This and that.... Melbourne

Well we have been "away" now for well past the month marker and actually heading full speed towards the one third done mark quite alarmingly quickly!

We left Perth a couple of weeks ago taking the Indian Pacific train direct to Adelaide (the journey was 40hours across Australia with very little in the way of stops!). We had a brief one night stop in Adelaide before getting on "The Overland" to Melbourne (this journey an easy 10hrs).

Melbourne is an interesting, well organised and busy city. We spent the first couple of days getting our bearings, seeing some sights and washing some clothes (!) before picking up our ground tickets for the Open. Whilst the ordering of the tickets before we left was very easy the picking them up was arduous and took about 2hrs of queuing (the queue to buy tickets was better managed and quicker moving... ).... In the words of the poor lady who came out to help manage the queue "we weren't expecting so many people...." ... Like on the first morning of the tennis are you serious?.... Anyway.... We got our tickets then rather the going in that day we flaked out in free to use Deckchairs in Federation Square whilst watching on a big screen... Thank you Melbourne that was a nice touch!

We went to day 2 and 3 got baked on the show courts whilst watching.some intriguing games unfold. I'm no sport psychologist but you can see before your eyes the mental impact had on this game.... From doubt to believe and back again.... The throw of the ball to serve can appear to have such an influenece (an in one case there was certainly a case of some sort of compulsive disorder as the server insisted on all the balls being with the ballboy on the same side of the court as the umpires chair.... But it worked for her as she won!)

We are in Melbourne until Saturday when we head on the train back to Adelaide for 10days to witness some of the Tour Down Under!

Whilst we are on our travels we are both reading books (largely on the kindle), which for me at least is a new thing.... I would usually read about 4 books a year I reckon and thus far I have read about 15.... Including some books which could be described as "self help" themed ones which is definitely a first for me as I have veered away from these my entire life.... More about these in a later blog.

Have loaded loads of pictures to picasaweb although no Melbourne ones yet! But if you want to find some I think there is still a picasaweb link on my blog or google gallantry picasaweb and that may work!

More ramblings another time.... Off to the theatre tonight to see a play and best get ready!

"Sabbatical" Part 1....

So having got hitched we have now been in Western Australia just over a month.... We spent 10days down in the lushous wine region of Margaret River (and cue any excuse to visit vineyard and taste wine), and the rest of the time being homed and hosted by friends in Rockingham (about 40mins south of Perth)

After all the stress of work, giving up work, sorting out the house and the ceremony I have to say it took a while for us to truly relax... But relaxing is most certainly what we are doing now! I'm currently "penning" this entry whilst laying under a tree in Kings Park (a very very large park in Perth).... The weather has been almost too fantastically hot these last few days, which is a little weird for us given it is Christmas after all (so far more used to rain or cold).... We have some more sightseeing in Perth over the coming week before we head out for the second stage of our Australia trip ... Which commences with a 2 day train journey across the country to Adelaide and thus to Melbourne the following day (we don't quite have enough time to make the connection!)

The vastness and emptiness of the Australian continent has already made an impression on me....I can't imagine what I'm going to feel like having spent 44+hrs on the same train to get from one side to not quite the other!!

Now in answer to the question I had about how often/ why I blog well.... I used to blog more frequently, largely at a time when I was getting into something new (triathlon in case you couldn't guess from the title!) when I interacted more with the blogging community on the subject. As time has gone by my engagement both with my blog and other blogs has become more sporadic... Not sure why... Maybe I guess as I've sorted less support? Perhaps.... Or perhaps as I've become engrossed in other things.... As of now I blog when I feel like it (randomly) although quite often I think of blogging and don't seem to "find" the time to execute my thoughts.... Afterall this shouldn't feel a chore but an enjoyable interlude of brain dumping or  sharing random (usually in my case) thoughts .....