Melbourne #7 (including the Dandenongs), Victoria, Australia

26th February – 11th March

26th February

The next morning, I woke up about 9 and head downstairs to get some breakfast. After breakfast, me and Joe played Yahtzee for a little while, as I didn’t have to be in work until lunchtime. After only a couple of games, we decided it was time for Joe’s next haircut, so we got the clippers out and I went into hairdresser mode.

After cutting Joe’s hair and only making a few mistakes (which he couldn’t see because they were round the back), Joe swept up, while I got ready for work. It was nice to know that I was only on a short shift for a change!

Once I was ready for work, we both got on our bikes and set off to Highpoint. We got there at about 11.30 and we headed straight to the bank as Joe had to deposit his wage. After we had been to the bank, I went to go and get changed before chilling out and waiting for my shift to start. We sat on a bench and had a chat until just before 12, where we went our separate ways.

After having a little shop, Joe went home. When he got home he wrote some more blog notes and tidied our bedroom, putting clothes away and making the bed.

It was a fairly quiet shift for me and it was nice to only have to work for 3 hours. I got on my bike and was home for 3.30 meaning that I would get to see Jeannie when she came round after school. While we waited, me and Joe tried to set up a domino course for when she arrived but it was proving difficult on the table cloth. Once Jeannie arrived, we did the course, but it wasn’t quite as successful as we had hoped.

Even though I was so tired after the busy weekend, I was glad to be home from work so early to be able to see Jeannie play her violin. It had been ages since I had heard her play, and it was good to see how much she has improved since last time.

After a violin recital, I had a mini lesson from Jeannie, before we all sat down and had our tea. After watching TV for a little while, Mo took Jeannie home at about 5.30, the same time that Joe left to go to work.

I had a fairly relaxed rest of my evening, which was good after a busy few weeks.

It was a quiet night for Joe too as I got a text, before 10pm, that he had finished and was on his way home. Joe got home just after 10 and we both sat down stairs and watched TV for a little bit, having a chat, before going to bed about 11.

 

27th February

The next morning, we both woke when my alarm went off at around 7.30. I got up and began to get myself ready for work whilst Joe lay in bed for a little while longer. Whilst I was eating my breakfast, Joe came down and made my dinner for me and got my bike out of the garage. I set off to work just after 8am.

It was a very windy ride to work. It makes such a difference when its windy; it’s so much more difficult. I made it to work just after 8.30 and got myself changed in to work clothes, before opening, just before 9.

As I had had a quiet morning at work, I began to make a shopping list of the clothes that I wanted and would be able to buy once I eventually got my store credit. I had worked out that I would get around $450 worth of store credit plus, with my 50% staff discount, I would be entitled to around $900 worth of clothes!

Whilst I was doing my shopping list, Joe was back at home catching up on the blog notes from the last couple of days.

I finished work at 5.30 and got changed in to the other set of clothes that I had brought with me, as we had agreed to go out for food with Emma, Josh, Nic and Cameron in the city. Joe had ridden to West Footscray train station and was going to meet me there when I finished work. We met at the station just before 6 and got on the train towards Flinders Street.

We arrived into Flinders Street at about 6.15 and as the table wasn’t booked until 6.45, we decided that we would walk the rest of the way, rather than getting the train. We walked to Ho Chi Mama, which is a Vietnamese restaurant, on Liverpool Street near Parliament House. Once we got there, we both recognised it, it was one of the small laneways that we had walked down on the walking tour that we did with Jan and Pete.

We were the first to the restaurant, so we sat down at the table and began to weigh up the many options of food, as we didn’t want to spend too much, as we are saving our pennies for the rest of our trip.

Once everybody had arrived, we ordered our food and had a good chat whilst we waited. When the food came, it all tasted so good and our worries if we would cope with the food in Asia were long forgotten, I don’t think we will struggle.

Once we had all finished, after trying a little bit of everyone else’s, we got up and headed to pay as it was getting very noisy. Once we got to the till, we found out that Josh had already paid before we had even had a chance, it was very kind of him to treat us all.

