Melbourne #8, Victoria, Australia

12th March – 24th March

12th March

We were up early on Monday morning as I was working a 1-5 shift and we still needed to get back home and get changed. We got up, packed up our clothes from the weekend and headed downstairs to get a lift down to the station from Mary. She dropped us both off at Ferntree Gully station about 9am and we said our goodbyes.

Neither me or Joe had packed a jacket for the weekend and so it was just typical that, this morning, was very cold, but we had been fine for the rest of the weekend. Luckily, both trains back to Yarraville were nice and warm – they usually always have the air conditioning on cold.

When we got back to Yarraville, we had to then walk back to Mo and Mark’s. We walked as quick as we could to try and keep warm and made it back home for just before 11.

I had just enough time to get showered and changed for work whilst Joe made me some dinner, although I wasn’t very hungry. Once I was ready for work and had packed my bag, I set off to work, getting to Highpoint for 12.30. As I wasn’t very hungry, and I was only working until 5, I didn’t take any dinner with me and it meant that Joe would not have to make it again the next morning, as I could take the salad he made me today.

As it was a bank holiday, it meant that the kids weren’t in school and so Jeannie was round at the house all day. Joe stayed home and played some games with Jeannie including help to build a block tower. Joe had to leave Jeannie to play by herself at about 4.30 to start to get himself ready for work.

I was home just in time to see both Jeannie and Joe and as Jeannie was still finishing off her dinner, I sat down at the table with her and had a nice chat. Once I had finished dinner, I washed the dishes whilst Mo took Jeannie home.

When Mo got back home we sat down on the couch and watched some TV, waiting for Joe to get back home from work. Whilst we were sat, I think all three of us ending up having a nap at some point.

Joe got home from work about 9.30 and joined us on the sofa to watch the end of Lewis, before going to bed at around 10.30.

 

13th March

I was up early again the next day and, after getting ready and having some breakfast, I set off to work about 8.15. It was a very cold and miserable morning but luckily it had just about dried up, having rained overnight.

When I got to work, I did the usual routine to make sure that the shop was tidy and ready for the day. Whilst I was at work, Joe stayed home and got our dinners ready, before setting off to Highpoint for about 10.30.

Joe had come in early as we had decided that we wanted to get some songs together for our road trip, so he had come in to Highpoint to use the free Wi-Fi to download more songs. It was also a good excuse for Joe to come in as there was another “no weigh day” at the frozen yoghurt stand outside my work, so we could pile it up to the top.

I went on my dinner about 1.30 and, after we had finished our dinner, I went to fill up our yoghurt pot, up to the top. After we had finally finished, we both decided that this stand was better than the one we had tried the previous week. Once we had finished our yoghurt, it was time for me to head back to work.

Joe stayed at Highpoint and continued to write the blog and download some more songs, until the laptop began to die. He had a quick walk around the shopping centre to try to find a plug socket to charge the laptop, but the hunt was unsuccessful. I finished work just after 5.30 and, me and Joe both began our ride back home.

Once we got home, we had our tea and stayed at the table for a little while playing Yahtzee.

We eventually moved to the sofa around 8pm and had a chill for a couple of hours before getting an early night. We were in bed for 10pm.

 

14th March

I was up again the next morning at my normal time of 7.30. I got myself ready for work and had breakfast, before setting off just after 8am. Luckily, I was only working until 1, so it wasn’t a long shift and was much easier to handle, mentally.

Joe came to Highpoint for about 11 and had brought both our lunches with him too. When he got here, he came in to the shop to drop them off with me so that I could them both in the fridge. When he sat down with the laptop to do some more songs, the Wi-Fi did not seem to be working for him. It wasn’t a very productive day for getting the songs, but at least he was able to focus a bit more on catching up on the blogs.

