No more hating January!

Normally in the UK you just hate the month of January, cos of the snow, the cold, the scary credit card bills, the dark nights and the thought of it all continuing for months on end! But here I reckon January is the best month of the year! Guaranteed to be sunny, always outdoors and so much going on, that you need to chop yourself into bits to do everything!

The highlight have to be the return of the Melbourne tennis open, and Big Day Out. The tennis was enhanced by getting front row seats to see the Police have to use capsicum spray (yeah its really called that) on a bunch of greek fans to calm them donw, while the greek player watched on in amusement! And Big Day Out's lineup, although dissappointing, was still one of the best festivals I've been to in Melbourne, with the atmostphere and the choice of bands to hear amazing! As always I think its the craziness of the people at BDO that make it so much fun. Makes me value my pals for being normal (ish!)!

Had a whole new experience too with a group of mates by having a weekend on a houseboat up in the Hawksbury River, just south of Newcastle. Top weekend, once we got used to using dingys and getting our hair wet, and being filthy. The highlights were Andrews very public display in the shower, taking a koala bear with us and watching it in an unnatural habitat, watching people fail the mighty impossible tim-tam challenge, and watching macca and knoxville almost getting swept away out to sea..... And I won't go into the traditional game of charades here!!

The month was topped off by a multinational Burns supper bbq down at Albert Park, with French, Malaysian, English and Welsh peeps. Luckily we didnt get into the poetry! Was a truly unique event Burns supper tho as there was not a sniff of haggis in sight.....!!!!