We decided to head for a short walk after food to burn it off and get away from the noise. We ended up in an ice cream shop where Nic treated us all to an ice cream. We all got our ice creams and crossed the road to sit on the steps of Parliament House. This seems to be very common as we were not the only ones sat with ice cream and a number of people also began to do the same thing.

After we had all finished our ice creams and had a chat, we said our goodbyes and head back home.

To burn off the food and ice cream, we walked back to Flinders Street and got the train back to West Footscray, before riding our bikes back home.

One we got back home, we had some time to chill out for a little bit and have a catch up with Mo and Mark. Joe also decided that he would make my dinner for me too, I think this was so that he didn’t have to get up early in the morning.

Once we had both settled, I showed Joe the items that had made my shopping list and got his opinion on them, before heading to bed.

 

28th February

I was up early the next morning as I wanted to get a shower and wash my hair before I went to work. I got myself ready and, after my breakfast, I set off to work, just after 8am.

I wanted to get to work a little bit earlier than normal as I wanted to try on the clothes which me and Joe had narrowed down the night before. Before I opened the shop, I grabbed some of the clothes I wanted to try on, and went into the fitting rooms.

There were about 9 different items of clothing that I wanted to try so I had to be quick. I sent the pictures to Joe to get his opinion on how they looked. Joe gave his opinion and before I knew it, it was nearly 9am so I had to quickly get changed back in to my own clothes, before putting the float in the till and opening up.

Joe began on some research on what he wanted to do when we got to the East Coast whilst also doing some more blog notes. It didn’t go as well as he had planned, and it wasn’t a very productive day for him, apparently he just couldn’t concentrate.

I was only meant to be working until 1 but just as I was about to finish, it began to get busy and there was no one to cover me, just my luck. I ended up finishing around 1.30.

I got changed again after work, sat down and had my dinner and then head towards my bike. I was going in to the city to meet Katie, from the truck, for another catch up. I decided I would ride to docklands and then get the free tram in to the city.

I had never ridden to Docklands from Highpoint before so I had to keep checking my phone whilst riding, this didn’t go as well as planned; I got lost twice on the way. However, I couldn’t believe how beautiful some of the views were, as I rode along the river.

I made it to Docklands about 2.30 and then got on a tram to the city centre to meet Katie. Just by chance, I ended up on a city loop tourist tram, which was nice looking, but packed full of people and there was no air con, and it was a hot day!

I met Katie at the café she had suggested, after about a 30minute walk. When I got there, I decided to treat myself to some cake. I ordered it, and it came to $2 so I was only expecting a tiny piece but when it came, it was huge! The cake was lovely but it was getting a little bit sickly, so I boxed up half of it and took it home with me to share with Joe.

It was nice to catch up with Katie again and see how she is finding Melbourne. After a couple of hours of non-stop talking, I set off back home about 5.30 as I knew Joe was waiting for me to eat dinner.

I got back home at about 6 and sat down for dinner with Joe. One we had eaten, we moved to the couch and had a chilled night. We head to bed at around 11.

 

1st March

The next morning, I was up for work at about 7.30. I wanted to get there early because I wanted to try on some more clothes. I got to work about 8.30, so I had a bit of time. I tried on each of the items and sent pictures of them all to Joe to get his opinion on the different sizes. Just before 9, I got myself ready in to my work clothes and decided that I should probably start to do some work.

Once Joe had looked through all of the outfit choices and given his feedback, he got out of bed and ironed his clothes for work, later that day. After Joe had got his things together for work, he rode up to Coles to get us some bits and bobs.

After Joe had been to Coles, he got both of our lunches ready and rode up to Highpoint to meet me, about 2pm. We ate our lunches and then finished off the huge piece of cake that I didn’t manage to finish the day before. It was a lovely treat before I had to go back to work.

After eventually finishing off the cake, I went back to work and Joe began the ride back home. He was going to research some possible vans and campers which we could use for the rest of our trip in Australia. The research didn’t go too well as at about 4pm, John, Paddy and Danny came round and so it wasn’t the best environment for Joe to try and concentrate.

