Evening all,

First entry in a while. Hope we are all well!

So, we arrived in Melbourne. A large city. Larger than I imagined. We decided to stay in St. Kilda, a lovely place with quite a lot going on. Fantastic shops and great little Cafes. I have never seen so many cake shops! Very good cake shops in fact. We stayed near an old fashioned fairground, which was closed for Winter, much to our dismay. Quite a spooky place if you walk past at night. Lots of people were out running in Melbourne, which motivated me and the Sea Front/Pier were excellent. Once again, we caught up with Jenny and Kate. We have been following these two endlessly, which has resulted in much fun!

I should mention at this point that hostel living is getting a bit more challenging. Especially when no one washes up after themselves and snores so loud the entire dorm shakes violently. Good thing we only booked three nights in this particular hostel! We did however have an excellent time in Melboune all round. Our big night out was a night called 'Pogo'. Good music, although the mixing became a bit too much late on and we were treated to about twenty seconds of each song. Completely unrelated, contrasting songs might I add. No requesting tunes in Mebourne apprently. Far too cool for all that business.

We visited the Mebourne Centre of the Moving Image. What a great place to watch short films. The Museum was also quite impressive and kept us amused on a very, very rainy day. Matt and I were wandering around on our final day when I was certain I spotted an old primary/secondary/college friend from home. Sure enough I was right. There stood Natalie! I could not believe how random that we should bump into each in Melbourne city centre. We caught up briefly as she was flying home the same day. Turns out some other old school friends are living in Sydney for a while.

A bus to sydney next. The girls decided to stay in Melbourne while Matt and I spent twelve hours travelling up North. The weather is much more pleasant up here and Spring has just arrived. We were fortunate enough to spend a few days staying with my friend Gavin, who was happy to put us up and show us aroung some of the City. The house parties have started along with the outrage (see Facebook). Lots of lovely people making such an effort to welcome us to the city/madness. It's great to be back in a place where there is so much going on.

The harbour is incredible and the Opera House did not fail to impress! I haven't seen anything there yet but am planning to go very soon. Goldfrapp!! And some Opera. The beaches (Bondi, Bronte, Coogee) and walks are also lovely and will be even better as the weather continues to improve. I love the Fruit Bats and Cockotoo's that linger around the Botanic Gardens near the Harbour/Music School. Cockotoo's are so unbelievably noisy! Fruit bats are big!

After leaving Gavin's place, we were lucky enough to find an apartment pretty much straight away, which is nice. We are very close to Newtown, which I can only describe as a Camden/Shoreditch sort of place. Charity and music shops galore...love it! Matthew, Liz and I are now working and are planning to do so for a while. Nothing too exciting but plenty to fund our social lives and the occasional day/night out. Loads of great gigs, exhibitions and events coming up so I'll be keeping busy for sure.

Watch this space.

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