Safely arrived with Simon, this is the first time we have seen his house it is super - just 5 minutes from the seaside between Brighton Beach and St Kilda. We spent the first couple of day just relaxing and visiting Melbourne centre. they have a free tram system which circles the city. Melbourne is very big on markets and on the first day we broke our journey into the city to go to Piran market which is the most fabulous display of fresh fruit, vegetables, m...

Well after 4 days in our hotel room we did our best to retrieve the last 5 days of our holiday. A lovely boat trip down the Swan River to Rottnest Island via Freemantle Market held on the quay side. Freemantle is very hippy. On the journey over we were lucky enought to see a pod of dolphins playing in the wake of the boat. The Island is beautiful, no one is allowed to live on it except the catholic priest who has permission to be buried there as well. The Is...

We were booked into the Ibis, Murray Street, Perth for our first 3 nights with a trip to the Pinnacles Dessert on day 2. Great hotel, recommended in the Lonely Planet, minimilist and v central. Well done liz for organising. We would spend a day orientating ourselves and then be off to Murray River, Rottnest and Kalgoorlie. That evening we took a trip by train to Freemantle, Perth's hippy partner across the river for supper. A very kind policeman gave us a fr...

Sorry about the location - we are definitely in Singapore and have never been or are likely to be in Samoa! To the job in hand: The M3 was blocked when we aimed for the airport but we weren't bothered because our taxi driver had a GPS - which got us lost. We made departure gate with about 15 minutes to spare - a little bit nerve racking - thank good ness for the temazepan. However, after that everything just got better and better. The flight was brilliant, ...

Plans continue apace - I think D day took less time to organise. This is our ITINERARY as we know it at the moment Leave England on 29th November 3 nights in Singapore - shopping Arrive Perth on 3rd December until 12 December when we join Simon in Melbourne (side trips planned from Perth) Simon's Birthday is on Saturday 15th We will probably do a little side trip before we return to Melbourne for Christmas. The highlight for Neil being tickets to the MCG ...