Kerry's "Letter from Australia" - October 2007 (part 2) It was Holly’s birthday on the 3rd and we went to Luna Park, a theme park in Melbourne. Not having been there before, we were thinking, Thorpe Park or Alton Towers size but no, it was smaller than Adventure Island at the seafront in Southend. The kids didn’t seem to mind though and went on the same rides time after time. They also saw Carla Bonner who any “Neighbours” aficionados amongst you will know, is “Steph”. She was queuing up for a ride and chatted to the girls. Holly’s birthday was marred by the postal strike in England and her cards didn’t turn up until the beginning of November, I thought it was only a one day strike but it obviously took them a month to catch up!! Also Holly’s social life has been on the up again this month, over a four day period we only saw her for about 4 hours, as she was at dance rehearsals or staying over with friends. We took advantage of the situation for a day trip around the local wineries and had a slap up lunch out and didn’t have to return for the 3.30pm return from school deadline, it was almost like our pre children days!! Kevin’s friend Rob is now home for good although he has to return to the hospital twice a week for physio. He was on crutches to start with but by the end of the month could walk for short distances without them. I went to the Paperific Expo in Melbourne’s Docklands this month, only a few new things took my eye though and I didn’t spend much, Jackie will tell you this is a rare occurrence for me at a show!! There was also a trade show attached and as a website owner I am now allowed into such hallowed ground. I have been with Karen to the Birmingham Trade Show, which is huge and full of goodies, this one I am afraid would have fitted into Karen’s shop without needing to use the classrooms, and as a result I didn’t see much to order in. Shame! I was expecting to be torn as to what to spend my limited budget on, but alas it wasn’t to be!! I can’t remember if I mentioned it last month but I had an interview for a part time job at a local community centre, which I subsequently got and I now work two days a week, helping with the admin side. I even got to do two card making workshops. It is a small community of 300 people and it is my job as Assistant Coordinator along with the Coordinator to drum up interest for the classes we run and also approach other tutors to run courses. It is quite a rural based demographic, so cheese making, goat keeping and the like are more the order of the day, than scrap booking and card making but we are aiming to bring a more diverse array of classes in the coming year. It is a beautiful drive up the mountain to the village, through a rain forest. I am sending Karen’s shop a local calendar for next year and there is a picture of the forest, so any of you who go in will be able to see it. Lauren was trying to hold up the British end at Uni, when South Africa were playing England at rugby and was being teased unmercifully (but playfully) about how England were rubbish and didn‘t stand a chance. When we lost I imagined she would cop a load more abuse but she said they were so delighted with the win that in the subsequent celebrations her “Britishness” was forgotten. We have had a brief hint of “Home“, when we went up to Melbourne to go to Ikea, the layout is exactly the same as at Lakeside and I could almost believe I was home again. We went up to get a couple of worktops for the small kitchen in what was the Bed and Breakfast part of the house, but soon to be my workroom. You can’t just walk into the local DIY shop like you can in England, they just don’t stock these things and you have to order from a catalogue or swatch. It is the same with kitchens, they don’t have places like "Wickes" or "MFI" where you can buy nice but relatively reasonably priced kitchens, everything is made to order and more of a bespoke nature. There are a very few in the “Wickes” equivalent but nothing to write home about. Kevin won his cycling club Hill Climb handicap this month and won the princely some of $100 (about 40.00 pounds, but it goes further out here), he also had another couple of placings in different races bringing his monthly total nearer to $200, which he was very pleased about. Well that is it for this month, Love Kerry