"reconsider your need to travel"

well it looks like we're not going to fiji anymore.

earlier today whilst trying to rearrange our flights to and from new zealand we decided to check the current situation in fiji as we knew there was already a degree of caution about travelling there.

when we checked the foreign and commenwealth office's website we found the following travel advice for fiji:

"We advise against all but essential travel to Fiji because of increasing tensions between the Government of Fiji and the Republic of Fiji Military Forces. The Fiji Military Commander has issued a number of ultimatums demanding that the Government resign, and has announced that military action will be taken if his demands are not met by 4 December 2006. The Military has announced that they will be undertaking night-time manoeuvres between Midnight 29 November 2006 and 0300 30 November 2006. There is now a strong possibility of a military coup taking place in Fiji. The security situation could deteriorate at short notice. The British High Commission in Fiji is monitoring events closely."

whilst we could wait and monitor the situation to see what happens nearer the time we are due to travel to fiji, we have decided to make a decision now incase the political situation gets worse before it gets better.

due to the australian visa we have we can only stay in australia for 3 months at a time within the 12 month period starting when we arrived. our trip to fiji meant that our visa was restarted upon our return to australia on 12 january.

because of this factor it means we are planning to go to new zealand one month earlier than expected. which also means we are doing some more re-arranging of dates.

i phoned virgin blue (airline taking us to fiji) earlier today and because of the situation in fiji they are offering to cancel our flight and give us credit to fly elsewhere...... which we will use to fly to cairns.

plus we will hopefully get the money back from the accomodation and boat trip we booked in fiji, so that may give us some extra money to spend on accomodation and having a good time in cairns.

our original plan was to leave marra's house on 3 january and fly to sydney. in sydney we would be staying with amy's friend erin. on 7 january we were due to fly to fiji and stay until the 12 january when we would fly back to syndey. after another week or so there we would be making our way up to john de teliga's house in surfers paradise. after some time there we were planning on travelling up to cairns and back down to brisbane over a 4 week period. once back in brisbane we were planning to fly to new zealand around mid march before flying home to uk around mid april.

now everything has changed this is our initial plan.

we will stay at marra's for a week and then fly up to cairns/great barrier reef area for a couple of weeks coming back in time for the arrival of george clarke, geo and phil. as planned stay at marra's over the christmas and new year period. we will still fly up to sydney on 3 january but only stay at erin's house for around a week before heading up to john's house in surfers paradise. from then on we would have to cut the times down but we would still like to travel a bit further up than brisbane. we would then have to leave australia by the end of february so we will keep our original flight to new zealand on 15 february and fly home mid april, as planned after 5 months. spending 2 months in new zealand.

it's a bit of a pain having to change everything but it's something we feel we need to do. after all my dad told me to be more decisive!

sorry this has been a bit of a long boring update but it's easiest to let everyone know in one go. we've made the decision and whilst we're both a bit gutted we can't go to fiji there's no point dwelling on it too much, so we're looking forward to our new plans. hopefully they will run quite smoothly!

on a lighter note it's been really hot today, we'll post some pictures later. x

melbourne

today we took the train into melbourne. it was sunny but quite windy. the plan was to meet marra's friends tori and claire at the station and they would drive us about and show us the sights... however, as we got off the train we got a call from tori saying that she had a flat tyre so we took the tram to brunswick street where they had pulled over.

claire had checked the boot and said there was no spare tyre so they called for a tow-truck... when we got there and checked under the carpet in the boot we found a tyre so marra changed it for them.




after having lunch in brunswick street (melbourne's equivalent of camden town or manchester's northern quarter) we took the tram back into the centre and had a look around.

tori showed us federation square and the national gallery of victoria (the weird building behind us that looks like shattered glass). marra took pictures of himself. and the wind made my hair look like russel brand's.






after this we went to the main shopping area for a look around a few shops and stopped for an iced chocolate on the way. we saw this amazing shop where they make rock and lollies and you can actually see them making them, we stood outside watching them for a bit longer than was needed.


