Happy 2007,

I certainly hoped you all had a fantastic Christmas and celebrated the New Year in style! After a long stint in the States together we all parted company on the 17th December at Miami airport. Dave, Anna and Oscar flew back to the UK, Ilija to Serbia and for me it was time to face the seemingly endless journey back to Australia.

It was lovely to spend time with family and friends again over the festive season; it is always interesting to see what people are up to and to see how far some have come in the past year. It is also nice to be writing this knowing that the Ashes are now back where they belong. Ha-ha!

I managed to make it to the Boxing Day test match at the MCG and this year was an extremely memorable one not only as it was the Ashes but seeing Shane Warne clean bowl Strauss for his 700th test wicket. What a legend!

Australia is amidst a bad drought at the moment with water levels having dropped to their lowest in decades forcing the introduction of water restrictions. As of the 1st January, sporting clubs are unable to water their facilities which has some quite harsh implications on tennis clubs in and around Melbourne. It may mean that many will have to change from American clay to hard court to survive. It was therefore quite a welcome relief that it absolutely poured down on Christmas Day!!!!

Ilija arrived in Melbourne on the morning of the 30th albeit with one less bag!!! He seems to be the unluckiest traveler at the moment with the airline also misplacing his baggage from the States back to Serbia a few weeks ago. Part and parcel of traveling 40 weeks a year as a professional tennis player!

It has taken him a good few days to acclimatize, the humidity and the sheer warmth of the sun here in Australia takes its toll on anyone who hasn’t experienced it. He has trained hard since being here and this morning we traveled to Traralgon, (a small country town approximately 2 hours from Melbourne) the first tournament in a 5 week trip here. It has been a number of years since I have been here but if my memory serves me correctly the flies are always an unwanted extra on top of the heat. He then plays Notting Hill and the Australian Open juniors in the coming weeks and finally a money tournament near Sydney. It will be his first grand slam experience but it is also a great opportunity to get what is an extremely important year off to a good start, especially coming off the back of a very productive and beneficial end of year trip in America.  

Take care and we look forward to you all following us on our hopefully successful journey here in Australia.

Regards

Hampo