So what have we been up to since we last posted? Well, we were back in the UK for 2 weeks at the end of April and beginning of May. We had said when we came to Oz that we would not go back to the UK for the first two years as that is all the time we initially intended to spend out here. But my brother asked us to be Godparents to his daughter so we decided to head back to the UK for it. Luckily, Chris managed to tie it in with some work and we both managed a couple of one day conferences so it was good to catch up with old colleagues. The day of the flight over was a bit stressful as we had just found out i was pregnant! We were very excited but the idea of getting on a 24 h plane journey was not my idea of fun! This led to some interesting questions in the UK as I was not drinking... Some people guessed but we just ignored the question or claimed jetlag as the excuse... Other people we did confirm it too... Still we made it and although my jet lag was horredous we had a good couple of weeks. We saw lots of friends and family and had a good time. It was nice to meet David's girlfriend and family properly as well.
So far, the pregnancy is going well touch wood with no morning sickness or any adverse effects... Fingers crossed it keeps like that and we have as easy a time through the next part as we have had for the first half!
We also saw Mik and Marian plus Kathryn and Kat who flew down from Scotland to see us :-) It was lovely to see them all and catch up!
Then before we knew it, we were on a flight back to Melbourne. Again the jetlag this way was horrendous not helped by the fact that I was sick for 2 days when I got back. It took about a month to sort my head out with the jetlag and actually be able to sleep through the night and not be up at 3-4am every day!
So that trip took up just under half of our holiday for the year (downside of Oz = 20 days holiday a year!) so we have not been anywhere else for a holiday lately. But we have been out and about for quite a few of the weekends.
We went to Werribee Open Range Zoo one weekend. This is like a giant safari park and quite good fun.
We went to Ballarat for a weekend as well. Ballarat was established as a gold mining town and one of the major tourist attractions there now is a reconstructed gold mine and town, Sovereign Hill. It was great there although it was a bit cold! It was really interesting to wander around and see the old mines, the Chinese influence and there was lots of people wandering round in period costume to make the history come to life.
On the drive home, we came back through Daylesford which is a spa town nr Melbourne. it looked lovely and we stopped there for lunch. It would be a great place to go for the weekend and not too far away either. We went to Sailors Falls as well - one of the better waterfalls we have seen in Oz but still not huge!
We went to Phillip Island in July for a day trip too. This is where lots of the Little Penguins live and you can see them come in at sundown. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take pictures of them as it hurts there eyes. One of our friends, Diane, had told us about a boat trip you could do from Cowes to Seal Rock and she had seen whales off the boat a couple of weeks ago so we decided to go on it and keep our fingers crossed that we would also see a whale. On the way out to Seal Rock we saw very little in the way of wildlife... Once we got to the Rock there was heaps and heaps of seals - apparently about 7000 of them live there.... They are quite inquistive and like checking out the boat.
On the way back to the jetty, the captain thought he saw a whale in the distance. He was right and we found a smallish Southern Right whale which was doing a fantastic show with lots of jumping and flicking of his tail.