We were also unsure how much more music Joe’s phone could store and so we decided that we would try and have a look for a cheap iPod or MP3 player. Joe had a walk around some of the shops in Highpoint but the options, within our price range, were very limited. We struggled to find something that would suit us, for less than $150 and we just couldn’t justify this when we are trying to save up.

When I finished at work, we both sat down to have our dinner together and discuss our options. After deciding that we could not afford any of the options we had found, both on eBay and in the shops, we got on our bikes and headed towards Yarraville.

The clothes that I had ordered from work, had also turned up at the shop. Joe put them in his bag for me and we took them all home. We spent a little bit of time in Yarraville before heading back home, getting home for just after 3pm.

Once we got back home, we thought we would have a walk around the corner to the Cash Converters shop to see if there was anything cheaper in there. When we told Mo that we were going there, she thought we needed more money and were going to sell something – she was very worried for a couple of seconds. Again, with everywhere else that we had looked, there was nothing within our price range, so we decided to leave it.

As we were walking back, we had a thought that we could just put all the music on to Joe’s iPad. That has much more memory than the phone so when we got home, we checked it out. Luckily, there is plenty of room on there for songs, so our problem was sorted. No need to spend money on an MP3 player.

After chilling out for a little bit, I had a showers and began to get changed before riding to Dockalands, to meet Katie and Jack at the Night Markets.

Once we got there, me and Joe just needed to stop to get some cash out. When we got to the cash machine, there was a wallet on the ledge with a debit card on top of it. We had seen a couple walk away from the cash machine just a few moments earlier, so we assumed it was theirs. Joe ran after them but they didn’t even realise they had lost it. They were obviously grateful though, and our good deed was done for the day.

When we met Katie and Jack, we said our ‘hellos’, before we thought it best that we found a table first and then took it in turns to find food, after the experience we had last time. This worked much better for us.

Me and Joe went off first. I got a Paella and Joe got a Sicilian sausage hotdog and we shared some chips. They were both very tasty but they neither of them were very hot, which was a bit of a shame.

Katie and Jack went off next to get their food. Once we had all finished, me and Joe decided to share a waffle which was covered in strawberry ice cream and marshmallows. This was very nice, but it wasn’t quite what I expected.

After all our food, we stayed and had a chat for a little while before heading our separate ways. Me and Joe stopped to watch a street performer for a while, but it was far too much talking and not enough performing, so we didn’t stay for long.

We got on the free tram back to Docklands and rode our bikes home, getting back for just after 9pm. We sat on the couch and watched the end of Morse, before heading to bed about 10.30.

 

15th March

As usual, I was awake at 7.30 the next day to get myself ready for work. Joe also got up with me and made my dinner before I set off, just after 8. When I got to work, I realised that I had forgotten my purse and my work shoes, but I managed to cope without them.

Joe had woken up with a bad back, he thinks it was carrying all my clothes the night before, so he spent the day at home tidying up our bedroom and continuing to catch up on the blog. Neither of our days were overly exciting.

John, Paddy and Danny were round at the house about 4.30 for dinner but they didn’t eat until I got home from work, which was about 5.40. We were all very ready for some food at this point. After dinner, Joe got himself ready for work and after saying bye to everybody, he left about 6.30.

John and the boys sat outside with Mo and Mark for a while, but it was a bit too cold for me, so I stayed in. They left about 7.30 and we had a chilled evening. I had a Skype call back home at about 8.30, but the rest of the evening was just spent watching TV until Joe got home just before 10.

After a quiet night, we head to bed for 10.30, it had felt like a very long day.

 

16th March

The next morning, we were both awake about 7.45. I got myself ready for work, and Joe got our lunches ready. We’re in a pretty good routine of this now. I set off to work, just before 8, and took both lunches with me so that I could put them in the fridge when I got there. I set off a little bit earlier than normal as I was training another new girl and showing her how to open.

Whilst I was on my way to work, Joe stayed home and got the bag packed before following, arriving just after 9.30. Joe went upstairs and found a quiet spot where he could write the blog and get more songs together.

