Another Update! - Back 'Home'

NOTE: This is the second update, we just split them to make it easier to read, so the one under this is new also.. read that one first for continuity.

Ambro has a special cool car doggy blanket called ‘Dogs On Tour’, this means the car stays clean and Ambro seems to love it; she's been an absolute star in the car. She sat happily in the back for the entire 6 and ½ hours and when we stopped at places she got out for a quick loo stop and then back in with no trouble. Every now and again she’d fall asleep, but most of the time she was awake. She was no trouble at all and has been great in the car ever since. We stopped at a pet friendly motel in Coffs Harbour called The Big Windmill. It was nice, much better than the horrible Picton Motel experience we’d had previously. The people there were very friendly and they made us feel welcome. We were so tired from the driving we just ordered some pizza and hung out in the room sleeping.

We left Coffs Harbour early in the morning and because we were travelling over the border of New South Wales into Queensland we gained an hour as we had to put our clock back. We arrived at the place we’re staying now called the Jacaranda Lodge in Springwood, about 20 minutes from the house and 20 from Brisbane. It’s basically a pool house in someone’s garden and although it doesn’t have air con it’s nice. We thought it was going to have a cooker and an oven, so were rather surprised when we got there and it was only a fridge. We decided to pick up our microwave early from Clive Peeters and we also bought a George Foreman grill so now we and cook. We’ve just been eating salad and some grilled meat for dinner so if we don’t lose any weight with all the walking and not eating something is up!

We went and picked up the Number plates for the car and got those put on. You can see them HERE. They look brilliant and we also got Ambro registered with the local council so she’s safe and tagged for 3 years. It was very easy to do, we just had to go into the council and fill in a form and then sign a stat dec to say she’s been neutered. We did this at the court building next door in front of the justice of the peace and it was all really simple. So far here things seem to be fairly straight forward when you need to do things so here’s hoping they stay that way.

We organised the pool too and are going with a company named Narrellan Pools. The sales guy there was called Brad and he was very helpful. Hopefully it all goes well and we don’t have any problems. The house is getting on great and they’ve already done some of the tiling and the rest of the inside. You can see photos of it HERE.
We went on a trek today around the local area and found an amazing place called Sovereign Island that has the most amazing houses on it. All of them are mansions that are individually designed and have their own boat ramp, security, and actual island space with views over the water. Really amazing and it’ll definitely be something we will take mum and dad to see. Other than that we found a lovely little place called Paradise Point (I think!) and we sat there outside in an Italian café and had lunch then took Ambro for a walk. It’s brilliant to be able to sit outside and enjoy the day with the dog with us as well. We actually had quite a bit of rain overnight and it was overcast today, so hopefully it’ll rain again as it’s very warm tonight and feels like it needs it. We will be able to check email every day now as we’ve managed to get an internet connection even though it’s very slow. We are planning to work a bit whilst here for the month, as well as just find out new things. Will update soon!

Sydney Update and Wee Ambro's Home!

Sydney and Wee Ambs!

Well we headed to Sydney after being in Shepparton and catching up with people. We were really lucky to have been able to stay with Val and Mr H. They are the nicest people and treated us well when we were there. They made us feel right at home and it was a shame we didn’t get to stay longer. They will hopefully come visit us in Queensland when our house is ready. HERE you can see photos of us with Val and Mr H and of the cool Scottish dolls she’s knitted.

We also managed to catch up with Ged who sadly had injured his back and was unable to make our lunch break. Because of this we ended up going to a place called LeFires (We think!) and had yummy kebab food there. It was great and we headed to Geds after that. He was still the same guy, just a lot less hair!

Our trip from Shepparton to Sydney took around 8 and ½ hours and we arrived in a place called Potts Point, near Kings Cross in the early evening. This wasn’t the best time to arrive as the entire place seemed to be strip joints, drunken students and guys, and god knows what else. It looks very seedy and we weren’t too impressed with the hotel either. We were staying at a place called the Devere Hotel on Macleay Street. It was fairly similar to a large dormitory/boarding house, but it was clean enough and fairly cheap considering its central location.

