Holidays! Glorious, glorious holidays!

It's no secret that I've been a bit stressed out lately so that just makes it ALL THE SWEETER to be out of the office and on holidays in sunny Melbourne! Oh yeah! We've had such a fab time so far, and still more time left. The best part so far has been seeing all my wonderful Melbourne family, and getting to spend so much time with my fabulous, fabulous sister Katy.

The intrepid travellers, Clover and Watkins.

(I found myself curiously unable to crop this picture, for which I apologise!)

We've done a fair amount of shopping.

Er... should I rephrase that?

We've done a LOT of shopping!

Hmm, let me rephrase that once again.

We've spotted some amazing bargains and stretched ourselves financially to invest in several key pieces each which will enhance the functionality of our existing wardrobes while adding to the joy and frivolity of our future existence.

Y'know??

We've been staying with the extremely wonderful Loulou and John, who we love. And their adorable dog Saphy, who is (I think) the best trained dog I've ever met. (I am a Non Dog Person, this is the best dog compliment I can give!) It's been so fabulous spending time with my wonderful aunties and our glamorous Nanna. I definitely haven't taken enough pictures of everyone.

We saw Bill Bryson speaking, and he was fantastic. (Haven't read any of his books yet, but now I certainly want to!) At one point he opened up the talk to questions from the audience, which is always a bit risky I think. He shut down some annoying lady beautifully when she just kept talking and talking, by saying 'Well, yes, I see your point, but this is becoming a bit of a dialog, so let's continue with someone else.' Beautifully done!

We watched Babel yesterday, and it is a great film, but I didn't like it. Which is to say, I liked the way it was made, Innaritu makes impeccable films and I love the way he uses intersecting storylines and plays with time - but I found it awkward, messy, painful and uncomfortable. I like films to be escapism really: fun, entertaining, pretty and leave me with a smile on my face. It was a gorgeous old retro theatre though, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

We're off to the 15 restaurant tomorrow. My talented uncle Andy taught the 15 kids to cook, did you see the tv show? So he's taking us there for cocktails, which I'm looking forward to! Two of my very wonderful cousins have just turned 18, so they'll come with us as well.

Oh, you know what, there have been a million fabulous things that we've done that I'm not even going to list here because it would take too long! It's certainly been an action packed holiday so far! Looking forward to coming home eventually though, as coming home means coming back to the Palace! (Which, by the way, currently looks like this:

so I'm certainly going to have to get cracking on the unpacking as soon as I get home!)

Hope you're all having as fabulous a week as I am. Not too sure how that's possible, but I'm an optimist so I'll hope for it all the same ;-)

Lovely hat which I was very tempted to buy!