Kristy's Cakes

Just thought I'd share one of my friends amaaazing cakes with you! (If anyone needs a cake for a special occasion in Melbourne, let me know!)

A couple of different 1st Birthday Cakes... A couple of pretty funky cakes... And my very favorite one - a Thank You cake!

Hyde Park, Sydney

These are very belated photos, but on Sat 15th September I finally visited Hyde Park!

It was such a beautiful day to be exploring Sydney, just taking our time, discovering shops and arcades in the city, and wondering up through Hyde Park on our way to Oxford St for lunch.





The Anzac WW1 memorial is also in Hyde Park. We saw the Eternal Flame, and the cieling is painted in thousands of gold stars, which I am told represent fallen soilders.







I also wandered along Oxford St which I've marked as a MUST to return to when I need to do some serious shopping. Had fantastic lunch down there also. Some interesting shop names though...

They are Geelong, the greatest team this year

I can hardly call them the greatest team of all can I? But they did manage to tick all the boxes this year, and good ol' Bomber Thompson did well.

Murray and I drove down to Echuca for the weekend to meet up with some crazy cats. Thinking it would only be a 6-8hour drive, I finished up work at 3pm and we were on the road by 4pm. We hit horrendous traffic coming out of Sydney - I should have realised that a combination of Friday night, Deny ute Muster, AFL and NRL Grand Finals - that it would be a busy night on the road.

After driving for hours and hours, and starting to think that we'd never get there before the game started, we arrived at the Shammy at 2.15am. After sweet talking the security to let us in - it was worth every minute of the drive.

Check out the weekend shenanigans on the blog at http://geelongcats.blogspot.com/

We had every intention to come home on Sunday, as I wanted to get on top of some work even though Monday was a Public Holiday. But there was no way that Murray and I could drive up the street, let alone to Sydney.

So it was a day of R&R for us before we headed back home on Monday.

On the return trip we headed across to Albry - this was a much better trip. Far easier. Also saw the Dog on the Tucker Box on the way home. He's still there - hasn't moved much.

Happy 30th Murray

Last week it was Murray's 30th Birthday!!! We headed down to Melbourne to celebrate all weekend long. It was a great weekend, though I'm still feeling a little exhuasted from it all.

I think its pretty safe to say that he had a great weekend. It was so massive I've put up a whole seperate blog about it - you can read all the details and see all the photos here. xxoo

Hard work and jogging

A Melbourne girl in Melbourne?

Doesn't really have the same ring to it does it?

A couple of weeks ago Murray poped home at lunchtime to give me some flowers for our "57th month anniversay" (now everyone groan at how pukey that is).



When he came home I was still so delighted by the flowers he gave me, but at the same time surprised by the sudden sacking of Sheeds.

Kind of ironic because Murray was sacked too. Sacked from the job that we moved up to Sydney in the first place! So where does that leave us? Well... we're not really decided yet. He's just going to look for jobs in both citys and see what comes up. If I go overseas next year we'll probably look at going back to Melbourne sometime. But I actually kinda like Sydney. We both do. Its grown on us. I like it enough to make up for not being near my friends and family - which is a lot. I dont know what we're going to do. But it sucks.

Watson's Bay

After we had some bad news (which I'll update you with shortly) we headed out to Watsons Bay for the day. It was just beautiful. A stunning Sydney day.

Murray on the Ferry ride over there. Can you believe it! Murray on Public Transport!



Looking down over the Harbour from Robertson Park.





From the Watson's Bay lookout.



What I think they call "The Gap"... I can see why.



Some crazy rock Lizard.



Us!



Macquarie Lighthouse



Sheltering in the tree from the wind to eat some famous Doyle's Fish & Chips.

If roses grow in Heaven

If roses grow in Heaven Lord
Please pick a bunch for me.
Place them in my Father's arms
and tell him they're from me.
Tell him I love him and miss him,
and when he turns to smile,
Place a kiss upon his cheek
and hold him for a while.
Because remembering him is easy,
I do it everyday,
But there is an ache within my heart
That will never go away.......


(With thanks to Aussiebelle)

I do laugh a bit though, and wonder if "roses" should be changed to Screwdrivers, or Tap Timers, or Darts, or Cascade Premium Lights!

Westfield Bondi Junction

OMG. I have a new Mecca. Westfield Bondi Junction. 441 stores. Chadstone at around 200 stores eat your heart out. Nuff said.

Happy 21st Jeremy

My "little" brother came up to Sydney to visit for his 21st Birthday!

He and his girlfriend stayed with us one night and in a hotel in the city for the rest of the weekend.

I think that they thoroughly enjoyed themselves, I've never seen him be so talkative!

We also headed down to Norton St for dinner.

Mum visisted! Queen's Birthday long weekend

I know I've been a very bad blogger - so I thought I'd give you all a few updates!

