old news	march 2004 news update 31 mar 2004 it is definitely autumn over here. nice clear skies but with a slight chill in the air so we are looking forward to following the sun up the east coast when we leave. seems weird to think that you’ll be into spring, dafodils and the weather getting warmer. hopefully you all kept an eye out for us at the fosters australian grand grix at the start of the month. it was really mad to be working the event that we had watched the previous year on tv. there is actually 4 days of racing so we started work on thursday in a food outlet, before moving onto bar work for the remainding 3 days. thankfully the bar was a lot nicer and had great staff and punters. we’ve tried to work out how many pots (half pints) of fosters we poured between us and we came to about 600 each day! not bad when you considered alison never worked behind a bar before! hard work but great fun – we were buzzing after each day, and yes, we did get to see some of the racing although they were all going too fast. simon managed to win two free vip tickets to australia’s biggest dance event which was happening on gp night at the rod laver arena. so after a 9 hour shift of bar work, quick shower, change of clothes and a few drinks, we headed back out to party for free. not really our cup of tea in terms of music (v techno and breaks, lots of small children in baggy trousers and cyber gear) but a good experience. we also managed to catch up with hybrid – or mike and chris da post from our old swansea days who were djing there, which was quite mad. they finished their set with new order's blue monday - nice touch! ended quite a mad week really. thankfully things have calmed down a bit since then. we’ve just been enjoying being in our flat and doing things around melbourne: finally managed to get to the melbourne museum and also see a house auction – most houses in victoria are sold via auction rather than private sale, and it all takes place on the street outside the actual house. quite exciting and very different to how things are done in the uk. our fantastic local bar – the leveson has also started doing free drinks for ladies on a monday night when ‘sitc’ is on tv. obviously it would be rude not to take advantage of this offer – but it is not good for getting up for school on tuesdays and simon ended up the worst for wear on the first night, which definitely wasn’t right! we’ve continued our exploring of victoria too. this time to eastern victoria and to the alpine region with a couple of our aussie mates. so we spent a fantastic weekend with rachel and amanda, first visiting rachel’s parents on the coast at bairnsdale and then travelling on to to stay with her brother who lives and works in the alpine resort of mount hotham in ne victoria. so lots of contrasts that weekend: 90 mile beach, lakes entrance and surfing on the saturday morning, and then 3 hours later mountains, summer ski resorts and chilly nights in hotham. even managed to get a bit walking in on the sunday before leaving which was great. really made us want to explore the rest of the country – which we obviously will be doing! even the journey back was an adventure: travelled down through the rest of the alpine region, through a town called bright which is famous for it’s beautiful autumn views, and then even managed to squeeze in a quick visit to a cheese factory and winery for some tasting and some purchases. believe it or not we’re actually trying to be cheap to keep at the moment, and just work and save as much as we can for the remainder of the trip. and it looks like we both have work right up until we leave which is good. so, we’re just enjoying melbourne, working and saying goodbye to our friends here: had our finally ‘big’ night out at the weekend when renaissance visited melbourne. being a nottingham-based dance night, it was our duty that we attended and you’ll all be pleased to know that we were there to the very end, even walking home!!