About 4.30, Joe began to get himself ready for work, leaving about 5.40. I got home from work just before Joe left so we had a little chat before he set off.

After Joe had left, we all sat down to have our tea and it gave me a chance to speak to John about what he thought would be the best option for us with regards to transport for the rest of the Australia part of our trip.

John and the boys left about 7 and this gave me plenty of time to have a research of different transport options. Katie had given me a couple of Facebook pages where people would sell their cars, so I had a look at that.

After I had done plenty of research and messaging people about their cars, Joe arrived home, about 11pm. He had brought pizza home, so we ate this and discussed some options.

After a long day and doing lots of work and research, it was nice to just chill out on the sofa and watch some TV. It helped that we had pizza to go with it too. We headed to bed just after midnight, it had been a very long day.

 

2nd March

The next morning, I finally got a lie in as I wasn’t in work until 12. We both woke up at around 9am and went downstairs to get some breakfast.

I had intended to do a bit more research in the morning but when I started up my laptop, it said there were updates that needed doing and it was running extremely slowly. I began the update procedure and it was still going when I left for work at 11.

When I arrived at Highpoint, I realised that I must have lost my bobble on the way, which was an inconvenience. Luckily I always keep a clip on the strap of my bag so my hair wouldn’t be a mess all day at least.

Before I started work, I needed to do a quick shop as it was Emma’s birthday at the weekend and we needed to take a card for her. After successfully picking up a card, I went to the shop and began my shift.

As I had not managed to do any research in the morning, as planned, I asked Joe if he could do some in the afternoon. Just after 2, I got a text from Joe saying that Leslie, Mo and Mark’s friend, had come round for a cup of tea and he couldn’t concentrate – typical.

I was having quite a busy day at work and so, when my break came, I wanted to treat myself to some chocolate raisins from The Reject Shop. I ate my lunch that Joe had made and then wandered over. However, when I got there, they were all gone! This was a lot more upsetting than losing my bobble. I asked an assistant and she didn’t know why they hadn’t had any delivered. Instead, I walked around to Woolworths and got some from there, but they were a bit more expensive and they just didn’t taste the same.

After a tiny bit of research, Joe began to get himself ready for work and set off just after 5.30.

I had braced myself for a very busy evening, like the previous week but it was nowhere near as busy. This was good because I didn’t feel quite as in a rush, but it did feel to go a lot slower.

At about 8.50, I began to tidy up the shop and get ready to close. I looked for my bike lock key, which is usually on my work lanyard, but I couldn’t find it! I checked in my bag in case I had put it in there instead but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that I don’t remember taking it out of the lock when I got to Highpoint.

I quickly locked up the shop and ran up to the bike. The key was still in the lock! After a short moment of panic, I felt a big relief when the bike was still there. I won’t be making that mistake again though, I was very worried when locking up the shop. Luckily, I was in the next morning and so I didn’t need to make it very tidy, I could do that when I got in the next morning.

After the panic, when I got home I decided I needed to have a chill out for a little while.

I did a little bit more researching on transport until Joe got back about 11.15. There was no pizza this time though, we were going to try and begin to eat a bit healthier, so we planned on only getting a pizza once a fortnight.

We stayed up for a little while, having a catch up, and then head to bed.

 

3rd March

I was up early again the next morning to get myself ready for work but I wanted to have a shower first. Joe woke up at the same time as me and made my lunch for me to take.

As I was about to set off, Mo and Grandma were on their weekly phone call, so I got to say a brief hello to back home. I set off to work just after 8am and when I arrived, I made double sure that I had taken the key out of the bike lock. I won’t be making that mistake again.

Whilst I was at work, Joe stayed home for the morning and did some blog notes and writing for the last few days.

Just before lunch time, Joe rode to Seddon to check his rota for the following week. It was extremely busy in Seddon as it was the weekend of the festival. All the streets were full of stalls and there were a few stages with singers and musicians. Jeannie was also playing the violin, but I think Joe had missed her. It was a shame that I was working, otherwise it would have been a nice day out for us.

