SO MUCH TO TELL YOU ALL ABOUT!!!

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g'day y'all! loving the aussie language!!
So we left sydney and flew to melbourne, its so frigging cold here, even more than sydney, we didn't know where ferntree gully was, where we are staying (well just outside of ferntree gully) so we got this shuttle bus that couldnt even take us to ferntree gully as it was too far out so we got dropped off a petrol station where patrycia's dad, zig, picked us up, and then it was even another 20 min drive!! it takes 15 mins to drive to local station, then 50 mins of train to city centre, but its all worth it! They live in what is known in australia as a McMansion, and its awesome, so big and posh. Theresa, pat's mum, is a beauty therapist who works from home so there is a whole saloon here, where i can get a treatment if i want!!! Patrycia works 8-6 during the week, so Zig (her dad), who has 8 days off luckily is being like a taxi service to us, and dropping us off at the station to go into town.
So we arrived on tuesday afternoon, then we had an amazing home cooked meal and got shown the house, then we went to a bar in a place called Chapel Street which has a lot of bars and boutiques, the bar was called La La Land, it was really nice, then we went to a shop called Grecgo's (i think its spelt!) which has AMAZING cakes and hot chocolates!!! We then came home and went to bed.
Wednesday (yday) we got up quite early and got dropped off at ferntree gully and got the train into town, where we looked round the city centre, we went to the australian centre for moving image, which james loved, your able to watch short films all day so he was in his element! Then we went on this free tram that does a loop of the town and gives you commentary about the sites, and as we got off james' didn't have his wallet anymore. his wallet had $100, bank cards, drivers licence, student ID. so we back tracked and couldnt find it, and got in touch with the lost property for the tram. nothing. we went to STA Travel (who we booked our tour with) and they said there is no way we'd get it back and we shud cancel our campervan in NZ which would have a 100% cancellation fee so we would have to pay for it in full even though we weren't able to use it. We then went to the police station to report the lost property and the lady officer went in the back room to photocopy the form, AND IT WAS THERE!!! some kind soul has handed it in, with all the money, and everything! We were a bit scared of melbourne at first, cos of the shooting that happened a few days ago, but its so lovely, people are kind and caring. and that shooting was the first in melbourne for like 10 yrs, not like london!!! We are having such a lovely time cos patrycia's family are being so hospitable, they are polish, so like to make sure we're ok all the time! Anyway we found the wallet, came back to patrycia's, had dinner, and then went into town for the evening. We went to a place called Crown, which is like a casino, resturants, pub, cinema, hotel, shops, all under one roof! We had more cake and hot chocolate at a bigger branch of Grecgos, and then went to the pub and came home. Luckily Patrycia can drive, everyone from her kind of area drives cos its pretty far out, but in the city everyone uses the transport cos its so good. there are buses, trains, trams, everything. I forgot to also say james' isn't feeling 100% at the mo, a bit flu like. He keeps making me worried and saying he has malaria! But hopefully its just a little bit of illness from being tired and rundown. We are going to try and rest a bit more in the next few days and not be as hectic as james will be driving daily in NZ. Don't want him too worn out!
So today we are going to rest a bit, then Zig is going to drive us to see the Dandenong Mountains and hills and local area, then this evening we are going to the Knoz shopping centre, which has late night shopping, and go for dinner there. And tomorrow we are going to go back into town, see more sights, then in the evening we are going out again with patrycia but not sure yet.
The plan for the weekend is to go and see the neighbours set, go to Yarra Valley and see all the wine making, maybe go to phillip island to see all the penguins, go into town, and i think maybe go partying. so it's all good. the other thing is patrycia has a sister called Edyta who is the same size as me and she is letting me borrow all her clothes which is so awesome as you get a little sick of the same clothes when your backpacking!!!
Its also really weird here with a lot of the place names being like england, like richmond, mitcham, docklands, torquay...!
anyway, gonna go and get ready, threasa is gonna do some washing for us, so so so nice!
House is awesome, literally like a mansion, will take pics! Want to move here!
Take care everyone, keep in touch, email is the best way to send messages as we can reply, we are getting your messages and comments on the blog, but we can't send a reply via this site.
anyway lots of love, h&J xx

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Comments

[didier]

melbourne
hey,doing a bit of luxury in melbourne.good after all the travelling around.you are a bit of lucky boy james after the story of your wallet.i cant wait u describe NZ ,i never been but i heard a lot about it.still follow you around.by the way did you photocopy all your papers,cards....etc and trisha have the copies?????? because if you have not ,do it now and send to trisha.easier to manage with proof in case.so long didierxxxxx