The Saturday exploring Mike's Sydney

Hi,

Mike and I got up early an caught a local bus (751) to Blacktown and swapped to a bus service replacing the rail network for the weekend.  Yep - engineering works weekend.  The bus was great - n express coach all the way to Wynard station - no stops.  Better than the train service.  Hahahah.

Mike took me for brunch in town (close to our work's Sydney office) and then we went shopping.  The tourists were out in force.  We bought postage stamps at the post office and the chap behind the counter said "Even though they are stamped at $1.65, I'll give them to you for $1.60".  Very odd.  Felt like haggling.  Mike thinks he should have tried for $1.50 now.

From there we walked to Darling Harbour and had an iced coffee.  Mike showed me his haunts from his Sydney trips.

On Pyrmont Bridge

Just missing Sally and Andrew's feet at Darling Harbour

Then we caught a taxi to Randwick and Mike took me all around the University of New South Wales campus.  He was so enthusiastic.  He's very cute.  From there we walked to Coogee beach - bit of a meandering walk.  But the beach was lovely.

Surveying the beach - see Wedding Cake island on the horizon?

We sat on the grass under a tree and enjoyed the view.  A public announcement was made while we were there.  It went like this:

Due to strong winds (Mike and I queried defining the gentle onshore breeze as strong), there are some bluebottles coming ashore (oh - we were expecting announcements about sharks or rips).  If you get stung, just relax.  (Right - of course!  Relaxing is a great idea.  Best remember that).  Come out and have a cool shower.  Pull the stingers off with your fingers.  If it is still sore, see a lifeguard.

This is a typical Australian approach to its creepy crawlies.  Nothing about evacuating the beach.  Just relax if you get stung.  Don't inconvenience anyone by panicking and having to get rescued.  Just relax and have a cold shower.  Hahahah.

We caught a local bus (M50 - Prepay only - Mike sorted them out - crazy, fragmented public transport system!) to Central, waited for a coach back to Blacktown and enjoyed the bus ride.

Caught the 752 from Blacktown to Quakers Hill, all foretold accurately by the bus nerd at Central station (he knew the Quakers Hill bus route from Blacktown and even what "Stand" to catch it from once we got there. Freaky!).

Home to a great dinner from Karen and watched some Vampire Diaries with her.  Mike and Scott have been having B grade movie fests.  Iron Sky one night.  Piranha DD the next night.  No idea what the movie was last night but Mike thinks I may have made it to about 10 minutes before giving up!  Must have been a good one.

Today is Sunday and we're off up to Scott's mother's house for New Years.  Can't wait to swim in the sea.  Wish I had togs with me yesterday at Coogee.

Love,
Angela

Boxing Day celebrations

Hi,

Boxing Day had more of the same weather as Christmas Day - but less rain and less thunder.  Scott's family all arrived around 11.30am and the food was coming out of our ears.  It was great to catch up with Scott's family.  They have two fresh babies (Troy and Chad have both had recent babies) and the older cousins are now looking really tall and older.

The food highlight for me (apart from the tray of mangoes that Troy brought around) was the huge sides of salmon.  It was cooked to perfection on the BBQ and was something to behold.  In fact, I think I have lived on salmon and mangoes since then.  Is it possible to eat too many mangoes?  I think I have easily eaten 10 mangoes in the last three days.  If I had a coconut about now, I would be well on the way to my tropical island fantasy (imagine a Samoan beach, with nothing to eat but fish, mangoes and coconuts and you have my getaway dream!).  I am now intending to overdose on mangoes and iced coffee by the time I leave Sydney in two weeks time!

Gorgeous Kittos

On Thursday we braved the crowds at the local shopping centre.  It wasn't too bad really.  We even ate sushi at Sushi Bay with a real sushi train.  Toby ate sushi for the first time - he likes teriyaki chicken sushi!  It's a start!  And one I am happy about.

Look at those plates stacking up!

You chose fruit, Tyler?

The sushi was fabulous!  We wandered home and Tyler convinced me to swim in the new wading pool they got for Christmas.  What a great way to unwind.  Mike and Karen read their Kindles while I soaked in the pool with Tyler and Toby bounced on the trampoline.  Wee Abby was at a birthday party.  Toby bounced so much he got a bit of whiplash - solved by bouncing even more to build up those muscles!

Toby and Abby slept in Abby's room that night.  They were so cute reading together before the light went out.

Reading time!

Friday saw us up early and off to Luna Park for the day.  What a fantastic trip.  We caught up with a whole bunch of Karen's friends.

Iconic photo opportunity!

The Rotor was an amazing ride at the end and I took some good photos of Abby, Toby and Tyler.  You'll have to believe me when I point out that Toby is in the yellow shirt with Abby to his right and Tyler to his left.

