Perfect

This last weekend has been fantastic. For a start, the weather has been on our side, despite the fact that it's still technically winter here, Saturday and Sunday were incredible! We drove leisurely down to Lakes Entrance in SE Victoria in the MG (British Racing Green of course!) with the roof down until sunset when it got just a bit too chilly. It was heavenly sunny and warm, to the point that I had to make TAB stop and find a supermarket so that I could buy some suntan lotion as I was getting just a tad pink. I almost felt like I should be wearing a flimsy headscarf a la Grace Kelly in High Society (only I'm sure she didn't have to worry about getting sunburnt...and I probably would have ended up more like Bridget Jones but I can dream!) Lakes Entrance is, oddly enough, where the lakes meet the sea, the main town is a little over developed but you don't have to go far to escape it. We stayed at a place called the Goat and Goose (hope that works, the link button doesn't appear on Macs) which was simply perfect. The owners, Joy and Richard, couldn't have been more accommodating and the rooms were amazing. Four poster beds in every room and the second room we stayed in (we couldn't get it the first night, there was another couple there for their wedding anniversary) there was a spa. The views from the balconies were incredible down over the ocean, I couldn't have asked for a nicer place and, if you are ever in Victoria and fancy a romantic weekend away, there is the place to go. We hired a boat on Sunday and putted on down the lake to a town called Metung (with a bottle of red wine on the way...) for lunch (another bottle...) and then putted all the way back. Another few glasses of red wine in the spa later than evening and we were in no condition to do anything but sit on the balcony and look at the stars. I love being in Australia, I still can't get used to the fact that in the country you will, without a doubt, see flocks of Sulpher Crested Cockatoos all around and whilst sitting eating the full country breakfasts (included in the price) we watched gloriously coloured parrots and other birds (don't know what they were) eat seeds off the balcony. In the boat, pulling back towards Lakes Entrance we even had dolphins playing around us which was completely unexpected, they hadn't told us there were any in the area :) We definately had a perfect time. I just wish it didn't have to end.

Sigh...

Men, can't live with em' but you've gotta love 'em. I've been a bit poorly of late so the washing up hasn't been done and the place needs a bit of a hoover (it's incredible, not being single is turning me into some sort of domestic godess, am still in shock myself so lord only knows what the rest of you think!). Anyway, leaving the house to go to work today leaving him at home as his last day of work was yesterday, the conversation went along the lines of... 'dear, don't forget to pack for tomorrow' (we're going away for a romantic weekend, yum, and he's off on his leaving do tonight so will be in no state to do anything but sit in the car and groan tomorrow for a good while) 'No I won't, I know I won't be able to tonight' 'Please could you do the washing up as well?' 'Of course dear, no problem' He'd even commented the night before that he knew how to use the hoover and would do a bit! Anyway, I get home from work, the hot water heater is still on (a gripe of his because it costs a lot to have it on during the day and I left it on by accident a couple of times when I first started staying here), the washing up hasn't been done, neither has the hoovering, he's not packed to go away and he's sitting at his mac. 'Dear, what have you been doing today?' "Oh, I've been sorting out my iTunes, they're finally in order! Do you know how long it took to do that?' I'm guessing all day... Anyway, must dash, I have to go and cook the dinner and do the washing up...

Spring

They say Victoria is the garden state and that Melbourne is the garden city. Well, at the moment, I'm inclined to agree with them. It's a beautiful spring day here in Melbourne. There's not a cloud in sight, and just the gentlest of breezes coming from the sea a mere 5 minute walk away and the sun is warm on your skin. I've just been enjoying the weather resting in the shade of the palm trees in the park outside TAB's flat, enjoying the smell of newly mown grass and the flowering trees that are just coming into bloom. Port Melbourne is a lovely little area, it's full of little old single story houses (as most of Oz is, I'll grant you) with the occasional 2 story house thrown in. They are mainly wooden slatted buildings and each as different as the next apart from one feature, they almost all have wrought iron decorations round their porches and balconies. They don't have much in the way of gardens in this part of the city and the houses can be quite close to the next but one thing I've noticed, especially as spring has arrived, is that they all do their very best to fill what little space they have before the pavement with greenery. Lemon trees, orange trees, magnolias, all sorts of fragrant flowering trees, bushes and plants explode from every porch. Walking home from the tram from work in the evening is a stroll to be enjoyed, I find myself sauntering along, watching the sun set over the trees that, if they couldn't make the road wide enough to put a strip down the middle, are planted down the pavements, breathing in the sea air and the heavy frangrances from the porches that I pass and being deafened by the huge amounts of birds roosting in the trees, and I believe I mentioned that there are a LOT of trees! I'm not one for cities, I find myself getting claustrophobic if I don't get the chance to escape to the country fairly regularly. I moved to an area out of Leeds that put me at an extreme disadvantage if i wanted to get anywhere simply for the pleasure of a garden and the fact that I could see fields from my bedroom window but here, here is different. You couldn't escape the greenery in Melbourne even if you wanted to. Albert park is a 20 minute walk away with it's lake and huge stretches of lawns (and, of course, GP...) and it's huge, you can almost get out of sight of the tall buildings of the city centre and St Kilda Road in the middle of it, spying the tops just over the tops of the trees. Melbourne is a city I could find myself falling in love with and am finding myself very loathe to leave. But then again, maybe it's just the joys of spring in me and once I move on I'll feel differently. Only time will tell, I suppose.

