Daylesford

Autumn is a creeping in. Not that you can tell here in Australia. The days are still mainly sunny and the temperatures are between 20C and 30C. I still need to put on sunscreen when I go outside. And the eucalyptus trees are as green as ever. However in the evening there is a definite chill in the air and the nights are starting to draw in. It gets dark about 7.30pm and at the end of this month the clocks will be going back, just like they do in October in the UK.

By the end of last week we all had cabin-fever here in our house in Essendon - we had to get out before we went completely mad! So we took a last minute trip up to Larry and Ange's caravan in Daylesford. This was our first little holiday completely by ourselves and we knew it might be the last chance to stay with Isla in the caravan before it got too cold.

Daylesford is a small town in the west of Victoria, about an hour and a half drive from Melbourne, or about 45mins drive north from Ballarat. It is situated in among rolling hills, fields and forest that remind me of parts of the lowlands of Scotland. It is another town that began life in the 19th century during the Gold Rush. It was then popular at the turn of the century for its mineral spas and resorts, but nowadays it is more famous as a centre for alternative lifestyles - there are health spas, crystal healing, aromatherapy, yoga, reflexology and acupuncture available along side all kinds of other stuff. It has become a very desirable place to live - there are expensive restaurants and shops and hotels. A lot of old hippies and artists made the place their home in the last 30 years but even they are being priced out of the market now.

One of the nicest features in Daylesford is the lake. It is very well maintained with a walking track around the side of it, and only a few cafe's and hotels overlooking it. It is surrounded by a mix of deciduous and eucalyptus trees. The whole of Daylesford is in fact surrounded by beautiful forest. Amongst the natural bush trees the early Victorian settlers planted a lot of big deciduous trees and they are spread throughout the town. In the Autumn the colours are stunning and we will need to go back once the leaves have really started to turn.
There is potentially a lot of wildlife to see here too - the area is known to have koalas, wombats and possums and there are many more birds to see than there is in Melbourne. There are big flocks of white cockatoos that screech in the trees above as they start to roost for the evening. There are magpies and kookaburras and eastern rosellas and many more obviously (I will need to learn) though most of them are hard to spot through the thick bush.

Lake Daylesford and the Boathouse Cafe

Daylesford Main Street

Our weekend there was of course very quiet and revolved around taking care of Isla. Thank you very much to Larry and Ange for letting us borrow their caravan. It was perfectly comfortable. We had chicken and salad for tea the first night and then fish and chips the second night (I know how fascinated you all are by our dinner plans). On  Friday we all walked down to the lake and then on Saturday Julia took a walk through town by herself while I pushed Isla round the caravan site in the pram. The weather was lovely though you definitely feel it colder up there than you do here in Melbourne and I had my fleece on when the sun wasn't shining. At night it was crisp and clear. And the stars! During an emergency midnight trip to the toilet block I happened to glance up. The sky was full of stars. More stars than I have seen in a very long time what with living in the city and all. And the stars are all a bit back to front down here in the Southern Hemisphere. There were some constellations I recognized and some I didn't. You could even see the milky way.

the caravan

On the Sunday Larry and Ange came up to the caravan and we all had lunch together before heading back to the big smoke. And now we are back life continues on as normal. I have provisionally accepted a job offer working full-time in the Suburbs of Preston and Moonee Ponds and will start in April.
Where has this year gone? Aye - the nights are fair draw'n in. After two summers in a row we are actually looking forward to some Autumnal and Winter weather though I don't suppose there is much chance of snow.
I can't believe there is no Halloween here in Autumn (it is in the spring). I may have to get Isla dressed up as a Goblin and take her from door to door Guising just to get my Autumnal kicks.

the caravan park

Julia made pasta!

Happy Birthday Julia!

It was Julia's Birthday last week! She says thank you very much for the cards and presents. It ended up being a very quiet and relaxing day. Ange stayed over with us the night before and got to spend some time with Isla. I made everyone lunch and then we went out for cake and coffee in Essendon.

We are getting back to normal after having my parents stay. Julia has been busy going to the local Mother and Baby group and meeting up with her sisters. I have been continuing my job hunting and it looks like I have good news on that front. I had a couple of interviews the week before and then went in to look at a practice on Thursday. There's a good chance I will get to work full-time in Moonee Ponds, which is only 7 minutes away on the tram. This would be amazing as given the sheer scale of Melbourne people often commute for up to an hour to get to their work place. There is still some paperwork and details to finalize but all going well I will be back at work by the end of March. I can't wait! I will let you know more about the job as and when things are confirmed.

Isla has been going great guns. She is perky through the day and sleeping reasonably well at night. She has lots of chat and smiles for us now. She has taken to sucking her fingers to settle herself. This is great when she finds her mouth straight away but is frustrating when she sticks her fingers in her eye or punches herself in the face and then starts to cry.

We have started to clear out the back room and set it up properly as Isla's bedroom and we are both enjoying this process. The house is becoming a proper home for the three of us.

And I've made some new friends! I discovered some guys in the area who are into the same nerdy board-games and roleplaying games that I've always been into and met with them in Bacchus Marsh on Friday night.