Our first day in Sydney was spent walking to a place called Oxford Street which wasn’t that far away. We were heading there to go to a place called ‘The Bookshop’ which was a gay/lesbian bookshop. As it was Valentines Day, when we walked past the Hard Rock Café, we decided to go in and treat ourselves to some food. We had lovely milkshakes in there and brilliant mac and cheese. As always, the portions were huge and Angela couldn’t eat the combo starter she got as her main. When we got to the bookshop we ended up buying around 10 DVDs that we didn’t have. A word to anyone who might even think of buying any of these, don’t buy one called ‘Aprils Shower’. It is terrible, cheesy and tacky and wasn’t at all funny. We watched it later that night and were pretty disappointed. We ended up going into a local Indian Restaurant for dinner that night and had a vegetarian korma because the chicken dishes are all chicken thighs, not breast meat and we hate that. Still, it was nice enough. We also watched a movie called ‘Do I Love You’, actually we switched it off because it was so rubbish! I think they might be ending up on eBay eventually. One movie that was really great was called Saving Face. It was funny, charming and interesting. Highly Recommended.

The next day in Sydney we jumped in a taxi and headed along to the Harbour and the Opera House. You can see photos of us there HERE. It was brilliant and very touristy. We decided to hop onto one of the river lunch cruises which lasted an hour and a half and took us all around the harbour. It was lovely and we got to see some places we’d never have been able to see by car. We had a delicious roast beef buffet lunch there and it was beautiful. This area of Sydney is what everyone goes there to see really so it was nice to have done that. We got off the boat in Darling Harbour and went to the Sydney Wildlife Centre which is right on the waterside. We saw some cool things there too and you can check those out those is the previous link, including me holding a bug!!!

After that we went into the city centre and headed up the Sky Tower to get a brilliant view of the whole area. We also went on Oz Trek in there, a simulator ride about Australia. It was okay, not exactly Disney, but still it was fun enough and it was nice to sit in the aircon for a while. When we were walking down the shopping mall area, we saw the original ‘Free Hugs’ guy that has become world famous. It was odd to see him just standing there with his sign, but if you want to see him you can also see him HERE. Although Sydney is great, it’s a lovely place, but again it’s just too big. It takes hours to get into the city centre and there’s so many suburbs that you could live well over an hour and a half outside it and still be considered Sydney.

The next few days in Sydney we spent checking out local places and relaxing. We were becoming more and more excited at the thought of picking up wee Ambs and eventually on the Sunday morning we headed off to a place called Eastern Creek to get her from her one month in prison. You can see photos of her HERE and also of the crate and the place she was in. It was easy to pick her up, just signed a few forms and we were taken out the back to a truck that had lots of crates in it. We saw her in her crate and shouted on her. She immediately looked over and froze, almost stunned and confused. Then suddenly she started barking and yelping like never before and going crazy trying to get out. She was just the best and it was great to have her back again. After we’d calmed her down a little and let her walk around on the grass for the first time in a month, we hopped into the car for the journey back to Queensland via Coffs Harbour.

Melbourne Pt Deux and Shep Pt Un

Melbourne (then off to Shep)

Written 12th Feb

Well here we are in Shepparton and thanks to Val and Mr H we have internet access HUZZAAHH!! The only real problem is we weren’t writing too much along the way, so this may be a little higgledy pigledy.

Evanescence…
Well what can we say, especially for our chum Thumbthug and Mom, we’re linking to a a couple of clips of Amy Lee singing her heart out. We did film some of the concert, but you're not allowed to upload them on youtube (odd given the sheer amount on there, but we're not going to chance it).



Evanescence - Lithium Clip Clip

The concert was in the Vodaphone Arena in Melbourne and it was great. They were only on for an hour and 15 mins, which was the only sucky bit. As usual the crowd there was very diverse, ranging from the very young to the older person, always cool when you go to Evanescence and see everyone from child to granny loving it.

