Lily Cottage

I picked up my keys today for my new little rental house in Ballarat. It's a little miner's cottage, with a name (cute!), in central Ballarat.

Just a little place, with two bedrooms (a spare for guests!), and an actual wardrobe - which I haven't had since I don't know when! It's really the size of an apartment, in a cottage, but has all I am needing. Great natural light. A driveway that goes nowhere (now known as my cricket pitch, for banana lounges and beer!). And a hop, skip and a jump from town. All good.

The real estate agent has been a total ball breaker about the garden, and asked all my referees about my gardening skills, and about getting a gardener. Oh dear! But it's actually quite a small garden out the front, so really, how hard can it be!

Now, just to finish one of my most hated chores in the world....moving!

Top 5: NYEs

So many people bemoan New Year's Eve, and carry on about it being just another night. But I actually really love it - the chance to start afresh, the chance to say good riddance to a bad year, with the hope of a new one, or to toast a good year as we all move to biggest and better things in the next. Which is why I like to have good plan for NYE - no plans are lame.

The best NYE will probably always be our little trip to New Orleans in 1999/2000, to see the Millennium tick over. A wild, fun fun night along Bourbon Street, with Michelle, Donna, Bronwyn, and two others from Michelle's au pairs in Nashville group. This was part of my 3 month trip over to Nashville to visit, on a working holiday exchange, and we all stayed in this gorgeous empty French Colonial house, with a little pool out the back. Going from very cold Nashville, to mild New Orleans for this amazing weekend was also part of the treat. The drinks, the beads, and the mischief 6 foreign girls can get up to....

The very next year, I made my second trip to New York City, to see the ball drop in Times Square. A really full on year to visit New York. I stayed with Ruth, and managed to catch up with Talia and Breno too on this trip. Ruth and I froze as we waited for the countdown and the iconic ball movement.

Coming home from the UK, and spending NYE at Pyramid Rock Festival with my three sisters, and bunch of mates, was a special one. Dirty, drunky, camping, hot, but such fun!

Another cold NYE was spent in Helsinki, with Jenny and Katie. This was part of our Xmas in Sweden trip, and the start of Katie visiting me in the middle of my time away.

Rounding out at 5 would have to be the NYE spent at our house in Phnom Penh. A group of us that stayed in the city for the night gathered at my big house, with marble downstairs as our dancefloor, and the front yard held our long table for drinks, drinking games, and silliness. A hot one, but a great night. I remember we actually did the countdown at a bar, of which I cannot remember the name now, and that's about as long as I lasted. Too much gin, it turned out! Ha!

NYE is meant to be fun! And large!

Cricket and the Road

Yesterday I was in the car for work, driving to Hamilton and back, and when I got in and tuned the radio to the cricket, I was sure that by my first stop in Lake Bolac, it would be all over. What a cracking day's cricket!


This is a sight that caught my eye on the drive. I thought I could post some of the great sights out there on the road, in a little show of appreciation to the regional Vic that is now going to be my bread and butter!

Since my move to Ballarat office, I will be the Psych Consultant servicing the whole of regional Victoria, branching from Ballarat and Bendigo. So, many many roadtrip treasures to be spotted and enjoyed!

This was taken in a little town that really flashed by, between Lake Bolac and Hamilton.

Editors

Kylie come down to Melbourne to find my place, and me working from home, yesterday afternoon, which kicked off our trek into town. We grabbed some dinner and beers along Bourke Street, as we watched the line at The Palace grow, and soon shuffle in.

Big Scary were up first, and thus we made our way into the cavernous venue, based on recommendations and musical similarities from Last.fm. Now last.fm is a bit of a music bible for me these days, but the idea they this band was similar to Hungry Kids was way off! OK, maybe one song sounded like our Brisbane band.

Big Scary were a guy who looked like John Mayer, and sounded like he was trying to channel Jeff Buckley at times, with a girl drummer. The sound was all over the place, and sadly not the find we had expected.

But then, to a growing male dominated crowd, UK's Editors arrived on stage. Being a fan of their middle released album, I was keen to hear their new stuff, for a taste and perhaps the push to purchase. The tracks from An End Has A Start, alas, were the standouts of the night, with the title track of this album really bringing this set to life as song 2. Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors was also a great track for the night. The new tracks brought an electro 80s pop feel, which given some other bands playing around with this feel, seems to be on it's way back.

The crowd were very into the 90 minute set, with hands aloft and clapping from ground and surrounding stairways. Tom Smith's voice was commanding throughout, and his theatrical movement on stage was fascinating, if a little disturbing!

