A Christmas message to our family and friends

We are having breakfast on a sunny Sunday morning. Mine is Vegemite on toast (an Aussie favourite) whilst Alex is sticking with his St Dalfour black cherry jam. If what you have for breakfast gives you a clue as to what sort of person you are, well that's just got to be it!

Our new little Christmas tree is sitting proudly in our sitting room. It's about 11.30am and it's gorgeously sunny outside. The trees are dappled with mid morning sunlight and the only sound to be heard is our refrigerator's hum. Alex is reading the 'Travel' section of The Australian - his new favourite newspaper after giving The Melbourne Age (our local broadsheet) the thumbs down for being too parochial. Why he's reading 'Travel' I do not know as the only travel we can afford at the moment is to our mailbox and back.

This is a typical morning for us. Alex is already up and about, having showered, dressed and on the computer 'facebooking' friends. Meanwhile I am still in my pyjamas, unshowered and hair resembling Dame Edna Everidge's before a much needed coiffure, though thankfully not blue rinsed.. yet.

We are both astonished that we've been here 3 months almost exactly. That's a quarter of a year, a whole season in fact! Where did the time go. We are equally astonished that Christmas is just 20 days away and yet there isn't a frosty snowman to be seen. The only thing we keep frosted these days are the ice cubes from our freezer's automatic ice cube dispenser - a must in Australia.

Our plans for Christmas are quite simple. Christmas Eve Eve (that's the 23rd) will be spent at a big Christmas Carol concert rehearsal somewhere in town; the main event being too crowded for any real enjoyment. My brother Jonathan arrives that night as well from Adelaide. It's been a quarter of a century (yikes!) since we spent a Christmas together so long overdue. He'll stay with us for a few days after making an 11 hour drive from Adelaide to be here in his little motor that's already clocked up 250,000 kilometres! If it makes this trip here and back, that car will deserve a medal.

We then spend Christmas Eve with my friend Nicky, her 4 year old son James (who is tall enough to pass as a 6 year old) and her mum Leslie. There will be another of Nicky's friends there with her three young boys so it will be a hectic day I'm sure. We are in charge of desserts and Alex is tasked with trifle. I've bought a Christmas cake (couldn't face baking in 30 degree heat), and I'll make some rum balls for after afters - you know, that time on Christmas Day when you really can't face any more food but that tiny little rum ball sure looks good enough to eat, so you do.

Nicky is bravely cooking for all of us and is doing a traditional dinner on Christmas Eve. She's already made a trip to the Rutherglen Vineyards north of Melbourne for all the wine, champagne and dessert wines we'll need, and I'm guessing she'll need most of it.

On Christmas Day it's just Alex, me, Jonathan, Nicky, Leslie and James for a picnic in the park opposite her apartment.

Christmas in Australia is a unique experience. Usually it's a blazing hot day and everyone is outdoors which means that instead of being tucked in cozily at home watching a new DVD Christmas present as you do in the UK, everyone's at the beach or in the park. As such, it's like one big outdoor party as everywhere you go there are loads of people laughing, swimming, eating, drinking and avoiding talking to their mothers-in-law.

Christmas day lunch is usually cold cooked prawns the size of small lobsters, coleslaw, potato salad, french bread, and if you're having a barbecue, the prerequisite sausages and steak, all sizzled to charcoaled imperfection. Desserts are usually pavlova if you're indoors (the cream won't survive outside), or chilled fruit salad if you're out. Nobody in their right mind would cook a turkey on Christmas Day here.

Well, that's pretty much what's in store for us this Christmas. We will, however, definitely miss the company of our family and friends and the excuse of staying indoors to watch DVDs whilst a hot dinner settles.

We've spent the last few Christmases with Alex's family; his two brothers Tim and Robin and their respective wives Sally and Lydia, will be greatly missed, as will our beautiful, lively and amazing niece, Florence, who has just turned 9 and will be a young lady before we know it. We congratulate Robin and Lydia on their first Christmas together as newlyweds and hello to their 'bump' who will be sharing Christmas with them but won't be delivered until next March.

Happy Christmas to my mum, dad, Peter, Jan and all the family and our friends. We miss you and think of you loads.

Alex has just finished part two of his breakfast - a bowl of Cheerios. What that tells you about him I can only guess!

I'm off to do something about this birdsnest I'm wearing so it's Happy Christmas from me, and Happy Christmas from him.

Christmas in Melbourne

Well, they haven't gone too overboard with decorations but I attach a photo of a large wreath on Chapel Street, the city's bohemian shopping area (a bit dodgy at the south end then gets better as you go up). I must have been in arty black and white mode... Also one of the city's horse and carriage rides, which ply their trade at exorbitant cost.

