Quest Flemington Hotel Melbourne

... laneways and artwork and beautiful old buildings all over. Went back to the hotel and cleaned up and off in search of dinner. We first stopped along another laneway at a place called The Quarter, we didn’t realize until we sat down that it was decorated like a French Café, scenes of Paris all over-how funny. We met the waitress Diane from Vancouver BC, originally born in Holland but grew up in Vancouver. Had a lovely chat with her. Just ordered some wine and Jim has ...

... flow but cannot bear the idea of dragging two overtired children around to find the perfect room). Starting on a last minute shopping list then I think we are done. Major challenge is not taking every electrical item in the house to keep the kids busy, may have to go retro and rely on colouring books and pens lol!

Watch this space...

... relatively sober afternoon in comparison with our usual ladies day antics at Aintree!

Luke bet on the winner of the Derby race, thanks to a good tip from his dad, and then I luckily picked out the winner of the final race of the day, bringing me back even and happy again! Luke and I had a couple of drinks in town afterwards, before heading home and slobbing out in front of the sofa. The sun and the booze had finished us off!

... back to even go to the loo regularly. Also did you know that if a Kangaroo is feeling under attack by a predator that he releases one of his growing joey's from the pouch to fend off the attacker, under the basis that she has at least 25 growing in there at any one time, such a maternal creature! We manage to coax Toby into the snake, crocs and lizard display, despite his small phobia of snakes.

Having not drunk wine at all in Thailand (hard to ...

... you pack the frying
pan, is it in your hand luggage?” Oopes. We asked at the check-in
desk, can we have frying pan in our hand luggage, there is no signs
saying we can't”... hmm the lady laughted as said it would be for
us to check it in. While we are on the subject....” You do not have
any propagn gas or anything like that do you?” no.




After we had finally checked in we hung
around a little while ...

Tyler, my brother, and I flew into Brisbane late on the 2nd of March. We took a cab to my buddy James house who is in school at the University of Queensland, just east of the city. He came out to Colorado with our Auckland Blues Rugby player, Mike, (if you've been following the blog) and offered a place for the three days we were in 'Brizzy'. James lived with two other roommates that we quickly became friends with; I think it was mainly because we all had a good sense of humor and ...

... spent wandering around the city, particularly the shops. Tomorrow we are hoping to fly north to Cairns. However, there is a category 4 tropical cyclone (suitably named Hamish!!) affecting the Queensland coast in that area. One local commented to us when hearing of our plans, "What a bloody stupid time to be going there. There's a cyclone"!!!!! Have no idea where the next update will come from.........Hopefully Port Douglas weather permitting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... milling around; just having a good time; was a Pig and Whistle Restaurant. It was mostly an outdoor café that server beer and meals for the passing multitudes of Sheila's and Bruce's which is the name Australians call young girls and guys. We stopped and asked for a recommendation on the best local beer. That was XXXX's Gold. So we order some along with a dish of chips as a snack. We sat there sipping on the beer, munching on the chips, watching the people walk by and ...

... art to a practical joke but I would love to know why it is there and who put it there. We got to the domestic terminal with loads of time to spare, but soon found out that the luggage belts had broken down so, once we had checked our bags in, we had to lift them off the check in area and lug them across the airport to be security checked and then stash them in ever growing piles, in the main lounge under A4 pieces of paper stuck on the wall showing the flight number and ...

... king of understatement) in trudging around Brisbane in newly acquired heels that were cutting her feet to pieces. The walk was so long and she moaned so loudly that I ended up giving her my shoes and myself walking in bare feet. We finally found a bar and I was happy as they going to show the Liverpool V Hull game that I wanted to see. To be a football fan out here you have to be quite committed as matches are always on at one, two ...