It is the 22nd of December and an early morning arrival into Melbourne at 7am. So, before I made this trip I made a conscious decision to be wifi only, to ensure I was present for this experience and have my head up and looking out as opposed to down and in my phone, overall, this has been a good decision, however, when trying to book an Uber on very dodgy airport signal is not ideal! For some weird reason I had signal with my head stuck in the Uber’s passenger window!

Luckily I had messaged Lu from the plan so she knew I was landed and en route. I insisted on making my own way at this time of the morning she had already done 2 airport runs on my recent 3 day visit.

Pamper day, I have been looking forward to this, we headed out for one of the best pedicures I have ever had, got our nails done and then I headed off to a day spa place for an all round tidy up, details not required!

I had an afternoon nap, having been up since 2.30am, we are going out with Lu’s friend Rae tonight into Melbourne for dinner.

We headed into town around 5pm and went to a little cocktail bar near Parliament, a great place to watch the world go by, wedding on the steps etc as we waited for Rae with a lovely freezing cold Pinot Gris.

Lu has us booked into Margaux and underground French Restaurant which reminded me of Dublin with all the old floors and booths. Rae is such a lovely easy girl and I can see why Lu & she are great friends.

Starters (and I wish I had taken pics) snails in garlic butter out of their shells, gorgeous, so tasty. I had snails once before in Paris in their shells in garlic butter and wasn’t convinced, I am so glad I gave them another shot, we had a few other sharing plates and then we all had the burgers which are meant to be one of the best in the city and oh my word it didn’t disappoint, absolutely gorgeous.

23rd Dec. Early morning walk with Lu & Ruthie on Alton beach which was approx 20 mins from the house with clear views of the city, so nice, Ruthie in her element getting her ball and chasing the birds!

Then off to collect fresh prawns and Morton Bay Bugs! From the wholesalers near the beach.

I heading into Yarraville for the afternoon to get a few bits and pieces and write up my Tasi blog, got lost a few times so walked more than I had expected. We are going to Jocelyn & Rob’s tonight, they have very kindly invited me too. What a lovely evening, great company and lovely food along with a lot of dogs in their Christmas outfits which was definitely different! We were the first to leave at around 10pm as all three of us were whacked.

Christmas Eve and it’s all going on in the kitchen. Ben has had the turkey soaking in Cider, water, oranges and seasoning over night and is now putting butter under the skin and seasoning it. The smoker is on, you can put different types of wood pellets in it depending on what you are smoking. Lu is prepping n the ham. It not as we know it as you cannot buy raw pork in Australia, however the principle is the same post boiling remove most of the fat, score it, cloves etc Lu has made an apricot base for the ham. Apricots, apricot jam, seeded Dijon mustard, white miso and honey, delicious and into the oven to roast.

For those of you that are thinking it is hot and sunny think again thunder storms and it is pouring down!