The centrifugal force has stuck the kids to the wall. 

When we got home we were all grotty, so we flung the kids in the bath!

Yes - Toby is eating an iceblock in the bath

Tomorrow Scotty is off to play golf and Mike and I hope to train into town to see some sights.

Great fun, eh?

Love,
Angela

The Christmas in Sydney

Hi,

What a fantastic Christmas lunch we had here in Sydney.  The weather wasn't very nice - in fact last night was the first night we used our duvet at night.  Downright cold.  Hahahah.  Well, hardly.  However, Wellington had a glorious day - reaching 29.6C at the airport.  Unheard of temperatures.  The Stuff article I read said Wellington had "extremely hot" conditions.

Anyhow Karen cooked up an amazing roast leg of pork for lunch, with all the trimmings.

Christmas lunch - taken expertly by Abby

The kids had their lunch on the trestle table next to us.

Kids Christmas lunch

We were all very full after that and the lunch blurred into dinner really.  I also had two naps during the day.  Not too sure why I was so tired.

Shona called and we chatted for ages - she had a good day down in Geelong with her kids.  Eventually we caught up with Ma and Dad after their Christmas lunch at the club.  Ma is still sore and finding it hard to be as mobile as she should be.  Poor Ma!  Hopefully it comes right soon!

All the adults then drank into the night while playing cards.  I was heading to bed to read when they (well, Karen and Mike) asked me to stay and read with them.  So I did just that.  Finished my book (not the book full of ridiculous similes that made me guffaw out loud - this one was an out and out romance book and I am sure this is the most boring genre on the planet!  I was hoping for a massive influx/invasion of werewolves or vampires or aliens.  Anything!  But, no.  In "The cottage by the sea" the only thing that happened was love.  Yawn!) and wandered off to bed to start another one (a Young Adult one that is a sequel to another I read recently - it might prove a little more interesting than a boring romance set in Cornwall).

I kept my party hat on for hours - it drove Scott crazy as it slipped constantly over my eyes.

Apparently Mike was plying Karen with lots of wine and she was within spitting distance of winning their card game when she declared herself drunk and went to bed.  Hahahah.  Not too sure if they kept playing or not.  Mike came to bed and I think I may have noticed.  Maybe.

Boxing Day - more of the same weather.  Perhaps not quite as torrential as yesterday.  The thunder yesterday was amazing.  This is the big family day here.  We'll get a huge influx of Kittos (well, some might argue it is more exciting than werewolf invasions!) and eat lots and catch up with people we haven't seen for ages.

Given we slept in until 8am, I suspect we have a bit of cleaning to do in the next hour!

Have a great day!
Love,
Angela

The Christmas Eve with 40C

Hi,

The Christmas carols at the local high school were fabulous.  We had front row seats and the singers were very good.  I was in fine form, singing carols loudly (and poorly - but hopefully no one could hear my tuneless singing).  Everything was free - lollies, sausages, cupcakes, bouncy castle.

Christmas Eve was one to remember.  We walked over to a local park with Tyler's bike, a netball and tennis racquets around 10am.  Karen said it was hot and I said it must be about 30C.  It seems my temperature gauge has got a bit wayward since living in Wellington and anything over 25C is just "hot".  It was an amazing 41C here in Sydney.  So, yes - it was "hot" in anyone's language.  I gave Karen a hard time for taking us out in 40 degree heat to play tennis, even though when I thought it was 30C it was perfectly fine.  Hahahah.

We then nipped out to Karen's friend's house to collect eggs and check on their chooks.



Gathering eggs from Liz and Paul's chooks

We found their cleaner cleaning their house.  Well, that was what he told us.  We hope he was their cleaner.  He also seemed happy that we were just checking the chickens!

Toby also jumped on  the trampoline for a while.


Jump!

In the afternoon, Scott's mother, her husband Len and Grandma arrived.  After settling them in and having dinner (Aidan - you may be interested to know that Mike and I accidentally ate Toby and Karen's food - it's not just you that loses your meal around us to ravenous Gilberts - they had to eat something else entirely) we walked around to some friends' house and sat on their front lawn while a thunderstorm lit up the surrounding sky with lightening. 

After the drinks on the lawn, we walked around to a local street that decks out the houes with amazing lights.  Of course, the celestial light show was still happening as well.

Back home to put the kids to bed.  They all went to sleep without any bother.  Mike and I followed suit.  Howver we were woken up at midnight by Karen who had got upset at the size of the presents in Toby's stocking compared to her children.  She rummaged around in cupboards and before you knew it, Toby's stocking was just as full as her own children's stockings.  My sister loves my son!  We're so lucky!  It is a bit hard to co-ordinate these things when you travel at Christmas.