on first impressions we agreed that melbourne was a bit like manchester, less tourist places than london but full of quirky area's. it seemed a lot bigger than manchester though, and there are sky scrapers everywhere!

from melbourne we took the car out to st. kilda and stopped on acland street which is famed for it's continental cake shops. we stopped at one though me and greg were still full from our iced chocolate. st. kilda is by the sea and marra compared the sea front to blackpool... i could see what he meant but it was a LOT nicer than blackpool!

we'll definitely be going back into melbourne to visit the crown casino (which marra raves about) and of course the melbourne cricket ground, but also to have another look round, we didn't get chance to take it all in in one day there.

once we'd got home and had tea we went to a local bar for a few pots. i'm sure phil and gc will be happy to see that there was a bookies inside the bar!



we're off to bed shortly as it's an early start tomorrow with united kicking off at 7am.

hope everyone is well.

x x x

torquay

today we went to the surf town of torquay. it's about a 10 minute drive from marra's. it was meant to be a hot day but ended up only being about 20 and the wind made it cooler.

we looked around the surf shops... quiksilver, ripcurl etc, apparantly this is where a few of the makes started out. i bought a dress and greg finally bought some much needed sunglasses.

we got some really nice smoothies and headed down to the beach.









JES - we saw some ripcurl boots like the ug boots you have ordered. have they come yet? cause these ripcurl ones we're about 15 quid in the sale. if they haven't come yet and you can cancel the order i can send some over, the postage might be like 10 quid but thats still a hell of a lot less. or even if you wanted an extra pair... whatever, they were really nice, let me know... they do them in the bigger style too (come to just under your knee's). really nice. in brown too.

getting up at 2pm

because we watched the football and didn't get to bed til around 5am, we slept right through til 2pm!

when we finally got up we went to marra's work... the barking dog, for some chips and drinks, i had an amazing iced chocolate and greg had his "lemon shit" (it's not shit, he just didn't know what it was called and so that name stuck).


after that we went back to marra's house, dancing all the way...




it's parmy night on a monday so we went to the barking dog with some of marra's mates for tea. for those who don't know... a parmy is a massive piece of chicken in breadcrumbs, with a tomatoey sauce, cheese and ham on top. nice, but massive and way too much... i left half of mine... but greg finished it off for me.


after that we went back to marra's and watched 'secret window'. it was really good.

today we are off to the beach as it is meant to be a quite warm today, so we best go get ready.

x x x

sunday night

last night we started out at the barking dog before moving on to a club called lamby's in geelong. we met a few of marra's mates and shared a pot or two.

we got a lift home from lamby's at 2.30am via the 24 hour supermarket and settled in for the 3am kick off.

very briefly i wanted to be back in manchester watching the reds, then when i saw people in the crowd wearing big coats and the darkness falling at 4.30pm i knew where i'd rather be.

english pubs and walks to the water

like we said we were going to, we caught a bus to geelong. it was really cheap and the drivers were really nice and helpful compared to back home.

we had lunch in the english pub (the bended elbow) which was very nice and huge and good value for money! it cost $8 so about 3.20 in pounds... despite my burger looking a bit dodgy it wasn't it's just because i'm silly and play with my food and it was massive and hard to eat.


after that we wandered round the shops and greg bought some dickies shorts which he wanted for ages but we couldn't find any in manchester. they were meant to be 38 pounds but were on sale for 27! we we're going to take a picture of the sweet shop but forgot, and i'm sure you really don't care that much anyway.

after that we had an hour to wait for the bus so we walked down to the water and took some photos... not of the surroundings but of ourselves...




bye bye x x x

walkers crisps and thorntons toffee

hi it's greg here.

amy forgot to mention that yesterday we found a shop in the centre of geelong selling english sweets, chocolate, crisps and bits of english food such as yorkshire pudding mix and shortbread biscuits.

