I guess the Spring cold snap is officially over

I just popped out over lunch and HOLY COW it is HOT outside! It has been comfortable, but not hot, for awhile here, granted it is still spring - summer doesn't start until December. But today - it's 24c (78f) tomorrow it's meant to be 25c (80f) and sunday 27c (84).

Nice!

I am SO going to the beach this weekend!!!!!!!!!!

(note - I realise 78f isn't HOT - but when you're dressed up all warmly for a freezing cold air conditioned office - 78f + a black car = HOT!)

First Time Ever in Sydney!

Sunday Helen & I headed out EARLY to meet Anna for the 6:30 entrance to the Harbour Bridge

Me & Anna by a Cherry Blossom on the bridge

They even had cows!?!?! Showing the city folks a thing or two I guess!

Quite Bizarre to say the least, considering we drive across this bridge every day on our way to work!

Me & Anna - all of this grass is REAL!! This is the first time ever they have closed the Harbour Bridge to have a Picnic Breakfast!

Me & Helen setting up breakfast on our assigned part of the bridge - the whole thing was VERY well organized!

6000 people attended! We actually did not win tickets in the lottery - Helen just used her connections which was FAB - I was SOOOOOOOOO excited to go!!! Thank goodness it didn't rain! It actually was quite humid - but sunny!

The only bad part was all the helicopters flying over & being noisy - I counted 7!

We got a lot of random stuff - including these loaves of Rye bread!

Our lovely breakfast - pancakes, strawberries, yummy fresh juices, grapes & quiche!

We even got Breakfast on the Bridge hats - just a BIT bright! I actually traded this one in for a green one (which is STILL really bright!)

It was a LOVELY picnic - and amazing to be part of the first picnic ever on the Sydney Harbour Bridge!!

Afterwards Helen and I headed to the Opera House for open day.

The main theatre - the Mikado stage - cool to see up close!

The Orchestra Hall - that lady playing the organ on the screen is WAY up high where that light is - scary!

Later while waiting in line for a behind the scenes tour we spotted these odd performance artists....

Me & the Harbour Bridge

And backstage - those are Mikado costumes behind me!!

It was cool to see a bit more of the Opera House for free:)

That afternoon I also met Murray at our friend Megan's house for a BBQ, along with her husband John and friends Laura & Mike. It was lovely to catch up and the food was fab! A long day - but totally worth it:)

No Excuses!

I spent the last hour or so at work today trying to think of good excuses why I shouldn't go to the gym. At the end of the day - I just didn't have one.

So I decided I'm going to try and focus on the positive instead - going to the gym means I have a dedicated time to read books! I am taking a break from novels right now, so I read 2 chapters about bear attacks while on the treadmill:) Weird - I know - but it is really interesting!

Tomorrow I will post the Breakfast on the Bridge photos!

The Bond Party

Nat "You can just call me Miss Anders", Matt "Damn straight I'm a Baron" Steph "I chose this character because I always had a thing for the name Stavro", Murray "I run SPECTRE, what have you done lately?" and Monique " my other name is Jill and I knew a man with a Golden touch"!

The two Ernst Blofeld's - Murray won the overall costume competition with his all out efforts costume wise!

Aren't we a lovely couple? I especially love the cat:)

Steph went to SUCH a huge effort with the food - everything had a Bond theme.
'The man with the golden dim sum', 'Dr. No name prawns', 'Fish Finger' and 'Octopus-E'

The pies were lovely!

One of our favorites!

Matt & Steph - our lovely hosts

The boys - notice the cute cat too - he purred and meowed and moved his little paws - very funny!

Had to show off my new gold heels!

The funniest part? Murray borrowed this from Manly Library. When he went in they gave it to him without requesting any sort of id and then said ' we used to have a niceer one, but someone took it and never brought it back' DUH that's why you should take down their details!!! Oh well - we brought it back the next day:)

Not exactly pc - but fun - we had wheel chair races around their very large flat!

Then it was time for dessert

And leftovers:)

A FUN night - we love dress up (fancy dress as it's called here) parties!

Thursday....

So not much new here, nearly to the end of another week. I have been to the gym three times already this week, I decided it's time to get back to it as our cruise is in just 6 weeks time - eeeek!

