Melvan Update Feb 8, 2007

AUSTRALIA DAY AND BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

Hi again! Trying to get better at updating this thing – so what better chance than a day off work due to school closure as a result of snow. Bet not many of you can claim that excuse hey!!! Only negative being on supply is that they don’t pay the ‘Van’ part of Melvan for it. Really happy to be up at 6.30 and just about to hop on the tube when the call was received (not).

So we hope you all had good Australia Day, although it appears to be a much bigger event abroad than back home. We don’t go and do the ‘Aussie’ thing that much – but this was an opportunity to good to miss. We decided early on that the only place to visit on this day would have to be ‘The Walkabout’, but which one there are so many of the bloody things. First thought was the one near Temple but when we heard that the line outside alone was 300 – 400 deep we opted to head out to Putney. Much less crowded to begin with and no probs getting a drink which was everyone’s major priority. We met up with Ange, Nat, Mel, Skeeny, Rhiannon, Meags and Ben. All of us were decked out in every piece of Aussie attire we could find – tattoos included (only fake ones Mum’s). A great night was being had by all and then came the announcement of a ‘Dance Off’!!! Well didn’t that send Mel into a tiz. After being one the select few to be chosen to enter Mel accompanied by her trusty cohort of ‘Team Mel’ support crew, embarked on campaign ‘Vote Mel’ in an attempt to rally support from the hundreds of other Aussies who would later be responsible for the voting.

After what can only described as one of the most gross displays of self exploitation and a vigorous warm up it was time…. One by one the contestants took to floor. With plenty of side to side and front and back toe tapping, the fans were beginning to lose interest.

ENTER MEL!!! With an energetic, at times out of control performance not seen since the wedding dance floor in Koh Samui, Mel whipped the large crowd into a frenzy. Fans were cheering for more. There was no doubt who the winner was. And as Mel crowd surfed her way from the stage (ok got a bit carried away there) it was announced that her prize was a 5 day trip to Turkey over ANZAC day! Not bad for doing what she does every weekend hey. From there the night continued in fine style ending with approximately 84 pizzas and 63 packets of Tim – Tams back at the girls place.

Fun night had by all; but if anyone has any contacts at Top Deck Travel could you please post a comment as the marketing manager doesn’t seem to be returning any calls!

BIRTHDAYS

The last week has been very busy with a number of birthdays. Mel on Jan 30, Ben on Feb 3 and Evan on Feb 5. We celebrated Mel’s with a nice midweek dinner and then went out on Saturday in Brick lane on Saturday for Ben and Evan’s. Really good night and thanks to all those who came along and made it so much fun. Thanks also for all of the texts, calls and cards. Really nice to get them all.

One last thing; congratulations to Cam and Krys on the announcement of their engagement. Fantastic news and we are sure you will have a long, happy life together.

Cheers Melvan

Mr and Mrs Connolly

Mr and Mrs Connolly
Originally uploaded by melvan2006.

Click this pic to view more photos from Thailand as well as New Years.

Enjoy!!!

Melvan x x

A Thailand Wedding

Thailand – The Wedding! – 11th to 21st January

Someone was a little excited about our next journey to Thailand as there were some very special people to catch up with and a pretty important event was taking place that we didn’t want to miss –Brooke and Matt’s wedding.

The setting couldn’t have been more perfect and the company was well……….bloody fantastic! We had a few days prior to the wedding just lazing about in the sun with Brooke, Matt and Dee or Elise as someone kept calling her (a great mate of Matt’s from uni and a pearler of a chick!) before the rest of the clan arrived. Kate, Baz, Macca and Keasty, Jane and her sister Kate, Col and Maurs, Macca and Drina, Cam, Jodie and the adorable Mollie, Joey and Jade and some of the Williams’ great family friends from Oz! Then the big kid and his gorgeous wife arrived – Dave and Carls!

Enjoyed some great games on the beach with everyone as well as some memorable dinners and one decent drinking session in particular. Baz – how’s the scab on your lip?

Friday came around all too quickly and before we knew it we were putting on our finest attire and heading to Rocky Resort for the wedding. The place was spectacular as you’ll see from the pics but it was to be outdone on the day by the bridal party, the groom and the beautiful bride. Brookie looked a million bucks!!

The reception upstairs in the private room was brilliant – lots of food, grog and many many laughs. We had a fantastic night partying with our friends and felt very lucky to be there and share in Brooke and Matt Connolly’s wedding day.

It was hard saying goodbye to our mates but we know there’ll be many more great times shared with them when we return!

Enjoy the pics.

