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January 2010 - Walking and Diving
Now we have vacancies at the hotel Midgley it's time to start doing the things we do best - diving and walking. We survived one of the hottest days of the year 12m under. It was a little hot kiting up, but despite the 40 degree temperatures on land the sea was still a mere 23 degrees, which was very refreshing. We were also lucky to experience the best underwater conditions we've had in ages, which meant clear visibility and lots of life. This should have been the perfect opportunity to practice my underwater photography, but of course the camera wasn't working properly and then it ran out of batteries so I was relegated to chief spotter again. I did manage to spot some good stuff for Graham though. Have a look at his photos on the diving pages.
The following weekend the weather wasn't quite so good. But this meant it was perfect walking weather. So off we went for our first training walk for our four day trek in Peru. We will find it a bit difficult to simulate the altitude in Australia but I have been advised that the walking is all up and down, and that we can simulate to a certain extent. So we chose an up and down walk from the book, packed a picnic in Coles, and headed off. The bonus was it was actually a really nice walk. Have a look at the video to see what we got up to, and the minor difficulties we had finding our way out!
And if all that wasn't enough excitement for one month we also had the Laneways festival. It wasn't quite the Reading Festival, for a start it only lasts a day, so no camping needed. But it was a really good day out and a great chance to see some new music, and fantastic bands that we've been wanting to see for a while.
This weekend brought a temporary break to summer with non stop rain! It's been quite muggy still, but no need to water the garden that's for sure! We decided to make the most of the wet weather by going to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. It was a really nice way to spend a couple of hours, followed by a stroll in the rain and lunch!
December 2009 - Part 3: New Year 2009/2010
It would, quite frankly, be very rude to spend new year in Sydney and not go and view the fireworks, and considering Chris and Peter had timed their return flights aseptically to be after new year, this is exactly what we did! It was however a military operation planned at great length, as 1.5 million other people also wanted to see the fireworks. So after an offer of a night on a boat (with very quick back pedaling after the cost was mentioned) and much Googleing, it was decided that Balmain was the best option. The only slight problem with Balmain is you have to be in the peninsular by 3pm as they close the roads to all non-residents after that time, so the day had to start earlier than one would hope for a midnight finish. Thankfully there's plenty to occupy us in Balmain, so we headed off and scored the last parking space outside Mort Bay park, which just happened to be right next to the where we wanted to watch the fireworks! Score! First stage of plan successful. The next phase was also pretty successful. We had a lovely lunch in our favourite cafe in Balmain (Our Place) which made a nice change as we usually go for breakfast or dinner.
Phase 2 involved a bus ride into the city. This was accompanied by very smug grins as we watched the queue of traffic trying to get into Balmain before the 3 o'clock deadline! We managed to waste a few hours in the city whilst Chris did her souvenir shopping (I've never been in so many tacky souvenir shops in all my life!) and I bought myself a new dress (or two) in the sales!
By five we were ready to head back to Balmain and claim our spot for the fireworks. We decided to take the scenic route on the ferry, which was a little chaotic, but dropped us exactly where we needed to be - phase 3 executed to perfection! By 6pm Mort Bay park was a little busier than we'd hoped, but we managed to find the last front row spot, and guard it with our lives, whilst Graham and Peter went to collect all the required equipment for an evening of waiting.
We set ourselves up with chairs, a picnic blanket, tripods, books and wine. I decided that making a picnic that could sit in the back of the car all day without giving us food poisoning was a bit tricky, so we opted for a Thai takeout - phase 4 and 5 achieved as planned! There were many gourmet picnics around but I think we were the envy of our two closest neighbours with their crisps and dips.
9 o'clock was upon us before we had even realised and the early fireworks were well worth the wait, and that was just the start!
The next three hours were a little harder to fill, as it was dark making it more difficult to read, so we went off for a walk and found a great spot for next years fireworks (if we're around). It was also a chance to soak up the atmosphere and take some more photos. Chris used the time to sneak a little nap!
And then it was midnight - 12 minutes of fireworks - and all over for another year! It was a pretty good 12 minutes - check out the video and photos - and a jolly good day all round.
