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.