Category Archives: Travel

Day Twenty-Four – Ocean Grove – Christmas Eve

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Our family always celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve so this day was spent cooking and eating a lot!  It’s not until I brought myself to write this post that I realise how little we did over Christmas.  We played a bit of table tennis and played Mario Kart on the Wii. Aside from that, eating leftovers and drinking cocktails took precedence in our Christmas.

Our oven was broken so the turkey had to be cooked in the pizza oven and everything else either in the pizza oven, convection oven, microwave or hob.  It wasn’t too bad and actually you should try cooking a turkey in a pizza oven, it doesn’t taste bad.  I made my famous pigs in blankets and brandy butter (but with rum instead).

The evening was spent eating, drinking and playing games with the family.  Just what Christmas is about (if you’re not religious).

Day Twenty-Three – Bellarine Peninsular – For the Love of Grape

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I was rudely awoken this morning at 10.30am to be told the wine tour bus was waiting for us outside.  So I grabbed some clothes, rushedly washed my hair in the sink and rammed my make up bag into my bag before jumping onto the bus.  The whole family went on the tour and Angie and Ed’s friend Sophie also joined us.  We went to four different vineyards on the trip, two before lunch and two after.  By the end of the second one I was feeling pretty drunk having had no breakfast or lunch.  I don’t know much about wines so the tour for me was a good way to get pissed.  However, by the end of the trip I felt like I was starting to know more about the types of wines I liked.

Lunch was really nice, set in a barn looking over the seaview and it was really tasty, the only issue was my mother complaining and there was a wedding next door which it felt like we were crashing.  The final vineyard we went to, Oakdene, was made up of eclectic pieces of art and the house was set on it’s side.  check the hyperlink for photos!

When we made it back home we had a few more drinks and played some Buzz! on the PS3 before heading off to bed.

Day Twenty-Two – Melbourne to Ocean Grove, Bellarine – Pizzas Against Humanity

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Ed and Angie had to go pick up Chris’ car today so the rest of us left our luggage for them to pick up and piled into the rental car to head to Costco and pick up our Christmas food shopping. We only had an hour here so we managed ti speed shop.  However, the bill for 7 people’s food came to over $700 which was a bit extortionate so I probably wouldn’t advise speed shopping in the future.

We drove down to Ocean Grove on the Bellarine Peninsular which is kind of like a holiday destination for Melbournians as it is only about an hour/two hour drive from Melbourne.  Ed and Angie’s car was not as they imagined it would be when they picked it up so didn’t leave Melbourne for a while and struggled their way over to Ocean Grove.

Because we arrived so late in Ocean Grove we had to quickly cool some drinks, put out chips and dips and prepare some pizza toppings in preparation for Flo, Andy, Ben, Louise, Bruce, Coralie, Joanna and the kids to come over.  We managed to make some pretty delicious pizzas in the pizza oven.

After we got a bit inebriated, Flo, Andy, Louise, Bruce and Coralie went home with the kids and Ben and Joanna stayed back to play a few games.  We got into playing Cards Against Humanity which was damn funny and a weird experience playing with close family members.  It was a good night but we had to get to bed to wake up for the wine tour in the morning.

Day Twenty-One – Melbourne – Inmigración y Tapas

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The day was spent split up into two groups for most of the day and it proved a lot easier to navigate and organise smaller groups of adults.

Since arriving in Melbourne, I really wanted to check out the Immigration Museum so I pitched the idea to the others and my Mum, Dad, Ed and Angie decided to join me there. Matthew and Emily decided instead to go to the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition. I’m so glad I went, it posed some really interesting ideas about migration, most I had thought about before but some new ideas were opened up to me which I hope to write about soon after my travels take a break.

We spent a good amount of time in the museum before catching the tram down to the docklands to do some last minute present shopping.  The more time I spend in Melbourne the more I think it’s similar to London.  It has a Southbank with the artsy areas and theatres and galleries.  It has small hipsters lanes, a dockland area etc.  I can see why so many people from the UK say the would move here if they moved to Australia.  Personally, I’m not too much of a fan, I think I prefer to go somewhere smaller.

After shopping Ed and Angie had to leave us to go get ready to meet their friends Sophie and Robbie.  Because we had some spare time my Mum, Dad and I went to the James Squire Brewery by the Yarra in the Docklands.  We then went back to the hotel to freshen up, meet Matthew and Emily and get ready for dinner. By this time we were all feeling pretty exhausted and not too thrilled for dinner but we went anyway because you have to keep going when you’re travelling.  There’s no point in wasting time, you have to see as much as you can.

While Ed and Angie went to meet Sophie and Robbie for Teppanyaki, the rest of us went for a meal at Bomba an amazing Spanish Tapas place.  $45 for a 9 course tasting menu, definitely worth it and a definite recommendation. The meal was so amazing it woke us all up from the excitement. After the meal we headed upstairs to Bomba’s rooftop bar to meet Ed, Angie, Robbie and Sophie and have a couple of cocktails.  They had a really cool selection of prohibition style cocktails and I had one of the best Gin and Tonics I have ever experienced.  We headed back to the hotel feeling full, happy and tired and we all slept well.