They all also have families and other commitments but enjoy the same kind of scifi/fantasy stuff I do and we will be meeting up every fortnight to play a game or two. Slowly but surely I am being amalgamated into this country. 

pasta maker!

we went to a market yesterday in a park near our house

Torquay

Torquay? You mean the sea-side town on the south coast of England famous for fish and chips and surfing? No! I mean the sea-side town on the coast south of Melbourne famous for fish and chips and surfing.
The early Australian settlers did not have much imagination when it came to naming their towns and geographic features. They liked to pick names that reminded them of home, even when they were in the middle of a heat ravaged alien landscape full of bizarre birds and poisonous spiders that looked nothing like home.

So that is why you can drive west out of Melbourne, through the Pentland Hills to get to Dunkeld and the Grampian Mountains. Or you might head South along the Mornington Penisula which takes you past Brighton, and Arthur's Seat and you end up in Blairgowrie. Heading East you drive out through Blackburn and Croydon. If you explore the inner suburbs you'll find yourself in Tottenham or Kensington or Kew or Windsor. And where we live in Essendon is right next to the suburbs of Niddrie and Aberfeldie and Strathmore; there's Napier Street, Salmon Avenue, Balmoral Street, Ballater Street, McCracken Street and so on and so forth. It's just like home - except for the snakes and the sharks and the kangaroos. Anyway, you get the idea.

The Australian Torquay then, is located about an hour and a half drive south-west from Melbourne, round the West side of Port Philip Bay and past the Bellarine Peninsula.

Can you find Torquay? It is south of Geelong
nb that is pronounced Jelong, they laugh at you if you say gee long

One of the reasons we went to Torquay for our little holiday is that Julia came here with her family for their Summer holidays for 20 years or so. It is a popular beach holiday destination for Victorians. It has a couple of long sandy beaches, a caravan park, a busy high street, lots of accommodation, good surfing and fish and chips. It is famous for being one of the birth places of Australian surfing. The Rip Curl brand began here back in the 1970s. It is just along the coast from the very famous Bells Beach which is where they hold a lot of the big international surfing competitions. We arrived on Monday and stayed for 2 nights in an apartment right down near the beach. This was Isla's first proper holiday with us and she did brilliant. She did lots of sleeping, playing, smiling and speaking (she can now say 'awoo' and 'ga', I don't know what the meaning of either of those words is). The weather wasn't great but we still got out to walk along the beach and on Tuesday I went surfing with my dad.

I've only surfed once before, and that was at Torquay, over a year ago, when the sun was beaming down and sea was as flat as a pancake with only the odd tiny swell to try and catch. That was my first and only lesson (Julia was surfing that day too!) and I even managed to stand up on the board a few times. This time round my surfing experience was quite different. The sky was overcast, the sea was cold and the waves were big. Or at least they seemed very big to me and they came in thick and fast. I fought my way through the breaking waves till I got to chest deep water and waited for the 'right' wave. Then I clambered onto my flimsy foam board and hoped for the best. The giant swell picked me up and threw me forward across the ocean as I clung on for dear life. If I could keep with the wave for at least 3 seconds I would try to stand up and this is where things really went wrong. I was moving too fast and the board was too slippy. I'd skid off the side of it and be eaten up by the surging water. Then I'd surface again just in time to see another massive wave bear down on me. There was only enough time to get out 'Oh Shi-" before that wave too slammed down on me. My sinuses have never been so clean.

Amazingly I did manage to stand up about a half dozen times but for no longer than a few seconds. My dad didn't fare any better and he resorted to skimming along on his belly in the shallow surf that was about 2 feet deep to prove that he really could 'catch a wave'.
Going surfing is like having the crap kicked out of you by the ocean for an hour and a half. We had a really great afternoon!

me
the picture does not capture the terrible savagery of the cruel sea

Our holiday with my parents is now coming to an end but we have managed to do a lot in the 2 weeks we've had and my parents have experienced most of the important elements of Australian life from Barbecues to Surfing. My dad has enjoyed going to one of the many local swimming pools each day and taking long cycles round this area of Melbourne. My mum has enjoyed getting to spend lots of quality time with Isla and Isla has given her lots of smiles and cuddles in return.

After our trips into the center of Melbourne and then Victoria Market last week, we spent the rest of the week catching up with Julia's family in and around Melbourne. We drove up to Ballarat last Friday and had lunch with Larry and Ange, and on Sunday we had a family gathering here in Essendon. We had planned to have a barbecue in the park that day but it turned out to be far too hot. It was another weekend of temperatures above 35C. That was a bit of a shock for my mum and dad but they adapted well. My dad did the usual Pommy thing of ignoring the heat to begin with and tried to carry on his cycling and walking as normal but he soon discovered that all you can do on a day that hot is to stay in with the curtains drawn and the air conditioning on. We took my mum and dad into the center of Melbourne on Saturday night, while Julia's sister, Simone, baby-sat for us. We went to the big tourist area of Lygon Street where it was incredibly hot and busy and had a fairly average pizza. I don't think my parents are in a hurry to go back there.
A storm came in on Sunday night and the weather broke just before our trip to Torquay. By then we were glad for a cool down. Since then the weather has been relatively cool (around 22C), cloudy and rainy.

I think my parents have really enjoyed their Aussie holidays despite the long flight and the jet lag and I will be sad to see them go. Also we have proved that relatives CAN live together for 2 weeks without killing each other and that is an amazing achievement in its own right.