Last weekend saw us attending the second of the major sporting events that we had already bought tickets for before leaving the UK - the Aussie Open Tennis.

Tickets for the finals cost about £250 each so with neither of us having been to a tennis match before we thought we would play safe and buy tickets for the Hisense Arena (equivalent of Wimbledon Court One) for the middle weekend of the tournament.

The day started well with Breakfast Quesadilla at the World Café bar followed by a riverboat taxi down to the tennis centre.

Play started at 11am with a mens doubles match between the Bryan Brothers from America and Becker (not Boris) and Kohlmann of Germany. At that point our seats were in the shade and it was a pleasant introduction to tennis with the Bryan's winning comfortably in straight sets.

Next up was Djokovic against Almagro and as the match was about to start the sun had moved across far enough so that we were now sitting directly in it and the temperature rose accordingly. We managed to stick it out for a set and a half before having to get some shade and to top up our water which we were getting through very quickly. As one of the pictures above will show - I had developed some attractive sweat patches. Anyway after cooling down a bit we returned in to see Djokovic wrap it up, also in straight sets.

Match 3 in the Hisense arena was a women's singles but we decided to wander around the grounds rather than stay and watch it. Had we stayed we would have been there about 4 hours as the match finished 14-12 in the final set.

Leaving the Hisense we wandered round some of the outside courts and saw Andy Murray having a practice session - he was basically just hitting the ball back and forward down the middle of the court with his practice partner but it still drew quite a crowd.

After that we decided to try our luck on the Margaret Court Arena and saw the last two sets as Berdych beat Verdasco. After a quick pit-stop for some noodles and curry and rice it was back onto the Margaret Court Court for a mixed doubles match which included Bernard Tomic, Australias next big hope, which was accompanied by many shouts of Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi.

By now it was early evening and our final stop was showcourt 3 for a seniors men's doubles match. Not that interesting on face value but when the seniors involved are the Woodies (Woodforde and Woodbridge) against Pioline and Bahrami then there were high hopes for entertainment. It did not let us down and those who have seen Bahrami on TV will know what I mean - playing shots whilst on the phone, eating a banana or sitting on a chair, ridiculous volleys and smashes, being able to hold 5 tennis balls in one hand and then serve them one at a time etc etc etc.

It was a great way to wrap up a full day of tennins and I think we will definitely be back next year.

Cards started arriving from last week and I pretty much opened them as they arrived! Although there were a few that said not to so I obeyed the instructions. They were from family that know me well! Anyway thank you for all the cards and good wishes especially from my friends and loved ones in UK. It's really nice to know that I'm not forgotten!

Present also started arriving and my self control pretty much went out the window. Well I opened a present on Monday because Steve was out with work at the Australian Open and saw Dannii Minogue there so I needed to do something fun and he wasn't around to stop me. And I had to open the second one on Wednesday because it had a sticker on it that said "Do not store in direct sunlight" so I was worried it might go off!

I'm not a morning person either so I like to open birthday and Christmas presents late the night before in bed because then I can have a nice night's sleep and not have to get up extra early in the morning. This really works because it means on Christmas Day I get a lie in and on my birthday if I have to work and get up early anyway I can just rise at normal time. So that's what I did and Steve's card to me had a clue in it to lead me to another clue culminating in my present which is dinner on tram car restaurant and Mary Poppins tickets and we're doing this in February - yay!

My birthday was spent at work and it was a pretty busy day. I did get a cake though which made up for it. A huge chocolate fudge and Violet Crumble affair (Crunchie to the UK folk reading this) chosen by one of my colleagues who obviously has great taste in cake! Thanks Karly! I'm making friends at work; people who work in recruitment tend to have charismatic personalities and are hardworking and I like those qualities. I have a lunchtime buddy who makes me laugh and giggle so all is good.

Steve and I went out for dinner to a renowned two hat restaurant (a hat is a bit like a Michelin star but I don't think it's quite as prestigious - maybe in between an AA rosette and a star) which was very tasty but very rich and we ordered far too much food. You can read more about that in the Restaurant Reviews section.

We returned home quite late and booked a two night trip to Sydney! We received some great news this week in that Steve's parents, bro and cousin are coming to see us in April for three weeks. We are thrilled by this and can't wait to see them, show them around and spend time with them. Mum Barley fancies a little trip to Sydney so we have obliged and I booked that last night. Steve and I reckon we'll visit Sydney a few times whilst we're living in this side of the World so an initial 3 day foray with the family will be great to get round the sights and get a feel for the place.

