G’day one and all and thank you for that wonderful response to my invitation to “Say G’day”.  It was fantastic to hear from so many readers from all over the world.  Because it’s still Saturday in some remote parts of the world like London, Zurich and Toronto I will hold off on drawing the prize untill a little later on but keep watching this space to see if YOU are the lucky winner.

 So where have I been this week I hear you ask?   Well it’s been a pretty full-on week with so much going on here in Melbourne.  

On Tuesday we had the running of the Melbourne Cup, this is the crown jewel of our spring racing carnival, the race that stops a nation and other assorted cliches.  I rushed around and got all my housework done early then whipped up a lovely chicken salad, fruit platter and lots of nibblies for the afternoons celebrations.  Our guests arrived at lunchtime quickly followed by the popping of champagne, you can’t host a race day celebration without a little bubbly now can you?  The weather was perfect and we all enjoyed a fun day of chatting, drinking, cheering on our favourite horses and more drinking!  Sadly I didn’t win a thing but did get a dollar refund on my horse that was scratched in the work sweep!

You may recall from previous posts that around this time of year I go on an all day shopping spree, you heard me right, an ALL DAY SHOPPING SPREE!  This Melbourne phenomenon is a bus filled with women, their big fat cash filled purses and a hunger to shop. 

My day began with Nutri-Grain, a large coffee and a cash filled purse.  We assembled at 7.30am and hit the first factory outlet by 8am where we spent over $1000 on toys, even the shopping spree host was a little shocked by our shopping frenzy for such an early hour.  That was only the begining of a fun filled day where several more spending records were to be broken.  

There were 11 factory outlets in total and they covered toys, sports gear, sweets and nuts, underwear, kitchen wear, women’s clothing, bags and shoes, Christmas trimmings, manchester, children’s clothing and finally beauty products.  At the sweet and nut outlet you can eat as much as you like while you decide on what you want to by, it was here that the next record was broken with over $1000 being spent!  When the host got on the bus her first words were “you naughty, naughty ladies”, with that the bus erupted into peels of suger induced laughter.

 Lunch was at the Spaghetti Tree in central Melbourne, I had the chicken salad and chocolate mouse, yum!  Then it was back on the bus for more shopping fun.  By days end our tally was over ten thousand dollars, now that’s a lot of jocks and socks!  We had a fabulous day and all the outlets were filled with great products at amazingly low prices.

My best buys of the day included a new purse for me at $9.95, some “very comfy undies” for my husband at only $8 a pair, a pogo-stick for one of the boys and a girl can’t go past a pair of linen pants for only $19!  Our bus arrived home at 6pm filled with 50 very  happy, exhaused and broke shoppers, bring on 2008!

Thank you once again to all of you that pop in for a visit, keep watching this space as I will post again later today with the winner of the draw.  Have a smashing Sunday everyone and as today is Rememberance Day I will leave you with this…  

TTFN