we'll definately be going back there for some refreshments!

bye for now.

chinese food and dry martini's

yesterday was really good, we went to the beach for lunch, then to the english style pub for a few pots.

after that we went round to one of marra's mates houses for a bit then had a chinese, which wasn't as good as marple house but it did the job.

marra was working in the evening at the barking dog, so we went down there for a drink and met marra's dad, who then took us on to the elephant and castle where we met a few of his mates.

i asked if they had any dry martini and the barman said they did, i asked if i could have it topped up with coke, he looked at me a bit funnily but agreed, he came back with a massive martini glass full of a martini james bond style with the olive and everything and asked if i wanted coke... aparantly they don't have our martini over here. i looked like a right idiot. they only have cinzano. oops. i only drank a bit of it, it was so strong, gin vodka etc with a tiny bit of coke.

greg got some stick off the aussie blokes for england's performance in the cricket. but he gave as good as he got.

today i think we are going to go into geelong and wander round the shops for a bit... if we can find our way there... marra is playing cricket so we have to catch the bus. then maybe go see him at cricket later. the weathers not as nice today, was fairly hot yesterday, bit overcast now, otherwise we probably would have gone to watch marra all day while sitting in the sun.

well, off to get ready to go out.

looks like greg is going to get some more stick today as england have just lost a couple of wickets.... (can you tell that greg wrote that? i haven't a clue whats going on with the cricket... and quite frankly don't care)

anyway, take care, missing everyone already, love us x x x

eastern beach, geelong

today, after marra finally decided to wake up, we went for lunch at the beach...


it's been really warm today and the beach was lovely (they've had no rain around here for ages, thats why the grass is a bit dodgy)...




greg and marra decided to chat up a couple of local sheila's...


we came to the conclusion that greg needs some sun glasses...


so that he can look as good as me and marra...



will be in touch soon. hope everyones well. x x x

marra's house

we've settled in and the jetlag has gone.

the towns over here as so different from at home. everything is really spaced out and enlarged. you have to drive everywhere.

if you imagine melbourne is a bigger version of manchester, geelong is a bigger version of stockport and grovedale where marra lives is a massive version of marple. theres no walking to the cc or the centre of marple - the beach, the pubs, the shops, everything is a ten minute drive away. the streets are big too. like their equivalent of stockport road is about 2-3 lanes wide and more like a motorway than a road!

this is marra's house...


this is marra's friend who also lives here...



this is greg and a newspaper and marra's street...


and this is us in case you have forgotten what we look like already...



well, we've run out of pictures and things to say so night night marple.

love us x

we're here!

we've just got to marra's house and had breakfast.

but here's some photo's from the bit inbetween setting off and getting to marra's.



we got on the first flight to london and we're told that andrew mcloughlin was flying our plane, which was a little scary, those who have met our friend macca from college will understand why!

this is the plane that took us from london to melbourne. it was massive and really annoying having to see the nice comfy first class and business seats before getting to our own.


greg watched 'mulholland drive' and didn't understand any of it... and christine... we watched the new 'pirates of the caribbean'! you should get everyone round for another party and watch it :p

at singapore airport we found free internet access but i felt ill. but we found ronald and he let us have a few photos with him...



to make me feel better greg had a go at being father christmas


anyway we are here now and very glad we don't have a flight like that again for five months.

hope you are all okay.

we'll be in touch again soon.

take care x x x

Singapore Airport

Hello everyone.

We've made it to Singapore. Arrived about ten minutes ago. Amy feels travel sick but has perked up now we've found free internet access. We've got an hour wait before we go back to the gate and board for a 7 hour flight to Melbourne, Australia.

Take care.

christmas meal in november

me and greg are off to marra's tomorrow so we went for an early chrsitmas meal with our parents, jack & jes and dave.

rolands birthday meal

the birthday boy

under the influence of jes...