Leaving Melbourne…
We set off Sunday morning for Ballarat. We were meant to go to Ballarat on Friday, but Liz put us off the idea as she said it would take 4 hours to get there. We decided to go there on the way to Shepparton, but after speaking to Val we realised two very important factors: 1. You really needed a full day there to get the most out of Soveriegn Hill (link HERE for those interested) and 2. Mr H had made home made pavlova for us… well there was really no choice, we headed off the highway at the next available opportunity, rejigged the sat-nav and set off towards Shep. One can’t help but feel that we just weren’t meant to go panning for gold this trip, but as we always say ‘everything happens for a reason’.

Shep…
Ahh yes, place of Angela’s teens. We headed in and straight through town to Angela’s old house (pic of it in photos) and my didn’t the entire area look different!! What was once a lovely tranquil new street, now looked a little scary shall we say. To top it off the International Village, which was almost opposite the house street is gone and in its place is something that can only be described as a big mess! For those not in the know (ok that being most of you) the International Village was a beautiful village that was lush, green and housed many different themed buildings from around the world (ie the Aboriginal keeping place, the Dutch windmill, Japanese zen garden and house etc etc). You could go into each of these places, learn about that country / people and also sample foods and other goods. You could also have BBQ’s in the grounds which were fairly vast and the waterways that ran through it could be used for canoeing and things or fun days for associations like the scouting movement. Now it’s going to be a housing development. Nice.

After that letdown we drove straight to Vals house WOOT! It was GREAT to see Val and Mr H again, some things change over such a long period of time and some things remain true.. they’re the latter. Ahhhh and relax, we were made extremely welcome and instantly felt relaxed and happy. We can’t really explain the joy of watching Mr H play golf on the Wii, or Val kicking butt at the tennis, but it was brilliant. Add to this, conversation with great value and mucking around on the computers… brill. Today Val took us into town to see how much it had changed and grown. It’s weird, some of it as is new to Angela as it is to me. Some things haven’t changed though. You can check out the town HERE if you really want to. This afternoon we’re off to meet Ged (another of Angela’s old friends) for lunch.
Photos so far HERE.

Melbourne Here We Come!!!

Well we started off on Friday 2nd Feb for the long road to Melbourne. We were originally planning to leave on the Thursday, but we had a lot of pool companies coming out to the house to give us prices and that used up most of the day. We almost fainted at the price of pools over here. For some reason we had it in our mind they'd be cheaper because they're more in demand, but ohhhh no. They were twice what we'd originally thought. We were going to go with fibreglass as well but now we're not sure whether to go for concrete. We still haven't decided as we were waiting on some quotes being sent to our email so once we've looked over them all we'll go with whoever seems the best.

We set off early in the morning to head to Melbourne and the route was taking us down past Sydney and then cutting across country to Melbourne. The further south you go the more the scenery changes and we have to say that we're still madly in love with the Gold Coast and it's beautiful beach lifestyle. The trip was around 1900 km and should have taken us around 20 hours in total. We decided that we'd just drive for as long as we could and on the first day we managed around 11 hours of driving. It actually went in really quickly because there was so much to see. As you can see HERE, we've collected a lot of photos of weird signs and things that we saw enroute. We also have a photo HERE of the bush fires burning in the distance, very odd because you could smell them too. There's also a ton of other random photos there. What we did find brilliant though was that as we were travelling around, we saw this huge sign for 'The Only Scottish Town in Australia'and it was called Maclean! It was so odd. There are lots of photos of it HERE. We had to go in and see it as especially after the events of the week when granny McLean had died, it just seemed like it was the most perfect memory to give us. Of all the places for us to pass by and all the names. It was brilliant. It was entirely Scottish - tartan on the power poles, little Scottish bakeries, haggis, everything really. It was weird but brilliant.

