Marshs Down Under

Well, had my first tennis lesson, went quite well, I only hit 3 balls completely over the high nets and out of the court, it looks so easy on TV! My arm and wrist are aching now, should just recover in time for the next lesson. Think Steve may have a go also, its a very casual tennis club and have social events also, when it gets lighter in the evenings we can go after work. I’ve been keeping my running up also, jogging along the coast pathway overlooking the beach is beautiful, there are so many joggers, usually looking much more serene and less red than me though!

Went into the city on Saturday, we walked through the Crown Towers hotel, which is where Tiger woods and all the other famous people stay when in Melbourne. It is very posh, has its own casino (they call the machines ‘pokies’ here) and is very like the big hotels in Las Vegas. We also went to Victoria market again, Steve had a leather belt made to measure choosing his own buckle etc for only $20,bought some stubby holders as well, an guesses??

They are neoprene type jackets that cover the bottom 2/3 of your small bottle of beer (stubby), prevent your hands warming up your beer,  most important in Australia!

When you walk around the city a few times you begin to realise why the Aussies love the history of the UK, there are not many historical buildings. We walked past a wall plaque that identified the place where the first building was sited in Melbourne, in 1835! The advantage of it being a new city though is that it is arranged on a grid system like America with blocks, you can get around really easy, the roads are the same, at least 3 ways of getting to any destination. Probably why there are no traffic jams, and if there is a crash, just U turn (they are big on those here, even have dedicated U turn lanes) and off you go!

Melbourne was brought to a standstill on Tuesday, a cable had broken on the train line and no trains could go anywhere. Steve had to take the car to work, luckily I didn’t need it, but as way of apology, they have offered everyone free train travel tomorrow.

Haven’t heard anything about the jobs I applied for yet, probably the typical laid back Aussie attitude. I phoned the practice and she said she hadn’t had time to speak to the doctor yet, but not to worry as she would. If I don’t hear soon, I will just join the agency and do hospital work.

Was chatting to another Brit the other day. He came to adjust the patio doors and other doors as they wouldn’t lock. Turns out he was from Hale in Manchester, been here 2 years. He overheard me moaning to the project manager about tradesmen not turning up when I had waited in all day and he chipped in “welcome to Australia, they’re all the bloody same!” He has found it strange adjusting into his job as the PVC windows and doors here are a good 10 – 15 years behind the UK, very basic. Mind you, when most of the houses are built from timber with tin roofs, why would you put plastic windows in!! They just demolish the houses after 30 years and rebuild, it’s really nice though that no two houses are the same, you get some stunning homes and the next block of land has a little shed type home. Ellie was showing some of her friends where we lived in the UK and they were fascinated  that all the houses look the same,” just like the opening scenes of the first Harry Potter movie, when he flies over the roof tops”. They asked how  she knew which was her house! I know we lived on an estate but it wasn’t that bad was it?

We have just had a couple of lovely days, the temp got up to 17 deg, clear blue skies and I was relaxing on the lounger in the garden, not bad for winter! The first day of spring is Sept 1st, starts getting hotter then apparently, bit grey and drizzly today.