Beach Time!!

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Hey everyone again! The last couple of days have all been good ones as far as it goes for us in Melbourne over the last few days. The weather has been more up and down than we have come to expect actually had days consisting of a lot of rain!! Right as far back as i can remmber since i last wrote was sunday. On sunday we decided we would go into town to have a look for some things to take back home, some presents for friends family and for Tony and Helen for having us. We already knew what we were getting Big T (Tony) as when we played squash with him he had a really old school small flooresent pink racket so we thought it would be only fair to get him a new one so he can be equal with Rob. Helen was a bit tougher we wernt really sure what to get her?? we walked around and thought of loads of ideas and decided on something decrative for the house which they can also remeber us by : ) we got her a big like see through bowl which held water and lots of little coloured pebbles and had cented candles floating around in it. I thought it was pretty good in the end seeing we could not really think of anything all day. Then after searching for a few gifts without much luck i must say we headed back to the house.


Then we had dinner everyone was in and the topic of Go Karting came up somehow and everyone started talking about it and then Rob just got his mind set on it and was not going to take no for an answer asked his parents whether we could go and they said yes straight away!! Brilliant!! So we headed off to circuit in two cars boys in one girls in the other and Giles spent the journey being permentley taunted over how ridiculously slow he went when we last had a go!!! He was getting jabs and little jokes left right and centre!! We got there in bout 10 min very handy having somewhere so local and amazingly cheap. It was $27 dollers for 20min which is bout 13 english pounds Bargain and everyone that has done go karting knows 20min at a time is enough!!! When i first set my eyes on the go karts i doubted them i thought that they didnt look that quick and it would all be a bit lame but i was soon to be proved wrong. We all got signed up and ready to go Helen opted out and offered to look after all of our bags while the rest of us battled it out. We had the track to ourself we started from the bit insted of grid formation which was a bit dissapointing but okay neverertheless . I think Rob led out then followed by Hannah Becky then me Giles and Harry, we went out and the Karts were a lot quicker than i expected and i was pleasently surprised on the first lap i went out all guns blazing while everyone was being a bit cautious and tentative and it worked well for me as i overtaken all 3 ahead of me the end of the first lap. Giles and Harry got caught up in early traffic and then Harry spun off a few laps in putting him about 5 seconds behind me when he came back on, pretty much the whole race i didnt see Giles because he was on the opposite side of te track as we went round he had definatley taken in all the mick taking in as he was going for it full out!! The thing was u didnt actually have to break round any of the corners which he didnt but if u didnt u would well.... bounce round them which was not particularly comfatable!! where you could do what i did which was mearly touch the breaks and gain the same amount of speed coming out of the corner. Giles certainly had went for it as he proved the next day as he had bruises all over his body from where he had not been breaking around any of the corners!!! Everyone was pretty good apart from Big T who was lets call it Mr Friendly ( For all that went on Chris's stag do 5 times slower then Bridger no Joke) he was being lapped by each of us what must have been every 3 laps or so and nicely taking the outside line so we could get past easily!! Everyone managed to keep clear from him while overtaking apart from Harry "Mr Agressive" Munt who was obviously not impressed after spinning off early and wanted to make up for this but in doing so he was what it looked like trying to run down Mr nice by shunting him nearly off corners into the tyers at times just in order to save a second or to. I also soon found this as well as i came to lap Hannah again i could just not pass her i was all over the back of her swerving side to side trying to get some room but she just kept cutting me off just as i was getting through then i suddenly felt a nudge from behind Agressive Harry had caught up and was ramming me behind as i tried to ge past Hannah, then Harry managed to get beside me and was all over Hannah and then BANG!! Harry quickly dealt with her and rammed her into the tyres and off she went then it was me and him for few laps battling it out as i managed to sneak on the inside lane as he took a corner a bit wide i overtook then he battled back but ended his chances of ovetaking me again clipping the corner of my kart going for another ambitious agressive takeover and he spun off into the tyers. Other things to note were Giles big crash where he took out the whole of the tyre wall with and spread tyres everywhere and of course our what the guy running it called "Constant Speeding On The Yellow Light" which he said 3 of us did being Me Harry and Becky with Becky being the worst when everyone was slowing down and stopping she rammed into the back off Harry pretty fast which cant have been fun. The guy then told us he cut us short by 3 mins cos us 3 could not sticking to the rules!!! Sorry didnt realise u were not meant to have fun!! After that epic Becky and Hannah had a quick go in the Sumo suits before we headed back to the house.


