everyone re-unites in Sydney for New Years

The Sydney part of my Holidays:

28/29: After spending the whole day with the kids I took the 9pm bus to Sydney. It wasn’t quite a horrible as I though it would be, I had at least 5 hours of sleep I think. This bus stopped in about 5 different towns (one of them being Canberra) And I finally made it to Sydney Central Station by 12:15pm. Leslie was there to greet me and bring me to Cassia house in Darlinghurst to settle down before heading out to meet Katrina in Hyde park. We ventured through the botanical gardens (which we got lost in and couldn’t find our way out of) to the harbour front where we met up with Helenka. I got my 1st view of the opera house (which I proceeded to take about 50 pictures but I was might I say disappointed? It wasn’t crispy white like I had pictured it) and the harbour bridge. We walked around the Rocks (historical part of town) and then back to Cassia sfor a delicious dinner. I then refused to let my lack of sleep take control of me and headed out with Leslie, Cassia, Pablo, Annie and Nicole for a few drinks (one being snake bites, so delicious, it’s made of beer, cider and grenadine).

30th: We took the ferry to Manly beach (on the northern side of the bay) with a great view of the cbd, opera house and harbour bridge. The beach was gorgeous, although covered in people, Kat, Helenka and I enjoyed some massive waves.

31st: Checked out the downtown for new years festivities. There wasn’t much of exciting. So we headed home to prepare some dinner and pick up some alchy and then headed to rush cutters bay and park for a nice picnic and some goon and beer as well as our own version of pictionary featuring the white board. We then headed back to Cassias, finished our drinks, watched the 9pm fire works on tv and then headed to the harbour once again to squeeze into the crowd and bring in 2009 with some fireworks over the bridge, some friends, some champagne and 12 grapes. Twas an awesome night toped of with some Auld lang syne and spice girls singing.
(video of the fireworks : http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=v7UbL4nfeJE&feature=related)



1st: After a long rest and then a massive breakfast we took the bus to Coogee where there is the start of a gorgeous walk from there to Bondi beach. It took us maybe 3 hours, leading us through many bays and cliffs. It was gorgeous and very hot so we stopped in one of the coves for a nice swim. Once back Jinnie brought us to a nice Korean restaurant. Tasty. What an awesome start to 2009

2nd Was spent walking across the harbour bridge, visiting the Contemporary art museum, exploring darling harbour and china town with Leslie as my guide.

3rd: the highlight was getting a hot chocolate from the Lindt café and walking around the market at the rocks. I took the bus at 8pm back home to Melbourne and arrived at 6:30 am Sunday morning. The only problem was trains don’t start till 8am on Sundays garg!!!

xmas break in Melbourne

Christmas break (Melbourne part) was quite fantastic:
It started off with celebrating the twins 2nd birthday on the 19th. They celebrated in style with their new awesome party outfits and a few friends. We were exhausted by the end of the day after all the preparations and party hosting.

On the 24th Mel and I enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at St-Kilda beach.

The 25th was busy and fun which made me miss home a little less. It started off with Wyatt knocking at my door and yelling “Merry Christmas” at 7am so we could all start opening Christmas presents. I was quite spoiled as were the children, I received a shirt with a penguin on it from Cooper, socks from Maddie, a calendar from Wyatt, some creams, lots of Chocolate, an external hard drive (due to my many computer problems L ) and a book called : confessions of an ugly step sister (by the author of wicked)
Jeff prepared a massive xmas breakfast including Australian style bacon, eggs and tasty taters. YUMMY!
We then headed to Brighton beach for a nice morning of shovelling (sand instead snow).
For Dinner Mel prepared a great turkey roll, and xmas dinner. The day was topped off with some Rummikub with Mel and Jeff. Quite an awesome day.

26th: I ventured to Chadstone, which was crazy and the deals weren’t even that great. In the afternoon we headed to Caulfield park to see “boxwars”. Mel had received a txt message from a friend telling her about it and we were under the assumption it was the name of the band but no.. it was literally box wars! I found this event very entertaining, people dressed up in intricate cardboard costumes proceeded to ram into each other until all was destroyed. It was mayhem and the children seemed to enjoy haha. We then went to have a picnic and play at the play structure. this was my fav. of all the "costumes"->


27: We went for a gorgeous outing to Mornington Peninsula and I had my 1st full swim in the Ocean since I got here. We were spoiled in terms of weather for the Holidays. What a great time for the weather to finally decide to shape up.

