It does get cold here in Melbourne. Maybe not UK cold but there is a chill in the air. Although there is sunshine it's warmth is not of the intensity of the Summer sun and once the sun disappears and there are few clouds in the air, it definitely feels like Winter.

And Winter means we need warm friendship, comfort food and log fires to keep our souls cosy and our toes toasty.

Last weekend I met up with Christine for cocktails and dinner and we enjoyed some good conversation and the vodka certainly warded off the chill.

Last Sunday, I was Steve's sous chef as he cooked an incredible roast dinner. We had roast rib of beef with Yorkies (I made those!), onion gratin, Brussel sprouts with bacon and toasted almonds, roast potatoes, mash potatoes, green beans, stuffing and gravy. Dessert was a berry meringue topped with toasted hazelnuts and caramel. Just to reassure you, it wasn't just the two of us that got through all that! We had some of Steve's PwC colleagues come round for the afternoon and we enjoyed all the good food, some great wine that they brought with them and a good old general reminisce about Sunday dinner back home.

This weekend the warmth of friendship continued as we caught up with Jacqui and her lovely family at her in laws' country property near Heathcote.

We enjoyed lunch in a place called Redesdale...yep pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Much like our recent pub stay in Tooberac, this was a pub in a place with a name!

We had a great day outdoors where Tom and Pete rode bikes, played soccer with Steve and helped us gather wood for all three fires we had going at one time!

With Richie as our Chef along with his secret pizza dough recipe which he openly shared with me so it can't be that secret and he was also Chief Pizza Oven Officer so pizza standards were sky high! We had a great Saturday night dinner of delicious pizza with wine and the Lions game on in the background which Jacqui and I did not watch and chatted through.

Tom and Pete were as entertaining as ever and enjoyed Steve's company at the bar!

Rich very kindly chose to share his $100 bottle of wine that he was given and the classy people that we are, decanted it in a cafetiere!

Today we had a lie in unlike Jacqui and Rich as the boys wake at 6am. Steve wallowed in bed for a while nursing a sore head but a bacon breakfast, cup of tea and kickabout with Tom and Pete soon chased those cobwebs away.

We said our farewells spoke of plans to repeat the fun experience and Steve drove us to another village in the area known as Kyneton where we enjoyed a bistro lunch.

Melbourne has been super busy this weekend and so I was grateful to be able to escape the crowds. There are so many visitors from UK supporting the Lions tour of Australia and because we live close to the CBD and in a fairly touristy area we have been caught up in the crowds. I even saw a bunch of men come out of a teddy bear shop near my offices on Thursday morning with a stuffed lion. Strange thing to do when in Australia but I guess it's not the worst souvenir. And funnily enough I saw same said lion or one that looked a lot like it at one of the bars in Southbank on Friday night amidst a crowd of supporters.

Steve has just come back from an AFL game and says it's still busy out there and there were a large number of Brits at the game too.

Following the long weekend, I expected the 4 days at work to go by rather uneventfully until this weekend. Well...not quite! I went out with Charlotte and Claire on Wednesday for dinner and was home reasonably early. Over the course of that night whilst in bed, my eye started watering. Given I was half asleep I tried to ignore it and then by 5am I could ignore no more and it woke me up. It felt like there was something sharp in it and the tears just kept falling and it was getting redder and more and more swollen. I couldn't even open it at one point. As luck would have it, Steve was catching a 7am flight and was away for the day so he couldn't help me. I ended up keeping it closed and resting it until about lunchtime when I made it to the pharmacy who advised I probably had a small laceration and had to rest it as much as possible with no prolonged computer work or watching TV.

By Friday it had improved but still felt a bit gritty and luckily by Saturday I was all good although it's spectacles for me for the next fortnight! So yes, 4 days of smooth sailing work didn't happen and instead I was weeping and wearing spectacles! Specs are bad for photos so I take them off for the camera!

These pictures were take on Saturday night at dinner by the Yarra at Sake Restaurant. It definitely is Winter in Australia now and we're wearing jackets out and about. But thanks to outdoor heaters, we enjoyed a sushi and sashimi dinner outside admiring the twinkling city lights and people watching before a leisurely walk to the Rod Laver Arena.

The arena show of Jesus Christ Superstar was on at the Rod Laver Arena last night and Steve and I joined the 11,000 strong crowd. It was an edgy and pretty enthralling show. Mel C as Mary Magdalene was great - feisty and honest and Tim Minchin was made for Judas Iscariot with his dreadlocks, eye liner and skinny jeans!

It's been a quiet week and a fairly quiet weekend and we're finishing it off with an afternoon on the sofa after a tasty yum cha lunch. Yum cha is something my family in the UK always seem to be doing, I see the photos on Instagram and Facebook and Amelia Grace seems to enjoy it too. She is now crawling and always wanting to stand. In the photo below she looks like she wants to run off but she can't walk yet! She has such an adventurous and cheeky spirit. Truly a handful for mum and dad

This week was my friend and colleague's 30th birthday. The delectable Kylie Spinello, or Spinners as she is universally known as is a delight to work with.