Once Joe got back from Seddon, I had asked him to do some more research on what to look for when buying a used car. During my search in the week, I had found a car which we had agreed to go and have a look at. It looked to have everything we need, including a bed, but we wanted to make sure that we did all the relevant checks

Once Joe had done some research, he rode to Highpoint to meet me for when I finished work, at 3. From Highpoint, we got on our bikes and rode to Docklands where we got the free tram up to the place where we to meet the car sellers.

The sellers were two young German guys, they seemed nice enough and were backpackers just like us. The car looked okay from the outside and there were only a few minor scratches, so this didn’t bother us though.

We asked if we could take it for a test drive and they just let us both go off in the car, it was very trusting of them that we wouldn’t just drive off.

When researching about a good test drive, it said to take it to high speeds and up hills, testing the hill start and handbrake. Unfortunately, we met them in the city centre where it is very busy, and the streets are very flat, so it wasn’t the best test drive conditions.

Joe did however, try to test the brakes when having to slam them on. When he did this, the brakes made a very strange noise and it didn’t feel very safe. This worried us a little bit. We drove the car back to the meeting spot and told them of the issue with the brakes and of course, they had never had this problem before.

When we asked to see their Road Worthy Check, it was out of date and so we asked them to do another one before we bought the car. Overall, without the issue of the brakes, which would be fixed on the RWC, we were happy with the car. They did however, say that they were not willing to do another RWC without the guarantee that we would buy the car, which I could understand.

We began to make our way back to the bikes in Docklands, discussing the car on the way and trying to think of ways to word our message that we weren’t happy with their current asking price of $3400. When we got back to Docklands, we got on our bikes and headed home.

We got back home at about 6pm, had some tea and then sat down to play Yahtzee for a little while. Whilst we were sat playing Yahtzee, we had a little chat about what best to do with the car and we began to bargain.

After a little while of playing Yahtzee, we were both tired so we head to bed as we had to be up early the next day.

 

4th March

The next morning, we were awake and having breakfast for 8am as we needed to be at Yarraville train station for 9. Once we had both got ready and had packed our bag, we got on our bikes and headed up to the station.

From Yarraville, we got the train to Parliament station where we had to change trains to get to Ferntree Gully, to meet Mary, as she was driving us to Emma’s for her 30th.

When we were planning the trip, the app said that we would have to wait for 20 minutes at Parliament station before the second train. However, when we got there, there was already a train there to Ferntree Gully, so we got on to that one and got on our way. We had planned to meet Mary at Ferntree Gully station at 11.15 but, due to our earlier train, we got there about 10.30.

I text Mary to let her know that we had arrived and said that we would find a café to sit in and have a drink but before we could find anywhere, Mary had replied and was on her way to the station. She only lives about 5 minutes away, so this was handy.

Once Mary had picked us up, it was still a bit early to head over to Emma’s, so we went back to the house and sat in the garden for about half an hour, it was a lovely garden with a nice pool.

After having a drink in the garden, we got back in the car about 11.30 and made our way to Croyden, over to Emma’s, arriving there for just before 12. We were the first ones there, along with Nic who arrived at the same time. We had a little look around the house and then sat ourselves at the garden table, waiting for others to get there.

Throughout the afternoon there were a lot of new faces who showed up, it was Josh’s side of the family who were round for dinner, so we met a lot of new people.

Dinner was a buffet style and people just helped themselves, it was all very tasty with lamb and meet which had been cooking on the spit roast, all morning. Once everybody had had enough food, the birthday cake was brought out and everybody suddenly had a little bit more room for food. It was a very nice cake though.

After eating the cake and saying our goodbyes, Mary dropped us off at Croyden train station and we began our ride back home. It was a lovely day at Emma’s and was nice to meet more people.

After changing trains at Flinders Street, we got back to Yarraville and began our ride back home again. We got back at around 5.45 to a very quiet house for Sunday dinner. John and Mick were both working and so it was just Shell and Jeannie who had come around.

As it had taken us a while to get back home, me and Joe had got a little bit of an appetite back, so we sat down for Sunday dinner. It felt very strange to be able to reach all of the different plates without asking somebody to pass it down the table.