Christmas morning was such fun!  The kids woke at a respectable 6am.


Just starting



Watching the chaos



Front row seats



Look what I got from Toby - can't wait to use this voucher

Scotty is putting together toys - don't think he has finished yet!  Hahahah.  We're having roast pork - an amazing leg of pork is in the oven.  I opened the door to get a better look and apparently this may have ruined the crackling.  Oops.  I'll let you know.
I hope your Christmas is a lot of fun!  Missing you all. 
Love,
Angela

The Sunday in Sydney

Hi,

Our flight over on Saturday morning was one of the best trips over I have had.  It may have had something to do with me making it through an episode of Father Ted and getting 5 minutes into "Big Bang Theory (which I have never watched before and still can't believably make that claim) before I fell asleep with my headphones still on.  I only woke when Toby started changing my programming.  Well, actually, he had changed my programming already and I slept through that.  But when he turned up the volume quite loud on a Coldplay song and then got a bit too excited at the thought of finding a Justin Bieber song to serenade me during my sleep that he woke me, I realised I was only 45 minutes out from Sydney and where had the flight gone?

The day passed by with seeing the Kittos - it has been ages since Toby and I were here.  Over a year.  Last November we watched Tyler just starting to learn to ride her bicycle.  This year - she is amazing.

And then she gave me a go - good fun!

After an amazing sleep where Mike and I made it to about 8pm before hitting the wall (apart from those raucous Australian birds screeching outside our window at 5am) we eventually got up and made breakfast.  Then Karen and I went and did some last minute shopping before the crowds.  And it worked well.  So well we even got Yum Cha.



Please note the plate of green veges in the middle of the table.  

We drove home and I drank another iced coffee while we wrapped presents.  Scott and Mike took the kids to Wreck It Ralph (movie) and got the Santa photos taken.  Our kids look huge now with Santa.  We're going to have tea and then wander around to some Christmas Carols at the local high school and then look at the fantastic houses that get all decorated each year.

Tomorrow is all about prepping for the big day.  But there should be time to relax as well.

Hope you're having a great time in the lead up to Christmas.

Love,

Angela

The Saturday in Sydney

Hi,

I am typing this in boiling hot Sydney.  Hahahah - Karen and Scott say it is a relief for it to be so cool.  Apparently they had a 41C day a few days back.

I have overdosed on iced coffee already.  One of my favourite brands now has "Extra Shot" - wow!  Are they trying to lure me back to Australia to live?  Fortunately for me (and my bank account), New Zealand now makes suitable iced coffees easily available in the supermarkets.  No moving for us, thanks.

Karen and I have been swapping books (the electronic versions our respective husbands are only too pleased to note - no reason to extend bookshelf space!) and chatting about them.

Mike and I doubled up on the croissant order for Christmas Day when we popped over to the bakery.  12 is plenty - 24 might be a bit too much to munch through.  Reminder to us - ask Karen before making any hasty Christmas purchases.  She has everything in hand.

Okay - time to head off and get some shopping done.  Something healthy?  What?  Really?  Hahah.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Love,
Angela

The Thursday with Toby

Hi,

Mike had a bit of a late mission at work and so we were horribly late home on our frantic evening.  Unfortunately with a deadline at the airport to collect Toby, we had to miss popping in to see Vivienne and John.  A neighbour came around while we were scoffing our tea (yummy stir fry - ta Mike) and talked for ages to Mike.  But eventually we got out the door and went to the airport.  Wee Toby is not really that wee anymore.

Yesterday was an absolutely stunning day here in Wellington.  We caught up with Sally and Andrew for lunch int he sun trap and as you can see, we had to sit in the shade.  Well, all of us except Sally who works in an ice box and was thawing out before the afternoon's freezing session!

Toby was very pleased to see us.  And I was so excited waiting for him to come off the plane.  Of course he was last with all the other kids travelling for Christmas so the wait was quite long as the plane emptied out.  Home to watch some television with him and then to bed.  Mike and I were asleep in seconds.

Mike has a day at home today - he has a half day leave and will look after William and Toby (and William's brother) then swap.  Or not.  Turns out William's mother is in hospital and the plans are very fluid.

We're also going to Waikanae today to see our friends.  Aidan's mother and stepfather are over - well, they arrive today.  We're going to watch them both fall asleep in their dinner.  And we're up at 3am tomorrow to catch our flight to Sydney.  Woo hoo!  Can't wait to relax in hot Sydney.  Beaches, here I come!

Have a wonderful Christmas.  See you in 2013!

Unless the Mayans were right.  Hahahah.

Love,
Angela