Baaaawwwwlllllll Shhhaaaaaaaaaaaane!

After losing our mojo from weeks of work, we were very excited about our big night out to say farewell to our housemates.

The crew at 93 Drummond Street

A vast group of 20 plus left 93 Drummond Street in a convoy of excited revellers. Our venue of choice was Metros and after a raucous night there we left a ledgendary 'house secrets' list in our wake.

Our Melbourne Landlords: Twang and Ranj

On Christmas Eve we bid farewell to our house mates as we upgraded to Murphs Aunty and Uncles house, along with Claire, Murph's cousin and her husband Tim. It didn't feel like Christmas Eve without the traditional yearly piss-up at the White Hart/ Cricketers.

The Australian Murphys: Lai Sie, Sian, Rosie and Peter

However, in an attempt to feel more Christmassy we watched 'Love Actually', 'Elf' and sang Christmas carols. A BBQ and plenty of wine followed which kick-started our immense eating and drinking extravaganza in the house of the Murphy feeders.

Sian and Rosie fighting over presents

For our first Australian Christmas we woke to cold, wind and rain - yes, the coldest Christmas day on record in Melbourne. To add to the joyous occasion, Colly and Tay headed off to work. Luckily their shift was brightened up by a visit from (a morbidly obese) Santa.

Meanwhile, back at the house preparations for the most elaborate and eclectic Christmas dinner ever had begun. Not satisfied by a standard roast, Aunty Lai Sie added such delights as roast chicken, ham, red snapper, cray fish and a mountain of prawns. Everyone got involved with the cooking, with particular praise going to Tim Cairns who became head chef for the day. Santa managed to find us in Australia as we opened parcels from home full of wonderous treats. Our sacks were fuller than expected as we recieved some gifts from surrogate parents Peter and Lai Sie.

Tim aka Jamie Oliver getting involved with a crayfish

Thank you for the beautiful necklaces and bracelets, we wear them every day. We managed to spend an impressive ten hours around the dining room table, only moving to retrieve another bottle of wine from the fridge.

Feeling somewhat more rotund and fuzzy-headed the next day, we rose for a day of cricket.

Matching knitwear at the Ashes

Yes, thats right cricket fans, we attended the Boxing Day test match in Melbourne thanks to the amazing Rosie 'poo' Murphy who managed to buy 8 tickets for the sold out event. England played appallingly, but at least this meant we got to see the entire team bat and watch Freddy get a couple of wickets in the last few minutes.

We had the privilege of meeting Shane Warne

Cricket in action at the MCG

We suppose we should note that we also viewed Shane 'fat bastard' Warne get his 700th test wicket. This was quite fun as we got to heckle, 'bbbbbaaaaawwwwlllll SSSShhhaaaaaaaaaaane' continuously for the rest of the day, much to the entertainment of the Aussie fans that surrounded us.

We would like to thank the Aussie Murphys once again for their generous hospitality, hope we didn't eat you out of house and home! Hope everyone at home had a very merry Christmas x

written by

Murph, Tay, Colly and Erin on January 6, 2007 from Melbourne, Australia

from the travel blog: The Smug Adventures Down Under

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Great to see the bloggers are back in business and had a great Christmas. I await with baited breath for the South America editions.

Love Mummy G

written by Debe Gillham on January 9, 2007

Mandy here!
Glad you all had a good Christmas and New Year! I trust that there were copious supplies of Vegemite, since Melbourne (as previously mentioned) is the home of Vegemite. You didn't mention whether you got to the Vegemite factory, but maybe you were too busy working or watching cricket. That was a shame for England, but didn't that little Shane Warne do well?! As a child of Melbourne, he is also a fine example of what an early diet of Vegemite and meat pies can do for building a healthy body.
Talking of healthy bodies, I recently began an activity holiday myself with Bert. As we had to fly via America and, knowing the ban on Marmite there, we managed to thwart the authorities by smuggling a large supply of Marmite through inside Bert's false leg. The sniffer dogs did start to take an interest, but Bert is able to hop surprisingly fast and evaded them. At least they didn't pee against his leg, which is what usually happens.
Anyway, have a lovely time in Fiji.
Mandy

written by Mrs Mandy Marmite (Mother of ten!) on January 15, 2007

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