Once we had all had enough food and had cleared the table, we decided to play Family Feud. The teams were England v Australia with Mo, Mark and Shelly on the Australian team, and Jeannie as the host. Although Me and Joe were outnumbered, we still managed a comfortable win.

Once we had packed everything up, Jeannie and Shell left, as Jeannie had school again the next day.

Me and Joe sat back down again and got Yahtzee out. Whilst we were playing, I was speaking to my friend Jake, in Sydney, and asking him about what he thinks of the car. He was very helpful with the information and had offered to try to sell it on once we left if we hadn’t sold it.

After a few games of Yahtzee, Me and Joe moved to the sofa, but we didn’t last long before we both got very tired. We head to bed about 11, I was very excited about a lie in the next morning.

 

5th March

We both woke up about 9 the next morning, a much-needed lie in for me. I was excited for a chilled morning but had woken up to a text from a girl at work saying that she was not feeling well and asked if I could go in any earlier and stay until later. Although I was excited for a chilled morning, we want to get as much money as possible for our next adventures, so I got myself ready for work whilst Joe made my dinner.

We had our breakfasts and then both set off to Highpoint at around 9.45. Once we got there, I went to go and get changed for work whilst Joe went in to the bank to see if he could get a cheap car insurance quote through them.

Once Joe had finished in the bank, who weren’t very helpful, he headed over the road to Officeworks. When selling a car, there is a form which needs to be completed and sent off, we weren’t sure if the sellers knew this, so we printed a couple of copies off just in case.

After printing off the papers, Joe rode back home and had some dinner, before riding up to Coles. We had heard that there was an offer on tinned tuna, so we decided that we may as well buy it whilst it was cheap, for our road trip.

After buying the tuna, Joe began to do some more blog notes and then ironed his clothes ready for work. Just before 4, Jeannie was round from school and Joe, Mark and Mo got another violin recital.

As I was working until 5.30 in the end, rather than 3, I missed the recital and I just missed Joe as he set off to work just after 5.30. After working longer than expected, and not getting my chilled morning, I decided that I was going to have a chilled evening instead. I had my dinner, got my lunch ready for the next day and then settled on the sofa.

Joe came home just after 10pm and he had brought pizza home too! We had already said we were trying to be healthy, but he just caved at work when they asked what he wanted. We both resisted pizza for the evening, and head to bed just after 11.

 

6th March

The next morning, we were both awake about 7.30. I got myself ready for work and, as I had already made my lunch, Joe stayed in bed and watched United v Crystal Palace. United won 3-2, in an exciting match, apparently.

I had my breakfast and set off to work about 8. It’s all I seem to be doing during the week at the minute, so I am very glad that our weekends are a little bit busy doing something different.

I wanted to get to work a little bit earlier as I was meant to be training the new worker and showing her how to open the shop. I got to Highpoint, got myself changed, and then sat outside the shop for about 10 minutes to see if anybody would show up. It got to about 8.55 and still nobody was here so I thought I had best just begin to open. Just after I opened the door to let myself in, Caitlyn arrived.

Just after I had opened the shop, I got a text from somebody at Imoova. This was the company where they ask for you to relocate vans for them and one had become available for the drive from Melbourne to Darwin, on the dates that we wanted!

I text Joe as soon as I could and told him to look in to it and make a list of what inclusions and prices we would have to pay, as we could still pull out of the car sale. The two German car sellers had gone a lot quieter and had not done a Road Worth Check, I think they had found another viewer who was willing to pay what they were asking.

After Joe called Imoova and looked in to it, it sounded like it would be a much better option for us, and much cheaper. Joe did some more research and some more blog notes for the rest of the day, before I got home just before 6pm.

We all had dinner together, which does not seem to happen all that often anymore because of work, so that was nice.

Once we had eaten our dinner, me and Joe weighed up the options and decided to book the car from Imoova. We contacted the two German guys, let them know that we had found a cheaper option and wished them luck selling their car.

We both got very excited at the thought of our new option and transport and we moved to the sofa.

