These days, mobile phones are an essential part of everyday life. When I'm running late, I call the person I'm supposed to be meeting and warn them. If I lose Andrew in the shopping centre, I call him on my mobile phone to find out where he's disappeared to. If we need to know the name of the horse that She-ra (Princess of Power) rides, we call vodafone 123 on our mobile phones. That's right, an essential tool! So, what do you do when you've left your phone at home and your boyfriend's phone is new and doesn't have any numbers in its address book? Well, on Saturday evening, Andrew and I discovered just how hard life can be without a mobile phone.

On Wednesday, Bek is leaving to go on an African Safari for 6 weeks. She had arranged to have farewell drinks on Saturday night at Pontoon bar @ Cockle Bay. Andrew and I rocked up to Pontoon at 9.30pm (only 1.5 hours late) and after a couple of laps of the bar, we realised that Bek was nowhere to be found. It's at this stage, that I discovered that I'd left my phone, with her number in the address book, at home. Andrew had his phone, but with no numbers in the phone address book. We had no way of contacting Bek to find out where she was.

We then started the great ring around of 2005:



It was very disappointing! After all that hard work we still didn't manage to hook up with Bek. At least we had a few more numbers in Andrew's phone address book and we had a couple of drinks at the bar. The night wasn't a complete waste of time!

ring around	photographic evidence	taxi

I think I'm almost a Melbourne local. I was back in Mexico last weekend, this time for Tash's farewell. Tash is moving to Manchester (of all places) for a year or so. She plans to use it as a base so she can explore Europe properly. Afterwards, she'll come home to Australia, buy a house, get married and have babies. Personally, I think Tash has a chronic case of the travel bug; I can't see her staying in one place for very long!

I had a whirlwind trip to Victoria... it went sydneyairportballaratlunchcoffeedinnermelbournesleepairportsydney... phew! I had to have several caffeinated beverages to make it through the day. Unfortunately, this post might reflect the nature of my trip. So many things to write about, so hard to put them coherently together. Let's revert to point form:

• Apparently I have weather bad luck... On Saturday, I left a beautiful day in Sydney to arrive in a very wet and cold Melbourne. On our trip to Ballarat, Michelle had to negotiate slippery roads and heavy fog. Ballarat, only reached a top of 18 degrees... it was freezing. On Sunday, I left a beautiful day in Melbourne to be met with a horrible, overcast day in Sydney. Andrew and I are in the middle of formulating our wet weather / contingency plan for the wedding. Is somebody trying to tell me something?
  
  
• Lunch was at Oscar's, one of Ballarat's newer bar/cafe/restaurants. Highly recommended and well worth a visit next time you're in Ballarat.
  
  
• After lunch I snuck out to have coffee with Jane, Tara, Tim and Bodhi... my new cousins (well, they will be after March). I finally got to see Bodhi again, it's been over a year since I saw him last. So grown up now and just a little bit shy. I've turned into that weird relative that parents always foist on their children... "give Auntie Jessie a kiss!" (he didn't...)
  
  
• Dinner was at the Royal Oak Hotel... very dodgy, not recommended. The boys told us the Oak did a respectable counter meal. They were wrong... Not very hungry, we settled on calamari (although, we were tempted by the ham steak and pineapple... mmmmm, sounds delicious!). I'm not sure what it was we ate, but I don't think it ever lived in the ocean. Suffice to say, my tummy wasn't very happy at 2am.
  
  
• Tash has 3 younger sisters! Three! Count them! I was intrigued and asked lots of questions about what it was like while they were growing up. Annie and I had a few arguments when we were growing up. Can you imagine that multiplied by four? (I'm sure my Mum and Dad are reading this and shuddering). The girls assured me they didn't fight much when they were growing up. Maybe they've just erased the painful memories from their mind... like women do with child birth *G*.

It was a great weekend: I got to farewell Tash properly, spend time with Michelle (my lovely host) and catch up with my new family. Thanks to Michelle for putting me up (and putting up with me) for the weekend. Thanks to Jane, Tara, Tim, and Bodhi for coming out for coffee on such short notice (I rang Jane on Saturday morning and said "guess where I am!"). Thanks to Tash for considering me important enough to invite and good luck with your travels! (photos)

Last week was very busy with three separate activities scheduled to farewell Natalie. Natalie is heading overseas for a couple of years to sample the delights of Europe. She'll be living and working in London and using it as a base to travel. The farewell events included Cocktails at The Clock on Tuesday, a Cocktail Cruise, Dinner at Harbour Kitchen and Bar and Cocktails at the Summit on Wednesday and a final farewell at the airport on Thursday.

I'd love to return to Harbour Kitchen and Bar. The food was delicious with generous portions (unlike most expensive restaurants), the service was superb and while dining we were treated to a wonderful view of Circular Quay. It wasn't too expensive as we used our Entertainment Book voucher which brought dinner down to $60 a head (a bargain for entrée, main and two bottles of wine). I guess I'll be waiting for next year's Entertainment book before I get a chance to dine there again.

Our talented trio is now down to a daring duo. However, it doesn't seem like much has really changed as Natalie was on MSN the very day she arrived. We still get to talk to her twice a day *g*.

Good luck Natalie! We'll miss you! (photos)

Ashleigh is leaving us to live in England for a year. Her farewell party was held on Saturday evening at the Australian Youth in Glebe. All I can really say about the evening is that I had too much to drink (thank you Davina!) and Davina is hillarious when she is drunk. Or maybe she is just hillarious when we're both drunk *grin*. Somehow, I ended the evening with a bag of almost 100 chuppachups. A lifetime supply!

Good luck Ashleigh! I'll miss my girly movie, pop music, dancing buddy! (Photos)

Brielle and Sean are off, jetsetting around the world! We went to their farewell BBQ last friday. We searched in vain for an open supermaket on friday morning to buy some meat to BBQ but apparently they don't open until 1pm on ANZAC day. I don't know how we both managed to miss this important piece of information. I guess we know for next year.
Brielle and Sean are gone until November and their trip covers bits and pieces of North America and Europe. I think they also have a stint working in England *brrrrrr*. I'm very disappointed they didn't manage to set up a travel blog before they left. I guess I'll have to be satisfied with emails. Good luck guys! I hope you have a great time. I'm very jealous :D.