I’m struggling with the decision to continue writing this blog now that we are back home. I don’t want to bore you with day to day life in Australia, but if anything interesting happens or we have any life milestones like buying a house or a dog I might put it up here. So this is really a warning that blogs will be more infrequent than ever before. I think it did have a strange effect in Japan in reminding me that I hadn’t done anything blog-worthy for a while so I should get out and do it. Maybe I can continue that in Australia.

I got some interesting Christmas presents in the form of Lonely Planet guides to Melbourne and Australia, walking tracks in Victoria and cycling tracks around Melbourne. Wonderful! I think we often forget that there is so much more to the city or country that we live in, and should set aside weekends to go off and be tourists, even locally. So my New Years resolution is to do that.

That’s a nice segway to our most recent purchase (no actually the most recent purchase was insurance) of a 2nd hand Renault Clio. Here’s some specs for those car savvy people reading: 2003, 3 door Clio Dynamique, 29,000kms, 1.6L 16V engine, alloy wheels, manual gearbox and it’s red. Goes like the wind and is very cute. Previously owned by a little old lady who only drove it to the shops on weekends – not true but close enough as you can tell by the kilometres on it. So I’m currently on a mission to learn to drive manual. It’s funny that you are allowed to drive manual once you are on you full license even if you have only ever driven automatic. I have a small advantage in that my first ever driving lessons were in a manual, but after the car was written off in a minor accident (it was an old car) had nothing to practice in so just went automatic from then on. Still, those hill starts are a right bastard. Getting there though. Anyway, we’ll be off for a road trip to nowhere in particular in a few days. Probably up Sydney/Brisbane way before aiming for Melbourne by late January.

Going back in time, we had a fairly eventful trip home courtesy of Jetstar. I’ve vented my frustrations with them enough, so I’ll save you the rant but if you are ever traveling internationally with them and want some tips to save your hair from going gray, then let me know and I’ll advise you.

We left Japan on a lovely 14 degree winter day, longing for the summer of Australia. We arrived in Melbourne to rain, wind, and extremely low temperatures for summer! Oh well. We had a great couple of days in Melbourne with a faux Christmas with all the family down there. It was great to see all the littlies who had grown so much while we had been away.

On Christmas eve we headed up to Canberra and enjoyed Christmas with the Fraser clan. Lots of champagne, food, pressies and general laziness were enjoyed by all (except Debbie who worked tirelessly to feed us all!).

Ok, on with life!! See you all when I do something interesting!!