OZ...

For us, Oz was 3 months of stopping, not travelling, being with and around Jessie for longer than we´ve done for Years, and enjoying some decent grub and occasional bottle of plonk - see photo!
Also, less blog, so this is a summary: and one of our first feelings was culture shock! - Asia had seduced us with its simplicity, honesty and spirituality, and to be honest, Aus shocked us initially with its commercialism, choice and vanity. But, Australians are great people, who are straightforward, and honest, and do not suffer at all from the snobbishness and class culture of the UK.
We were now reunited with all our imports from Rajasthan, and hoping to make a few bob...and this often dominated the first half of our stay. Of course, we were up against the Aussie culture that also loves anything Australian - ´with love from Australia´is tagged on everything, so our markets were hard work, sometimes frutrating, and dogged with the only wet day of any week always being on a Sunday! Things got better when we finally decided to ship it back home and force it on all our friends and family in the UK! make special price for you all!

We had Jess´old flat for the first two months, bought a motor (Mitsi ´Nimbus´) and sold that for a profit at least, and moved in with Jess at her place for the last month. St Kilda is perhaps THE trendy spot of Melbourne, which probably didn´t help with the afore mentioned culture shock, but it is cool, and we got into the groove. Acland Street, coffee shops, wild cake shops, bars , bistros and trams- and also a turn-up for our books, wait for it - a GYM!!! The South Pacific Health Club became our 2nd home as we pumped and pushed our way to fitness - Jac coming down the scales, while I tried to get it back on after those asian blues...
OZ generally, especially St Kilda, is grabbing at anything alternative, most of it worthwhile, and Jac was able to up her Reiki levels and make good friends in that circle.
So times with Jess were also spent catching up with old friends: we all went to Adelaide for a week or so- and did the complete nature bit there at Kangaroo Island - roos, sealions and seals, echidna and a comprehensive guide to South Australian flora from Phil - top horticulturalist he is. Phil and Julie also came down to Melbourne for my birthday weekend - memorably we walked with the Wallabies on Phillip Island on my Birthday- the first one spent wrapped up in coats and scarves, but still a cloudless day!

It was good to catch up with Ken again, our brother in law, still in Armidale if the Immigration Department will let him, lets hope they at least allow him to make his own decision on what he does in the future. Australia is so far away- its its biggest problem really, brought home with Cob´s untimely and sad death back home in Hampshire. Jac has known him since she was a teenager, he was like an uncle to Jess, Mitch and Joe, and hard decisions had to be taken as to what we should do. As it is, Mitch and Joe did us, and especially themselves, PROUD with their honourable and dignified representation of us at the funeral...

So, the end of June came, but not too sad for Jac and Jess - Jess was joining us in Fiji!, so we were able to leave down under with lighter hearts, enjoy the winter!, and roll on the rest of it!