After we got back we waited a bit then gave Tony and Helen there presents which they enjoyed well at least i hope they enjoyed and thanked them for letting us stay and being so hospittable.


Monday we headed off to see the Shrine of Remberence and the other bits of te Botaic Gardens we did not get a chance to see before it was a really pleasent day with it being around 23 and no clouds in the sky. The Shrine itself is a about a 5-10 min walk from flinders street and is impressive to look at and a lot bigger than we all thought it would be. We toured that for a while took in some of the great views memories, video clips, pictures, and so on the Shrine had to offer and headed off to rest of the gardens which we spent a couple of hours relaxing sat down on the grass had something to eat and toyed with the birds and watched them attack each other on the effort to get some bread and then headed back to the house.


Tuesday we decided we were going to have a Tennis marathon. Before we could do that Harry wanted to get his hair cut at a local barbers. We went up the road and got that done Harry asked for a Grade 6 and the guy was turkish or something and Harry was not really sure if he understood and ended up cutting it to what we think is a grade 4 but it still looks alright and harrys haid is a lot cooler which is what counts. Then we went off to play some tennis in some of the hardest conditions i think we will ever play in!!! We all played each other 4 times and after experiencing blindind sun so we had to serve from one side of the court we next experienced gail force winds meaning one person was having to hit it bout 5 times harder than the other just to get it over the net from the back of the court it was becoming a bit of a farce then wind picked up some more and we experienced a sandstorm from the golf driving range next to us where they had little bunkers so were getting blinded as well, but we battled through and then the rain kicked in for a short period which we played through and then it all died down a bit where we all played the best tennis we had all the time we had been here Harry beat Giles everytime and beat me 3 out of 4 times and i beat Giles everytime as well so Giles was overall UWB of tennis for Australia!!!


Wednesday Beach Time!! On Wedsday we had a very early start for us waking up a 7.15am before we headed off to the train which took about an hour and then another 25 min on a bus before we got to Torquay. Once there Harry wanted a rash top the ones you can see us in and he told us about them so we decided to jump on the bandwagon as well and get one. We then walked another 20min before we finally reached our destination after our epic journey and what a view we had it was certainly all worth it!!! Just all smooth sand and light blue water bliss!! It was a bit hot however so we scurried across the sand like crabs to avoid our feet from being burnt!! Then we set up camp and got our swimming stuff on before rushing to the sea. They had flags that they advised you swam in between but i tried to cut the corner slightly and Bang!! straight into a pile of rocks!! There went one of my toes bruised cut open and bleeding brilliant start i can still feel it a bit now then slipped and fell over a couple more time before i made it into the sandy zone!! Then we just mucked around in to water for a while trying to swim in with the waves which was a bit crazy as some of the waves were pretty massive. Harry wanted us to all go surfing but we had made big school boy error. There was a bit complex of surf shops where we got off the bus offering hire of surfboards but we decided against this as we thought there would be some down there and we could not be bothered to carry them!! But then when we got there nothing to hire absolute nightmare!!!! We still had fun though sunbathing in 35 plus where we all got a little burnt. Giles was giving it all that bout his legs never get burnt i did warn him and then he payed the price as they got very burnt. Andrew Symonds was a fine swimmer and absolutley mullered a couple of girls and he soon laughed it off not sure if they were after being squashed by a giant!! Me and harry then went in for a last dip before we went while Giles got burnt and they were def biggest waves of day by quite a bit!!!! I tried to swim in with 2 first one sucked me under and drowned me for 5 seconds and then the next one was huge and dragged me under and then flipped me over completley as my head wacked against the floor before floating to the top and trying to recover!!! Then we packed up and walked back stopping on the way at ice cream parlour to gain some energy for a walk back which we walked in record time otherwise we would have missed the bus, luckily we caught it and travelled back to the house to rest after our epic day!! Definatley going to be visiting the beach on a more regular occourence when we get to Sydney as it will be a lot closer and easier to access. We planning ahead already and are going to organise beach cricket and football maches for our hostel!!


Thursday our plan was to go and vistit queen victoria market and go and watch Jarhead the film but we didnt have time for the film so we decided to leave that until Friday. We got up late and trundled around the market looking for little pressies we got a couple for people which was alright it was quite big and sold a whole variety of things at cheap prices. Then we walked into town where we got with some of the heaviest rain ive experienced which wasnt great but i had my handy kag in a bag to protect me so i was alright . I had set my sights on getting a AFL shirt (Aussie Rules) as a souvenier for my time here and we ended up searching for that for a while before we headed back to the house so i could prepare for my second Aquathon.