Melvan xx

Finally a Melvan Update

December 2006 – January 2007 Update (Finally)

Sincere apologies go out to all those religious bloggers eagerly awaiting the next thrilling instalment of Melvan’s Excellent Adventures. It’s been a very busy month or so for us and it is only just looking like settling down now.
So with all this in mind we take you back a while to start this newest instalment.

SALZBURG – December 21st – 27th­­

We briefly mentioned our trip to ‘beautiful Salzburg’ and there is probably very little justice that can be done through words, however it was quite spectacular despite the lack of snow. Definitely a place we would strongly recommend and hope to visit again sometime (maybe soon). Loved the beer halls, scenery, hot wine, ice-skating; lets just say everything.

EDINBURGH – December 30th – January 2nd

This was our first trip to the North with our hopes purely to welcome in the New Year in style at the world famous Hogmanay Festival. We travelled up by car with Meags, Ben and Skeeny with the journey taking about 8 hours (seven of those filled with Rash and Evan playing celebrity head). We stayed with our friends Sarah and Troy who were great hosts and looked after us very well (thanks guys).

Within in an hour of arriving we were out on the town again eagerly anticipating a nice beer and catching up with other friends living in Edinburgh (Pheobs, Mizzi and Cochers as well as the crazy Aussie birds who have already featured on this blog – Ange, Nat and Mel.) And what a mission it was. Hogmanay apparently goes over four days and ‘George St’ was chockers!!! So after taking about an hour to walk a block we arrived at the pub where we were all to meet. It was a fun night had by all catching up and sharing stories (speaking sh*#), although all very aware that it was the following night (New Years Eve) that we were all waiting for.

The following day Troy and Sarah took us on a brief tour of Scotland despite some pretty ordinary weather (which made us a bit nervous about the night ahead). We walked along the Royal Mile looking at the old buildings and cobble-stoned paths, along the way meeting up with ‘William Wallace’ who we had a photo taken with. Then it was up to the castle, which was very impressive to look at, however on this day we were unable to go right up. After what will go down as the worst steak sandwich ever (even Carter couldn’t eat it!!!) we headed off to begin preparations for the evening ahead.

The weather all day was miserable and there were huge doubts about whether the outdoor street party would go ahead. As luck would have it at about the time the organisers needed to make a call the wind picked up in a big way and the rain poured down. Street signs and motorbikes were blown over, even worse in some areas. As result the street party was cancelled. We weren’t going to let this bother us and we began our partying at Pheobe and Mizzi’s. The whole gang were there and while a little disappointed about the cancellation, all were in high spirits. We fortunately had tickets to a nightclub called the liquid room and ventured there sometime before midnight. Mizzi’s experience from the previous year proved to our advantage and he secured a prime spot upstairs which he later convinced others was for a private function. After a number of drinks and by the looks of the photos a lot of dancing with our arms in the air like we just don’t care midnight was upon. We stayed for a while longer before making the trek back to Sarah and Troy’s (somehow taking Troy, Rossco and Evan an hour longer than the girls arriving home at about 5 a.m.).

The next day we backed up by meeting at a pub and while there was probably more ‘Deal or No Deal’ playing than drinking it was a good catch up session. That was about it for our time in Edinburgh, not a lot of sight seeing (damn we will have to go back!!!) but plenty of fun. Not quite so much fun was the trip home that took us longer than expected, although an experience all the same.

Melvan

Melvan lookout over Salzburg

Melvan lookout over Salzburg
Originally uploaded by melvan2006.

Click this photo to view more photos from Salburg. Great time, great place - hope you enjoy.

Cheers
Melvan XOXOXO

Merry Christmas To All

G´day all - sorry for the slackness with the christmas wishes but as they say, better late than never. We hope everyone has had a great christmas full of family, fun, presents, food and drinking (in no particular order). This is not the most personal way to contact all of our family and friends however it seems to be the most convenient. Thank you to all of you who have sent cards, etc. They were greatly appreciated and currently on proud display in London.

It has definitely been a different christmas this year!!! We certainly missed being around our families and friends in the lead up and on the day, however have had some great experiences that almost make up for it.

We have been in Salzburg, Austria for the past week (since Dec 21) in anticipation of a white christmas. Who would ever have expected Europe to have their warmest winter in almost 200 years and as a result no snow!!! Well non in the city which last year had 1 meter at this time. Despite the lack of snow Salzburg is an amazingly beautiful city. It is only quite small in population but the scenery and architecture are like nothing we have seen before (in person anyway).

We have spent the week here with Ben and Meagan and experienced traditional Austrian food, beer halls, christmas markets and various other cultural events. Melvan even tried their hand (or feet) at ice skating in a rink inside the old town. Great fun and laughs (particularly for those watching) and pain to follow. Yesterday we ventured to a near by mountain (where there was snow). This was the first time that Ben had ever seen snow. The views again were fantastic and we attempted a couple of track treks to vaious viewing points and managed to escape injury. No doubt Mel will claim her highlight to be the Sound of Music tour which led us to a number of spots shown in the movie.