overdue

So I know I haven’t updated this thing in forever.
The beginning of December was slow paced, the weather was pretty rainy for 2 weeks. Leslie left at the beginning after a fabulous night out with Annie and her friends to a place called Laundry. This night ended with us running through the whole of downtown (maybe 3km) to catch the last subway home with 1 minute to go. Other than that events included the science museum, going to ride the miniature trains (quite fun for me even might I say), babysitting Connor, Christmas at Airdrie park and a ride on an old fashioned fire engine with the kids (who yelled “zoom zoom zoom” pretty much the entire 8 minute ride).
Another major event in my life (haha), is signing up with another library branch (Stonington). They have French books… and also allow you to make reservations and transfers of movies from one library to another for free… I went a little reserving crazy expecting there to be long waits for recent movies, but apparently that is no the case.
Oh also I went to see Australia with Mel and Sam. I very much liked it.
And to top it off I had the best ice coffee of my life, it included grounded chocolate covered coffee beans. Heavenly!

at kids space. an indoor playground we go to. I obviously have just as much or more fun than the kids do haha.

oh and p.s you guys don't need an account to comment on my posts.. so please do so that I know people are reading this :P

La température de ces jours ci n'a pas été très agréable et il est donc difficile de planifier des activités pour moi même et pour les enfants. Mel et moi avons décidé qu'il ne pleut pas beaucoup ici mais qu'il pleut souvent. Donc, nous devons trouver des activités à l'intérieur pour amuser les enfants car la température n'est pas belle, mais par le temps que l'ont sort il fait beau. Les activités inclut magaziner, des parc à l'intérieur, des piscine interne etc.

d'autres événements c'est jours-ci:
-Vendredi on est sortie avec Mel et ses amis du frisbee ultime. On est aller à l'ouverture du premier bar koréan à Melbourne. On c'est ensuite trouvé un endroit pour danser :).
-samedi dernier il y avait une foire de Noel sur la rue à 5 minute de notre mais. On a eu de la grêle 3 fois cette journée, une fois durant la danse des sabots en bois.
-on est allé à la plage avec les enfants
-La deuxième parade du père Noel à Melbourne a inclut plusieurs danses, gymanstiques, célébrités de sports, des charactères d'émission de télévision et quelques charactère relié au père noel, oh et le père Noel. Mais on c'est rendu en shorts :).

ma journée de congé j'ai fait une tournée en bicyclette:
-la ligne rouge c'est le trajet que j'ai parcouru.
-le carré bleu pâle c'est ma maison
-je me suis arrêté à la biblio (le carré bleu) et ensuite je suis passé par Bentleigh et Brighton pour voir les maisons géantes. Tout au long de la baie il y a un piste cyclable merveillieux qui suit l'eau.

clouds, rain, sunshine and hail

So the weather hasn't been very nice lately and it's hard to plan any activities because of this. Mel and I have decided that it doesn't rain alot here, but it rains often. Therefor we can find an indoor place to go because the weather looks like crap, by the time we come out it's gorgeous out and we probably could of headed off to the beach.
-these outings include going to the mall, going to fun indoor playgrounds, going to indoor pools.

a few other highlights
-friday we went out with Mel and some of the other ladies from her ultimate frisbee team. We went to the opening of the first korean bar in melbourne wooo. we then desperately tried to find a place to go dancing (it's hard when you don't know the nighttime city). anyway we found a great place with a live band playing and also recent music. i shall be returning (well since it's the only place i know and i loved the music). one of the ladies got kicked out and so we went on an unsuccessful adventure looking for a new place to dance.
-last saturday was the christmas fair on koornang street (5 minute walk from our house). it hailed 3 times that day but we went out anyway, there were a few free kid rides, there was a clog dance (which got poured on) and i discovered there's a dutch community center near my house. perhaps i shall see what that is all about.
-went to the beach at beaconsfield parade and victoria av. with the kids.
-we went to the santa clause parade, that as everyone has pointed was not to christmassie except santa was at the end and a few floats. It was mostly dances, gymnastics, sports celebraties, kid show characters. I quite enjoyed watching the parade in my shorts though (:

my day off bike ride.
-the pale cyane box is our house
-the red line is the route i took.
-stopped at the library on the way (the little blue box) and headed through Bentleigh and Brighton which were full of massive mansions. It was a gorgeous day, which i did not realize and I had neglected to wear my bathing suit. oh well i'm sure there will be many more chances.
-there is a bike path that goes along the whole shore line from brighton to st-kilda. I took Glen huntley to get home.
-i crossed the nepean highway, and also moodie st. o home!

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pics!

nouvelles photos je crois... new photos.
grampians : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2205675&l=e9a5f&id=121500314
melbourne cup: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2208047&l=3f698&id=121500314
random events : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2211085&l=fcfc8&id=121500314