First of all - Mum came to visit! And we had a fabulous time, despite Murray working all long weekend and it being the worst weather I've experienced in Sydney!

On Friday just after she arrived at the airport we went off to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert at Star Casino. It was every bit as funny as the movie and then some. The costumes were fantastic!!!

On Saturday we went to The Rocks Market, which Mum has always wanted to see. We managed to stay dry and check out the Opera House and Circular Quay.

After lunch the weather was just too awful to do anything much at all. So we jumped on the Ferry and took a return trip out to Watsons Bay. It was so wet and cold we didn't get out - not even for Doyles! I have since been back to Watsons Bay though. To give you an idea of what the weather was like though...

It fined up on the way home though where we got a good view of the Opera House and city.

We went out for a nice dinner down at Manly on Saturday night - seafood of course! (yukko!)

I can't remember what we did the rest of the weekend.... this is why I need to update my blog more! Oh I know! We went up to the Blue Mountains to visit some friends! Leura was lovely. :)

Firey sunset

I looked outside the other night and jumped up with a hell of a fright - I thought there was a fire - all the trees and fence were buring red.

But - it was a beautiful rich sunset.

Dad's BBQ

Last weekend I headed down to Geelong for the opening of the new Lions Club park in Bannockburn, where Dad was president for a couple of years. After he passed away they told us that they would like to honor him in some way. We were speechless, it was a very nice thing for them to do.
So here is the Allan Cusack BBQ – the only thing that would have suited him better would have been the “Allan Cusack BBQ and Beer Fridge”!



Apparently there is going to be a photo of all of us in the shire newspaper, the Golden Plains Minor I think it’s called. So I'll share that one (as I'm sure it’s nicer than this pic) when I get it.

It was a great day though, with lots of friends and family coming down to see it... a big Thanks to everyone who was there.

The new park looks fantastic too.

Mothers Day in Sydney - Part 2

As if viewing the harbour, a ferry ride, the Chinese Gardens, a walk through the city, Circular Quay and dinner at Manly wasn't enough... we were up early on Sunday morning to see what else we could fit into Mary's short stay with us.After much deliberation we decided to go to Taronga Zoo. I was a little hesitant at first, thinking that a Zoo was a Zoo. But this is a Zoo to be seen. Located on the North Shore of Sydney Harbour just about every animal has a magnificent look out over the water.




The Elephant enclosure was fantastic, with hundreds of people crowding around to see them bath. You can also look inside the Elephant Barn, where you can see where the zookeepers do thier washing, grooming and feeding of Elephants. The Meercats were too cute - I just wanted to reach over the fence and pop one in my handbag to bring home for Boston. I'm sure that they would have gotten along like a house on fire! By far the funniest animal we saw was the Giraffe though. No matter how hard it tried, its tounge just couldn't reach the carrots that the bigger ones were being fed.



After enjoying all the views and the animals at the zoo we had a couple of hours before Mary had to be at the airport. We decided that a short visit to Bondi was in order. There we enjoyed a quick coffee and a walk along the beach. After a busy weekend, that was really all we had the energy for.



It was a great weekend all up, and we look forward to having our next visitor in Sydney that we can use as an excuse to be tourists!

Mothers Day in Sydney

For Mothers Day we had Murray's Mum come and visit us in Sydney! Our first "interstate" visitor - infact.... only our second visitor all together if you don't include the guy that came to drill a hole in the wall for Foxtel.

We squeezed in soooo much in to the one weekend, I felt like a holiday once it was all over!

On the Friday night we headed out to The Oaks Hotel with Murray's work people for yet another going away (such a high turn-over there!). It was a huge pub, with a big beer garden and lots of different rooms. We all spent most of the night in one of the function rooms upstairs before we had to make room for another party who'd actually booked the room! Not a bad little spot though, with Murray spending most of the night introducing people to his new friend Bloody Mary.

Speaking of Mary, we had to get up early the next day because Mary (mother in law kind, not the bloody kind) was arriving - and we needed to make the house presentable! So after a mad rush - I was glad that we only live in a small unit - much quicker to clean!

After picking her up from the airport Mary came back here to check out the house. We showed her around our unit, the shops across the road, and Murray even took us for a tour of his workplace. After all that we headed down to Crows Nest for a quite bite for lunch. Then the real fun began!

First stop was for a nice look out over the harbour from Blues Point. Driving around the area we stumbled across this by accident one day, and as you can see, is an excellent vantage point. We wandered around here for a while, before deciding to walk over to McMahons Point to catch a Ferry - our very first Ferry ride!



Although we intended on going to Ciruclar Quay, we ended up taking the ferry over to Darling Harbour, as it was the first one to come along. Don't let those sunny blue skies fool you - it was chilly waiting for a Ferry to come along. I wouldn't like to be one of the many thousands of people who take them to get to work each day!