All in all Salzburg has been brilliant. We highly recommend it to anybody - although we think someone else has already been doing that as there is a ridiculous number of Australians here.

Must run now. Wishing you all a very happy new year and we will be in touch (and add some pics) soon.

Cheers
Melvan

Melvan Milano

100_9791
Originally uploaded by melvan2006.

Click to see more pics

Ciao Milano

Ciao Milano!!!

It has been a little while since our last post and a lot of not much has gone on. The most exciting / interesting thing would be last weekends trip to Milan. It was our first venture into Europe so we were quite unsure about what to expect. It was also our first flight with a budget airline (Easy Jet) which was also interesting. Not so much the airline but Gatwick Airport I suppose – with all the terrorism stuff the security screenings are quite extensive (probably a good thing). So anyway while Mel was standing between the sercurity gates in her bra and jocks, being patted down by an interesting looking woman we began to wonder what we had got ourselves in for. Anyway we made it to the plane with plenty to spare.

So we arrived in Milan around 10 o’clock and after being quizzed at customs as to why we were there made the journey by bus into Milan (just out of the city). We arrived at Centrale Stazione which is this massive (very old) station just outside the city. After negotiating all the crazy drivers on the wrong side of the road we eventually found a cab who drove us about 200 meters to our Hotel (and charged us a fortune). The place was everything we needed and an added bonus was the advertisement of tickets to watch Inter Milan play on Saturday night (which was of course the first thing Mel asked about).

The next day we got up pretty early keen to see what Milan had to offer. We went down to the breakfast room where Mel took one look and said, ‘I can’t eat any of that.' It was full pastries, croissants, cheese, ham and not much else. Not what we were really looking for. Needless to say we didn’t hang around long. We grabbed a map and worked out that we could probably walk into the city. It was a perfect morning, albeit a little cold. So good for a walk. Milan is not renowned for its architecture however for first time travellers to Europe all the buildings were interesting.

With no breakfast in our stomachs we were pretty keen for a coffee. This was to be our first encounter with any sort of language barrier whilst in Milan. To cut a long story short we got coffee (not exactly what we were expecting). We continued into the city which wasn’t far at all. The first thing we came across was the Galleria. A huge glass roofed shopping centre (apparently the biggest of its kind in the world.) In Milan they even make Maccas look posh!

We were both blown away by the amount of shops – particularly designer boutiques and big brand names. Clearly the place to go if you are wanting to shop!!! Unfortunately on the travellers budget that wasn’t our biggest priority. As we walked through the Galleria we came to another massive, and very impressive looking building called the Duomo. It is a cathedral more than 500 years old. We had pictures taken out the front by some bloke trying to make a buck and then went inside for a look. It was almost as impressive looking inside. We were then able to go outside and take a windy stair case to the top and walk around the roof. The views were impressive and we were lucky to get such a nice day. We got some great pics and it was just amazing to think how old it was.

For the rest of the day we walked around looking in almost all the shops and ate in little cafes out on the streets. Mel was on the hunt for boots and managed to find a pair by the end off the day (despite being a completely different colour to what she was looking for). That night we went on possibly the longest hunt for somewhere to eat that we have ever been on. Of course Mel was wearing her new boots which took a toll after a while. Just in time we stumbled across a nice little Italian Restaurant called Sabitini’s. They were really friendly, the food was great and it was very affordable. Evan got the biggest and best Calzone that you are ever likely to see (we have pictures to prove it).

Saturday was a pretty cruisy day having seen most of the sites and shopping the previous day. We went into the city again where we met a guy rmaking an upfront attempt to steal our jewellery and watches. Having negotiated our friend we headed out to San Siro Stadium, the home of AC and Inter Milan. Inter were playing Sienna in the Serie A competition. The stadium was huge although really no bigger than the MCG and wouldn’t hold as many. We got there quite early which gave us a good opportunity to check it all out and consume 1000 coffees. It was freezing inside the stadium and again Mel had made a poor choice of footwear (slip on shoes – no socks). It wasn’t a massive crowd however mad just the same. They really love their SOCCER over there. The game was great and Inter won 2 – 0. By the end we were quite happy to get to the train so we could warm up.

That was about the end of our Milan trip as we left at about 11 am on the Sunday morning. It was less than 2 hours by plane back to London, but then it took us another 2 and half to get home (the tube and trains are great when they work).


We had a great time although over too soon. A really positive initiation into Europe.