As we got back to the house another massive rainstorm hit us and i thought it was going to be off which i would have been quite relieved with to be honest so still undecided at this point decided to where the cloths i had on trackie bottoms trainers and t-shirts as i was planning to pull out when we got there. My plan backfired totally!! As we got there the weather had completley cleared up sunshine in the sky and the grass had dried us so it was not looking gd. Rob was really up for it so i thought to myself i could not let him down so i decided to do it.


Giles and Harry wimped out of doing it dont know why but pretty poor effort of them especially Giles not doing it at all where as Harry did the first one. Race time had come i lined up and i was the only one involved in a heat of 78 people including men, teams, women to be wearing trousers!! Not only did i look and feel like a village it was going to be a disadvantage as well. Anyway we started and i felt quite gd about myself to be honest felt in better condition than the last race apart from the fact my legs started to heat up more and more as the first leg went on i finally got back and decided i was to hot so i rolled them up to my knee just to look an even bigger idiot!!!! Then came second lap felt quite gd bout it and vulcan was behind me running the whole of the mens race on his own this time so i encouraged him and got him to catch up with me then he soon passed me!! That leg also felt ok bout legs were feeling a lot cooler for sure!!! Took as much air in as i could before Rob tagged me and i set off for my final lap i ran this lap at leat 30 seconds quicker than the others as on the second half o f the track i thought of something that inspired me and sprinted for the change over point with all the energy i had left. Once i had finished my bit i felt really good about myself i had run a lot faster than last time and it was a really gd feeling of forfillment that went through my body. I thought it was a pretty gd effort as i hadnt planned to do it and ran in trousers and under prepared and we beat out last time by 2 mins which was really pleasing. Unfortunatley we had just come outside the medal positions and had to settle for a 4th position which was 2 places better than last week so we were happy. My calfs were on fire at this point and there was a man doing free massages so i hobbled over there. There was a girl who ran the kids race in the picture under Gav and she walks the whole race pointless!! We all agreed it was to get the free food at the end and we were soo to be proved correct especially as this weeks event was being sponsered by subway. Once she had finished she went over to the table and ate 7 sandwhiches from subway which were all packed and eat 5 cookies as well she was an absolute machine so in the 5 pounds she had taken off in her gentle swim and walk she had just piled on about another stone!! Pointless!! Overall on the Aquathons i can look back on them and say i have enjoyed my experience in doing them. My body might have been aching but it was all good and worthwhile!!


Then after that we rushed back catching the second episod of LOST which is begginning to get very interesting now!!


Friday we got up a bit earlier to and headed off into town to watch Jarhead but we had to wait for an hour before the film so we decided to go to Quantas so me and harry could inquire about Frequant Flyers on our way there we saw a man who just cracked us up he must have been about 70-75 and had tap dancing shoes on and a violin and was trying to do 2 things at once with hilarious consequences!! Got us laughing for sure!! Then we went and watched the film which was gd then headed home and watched some of the one day final before we planned to go out.


We were meant to be going to Becky's best friend Andrews 18th which would have been really gd i was quite excited bout going and Becky said she would intraduce us to all of her friends which would have been to meet some new people but it was not to be as when Helen came in and asked us if we wanted to go Giles said he didnt want to go dont know why young fit Australian girls all there drunk!!! and overpowered by our charming accents and of course to meet new people and Harry felt slightly off colour pretty lame to be honest bit gutted bout that would have been really gd night so we ended up just watching the cricket!! Boooo


Anyway few other things i wanted to mention as i am writing to you 10 am sat morning over here!! In a while we are off Go Karting at some massive outdoor track with really quick karts this time cant wait to commence battle again which will be good.


As most of you know we end our time here on Tuesday in Melbourne and head off up the cost to Sydney on Tues evening which is really exciting. I personally am going to miss Melbourne a lot i have loved every minute here i would seriously conside moving out here when im older after Uni because it just has everything i could want!!!! So fingers crossed!!


And last of all Ashes tickets news came out this week which was very exciting and Helen offered to buy the tickets for me Giles and My Dad to come over here in December for the boxing day test i was absolutley thrilled this means we should be garunteed tickets for all 5 days to the Melbourne Test 4th one and then the final test in Sydney which is 2 days later i am so excited bout the prospect already!! Cant wait going to be amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Right thats my lot for this time hope everyone where ever u are is doing great all well and healthy. Please email me with what all of u r up to as its great to hear from everyone back home and what you are all up to!!

All My Love

Chaz x x x

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