Hot skinny on the side

So we arrive in Australia, where the temperature is 15degree lower (a welcome relief) and we don't need to haggle for everything, though Ronan did try a few times and got very strange looks from the Auzzies.

A lovely welcome at the airport with Ronan's brother Jarlath waiting to pick us up and whisk us to a comfy bed as we had not slept at all on the way over, I did a marathon 5 films on my personal entertainment system and was feeling a little jaded...

Jartlath had already planned to whisk his little bro off the next day to do some knarly mountain biking so I was kindly invited to go for a girly bunch with Pip and some of her lovely lady friends. This brunch was my initiation into Melburnians and their coffee. We had been told that the coffee was really good here and taken prety seriously but I was still a bit bemused when the orders from the other three ladies at the table were 'short black with some hot skinny on the side', 'skinny flat white', 'soy latte'.I wasn't really sure what half of that was so I sheepishly ordered an expresso, though I have developed quite a liking for the flat white since then.

We spent the next few days enjoying catching up with Jarlath and Pip who were great hosts showing us round Melbourne and hanging out with us as luckily we had arrived on easter weekend. Over the next few days 'the english invasion' as Pip called it began with Ronan's brother and his wife, his parents and three of Jarlath's friends all arriving from England.

We decided to give the almost weds a bit of wedding prep peace and headed off to the great ocean road for a few days, a fabulous rugged coastline full of amazing beaches and the famous 12 apostles, though apparently there are only 7 of them, I think the Oz tourist board should be done under the trading standards act. I did manage the spent the equivalent of £10 to see a lighthouse as well which was possibly the most underwhelming tourist experience of the trip so far.

Speaking of money of my god we were shocked by that when we arrived. Both Ronan and I have been to Oz before and remembered the srong pound meaning we could live pretty well down under, this is no more with the exchnage rate have dropped from about 2.5 to 1.5 and now Melbourne is more expensive than London. we had to become the stingy ones in the corner ordering the cheapest stuff on the menu and rifling through the reduced to clear section at the supermarket!

While in Melbourne I also managed to catch up with a few people. The lovely Laura Kerr, a very good friend from my days as a geeky teenager. Listening to her is brilliant with the accent veering between classic Leicester and proper auzzie.

Also great to see the fabulous Dave Carswell again (someone I met on my last travels) who acted as our guide to all things cool in Melbourne and taught us that every bar worth going to is down the end of an alley, off another alley which is full of wheelie bins.

In our two weeks or so there we really grew to love Melbourne; sometimes a bit grimy, always uber cool and very much a city that needs to be slowly discovered and doesn't put it all out there.

All too suddenly it was time to head off to the hills for the big Leyden wedding!