JOEL & ELISE ENGAGED (Sydney, Australia)

The title says it all - little Joel proposed to his gorgeous girlfriend Elise on a very sunny Anzac Day and she said yes! We all drank bubbly and celebrated with them, laughing and crying and just generally feeling over the moon excited that we'll have a new sister in our family. Plus Kris has been asked to be Best Man and they are hoping for a summer wedding next year, which means we will be coming back to Oz much sooner than expected! Hooray all round.

MUSIC VIDEO (Sydney, Australia)

What happens when you take a bunch of students with high-falutin’ ideas and no money, with a whimsy to make a music video underwater, and combine them with an idealistic camera man with a bug up his ass? It wasn't an easy ride!

Firstly, it's hard to make a music video underwater when the lead actor can't swim. Seriously! That’s some bad planning right there. Add to that, hours in an unheated swimming pool, no breathing apparatus, and several spider bites, and you got yourself one helluva weekend! Pretty annoying. I'm not sure what the spider was, but it gave me a cracking headache and the shivers for 24 hours. I’m not sure I deserved that after rescuing a white tail from our laundry…the nasty flesh rotting ones.

Contrary to what people might assume given the localised swelling, the bug wasn't actually UP my ass.

SOUTH COAST (Jervis Bay, Australia)

Our time in Oz is ticking away, but we made sure to squeeze in a quick trip to see Kris' step-brother, his lovely wife and our beautiful nieces who live down the coast in Jervis Bay. Jesse & Emma are busy people, she is nearly done with med school and will be a full fledged GP by the next time we visit and Jesse is managing a monster building project. All this while raising their two beautiful daughters in a cool little beach town. It was great to hang out with them and see how much the girls are growing up, what they are into, what their favourite colours are, etc. As is normal in Oz, we spent the afternoon on Hyams Beach (which has the whitest sand in the world - literally, google it!) soaking up the sun under a perfect blue sky and by the next morning we were walking along the bay in the pouring rain, with the sea and the sky a matching blue-grey colour. Our drive back to the city took us through the countryside around Kangaroo Valley, where Jesse is overseeing a stunning hillside renovation of a beautiful modern house.

PLAIN SAILING (Pittwater, Australia)

We didn't come out to just swan about and enjoy the sunshine and the family's famously kind hospitality. We both want to make some progress with professional and artistic aspirations. Tricky this creative professional lark though.

Obviously we’re busting a gut to land some work - I’ve managed to recut my showreel, Neko made me a website, we've sent out a tonne of emails to contacts here, I've had a couple of interviews for local jobs....and now?…and now I'm off sailing, then it's to the clubhouse for drinks, then Joel and I have a tennis match! Well, it's all about networking darling.

Really, I was allowed to become part of the crew on a 40 foot racing yacht, competing against the likes of 'Wild Oats', Australia's premiere racing team. It's nuts! With my reputation for sinking boats (Motorboat with Jean Phillippe, Queensland 1995, Katamaran with my brother Jesse, Jervis Bay 2001), I can only assume they were duped by my piratey Bristol heritage and my willingness to sport a beard and stripes. I'm working on my limp.

So far, I have a couple of days a week tutoring on a media course at a local college, and I'm scheduled to shoot a music video next month. The rest of the time, it's all 'tacking and spritzers'! This freelance thing is turning out to be plain sailing.

UNDERGROUND OPERA (Wellington Caves near Dubbo, Australia)

So we're in The Outback...ish. It's Valentine's Day.

Now the landlocked regions of Australia are absolutely stunning - but there's not a lot happening. Where do you plan a romantic night out where it's all mozzies and sheep stations? Let's go to the high street milk bar and look at the local rag to see what's going on: country fair, shearing competition, hot rod rally, 'Pie and dance', nope nope nope nope. We chance upon a rare droplet of sophistication in the cultural desert that is the Australian heartlands: 'Opera in the Caves'.



We call for availability and lo and behold, talk with the actual opera company owner, a one man operation with a troop of the finest troubadours and some cool lighting. As it happens, when he's not running Opera events, he's a miner...everything from digging for gold and gems in Aussies new mining boom, to digging a harbour tunnel in Sydney. We asked about the event and enquired if we could see some pics online. He said his online photos were scant and that he hoped to get more tonight only his photographer had bailed. Well mercy me! Next thing you know, I'M booked to be the stand in photographer, and we land free tickets. Ker-ching!! A damp dark back row seat and some fat lasses wailing in Italian. Now that's what I call a real gem of a romantic night out.

My sweet Valentine...Neko 'Billy no mates'

Miner Bruce has that 1950's dappa talkshow host look. Love it!

Thank you Bruce Edwards www.operainthecaves.com.au

HAPPY CAMPERS (Murray River, South Australia)

Wayne Dermody seeks out quiet places to sit, sun, and fish alongside the thousand of miles of rivers in Australia’s Outback. We met him at the quiet and remote Cadell campsite on the Murray River. He served in Vietnam, came back and joined the police force, and wished he'd stayed on rather than leaving to odd-job around Oz. He had a girlfriend with four kids for six years. He finally left simply saying "I'm gonna split." She said "righto." Only then, did he learn to drive at age 50, and off he went on the road.