I went on my dinner at 2pm and Joe joined me downstairs. We sat and ate our lunches, followed by sharing a large piece of cheese tart, that Mo and Mark had bought for us earlier in the week.

Whilst we were eating our cake, I decided that I wanted to make a Crème Egg Rocky Road. I looked up the recipe and made a list for Joe to go and check out the items, whilst I was finishing off my shift. Once we had made the list, I went back to work, and Joe got on the hunt for some cheap ingredients.

Whilst Joe was looking, the price was slowly starting to build up and, eventually, we decided that it was probably going to be a little bit too expensive to make. Plus, we were sure that Mo would have ingredients left over from the last time we made something, but we couldn’t be sure exactly. The chocolate over here is so expensive too. Joe found some mini Crème Eggs and one shop was selling a small packet, containing 11 mini eggs, for $8!

After Joe had looked at ingredients, he walked over to Officeworks to print off some more stuff for me. Once everything was printed off, he sat and wrote some more blog whilst waiting for me to finish, at 5.

When I eventually finished work, we both rode back home and got there just in time for dinner.

After dinner, Joe went to get himself changed and ready for work whilst I washed up the pots and began to get the ingredients out for cookies that I had decided to make. I figured I would save the Crème Egg Rocky Road until Easter Sunday, as a special treat.

Joe set off for work about 6.40 and I began on making the cookies but not before making a cup of tea for Mo and Mark. Once I had made the mixture, they had to be baked in three separate batches as there was that much, so they took a little bit longer than I had expected.

After the cookies were made, I had a shower and washed my hair, before finally settling down for the evening. Joe got home from work about 10pm and, having worked 4 days the week before, he had been paid. Unfortunately, when he had checked his pay envelope at the end of the night, it only had $40. He sent a message to the manager and waited for a response.

When Joe got home, we both sat down and had a cookie, before heading to bed about 11pm.

 

17th March

On Saturday morning, we both woke up again, about 7.30. I got myself ready for work and Joe got the lunches ready. It was my last day for the week, and I couldn’t wait for a lie in on Sunday! I had a quick bit of breakfast and a quick chat with my grandma on her weekly call to Mo, before setting off to work just after 8.

Joe had some breakfast, made the bed and packed up the rest of the bag, and set off to Highpoint about 9.30. He is finally starting to get most of the songs that we want for our trip and is also now up to date with the blog’s, so it certainly seems to be helping that he comes to Highpoint.

It was a very quiet morning for me at work and once I had steamed all the clothes on the rack and hung them up, I was left looking for things to do. Luckily, about 12, I had a few customers and so the next half hour went quick.

Joe came down from his spot about 12.30 to meet me for lunch. He had also brought us both a cookie each that I had made the night before. We sat and ate our lunches before having a chat.

I went back to work just after 1, while Joe went to find another spot to finally get up to date. It was a relatively quiet afternoon and I finished work at 3pm. We both rode home and had a little bit of time to relax before heading to Deb and Sean’s for the evening to celebrate Sean’s birthday.

When we got back home, I went upstairs to try on all my new clothes whilst Joe ended up having a quick nap on the sofa downstairs. We set off to Yarraville station about 4.40 and, after a quick stop to buy a bottle of wine, we got on the 4.57 train to Southland.

After a very quick train change at Flinders, we arrived at Southland just after 6pm and were met there by Nic, who had agreed to drive us to Deb and Sean’s house. We got to the house around 6.30 and, after saying hello to everyone, we tucked in to the cheese and biscuits which were out.

We all sat outside in the garden and had a catch up with everyone. It’s good to catch up with the McGuinness’ because I don’t see them often. Sean did a barbeque which was delicious and after dessert, we said our goodbyes before Nic dropped us at a closer train station, for me and Joe to get back home.

After two trains and a bike ride from Yarraville, we eventually got back home around 11.30, it was a very late night for us, so we quickly got ready for bed and went to sleep.