Walking around Darling Harbour we decided to bypass the Lindt Cafe (note, THEY decided to bypass it, not me) and instead head to the Chinese Garden of Friendship. It was well worth a visit. Although we only had an hour to walk around it, we saw so much. It was so peaceful, and amazing to think that we were in the middle of the city. I'm really looking forward to going there again and would recommend it to anyone in Sydney.



From there Murray thought it would be a good idea to walk to Circular Quay, and then catch a ferry from there back to where our car was. "It's only a 15 minute walk" I can remember him say. 15 minutes my foot! What felt like hours later, we arrived at Circular Quay. I know that walking is the best way to see a city, and we did see some good stuff... but honestly... I couldn't wait to get on that Ferry again.

So across the Harbour at night we went back to the car. It was beautiful to see the Opera House and Bridge lit up in all thier glory. And Sydney's Luna Park looks wonderful coming across the water at night (if not a little scary). Still wanting to fit in one extra activity for the day we headed out for a drive to Manly to go the Manly Fish Markets for dinner. What's that you say? But Sherry can't eat fish? Yes I know. So I ordered the single non-fish option on the menu... which had clearly been cooked on the same grill as fish, because it was very fishy chicken. But Murray and Mary said it was excellent. And judging by how crowded the place was, and the line out the door, it must be a pretty good place to go for Fish.

I might leave it at that for now, and go and check on my Pear and Raspberry bread. Will continue with our Mothers Day Weekend Extraveganza later on.

Bad, bad blogger I am...

Well, several people have given me reminders now... I know I've been a bad bad blogger and haven't been updating. So thats my mission for this afternoon - to update my blog. Oh - and make some Pear and Raspberry bread. As you probably know I'm no wizz in the kitchen - so I'll need all your positive thoughts!

Officially a New South Welshman....

Look what I got!!!

It all happened rather unexpectedly.... we went to register the car... and came out with these!

Didn't get the car registered yet - you need all these kinds of slips, green ones and pink ones and blue ones or something crazy!

I drove without GPS!

YAY!!! Today I made a big step.... I drove into the big wild world of Sydney without the GPS Navigation system - yup - thats right - I drove ALL the way the Northbridge to do the groceries (see how exciting things can be in Sydney? Groceries were never this exciting in Melbourne!). Drove all 5km or so by myself! Didn't even get lost, not even nearly lost! Closest to lost was I couldn't find tomato sauce at Woolies! Made it all the way home too! *proud grin*

The Rocks - Sydney

Today we spent a lovely day at The Rocks in Sydney. It was amazing that there is so much to do just 5 minutes from our house. Yes - thats right, in 5 minutes we'd left home and got a park at The Rocks.

First on the agenda was lunch, because Mr Murray was hungry - and boy did he eat! We had a great lunch at this great Italian restaurant just near the market called Caminetto. We had this great little table right up the back of the courtyard - it was hard to believe that we were in one of Sydney's busiest little spots. Its a place that we'll definetly be going back for. Murray especially enjoyed the "Sizzling Oysters on the Rocks" served with garlic, tomato, shallots, chilli and mushroom - all things he loves. As you can see by this pic, he loved the pizza too!



We walked and browsed through all the market stalls, taste testing, touching, smelling, looking at everything as we went along. Its a spot that I'll be definetly taking Mum when she finally comes up and visits me.



After having a good walk about we went down to where you can get a spectacular view of the Harbour Bridge. I thought it would be packed down there, but amazingly, I think due to the overcast weather, we were amoungst the few people there.





From there we walked down to Circular Quay for a desperately needed coffee. We sat outside and had a great view of the bridge and the Opera House.



With all the Ferries and Jetboats about, I think that we are now inspired to make that one of the next things to tick off our list. In addition to the museum at Circular Quay, and about a million other things. I'd also like to find if there is still a "Leftorium" at The Rocks for when Mum comes up - she missed out on visiting it years ago, and has never gotten over it.

Ooo-oooo-ooo! I also found DFS Galleria - but Murray took me away before I could be swooned by all the pretty shiney things.... ooooo.... On that note - Sweet Dreams! (I'll be dreaming of little blue boxes....

xx oo xx

Birthdays and Goodbyes

We had a great weekend in Melbourne celebrating a 30th birthday (Yikkes! They have begun!) Happy Birthday Rodders! (Will try and get a pic up here later).

The night started (eventually after the worst afternoon of transport ever!) with a great meal at my favourite Red Emporer. The weather wasn't great (but we can't complain about rain these days) and so there was a last minute change of venue so from there we headed off to The Pub at Crown. It was great because next to us was private function, so hardly any people came into the area where we were! After several (too many?) Long Island Iced Teas - Rodders was well on his way to having a great night! There was lots of drinking and dancing to be had by all. Oh - and Jam Donuts! You have to try one - best shot ever!

On Sunday I said goodbye to yet another friend in Melbourne on the weekend - I hope you have a wonderful trip around the world Cheli!