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The guy who bought the spare Foo Fighters ticket from me is called Leigh; he had said he’d goto the AFL (Australian Football League) match with me this weekend to show me what it’s all about. The match was Hawks vs Essingdon and Essingdon were winning from the outset and continued to score ‘goals’ and ‘take marks’ and they went on to win the match (they ended up winning by about 60 points).

After this we went up to the Yarra Valley and had a few drinks in the local pub/bistro. Tried my first ‘parma’ here and according to Leigh they serve one of the best he’s had – a bit biased maybe ‘cos his mate’s the cook there. I have to admit though it was pretty tasty. For those who don’t know what a Parma or Chicken Parmigiano is, it consists of a butterflied chicken breast, breadcrumbed and pan fried then it receives a large helping of napoli (tomato) sauce and some ham and some cheese – it’s then stuck under the grill. Served with chips and salad. Ed met us at the pub, when we returned from the pub we met a couple of his other mates and proceeded to light up a massive bonfire in his back garden (aka ‘the paddock’ – it was a pretty big garden). Beer and jacket potatoes the order of the night.

The morning after (Sunday 4th May) Ed left before anyone even got up – Leigh and Ben (Pie) and Leigh’s brother and I walked down to the horse race track which is just at the bottom of the garden where on the first Sunday of each month a large market goes on. We got a freshly squeezed still lemonade from the lemonade stand to buy from and I went and got the first proper egg and bacon muffin i’ve had while i’ve been over here (with loads of red sauce nonetheless!)!

We drove for a few km’s to the Healesville Animal Sanctuary and it exceeded everyone’s expectations! There was a bird of prey show and wallabies galore (see photo – actually stroking the wallaby!). Kangaroo’s and all the other native australian animals which you expect to see in a good animal sanctuary! (Prior to this the first roo i had seen was when we were driving at night to Leigh’s house, at night in the pitch black – so barely at all; i hadn’t seen one in the zoo in Adelaide!) Today the temperature in the valley was comfortable but not hot at all; can’t wait for some warmer weather now; today is the only day the sun has been out since i arrived back here; look at the forecasts!

Rainy Melbourne:

Sunny Manchester:

I took some photos from a spot on Mount Dandenong which only the locals know about (I put them in the same set as the animal sanctuary as it was all done on the same day); you can see Melbourne CBD from the spot which is about 40km away. We ate in the restaurant at the very top of the mountain and then went back for some night shots (almost falling off the mountain in the process – hahaha – jus kiddin gran!).

P.S the night shots are slightly blurred. If only i brought my tripod. I went to the post office today too. It’s going to cost me about $150 to send my unrequired stuff home!!! At least the pack is going to be 7kg lighter!!!!! haha.