We had a great day in Williamstown on the other side of the city - one of Melbourne's best-kept secrets we think. Lovely beach where we did some swimming for the first time, and a very pleasant olde worlde town centre. They do cruises up the Yarra River to the city and back, which we will do next time.

Melbourne Cup Festival

Justine and Nicole went to Flemington racecourse this week, as part of the Melbourne Cup meeting. I was banned as it was considered a girls' day out...

They chose Ladies' Day in order to get dressed up a bit - and enjoyed very good weather. In fact it has been warm here for quite a few days, hitting 32C yesterday, when we had a picnic.

Our outside blinds have been down over the windows for a couple of weeks to keep the apartment cool - they seem to be working so far. We are now looking forward to our 24 boxes arriving on Tuesday after their long sea journey. They have at least cleared customs now.

PomsInOz gathering, Mornington

Today we had a great afternoon by the coast at Mornington, about an hour's drive south.

It was a picnic and barbecue organised by the PomsInOz forum, an online community of Brits who have emigrated here. Mostly families so there were loads of kids around.

The weather was superb and it was very nice to chat with other Brits.

We have now moved into our new apartment at 2/26 Lithgow Street, Glen Iris.

We had four deliveries on the first day, all of which went smoothly. Today we have had our sitting room furniture delivered, we had it made by a local dealer.

A few more shots from our day around the Bay.

We are now busy making final preparations to move to our new apartment in 10 days. We have ordered some furniture and appliances but will need to get lots of smaller things after we move - rather than buying them now and having to move them from our current place.

Justine's brother is coming for a couple of days next week as well.

Around Port Phillip Bay

Today we did full anti-clockwise circuit of Port Phillip Bay, driving through Melbourne to Geelong for lunch and a walk, then down to Queenscliff to catch the ferry to Sorrento on the other side of the bay. We thought that was appropriate as we were married in Sorrento (Italy) three years ago today! We did see some dolphins as we sailed - they like playing in the sea around the ferry as it turns.

By the time we docked after a 40 minute trip it was nearly dark so we just headed up the Nepean Highway back home - a lovely drive by the sea illuminated by a full moon.

Wet and windy

The weather has been atrocious here for the past 2-3 days, even by UK standards: strong winds and rain never easing off for long, which is unusual for Victoria. It usually throws it down for an hour then the sun comes out. We even had sleet and hail last night.

Saturday afternoon was the Football Premiership Final at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) between Geelong and St Kilda, in front of 98,000 crazed fans. It has had the city in a frenzy for three days. We watched it on TV and really got into it - the players must be the fittest of all sportsmen as the ground is huge and the match lasts 2 hours.

We had to drive over to see our new apartment in the last quarter but followed the very close game on the car radio - as Geelong clinched the match with a few minutes left, a female motorist coming towards us was hilariously pumping the air with her arm as they scored. Even our new landlord Mark (a nice guy from Surrey who looks a bit like Adrian Chiles) admitted he was caught up in it, as we walked in...

On our return Justine insisted I take some photos of her. Then today we went out to buy me some warm clothes, even though summer is on the way.

Just a shot of our friend Nicole's son James, aged 4. We had a pleasant morning with him and his grandmother around the wharf where the ship to Tasmania sails.

Penguin Parade

Earlier this week we had a great day on Phillip Island, just under 2 hours' drive away to the south east. It's a fairly unspoiled place despite being Australia's most popular place for visitors.

The main attraction is the Penguin Parade, when at dusk hordes of them come in from the sea, assemble at the shoreline, and gallop up the beach together to their burrows in the dunes - apparently they need safety in numbers as they are vulnerable to attack by predatory birds. They only have to cover about ten yards but as they hardly move like Usain Bolt I can understand their concern.

The penguins are less than a foot high so it's not easy to see them in the sea in the fading light, but there are 'penguin-friendly' lights on poles to assist us. The whole thing is vaguely reminscent of the landing site scene in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'... with the added excitement of wondering if you will see the little boogers before pneumonia sets in as you wait an hour in rapidly falling temperatures.

We all sit in a man-made amphitheatre constructed to view them, while burly Aussie naturalists remind us over a tannoy that no photography is allowed - sadly. We then walk back over boardwalks to the massive visitor centre accompanied in near darkness by the little pingus squawking as they head to their burrows to sit on their eggs.

There are empty beaches around the whole island, though in high season they will get busier I'm sure. I did photograph some pelicans near the entry to the island. The main hamlets are called Cowes and Ventnor, so the whole place is really just a small pastiche of the Isle of Wight.