We enjoyed celebrating with her and had a great lunch at Maha. Here she is with her plate of dessert!

As well as celebrating Spinners' birthday, we also had today (Monday) off thanks to the Queen's birthday which is a public holiday here! Many happy returns, Queenie and cheers for the day off!

Plans for the long weekend included time away in Heathcote which is 90 minutes away from Melbourne with Andy and Stacey and Shern and Jon staying at a local pub with an onsite microbrewery. Work commitments in Asia mean that Jon wasn't able to come but Shern more than made up for his presence with he witty repartee!

Heathcote is very much Shiraz country and we enjoyed plenty wine tasting across our few days here.

We stayed in a small house to the back of a local pub and Friday night was very much about getting the fire going and enjoying Shern's home made lasagne along with a number of bottles of red wine! Naturally we also sampled the pub's beer offerings to help us settle into the area.

We were perhaps badly prepared for the weekend in country Victoria and weren't aware temperatures at night would drop to zero. As Shern said, after 12 years in Australia, she hadn't seen frost once yet frost made an appearance every day!

Also we forgot country life would mean creepy crawlies and this huge spider made an unwelcome appearance. Thankfully Steve got rid of it for us!

I've not experienced such cold weather in Australia. The days were sunny and bright but in the evenings the temperature plummeted. It was 3 degrees at 7pm and was 1 degree at 5am. And Australian houses are so not equipped for such temperatures and although we had a wonderful fire, the bedrooms remained stone cold. Nevertheless there was an element of fun in trying to stay warm beneath blankets and duvets.

The next day we explored Heathcote which took minutes as it really consists of one main street that isn't particularly long or interesting!

However we were blessed with some lovely sunshine and took advantage of wine tasting opportunities.

The other sight to Heathcote and probably less famous than its Shiraz are the Pink Cliffs. We took a leisurely walk across some sandy and rocky terrain before viewing them from a platform.

So these are the Pink Cliffs. Apparently gold mining activities in the early 1800s revealed these mounds.

We found refreshment upon our return and stopped off at an advantageously placed winery.

Saturday morning was about sustenance as we embarked on a wine tour of the region.

Our wine tour exposed us to a large number of wines from small producers and we all enjoyed many a purchase too.

Aside from visiting wineries and rambles we spent time indoors enjoying the fireplace and indulging in competitive banter such as who can fit the most Cheezels into their mouth. A Cheezel for the non Australians are like a cross between a Wotsit and a Hula Hoop and they are pretty chunky.

We came home today (Monday) and Steve took me out for lunch and we've just been relaxing on the sofa. It was a fun weekend with lots of laughs and a genuinely good country break from the hustle and bustle and demands of working life.

This weekend reminded Steve and I of the cottage breaks we used to take back home over New Year. I think the cold temperatures contributed to that. So speaking of home, some great photos of Amelia Grace arrived this week. She certainly enjoys her headphones and she's also playing and interacting with her cousins Bradley and Bailey.

It's been a weekend of quickies! That is quick catch ups with quite a number of people. All started on Friday night when I had dinner with Stefanie, Ling and Noah in the city and we spoke very quickly and caught up with news since the last time which was well over  a month ago. Ling and Noah kindly gave me a lift home as it was raining very heavily and I caught up with Steve and his colleagues at the Belgian Beer Cafe just below our apartment block. A swift drink there and we watched the lightning hit and the rain pour down before making a dash for it home. Two groups of pals in one night...speedy!

Saturday was a lovely day. It was still grey and damp but the air was fresh and the temperature mild. I met up with Carrie at Gazi which is George Calombaris' newest project and we enjoyed some great food and a hello from George. Long and leisurely was the theme and after 2.5 hours of grazing we headed to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image to the Hollywood costume exhibition.

It was pretty jam packed full of people but we persevered and were rewarded with shiny sequins and gowns galore. Some of these costumes are teeny tiny showing how small the actors and actresses really are. Perhaps most memorable were Judi Dench's gown she wore in "Shakespeare in Love", Marilyn's white "Some Like It Hot" halterneck dress, Audrey's LBD from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" L being very true and a beautiful, black sequinned affair that Renee Zellweger wore in "Chicago". There was also a handful of superheroes - Superman, Batman, Spiderman and Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) and the exhibition was current enough to also show a couple of outfits from "Gatsby".

Such a pleasant way to spend a Saturday - lunch and some sparkle. Upon my return home, I discovered Steve had been hard at work.

Steve had paid a visit to the market and was busy cooking away. We had a soul warming dinner of Twice Baked Goat's Cheese Souffle and a Slow Cooked Pork Chilli with Chilli Cornbread. Talk about heart warming!

Finally we saw some sunshine today and we headed to the Middle Park Hotel for lunch with Lorna and Rob. A few hours later we were relaxing on the sofa and we find out Tim and Rachel are having a drink in the area so we head out for a quickie with them which was lovely.

Now it's time for leftovers and bed before Monday! Weekends are such quickies.

Here is Amelia in her Sunday best with my dad. Look at those chubby arms! Just want to eat them! And below you can see her rocking out so some tunes! Ibiza party anthems if her parents' musical tastes have anything to do with it!