Finally............... some pics!

Ok - I KNOW we have been in Sydney going on 3 weeks now, so it is TIME to finally take a break from setting up our flat and job searching to blog some photos already!

Oh and, just FYI - the 'Grand Circle' photos from our road trip are ready to blog, so hopefully we'll have that up on our travel blog in a week or so. Eventually we will finish that blog off right up to when I left Minnesota just after Christmas:) I will let you know on here when that blog has been updated! (i.e. when we get internet at home - which should be by the end of next week - fingers crossed)

Oh and by the way - this is officially the random photo blog - they are in order, but photos of this and that over the past weeks since we have been in Sydney!

Our first Aussie vehicle - meet - Bruce

Close up of the yummy Christmas cake

my father-in-law Peter, sister-in-law Helen, me & Murray playing our National Parks Monopoly game (thanks Joni!!! it is SO fabulous)!

It was really fun - we got to decide which National Park would be which property on the board!

Peter, Lyn Me & Helen out to lunch in Mogo (such a cute little town with lots of great places to eat & lovely shops)

My yummy popadum sandwhich (Peter had one too) - interesting & yummy (but really, more like a crumbly sandwich)

Helen & I opening and looking at all the fantastic kitchen stuff

The pavlova.............. YUMMMMMM!

Bruce - packed to the roof for our drive back to Sydney



and yes - those are toilet paper rolls on the back right corner - as we were moving into a flat with NOTHING - not because we were expecting an accident on the drive

The gorgeous happy new flat flowers from Helen - I love the bright pink!

One of our resident kookaburras - sitting RIGHT on our balcony!

After much unpacking, and folding, and folding - I am officially reporting Murray as having a t-shirt addiction

Our little tv of the moment that Steve & Selina lent us (we are SO grateful!!!) with our little friend Koala, Kangaroo and our Peruvian carved gourd on top - not sure why - cause we have nowhere else to put stuff up yet I guess

On the way to see Steve & Selina we stopped to buy some beer - the bottom left one made us think of Heather & Jason:) Lots of great worldwide selection!

Then we had a lovely afternoon at Steve & Selina's to catch up
Murray & Clara (she has the cutest cheeks ever - they jiggle when she runs - just adorable!)

Amelia showing off her lovely fairy dress, she is such a sweetie

The second hand couches & chairs (just so we have something to sit on til we get jobs & can buy some furniture we actually like!) and the chair - like a fun little puzzle for Murray to put together

Also, I studied my driving book a bit - this sign is really the only thing other than roundabouts that I needed to take note of

One day I was down on the Corso (the main shopping/eating/tourist strip in Manly) so I stopped and took a photo looking back for the blog (the ocean beach is right behind me while taking this)

And - the beach. If you click on the photo to make it larger you can see I have put a little white arrow pointing to the surf club down the beach (North Steyne Surf Life Saving Club) - we live 3 blocks inland from there! (by the way - this is a weekend shot so that is why there is SO many people!)

I took this photos cause I was thought - oh look - a surf lesson - people dragging their boards down the beach (I did this once, years ago). When I got home Murray exclaimed 'why did you take a photo of topless girls on the beach?' ummmm hmmmm I didn't even notice that actually

Me - by our super large TV box - to give it some scale - it's freakin HUGE! Can't wait to get it outta the box (we are waiting until painting & new carpet is installed)

AND SO - it is 90 degrees out and so of course we decide - to paint. Our flat needed it BAD - the renters really beat it up and it just needed a nice bright coat of paint

Me painting in the kitchen - so tedious!

Scraping - lots & lots of scraping - yuck

Our two skylights were the worst - hard to scrape, and difficult to paint - it's like a sauna up there when it's 90+ outside!!!

But WOW does our ceiling look better now - it's actually WHITE!

Most unflattering photos of me ever - but oh well - I am wearing Murray's old t-shirt and shorts - working on the edges in the laundry room

Looking better with the ceiling painted! Just a shame that we had everything SO neat a few days ago, and now all the furniture is pushed into the middle of the room - what a mess!!

The kitchen and part of the dining room - with many a drop sheet covering bits up

Murray was surprised by how great the white on the door looked with a bit of light cream paint

After a VERY long day of painting with the help of Helen we decided to go out to dinner at Dee Why beach - this was our view from the restaurant - lovely

Helen & I enjoying the view

Our lovely laksa dinner - noodley and spicy and yummy!!

Last weekend we went down to catch up with some friends on their boat - the view on the drive down was AMAZING!

Murray swimming with his sandwich and beer - talented, isn't he?

Murray's friend from University Aidan & his two beagles

We had a really good time catching up with Aidan & his wife Megan & we loved their dogs:)

And finally, me, relaxing on our balcony finishing off the book 'The Time Traveller's Wife' - wow that was a fantastic book! Nice to have a bit of sun on my feet as well:)

SO, other new things - we booked in the layer to come and put in our new carpet next week - hooray (we figured now is the time to replace it - before we have much furniture) and today we bought a TV table at IKEA - so we're set. Now, we just need internet at home!!!! Hopefully that will be done soon - we are spending a fortune on internet cafe's at the moment!