part 2 of the chirstmas holdiays

i spent christmas eve at tom's mums place. then christmas lunch was at my aunty's house and dinner was at mum and dads. I stopped by to visit tom's dad's family for a little while during the day and then he came to our dinner.

boxing day was of course a trip to the sales. i now had too many clothes to fit back into the 2 small bags i had brought back from japan with me.

the original plan was to swap those two small bags for my pack so when i went back through vietnam. life owuld be easier.

however, as all things in life, it didnt go to plan. because i hadnt told anyone i was coming back, i also didnt know that matt had taken my pack with him to japan in decemeber. so i had to buy a new one. this one is better anyway. its red, easy to find on the baggage carousel at the airport and lockable - a very important tool when you are travelling in south east asia these days.

the 27th we headed into the city for a picnic lunch with mum and dad and josh and em at the fitzroy gardens. it was mum and dad's 30th wedding anniversay so they were staying in town. i bought some flowers on the way in and delivered them to their hotel to surprise them.

after lunch it was down to the beach to stay at tom's dad's family's beach house.

the 28th was a great day. after a round of golf in the morning, we headed to the new peninsular hot springs resort for an onsen and massage. This was part of my christmas present from tom. i gave him a coffee maker which he cant get till he comes back to japan. a ploy to make sure he came back :)

i had never had a massage before and this was very very cool at the resort. after you go to the public bath, you get your own private bath for about 30 mins. then into the massage room. they hold 3 scents under your nose so you can pick your massage oil. they dont tell you what the scents are till after and what they do. apparently you body can decide the right one for itself.

tom chose the "relax you have too much on your mind" oil and i chose "detox", appropriate seeing i had not had one day since i arrived in oz on the 22nd without a glass of wine in my hand.

the massage was soo relaxing. i didnt fall asleep but tom did. at the end they told me to keep my fluids up so when we got back to the beach house we cracked out some more wine...

after another day at the beach we headed back to melbourne and i caught up with all the uni girls for dinner. had dinner at a nice little cafe on bridge rd and then off to brooke's for drinks.

next day was a bit of a relaxer. and then the day after, new years eve, we headed back down to the beach. it apparently got to 46 degrees that day in melbourne. i dont think it was that bad down at rye, but it was pretty hot. new years eve for us was pretty quiet but we walked down to the beach in time to watch the illegal fireworks from the pier.

next day was a lot cooler than the 46 degree belter. we rode down to sorrento on what i would call antique road bikes for breaky. then off to the golf course to play with some of toms friends. sadly but the time we got to the 2nd hole, the rain came down. and did it come down. it was so wet we had to abandon the game and head for the pub.

the next day we went up to tom's mums for dinner with my folks too and then the day after was a picnic at badger creek in healsville with the danish exchange student's parents who were over.

that night i had all my friends over for drinks and the n the next day was getting ready for the trip to vietnam. i had soo much trouble fitting everything into my pack. it was never going to fit. i dont know why i brought so much stuff back from japan with me. but i guess with melbourne weather, you never know what it is going to do. the 46 to 17 degree drop in 1 day stands to show that..

on the last night we went to indochine at box hill for a taste of the vietnamese food i had to look forward to. soo yummy.

and then i left at 10am the next day, jan 5th, for HCMC .