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...