All by myself -sort of!! haahaa! Its a good tune!

Xmas stupidness!

Jen

Andrea

Andrea and Lisa

The great ocean road

Its been 3 days since my last post, so heres an update.....

Tuesday night descended into chaos. We sat around chatting to the other travellers in the hostel, including Richard and Steve who we had met the day earlier. At one point we all made our way outside to take some photos of us as 'Hicks, in Hicksville'. Richard and Steve came out too and we spent a while sat on the porch, on the collection of antiquated chairs. They are the kind of chairs and sofas that you would find in a 1970's old peoples home.

After a few pictures with Liv's remote control camera, Lisa took over and began her film directing career. As there was a full moon and a dark cloudy sky, she decided to direct a horror/hick movie with zombies!! Richard and Steve were the zombies, Donna and Liv, were the hicks and Andrea was a ghost, for no reason apart from the fact that she had a white quilt over her head to keep warm!!

We took a few short movies of the zombies being slaughtered by hicks carrying blow up pugel sticks – or pogo sticks as Donna put it!! We were all being really daft and silly, giggling like school kids and the noise was heard inside by the other travellers inside the lodge. They came out to join is the fun and brought more wine with them. In the end Lisa had recruited 8 zombies and werewolves Three from NSW Australia who worked on a winerie making Yellow tail wine, one drunk bloke from Bradford, a couple more from Yorkshire and Richard and Steve from UK. It was a very silly, very drunken couple of hours with people crawling across the grass, rolling around and basically being very very silly!! But it was a really good night and the videos that we took will keep us laughing for quite a while!

This morning, amazingly we were up just after 9am and me and Andrea made the brews and had showers while the girls got up and ready. All too soon it was gone 10am and after a final chat with Richard and Steve, we loaded up the car and headed out of Apollo Bay.

We all agree that the hostel, with its tiny lounge, old fashioned furniture and homely feel, was the best that we have stayed in and we will be looking at smaller hostels in the future rather that the faceless, 18-30 type hostels that we find in the big cities. We stopped for a final view of Apollo Bay and agreed that we should al;l come back again soon. Today the sun is out and we are heading back to Melbourne and to visit Jennifer Parsonage and her new flat that she moved into a few days ago, so that she can have a house-warming and a last night together as a group.

We stopped a couple of times along the way, to get a bite to eat and also to take some pictures of the memorial arch way that marks the beginning of The Great Ocean Road. We also spent a last hour on the beach before heading back into the city.

Once we were back, we booked into the hostel and went our separate ways – I went to drop off the hire car, Andrea to sort out her Kindle, Lisa to get some sleep and Liv and Donna to do some admin of their own. We all met up again about 6.30 and after getting ready, we grabbed some wine and headed off towards the tram to Jennifer Parsonage's new house and Christmas dinner.

We managed to get split up on the way to the station and I had to go back to get Donna and Liv, who waited by the entrance to flinders street station. On the tram, the ticket machine was broken so we had a free ride and arrived at Jennifer Parsonage's house only 45 minutes late.

The night was great, with good food, lots of it and a lot of wine too!! We had a lot of fun opening our secret santas – Beer goggles, silly hats, Sexy santa underwear and sticky wizards were all included, so we got dressed up and took lots of photos before heading into the garden with sparklers!! It was a great way to celebrate Xmas on the other side of the world and I loved every minute! As Lisa, Donna and Andrea were due to get the train to Sydney early in the morning we tried to ring for a taxi, but had no joy. I went outside on the off chance and found that suddenly 5 of them stopped!! It was a bit mental, but we jumped in and got back to the Hostel in time for a good night sleep.

We were up again at 0645 and I helped Dona, Lisa and Andrea to get down to the station and their train to Sydney. It was quite a sad morning for me personally as I have spent 4 months with Donna and Lisa on the bus and afterwards in Sydney and on the road and will really miss them. I have also made a really good new friend in Andrea and got to know her really well, so it was with a lump in my throat that I waved them goodbye and headed back to the hostel.

Liv was in another room, so I curled up on my bed and went back to sleep for an hour before liv arrived and gave me a knock about 10am. It was surreal being on my own for a while and to be honest, I didn’t like it!! I’m too used to having the girls around and I really miss them! I know I will see them again soon though.

When Liv came around we arranged to meet after a shower and then we went shopping in Melbourne – Jennifer Parsonage came into town and joined us, while we got a new computer and mobile phone for Liv and my clothes for New Years eve in Sydney. It was a really good afternoons shopping and took my mind off the girls being away.

After collecting our stuff from the Hostel, along with the food from the fridges, we grabbed a tram and headed back towards Jennifer Parsonage's house. I got off halfway and moved into my new hotel – Bay view on the park, which overlooks Albert Park, here in Melbourne. I then wandered down to Jennifer Parsonage's and spent the evening there, finishing the wine and food from yesterday with Liv and Jennifer Parsonage, while showing them how to download stuff and generally playing with Liv's new netbook.

It had been a long day and I didn’t get much sleep last night, so I walked home and was in bed by midnight.

Today I slept in beyond breakfast and then had a run around the grand Prix circuit on Albert Park. Its really weird being on my own again, but I know Jennifer Parsonage and Liv are just down the road and when I get back to Sydney I will see Keri on New Years Eve and the girls for the day on New Years Day, so I’m feeling a little less lonely.

Its a lovely day so I’m going to head out later and wander down to the local beach. Tonight I think we will be going out as its Xmas Eve.