 

18th March

On Sunday, I finally got a lie in, and it was much needed. We both woke up around 9am and we eventually got up and had some breakfast about 9.30. Once we were downstairs, we decided to play a few games of Yahtzee, before Joe had to go in to work. It seems that the only days I get off work, Joe has work.

Whilst Joe was at work, I started on my long list of jobs that I had set myself for the day. One thing on the list was to sort the blogs out and try and make some headway on getting more posted. Once I had eventually read most of the blogs, it was on to my next task of trying to get more of an idea together for our next stop after Australia. I also did some work for home, and it made the day fly by.

Just after 4.30, I took a break from all the work and went for a shower and got ready for Sunday dinner with the family. Shortly after, Mick, Shell and Jeannie showed up and, as John had called and said he was working, this was everybody we were expecting. Joe got back from work about 5.20. We sat and had a chat with Mick, whilst dinner was being prepared.

John ended up coming around for dinner, in the end, but he was on his own. It was the usual dinner with plenty of salad and plenty of meat, it was all very tasty. Shortly after we had finished, Mick began to feel very unwell and so Mick, Shell and Jeannie left to get back home.

We had a chat with John and told him of our plans for the rest of our time in Australia which he seemed to really like the sound of.

Once John had left, about 7, Joe began on the washing up and I helped with the drying. After everything was clean and put away, me and Joe made more plans for the rest of our trip. We ended up booking a couple of flights and hostels and it got us both very excited.

We decided that we had spent enough money for the day on the flights, so we moved to the sofa and watched some TV, before heading to bed about 11pm.

 

19th March

It was a new work week for me, and I was up early again the next morning. I got up at 7.30 and after getting myself ready, I set off just after 8. As I was only in work until 1, I didn’t need any lunch before I left, as I could just get some when I got home.

Once I had gone to work, Joe rang imoova to see what was included in our transport and we found out that we have everything we could possibly need. It got us both very excited for our road trip. We are both much happier with this option than the car we were so close to buying.

Work was very quiet for me this morning, so I booked some more flights for us, as we had had trouble trying to book it the night before. I successfully bought the flights this time though! Once Joe had got himself ready, he began to make the lunches, and was going to meet me at Highpoint for lunch, as we wanted to browse in some shops.

Joe set off about 12.30 and met me when I finished work. Once we had sat and eaten our lunch, we had a walk around some of the travel shops in Highpoint and got numerous brochures to help us with our plans. The afternoon was going to be filled with lots more planning!

Just before we set off back home, Joe had a call from the manager at work who managed to clear up the pay situation. Although Joe had given his bank details about 2 months ago, and had still been getting paid cash, they had now decided to begin to pay via bank transfer.

Once we got back home, I began to look through the brochures and Joe went back out, to Officeworks, to print off the itinerary which I had started. When Joe got back, he sat down with me and helped me to plan out our trip to Bali and the surrounding islands.

At about 4pm, Mo arrived back from picking Jeannie up from school and things got a little less productive. We all sat down for tea at about 5pm and Jeannie was straight back to playing with her Lego, whilst watching the TV.

Mo dropped Jeannie back off at home about 6.30 and so me and Joe got back to planning. It was a very productive evening having booked more flights and more accommodation for the next part of our trip. It was very confusing trying to do it all in the right order, but we eventually managed it. It’s also such a difficult task, as we want to feel free when we get to places, but don’t want to miss out on anything, so feel like we need a basic plan.

Once the TV came on, so we decided to put the planning on hold for the time being and chill out for the rest of the evening. At about 10.30, we went up to bed.

 

20th March

The next morning, I was up again for work, about 7.30, as normal. Joe got up at the same time as me and whilst I was getting myself ready, he made my dinner, so that I could put it in the fridge when I got to work. I set off about 8, getting to Highpoint just before 8.30.