So Saturday dawned and it started of cloudy. I had made plans with some Aussie friends - Charlotte, Emma, Ling and Noah to meet up for lunch. Steve and I met up with Emma first at the wonderful Madame Brussels roof top bar and Emma and I had a fruity based cocktail. The sun came out and it was rather nice to be sitting there.

We met the others at Shoya which is a one hat restaurant (so we've done well to do three hats in two days) for lunch. You can read a review of there in the other section of this blog. The food was yum and good value for the quality. We all returned to Madame B's and sat with parasols enjoying the sunshine. It was very warm - maybe 30 degreees.

And now we're relaxing from the daytime drinking and watching the tennis on TV. Tomorrow we go to watch which will be interesting as I've never really followed tennis or watched it for a prolonged period of time. I'm thinking it might be nice to just sit in the sun so I'll take my book!

It's been a L-O-N-G working week for the Barleys. It's Steve's busy season and January in Australia is no different to January in UK in the audit world. It was my first week back after the festive break and I want to get to the stage whereby I am working 08:30 - 17:30 but in order to do that I need to invest some time into my job now to get things up and running and then ticking smoothly. At least we're both busy at the same time which hopefully means we both get to be a bit less busy next quarter. In spite of the long week, I am enjoying the role. There are difficult issues as there always are with recruitment; temps not getting paid because they don't submit their timesheet in on time or because they enter the wrong info, temps complaining about their assignment, candidates wanting to know why there are no jobs for them, all those fun things which are the same no matter where one works. However in spite of all this stuff, work is still good. I get a lot of help and support from colleagues and they seem like a fun bunch so so far so good!

Although the nature and demands of our jobs don't change just because we're on the other side of the World, one thing that is different in January is the weather. This week we've had torrential rain Monday through to Friday but it's been really hot too. Friday the rain cleared up and the blue sky appeared along with Mr. Sunshine and just in time for the Friday drinks trolley to come round! I am definitely enjoying the Friday drinks trolley tradition. A glass of wine at 16:30 on a Friday is a good way to end the long week.

During the week we've been following the cricket naturally. The first 20:20 was pretty exciting; even I have to say that. Australian coverage though is not so impressive. They didn't interview the England winning team and when Australia won the second match they got the celebratory flames and fireworks. When England won there was nothing of the sort. I guess that's the way the sports World turns here in Aus. At least we get to see the game on TV.

Friday evening was about recuperating from the long working week. Steve finished work about 20:00 and we headed out for dinner and a bottle of wine to help aid sleep of course. A sunny Saturday dawned and we did a market shop and cleaned the apartment before rewarding ourselves with a relaxing afternoon by the river in the sunshine catching up on some leisurely reading. Saturday evening we headed out to an area known as Lygon Street which is a busy strip with lots of mainly Italian restaurants and cafés. We caught up with Charlotte and her boyfriend Nick and Emma and Vida over some food, wine and cocktails.Sunday dawned bright and sunny and we had plans to go to the Melbourne Aquarium. It's a good place to spend a couple of hours although for next time I'd try and avoid the weekend and the school holidays. My feet were trampled on several times by little kids and run over by numerous buggies. There were some interesting fish and related species there. The penguins were cute and different to the ones on Philip Island. They had gentoo and emperor ones at the aquarium.The baby hammerhead sharks are strange looking creatures. I then spent the rest of the afternoon by the river enjoying the sunshine whilst Steve did some more work.

And now it's Sunday evening and my usual blogging time. We've had a delicious dinner of home made Thai red fish curry with sticky rice and we're in front of the TV watching a bad film - like a Mighty Ducks movie but about baseball and with Billy Bob Thornton. It's a good Sunday evening!

Since Suzi's departure and Steve's return to work life has been quiet which is not necessarily a bad thing. The weather has been lovely and sunny so I have spent afternoons sat by the river reading a book and catching up on household errands.

I've had lunch with a couple of people; a girl from work and an old schoolfriend both of which were lots of fun. It was especially nice to catch up with Corinne whom I have known since our schooldays and she has been in Melbourne for a good number of years now and sounds so very Australian. Her home is here now; her husband is here, her daughter was born here and her son is due to be born here and it's so nice to see that she is so happy here.

