Post Melbourne Cup

On the Wednesday I moved over to Danny and Stuart's place in Fitzroy - this is the view from their balcony.
That night Danny and I met up with Sarah and Mike Hutton-Squire and we went up to the top of the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere for some touristy sight-seeing, follwed by pizza and beers at Southbank.


Thursday night Danny, Harry and I attempted to do a Brunswick Street pub crawl phase 1. Why didn't someone tell me to go home after this one?



Harry and I picked up 2 random guys that also wanted to play pool and stay out late. Everything else was closed so we ended up in some skanky pool bar at about 5 in the morning...

...and then at Harry's place to play 500 (card game) and imaginary cricket.
Heading home after 7am...


Thursday I woke Harry up for our 3pm Scrabble date. We didn't manage to officially finish it, but the "..tener" was the second half of my first word (softener) which might hint to who was leading when we packed it in...



Paul Cartmel from UCT days happened to be in Melbourne and happened to chat to my bro on MSN and get my number, so he met us out for a few drinks later. It's great going out with those guys - I never have to worry about my jacket or handbag cos one of them is always wearing either one or both!



Leaving Honkytonks. We decided to all "Go home and drink water!"











At Brad and Holly's for a bbq on Saturday, before hitting Honkytonks again, and then the Pony!


My new party trick!


And what would a night out be without Harry taking his top off...

Ben and Ally

In between flying around Aus I went for a lovely breakfast with Ben and Ally, my old housemates from the early London days when about 13 of us lived in a 6-bedroom house in Roehampton! They live just up the road from me now!

Seeeeedneeeeee

I've just realised something. Since I became old, my Derman luck seems to have run out. I booked tickets to Sydney from Monday to Thursday because a) I had my birthday bowls on the Sunday, b) I wanted to watch the final 2 days of the cricket test (Aus vs Rest of the World), c) Luke's farewell was on Thurs and d) I had a "blind date" organised for Friday. a) it poured down so much they cancelled bowls first thing in the morning, b) the cricket ended 2 days early, c) Luke decided to fly to Canada 2 weeks later and d) the date was postponed for 2 weeks.
Sooooo I packed my tourist gear and headed to Sydney anyway. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at the zoo,









wandering around the city and Darling Harbour, eating about 3 kg of mussels and catching up with vannies (Bec and Dicko) and London work mates (Paul and his girlfriend Linda),
exploring Manly (and the zoo) with Al (the guy I met at the U2 concert),

shopping on Oxford Street in Paddington (sounds like I'm in London!).
Chinese Gardens...
Dinner with Cameron, Shazza and Watto.
On Thursday Cameron, Watto and I played golf and just missed the downpour (maybe I have a tiny bit of luck left!) and although I didn't manage to get anywhere close to challenging Cameron, I did beat Watto by a few!!

Nephews!

With all the Lulu-ness going on, I thought it would be nice to put some pics up of the little boys back home in SA! Here's a good little saffer eating his flings (Ben):





And looking after the fire (typical Derman), looking like he's just smoked a joint...
Matthew enjoying the stunning view...

Mac!

On Saturday evening I got a lift with Jane and her boys to the Gold Coast to meet Mac and Gail for drinks. Gail wasn't feeling well, so it ended up being just me and Mac, catching up on the last few months (London and Aus) and being thoroughly entertained by the people around us.
We had the best potato wedges ever ever, but weren't allowed to have forks because we were in the smoking section??? Still haven't figured that one out... Mr White Shoes provided hours of hilarity with his ridiculous dance moves and "I'm so cool" grin on his face.
I was supposed to meet up with Belinda and Paul and their mates in Surfers Paradise but we got stuck into the helium balloons and then made a bunch of new (40-something) friends so ended up staying there till closing time.
I had Jane and Peter's flat all to myself, and then spent Sunday trying to get to the beach, then parking off for a few hours of vitamin D, then trying to get back to Brisbane. Was cool to see the Indy stuff lining the streets for the 20-23 Oct Indy series of which I shall definitely be a part!

Celebrating our niece

After the birth of little Lulu, Stuart and I decided that a good uncle and aunt would celebrate by drinking cocktails named after our precious niece. Miss Lulu = gin, fresh lemon juice, bitters and a twist of lemon! YUM

Lulu Anna Miller

For more pics check out Lulu's Blog