Puffing Billy

One of our first weekend outings here in sunny Melbourne was a day trip on the historical "Puffing Billy" railway, in the Dandenong ranges. Puffing Billy goes all the way from Belgrave to Gembrook, but this is a two hour trip one-way. So, we elected to stop at the official half-way point, Lakeside. A one hour trip is far more recommendable when you have two young kids, because although riding in a heritage cabin does have a certain amount of charm and fun to it, it's not two hours' worth.

Lakeside is a charming little stop, and there was a surprising amount of activities to keep both the kids and parents occupied! We originally planned on a one-hour stopover, but it ended up being two and a half - we caught the very last train back.

A great and fun day in all (despite the mildly gloomy weather), we'll definitely head back sometime.

Lucas' actual birthday party

Lucas was a very lucky boy this year - he got two birthday parties. His mate Seth was able to make it down from Albury (with parents and brother Ty in tow), and he helped Lucas to celebrate.

As an added bonus, Lucas got one of the best (and most expensive) birthday presents ever - a trampoline!

Adapting to a new environment

Part of the reason it's taken us so long to actually move to Melbourne was the fact that the house was un-renovated, and had a tiny kitchen and rather illogically-designed bathroom. Well, I say "bathroom", but this is not really an accurate name, given that this room does not, in fact, have a bath.

Anyway, after getting messed around, delayed and charged a bundle of money for an overpriced quote that we couldn't afford, we finally decided to just bite the bullet, move down, and do the renovations after we'd moved in. And as it turns out, the house isn't anywhere as near as bad as we'd imagined. Yes, the kitchen is small (and sans dishwasher), but this has simply forced us to adopt a more rigid and compact approach to cooking and washing.

And the bathroom - well, for every problem, there is a solution. Perhaps not an elegant solution, but a solution nonetheless. Lucas and Alicia actually enjoy having their little solo sessions in the tub!

Guitar lessons

The Hohwy-Barclays were an integral and much-appreciated part of our overall plan for moving to Melbourne. They gave us lots of support and encouragement, not to mention opening the house up for the removalists while we were putting our feet up in Albury for a couple of days. And of course, they sheltered and fed us when we first arrived, and continued to do so until we'd knocked out new residence into livable shape.

Asker even threw in some complimentary guitar lessons for his little cousin while we were staying - you simply can't do better than that!

Moving to Melbourne!

So here we are, finally settled in and comfy in our new Melbourne house, and it's well past time I updated this blog with some posts.

I thus find myself trawling back through the massive backlog of piccies, trying to locate a suitable set of photos to document the first stage of our momentous, life-changing relocation to a new city.

And this is the only one I can find. Dammit, I really should learn to take photos more often, hey?