Merry Christmas!!

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I hope you and your families all have a wonderful Xmas.

Stay safe, stay motivated, have fun

& I look forward to hearing all the Xmas/New Years events soon!

It's a new year coming, time to re-evaluate how we went over the past year and learn from the year!

We all have it in us to become what we want

- we just have to believe in ourself.

Luv Mel.

xxx

PS - would have posted fun Xmas icons but have no idea how to do it!!

Holiday Goss....

Hello lovelies!!

Well I guess you have figured that I’m back.

So I am just taking a "moment" from all the backlog of work here to fill you all in on our "Eating and Drinking Tour of Australia"....yep that's pretty much all we did - eat and drink! From the moment we left I said I won't drink today, I will have a break and what happened....two and a half full weeks of alcohol every day - it took its toll, trust me!! Hehe

So I am back on the wagon and after 2 days of being sober I am feeling much better, not to mention looking much better - my skin was soo tired looking. Can’t wait to get into some exercise, I am all pumped up and have made some goals for myself, which I will write up later in the week.

Right now we just did soo much in a short time so I kinda have to remember back to what we did! Its gonna be long.....

New South Wales - Sydney

We arrived very early on Thursday morning into Sydney and as Hubby was working for his race team we actually stayed out near the Eastern Creek track....I would equate the suburb to being along the lines of Midland (an improvement from last time's Oran Park which was like Balga!!).

We went and saw Priscilla Queen of the Dessert that night, had dinner along the harbor and some drinks and I have to say that Priscilla was awesome - I recommend seeing it when it comes over and I think I will buy tickets from me and Mum to go see it, as it was really good - very very funny! They even did the PING PONG bit from the movie...hehe

Friday & Sat Hubby went out to the track so I just went shopping at the centre near where we were staying - got a few good bargains...not mention spent 4 hours in the hairdressers trying to fix the BAD job I got done before I left. Yep went back to my old hairdresser up here the day we left and she (for some reason beyond me) coloured my hair in stripes of blonde and VERY DARK BROWN, I was mortified but she insisted it would wash out in a few days. Well by Saturday it didn't and I had had enough, with the mix of colours my hair looked grey - honestly! So I had to get my hair stripped and recoloured. Its not the best now but its heaps better....$500 from both jobs later...Hubby is not happy - he wants the hairdresser up here to give me my money back...I will let him handle that!

We got to finish up early and booked into the Sebel Pier One hotel right to the left of the Sydney Harbor Bridge on the Sunday....Oz Idol was on that night and we could see the fireworks and hear them from our room. We went for a walk along that way as it was like a 5-10 min walk to the Opera House - it was soo busy...didn't get too close!

We also had our first Yum Cha experience - it was amazing, we pigged out, its now our fav! Did some shopping, went to the Minus 5 bar - yep that is an ice bar. Its like minus 18 degrees. You go in for only 30 minutes and you have to put on big boots, gloves and a big furry jacket with hood. It was soo spun out. Everything was made of ice, chairs, tables, the glasses you drank from - it was a vodka bar so you only got to have vodka cocktails - very yummy.... Then after that we went downstairs to this very trendy (very $$) vodka bar and had some Polish vodkas...was heaps fun!

We also did the ferry trip to Manly for the day and walked across the harbor bridge, checked out Luna Park and Hubby's favourite of the holiday - we walked to Harry's De Wheels and he had a Pie topped with mashed potato and mushy peas - a specialty, its like our Alfred's Kitchen in Guildford. Its a caravan take out place and has been there for like 40 years or something and there are photos everywhere of stars visiting it etc...anyways Hubby was in heaven (I've got pictures!), and actually it was the best pie I had tried before!

Then we made our way along the coast, driving, to Victoria. Our first night we stayed in Batemans Bay and it was just the cutest little town - it was awesome and the holiday village we stayed in was just the best - if we had kids it would be the best holiday ever for them and even with a group of friends it would be awesome - again will send pics so you know what I mean. Plus all along the coast they just have the best seafood - so I am an addict now :)

It took us 2 days to get to Melbourne- full days, the next night we stayed at the Lakes Entrance, which is just inside the Victorian border - again nice, a coastal town, yummy food.

Victoria - Part 1

We arrived in Melb on the Thursday which was Hubby's birthday and we stayed at Crown Casino that night. OMG its awesome, the rooms are deluxe. That night we went out with friends for dinner.