I caught up with Emma and Charlotte on Friday evening and a new friend called Vida came along. We had cocktails at Madame Brussels in the sunshine before heading to Hu Tong for dumplings which I am so pleased they enjoyed. Emma called them "little pockets of Heaven" which I find quite apt. We followed this with more cocktails at a bar called 1806 which is all red velvet and gentlemens club-esque.

Steve had to go to work on Saturday so given he'd only have one day off (Sunday this week) I decided to let him off cleaning and I did it all myself! He repaid though by texting me mid morning suggesting we go out that evening and he said he'd sort it out. I did think it might involve sport either live or on a big screen and tried to steer him clear from that. He came up trumps though with a table at Gordon Ramsay's Maze! More on that in the Restaurant Review section.

We've spent Sunday having pho at Victoria Street and a visit to the Japanese store where everything is $2.80. I love those Japanese stores. They sell everything from hair nets to kitchenware to food to clothing. And now we're watching TV (very old Baywatch episode) with the papers and I'll start cooking dinner shortly. A very relaxing day before work starts tomorrow...eek! I think the thought of having to return to work after such a lovely break is more yucky ht

Experience tells us that the hottest part of the day in this neck of the woods is late afternoon / early evening and on New Year's Eve it hit 42 degrees at 19:00! Leaving the apartment block was like entering a sauna. We were pleased that the bar we were going to was merely steps away. We'd decided to buy tickets to guarantee entry to a place and we had chosen to spend the evening at Left Bank; one of the nice bars along the river strip at Southbank.

We enjoyed the included drinks reception and steadily worked our way through mojitos, beer and bubbly until they stopped being free. Don't worry we got our money's worth. Soon the wait staff began bringing round trays of canapés: seared tuna rolled in parsley, king prawns with guacamole, chicken ballotine with avocado, foie gras parfait on litle crackers and smoked salmon and caviar.

Two guys set up an oyster shucking area in the corner and soon we were being offered raw oysters, mussels, scallops and huge prawns in their shells. Steve has never liked oysters since trying a battered one at a not very good Chinese restaurant but with lots of Dutch courage inside him he tried one of these ones and seemed to enjoy it enough to have a few more! I think we've come to the conclusion that we don't mind oysters but aren't the type to sit and eat through a high volume unlike some people I know.

After we grazed on shellfish, it was time for the meat to be circulated and we sampled Serrano ham, lomo and chorizo before little desserts came out. By the time dessert was offered it was getting close to 11pm and given we had prime seats on the terrace we decided to stay put until midnight.

After toasting the New Year we headed home, spoke to the family on Skype and decided to call it a night for the next few days were going to be busy!

The day began with a quick trip to South Melbourne market to show Suzi where we shop and to pick up some supplies for dinner. We then headed into the city and went to Chocolate Buddha on Federations Square for some lunch. We shared sushi and sashimi and gorged ourselves on rice and noodles. Suzi tried the sake sampler and I tried a frozen plum sake. Both went down well. Steve stuck to a pint of Carlton draft.

With full bellies we followed Steve as he led us on a tour of the city. We walked through the laneways and arcades, saw the main city streets and Steve took us to a bar he'd been to before but was new to me called Madame Brussles. It looked like nothing from the outside and we had to take a dodgy looking lift to the top floor. When the lift doors opened we could see into this really cute rooftop terrace; all girly and quaint. The sun by this time was out to play and the waitress offered us parasols including pretty blue one she picked out especially for Steve to match his t-shirt. Suzi and I shared a jug of Summer Splendour and it was splendid!

Steve's tour continued and we walked by the Treasury Buildings, through Fitzroy Gardens where we stumbled upon the Conservatory which was all pink and lilac blooms and very pretty, we saw various wedding parties posing for pictures and Captain Cook's house. He never actually lived in the park but they shipped his home from Great Ayton near Scarborough brick by brick and reconstructed it in the garden.

We walked by the MCG and the Rod Laver Arena and made our way through the Shrine of Remembrance climbing the stairs to the balcony for a beautiful view of the city before heading back to Southbank via an ice cream stop. Steve and I realise we have to come up with various different walks so we can take out visitors round and this is one route we may well repeat.

Dinner was BBQ and Steve assumed the role of King Chef. We had steak, lamb cutlets, sausages, salad and garlic roasted potatoes. All very good. Mr B is getting very good at cooking on the outside grill so I encourage you to visit so you can try out his skills!