December 2009 - Part 2: Christmas, boxing day and the Barrington Tops
On the 23rd of January Graham and I braved the fish market to but our Christmas dinner, no turkey when it's 30 degrees! It's a seafood BBQ all the way. I say 'braved' because half of Sydney also want a seafood BBQ for Christmas so the fish markets stay open for 36 hours straight and the whole of Sydney descend to make their purchases! We arrived at about 9:30pm and seemed to hit a slight lull in activity but it was still three deep at all the counters. We did manage to miss the car park chaos though and found some additional parking around the corner. We normally do a circuit of the market to see who has the best deals, but there was no chance of that, it was a case of find the stall where you can catch the eye of stall holder and buy, buy, buy! As there were only 4 of us for Christmas we were trying to get a smallish salmon, but everyone pretty much just laughed when we said how much (or little!) we wanted and we ended up walking away with 3kg worth (enough to serve 12 according to Jamie!) and of course the mandatory prawns and a few scampi!
Christmas day didn't quite go to plan. We did have a lovely lunch outside, opened the stockings out there and, as the video demonstrates, Chris and Peter made it in the pool. But by the time I was ready to relax (after wrapping a salmon, and preparing other wonderful delicacies) it was raining :( It was at this point that I realised there was no plan 'B' and we had to BBQ the fish regardless. Thankfully the roof of the pergola was sufficiently finished to keep Graham dry throughout the proceedings. It tasted great (thanks to a secret family recipe from Alana's dad) and we now have 2 kilos in the freezer waiting to be made into pasta and fishcakes!
Boxing day started with a cold for me (who gets sick twice in a month when its 35 degrees?!?!?) but I had to soldier on as we were booked on a boat on the harbour to watch the start of the famous Sydney to Hobart yacht race. This is a bit of a Sydney institution so there was a great atmosphere on the harbour, despite the not so ideal weather.
The day after boxing day we headed up to the Barrington Tops, about 3 hours north of Sydney, to explore somewhere we haven't been before. Well in theory it's a 3 hour drive, but we forgot that following Sydney's annual visit to the fish market prior to Christmas, they all escape Sydney the day after boxing day to embark on the family summer holiday. Thankfully we left reasonably early and managed to make it before dark. And it was a good job too, as the sat nav doesn't cover unsealed roads, so we arrived at a house, with no sign, that we vaguely recognised from the pictures on the website, whose doors were open, so we assumed we might be in the right place.
Unfortunately it continued to rain for the next three days. Thankfully the house was very nice and a great place to chill out so we didn't feel too cheated by the rain. It didn't stop us going for a couple of walks and a drive. The drive was interesting as we hadn't appreciated how high the Barrington Tops are and going up to the lookouts involved going up into the clouds which meant there was not a lot to look out at! Another drive involved driving through umpteen fords, which were running quite fast and high due to all the rain. That was a little scary in our 2WD but we made it to our destination for a walk. This was a pleasant stroll along a creek, through a rainforest, until Graham looked down and discovered the leeches! It hadn't even crossed our minds that leeches existed in Australia, let alone the Barrington Tops. It was pretty gross, but we lived to tell the tell with only minor puncture wounds! Chris seemed to take the brunt of the leeches attacks so she must have pretty tasty blood. Or maybe it was because she had no socks on so her ankles were easier to get at! We can see great potential in the Barrington tops as a holiday destination, but my top tip would be to go when it is dry!
December 2009 - Part 1: The Midgley's arrive
So we don't have snow and it's a little warmer than your average Christmas but we have finally embraced Christmas Down Under! We couldn't really ignore it this year as we had company, Mum and Dad Midgley arrived on the 9th December for four weeks of sun, sea and relaxation.
Although not much time for relaxation, we whisked them off to the opera house the first night they were here to watch Handel's Messiah. I did let them lie in as long as they wanted though so it wasn't all bad. The highlight of the evening for me was the pre-theatre dinner at Aria. I would definitely go again, but perhaps go for a later performance so we weren't quite as rushed. It was definitely a good way to experience top class food at slightly more reasonable prices though.
