Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Whales and Running

Monday, August 31st, 2009

So as not to leave a gaping hole in this journal which I am sure we will refer in the future, this blog brings life in Sydney up to date from our last post to our departure back to the UK for “half time”!

20090719-134814 Since Watson’s Bay we have managed to spot whales migrating north off the Sydney coast. On a glorious Saturday afternoon, accompanied with a thick head, we set sail from Circular Quay out through the harbour and past the heads. Within minutes the skipper had picked up the trail of a whale (a trail is basically a string of other whale spotting boats!!!) and followed it for some time. After a while of it swimming along we were pretty much over it and almost as if the whale itself knew it decided to kick (literally) into life! Check out the pics!

20090725-152308 20090725-152348 20090725-162452

Well done girls! Over the past few weeks “we” have been training for Kaz to run her first road race – 14km from the city, along the harbour, to Bondi. I say we as originally I did intended to run it, but we then realised that the Sunday clashed with Bear & Em being up from Melbourne so I gladly opted to give my running number to Em! The training certainly paid off and the girls crossed the line in a respectable 86 minutes which given the traffic they had to pass is a very good time!

winter bondi wee dip?

So with Bear & Em in town we obviously got out the red paint (never a carpet!) and hit the city. Friday night was a marathon of drinking across the city and Saturday was certainly dedicated to R&R – the girls hit the spa, the boys went fishing with Sammy (& maybe a stubby or two!) and found the most amazing spot. Pictures certainly paint a pretty picture! To celebrate the run we hit Bills in Surry Hills for a late lunch and decided to wash it down with a bottle or two, or to be honest – a case!

  

Our final weekend before our trip back to the UK contained our first day back on the beach ahead of the summer. True to Sydney winter form, the weather was mid-to-high twenty’s and we went to Little Bay. Little Bay is where I play golf so knew it was a fantastic spot, but it was the first time Karen had seen it and it is truly an amazing spot. With eski and fishing rod in hand we hit the beach. Kaz bathed, I fished and what a fishing spot – first cast, first fish! The fish kept participating frequently with my activity and a fantastic day was had!

Oh, on a final note, we have had our 457 working visa granted so Karen will be bringing home LEGO until January 2010 at least!

Bookmark and Share

Wine, Ramsey & Chips!

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

Look who's in town!OK, so the updates aren’t so frequent, but here’s another instalment for the few remaining readers! Since the last post we have been treated to the Sydney Good Food & Wine show (basically all the Australian win regions came to Sydney rather than us going to them individually – very accommodating!) and we were treated with a demonstration from Mr Ramsey. He opened with reference to his Swine Flu incident with a certain pig and retorted that he now had “foot in mouth”! Brilliant! From there we went over and checked out Sam & Marissa’s new place and the awesome fish tank!

We had a weekend in Melbourne with Bear & Emily which was awesome. Eat lots of rich food, drank lots of cocktails and good wine with great company – so all in all, fab weekend! We even went to the MCG to catch a AFL game and really enjoyed the game too!

20090719-13512420090719-142018

Last week we eventually got ourselves to Watsons Bay for fish & chips! Oh, and the weather that day was awesome! Middle of winter and low 20′s! Some people were on the beach in swimmers and applying sun cream, others where in hats and scarf’s! The fish and chips were simply beautiful too!

Mr Benbow!Check out the pics (especially the one of Mr Benbow + 20 years!), catch those in the UK next month for a mad week of catch up!! :-)

Bookmark and Share

Wallabies v France

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

On invitation from the Pierrick we all got together and ventured to the ANZ Stadium for the Wallabies v France union match. On the back of France’s results in NZ expectations were high for a good match, however the French actually had one foot on the plane home and the game was quite one sided. We of course made fun of it all, and the pictures do tell part of the story: plenty of beer in our seats, tickles on the train, drunken pool and back to ours!

we were early and in 20090627-22225020090628-010656

Bookmark and Share

Vivid Sydney

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

So as is the spirit in Sydney, another festival…in the past week we have attended two screenings at the Sydney Film Festival: The September Issue and at the closing night “An Education” – both were very good films indeed!

We also had a wander about town as part of the Vivid Festival – a light festival across town. Some of the pictures we got, we think, are amazing! Check out for yourself!

20090613-20514820090613-21081220090613-211448

Bookmark and Share

Queens Birthday

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

So in true aussie style….they celebrate the Queens birthday with a public holiday – splendid – a long weekend, what can we do?

We decided to have a return trip to the Hunter Valley with Dave & Sian. We also decided to get back to a roots a little and booked to stay on the caravan park which was great – an awesome setting to win by A$40m at Electronic Australian Monopoly! After having a rather large night on the sauce getting to the Hunter and then playing Monopoly we were all rather hung over the Saturday morning, some more than others, but by noon we were at the first cellar door and into the wine! By the third cellar door I had bought a case of wine and signed up for a wine membership – it would be a long & expensive weekend!

20090605-21141620090606-14120420090606-144040

The wine was great, so much we brought back three dozen bottles! We visited some old favourites: Audrey, Pepper Tree, Tinklers and found some new gems: Tower, Piggs Peake to name a couple.

20090608-12100620090608-12385420090608-160650

Fo the Monday we headed north again and went fishing in a tinny. Although my venture with the rod was fruitless (again!) Davey boy did catch a couple and almost promptly stepped out of the tinney to avoid the fish on the end of HIS rod! Needless to say, I had to un-hook his prizes and release back to the wild!

A top, top weekend! And we have something (for a while) to remember it by…20090607-184154

Bookmark and Share

Italian Night

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

20090523-185710Always keen to get everyone together and spend the night eating and drinking, we decided to have an Italian themed night and get our hands dirty by making our own pasta from scratch.

There really isn’t much to making pasta – eggs and flour, but boy is it messy – thankfully our apartment has wooden floors, so the mess didn’t take too long to clear up! As usual we made enough pasta to feed the neighbourhood, but boy was it good and our homemade tomato sauce would definitely give Dolmio’s a run for its money.

20090523-18573620090523-20182020090523-202158

Bookmark and Share