Joe stayed at home for a bit, to try and get some more blog done but it seems he gets too distracted at home, so it was not very productive. Whilst Joe was trying to do some writing, I was having a very quiet morning in work and I think I got my first customer at about 11am. Joe arrived at Highpoint about 11.30 and popped his head in to the shop to say a quick hello, before going to find a spot to try to be more productive.

After a quiet morning, we met up for lunch about 1, in our usual spot, just outside the shop. It was a nice break from a very slow morning. After we had had our lunches, I made my way back to work and set Joe a task of sorting out all the photos, which I had emailed to myself the night before.

After catching up on the blogs, as the wifi wasn’t working well enough to do the photos, Joe stayed in Highpoint, playing on his iPad, until I finished work at 5.30. We both rode home and had our dinner together once we got home.

After dinner and a shower, Joe had a facetime with home whilst I did a little bit more planning of the rest of some of the trip.

After a long day at work for me, and lots of blog writing for Joe, we both got an early night, and head to bed about 10pm.

 

21st March

The next morning, I got up and ready for work, again. It is all I seem to be doing now, I can’t wait for the next day I get to have a lie in and do nothing. Luckily, I was only in work until 1 and so at least I could look forward to an earlier finish.

Whilst I was at work, Joe did his usual routine of making the lunches and then setting off in to Highpoint, getting there for around 1pm.

At Highpoint it was a “Shopping Day” which was where a lot of shops have certain offers on but the offers, or shops, are not revealed until the day. Due to this, I was expecting a busy morning, but it wasn’t particularly busy.

Once I finished work, I met Joe and we had our lunch. After we had eaten our lunch, we went up to a vending machine on the top floor of the centre. The machine was filled with lollies and with each lolly was a piece of card. Each card would have some writing on it and there was a possibility to win up to $200 worth of Highpoint credit, to spend in any shop.

Me and Joe queued up for about 20-25 minutes for a go each on the machine and deliberated over which numbers we would pick. When we eventually made it to the front of the queue, we put in out numbers and, unfortunately, neither of us won. We did however, get to keep the lolly – it was the longest I have ever waited for a lolly, in my life.

We had a walkaround some more of the shops, seeing what offers they all had on, and I looked for a new pair of shoes. After deciding we really didn’t need anything else, we gave the shopping a rest.

Our next stop was an ice cream stand on the bottom floor. They were giving away free samples of ice cream, I couldn’t not pay a visit. When we got there, Joe turned down the option of the ice cream, but helped himself to some of mine instead, it was very tasty!

Once we had eaten our ice cream, we went to our usual frozen yoghurt stand. They also had a deal on for “Shopping Day” and each small cup, was $8. This was an offer that we just felt that we had to take advantage of. We got to the frozen yoghurt stand and filled our cup to the very top, I think it was the biggest we had ever had it. We were taking advantage of the offer.

Once we had eventually finished our frozen yoghurt, we both got on our bikes and made our way home.

Back at home, we began to sort out our bedroom, starting with the clothes that we wanted to send home. Luckily, we have people who are willing to take things home for us. We got my bag out and started to filter through some of the clothes that I wanted to send back home. It was mostly the clothes that I had been wearing for work and most of them are quite thin and light, so hopefully it will be okay. We got most of the clothes together and began to put them in to the vacuum bags that I had bought.

When we had finally got most of the clothes in to the bag, we started on sorting out the drawers that we had filled with various paperwork. We got a rubbish bag together and began to fill it full of the papers we no longer needed, it was soon, very full.

We took the rubbish bags downstairs and put them in recycling, before sitting down for dinner. When we had finished dinner, Joe washed and dried up all the pots and pans, whilst I began to put the finishing pieces on to a couple of the blogs.

Once Joe had finished with the cleaning up, I had a break from the blogs and we played some Yahtzee. It’s good that Joe has now started to write some of the blogs, but it certainly takes a little while to proof read them. We played six games of Yahtzee and I won 4-2, with the first game being our closest. Joe got 2 Yahtzee’s in the first game and thought he had walked away with the win but on my last throw, I rolled my second yahtzee of the game and went in front.

