V Festival

V Festival: 4 April at Melbourne

Upon arriving at Melbourne there were a few adverts about for V Festival - a one day event, with tickets left. I had a look at who was playing and dragged Paul to Ticketmaster where we got two tickets for only 70pounds each - which is very cheap for a great day out! We saw full sets of Duffy (good voice but all the songs are very similar); Elbow (fantastic); Razorlight (surprisingly brilliant); Kaiser Chiefs (great of course) and the Killers (again, great of course). We also saw a few songs from Snow Patrol, Madness, The Kills and The Human League between stages. There were about 20 000 people at this festival which meant that it was not at full capacity and there was loads of room - so for most of the bands we got right near the front. Great day out. What an unexpected bonus!

Sydney

Top Left: Paul watching Rovers on the internet on our balcony.

Top Right: Paul wining at the Star Casino

Left: Jo surfing at Manly beach

Right: A young aboriginal performer

Here: The view from our apartment

Well we are now in Sydney and have rented a flat for 28 days for our base. It is a little old fashioned inside but the location and view are fantastic! You can clearly see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. The weather here has been mixed (with some rain) but mainly sunny and usually warm at the least. We have been to a few of the local beaches, such as Watsons Bay and Manly. We also paid a brief trip to Bondi Beach which was a bit disappointing so we go to the other ones now. Manly is where we have had a couple of surfing lessons, which is great fun. Very tiring but great once you get to stand up for a bit!

We have been on the Sydney tourist bus, to the art gallery and one of the museums. We have also been to a Hip Hop Dancing Competition and the Hoopla Festival - both very good. The great thing about Australia is that they seem to put on loads of festivals and community events, with loads to do.

We have found some great pubs and restaurants. One of the best bars is called the Opera Bar and is part of the Opera House. It has a huge courtyard area where you can sit outside and have a drink whilst listening to live music - they have bands on every day from about 2pm. Great atmosphere and a short walk back to the apartment.

Paul plans to walk across the Harbour Bridge (the actual arches of it) but I wont be doing that as it is very high. Loads of other stuff to do before moving on. Sydney is a great place with a good mixture of old and new, very vibrant.

First week or so in Oz

bush fires

Well hello everyone. I am glad to see that we have four followers to our blog, especially my mum with a photo of her in 60s fancy dress. Good choice. Anyway, we arrived in Melbourne to a warm and yet unpredictable climate. We were staying in a lovely apartment in an area 5 minutes out of the city centre, called St Kilda. It would seem that St Kilda is a very ‘cosmopolitan’ place, a polite way of saying that there were lots of dodgy characters there who liked a drink before 9am. After three days we decided that we wanted to move on and so hired a car. We drove the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide (about 650miles) and had about four overnight stops along the way. We stayed in some lovely seaside places and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We have seen some beautiful sights, such as the Twelve Apostles, waterfalls and completed a tree top walk which was rather scary. In all that driving, we probably only passed about ten cars a day. The roads are empty and the attractions are too. You also don’t get ripped off with having to pay for car parking at every place you can imagine. We went to my favourite wine vineyard, Jacobs Creek, where you could have a free wine tasting of unlimited wine (Paul loved it) and then buy some cheap bottles if you wanted to.

The wildlife is great here, we have seen wild monkeys, koalas, kangaroos and parrots.
I tried to feed the parrots but they got a bit carried away and two jumped onto my shoulders to get to the food. We have stayed in some lovely places, from a 20 pound a night room above a pub to some spacious apartments. No complaints though!

A little story to finish with, Paul and I went to a Wildlife Park where you could feed the kangaroos. All was well until a big kangaroo (about 6 foot when stood on hind legs) blocked my exit through a gate until I gave her food. I gave in, got past and thought that was the end of it. Said kangaroo pursued me and started nudging me for more food. She was getting a bit aggressive so I threw my bag of food to Paul to buy myself some space. She bounced over to him and started nudging him for the food so he tried the old “Shoo, go away, you are not having any” and pointing. Kangaroo then gripped his t-shirt with her front paws, jumped up and kicked him, whilst holding on to him for leverage. There was no where to go so he dropped the food for her and we both ran off laughing. That is until a native told us that they can rip your stomach open with their front claw. Lucky escape then!

We are off to V Festival tomorrow which for the pricely sum of 70 pounds you get to see the Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, Elbow, Razorlight, Snow Patrol and so on. Bargain!!