I apologize for being slack. It's been too long since I posted.  The day after my last post, Dec 30th, I went on a charter fishing trip out of Sorrento.  I was hoping we'd go out of the bay into Bass Strait but unfortunately the winds weren't helping us and we had to stay in the bay.  That was the ONLY thing wrong with the weather that day.  It was an absolutely beautiful day and a lot of fun being on the water.  We caught a good many fish and I had enough for about two meals.  The first fish I caught could be the ugliest fish I've ever seen (this picture really doesn't it do it justice). 

As I was bringing the fish out of the water, the first mate started yelling "dont' bring it into the boat, don't bring it into the boat"  I didn't but had to ask what was wrong and found out that those spikes on the back of the fish are poisonous, and not just "you'll be sick for a little while" poisonous but "it makes grown men cry and beg for mercy" poisonous.  This ever proves the theory that pretty much everything down here could kill you.  However, apparently this fish does have good fillets, so when I caught a bigger one later on in the day, we did bring it on board, killed it, and immediately cut off the poisonous spikes.  This wasn't the only fish I caught that was poisonous, I also caught what they call a puffer fish.  I learned that this fish is a delicacy in Japan where people apprentice for 5 years learning how to fillet this fish so not to kill the person eating it.  Sounds dodgy to me though.

The next day, I had probably the most fun day yet in Australia.  I went on a seal and dolphin swim.  Again I lucked out and the weather was beautiful.  We snorkeled at a place called Pope's Eye.  Then went to the seal colony to swim with those guys.  Then we went looking for dolphins.  We were lucky enough to find some and got a chance to swim with them. I can't add the videos here but hopefully I'll get them posted on the website.

After the dolphin swim since it was New Year's Eve I poured myself a bourbon and watched the fireworks over Melbourne from balcony.

On January 4th, I had people over to watch the Orange Bowl.  We had three Clemson grads cheering on our Tigers.  I'm not sure my neighbors understood or appreciated the loud cheers that were coming from my apartment but it was a good fun day.

On January 6th I had to head back to work and I had a pretty low key couple of weeks until last Saturday.  Last Saturday I got to go the Australian Open.  It was a great venue and a lot of fun.  The main match that I got to see was Andy Murray against Lopez which Murray won in straight sets.  This past Tuesday I went to my first cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). The MCG I believe is the largest sports venue in Australia with a capacity of just over 100,000.  A very cool place and I am sure I'll be there often, whether it is watching cricket again or cheering on my adopted Australian Rules Football team, the Richmond Tigers.

I have to sign off for now, I have to get to a baseball game.

Love and Miss you all!!

Hope so see you soon!