Hi Everyone – HAPPY NEW YEAR and what a fantastic year I am going to have in 2007 Yeay!!!!!!

Lets start with last week, after Christmas was out of the way I didn’t feel as home sick and I could just get on and enjoy myself again. On Wednesday I took Georgia out for lunch and to the cinema we had such a great time, we went and watched flushed away it was brilliant. In the evening I picked up Kelly from Rachel’s and Georgia and Kelly spent the night with me and we had a girlie sleep over (wasn’t the same without Portia though). The next day I dropped Georgia back home in the morning and went over to Rachel and Dom’s place and we went to feed the birds up in the Dandenong Mountains……it was brilliant and the crimson rosella’s (the parrots in the pictures) were sitting on our heads and hands. It was quite funny because as soon as we turned up with sunflower seeds the birds just flocked to us and everyone started crowding round us…I guess the bird food they had the birds just didn’t like!!! After we had had enough of feeding the birds we went for a walk into the bush (forest to all the poms out there ha ha!!!) and walked down to this waterfall, I was expecting this giant waterfall that looked magnificent and it ended up being this little tinny stream with a trickle of water falling over a few rocks!!! But that’s what you get when a country doesn’t have any rain for a while!!! The kids ended up climbing down to the stream to taste the water and then noticed it was crawling with leaches!!! After we had done the walk we headed back to Rach and Dom’s and just chilled for a bit, I ended up playing super mario carts on the game cube, with the boys and ended up getting addicted trying to beat them but I only beat Jay once I think and I am classed as a Loser now ha ha!!! We all went out for dinner to a little pub down the road and the boys Calvin, Jay and Mitch, came home with me and stayed the night……me and Calvin got a film once Jay and Mitch had gone to bed, Final Destination 3 and stayed up until about 3am watching it and I have to say it was not worth it what a rubbish film!!!! The boys were all really tired in the morning because I had let them stay up really late oopps!!

That next day Friday when all the boys were tired me and Calvin went to Philip Island which is about a 2 hour drive away, it was a gorgeous day and the sun was shinning, thank heaven for that I was starting to think that I was never going to get a tan!!! So Calvin ended up being my navigator and he was brilliant it was the first time I didn’t get lost going somewhere!!! We got to a little place called San Remo, it is a little town just before you go across the bridge to Philip Island so we had some lunch (fish and chips) and went to sit down on a bench to eat, as soon as we opened them up we had about 200 flies just swarm over us, so ended up eating them in the car!! So we crossed over the bridge into Philip Island and went to see Rachel’s friend Nicole who I have never met before, but just turned up on her door step. Nicole and her husband were so welcoming it was like I had known them all for years……I have to say I do love the Ozzy’s they are just so friendly (when they aren’t talking about cricket!!) I could go into a bar or anywhere on my own and just go over to a group of people and they would be really friendly, if you did that in England they would look you up and down and tell you to get lost!!! So we spent a few hours with Nicole and her family and had a glass of wine sat outside in the glorious sun shine, while Calvin went on the quad bikes all around the farm land. After I had spent a few hours getting to know everyone we had to say goodbye as we were heading to the Penguin Parade, the penguins come out of the sea at sun set and you go and sit on the beach and watch them. So we got there but hadn’t bought any tickets before hand and we were so lucky to get in, the guard said ‘as its just the two of you I can just squeeze you in’ so we were really lucky!! When you go into the center you get the opportunity to learn all about the penguins and they have peep holes that you can look in and see them up really close in there burrows, it was brilliant…..we headed down to the beach and got a seat, it was bloody freezing so Calvin had to go all the way back to the car to get his jacket which I had told him to take as it would be cold but he didn’t listen to me (typical boys!!) he ended coming back with his jacket and fish and chips!!! It started to get really packed out and people were trying to sit everywhere and blocking our views but the guards told them they had to move so that was ok. Then the penguins started coming out of the water, I have to say for the first 5 minutes it was brilliant and they were really funny to watch, but after that it got a bit boring. They normally come straight out of the sea onto land and walk to their burrows but this one group kept coming out of the sea and then diving back in, it was so funny. So we headed back to the car and on the way you get the chance to see the penguins up close in the burrows and you walk next to them it was amazing but very smelly!!! So we got to the car and Calvin wanted to go back and see Nicole so we headed back to hers after getting lost in the car and got there around 10pm spent about half hour there and then headed home. Calvin stayed over again to keep me company and we ended up having another late night as we didn’t get back until the early hours of the morning.

