Over our few days in Melbourne we sampled the delights of numerous bars and restaurants.

The few that stick out for us were the Max Bar and Restaurant on Hardware Lane. This is on a small but very popular lane which has a huge selection of eateries, Italian in style, the food and service was great and the fact they had Spanish and Italian wines available at a very reasonable price was the icing on the cake.

We stopped for pre-dinner cocktails at Eau de Vie on Malthouse Lane. This establishment is well known for it's theatrical presentation and preparation of an incredible array of cocktails. Involving fire, liquid nitrogen, smoke etc etc. Each cocktail was worthy of a round of applause, it was unfortunately too dark for my camera to do any filming.

Lastly, one of our regular dining delights is China Red in a arcade off China Town's Bourke Street. Nothing flash but very tasty and huge servings and all ordered from a touch screen I-pad type affair on the wall above each table.

Xmas over and done for another year and looking forward to 2019 with high expectations. Melbourne as well as being my birth city has always been a place I've enjoyed spending time in, at the right time of year of course. Melbourne Winters can be wet and miserable and even Summer has it's occasional "cool change" that can send the mercury plummeting in an hour or so.

These few days the weather gods smiled and we had wonderfully warm days without it being too hot. We spent the first few nights at the Pan Pacific at South Wharf which was a first for us, both with the hotel name and the position.

The position was great, right next door to the huge DFO shopping mall and a minutes walk to the Yarra River bank which has an absolute plethora of bars, cafes and restaurants to choose from.

The hotel itself promised big things by the size and décor of the lobby area but really didn't quite follow through with the rooms. Nothing in particular but the rooms just didn't have a real 5 star feel about them although they had a real 5 star price.

The miracle of Xmas is alive and well as Jo made her flight by about 20 seconds and arrived at her mums late last night. All is well with the world and we had a wonderfully merry Xmas lunch at a riverside restaurant with no cooking or dishes to be done by anyone.

Merry Xmas to one and all!

As I said, the logistics of living remote can be challenging at best. Saturday afternoon when I arrived in Brisbane I rang Jo to confirm all was well. Just as a last minute comment I asked if she had checked the amount of fuel in the work vehicle to ensure enough for the trip. Oopps, not enough and the shop was already closed for the weekend and wouldn't open again until Monday morning at around 8:30.

Jo's flight leaves at 12:40 and it's usually a 5 hour drive to Alice Springs! My last call from Jo was just as she left Ampilatiwatja around 8:45 and sounded like she was in a chopper with the juddering and rattling of the corrugated road at top speed could be heard. She wasn't sure about making the plane so we would meet up somehow the next day, Xmas day, somewhere, sometime.

Woohoo, by my reckoning I have just been awarded the Accor Ambassadorship for Australia!!

The voting closed at midnight tonight and my entry was just ahead of the next Aussie entry but as the voting website has now closed down I cant see exactly how far ahead my entry was. The official announcement won't be for a few weeks yet so I am still not 100% sure but pretty confident.

As the Australian Ambassador I get 5 nights accomodation valued at $1500 at any Accor Hotel, the next years Accor Plus membership paid for at $350, get featured in a promotion video for one of their hotels plus be able to submit blogs and vlogs about any stays in Accor hotels. Bit exciting but won't count my chickens just yet until the official announcement.

Do you think this is a bit showy?????

The logistics of planning family get togethers when everyone is spread out across the country is a huge headache. It's also compounded by Jo and myself working apart and trying to coordinate work commitments too. The plan so far...I will drive the 500 klm's to Alice Springs on Friday before Xmas then catch a flight to Brisbane on Saturday. My daughter is flying down from Cairns on Saturday and we will spend the weekend in Brisbane then pick up Jo on Monday and all drive to Noosa.

We will meet Jo's son and daughter and her partner also flying in from Alice Springs for Xmas dinner with Jo's mum and auntie. My daughter flies back to Cairns on Boxing Day while Jo's mum, Jo and myself will fly to Melbourne on Saturday for a few days. We will then say good bye to Jo's mum who flies back to Queensland while we fly back to Alice Springs. Jo then drives a work vehicle and I drive our car back to Ampilatiwatja where I will spend 2 days before driving the 3 hours back to Tennant Creek.

Easy, isn't it?

Wow, I remember my Mum saying that time goes quicker as you get older but this is ridiculous! Christmas is only a few weeks away and surely it was only last week I started back at work. Well Jo has started work at a community about 3 hours drive away from me called Ampilatiwatja. I am driving there every second weekend as there is quite a bit of dirt road involved which takes it's toll on both our car and me too.

Can't seem to come up with a concrete plan workwise but the most likely event is that we will continue as is until early March as that is when our next trip is planned. We are taking Jo's mum to Bali for her eightieth birthday for a week then I'll likely start work at Ampilatiwatja as well.