After all the cycling I have done recently, my knees were beginning to get sore and so Joe rode up to Coles to get an icepack for me. Once Joe came back with the pack, and chocolate, we sat down and watched some TV before heading to bed about 10.30.

 

7th March

After another lie in, we both got up about 9 and made our way downstairs for some breakfast. I was very eager to start planning the next bit of our trip, now knowing that we had our van from Imoova.

We sat down and began to plan the route that we would take and work out how long we would need to be driving each day, in order to get to Darwin in time. I was looking in to free campsites where we could stay and even managed to book a couple of nights in some accommodation along the way.

Just before lunchtime, Joe called the offices again as he had still not received any confirmation of the van. When he called, they told him that, as we booked it when their offices had closed, the van was no longer available, but we were next in the queue if another one was to come available. This had us both worried for a little bit but the person on the phone said that it was likely there would be another van in the next couple of days.

After the little bit of panic, I began to get myself ready for work whilst Joe made my dinner, again. I set off to work just after 12. As soon as I got to work, I sent off my staff order, as I had got my balance through with my staff incentives on.

Joe spent the day doing some more blog notes and also made a trip to Officeworks to print some stuff off for me.

I finished work at 5.30 and again, just missed Joe as he had set off to work just after 5.30. I got home and had my dinner, followed by a vanilla slice that Mo and Mark had bought on their day out, it was very tasty!

It was another night, looking in to our trip up to Darwin, this time I was accompanied with an icepack on my knee. The one that Joe had bought from Coles stayed cold for about 5 minutes having been in the freezer all night, so that wasn’t very helpful.

Joe got home from work just after 10 and he then had his vanilla slice, which I helped him with! After a bit of relaxing, we went to bed for about 11.

 

8th March

The next morning, my knee was still a little bit sore, so Mo insisted I had a day off riding my bike, so she gave me a lift to work. I was a bit reluctant at first because it meant having to get the bus back home. The bus takes much longer than the bike, and it still includes a twenty-minute walk from the bus stop.

I arrived at work about 8.30 and went straight to the shop. I still needed to get changed, as I was already dressed when Mo said I had to have a lift, but this didn’t matter, as I had loads of time.

Joe woke up about 8.45 and rode up to Coles to try to get a refund for the icepack. Unfortunately, as he did not get a receipt when he bought it, we were only able to get the money as store credit. At least we can use it to buy a food shop when we leave.

After the trip to Coles, Joe made his way to Highpoint to do some birthday shopping for Mark as it was his birthday on Friday. Joe was working at 12, so it had to be a quick visit, so he didn’t come in to the shop to see me. Mo and Mark had also stayed at Highpoint after dropping me off, so he had to be extra careful to not bump in to them.

Following the successful birthday shop, Joe rode back home and began to get his stuff together for work. Joe set off for work about 11.40.

As I went on my lunch break, I checked the Imoova website again, to see if any more vans had become available. There was one there, so I didn’t waste any time, I just booked it. Within minutes, I got another call from somebody at Imoova and they informed me that unfortunately, we had just missed out on a van again, but we were top priority for the next one. This was very strange because when Joe phoned, he was told we were top of the list. I told this to the woman on the phone and after looking in to it, she confirmed that we had in fact got the one we had booked in Tuesday and we should have had an email to confirm it all. It was lucky that she called, because I didn’t want to be charged twice.

As Joe had already started work, I asked her to resend it to him and to email it to me too. Once I got the email I was very relieved. We finally had our transport for Darwin! I text Joe about it all and asked him to double check when he got a chance.

I was rostered on until 5, but when 5 o’clock came, I started to panic because the girl who was meant to be doing the night shift, had not shown up. It was the same girl who was sick on Monday, when I had to cover so I started to picture myself doing a twelve-hour shift. Luckily, she did show up, about 10 minutes late, and so I made my way up to the bus stop.

The bus took me an hour to get home and I got back just after 6. It usually takes me about 25 minutes on the bike, so I found it a little frustrating.

When I got back, John and the kids had already left (they are usually round for dinner on Thursday’s) as the children had lots of homework. I had a chilled evening as we finally didn’t have to worry about transport, and we had planned most of our road trip.