The next day Saturday I was meant to be getting up early to drive the Great Ocean Road….well that didn’t happen, I was shattered. Rachel picked Calvin up in the morning and I got ready and planned my trip along the Great Ocean Road. I didn’t end up leaving until around mid day which is to late really….I started driving and it was another glorious day and the sun was beaming down on me, I got to the City and there were road works on the bridge, it took me ages to get over it. I carried on driving and eventually I came to the Great Ocean Road and what a site it was I was absolutely blown away it was so gorgeous. I would have loved to have just stayed at the first beach and sat there all day but I still had to see more so I carried on driving and driving and driving along turny twisty roads, it was good fun. I am so lucky my Uncle let me use his car while he was away. So I eventually got to Apollo Bay where I thought this is the end of the road for me, I could have kept going and seen a lot more but if I did that I wouldn’t have got home until lunch time the next day!!! I didn’t really get to enjoy the beaches but I got to see the Great Ocean Road and I drove it myself and what an experience that was, I loved every minute of it. I got home about 9.30pm after driving for 9 hours straight what a long day it was but well worth it and I would do it again in a flash, I drove 400km that day!!

Its New Years Eve next and I had a long lie in and then got up, got ready and went over the Rachel’s to celebrate the New Year coming in. She had some friends staying, Grace and her Partner with their two kids and Nick and Nel with their two kids we had a fantastic evening and all got a bit merry, just look at the pics and you can tell. It was good food, good drink and great company what a New Year to remember, all the kids were out playing in the spa while all the adults had a few drinks and talked it was brilliant!!!

The next Day New Years Day I have to say I felt pretty rough and slept it off most of the day, I also had to clean the house ready for my Uncle and Aunt coming home. But before I cleaned the house everyone was going to the cinema so I joined them and we went and watched happy feet, I loved it. On the Tuesday I picked my Aunt and Uncle up from the airport and brought them home where we just relaxed for the rest of the day. Wednesday I went to the travel agents to try and book my big trip but the girl who I wanted to deal with wasn’t there so I headed back and spent the rest of the day by the pool, it is the first time I have got a bit sun burnt but it was ok the next day and now I am more tanned than I have ever been (I hope your all jealous ha ha!!), even more tanned then when I went to Egypt!!!

On Thursday I knew the girl at the travel agents would be there so I headed out earlyish to go and book my trip. But first I stopped off at Sue and Lachs to see how they were as Lucky (the dog) had escaped on Saturday and was missing. Sue had rang me New Years Day to tell me and I was devastated and truly thought that they would not get him back as he wasn’t wearing a collar and hasn’t been chipped. But that day Thursday when I went round which was the first time I had gone round since he had gone, they got a phone call from a women who had seen one of the posters the kids had put up saying missing dog. The women told Sue that she had picked up Lucky and had taken him to the veterinary hospital on the same day he had escaped. Sue and Lach then rushed out of the house to the dog pound, which is where dogs go after they have been at the hospital, and left me at home with the kids. They didn’t really know what they were going to find out and what had exactly happened to Lucky …….the next thing I get a very teary eyed Sue phoning up saying we’ve got him we’ve got him I was so happy. The kids then spent the next hour waiting at the front door for their mum and dad to turn up with him. So there was all of us thinking that he had been roaming the streets for days, with no water, no food thinking anything could have happened to him and in the end he had spent the last 6 days in an air conditioned kennel being treated like a king!!! But the funniest thing is that they had been down to that exact dog pound every day since he had gone missing. But because he is an old dog they had him in a different section and he was down as a greyhound cross and Sue and Lach were going in asking about a retriever cross. Anyway that’s enough of that story but I just had to write it in my journal!!! So we were all happy now and I could go off and try and book my trip!!

I spent the next three hours sat with the travel agent Diyanna, who is great and really tries to get me some great deals. And eventually ended up booking my trip YEAY!!!!! I am so excited!!!! It starts on 25th March and is for 25 days. It Starts in Sydney, I will then travel up to Cairns stopping at places along the way and when I get to Cairns I will catch a flight over to Alice Springs and then travel up to Darwin and then back down to Melbourne to get ready for coming home!!! So you should all be seeing me around May time….I haven’t decided the exact date but I will need to before I start my trip. Me and Diyanna have become good friends since booking all my adventures with her and after I had booked my trip we went and had a celebratery coffee together and exchanged numbers, so hopefully her and her partner will take me out one day and show me how to surf or something ha ha!!!

It is Friday today, 1pm and it is 36 degrees outside, so I am going to love you and leave you all and go outside and sun bath and lay by the pool LUSH!!

Miss you all but am really getting into the ozzy spirit and loving the ozzy summer weather. I will be seeing you all soon though and as soon as I have changed my flight and know when I am coming home I will let you all know.

Love to you all and take care

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx