Exciting title, it's the name of installation art we checked out during the Sydney Festival.
Makes us sound rather cultured doesn't it? Perhaps not so much
A life size inflatable replica of Stonehenge?
Hell yeah!
More info here for those interested: http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2014/Family/Sacrilege/
Looks like 2013 wasn't such a big blogging year for me.
Hope all is well in everyone's 2014 / year of the horse.
Monday, 24 December 2012
Tis the season and all, so this year I actually managed to do some Christmas baking
Chocolate and almond biscotti
And ginger and pistachio chocolate
Yummm.
Now on to a day of eating far too much yummy food and relaxing with family.
Should be good in spite of the rain & humidity (silly Auckland summer).
Merry merry to you all, and I hope your day is filled with cheer.
Thursday, 13 December 2012
So Christmas is nearly upon us, and we were in Auckland for the return of the semi-annual Christmas in the park with friends event (which had seen a two year hiatus due to the main organiser being knee deep in dirty nappies..).
It has been a while since I made a pinata (since our wedding cake pinata in fact) so I thought I would give a last minute Christmas pinata a go. Having previously made a santa and reindeer pinata, this year saw me attempt a Christmas tree pinata
For sure the most hastily made pinata ever. two days from whoa to go. Barely enough time for the glue to dry.
Things started well, with the smaller children learning the fine art of whacking stuff
But it soon became apparent that this pinata was made of sterner stuff.
In the end we had to pitch it like a cricket ball in order to free the lolly stash
Pinata fail.
In my haste, I hadn't paid much attention to the flour to water ratio for the glue.Turns out the glue strength more than makes up for the number of layers of newspaper mache. Good to know.
Seasons greeting to everyone, hope your festive season is off to a good start.
PS - Another noticeable absence from me in my blog posting. Turns out having a baby takes up more time than you would think. Oh, and we also went to Bali for a month (awesome tropical relaxation) and up to Far North Queensland to see the full solar eclipse (totality was an amazing, tingly, goosebump inducing, bring a tear to your eye experience - fully recomend to anyone thinking of trying to catch one)
This cat's owner takes him out places, and whilst he is shopping, the cat just sits outside the store and waits (I've also spotted him outside the bottle shop, though maybe it's a she with a pink lead and all...)
AustraliaDaywas fun, a totally different atmosphere to Waitangidayin NZ, very much a festival/celebratory atmosphere which was cool (though admittedly, it may well be different in different places around Sydney the downtown area had a great vibe).
We caught the ferry into town with a boat-load of people all wearing some kind of Australian accessory (worst one I saw was a 50+ year old lady in a bar in the rocks who looked as if she was just wearing an Australian towel – unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I haven’t mastered the art of the undercover photo take).
The main part of our day was spent at the Rocks at a festival of the voice. Tons of live music and plenty of people watching. Crazy weather umbrellas for sun and rain in the space of an afternoon. Cool solar powered disco bins that played crazy music and people danced around.
Three stages and a wide diversity of Australian music. Including this guy, who had such an amazing moustache/beard combo that I think Sam was in awe. .
Then came home and had some friends over and made a prawn pizza (we don't have a bbq, so it was the next best option).
The following day we went for a 1k swim on Friday from Shelley beach to Manly - It's nice to live close to the beach when it gets hot.
Then it was off for some walking in Ku-ring-gai national park a pretty choice national park just up the road (we were aiming at going camping, but forgot in a city like Sydney, you would need to reserve your camping spot over a long weekend during school holiday’s at least 6 months in advance…)
We did a great 8km walk, plenty of up and down hills, lookouts with great views, some swimming, Frisbee on the beach.
Some really good rather large goannas that patrol the picnic areas (kind of like yogi bear, on the lookout for picnic baskets… of just sneaking up on and scaring picnicers…)
And even some aboriginal hand art in a cave.
Followed by the scenic route home and fush & chups at Long Reef.
To celebrate Chinese New Year we had a dumpling making party with friends at the weekend
One batch of chicken and peanut and one pork and coriander. Yummmm
Some steamed, some fried, and then a few cooked using the half-fry half-steam method.
There was a minor incident with a stove top grease fire, but what would the year of the dragon be without fireworks?
Turns out that 90 dumplings between four people is a little ambitious, but makes for good leftovers.
Happy Chinese New Year to you all (all three of you who read this blog at least).
May the year of the dragon bring good fortune and prosperity to all.
So after heartily promising that it wouldn't be so long between posts, another two months just slipped by without my noticing. How did that happen?
After some good weather yesterday (we went snorkeling at Shelly Beach in an attempt to find the submerged motorbike, which apparently has an eel living in the tail pipe - no luck with finding it though. Will be a good challenge for the summer months) today was a bit rainy and yuck.
Three months in fact since my last post. Apologies for that. Been up to some stuff while I was away. Such as: - Going to Queenstown for a work conference and getting stuck there because of a snow storm (terrible place to be stuck I know)
- Josie & Gordie's wedding in Scotland - A super fantasatic trip to the Galapagos Islands. Which was rad. Some photos can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/solipsist/sets/72157627336929489/ - A behind the scenes tour at the Taronga Zoo (thanks Celine!)
- Had my awesome girl-friends over for a long weekend - Chocolate was eaten, shoes were brought.. - My folks came over for a visit also - we cruised the Northern Beaches in our go-getz car - Visited Christchurch for work, was little chilly but treated me good. - Went to NZ and a RWC match (who would have thought it?)
Phew.
But now I'm back! And the weather in Sydney is getting warmer (we had 27 degrees last Friday - not bad for Spring). And little gems of insight into the Australian culture coming my way, such as watching a rugby game at the local pub and hearing a lady comment that a sign proclaiming "No way USA, Aussie Aussie Aussie" was 'pretty clever'. Sigh.
Promise it won't be so long between posts this time!
After some rain and wild weather over the last week or so the sun finally decided to come out over the weekend so it would have been rude to not go out walking.
We did the North Head walk which was pretty cool, lots of different things to see.
From Little Manly the walk goes past a scenic park which is the site of a former gasworks and you come to Collins Beach. Which is very pretty, and has a waterfall at one end.
and a bandicoot habitat (not sure where they hang out, but we didn't see any... Maybe next time)
From the lookout right at the end of North Head we could see the whales spouting (possibly incorrect use of the verb) and splashes of white-water when they breached/jumped/frolicked. Though try as we might, we couldn't see the whales themselves, just a little too far offshore and poor eyesight/no binoculars. I also think it has a little to do with the fact whales are quite good at camouflaging with the ocean.
It was pretty excited by seeing evidence of whales nonetheless.
The remainder of the walk was over boardwalks though some interesting paths and though a wetland back to Shelly Beach. And Sam harassed this weird looking plant, I like to call this photo: George Michael the botanist.
Apparently not all of them, and not all the time. Manly police have also been spotted walking the beat like normal police, and on bikes cycling the corso. But really, what commands more respect, a copper on a 10-speed or these two on their trusty steeds?
(Photo taken from the Manly Food & Wine festival last Saturday - on my new phone camera. Yup, work upgraded me to a brand new phone. Of course I had no idea what to get, luckily Sam steered me in the right direction and I am now the owner of a Nexus S - otherwise known as the new andriod phone from Google. It has a pretty sweet phone camera too!).
Last week was the start of the Vivid festival here in Sydney, with light sculptures around Circular Quay and the lighting of the Sydney Opera house sails with all sorts of funky light patterns. We have been into town a couple of times since the sails were lit,(once to catch Cut Copy at the Opera House - also part of the Vivid Festival - hands in the air good times were had) and I have attempted to capture the sails and lights using the camera on my phone.
There are somewhat better images on the festival homepage (strange that they are better quality than my camera phone taking shots out of the ferry window..) If you want to check it out, the link is here: http://vividsydney.com/
Was going to be the title of my new blog, but then I thought it might attract the wrong audience (or have me reported to the SPCA...)
Still not entirely sure what I will be blogging on, but in the interests of creating some content rather than just consuming it - welcome to my blog!
Probably not very frequently updated (but given how infrequently I email, this blog may provide at least some information on my life in Aus), but hopefully interesting.
So to the Kanga bangas (apparently high in iron, low in fat and remarkably low cost), as for taste, I'll let you know.....
