Insanely lazy day today, anyone would think I drank too much the day before… in fact I will blame it on work requirements.

What I did do though was plan lots of stuff for the final two days I was in Aus. And I got Pizza…

Plan of action for today, Grampians, annoyingly every tour was full so it was a no go. Instead, it seemed fitting to meet up with Hastinio who I lived with at Uni. Lunch and a quick pint as ever turned into a couple of pints, then a couple of pints and a bottle of wine, then a couple of pints and a couple bottles of wine, then the gin started. Messy afternoon and evening, but brilliant fun!

Lunch was courtesy of Pugg Mahones, then we moved onto the Melbourne Rooftop Bar / Cinema before hitting Softbelly again.

Big thank you to him and his t’other half Duffinio.

Up bright and early thanks to some calls from the UK, thought about going back to sleep but instead went down to reception and asked if they could get me on a tour which started verrrryyyy soon. Basically I went to reception at 7:30 to get me on a tour starting at 7:45 from a few blocks away. Somehow they managed it.

And the tour, as I guess you have already twigged was the Great Ocean Road tour courtesy of ATP Tours. Twas pretty busy, which was a shame because it meant I had to sit on the right hand side of the bus, and for the entire day the Ocean was on the left. Ah well.

Let me start at the beginning…

A slight change to normal morning today, work then breakfast before a bit more work. Then went to meet Martin for lunch, we went down to the Mitre Tavern. As described its popular, took a good half hour to get a seat. However once we did, got the food ordered and it literally raced me, I hadn’t got back to the table before the food had arrived.

I had dinner, 4 chips…

Oh, and for those worried, no I didn’t die in the earthquake (being called an earthtremor here), did I even know it happened? No! Not like the UK one last year.

Good to see I am already falling behind in terms of write-up days. Day 1 I am counting as Wednesday, Tuesday was still travelling…

So what did I do? Got up as ever a good start, got breakfast at the hotel, not brilliant but adequate. Couple hours work, and then went to check out the Malls on Bourke Street before meeting Caroline at a funky little coffee bar called Pellegrini’s. Not at all strange, until she mentioned that the head of the Melbourne Mafia hangs around there all the time. I watched my back to say the least.

We wondered down to Softbelly, which you will be hearing more about on Saturday, popped in for a quick beer. Random chat with Lloyd who runs the place, just happens to have spent many years in the UK, Millwall fan!

Back to hotel and a bit more work before sleeping. No dinner, weird for me.

Yesterday I arrived in Australia, after leaving the UK the day before yesterday. What did it take to get here?

[5 minutes] Oxford Bus – From end of my road, to Oxford City Center
[90 minutes] The Airline Bus – From Oxford Bus Station, to Heathrow T5
[10 minutes] 482 Bus – From Heathrow T5, to Heathrow T4
[690 minutes] Qantas Aeroplane Flight QF030 – From London, to Hong Kong
[510 minutes] Qantas Aeroplane Flight QF030 – From Hong Kong, to Melbourne
[30 minutes] City Taxi – From Melbourne Airport, to Hotel

1335 minutes, not bad! That works out at 22 ¼ hours. Not taking into account all the waiting around time, there was plenty of that too…

So yes I’m off to Australia tomorrow… this is what I’m taking:

Carry on bag

Checked bag