The next stop on the tour was Nelson Bay for a weekend. Our regular readers will know this a favourite weekend escape for us so I won't bore you with the details. We had a 
fabulous time as ever. The sunset picnic on the beach proved to be the best yet (have a look at the pictures for the stunning sunset). I guess the most notable point from the weekend was that we were planning a week up to the Fingal Bay Lighthouse, except the spit of sand that you can usually walk over at low tide was covered with water as the sand had shifted in a storm so no lighthouse for us this time, although it did force us to do something a bit different and head around the other side of the beach to the sand dunes which were rather nice. The other notable point of the weekend was another fantastic dive in Nelson Bay. It's been ages since we've been in the water so we were getting in come what may. The visibility was atrocious, but that didn't matter because there were loads of cool creatures to spot, including something Dave Harasti has not seen in the bay before - this is one of my ambitions, to find something Dave hasn't found before and this was it, a slender sea moth! Unfortunately I'm a kind hearted person and I give good underwater directions so Dave went off and found it the next day! It was a good opportunity to practice my underwater photography in less than perfect conditions. The results aren't quite as good as Graham's but it's a good start and something to improve on. Have a look on the diving page for the results. There is also some new diving videos to look at in there.
November 2009 - Better late than never...
November passed us by with nothing much to write about. It took weeks to do all the washing for the Abinett - Scholes visit, then we had to prepare for the arrival of the Midgley's. We were hoping to go to Nelson Bay for the annual dive club Christmas Party, but unfortunately that got cancelled due to DIY commitments. However, we did have something to look forward to. Our good friends Sam and Jaie treated us to dinner for my 30th birthday, and it wasn't just any old dinner, it was a circus cabaret with a degustation dinner to accompany the entertainment! Beth, if you're reading this I've already booked a table for when you come to visit!!!
So we weren't quite sure what to expect and we were desperately hoping there was no audience participation. We were greeted by our host for the evening (see picture) who kept sneaking up on Sam and frightening the life out of her (as she was the most apprehensive about audience participation!!)but thankfully there was no embarrassing stage appearances 
by any of our guests, and the magic was done at our table, which was actually very impressive!
The meal consisted of some interesting courses. One of which was a virtual mushroom and truffle risotto. This was a course that we were really looking forward to, but it turned out to be a balloon full of scented air - hence the virtual! Sam wasn't quite sure what to make of it!!!
The other interesting course was the lamb shank pie. I think the food was part of the 
entertainment as it wasn't what any of us would describe as a pie. The first thing to be served was the gravy, which was written on our plates, followed by some rubber gloves. No knives and forks for this course!
And as if the food wasn't enough, between courses we had the 
entertainment, which consisted of trapeze artists, fire eaters, pole dancers, singer and even a tasteful stripper!!!! And that all happened in and around the tables. All in all in was a fun night out, and we all left feeling like we were very untalented people! If you would like to see some photos click on the picture on the left, and there is even a quick video on the video page, but perhaps don't look if you're easily offended!!!!
visit from the Abinett's and Team Scholes - October 2009
See the Galleries for photos from the trip!
Since our anniversary weekend away there have been no updates because there has been nothing to update! We spent all of August and September renovating. But October started with a bang and the arrival of The Abinett's. This was a long awaited visited as Mum and Dad were a bit too keen and came 6 months after we arrived so it had been two and a half years since they've been Down Under, making this their first visit to Winston Hills. Unfortunately the weather wasn't so kind to them this year, which meant a few excursions had to be cancelled, including my birthday BBQ, but it didn't effect the fabulous surprise Graham had in store for my birthday.
So what do you get the biggest foodie in town for her 30th Birthday I hear you ask! Dinner at the best restaurant in Australia of course! And he even managed to keep it a surprise until the last minute. Graham had told me we were going to what he considered the best restaurant in Sydney, but knowing that it's often nearly impossible to get a table at Tetsuya's I didn't think this was even a remote possibility. But Sure enough Graham has managed to book a table for 4. And what a memorable way to spend my birthday it was. We had 14 courses with matching wine, which was far too many to remember. 
All but one course was outstanding, the one that didn't quite make the grade was the palate cleanser between mains and desert, which was essentially baked beans and toffee, which caused much hilarity at the table. Probably not suitable behaviour for the best restaurant in Australia, but it was my birthday so I could do what I like! It was difficult to choose the best course. The menu is Japanese French fusion so there was a lot of raw fish with a bit of Wagyu beef thrown in. Definitely the best meal I have ever had! Nic.
The meal was fantastic and I was particularly pleased to have kept it a secret from Nic! Despite Nic's continual attempts to guess where we were going, she had no idea! It only clicked when we pulled up outside - a few browny points for me then!!
As Nic said, unfortunately the weather wasn't great for the Abinett's trip - in fact it was the wettest October for the last 17 years or something like that! Anyway, it didn't stop us having a great time - and it was great to have Karen help with the setting up of our veggie/herb patch!!