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Last week, on St George’s Day, it was our 3rd wedding anniversary. We take turns each year is organising something to do for the event - for our 1st anniversary we went to a really nice Japanese restaurant in Melbourne during a brief trip to Australia, and last year we made a trip to Brussels in Belgium.  This year it was my turn again to organise something.

Finding a good curry in Australia is not an easy thing - good Indian restaurants are few and far between.  I think the only decent one I’ve had was 2 years ago in Glebe (Sydney). So the first thing we did over the weekend was try out the local Indian restaurant on Friday night.  It was ok - not bad, but not fantastic.  Good enough to consider going back, but probably not have their rather fatty chicken in a curry again.

Then on Saturday morning we headed out and drove for a couple of hours to Ballarat.  Known from the goldrush days, in Ballarat they have a mock goldrush township called Sovereign Hill.  I’d booked a package that included an overnight stay, day entry to Sovereign Hill (both days), and dinner followed by their ”Blood on the Southern Cross” sound & light show.  We had a good time there, and of course took a number of photos!

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A few weeks ago there was a public holiday (Labour Day) in the state of Victoria, so Dawn & I decided to go have a drive somewhere!

It was a hot day in Melbourne, and as we drove down the Mornington Peninsula this was obvious by how busy some of the beaches were. We really just drove down the Peninsula for the views, not to be beach bums!! Here are some photos from the day:

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Dawn has given an outline of what we did over the Christmas period, and here are some photos from our travels:

Then for new years we watched the fireworks displays (9pm & midnight) at Sydney Harbour!  Happy New Year!

On other news, when we returned home to Melbourne yesterday I had received a letter from immigration - unfortunately not a decision on permanent residency. The case officer has requested me to complete 2 more forms - most of the information required on them is duplication of either what was submitted in October or in my original application from 2005 from when I was granted temporary residency.  I managed to complete them after driving 6½ hours from Eden (NSW) to Melbourne, and posted them back to immigration yesterday!  Maybe I’ll hear a decision this month…

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On 21st December at 4.00am we headed up the highway on our epic journey to spend Christmas with my family.  The driving was difficult and tedious, but that’s how Rob wanted to do it so there we were.  I only did about 2 hours driving out of the 10-11 on that day, so not too bad for me! We arrived in Dubbo in the afternoon and proceeded to have very welcome showers and naps. Hotel was clean and tidy with an ensuite bathroom (a must for me!) so pretty happy with that.

During the night big storms hit New South Wales and by morning it hadn’t cleared up much but we the intrepid adventurers had come all that way and were not to be deterred from our planned trip to the Western Plains Zoo.  Fortunately you can drive around the zoo and see most of the animals from the car.  I had an umbrella so was able to get out and explore the ones off the track a bit.  After about half an hour the rain let up and Rob was able to get out and see the animals with me.  Main highlights were the giraffes (still can’t get over the fluffy horns ) and the way they were loping about playing together in total slow motion.  Never seen anything like it before. Awesome!

Later that day we went to Old Dubbo Gaol, which was a bit scary for me as those places totally creep me out but Rob likes visiting them!  Maybe it’s something to do with my convict ancestry…  Anyway it was quite interesting right up until the point when we got caught in torrential rain in the building housing the hangman’s exhibit (need I say more?)  It eventually let up and I could get out of there (in a hurry).

The next day we left a bit later and made our way by the Newell highway to Brisbane.  That is one long boring stretch of road between Goondiwindi and Toowoomba!!!  Actually there was a lot of straight road the whole way which made it difficult when you could see the road stretching out so far ahead and not seeming to get anywhere. It was great to catch up with the family.  We went out for breakfast for Mum’s birthday which was really nice.

On Christmas Day we spent the day relaxing and catching up again, and even Grandma was able to be there so that was good.  We didn’t swim in the pool though, as the temperature had dropped for the week due to storms further north so it was actually quite nice without air conditioning or having to go for a swim.  That was good for Rob as he was dreading the blistering heat that usually comes around Christmas.  The next few days were spent re-acquainting myself with the local shopping malls (particularly Chermside!) and spending time with family.  It would have been good to catch up with friends, but the stay was quite a short one and we didn’t really have time, so next time definitely.

On the Saturday after Christmas we again hit the road back to Dubbo (uneventful trip I won’t describe!)  The following day we made our way to Sydney via the Jenolan Caves and Blue mountains.  It was a great if long day and I finally got to see at least one of the caves (have always wanted to go there) and Rob got to see the “Three Sisters” etc.  The tour we went on was in the ”Imperial Cave” which was amazing and fascinating - I really love caves and could have gone through all of them, however there was not time and we needed to make our way to Sydney to stay with my sister Linda.  We took the scenic route on the Bells Line of Road through the mountains and it was gorgeous.  And that is where our Christmas adventure ends!

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