I can promise that the next trip I won’t write quite so much. It just kept spewing out!!!

Cheers
Melvan

November 18th London Update

Special Mention

Just a quick special mention to Rhiannon who was very upset when I failed to mention in a recent post that she was out with us; or we were out with her.

Anyway apologies Rhiannon and hope this has rectified the situation (for those who don't know her she is the blonde with Tits and Teeth in some of the photos below)!!!

London Update Nov, 7th 2006

Howdy All, it has been a little while since our last entry (not that long really), so thought we would update you on what we have been up to. There is always something going on so I will try to decipher the vaguely interesting things and leave the rest out!!!!

Living In London
Good old Tower Hamlets... Never a dull moment!!! Although quite close to the London Docklands and the impressive recent developments such as Canary wharf, there are some interesting things that go on in this neighbourhood.
Currently it is fire works season; wasn't sure why they were illegal in Australia until now!! Every night of the week and during some days, the local kids (turds..) and numerous adults take to the park or our front yard to let off fire works. Whilst this was fun to watch at the start it is now getting a little old and we will welcome then end of fireworks season when we will feel safe to leave out house without risk of having a fire shot us from close range.
Other interesting developments on the living front include the fire in our bins downstairs that some friendly passer by lit. Although we managed to put it out with pots of water, the fire brigade still came. They offered Meagan and Evan a job which Meagan and Mel would have been quite happy to take as apparently they were very cute (must have been the bright red overalls that did it for them).
We also have a couple of little friends living in our walls and tend to want to play at the most inconvenient times! I say they are little although Ben has compared them to the size of a Jack Russell.
A few days ago we discovered a large water mark in the downstairs bedroom. The next morning we woke to no heating or hot water. This proved convenient for some and not for others. Evan had left having had the only warm shower while Mel part filled the bath with warm water from the kettle in an attempt to wash her. Ben felt like a real pom and went to work without a shower while Meagan thought it was as good an excuse not to go to work as any. The problem was rectified that even by some quite funny plumbers who managed to find the hot water service in a very interesting location.
Although these may sound like negative aspects of living in London it does just make the 'experience' that much more interesting.
Currently X-factor is on over here (like Aus Idol for those who don't know) and quite big. We have started an X-factor challenge each week where you have to pick the bottom two and who will be eliminated. There are prizes (or punishments) up for grabs each week. So far Meagan has managed to get out of dishes for the week and this week Mel has taken control of the TV remote away from Ben and Evan. All Ben and Evan have to say is "wait until we win and we take away their right to use hair dryers!!!"

Working In London
Well Mel and Evan have begun work. Last week was the start of it all with Mel getting a call Monday morning to sit on phones all day (not literally) at a modeling agency and Evan off to Camden to teach grade 6. Whilst Mel managed to get a fair bit of emailing done and be bored out of her brain for the rest, Evan was initiated into the English school system without too many dramas. Terminologies, daily routines and the 'Smart Boards' they use over here being the biggest obstacles.
For the rest of the week Mel did Teacher Assistant work around the corner from home in an interesting little school. She was in grade 4 in the mornings which she enjoyed and had her eyes opened up in the grade 6 class in the afternoons. One of her more hairy moments was assisting in breaking up a classroom fight when two quite large twins decided to lay into another student (sounds like when Tam and her were at school - just the other way around). Needless to say this wasn't really her cup of tea and when the opportunity came up to work long term in a marketing role she took it quite swiftly. She began this on Friday and will see how the week unfolds before accepting it long term. It is for a big publishing company of financial magazines; not quite the same as working at the dogs.
Evan spent the week being sent across the country side but managed to get work each day. Mainly in upper primary and one day in grade 2. So far not too bad although the students are really quite rude (to each other and staff). Friday he went off to the Hatton School which is a special needs school that caters for students with a range of disabilities. It was a really friendly school, much like Bulleen Heights in Melbourne. They have offered a position starting after Christmas until he leaves which it looks as though he will take. Starting this Thursday he will begin at a primary school and stay on for the rest of the year if all goes well. It is a role where he will work in all classrooms and provide teachers with planning time. The teaching agency sold it as 'the Holy Grail of teaching' as it will be full time, but know planning, no meetings and no reports.
So far this week there have been nothing but dramas with one agency which we wont get into. On a positive note, the fact that they sent Evan to a school who didn't need a replacement has allowed for the waffle which are now reading to be published.

Apologies for the length of this post but I know some (and I emphasize some) people enjoy knowing what we have been up to.

Hope you are all well, enjoying warmer weather and backed the winner. We were going to have £1000 on Delta Blues!!! Anyone know how it went!!!

Love ya Work
Melvan