Once Joe had had enough of Yahtzee, we both moved to the sofa, just in time to watch TV. I settled back down, with my laptop and, after finally proof reading the blogs, started to add the pictures. I was very pleased that I was able to post two blogs in the evening and, once Frost had finished, we headed to bed.

 

22nd March

The next morning, I wanted to be up and out the house just after 8, as I wanted to set up my notes at work, to help with my interview preparation. It was interview day, but as I was interviewing for a teaching job at home, the Skype interview wasn’t until the evening, so I had a full shift ahead of my in the shop. I woke up at my usual time of 7.30, had my breakfast, and got on my way. I had left Joe in bed and about 9am, he eventually got himself out of bed and started to get ready for his day.

When I arrived at work, I got all my preparation together and, as I do not usually get any customers before 10am, I began to read my notes. At about 9.05, I got my first customer, it was typical that I would get such an early visit on the day I had other things I wanted to do. I did get my chance to read over my notes, once the customers went and I probably looked a little bit crazy as I was talking to myself all morning, trying to verbalise my answers.

Whilst I was at work, Joe had made our lunches and was on his way to Highpoint where he eventually arrived, about 11.45. Joe wanted to drop the lunches off with me so that I could put them in the fridge but when he arrived, there was a customer in the shop. He waited for a few minutes until the customer went in to the fitting room, that’s when he made his move to drop off the lunches with me. After dropping off the food, Joe made his way to find a quiet spot to download more songs.

We met up in our usual spot and had lunch, about 1pm and had a nice catch up of our mornings. Once we had finished our lunch, I went back in to work and Joe went for a walk around Highpoint, before heading home about 2pm.

When Joe got back home, he had a shower and got himself ready as he was going to the Australian Football match with Emma and Mary. We were all gutted that I wouldn’t be going but guess the interview took priority.

I had a quiet afternoon in the shop and luckily, it didn’t go slowly, as I was occupied with my interview preparation – it was all starting to make me very nervous now. I finished work at about 5pm and head straight home.

When I got home, about 5.30, I had my dinner and tried to chill out for a little bit, before my interview. It was very hard to chill as I was getting more and more nervous as it got closer. I knew I would be okay once the interview started but it was the waiting around that was nervy. I had my shower and washed my hair, so make sure I looked interview worthy, before reading my notes one last time, and getting the laptop set up, ready.

I got my interview call at about 8.30 and it lasted for about 20 minutes. I felt like it went okay but knew it could have gone better. It was nice to be interviewed by familiar faces though; that was kind of calming. I had to wait for the other candidates to be interviewed before I would find out the results, so that was difficult.

I sat downstairs and watched TV, doing anything to pass time, but keep myself awake (not that I would have been able to sleep), before my call.

Joe text me at about 10.15 saying that he was just leaving the stadium and would be home soon. I also got messages from Emma, asking me about my interview. She sent me some photos from the match and it looked so good – they were sat so close! I’m gutted that I missed it, but it was just an unlucky coincidence. Joe didn’t arrive home until 11.30, as all the trains were extremely busy, and it took a while to even get out of the ground.

Just before Joe got home, I got a call back about the job and I got it! I was very happy and relieved. I can now fully enjoy the next few months, knowing I have a job to come home to. Joe was also very happy for me. He could have been a bit too confident though, as he immediately went to his bedside drawer and got out a congratulations card for me. It was very cute!

As it was now midnight, and I had work in the morning, I got myself in to bed and eventually, from all the excitement, I fell asleep.

 

23rd March

After a late night, I was very reluctant to go to work the next day. We eventually both got up at about 7.45 and went downstairs to have our breakfasts. I had a very busy morning replying to people who had wished me congratulations from back home and I lost track of time a little bit. I eventually got myself ready and didn’t set off to work until about 8.20. It was still plenty of time to get there but I know I like to have time to cool down when I get to work, before I get changed.