Other attractions are a Grand Prix circuit (now used for bike races) and a chocolate factory, which contains a chocolate model railway and a one tonne block of the stuff. We only called in to sample the wares rather than go on a tour.

At the south west are The Nobbies (photo above): rugged mini-islands with thousands of seabirds and a seal colony. All in all, a memorable day.

We had quite a busy weekend looking at properties - most are open viewings but with only a 15 minute window, so if you arrive even slightly late you are out of luck, the agent has moved on to show the next one. So we had our list of properties and had to work out if we could drive to each one within the available time.

Fortunately we managed to see them all, including a couple of really nice ones. The first one was fairly horrible though, with a rent even the agent was embarrassed about...

After all that activity we spent the late afternoon by the coast. It was remarkably warm even though it had clouded over quite a lot from the earlier bright sun. Typical Melbourne weather, where you get several climates in one day.

We had a couple of hours in Melbourne city centre today as we had to come in to pick up our debit cards etc. So we did a bit of exploring on what was a sunny day, but it was quite windy.

The first shot above is St Michael's Church, the second is the main Flinders Street rail station.

Last time we came by train but we thought we'd brave bringing in the Hyundai. Finding a spot for the car was fine but it's hard (or expensive) to find more than 2 hours' parking.

So the tram may be the other idea, though we haven't been on one yet. They just tootle along in normal traffic, but it can be a bit disconcerting to see one bearing down on you when you glance in your rear view mirror!

One shop I did find was a large secondhand bookstore which sells only crime books: fiction and factual. I can see myself visiting that one fairly often...

Justine here.... We picked up our new car today! Very happy with it. Only 1 year old, mint condition. Manual 1.6litre turbo diesel and obviously bright red to make it go even faster!

Alex and I have achieved a great deal in our first week.... mobile, internet, and now a car. Just got to get a more permanent roof over our heads and then can relax a bit. We are staying in Toorak which is probably the most expensive suburb in Melbourne - the houses, or should I say mansions, around us are huge and remind me of Double Bay in Sydney - very grand with gated access. It's a great area but too expensive for long term so we're on lookout for something a little further east but still in good residential area. So.... on to house hunting now!

We visited the nearby suburb Malvern yesterday for a mooch around - a nice shopping street, very typical of Melbourne, with low buildings and independent shops.

We had lunch in Grill'd, a small chain which allegedly sells the best burgers in Victoria, in Australia, in fact in the World! They were very good, I admit. And the girl serving us admired the Leica so I took her picture... Fortunately there are no photos of us slobbering over our burgers.

Today we went to Chadstone shopping centre, which until recently was the largest in the Southern Hemisphere (one in Singapore overtook it). Similar to the Trafford Centre or Meadowhall. Justine had her hair cut and as we speak is colouring it.

We saw The Taking of Pelham 123, which we enjoyed, though I like the original with Robert Shaw and Walter Matthau as well.

But like books, the cinema is more expensive than the UK, but not by so much - it was $17 each, about £8.50. I am already thinking in dollars, not pounds now.

Our apartment

Just a few shots of our place for the next month - including one of the chambermaid who is included...

Big Fat Pommy Bastard...

No, that's not my preferred mode of address here - it's a menu item we noticed on a restaurant near where we went for dinner last night. Seems to be the equivalent of the FEB (Full English Breakfast) out here. Sounds nice though I'm not sure I'd want a Bloody Mary with it...

That's the last breakfast-related post for a while...

We went for a stroll in St Kilda afterwards, quite lively at about 9pm, there was even a bookshop open.

Today (Sunday) we are exploring Mornington with Justine's friend Nicole, as a possible place to live when our current rental runs out in a month.

Weather here has been changeable, quite cold at night. We only realised yesterday that the air conditioning could warm up as well as cool down, so we cranked it on full blast when we came in.

Healthy Aussie brekkie!

Carman's muesli - you can only get it here, I remember it from our last visit. I looked on their website and they said Asda stocked it, but sadly the Shipley one didn't. Maybe they're more into deepfried bacon sandwiches...

http://www.carmansfinefoods.com.au/range.php

Anyway if you come across it buy a few boxes - it's great!

On our first full day here we woke before 5am which always seems to be the case when you first arrive in Australia, owing to jetlag. Then you feel exhausted at around 6pm but we've managed to stay awake and go to bed at a normal time to get ourselves in synch.

We both had the idea to drive down to the beach and see the sun come up at St Kilda. This was really great and we enjoyed a walk after we got there at around 6.30am.

Quite a few runners, walkers and cyclists there doing early morning workouts.