Back to Melbourne!

Arrived back in Melbourne in the morning on 4th Jan and moved into my new flat! So me and Ellie spent most of the day out buying bedding and did a big food shop etc! We also had a wonder down to Southbank where we had cocktails in the Crown Casino!

The next day we picked up our hire car for our road trip! We drove to the Mornington Peninsula where we stopped for a walk and a picnic, then drove over to Philip Island! We checked into the hostel which was really nice, probably one of the cleanest I've stayed in while I've been in Australia!
I knew there was a place called Rhyll on Philip Island so we decided we had to go there just to get a picture with the sign! (For those who don't know, back home in Wales I live really close to a place called Rhyl!)

Then we went back to the hostel for some food before heading out to the penguin parade! It was just as good second time! The penguins were so cute!

The next day we went to the chocolate factory on Philip Island which was really fun! There were random games where you could win chocolate, and you could make your own chocolate in whatever shape you wanted. After that we set off back to Melbourne! The drive was fun, we listened to Aussie radio which is actually better than at home, plays a bit more of a mixture of genres, though a lot of the same songs do get repeated!

When we got back to Melbourne we spent the next few days just chilling out. Ellie booked a skydive which kept getting put off because of the weather, but she eventually got to do it on the day before she left which was lucky! Think she enjoyed it!

We also had a bit of a mad night out on the Saturday night! Got quite drunk so spent Sunday relaxing and took advantage of the pool in my building! Went to chinatown in the evening for food to try and cure the hangovers!

Monday I was back at work, which is also the day Ellie did her skydive, so she had something to do while I was working! Then as it was a Monday evening, the only cool thing to do in Melbourne is obviously Neighbours Night!As usual it was a fun night, though less drunken than normal as I had to be up at 6am the following morning, and Ellie didn't want to be hungover for her long journey home! We met Chris Pappas and Sky Mangel, and as my good friend Dr Karl wasn't there, we got to hear Paul Robinson sing with The Waiting Room instead!

So the next day Ellie flew back to the UK, was such a fun couple of weeks! Haven't done a huge amount since then, went to watch some of the qualifying matches for the Australian Open which was surprising quite good! Everyone in Melbourne seems to get pretty into it so thought I should watch a couple of the games!

It was also Australia Day last week! It's the national day of Australia celebrating the arrival of the first fleet into Sydney Cove in 1788. It was a really fun day, went to a house party with some of my flat mates. It was robot and monster themed (very random!) but we didn't bother dressing up! 

Me and my flatmate Rosa on Australia Day!

So yeah, apart from that I've just been working! Need to try and save my money now! Can't believe I only have about 10 weeks left in Australia.... :(

More Melbourne!

Haven't updated this for ages! Happy New Year!!

So last time I wrote on here I'd just got the job at Little Cupcakes, so nothing overly exciting happened between then and Christmas, but here are a couple of notable things!

More Neighbours stalking! When I went to Neighbours Night with my sister, Dr Karl promised to play a song I requested if I went to the night 2 weeks later. Luckily I met a girl in my hostel called Faye who wanted to go too. So I went to Neighbours Night again and met my good friend Dr Karl once again! I also met Steph Scully and Mike Williams so that was pretty good! And as promised, my song got played!! And he also came up to me and was singing at me which was funny! He also said I knew the words better than him.. not sure if that's something to be proud of! Ha! But it was a good night anyway!

These were not the final Neighbours characters I was to meet over the following few weeks! I went to see the Christmas lights being switched on in the centre of Melbourne, and who was there promoting a Children's charity... Toadie!! So I had a quick chat and a photo with him which was really cool as he's one of the best Neighbours characters!

As it got closer to Christmas I decided I wanted to get into the Christmas spirit, and what better way to do so than go to the Christmas Neighbours Night! It was such a fun night, there were quite a few cast members there including Sky Mangel, Stingray (who actually recognised me from the night with my sister!), Dylan (who liked my glasses), Irish Connor, Paul Robinson and of course Dr Karl himself! One of his other bands called Ubersavvy also played, they were pretty cool. They also had some Christmas songs which was fun!

I also found time to pay a quick visit to Ramsay Street and the Lassiters Complex, though unfortunately I didn't meet any of the cast!

Anyway, that's enough Neighbours for now! A girl I met on OzIntro came to Melbourne for a while and we discovered a really cool bar called the Croft Institute. It's themed like a science lab and you get drink shots out of test tubes and cocktails from syringes! It was a fun experience anyway! 

Another exciting thing was that the first ever Topshop in Australia opened at the beginning of December in Melbourne, so had to pay that a visit! Also did a few other Christmassy things like had a work party with a secret santa which was nice - so I actually got a Christmas present which I wasn't expecting. Finally, I managed to find somewhere to live from the beginning of January so I didn't have to stay in the hostel when I returned from Sydney! It's on King Street so really central, about a 5 minute walk to work, and I have my own room!!

That's about everything worth mentioning I think! Wasn't the most eventful few weeks as I was trying to save up to go to Sydney for Christmas and New Year!

Neighbours Night!

As anyone who knows me is aware of, I am a massive Neighbours fan! So I was really looking forward to Neighbours Night (even though I've been before...)!

We got there at about 7pm and got seats quite close to the front which was good! We were going to be meeting Malcolm Kennedy, Stingray and the legend himself, Dr. Karl Kennedy!!
The evening started off with the host Safari Pete getting everyone to sing the Neighbours theme tune - cheesy but had to be done! Next the characters were introduced one by one then answered questions from the audience before they made there way around the pub so we could all chat to them and get photos! While they mingled with the crowd, Safari Pete hosted a trivia quiz with a lot of Neighbours related questions popping up here and there! There were also lots of games to take part in to win prizes, I didn't do any though!

So me and Becca got our photos taken with Mal, Stingray and Karl! I managed to have a quick chat with Dr Karl, telling him to play a song called Mattress on the Floor - which he has promised to do at Neighbours Night on 21st November, so I may have to go to that! What a shame!! I also told him Becca was a real doctor, so he asked her to fix his hernia!! Haha.

Malcolm Kennedy!

Karl Kennedy!

Stingray!

After the stars had done their rounds, it was time for Karl to get on stage with his band The Waiting Room, by this point many glasses of wine had been consumed so I couldn't tell you what songs he played!

After the band we had another drink in the pub before heading to a random bar/club in St. Kilda with a load of other people from Neighbours Night, and Stingray came too!

It was a really fun night but ended up being a bit too drunken as I ended up losing the battery from my camera (no idea how I did that) and even worse, I lost my glasses! The first pair I've ever lost and I've been wearing glasses since I was 3 years old!