Australia Day

Australia Day was fun, a totally different atmosphere to Waitangi day in 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.
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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.

Pretty good weekend all up

Gung Hei Fat Choi!

 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.

December Already?

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.

So I made date scones, mmmmm.

So it's been a while...

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! 

Sunny weekend

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.

Manly police

Ride horses! On the beach!

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!).

Vivid Sydney

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/