We had intended on going to the casino for a wander and post dinner drink but the fresh air and sunshine had wore us out so we changed into our PJs instead and called it a night for tomorrow was an early start...

A 9am departure time meant we were at our first winery, De Bortoli by 10:30am tasting wine and chomping on cheese! We started as we meant to go on sampling everything they had an offer. We wanted to get our money's worth naturally and the tour wasn't cheap! They offered us some creamy, garlicky goats cheese that was made especially to go well with their sparkling wine and the pair were definitely yummy. There was also a cheese called Devil's Foot made in the style of Swiss cheese but much tastier as I'm not a huge Swiss cheese fan but this had more of a mature Cheddar flavour and they also offered us some Stilton imported all the way from Nottingham! Apparently the dessert wine went especially well with the blue cheese and Suzi and Steve were really pleased with it. One of Suzi's highlights of the day apparently!

Next stop was Yering Station where we spent an hour starting at the top of the list and working all the way down through the sparkling, the white, the rosé, the red and the port! We were surprised that not everyone on the tour participated and other even went to have a coffee instead!!! We were happy enough in our trio and we befriended a lady also on our tour, Wendy who was doing some travelling by herself and was visiting from Georgia, USA. Together we worked our way through all the wine they had on offer on the list and some extras too! The stand out here for me was a sparkling pink champagne that reminded me of strawberries and meringue without being sugary; delicious! And my darling husband spoilt me a little by buying a bottle for us to take home.

The winery is in a gorgeous location and the sun had come out by this time so after the wine tasting we spent a few minutes outside taking pics and wandering around.

For lunch we headed to Domaine Chandon, also a beautiful winery. All ten of us shared a table along with our driver and guide as well as another driver / guide who was with the same company but had been leading a private group and he'd decided to join us for lunch instead to give his passengers their own time. At Domaine Chandon, we were poured 4 half glasses of wine to have with lunch. They brought out antipasto starters with olives, the most delicious pickled onions, assorted meats, aubergine and artichokes for us to share and dig into. Our trio split up because of the seating around the table and Suzi went to sit with our new friend Wendy and the two drivers at the other end of the table. Steve and I got to know a couple from Perth and a couple from Canada a bit better. The good thing about these small tours is that given the price they charge, you know that you're likely going to be with likeminded holiday makers and this proved to be the case.

I had chosen the mussels and pipis dish (pipis being clams) which were in a very flavoursome broth with coriander and chilli and Steve went for the pork belly salad which he declared very tasty too. We had a quick browse round the shop and decided we didn't need Chandon emblazoned wine coolers and with full bellies and having had lots of wine we declared we were in a happy place!

The next winery was Coldstream Hill which was founded by James Halliday, a renowned Australian wine critic. Many restaurants have wine lists that feature wines he has reviewed. The wine here is of an exceptional standard and do not necessarily conform to tradition. They have a sauvignon blanc that smells just like a NZ one but the taste is completely different and not the watered down almost disappointing taste of a South African one. They also do some wonderful Chardonnays that are so different to the more common Chardonnay. Apparently they attribute the difference to the fact they only use French Oak barrels rather than American so the oakiness is understated and much more delicate and also they choose to shy away from the big, buttery typical Chardonnays. I would have swore blind that one of the ones we tasted was not a Chardonnay but a sauvignon blanc or perhaps a pinot gris. I wished my friend Steph was with us because she hates Chardonnay and I would have liked to see if the Coldstream Hills offerings would have fooled her palette! We left here with three bottles of wine to take home.

Final stop was the Yarra Valley Dairy which is a big tin hut offering cheeses and other produce as well as providing a platform for smaller wineries to showcase their produce. We enjoyed some fresh goats cheeses and then Steve and Suzi headed straight for some more wine tasting. I was all wined out by this point so tried one and moved onto a coffee! S&S were hardcore and continued sampling.

We were dropped off at home about 17:30 and rather than rest and become tired we decided to push on through and walked onwards to the Casino for a little wander. We had dinner at Sho which is a noodle place in the Casino before heading back home via an ice cream stop.

And our time with our first visitor was over. So sad! But we had such a fun time and have some fantastic pictures to remember it by.

I now have a few more days off before starting work again on Monday. Steve is straight into busy season and will be working this weekend too. Hopefully the busy stuff will be over by 17th in time for my birthday!