It took me nearly 2 hours to drive to work today because a van full of prisoner's crashed and backed up traffic for ages! I couldn't help thinking - I wonder if it's like in the movies - where the prisoners overpower the driver and get them to crash so they could escape! I have the feeling that is not the case as all, I just have been forced to watch too many action movies:)

It was 34 Celsius (98 Fahrenheit) yesterday - wow. We seem to be getting this freak super warm spring weather now & then, but today it's back to a normal for spring 20c (70f). I can't wait for the weather to properly warm up though - summer will be here soon - hooray!

Minnesota in Sydney

This cracks me up!
Someone used a photo of a 'city in the US state of Minnesota' in a NSW (New South Wales) government advertisment. Click here to see the article.

What do you think - is it Minneapolis?

"Equally embarrassing was an admission it sourced images of a city in the US state of Minnesota for use in the campaign to boast about the Government's infrastructure investment - in NSW."

HA - that is too funny!

USA + U2

Saturday night we met up with Helen & her friend Louisa at Tony Romas

The 'onion loaf' was yummy (not as good a a blooming onion though.....) but the mains were VERY average. I wouldn't go there again, fun to go just once though!

Then we went to see U2 in 3D at the Imax

Murray & Me in our giant 3D glasses

I love live music, but I'm not a fan of watching concerts on DVD. However, this ... was... amazing! The concert was FABULOUS and it was really fun to see it in 3D (especially when Bono reached out right to ME!)! We really enjoyed it - my foot was tapping throughout the entire thing and I kept feeling like I should stand up clap!

And now, real life can resume again

Finished off 2 big things last night

1. We finished watching Season 2 of Gossip Girl. We pretty much watched 2 seasons in a row, a couple each night, because Helen was kind enough to lend them to us. However, it was completely addicting, which meant that was all I wanted to do after work (i.e. my excuse to skip the gym....). Now I have no excuse, so back the gym I go!

2. I finished reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak last night. Wow. That was one of the best books I have read this year. So unusually written, such an interesting subject, and SO well put together - I absolutely loved it and highly recommend it! (don't read the review on that link though if you plan on reading the book - it totally ruins the ending!!)

Weekend pics to be posted soon:)

Comfort Food - USA style

Wednesday night I went to South restaurant in Neutral Bay with my American friends

My main meal was a pulled pork sandwich, yummy bbq sauce, a pickle (proper dill which made me happy!) and shoestring fries - very nice! (but are you kidding me on the size of that bbq sauce serving though? Of course I had to ask for another one. I'd just prefer if they put a bottle of the stuff on the table so I can drown my sandwich AND fries in it!)

And how could I resist pumpkin pie for dessert! It was lovely, but why oh why did they make it with a crumb crust? It just tasted odd and kinda soggy! But the filling was lovely (even better reheated the next day.....)

Laura, Me & Megan

It was a lovely night - nice to catch up with friends. The food was good, but like Laura said, not quite as good as the real thing. I'd definitely go there again though. It's a cute little place - only 7 tables - so you HAVE to book - but it's totally worth it for a bit of USA soul food:)

Harbour Bridge

Last Saturday evening we went to see Cate Blanchett in A Streetcar Named Desire

On the way to the theatre we saw this interesting 'art' in the middle of a roundabout

The crushed car with the harbour bridge in the background - quite striking I think!

The Opera House at night - on our walk back to our car.

The play - it was good. VERY long, and quite a depressing story line, but the acting was excellent and the stage/costumes/accents were great. We quite enjoyed it. Lovely to have a night at the theatre!

The only bummer of the evening was that we tried to go to an Italian restaurant Helen highly recommended, but they only let you book a table if you have 4 or more people, so we just showed up and it was packed - no room for us:( Oh well, next time we will just have to go earlier I guess. We did find another Italian place that was ok, but the guy got confused when Murray ordered an antipasto dish for his main, and instead brought that plus two mains when we had only ordered one. Oh well, it was a nice lasagna anyhow. Dessert was 'pancakes with bananas and chocolate sauce.' Every time I have had 'pancakes' outside of the US, as as dessert, it is like a crepe with something inside - so that's what we were expecting. The plate came out and it was actually 4 little American pancakes - for dessert!! Odd odd odd