G'Day Mick!

As Charlotte was busy with her first week of training, I decided to go on my first walkabout and see our close friends Mike and Leigh Henry (and for the first time their little-un Aiden) down in Canberra.

We haven’t got our car sorted yet and Charlotte’s Virgin Australia flight concessions haven’t kicked in either so I just grabbed a bag and headed for the bus station for my 3 and half hour journey down to Canberra….no worries!

I made sure my Kindle and I-pod were charged up and ready to go for the bus journey down to Canberra. It was an easy journey down….too easy mate!! One straight road all the way down.

Mike was at the bus station waiting to greet me and we soon headed off for some beer and pizza, followed by more beer.

It was good to meet up with Oz Mick again, as it had been at least a couple of years since we last met and at that time we weren’t sure when we’d meet up again so was great to get the opportunity to catch up.

We made a quick stop at the bottle shop on way back to Mickey’s place to pick up some more tinnies and I was also ‘stoked’ to find Charlotte’s favourite drink – Malibu and Coke in a can, which will earn me a few brownie points and keep the missus happy. We’d been looking everywhere in Sydney for Malibu and Coke in a can but had thus far drawn a blank.

The Aussies are very particular over the places you can buy and do stuff over here it’s kind of back to the traditional ways. If you want to buy some deodorant or headache tablets you go to a pharmacy (not supermarket), you can’t gamble in bars/pubs, you have to go to a separate room or place altogether (this includes fruit machines) and if you want to buy booze you can’t go to any shop you have to go to a dedicated bottle shop. It takes a bit of getting used to but I’m sure I’ll get my head round it, especially as there are quite a few drive-thru bottle shops around here, yep you just drive up, throw some booze in the motor and drive away…what a great idea!!! Once I get our car sorted I’m sure I’ll be frequenting these fairly often so I’ll get some pictures and post them for you.

Mickey lives in the Canberra suburb of Kaleen and has a really nice house. For those of you wanting to picture their lovely abode then just cast you mind back to Ramsey Street (Neighbours) and in particular Mrs Mangle’s house, it’s just like that ha ha.

I got to meet their 10 month old son, Aiden for the first time and what a little cutie he is. Such a little bundle of energy and happiness and quite clearly gonna be a little heart breaker when he get older.

I had a cracking time catching up with Mike, Leigh and Aiden over some good food, wine and beer and I’m sure Charlotte and I will be seeing a lot of the Henry clan over the next 12 months….good times.