watch the V8’s. Given the crowds seemed to be slowly growing we decided to take in as much of the off track action as we could so had planned to watch the Crusty Demons practising the motorbike stunt display, although unfortunately this had been called off due to the early ran making conditions ... read more

Hi all, Our journey has began we are playing the waiting game and because it is 12.45am we are all a tad tired. We board in 1 hour and then hopefully a few hours of sleep will be good. We shall be in Dubai at 1pm and expecting it to be very hot.... read more