Joe got back in to bed once I had left and started to type up the blog notes from his phone, from the last couple of days. After writing the notes, Joe made our lunches and rode in to Highpoint for about 1. I went on my break about 1.30 and we sat and ate our lunches.

As it was our last Sunday dinner with everyone, coming up, I said I wanted to make the dessert, so text Mo to see what the best options would be. Mo replied saying she would like a rocky road or some cupcakes, so I decided I would try and do both – they won’t go to waste. I tried to find my cupcake recipe, that I always use, but didn’t have it saved on my phone, so couldn’t do any ingredient shopping.

I went back to work just after 2 and kept myself busy for the afternoon. At about 3pm, Joe left Highpoint, as he had to go home and get ready for work in the evening.

After work, I was straight on my bike and made it home in record time. Dinner was ready when I got in, so I tucked into that, while we popped the champers and had a celebratory glass together, before Joe had to go to work.

Once Joe left, I finished my dinner, before having a chilled out evening. It was a difficult task to keep myself awake, as I had work again the next day – day six of the week – and I had had quite a busy week! As the night went on, I got information and documents to fill in from back home, and I used the time wisely to catch up on bits and bobs.

 

24th March

After an exhausting week, I was up again at 7.30 for my final shift of the week. Although I tried to get an early night the night before, I wanted to wait until Joe got in from work, so it was still a late night. I was so tired but knew I had no choice but to drag myself out of bed. I got up and dressed and went down for breakfast. While I was eating breakfast, I had a chat with grandma, grandad and Catherine at home, during Mo’s weekly phone call.

After I was ready to go, I set off to work at about 8.20 – later than normal but I still had time to get there and get dressed before 9. I opened up the shop and soon had customers in, which was nice, as it was a busy morning and went quite quickly.

Just after I started my shift, the heavens opened, and the rain poured, apparently. I had no idea about any of this as I have no views of any windows from my shop, so I never know what’s happening outside. As a result of the weather, Olga was late arriving for her shift, because of the traffic, but it didn’t matter to me, it just meant I had a later lunch. Joe braved the rain and cycled in to meet me with my lunch – very good of him as I’m not sure I would want to voluntarily ride in that weather.

After my break, Joe went to do some ingredient shopping, as I had said I would make the desserts for Sunday dinner this week. I had decided to make my cupcakes, that I usually make at home, and try to make some crème egg rocky road from a recipe I had recently found.

I finished my shift bang on 3pm and fortunately the weather had cleared up. I got changed and we cycled home, giving Joe enough time to shower and get ready before he had to head to work himself.

As soon as I had showered and cooled down from my ride home, I made a start on my baking – I didn’t want to be going at it all night, so I was glad to get started early. I made my cupcakes first, so that I could get them into the oven, before we needed it for tea. Once both sets of cakes were in the oven, I made a start on the rocky road.

I got the rocky road in the tin, ready to set, just in time, before tea was ready. I took a break and ate dinner, which was so good, as always! After we had eaten, I washed all of the dishes and cleared up, before making the frosting for the cupcakes.

As the children love lemon flavoured icing, I made some lemon frosting and some chocolate frosting and covered half of the cupcakes with lemon and the other half with chocolate. I tested the lemon frosting first and it was very lemony – it tasted good to me, I hope everyone else agrees!

After the baking was complete and the kitchen was tidy, I rested for the remainder of the evening. We watched some TV and tried to stay up for when Joe got in from work, but it seemed to be his latest shift yet, so I ended up going up to bed and waiting for him up there.

It’s been a busy few weeks, with work and seeing as much family as we could, before we have to leave. We’re getting tired, but wouldn’t change it for anything, as everyone is helping us to make so many amazing memories and we’re loving it so much! Only ten more days left in this beautiful city, before it’s time to get on the road again – so exciting!

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