Hello again!

Happy New Year to everyone! Hope all of your celebrations were great! I'm still struggling to believe that there has been snow at home when I'm sat here in shorts and a vest top!

We are still in Perth and fly to Melbourne on Weds - so excited! It should be a little cooler over there which may be a welcome relief! We spent NYE at a Casino come club which was brilliant! Being my first casino experience I felt a little lost at the poker or roulette tables and the slot machines for that matter - the just press all the buttons tactic sadly didn't work all that well! Thank goodness for the Wheel of Fortune inspired game - not that I won much on that either but hey it was good fun! After a losing streak we made our way up to the club ready for midnight and danced the night away! And all that before many of you had even got up!!

We took a trip to Freemantle - one of the big convict hangouts way back when! As well as the little harbour town there is a huge prison which was still in use until pretty recently - my history geekness found the tour really interesting! We got to see the cells and even the gallows which were spooky!

This weekend we have been to Southbound festival - 3hrs south of Perth near a small town called Bussleton. On the Friday night it was mostly Aussie bands who I had never heard of but some new discoveries - Donovan Frankenreiter was an older Jack Johnson, Pete Murray and Jamie Lidell were also pretty good! The campsite was really sandy and dusty and so within 5mins our feet were utterly black! Despite our incredible tent erection skills the wind got up later on and by the time we had got back to the campsite the tent had pretty much collapsed! On the Saturday we took the bus into Bussleton itself and had a wash in the sea! It was so hot it actually felt like a bath!!! Within 2mins of being back at the festival though we were all filthy again but hey what sort of a festival would it be if you came home clean???!!! The Kooks and Franz Ferdinand played on Saturday which was wonderful as I could actually sing along! Once the bands had all finished the campsite fun began with what seemed to be a mini olympics - pole vaulting with bamboo canes, gymnastics and the triple jump! Hilarious to watch though pretty painful as a competitor I should imagine! We headed back early Sunday morning as did much of the campsite because there was another day festival in Perth city later that day! The hardcore music fans made it but I prefered the go back home to a comfy bed option!!!

The scenic tour of Perth has been great too - Kings Park is about 5 times bigger than Central park and on a hill opposite the river and city - a location which lends itself to some incredible scenery. We took a bus tour as it would have taken about 2 days to walk around it and we would all have almost certainly passed out from heat exhaustion! Also saw some kangaroos!!! They were in Woodvale which is the area Eve lives in - there is literally a street with houses on one side and on the other a large open field with loads of kangaroos!! I was amazed at how close they were to the houses - I guess I only expected to see them out in the bush or in a zoo! Obviously not at all the case!

Just a chillout day planned for tomorrow, packing etc - Melbourne baby here we come!!! Cannot wait!!!

x