Life down under Donnie style!

Hello Everybody! Sorry about the lack of blogging lately but I’ve been busy having a fabulous time in Melbourne. The weather has been consistently good and we have been exploring the sights of Melbourne and beyond. There are our highlights to get this blog up to date:-

• My birthday (another year older not the slightest bit wiser!) It was a really hot day and we spent the afternoon drinking wine by the Yarra River. On the evening we had our first dinner out in Melbourne at a restaurant called ‘Eurasia’. It was brilliant having a birthday in the sun, will I ever have a warm birthday again I wonder!

• Williamstown. This is a delightful little place, a short train journey from Melbourne city centre. It has a nice beach with golden sand and lots of grassy places to have a picnic (which we did, next time we will try to use the outdoor barbie to cook some kanga burgers- sorry Skippy!)
  
  
• St Kilda. We have visited this place a couple of times already. It has a good sized beach and lots of quirky clothes shops to explore (only window shopping for bums like me!) It also has the best cake shops that I have seen (mom you would love it) Oh man I lovvvvvvvvvvvve de cakes (Little Britain style). We treated ourselves to a couple of cakes for Valentines Day and I selected a Rum Baba (your fav dad!).

• Getting drunk down under. Dave and Jill have been in Melbourne for the last week or so and have provided us with the perfect excuse to try the pubs and bars of Melbourne. Well basically there are loads to try ranging from Irish pubs to swanky cocktail bars. We have sampled countless bottles of Australian wine (apparently they have a wine glut so we are doing our bit to help reduce the surplus!). Most of the Australian kids seem to be into rock, punk and Indie music which is great to see (Chris took Dave to an Indie club with punks with Mohicans and he nearly died!). The Aussies also have a lot of their own home grown bands which play middle of the road rubbish!
  
  
• Melbourne Zoo We took advantage of the ‘buy one ticket get one free offer’ and visited the zoo. We saw loads of animals and watched the keepers feeding the spotted leopard and the crazy pelicans. We had fun watching the monkeys (they are always the most amusing!).
  
  
• Chilling in the park .Whilst Chris has been working hard, I have taken advantage of the lovely weather by spending several afternoons sitting in the park chilling and reading a book (I am trying to find work honestly). It is nice to be able to do things for myself for a change (sorry Mom but I do like to read lots like dad when I have the chance!)
  
  
• Dandenong Ranges National Park. Yesterday we took advantage of the Sunday saver ticket which allows you to travel anywhere in zones 1, 2 or 3 for approx £1- bargain! We travelled on the train to Upper Ferntree Gully (great name for a train station) and ventured into the afore mentioned. We walked through the picnic areas envious of all the Aussie families enjoying al fresco dining and several tinnies- what a great way to spend a Sunday. It beats watching Fartbeat although guess what they show it on tele here too! (no wonder they have a clouded view of us poms).
  
  
  Anyway I have rambled on enough for today. I will blog again soon to keep you up to date with our adventures. Hopefully my police check will come soon so that I can join the workforce, until then the sunshine is waiting for me.
  
  Bye for now
  
  Donnie XXXX
  
  PS For some reason we can’t upload photos onto our blogs at the moment- so no photos of a suntanned Donnie I’m afraid.