Joe got home about 9 and brought food back with him but, luckily, it was only a chicken salad, so I didn’t bother trying to have any of that. After chilling on the sofa, watching some TV, and getting excited about our transport, we headed to bed.

 

9th March

We had a bit of a lie in the next morning before we heard Mo and Mark moving around downstairs. It sounded like they were about to head out for the morning so we both quickly got up and went to give Mark his birthday card and present.

Once they had left, we had our breakfast, made dinners and both rode to Highpoint for just before 11am.

When we got there, we had planned to eat our dinner before I started work at 12. However, neither of us were hungry for lunch. Instead, we had a walk around Highpoint and checked out the other frozen yoghurt deals to see which one was cheapest. We usually just go to the one which is outside my shop, but we felt a bit more adventurous today.

Once we had weighed up the options and found the cheapest one, we decided we would get one each, oops. It was a nice change of scenery but we both thought that our usual place was much nicer.

After our frozen yoghurt, we had a sit down and a chat for a little while before I had to head off to work.

Once I had gone to work, Joe rode back home and made some more blog notes. He knows how I felt now when I was on my own, having to make the notes all the times. There’s just no rest but we must keep reminding ourselves that it will all be worth it in the end.

At about 4.30, John and the boys came around for a little while to see Mark on his birthday. They stayed for a little while but not for tea, it was pizza night at home for them.

As Joe was working at 6, he was having his dinner early. I called him when I was on my break, just after 5 as I wanted to get Mark some treats for his birthday, and it’s a great excuse to buy some cake. I went on a cake hunt and bought a birthday chocolate mud cake, along with 4 little cupcakes, each of different flavours.

When I got back to work, I put them in the fridge and got very excited to get back home.

As I was training again today and the shop got really busy in the last hour, I had to go a little bit slower when locking up and so I did not leave work until ten past 9, later than normal.

I also rode home a bit slower than normal as I had the cakes in my backpack and I didn’t want them to get squashed or to fall out.

When I got home, Mo was so excited about the cake that she almost forgot to tell me that she had saved me some dinner. I quickly ate my dinner before splitting the mud cake in to 4 pieces.

It wasn’t a huge cake, so the pieces weren’t too big. I also gave Mo and Mark their cupcakes but as Joe was still at work, and I wanted us to split our cupcakes in half to try a bit of both, I waited until he was home. I only had the mud cake for the time being. Typically, Joe had his latest night for a long time and did not get back home until around 11.30.

We both sat down on the sofa with our cakes and enjoyed them. They were well worth waiting for! Once we had finished the cake and washed up, we made our way upstairs to get our bags ready for the weekend, before heading to bed.

 

10th March

The next morning, we were both awake about 8 and I wanted to have a shower before we set off. Once we were both ready and had finally packed up all of our stuff, we had some breakfast. Mo and Mark gave us a lift up to Yarraville station as were heading over to stay with Mary for the weekend, and visit the Dandenongs.

We got to Yarraville about 9am and got on the first train towards the city at 9.15. After two trains, we arrived just after 11. Luckily, Mary was already at the train station waiting for us, so we did not have to wait around. We loaded up our bags in to the boot and headed up to the house.

We sat in the kitchen and waited for Nic to arrive before heading up the Dandenongs. Nic drove us up to Sky High which is a café and viewpoint at the top of the mountains. It was a lovely view over the side and we could see Melbourne city in the distance, it looked so small!

We went to the café for our lunch and just as we were about to sit outside and wait for our food, we were surrounded by a number of wasps! Apparently, there is a really big problem at the moment and the area is overrun with them. Instead, we moved back indoors and sat well away from the front door. Me and Joe both had a pie for dinner, which was nice. It was not as good as the pies back home though.

After lunch, we had a quick walk around the gardens before heading to Olinda, the local town nearby. We walked around Olinda for a little while, looking in all the souvenir and antique shops. It was a very nice little town, definitely geared toward tourists visit the Dandenongs.

