Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring

Today is the last day of Winter - hooray!

It was another miserable winter day in Manly this weekend

Lots of people out on the beach - SO nice and warm in the sun - but with a cool breeze - lovely

We took a walk towards this little beach just down from Manly - Shelly beach

This it the pool on the way - I love these statues, wouldn't mind that yacht either:)

Such a gorgeous day - I totally regretted not wearing flip flops! With a view like this just a short stroll from our place I couldn't help but be in a great mood:)

Opera at the Opera House!

Thursday night we made our way to the Sydney Opera House to see Mikado starring Anthony Warlow

The costumes were amazing and the singing was fantastic - SUCH a great show! (thanks Steve & Selina!!)

A nice picture of the 4 of us after the show Murray, Me, Steve & Selina

Murray & Me

Lovely pic of Steve & Selina

The Harbour Bridge at night

The Opera House is gorgeous even at night! SO fun to see a show there, we haven't been since 2000!

Gosh I love Manly

I was waiting for Murray this morning and had some time to kill on the Corse (the main strip) in Manly. So I walked down to the wharf to get a chai latte. On the way an old guy passed me and said to me in passing
'Isn't it a beautiful day? You have a wonderful day young lady!'
I smiled and said 'Thanks you too'
and he replied 'You have a fantastic day, keep smiling!'

Ha - how nice. Lovely way to start the day really:)

Opera photos from last night to be posted soon!!!!!

Just like the Army

That's probably not true (my title). I'm sure it's much harder. But I did attend an absolutely gruelling class at the gym last night called Basic Training. The trainer was tiny and looked like she had poured fake tan over herself like a shower, and man was she mean. She made us run and run and run around the room until I had a stitch so bad I just wanted to double up on the floor (I am NOT a runner!). Then she had us do running relays - which really do depend on peer pressure - and it works. Then we did 3 different exercises for 2 mintues each which was exhausting!!! One involved putting your hands down on a step and jumping your feet from one side to the other 5 times, then running around the room, and repeat, and repeat and repeat, at high speed!

One girl was so tired that she ran/slipped into the raililng at the back of the room and ended up flat on her back - scary - we thought she might be really hurt! Luckily she was able to get up and walk it off.

The instructor actually 'punished' us all at one point for not continuing exercises which our relay parters were running by making us all do 100 push ups - ouch.

Anyhow, it was completely and utterly exhausting, but in a good way. I do still prefer doing choreographed exercises to music though - like body attack.

If I can only make it to the gym a few times a week though, I suppose this intense class is a good one. I'm just not sure I WANT to go again:)

Sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads

Lovely weekend! Made me way to the gym on a Saturday morning for what I think was the first time ever since moving here. It was PACKED, the instructor was pretty rubbish (golden rule #1 – always have the music LOUD to motivate people, no Mr. Instructor we do not want to be able to hear you singing along to the songs), but I am still glad I went!

Caught up with Selina & her lovely girls which was lovely (we watched the classic 'Girls just Wanna Have Fun' - just gotta love classic SJP!). Also we saw a few movies in the theatre this weekend – Inglorious Basterds (EXCELLENT!!! Very Tarantino – but really a great movie – it was fun to see it at the cool old theatre The Orpheum in Cremorne too! Also saw Public Enemies which was good, but a bit slow moving – I guess that’s the difference between telling a true story & a totally made up one (like IB), not quite so many interesting twists.

The weather lately has been amazing, but I haven’t been in the sun too much to enjoy it. I had a sun spot lasered off of my cheek last week, and was told to stay out of the sun for awhile until the pigmentation adjusts itself, so no beach time for me. Oh well – it’s only just Spring here and 27c (84f) !!! today, so I think with summer still on it’s way I won’t be lamenting the lack of sunny days, they just keep on coming! My sun spot SEEMS to have been nearly 100% removed, fingers crossed that I don’t have to go in for a second session. But all I can think of when I think of that I had a laser zap my face is how all Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies really wanted in life was ‘Sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads’ he he. I MAY post photos once the pigmentation is better – they say it’ll take at least a few weeks – we shall see:)

Random TGIF

* I stayed up WAY too late last night watching the finale of a trashy American reality show called 'True Beauty' - the contestants think they are there to be voted 'Most beautiful person in America' but actually they are also judging them on their 'inner beauty.' It's quite entertaining I must say. We espeically like when they set them secret challenges, like having an actor fall in front of them to see if they help or just walk away. Most walk away, but the girl who won last night helped the person out in EVERY secret challenge. It's not a great show, but entertaining when there's nothing else on:)

* Very anxious for season 6 of 24 to arrive - should be here any day now - WHOOO HOOO. I realised watching tv this week that I had no idea what was on when and that new shows had started that I didn't even know about, because for the past few weeks we were 24 addicts, watching a few episodes every night, and nothing else. Oh well - it's a great addiction - I love that show! It's great that at least ONE thing is cheaper in Australia than in America - dvd box sets - fabulous!

* Oh and is it sad this whole post is about TV? Ha ha - oh well. I also started watching Gossip Girl. They showed the first ever episode here last week, and episode 2 was on last night. I'm liking it so far, nice to have something new & fresh to watch!

Weekend review

Friday we went to see the movie District 9 - totally bizarre alien movie - but SO different it was actually kind of good!

