Jean Genie

Howdy  All!

The Australian crest of arms. I was chatting to one Aussie
who said that they are the only nation who eats both of
their national animals!

So, I dropped off 'Scully' the spaceship and headed off to Auckland airport to catch my flight to the land of Oz. I arrived in the usual unesescarry early time (its a habit, there is no way I am missing any of my flights) and thought I would have a good ol' browse of what the retail had to offer. As I was in one shop I saw a magazine on a low shelf that I quite like the look of (unusual for me, usually its the top shelf - that a whole different story thou) and so I squatted down to take a look (it was the type of squat where you bend the knees and spread the legs apart). Now when I have adopted this type of 'squat' before it has never caused me any concern and because of this it has become my favourite way of reaching lower shelf items, that would change thou. This time when I adopted the much loved lower shelf squat I failed to account for the 18kg back pack that I was strapped into. This added weight and the fact that I was travelling in my favourite (and only) pair of jeans made the kind of sound that you really dont want to hear just before 5 hours of flying. Yes dearest bleeders, I managed to rip my jeans. From jewls to my derrier, the kind of hole that come with 463 pages of health and saftey warnings. Needless to say I then sat for the rest of the flights with my legs crossed. I tell you what it was a good job that I hadn't just been travelling in a campervan for 17 days and wasn't down to my last pair of underware  that had already lasted for 3 days, oh, wait . . . . . . . . . . . . .

AMAZING stadium!

So after doing much needed washing I settled into my hostel in Melbourne. It is a pretty standard YHA hostel. Excellent views of the city from the 'roof' deck and about a 2km walk into the city center. I went out on my first day to discover what Melbourne had to offer and to buy some new jeans. I found out that there was a AFL game on at the MCG (god I hate these TLA's). The two teams that were playing were from Melbourne and after chatting to one of the guys at the hostel it seemed that it would be a good game to go and watch so I headed over to the MCG for the game. What an amazing stadium. Best way to describe it is kinda like the 'Nou Camp' of Cricket. After going there it has kinda lit a little fire inside of me that I would LOVE to watch an Ashes game here. Back to the Aussie rules football thou, that game is unlike any game I have ever seen in my life. There are only a few basic rules, and nothing else.

Love this sky! This was about 3 hours before 'the bounce'

1) You cant throw the ball
2) You have to kick it through post to score points
3) Once you have caught it (from another kick) you can call a 'mark' where you cant be tackled but have to kick it away.
4) If you decided to run with it then you have to bounce it every 15 meters.
THATS IT, seriously. I saw more punches thrown then at a David Haye fight (thats not saying much really). I got chatting to a elderly couple next to me and they helped me understand it at first, but by the end I knew exactly what was going on. I asked them 'do you have yellow/red cards in the game' to which they replied 'no, not at all'. Couldn't believe it! Was a really REALLY good experiance. The blokes that were playing were proper fit athleates as well. Was a joy to watch and what is more there were over 75,000 people there. My new team won - Hawthorn Hawks. I chose them because they play in chocolate and yellow stripes, the same colours as my beloved Sutton United. It was ment to be.

Hawks celebrating!

So with a fuzzy head (you have to drink at a aussie rules game - watch Australian, Think Australian, Drink Australian!) I woke up on Saturday and headed back into the city with no real plans, I ended up going to the Melbourne Museum, It was really good actually. There were a lot to see there and it was reasonably cheap. Took me about 4-5 hours to walk round it, so pretty goo value for money.

Look mother and father - I am not priceless, I am
 worth over 5mill Aus$. Well my weight in gold is!

Today is just spent planning the next stages of my tour. I am thinking that I will catch a overnight coach to Batemans Bay to see my other cousin and her family. So I might be in Melbourne untill Friday, but going on my past experiance of the last few days, that wont be a bad thing inthe slightest!

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