Manly Ocean World

Last weekend we went to Manly Ocean World

With Steve, Selina, Amelia & Clara on our long weekend Monday!

Lots of cool looking sealife!

I see you!

I love these guys with the funny noses!

Gorgeous!

Amelia & Clara loving the touching pool!

Me & Selina (and Steve taking a photo) in the tunnel!

The tunnel was fantastic! Huge sharks & the biggest rays I have EVER seen - about 6 foot across!

Amelia posing all sweetly - Clara wants to be picked up I think:) Cute

One of the highlights was the baby animal show

You can just see Me & Amelia here (Selina & Clara are hidden behind that pole). The girls were SO brave - touching snakes, a few kinds of lizards, etc. Good fun!

We don't have any photos but THE highlight of the day for Amelia was the mermaid! A girl was carried in (due to her tail of course.....) and put in a little hot tub to talk to the kids (normally she goes in the tank - but it's still too cold for that). She told them all about where she's from (Atlantica) and they were able to touch her tail - Amelia's face was pure bliss (she loves mermaids). TOO cute!

One last look at the sharks - a great day trip - we enjoyed it and so did the girls!

On the way home Amelia took a ride on one of the amusement park rides set up for the Manly Jazz festival.

Having fun on the ride - she was very brave!

Cutie

Murray spotted this cockatoo picking at twigs on our way back - they really are gorgeous birds (LOUD though!)

Murray playing horse for Amelia

It was a fun day. Good fun with great friends:)

Sleep Over!

Had a lovely sleepover with Selina & her girls last night. When I got there the girls had just gone to bed, so Selina & I sat & chatted & had dinner. It was great to catch up. Also we watched that show Flash Forward - very interesting concept I must say!

It was lovely to wake up in the morning with two cute little girls standing by my bedside - they are so darn cute. I swear Clara said Good Morning Meek - or something like that. Her vocabulary expands every time I see her - but sometimes it's hard to tell exactly what she's trying to convey. That big grin gets me every time though! And Amelia's is such a sweetheart - showing 'Aunty Mo' her new book and playing a bit of hop scotch (it's hard to hop on one leg at 7 am that's for sure). Lovely lovely visit, and so convenient for work today - my drive was half the time it normally is to this office - fantastic!

And how could I forget - best news is that I didn't get lost!!! Last time I drove to Selina's I think I called Steve about 5 times. This time I got there JUST fine YAY. And managed to get to work the next day no worries - granted that was really only 1 road, but I'm happy I am getting more confident with my driving:)

I will post the Ocean World post later this week - better to spread out the photo posts because I didn't take ANY last weekend - oops!

The Script

On the 26th September we went to the Enmore Theatre to see The Script

The opening act was Wes Carr - the guy who won Australian Idol last year - eh - he's ok

Then it was time for the Irish stars - The Script!!! I thought it was pretty cool that he has his keyboard at an angle up at the front of the stage - quite unusual for a lead singer!

Danny O'Donoghue - the lead singer - was AMAZING! Such a great stage presence.

A bit of acoustic as well - their whole album is amazing - and was also GREAT live!!!

GO IRELAND! Fabulous show - my first in Sydney!

My Oz Blog

I have had a request to post more often - even if I don't have any pics - so here you go:)
TGIF
We are heading to the city tonight for drinks with friends - first time I have done that in AGES - should be fun!
I have tons of pictures that I need to get on here eventually - from 'The Script' gig we went to and our day at the Manly Aquarium with Steve & Selina & their girls. I promise to try and get those sorted this weekend.
Otherwise, just hoping for this rain to let up and the sun to come out this weekend. It has been a bit chilly this past week. I hear this is normal for October, then the heat comes through in November - we shall see!
I have made some good progress on the book I'm making of our travel blog. Venezuela is done and I'm working my way through Brasil. It's a slow process, but I think the pages are turning out quite nicely. I'll have to do some sort of screen print to put an example on here since I'm sure it'll take months & months for me to actually finish it!

New Pics!

Extra Melboune pics I forgot to post earlier - see below!

Melbourne

Last Friday we flew to Melbourne.
That evening we made our way to Federation Square to find some dinner.

Later we ended up in Flinders Lane at a cute cafe with great live music and a nice warm heat lamp!

Next morning I took a rest on this wombat after a lovely chai tea for breakfast at Starbucks!

Old & new

I love the trams - it makes the city look so European!

Back in the Flinders Lane area - gorgeous signs & street lamps (notice the people in the scarfs - the AFL final was on in Melbourne on Saturday (that's Australia Football League) thus the fans were EVERYWHERE!)

SO Cute! I love this area

The SBS building in Federation Square is quite unusual looking!

I think it's lovely that the horses & carriages share the streets with the trams

Me waiting for the tram that would take us to Chapel Street

Cute old golden retriever we saw while shopping on Chapel Street

It was a bit of a miserable day - but the shopping was still good!

Towards the end of the street there was some QUITE unusual shops - check out this window display?? huh?

Freaky!

We stopped for lunch at JUST the right time

HAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back at the hotel, after dinner in Lygon Street (the Italian area) we had to laugh that the person who cleaned our hotel room didn't dispose of Murray's half eaten cookie from the night before - ha! How bizarre!

Sunday morning when we moved to another hotel (for our work conference Monday & Tuesday) Murray was THRILLED to see this menu!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh :) The pillows were so hard at the last place, Murray actually bought one at on Chapel Street so he could get some sleep - ha ha. Not necessary at this place!!

We also had quite a nice view from our new hotel.

We spent Sunday inside a shopping mall and it was Lovely! Nice to just take the time to browse:)
On the tram we got a good view of Melbourne's ferris wheel (similar size to the London Eye) - the story we heard is that they built the circle nearly to completion then it didn't match up!!! So they had to start all over again! A US firm....

This cupckae is bigger than my head!

Would be a cool b-day cake!!

Ohhhhh red velvet YUMM

We also made our way over the the casino one evening and Murray doubled his money on the slots!!!! - Granted the winnings all came out in one dollar coins............

That's 20 coins! Not bad since we put in $10 for the two of us to play with!

The 2 day 'welcome' conference for the company we both work for was very interesting. Also great that we both just passed our 6 month 'probation period' - now we are officially both employees - that's a nice feeling:)