Oh man! I didn't think it was possible for me to get even further behind with myself online than I already have in the past, but I just haven't had a second to sit down and write anything for my blog in the last fortnight. To be fair, I have been filling every possible moment either with really cool things that I like to do (the usual suspects: good food, good company, that sort of thing) or with really uncool things that pay the bills (yes, a return to work was inevitable). And the other waking moments I found here and there have been most efficiently used in the preparation of swathes of new photos for my main website (so go and check them out!).

But, in headline terms, this is what I've been up to since I returned from Queensland two weeks ago:

I went to see Missy Higgins in concert with Rainnie & Claire. The gig was great, because it started in the afternoon and we arranged a massive picnic to eat during the warm-up acts. What made it better was the fact that Claire, working as she does for the Arts Centre, was able to blag us not only quick entry (cutting in front of literally thousands of people to get in) but also a top spot just behind the seated area of the open-air Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne's Botanical Gardens. It was great!

I went to Oaks Day, which is one of the major race meets during Melbourne Cup week, with Em and two colleagues of hers from her lapdancing club, along with one of their regular customers. The five of us cut a dash in the sartorial stakes, but then again most people had made a bit of an effort - including the bunch of slag nuns sat next to us by the finishing post! Much drink was enjoyed by all (I'd never have thought of hiding booze inside loaves of bread; what a top idea) and we had a giggle all day and into the night.

I caught up with various people I hadn't seen since before my trip up north, including my Monday night badminton crew (ah! how I savoured my return to our supper club!), David the radio presenter, Stuart the Welshman (he can't help it) and James my gemologist friend, for drinks or meals or both. And of course I spent lots of time with Rainnie & Claire, especially after Rainnie had surgery on her eye and was forced to take time off work to let it recover. We had a Buffy fest in her darkened living room!

I also got to spend more time with my housemates Kara (we went for dinner with her boyfriend Matai and his brother & father who was over from NZ), Fiona (lots of hanging out and drinking tea - the best way to avoid studying for exams) and Spotti (we went for dinner with his girlfriend Christie). Kate's been very busy recently and hasn't had a lot of time for socialising, but I dare say we'll make up for it at some point.

I spent a day with my Zimbabwean mate Ian and his parents. We drove up to Daylesford, a delightful little spa town a couple of hours north of Melbourne, but we went a scenic way because Ian has a 4WD and he wanted to do a bit of gentle off-road stuff. So we followed a track through some stretches of national park forest, and managed to spot an echidna (in fact it almost became roadkill) and a kangaroo, as well as lots of different types of tree. We rewarded ourselves with a hearty Italian meal in Daylesford, then headed back to the city. It was fun chatting away with Ian's parents, who in some ways reminded me of my cousin Jack & his wife Val.

Lots of amusing little things have happened in recent times, and the two weeks has been seasoned with traditional Melbourne weather - boiling hot one minute, cloudy and windy the next. So this is what people mean when they say Melbourne has four seasons in one day. I'd been wondering ever since I got here, as my experience of the weather here has been of unbroken sunshine or unbroken freezingness.

This week I've been back at work in Port Melbourne, with the label applicator engineers, and in Spencer Street station, where for once I wasn't sitting around reading my book all evening - that's right, I borrowed a laptop and did some html work instead! The working has helped keep my mind off the fact that I really have very little time left in Melbourne. What with various trips planned around Australia, I've barely got a whole week left in this marvellous city. I'm trying not to think about it.

And that just about sums up my last two weeks. I've probably left out loads and loads of stuff, but I can't help that. I just wanted to get the bare bones down. I have to hope that when I come to write my memoirs in 100 years' time, there will be enough here to jog my memory...