The Ashes...

Had a fun day yesterday at The Ashes in Melbourne.

There's a 18-20 year waiting list to be a member at the cricket ground. Thankfully a guy I met camping last week has membership. Even better, his mate (who is also a member) didn't need his ticket. So free entry for Pete! Sweet! Thanks Joshi!

The only bad part was having to watch England win!
Have a few snaps from the day in the photos tab.

Christmas In Australia...

I think this pretty much sums it up:

Carols By Candlelight...

My last experience of carols in the park was so disturbing that I thought I'd better try again.

Every year there is a big performance on Christmas Eve in the Sidney Myer Music Bowl- a huge outdoor amphitheater in a park in the city centre. It's a massive occasion that thousands of people go to. All the "big" stars from Australia's X Factor perform and theres a choir of about two or three hundred people performing Christmas Carols. Tickets cost $50 for people who go on Chrimbo Eve, but the good news is there's a dress rehearsal on the 23rd. Tickets on the 23rd? $5!!

So a group of friends and I (along with 7500 other people) brought a picnic to the Music Bowl to listen to the choir and performers practice before the big show on the 24th.

The doors opened at 4 and the singing didn't stop until 10:30pm. Six and half hours of Christmas juice is enough to get EVEN ME in the Christmasy mood! We had a fun time stuffing our faces with picnicy goodness and sang all the classics at the top of our lungs. A few pics are on display on my Photos page.

Merry Christmas and God bless us, every one!
Too much?

A Long Weekend's Camping...

If you've read the previous post you already know the start of the story- a strange series of very fortunate events.

So on Saturday we headed off to Wilson's Promontory, one of Victoria's best kept secrets. It seems like so much happened that I'm only going to be able to give you the abridged version:

Saturday: We arrived in the evening, quickly set up tents before heading off to the beach to go fishing. But these Aussies don't use a rod like any normal person! They prefer a barbed spear! Seriously. Those of us without wetsuits decided to observe from the rocks seeing as it was getting pretty cold. No fish caught this time.

Sunday: One of the girls had been telling us about a cave that we should all go sleep in one night. We decided to go scope it out (see pics). Unfortunately I don't have any pics from inside, but the rock I'm climbing into was almost completely hollow!

Monday: Spent a rainy day at the beach while the guys tried to catch more fish with their spears. This day was even more cold so there was no way I was going into the water. The rain didn't stop and kept falling into the night. At 1:30am I realised that the floor of the tent felt a little like a water bed. We jumped up, realising that we were in the middle of a flash flood- we had about a foot of rainfall in a matter of hours. The water camp up and over the zip of our tents! Everything had to be evacuated and moved to the one tent that was high enough up the hill to stay out of 'the lake'. Some people slept in cars, others piled in together to stay dry. It was quite an adventure!

Tuesday: Thankfully most of the water had drained away by the morning and it was sunny enough to dry EVERYTHING. The tents were full of water and all had to be drained and dried. As the sun kept shining we headed off on a 20k round hike to Sealer's Cove, a beautiful beach at the other end of the park. Got plenty of pics of this beautiful place. That evening it was time to try spear fishing- wetsuit or no wetsuit. To cut a long story short I didn't see a single fish!

Wednesday: This was our last day and there was one sight I had to see. We were camped beside Mount Oberon and the views from the top were supposed to be stunning. So after breakfast we set off. It's only a 7k round hike but it's steep enough that the view from the tops is spectacular. I took a 360degree panoramic from the top that I'm yet to upload. There was time for a quick swim and a game of beach cricket before we had to pack up and get going.
It was a great week. All extremes of weather in a few short days. I had a great time and made more new friends. Good times! 

A Strange Chain Of Events...

Sorry I haven't posted here in a while- I've been all over the place (literally). All will be revealed:

Last Thursday I was invited to go along to 'The Road To Bethlehem'. This is a big play telling the story of the first Christmas, but rather than one stage there are about 10 spread out in a park. You start off with Mary and Joseph and then walk along to the next stage where you meet the Wise Men on their journey. It was pretty fun but I wasn't able to get many photos cos it was too dark. (See photo tab for a few pics)

I had gone along with Jared and Naomi (friends I'd made from church) and they introduced me to other friends they had invited. One of them was having a birthday party the next night (Friday) and invited me along- sweet!