 

After walking around the shops for about an hour, we headed back to Mary’s. As it was a lovely day, we all sat outside in the garden and cooled off by dipping our feet in the pool. It felt so cold at first but once they were in, it was very nice and cooling. We all sat around for a little while and had a chat, waiting for Emma to arrive. Once Emma arrived, we sat had a nice catch up before heading out for dinner.

It was nice to go out for dinner, as there was no pressure on anyone to cook. Mary very kindly treated us all. Once we had finished dinner, we said goodbye to Nic and Emma dropped us back at Mary’s, before saying bye.

Me, Joe and Mary then sat out in the garden and had some wine. It was a lovely area to sit, and it was a lovely warm night. The garden had a large sheltered area with a fan, which managed to keep most of the mosquitos away.

Me and Joe ended up staying sat outside until about 11pm, when we both headed in to the lounge area. United were playing Liverpool at 11.30 and Joe had said that he wanted to stay up for it. I also said I would stay up with him to give him some company. However, at about 11.15, I fell asleep on the chair. I woke up about 5 minutes in to the match and took myself up to bed.

Joe stayed up to watch the match and he’s very glad he did because they won 2-1. He came to bed at about 1.30am.

 

11th March

We woke up about 9 the next morning and went downstairs where Mary had made us an English breakfast, it was so nice and something that neither of us had had in a while!

After breakfast, we got ourselves ready for the day and drove to Emma’s for about 10.30. Once at Emma’s, we met Lenny, their dog. He was so big! It looked like a bear was running towards me, but he was cute – I don’t think Joe wanted to leave.

After we got Joe away from Lenny, Emma drove us to Healesville Sanctuary which was about a forty minute drive away. We drove through the countryside and the winery areas. On the way, it looked like we had just missed a crash as there were 2 cars spread across the road. There were 1 or 2 other cars there when we got there and it didn’t look like anybody had been seriously hurt, which was good news.

After being there for about 10 minutes, a nurse and first aider had arrived and so we felt it was okay to get back on the road and continue our journey.

We made it to the sanctuary around midday. I knew I had been here before but it all seems to have changed since then. Last time, I remember being able to get so close to the animals and stroke the kangaroos but this time it felt a bit more like a zoo and there were extra tickets which you had to buy to do that sort of thing now. It was a lot more commercial which was sad and a little disappointing.

It was quite a hot day and so the animals were all being very lazy, but we just about got to see everything.

At 2.30, there was a bird show on at the arena. This was very cool and there were lots of birds being very clever, some of them were massive! The person who ran most of the show would also come to the back of the arena and ask the bird to fly to him, so they were flying right over people’s heads.

The bird show was the best bit of the day but it was partially ruined by two young children sat next to Joe who did not stop talking through the whole thing and their parents did nothing about it. Also, as we were sat on the back step with a railing behind us, a woman behind me lifted her kid up to sit him on the railing. As she threw him over the barrier, he kicked me in the head, and she then hit the child for it, like it was his fault!

After the sanctuary, we went to the Yarra Valley Chocolate factory. Me and Joe went in to the shop where there were some free samples which we obviously tried. This was followed by an ice cream, which was so good but melted so fast in the heat. We sat on the fields, looking out over the wineries. It was so busy though, as it was a hot day and a public holiday weekend, so we didn’t stay for too long.

Once we had eaten our ice cream and Joe had cleaned himself from the mess he made, we got back in the car and head back to Emma’s before Mary drove us back to hers.

When we got back to Mary’s, it was BBQ night with the couple that she lives with, who are Josh’s auntie and uncle. They also had some friends over and it was a lovely evening. We all sat outside around a table, all our plates, filled with food.

At about 9, I had a facetime back home as it was Mother’s Day. It was lovely to see my mum and dad and let them know how I’m doing. We also had a facetime with Joe’s mum and dad just after, before heading to bed after a long day.

We are well and truly into the work routine now, but are getting so excited about the next part of our adventure! Catching up with some of the McGuinness’ has been great and we can’t wait to spend more time with them over the next few weeks, before we move on.

To travel is to live, Katie (co-written by Joe) x