Rain and Raining Wickets at the SCG

Getting into Sydney after two long flights, I was picked up from the airport by Belinda, and taken straight to the Olympic Hotel for a beer with the Waving The Flag. Here we exchanged stories about the last test, and world trips to be taking in this new year. Always a dangerous group to hang out with when the travel bug is biting!

I had contacted Jess and Andrew late in the day between flights, and they managed to come and join us for a beer crawl up Oxford Street, before we found a curry place - one of Bumble's Sydney test traditions. It was great to see the Wilson's, who have just returned home from their time in the UK, and working on setting up home again.

Belinda and I made our way in the morning yesterday to the SCG, for the start of play....and watched as the drizzle fall and the big covers stayed on the centre of the ground.

With nothing happening until 2pm, except for the Milo Cricket kids getting out and playing in the Lunch Break, Shane and I started our rounds of mid strength beer for the day farly early.

When the drizzle stopped enough to get a toss, and the start of play, we were all stunned as Aussie wicket after wicket tumbled. In fact, all 10! For just 127. Ouch!

Pakistan started their innings as light stopped play for the day, just after 6.30pm. Belinda, Justin and I made our way to the Coogee Bay Hotel. I had just enough time to buy Bumble a beer for her birthday, and have one myself, before rushing out to the airport for my flight home, and the end of my week off. Happy Birthday, Shelia!

Lovely Humps!

Part of our relaxing New Years Day, apart from time in the plunge pool, time in air conditioned comfort, and back in the private pool again, was to get down to Cable Beach for a ride on the camel train. We got down to the sand and joined our train with the Red Sun Camels, and were taught how to get up on the saddles, between the humps, two per camel.

Wendy and I were on Jabba, who with his brothers had walked in a train like this one from Alice Springs, to start his working life on Cable Beach. Nick and Melissa were behind us, on a slobbering camel, and we soon found that Jabba liked to get very close to the girls in on the camel in front of us!

Instructed to lean back while the camels stood from their seated position, we were soon ambling along the sand, all in line. The train of about 16 camels walks over the rocks and dry sand of Cable Beach, through the Nudist Beach area, and along the waters edge.

Being brought back to sand from the camel's back, we then made our way to the Sunset Bar for cocktails as the sun disappeared into the sea (and clouds!).

Our destination for the evening was a return to Matso's, for dinner, which was amazing. And then we sampled many of the beers on offer - a Raspberry beer, a special for the New Year, then the Monsoonal Blonde, followed by the very refreshing Ginger Beer, and topped with the very yummy Mango Beer. All so very good!

Our Broome time was over the next morning, as I put the peg leg on, and gave myself a cexane injection for the day of flying. We dropped the car, and checked in to Perth, where I boarded a plane for Sydney, Nick to Melbourne, and Melissa and Wendy off to Geraldton to continue chasing the cruise ship around WA.

Happy New Decade!

Amazingly, we made our flight in the wee hours of the morning, and Nick, Melissa, Wendy and I had 2 long flights from Melbourne to Perth, Perth to Broome, with a layover at Perth airport timely enough for us to see the opening session of the final day of the cricket.

We were sweating with the heat and humidity from the moment we set foot on ground! We grabbed our hire car, and made our way to our 5 star, 2 bedroom apartment for the next couple of nights, at The Pearle. Gorgegous! Complete with our own private plunge pool, if you don't mind!

The girls took Nick and I on a bit of a tour of Broome, with a beer overlooking Cable Beach at Zanders, before we made our way around to Gantheaume Point to check out the casts of dinosaur prints, and Anastasia's Pool - made by the lighthouse man for his arthritc wife, in the rock formations overlooking the ocean.

A beer at Matso's Brewery, and another one at the dodgy Roey, complete with misted water over punters in the beer garden - no water restrictions here! Getting supplies for our stay, we had a big BBQ cook up, a dip in the pool, with beer and wine.

Yesterday I helped out the girls with the passengers of the cruise ship docked for the day, which was their actual purpose for the trip. And haven't worked that hard in years, and years! Standing along side the ship all day, in the beating, sweating heat, we directed passangers to tours and shuttles into town. It reminded me why I don't really like people that much - such complainers!! And a little glimpse into Melissa's job when she's out of the office, travelling around.

Getting back to our apartment to wash, de-sweat, and finally get off our feet for a minute, we saw in the Melbourne New Year with beers, and Sydney fireworks on the tv. We then headed our to work friend's of Melissa's for a BBQ gathering, and NYE celebrations. Not a bad way to see in 2010.

After midnight, and hearing that the nightspots of Broome close at 1pm, we voted for getting back to our apartment and finishing off our bottles of wine in the pool. Happy 2010!