"No Worries"

I’m getting to feel more at ease in Australia as the days roll by. I can’t say I’ve fallen in love with the country yet (well Victoria to be more precise) or she with me, but we are both working at it. Six weeks in one place is far too long and already I’m looking forward to moving on. It’s only been 2 weeks since we landed so I shall leave my final impressions until we leave, or maybe even, until we return to the UK and I have had some time to reflect. So far, not so great but not so bad either. I still feel slightly ashamed about my lack of research and the mixed weather bag continues to confuse and annoy me. The last 2 days and we have been given bright sunshine with the temperature rising today to 39 degrees. Today we have listened to constant bush fire warnings on the radio and we have seen that there is a total fire ban. To us Poms, this means no BBQ’s and I guess no smoking?

The weather forecast predicts lows down to 18 for tomorrow with a high likelihood of rain. How can this be, I ask myself? How can the weather change so dramatically??? Confused? Yeah so am I. The one constant and positive thing for me about Australia, is the people, they are great with an awesome sense of humour. Their mantra of “no worries” is one that I’m determined to take back home with me if nothing else, along with a sense of chillness and hopefully a much lower blood pressure.

We’ve adapted to sharing a house with Jeremy, Arlene’s lodger and friend and, over the last two weeks we’ve seemed to have found a way of living together that suits both parties. Well, I say that, I can only speak for me and Phil; maybe secretly we are driving Jeremy mad but he is being so polite and not saying anything. Jem seems to sleep all day and stay up all night and I guess I did him no favours this morning by setting off the car alarm at half past ten! Whereas Jeremy is nocturnal, we, on the other hand, are in bed by 9pm and usually up at the crack of dawn. The other morning, Jem left a note to say that he opened the kitchen fridge door at 1am at the same time he heard Phil had stop snoring and apologised because he thought he had woken Phil up! I told him Phil’s snoring is so loud that a particularly loud blast and he wakes himself up! Jeremy replied that, he thinks if I can sleep through Phil’s snoring then nothing will wake me up! And he is right; apart from the Pakenhamn train line just outside our bedroom window which starts around 5am.

Never mind, you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth and I simply delight each morning coming into the kitchen to make tea and seeing to Jem’s plates left out from his midnight snacks! It’s like having Harriet back at home again! My fault for being so anal but next we're off to Sydney and I am really looking forward to that.

I want to talk about the local food but I hesitate because when Phil spoke to his mum on the phone, she mentioned that Auntie Daphne had read the Blog and said that it was extremely boring. She told Bet (Phil’s mum) that all we talked about was food and drink. And I guess she is right, food and drink, for us guys takes up a lot of our thought processes and time. Whilst I am still certain that pizza is still the main staple diet for Victoria folk, I think we may have been a little pre-judgmental about the Oz nosh. There is a lot of fast food out there along with the tourist crap, just like you get back in the UK but we have sampled some good, high quality food and some of the menus out here, are very sophisticated.

However, that said, you pay for what you get, well that is how it seems to me, whereas back home you can get some really decent freshly cooked grub at reasonable prices. Maybe we are just taking tourist steps in such a vast country and not getting to the real heart of Melbourne. I dunno; all I can say is that we are trying very hard to sample and taste as much as we can without breaking the budget and spending all of the kid’s inheritance.

Phil says I mustn’t moan and is refraining me from posting a Blog as much as is humanly possible, but I’m sorry folks I make no apologies, I can only give you my take and my impressions as I find them. Anything other would be a total lie and a total load of bo***cks. That’s not just not me, although you may disagree with a glass or 10 of wine inside of me but I never break my rule which is ‘never drink and click’ (or rarely ever) so what you read is actually what is going through this crazy blonde mind of mine!

We’ve had some really pleasant days lately. I really enjoyed the Sunday market in Berwick with mad Kezza and her mum and dad. I got some slightly damaged but authentic Ugg boots for Harriet and nearly got some for Georgina but thought I’d better get Phil to call her and check for size and style. Good job I did, because it turned out that she’d just ordered some for herself on line; just a shame we didn’t get there beforehand. Phillip Island was a dream to see and I thoroughly enjoyed the wine tasting. I do appreciate good wine when I have it (which isn’t very often) and I’m looking forward to the crisp and expensive Pinot Grigio & Chardonnay which we are saving for a special occasion. Today we drove back to the south side of the Mornington Peninsular, stopping off to take a look at Hastings, & Somers & Balwarring beach. We then drove to Red Hill South to have lunch at a winery called Red Hill Estate http://www.redhillestate.com.au/.

Boy, was it expensive and I felt ill at ease dressed in my faded denim tattered shorts and t-shirt. Phil had the duck and I had the fish of the day which for me was slightly under-cooked but brilliant views across the Bay of Phillip Island. The glass of Red Hill wine was delightful but we both came away famished. Way too small portions for me and Phil but the ambience was cool and would have been fine dining and a treat if hadn’t looked such a tramp.

For some bizarre reason, of which I have yet to fathom out, I feel homesick. Why I don’t know? Normally we piss off from the UK at Christmas normally heading for South East Asia and I don’t give a fiddly squat for folk back at home bar from when we make the calls to family on Christmas Day. Neither Phil nor I are vaguely religious, and hate with a passion, the commercialism of Christmas. Crowded shops from the end of November, lack of car parking spaces, not to mention all the hype, leaves us both stone cold and we’re much happier with a cold tin and feeling the sand between our toes. But emails from home of late and I’m wishing to be back there.

Christine emailed to say Buffy, the pup, had a lump but thank god it’s benign. She also tells me Jan is still off with a cracked rib so I’m worrying about her. Harriet got a telephone line and the internet installed in her flat so called us twice over the weekend. She managed to crack SKYPE and was really hyper to see her mum on the web cam. Unfortunately the time difference meant that it was really early for me (7am in the morning Melb time) and HH remarked that I looked rough. Well what did she expect? It was so early I hadn’t had time to put my teeth in or make a cup of tea. Bless her, it was good to chat but I really wasn’t in the wide awake club. BTW, thanks to Jim & Shirley, & Shirley’s brother for taking her out to lunch (and paying for her, I might add). Harriet had a really nice time so thank you for that, it was really kind of you.

Jane & Ian arrive tomorrow on a detour from Sydney and we are both really looking forward to seeing some familiar faces. Not sure really if we know the city of Melbourne well enough to show them round but aside from that, we shall do our darn best, as hosts, to show them the local delights. Phil is preparing a gourmet feast at home. While Phil gets busy with the cooking, yours truly will get stuck into the cleaning and hopefully a good time will be had by all. As the Aus folk would say “No worries”.