 

Wayne goes to occasional Vietnam vet reunions, keeps a collie called Shaggy and lives a simple life out of his Ute (Utility Vehicle / Truck). Everything he needs is right there. He’s on route to a reunion now. Along with his sister, these guys are the only people he keeps up with. To earn a few more bucks for the road, he will soon return to his work digs on a sheep station in Western Australia. He feels like his time is running out to keep doing physical labour as he gets old and out of breath. Wayne smokes 40 roll ups a day.

For Wayne, it’s never too late to start traveling, but it may be too late to stop.

OLD FRIENDS - Mornington Peninsular, Australia

Our good old family friends, Dave and Jane, are on a big Aussie holiday. We’ve come to visit them whilst they house sit on the glorious Mornington peninsula where it’s all ‘vineyards and sailing clubs’…darling! On the house tour, I spotted a rather fancy carbon road bike with the name MEKK emblazoned across it.








I asked when back in the kitchen for a welcome coffee whose bike it was, and remarked that it was a rare sight in Australia, and that someone in my family actually makes those bikes. Jane went quiet (really unusual!) and got chills as she replied that her brother-in-law actually makes those bikes. Following a brief horrifying (for Jane) moment where we thought we may be related, I explained that my cousin Ken Knight is the KK from MEKK bikes. Jane replied that Mark Edwards, or ‘ME’ from MEKK, is her sister’s husband, and not only that, but he is on his way here to the house to stay tonight! What the..!!!!! He’s just been to see the ‘Tour Down Under’ bike road race.Ker-azy huh?!

Jane it turns out, has known my cousin Ken for many many years, and all this time had never joined the dots together. Mark, Jane’s sister Sarah, and their son Jack were great fun and we all spent a riotous evening drinking far too much local wine, and retelling stories, like long-lost family.

MALAY STOPOVER (Melaka, Malaysia)

After a hectic month, we arrived into KL having not slept for 72 hours. So you can imagine our delight when we found out the bus from the airport to Melaka was fully loaded with 'massage chairs'. We were asleep pretty quick! Upon arrival in the colonial city and a somewhat circular cab trip, we found an affordable room at rather retro looking Emperor Hotel. The yellow exterior and 1970's decor was right up our street. The view from our picture window up on the 18th floor was great for gazing out over the city. We conked out and spent the next day in bed, with short breaks for food at the night market opposite - where you could get 10 sticks of chicken satay for about $2. You could also sample tasty treats like monitor lizard curry, sweet and sour frog or pig brain soup!

Strolling the canal at dusk, you can see our retro highrise hotel in the distance,
and the next hotel we stayed in is just on the opposite side of the riverbank

You might be wondering, why Melaka? Most people only visit the World Heritage spot for a day or two - but we really wanted to just stop and chill out on the way to Oz and we'd been to KL before. We had considered flying up to Georgetown, Penang - but thought we'd save that one for another time. Maybe on the way south from our favourite Thai island Koh Lipe!

After five days at the Emperor, we moved over to the River Song Residence, a lovely little guesthouse with a balcony right in Chinatown. We discovered the most incredible brunch spot called Eat at 18 - my favourite place in all of Melaka - they also have stunning boutique rooms, so check them out if aren't travelling on a shoestring!

Rather lazily, we did some Christmas shopping in Chinatown, wandered around the night markets in Jonker Street, had massages every other day, ate delicious food, chilled on the balcony in the rain and enjoy a bit of sun by the pool.

One night we went out to Bistro 1673 and made friends with the two-piece playing live music  - Joseph and Lauren, who kindly gave us lots of insider foodie tips on Melakan cuisine. We met up a couple of times and sampled everything from traditional Nyonya food, authentic Chinese, frozen coconut shakes, Durian jelly and the famous Nadeje layer cake (dozens of crepes delicately piled up with cream inbetween each layer!) Amazing.

Unfortunately, our trip to the cake shop was en-route to the bus, which our friends had kindly offered to drop us to, and we missed it due to a traffic jam! There wasn't enough time to get another bus and so we thought we'd take a taxi - but they wouldn't hear of it, and drove us two hours back to KL. What angels! Thanks J&L.

SKIPPING WINTER (Bristol, UK)

It's been awhile since we were on the road, having settled down back in the UK for the past few years. We thought it was about time to visit family in Oz again and that we might as well rent out the flat and skip winter. So we're heading off in December for warmer climes...!

FLIGHT TIPS FOR OZ VIA ASIA (STA Travel, UK)

The journey to Oz from the UK is always a tiring one - especially when you only book tickets last second during high season! Luckily I came up with an ingenious and cost saving way to do the trip - which gives us the maximum amount of flexibility for our journey. We booked a six month return ticket from Heathrow to KL with Sri Lankan Air, as the price and their stopover time in Columbo was much less than the competition. This meant we could have a nice ten day stopover in Malaysia on the way to Australia. By booking one-way tickets to Sydney with AirAsia, we'll have the flexibility to do some travelling in SE Asia on the way back to England if we want to.