Uh oh

I have commited a crime most henious. Forget about being being unfaithful, that's just a drop in the ocean, a molehill amoung mountains, a drip to a torrent...I think you get the picture...compared to the act of despicableness I have now done. I killed one of TAB's football shirts. In a rare moment of domestic goddessness (it happens generally when i need to calm down) I put one of his beloved Chelsea shirts into the tumble drier. It now has snags over it. I have been sat down and informed of the importance of this shirt and the fact that you can't get football shirts from past years. This particular shirt is last year's away shirt (I think) and it's hanger in the wardrobe is now sadly empty as it awaits mending. He may get over this in decades to come but I suspect that he will be telling to his grandchildren about the Welsh backpacker who one day killed a shirt of his. There may even be a memorial. RIP Chelsea.

Confession time...

Ok, time to come clean. I know that I rant about TAB and how he's treated me in the past but unfortunately I am not squeaky clean. Not by a long shot. We neither of us have behaved particularly well in the past. When things were not that good back when we got together, I had the bad taste to have a little bit of a thing with someone. Now don't get me wrong, this wasn't full blown adultery and TAB did know about most of it. Unfortunately he found out about the bit I am totally and utterly ashamed of doing and really have been trying to block from my memory. This is not a good thing. He, very understandably I thought, was rather angry when I got home from work last night. Darling that he is though has not thrown me out of the house and is still letting me move in for my last 3 weeks in Melbourne, he is not really rubbing my face in it (although I do have to take him out for a very expensive meal next week)and, all in all, he's been fairly calm about it all (after the initial outburst anyway). This has all made me realise one thing, I do not want to lose him. The very thought that my stupidity 4 months ago might make him get rid of me once and for all was so terrible I felt physically sick. What I'm going to do when I have to leave in 3 weeks time I do not know. p.s I was also going to write a post about how lovely Melbourne is in the spring but it's pissing it down out there so I'm not going to. Bloody weather!

The six degrees of seperation

I was talking to one of my flatmates the other day when they accused me of being the only English person in the flat. Naturally I was a little surprised at this as Henry has an even more English accent than I do. As it turns out, he's from Wales, as I am. The ensuing conversation was interesting to say the least. He's from Aberystwyth and knows the town I went to school in quite well. This turns out to be because he knows a family from the area, old family friends from way, way back. I stuttered in shock at the names as I too, have known the family for years. My brother is very good friends with the eldest son (in fact, one of the scars on my forehead is as a result of the bright idea of his of using a car bonnet as a sledge one particularly snowy New Year...) and my brother was best man at his wedding a couple of years ago. A wedding which my new flatmate attended! I moved in with Henry about a month ago when I moved out of the hostel and was lucky enough to get a place in the flats opposite where quite a few backpackers live. Is it me, or does the world appear to be getting smaller

Lucky

I am, on the whole, a lot luckier than a whole lot of people. It's easy to take things for granted sometimes and then be reminded suddenly that life on the whole is good to me. This week especially has made me once again realise this and remember that my family, especially, are incredible. Each and every one of them. John's tragic death has shocked and saddened me. A lovely, kind man is lost from this world. I will miss him and forever remember him. However, the accident has in no way whatsoever lessened my resolve to skydive. My family are completely aware of this and despite their natural fears about the whole activity, are still standing by me and I can't even begin to express how grateful I am that they are supportive of me, always have been and, I know, always will be. I think my sister put it into words much, much better than I ever could in her blog posted here... http://livingfordisco.blogspot.com/2005/08/love-and-worry.html I know what my sister means when she talks about her hope that our father did not know what was happening to him. It is a hope that, though most likely futile, I too have clung to for quite a long time. I am also aware that, in the unlikely event something happens to me, I may know what's happening. It's not a pleasant thought, these things rarely are and it scares me just as much as it scares her but the way I see things is that the same can be said of absolutely anything. I could step out my door tomorrow and something nasty happen. It happened in London, it happened to our father, it, most unfortunately, happens all the time. It's quite cheesy but one thing I know is true, life is for living and that's what I intend to do and it makes it so much easier knowing that my family are beside me, unconditionally and with love, as I stand by them (or possibly soar, twist and turn by them...). I am, most definately, lucky.

...

I wrote a month ago that Little Ben should have stuck to skydiving, it was safer than his motorbike, well, as it turns out, John should have stuck to teaching. There was an accident at Nagambie and, well, he didn't survive. I'm still in quite a lot of shock, I can't quite believe that it's true. But it is.