Saturday we made our way up to Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park for this view from West Head at the very top of the Northern Beaches - the Barrenjoey Lighthouse in Palm Beach is JUST visible in the distance

Looking a bit to the right (south) to Pittwater (the backside of Palm Beach) a REALLY lovely area

and looking back left to Lion Island - it's a bird refuge because there are no natural predators on the island (also no cats or foxes). They think it is named Lion Island because the first visitors to the area thought it looked like the sphinx.

We even saw a wallaby! Cute!

Lion Island from a distance
And on Sunday we headed to Steve & Selina's house to celebrate Clara's second birthday!
I was lucky enough to get to meet & hold Selina's sister Georgette's 4 week old baby Marisa

Amelia and her cousins had a GREAT time in the jumping castle!

Meanwhile Clara got in to the cream on her scone - yummmmmmm

Later, after some fun games, it was time for the birthday cake! Shame there's a beer glass in the way for this photo cause Amelia & Clara look sooooooooooooo cute!

A good close up of the cake - how CUTE is it!!

Close up of the awesome cake Selina made - very impressed!

Steve helping Clara open our gifts with Amelia looking on:)

Murray playing the bath time xylophone with Clara

Welcome Luk Chai !

Murray made a special lasagna to welcome his Mom and Dad to our flat last weekend

On Saturday we made our way to zoo - so lovely that you can see Sydney across the harbour!

At the we saw who we went to see - Luk Chai! The new baby elephant at Taronga

Thong Dee and her baby boy Luk Chai (his name means 'male child' or 'son' in Thai)

They have this thing at the zoo where you can stay in fancy tents for the night - that would be fun! amazing view of the harbour bridge as well!

We also went to the bird show - with MORE amazing views - I just never get sick of it - so gorgeous

Cute little hugging monkeys

Murray & his Mom & his really big camera :)

This leopard seal was super curious

We then went back to see Luk Chai one more time - his mother was very protective and made him stay close under her legs most of the time

Hey Mom! Cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!

Luk Chai is the first baby elephant to be born in Australia on the 4th of July!

His mother was a street elephant in Thailand before being brought to Australia

We watched Luk Chai's birth on the tv show called 'The Zoo' - very cool! She is a good mother & kept him nice & close in the enclosure.


He isn't very good at using his little trunk yet though (cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!!!!)

On the way out we stopped by to see the koalas as well!

They were actually awake & moving around!

Getting a little sun

Just a bit tired - after wedging himself in the tree - amazing that they can just sleep wedged in like that!!


Shame this is sideways - but Murray was lucky to catch this koala leaping between trees - wow - we've never seen that before!

Sunday was a nice day - cool, but sunny - so we made our way down to Manly. That's me, Murray, Lyn & Peter

We had some LOVELY fish & chips down at the Corso, walked all over the place to enjoy the beautiful day, and that evening had a fabulous Indian meal in Manly. Such a nice weekend:)

Wed nes day

YAY mid week.
I'm tired - but feeling revived today for some reason.

Last night I was VERY happy to discover a new tv channel called 'GO' that shows a constant stream of trashy US shows. I watched Entertainment tonight and TMZ - so I feel all caught up on gossip now - ha ha. But the best thing is - this is the channel they are going to start showing Gossip Girl on - it premieres here tomorrow night YAY! I have read the book, and I've heard how good the show is. I'm just happy to have something regular to watch other than Packed to the Rafters (which seems to be the only Aussie sitcom - it's cute, but kinda dull at times as well...). We MUST remember to pick up season 6 of '24' this weekend so we have something good to watch!!

I promise to get weekend pictures/video up soon (the baby elephant was SO cute!!!)

A little car whinge

So I think I've got this driving in Sydney thing down (other than in the city (cbd)..... that place is confusing with all the darn one way streets!)

My only complaint now is the petrol (gas) stations.

1. Why don't the pumps have those little notches so you can set your gas to fill and not have to hold onto it the WHOLE time? It stops filling once it is full anyway? I HATE having to stand there holding it while I could be washing my windows or something!

2. Why don't they have pay at the pump here yet? It is SO convenient to just swipe your card at the pump - and so much quicker!

That is all for now. TGIF - BRING ON THE WEEKEND!

I want one of those!

A friend told me about this travel pillow she saw on amazon.com

That looks PERFECT for plane travel (especially for side sleepers like me)!!! Allows your head to angle to the side just enough to be comfortable to sleep - I NEED ONE! What a great idea!

I always try to sleep like this on planes by propping up pillows on my shoulder, but it never quite works and I always end up with a very sore neck. I think this may be the key! They say you can connect it around you body like a messenger bag as well, rather than attaching it to the seat, so it stays put while you sleep. Cooooooooooooooooool

Lots & lots of boats

Saturday I ventured into Paddington markets for the first time ever - I thought it was quite a good market! Lots of cute stuff:)

Sunday - we headed to Darling Harbour for the boat show (but first we went & saw 'The Alps' at the IMAX which was excellent!!)


Lots & lots & lots of boats were in the harbour

(hey family & friends who are coming in December - see that hotel behind the sign? that's where you are staying your first night in Sydney!)

They had docks built around the boats so you could walk around & check them out - very cool!


This girl is about to go on a solo journey around the world - she will be the youngest ever to (hopefully) complete the journey (she will turn 17 will on the trip!)

We also got to see some AMAZING yachts - thanks to Helen's connections!

This 23 million dollar boat belongs to Australian billionaire Lindsay Fox - we got a personal tour and WOW it was amazing!!!!!