So on Friday I went along to the birthday party where I met LOADS of people. It was really good fun. They're all musos and singer/songwriters so naturally they had an open mic night. This was great up until the point where the people I had just been chatting to said I'd go up and perform!! GROUND.OPEN.SWALLOW.ME.NOW (I didn't sing. I just stood there and talked for a while and told them all it was a 'poem'.) :o)

Later that night some of the folks I'd met told me they were going camping the next day (Saturday) and invited me along- sweet!

For the past five days I've been camping at Wilson's Promontory- one of the most beautiful Nation Parks in Victoria. It was gorgeous, but more of that in my next post...

So in the space of three days I recon I met about forty new people. Good times!

Joseph looking like he's about to dive off the stage and tear me to shreds. 

Holidays Have Arrived...

Schools here don't officially finish until this Friday, but the chances of teachers being off this week (and hence me working) are almost zero. So I think it's safe to assume that my holidays have begun.

To celebrated by buying a copy of Bill Bryson's 'Down Under'. A few people back home had recommended it to me (thanks Tomkiss) and since arriving I've had roughly 900 people encourage me to read it. I'm 150 pages in and so far it's brilliant.

Now that I'm 'free' from work for a while I've been enjoying exploring. Generally I hop on the tram and go and find a coffee shop where I can sit and read for a while. I only leave when the need to go find another coffee shop arrises.

 Today I headed into the city on another (rainy) adventure. I wandered aimlessly around the city giving myself a running commentary as I imagine Bill Bryson would. (What a nerd!) You can look forward to the release of my memoires some time in the next 80 years. :o)

Many touristy postcards display images from a street caller Hosier Lane in the city. It's famous for being covered in graffiti, so I decided to go see and hopefully get some pics for myself. I took loads of pics, but you can see a sample on the photos page. 

Carols In The Park...

Glad to hear that the snow is clearing back home and that life is returning to normal for most people. I'm not sure if it's going to be a white Christmas over there in the UK but it certainly sounds like winter has truly arrived.

It feels so odd to be preparing for Christmas without the cold, dark nights setting in. Correction, it feels downright wrong! But Christmas approaches never-the-less and people here are laughing at me as I try to get my head around the idea of snowmen decorations in the summer holidays. Surely I'm not the only one who thinks that's odd! :o)

To try and get in the mood I went to sing Christmas carols in the park the other night. I was supposed to be there with our church group. I was going to be maning a spotlight from up in a cherry picker, but alas, the rain that had fallen through the day had pretty much wiped out 75% of the electronics they were using. After checking over the lighting equipment it was decided that I wasn't needed. This suited me down to the ground 'cos the whole experience was beginning to weird me out. I honestly couldn't hack it and ended up leaving early! Ha! "Way to jump in and try a new experience Pete!" I hear you say.

I'm sticking to my guns- it was wrong, you hear me. WRONG! 

That lens flare makes it look a lot sunnier than it was, trust me.

A Blustery Day At The Beach...

I've been getting a lot of 'unsavoury' comments as I continue to point out that I'm getting sun burnt while home is under snow. So I promise not to say anything about our trip to the beach yesterday with the youth group from the church I've been going to.

I won't mention the fact that 40 of us headed off to one of the most popular holiday destinations in the area.  You may like to know that when we got there it was freezing and rainy, but I definitely won't mention the fact that it soon warmed up and we went swimming in in the ocean.

There are absolutely no photos for you to get a glimpse of the day so don't even bother looking at the photo tab.

All you need to know is that it was a horrible, horrible experience and that I would rather be frozen to the bone in a cold, wet winter!
;O)

Pleasant Plants...

The trees here are a lot more considerate than the ones back home.

Grrrr....

I was kissed today...


...by a mosquito...


...on the forehead....


...twice...



ouch. 

To Work Or Not To Work...

Today I turned down an offer for a full time job teaching Grade 5/6. Was kinda cool though- no interview or anything, just a straight-up offer.

(I've been paying the kids to say they like me. It's costing me a fortune!)

Quiet Weekend...

Today I went to a 70 year-old birthday party!

Nuff said.

(A party for someone who is 70 years of age....Not a birthday party that has been going on for a period of 70 years.) 

What's In A Name?

As a teacher, I'm exposed to all sorts of weird and wonderful name choices (and spellings), but today I had one to remember! I taught a boy whose surname was Wong (or something) but whose first name was:

"DRAGON POWER"

That's just awesome. 

Rain Rain Rain...

Spent ages waiting at the bus stop today. Can you tell which areas of my raincoat need to be re-waterproofed?