Friday Hubby had to do work so I hit the streets of Melbourne - OMG, OMG, OMG. The shopping is awesome. I still really love Chapel Street but I spent pretty much the entire afternoon in the Myers store - yes, I got lost soo many times and almost gave up after an hour of being stuck in the electrical goods section but alas I finally found the clothes..aghhh...stupid me, the Myers goes over like 4 blocks and I was on the wrong floor, wrong block - of course!

By the time I saw Hubby that arvo I had told him to not let me go shopping for the rest of the holiday, that's how shopping mad I went (it didn't last long).

Launceston, Tasmania

Hubby’s boss decided he wanted to ride his new motorbike in Launceston over the weekend, so he organised for us to catch the "Spirit of Tasmania" Ferry overnight on the Friday to take his bike over. He then flew over where we met up with him and some friends. The ferry was really cool but I must admit that I did wake up about midnight in our cabin thinking we were going to die....it was really rough and scary (apparently Stu says it wasn't but it WAS!). It takes about 10 hours to get across so we got in early Saturday morning.

In Tassie it actually rained and sleeted and was freezing. We went along past Cradle Mountain to the other side of Tasmania (so east to west) and stayed the night in a coastal town in this really nice hotel with fantastic views of the bay! Sunday was spent driving/riding back and having lunch etc....

We flew back to Melbourne on the Monday morning - being our ONE YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY...yes we made it ;)

Victoria - Part 2

So we took a little A3 Audi and headed to the Great Ocean Road. Hubby was in his element, it’s some turbo charged little beast with the same engine as Audi TT...again, thought I was going to die on numerous occasions but Hubby being the expert driver did a fantastic job at top speed around the VERY windy cliffs....he had fun!

So if you haven't done Gt Ocean Rd, you really gotta!!!!!!!! It is soo beautiful along there and the little towns and beaches and everything are gorgeous. We checked out Bells Beach, but the surf just wasn't big enough for us to even bother entering the water (ha!). We saw the 12 Apostles, London Bridge & the Arch, all amazing! WE also did the treetop rainforest walk whilst we were down there - I sprinted through as it was a bit high and windy for me but Hubby spent awhile looking around up there and going up the big tower and on the hanging bridge up there...

WE stayed from Monday to Thursday morning down at Chris' Beacon Point Restaurant & Villas, which is just outside Apollo Bay. Again, highly highly recommended. We were perched on top of the hill overlooking the ocean with floor to ceiling windows everywhere in our villa and nothing in front of us (its very secluded only like 4 villas up there)...it was just amazing, had dinner at the restaurant on our anniversary (I saw it on Getaway so that's how I picked it) and then the other nights ate on our balcony - it was very relaxing. Its all very beachy and surfy and laid back along there with great little pubs and stuff...and the beaches are amazing, I have now changed my tune on the beach and love it!

Came back to Melbourne on Thursday. We caught up with a friend of mine out in the 'burbs', I used to work with her over here, it was really good to see them and their kids! That night we went out to dinner with another friend in the city. Then he took us to a few very "spun out" bars. The first one was like this reggae hippy bar, which was really just an alley way full of alternative type folks smoking and drinking....was different. Then we went to a cozy little like jazz bar - bright red and very laid back, that was cool and then the last place was called MOO and it was quite an expensive place where you can eat or just drink, it was all antique and felt like you were back in the 1920's, it was very groovy. It was good to see him - it was all a very tame night though!

Oh and on the Thursday Stu’s boss had bought a new collector’s item car or something so Hubby had to pick that up (this is before dinner) and I had my first driving experience in Melbourne being Chapel Street, peak hour in the work Ute, yep I was packing myself especially as Hubby just zoomed off...and you have to give way to pedestrians in Melbourne, so a few near misses, but all good...everyone alive still ;)

Friday Hubby had meetings for hours so I got my shopping bug back and since the workshop (where we were staying) is just off Chapel Street, I walked myself down there and shopped my little heart out. Funnily enough Hubby was feeling neglected so I actually mainly bought him stuff that day, he is very funky now. Now I love the Playboy shop over there so I spent quite a bit of time in that shop buying for myself....got a cute belly ring and a dress come jacket, yep its kinda short...agghhh it was fun!

That night we headed out with some more friends - ended up back at there place after dinner and stayed til ummm 3.30am when we realised our flight was at 6am and we had to get back to the workshop to get our stuff and hightail it to the workshop....I have no idea how we made it or how I managed to get our contact outs in a drunken state and change etc in the space of like 5 mins - it was certainly from super Hubby's efforts of packing everything up whilst I floundered around disorientated - sorry sweetpea!!!

So that's it, we are back - it is good to be home but perhaps not at work :)

I will post photos when I get some time during the week!

xxx