At 2.40pm on Saturday a dark cloud covered Melbourne and a storm cell unleashed itself and for 20 minutes 19 millimetres of rain bucketed down and 10cm balls of hail with such force that they bounced up from the ground to head height. Walking around yesterday was as if Armageddon had struck Melbourne and now the recovery starts. I feel sorry for all those people in rented cars who are now returning them in exchange for a huge bill for damages, Southern Cross train station had to be evacuated as heavy rain tore a hole in its roof and a deluge splashed down on the train platforms and I am thankful none of my windows were smashed

'The 6th of March 2010 will go down in Melbourne's weather history,' Mr Parkyn said yesterday after briefing Premier John Brumby. 'Lemon-size hail stones in Melbourne? Very rare,' he said. 'And we're talking large lemons - we're not talking your little green ones.'

I have been a victim of highway robbery and there is nobody to help me. I sent a present to my baby nephew in England and between arriving on the shores of Great Britain and being delivered to her house it was intercepted by her majesty's customs and excise or HM Revenue and Customs and they like to be known.

This is where the problem begins, because they can not tax myself they have to tax the receiver, so my sister gets a present and a bill.

I telephoned the customs office and asked if there was some mistake as it was a gift so why would it be taxed and I was told that the maximum you can spend on a gift is £38. So I was being punished for being too generous and I later found out if I had written the words BABY on it then it would have been tax free but as I had spent over the £38 limit I would still have had to pay a fee. I asked what happens at Xmas when people want to send gifts to the UK and was told , each gift has to be under the limit and sent separately. I thought I was in an episode of the twilight zone and England had become the prison and they were the guards taxing the inmates gifts.

After many phone calls from ParcelForce and HM Customs and I was given the following 'options'

1. I was told I could appeal if I thought there was a mistake, which there was as the parcel contained Baby Clothes but as ParcelForce had my parcel it would take up to 5 weeks to get it back and opened to verify the mistake.

2. I can send my sister the receipt with a signed letter stating what was in the parcel and she can pay the customs tax and attempt to claim it back by lodging a refund form.

3. Some crazy idea to stop my sister seeing the receipt which involved me paying the tax and then my sister sending me the box label and me then filling out a claim form and then getting an English cheque sent to me in Australia. It was so stupid I started to realise I was fighting a loosing battle so I took Option 4.

4. I can pay up and shut up.

The Conclusion: Send really cheap gifts to England. I was going to get Rolex watches for my brothers and Fendi and Hermes Handbags for my sister but now my hands are tied :)

I was sorting out some pictures and I realised I had never posted about loosing my mac virginity.  Here is a snap of my then new iMac 27-inch with the apple keyboard for illustration purposes only as it gives you pains when you use it for a long time so I have my trusty Logitech Illuminated Keyboard plugged in ready to go.  The mouse also had to go, I guess mac people do not usually work for 12 hours straight. What can I say, it is a lot faster than my laptop which overheated and died and I can run both MAX OS X and Windows 7 simultaneously which gives me the best of both world.

Oh no, I seemed to have shrunk my Ralph Lauren he he he. This is my favourite purchase and I could have got him the whole RL department but managed to get away with just a few items.

I almost want to have a child just so I can keep buying ickle clothes, I saw the cutest puffer jacket and ugg boots for a 3month year old. I passed on both, he is a boy and uggs are more for girls.  He needs some fully sick trainers for when he is chilling on park lane with his other buds.

This week my sister gave birth to a very cute baby boy which instantly made me an Uncle for the first time, I am not sure if this means I am supposed to become responsible but I have started to think about getting his room ready for when he comes out backpacking. I have 18 years notice but I bet I leave it all to the last minute :)

I have seen some very cute clothes for the newborn, they start UGG boots at 3 months but as I have not checked my Euro lottery ticket for the £113,000,000 draw yet I should wait to see if I am buying a pair of uggs or the entire company.  The amount my sister goes through it could be a sound investment. 

Before you ask, yes he is a blue. If he inherits his religion from his mother then I do not see a difference. Baby Moss Is A Blue, He Hates United.

I know this post is very late, he was born 4 days ago but I have had a crazy busy week and I just have not had the time but better late than never. Summer is coming to an end here so I am increasing my workload as it is a good time filler when there is no sun, oh how will I cope?

Today is Australia Day and it is my first as a fair dinkum Aussie. I finally managed to pull the video from Picasso of me getting my certificate and I quickly knocked together an iMovie using the free software that came with my mac. I am not going to explain what Australia day is as i have done that every year since I have been here.  Looking out of my window and the sky is blue and it looks like another lazy day in the sun.

Happy Australia Day or as Cody nicely put it, Happy Straya Day

I could not wait any longer for my egg on toast fix and today I decided to go out and get a toaster as my grill is broke. For the past 6 years I have just used the grill as I am limited with my small kitchen workbench. I only got a kettle last year and that was because Ryan took me to IKEA to get a desk but it is an old fashioned one that put you put on the gas. When I was back in England I had got so used to boiling water in a pan that when I was making a cup of tea at my sisters I put her electric kettle on the gas to boil LOL

Anyway, back to the point. I stumbled on an appliance that not only makes toasts but can poach or steam an egg at the same time. It does sound to good to be true but I will tell you all how it goes when I use it in the morning whilst watching Manchester City play in the FA Cup. I am very exited, for the Toast n Egg not the game LOL

I have Monday off work and Tuesday is Australia day so that is a public holiday, the weather is sunny and warm. Just the way we like it.

After purchasing a new pair of trainers 17 months ago I finally wore them for the first time and where was I going , was it a blind date, job interview, concert? No, it was to Coles to buy some groceries. I thought that we are in the middle of summer with no chance of rain so why am I not wearing them.

I have discovered that I buying clothes and saving them for an event which never seems to happen so I cracked open the trainers and strutted off to Coles totally overdressed.

I set a few new years resolutions and so far I am not doing very well. I have managed to update this site more often but I am smoking more and I have eaten out more times this year than the whole of 2009,

The weather is still ream here but looks like will turn this weekend so off to grab some rays.

Last night equaled the hottest night ever in Melbourne History. It was 34 degrees Celsius the entire night and at 9AM it had only dropped to 30. The only other time that temperatures have gone over 40 degrees Celsius and not dropped below 34 degrees Celsius during the night was in February 1902. They are predicting the temperature will rise again to 40 degrees Celsius today before a cool change comes in later this afternoon so at least tonight is expected to be cool.

I do have air conditioning in my apartment but it is very noisy and within minutes of switching it off the room is boiling again. If your interested it is a LG wall mounted unit which I am not impressed with compared to Eureka which had it built into the building which was 1st class. My house here will have it built into every room, that is a guarantee.

We are having some amazing weather here at the moment in Melbourne while my family and friends freeze over there in England. This is Brighton Beach, my place of worship and only a 15 minute train journey away. There are nearer beaches but this is a lot quieter and you can always find a nice pitch to call your own.  At one point today however, jellyfish were swept onto the beach all along the bay and it was like a mini invasion and then 20 minutes later they were all gone but I did not fancy risking getting stung so I stayed well away from the sea.

I managed to put in a good 5 hours at the beach before I had to come back and for dinner, what else but a BBQ. The weather today was a nice 34 Celsius which is 93.2 Fahrenheit and Sunday is expected to be the same but Monday is going to be 41 Celsius, 105.8 Fahrenheit, thankfully I am going to be at work in a nice air conditioned office.