We were following the sat nav quite happily until we realised it had taken us onto a road that is only accessible to people who have electronic tags on their cars! We had to quickly take a diversion, but this added around 40 minutes onto our travel time and it was getting dark. We made the decision there to find someplace to sleep and one of the signs showed that the town of Picton had places to stay so we pulled off the freeway and headed there. We drove through this very small town looking for a motel and we eventually found one. It was called The Picton Motel, although we convinced ourselves it should have been called Bates Motel. It was very creepy, but then it was dark. THIS is what it looked like in the daytime. I went to speak to someone at reception to book us in and was told to call through on their phone as there was nobody there. All of our booking in was done over the phone and off we headed to the room. It was okay inside, had more beds than anything else. It looked clean enough though, but it was very noisy because people kept pulling up outside. We eventually just fell into bed, only to be awakened by someone opening the door!! Thankfully the chain was on, otherwise there would have been three people in the room with us. It seems that the lady who owns it was showing someone to their room and had clearly forgotten that she'd told us to go into room 6. It was very unnerving when the place was already creepy. Just as we started falling asleep we were attacked by bloody mosquitos and every time we started to drift off, they'd buzz right into our ears. Needless to say we probably got only an hours sleep each and when we awoke just before 6am just decided to get out of that place as soon as possible. We didn't even stop for a shower! We were covered in mozzie bites that are still itching days later. All that and it cost us $110!

We were back on the road again, although it seemed much harder than the previous day. I think the fact we were both so tired didn't help. Everything seemed to be taking longer and we were sick of service station food. We kept driving and some of the weird things we did see was a man dressed in full Napoleonic jacket and hat, walking up the freeway with a shopping trolley full of his goods. Sadly we didn't get a photo as we were so stunned by the time we actually realised what it was, he'd gone by. We then saw this weird young guy waving a fish about next to the freeway in Victoria. It was all very weird, but added to the journey. We drove through some other odd places such as the place with the submarines in it even though it's in the middle of the country! Also, we stopped off at Gundagai which has the dog on the tuckerbox that is famous in Australia. We also saw Glenrowan which was a big let down. It's the home of Ned Kelly the famous bush ranger. We eventually made it to Melbourne around 6pm on Saturday, but we were pretty disappointed to see that it looked alot like most other big cities really. It didn't have the same laidback feel as the Gold Coast, although it does seem to have some lovely areas.

We're staying with Angelas sister Liz in a place called Bayswater, which is about an hour outside of the city centre, but is still considered part of Melbourne. We were lucky enough to go to see where Neighbours is filmed and you can see photos of that HERE. I was stunned at how small the street looks in real life and it's weird because it is just a normal street with people living in it. There was security there though, presumably to shoo us away if we became too nosey. It was still cool to see though. We then went on to the greatest cinematic experience ever. We don't want to let too much of this out here because we're planning to take mum and dad and the kids to it up on the Gold Coast when they get here, but lets just say it will blow your mind. We saw Dreamgirls which was a brilliant film, aided by the amazing time at the Village cinema in Southlands.

We've been chilling out and watching TV a little as it's nice to be able to relax a bit. We've been showing Liz the Wii also and laughing at how weird the weather is here. It was an excrutiating 38 degrees yesterday and yet today its only around 20. I've actually got on a sweater for the first time as it feels cold after all this hot weather.

We are missing everyone and can't wait until we have permanent internet access so we can at least be in touch more regularly. We are thinking of lots of you at odd times. When we saw a Dutch shop and hotel we thought of little Wencke our friend in Holland. We also saw a Toronto sign and thought of Bernie and Donna in freezing Toronto. We can't wait to see Val in Shepparton and I'm looking forward to seeing all the old places there Angela knows well. Not sure when we'll be able to check the email or internet but will try and do so later in the week before we go off travelling again. We have the Evanescence concert on Saturday night so that will be good also. Okay, off to upload this and email you all to let you know it's there! xxx