In Melbourne

Our flight from the Sunshine Coast to Melbourne was with the new budget airline "Tiger Airways" which is an offshoot of Singapore Airlines. The flight was fine but there are a few 'hidden' hassles to flying this way. You must be through the check-in by 45 minutes before takeoff and there is a luggage limit of 15kgs per passenger. Excess luggage in future will be carried at $22 per kilogram. This would take the gloss off any 'cheap' fare you may have got!

We found everything really good with Tiger and had no problems at all. We took a cab to the airport from home instead of our own car and leaving it in the long term carpark. Costs are about the same so rather than leave our car outdoors in a carpark the taxi option should suit us OK at this stage.

We left home at 8:15 am and eventually got to Kate's place in Berwick in Melbourne about 12 hours later. We were picked up from Tullamarine (Melb's airport) at about 2 pm and went to Chris and Wendy's house (about 10 mins away). Then it was to the local school to pick up Andrew and back home again. Chris arrived home from work and then our daughter Kim popped in to collect us. From Chris's place we had a meal with Kim near her home in St Kilda (one of Melbourne's trendy and highly cosmopolitan suburbs). Needless to say the menu was Asian (Malaysian to be exact) and thoroughly enjoyable.

Then Kate arrived without the kids to take us to her home at Berwick where we usually stay when 'down south'.

Wednesday was spent recovering and playing with the grandkids. I jumped onto Arj's computer (our old Dell) and sorted out the webcam problem and did a couple of other odd jobs around the place. Trish just loves being with the grandkids and from the look of this photo of Charli with her toys it is easy to see why. After all it has been less than three weeks since she was here in Melbourne.

Then of course it was out for a meal again, this time to our favorite restaurant "Malaysia Garden" for a great meal. We had to take the well known "Berwick Queen of Curry and Rice" - better to known to us as our granddaughter Charli - with us. As soon as we got near the restaurant Charli called out "Curry and Rice". She doesn't mind it a bit spicy either, the spicier it is, the more water she drinks! Kim and her friend Mandy were there too. A really great evening with lots of laughs and a few drinks.

My cough improves each day and is at the stage where it sounds worse than what it is.

The weather is warm and there are some storms forecast for the next 2 days. Melbourne has extreme water restrictions owing to the prolonged drought this area has been experiencing. We have no such water problem on the Sunshine Coast!

We are out tonight, Friday night and we are baby sitting on Saturday night.

Sunday will be the family's Christmas celebrations with 22 people attending, my sister and her family as well as my brother's family. Should be heaps of fun.