I Love Summer

It was a weekend of indulgence and relaxtion. It was great.

Firstly Kung Hei Fat Choy to one and all! Happy New Year of the Dog. May it be a prosperous, peaceful one full of love for everyone!!!!



SushiSuma still has awesome food! They've moved 2 doors down, the decor is cooler, the line still snakes down the road and the fact that even when you book it doesn't assure you of your table at that time but hey, cheap delicious Japanese around the corner - can't beat it.

Bondi was heavenly. The waves were small but nice and the temperature of the water is divine. Cannot get enough of it. And my chai on the way back home from Sharon & Kelvin is the best one you can get from any cafe in Sydney.

BBQ's rock! Saturday and Sunday night was all about fresh fine food barbequed to perfection.





JD got down our old Singer from the attic. I was given this from an old neighbour of my Mum's a few years back when we discovered in one of our moves that one of the removalist men probably helped himself to JD's nice modern one. I have no idea what to do with these machines - they freak me out, but I'm feeling spurred on by some extremely lovely compliments I've received about "the skirt" and will pursue the art of sewing until it all becomes 2nd nature.





And finally the tennis is over. Bagdatis is cute and he can play really well - but when the tears started flowing from Federer I got all empathic and really felt his emotional release. Despite last weeks' very funny and cool outburst from Tommy Haas about the sycophantic "get your tongue out of his butt" commentary from Jim Courier about Federer being the best we've ever seen etc etc, I think he may be right.

Summer feels like it's just starting for me. A walk on the beach and swim after work is so heavenly. Last night the sun still had a sting at 6.30pm and the water was so warm. These sort of balmy evenings put me in such a good mood.

And also found the cool new site by the talented Kath Redcurrent - Whipup - please go check it out!

Oh God, just realised it's Tuesday isn't it? And I've got nothing I can think of to add to SPT. Apologies.

Creation

I am so chuffed. This is the 1st piece of clothing I can wear. My Mum is a designer/pattern maker/cutter by trade and I have never utilised her skills. Well she was also a makeup artist for tv, and great with finances but I digress.



This week I asked for a sewing lesson - and I never expected I'd be walking out 2 hours later with a skirt I love and can't stop wearing. I only sewed the easy bits, and still haven't got a clue really if I was sitting in front of the machine by myself, but it's fun, and I think I'm going to try several styles of skirts and then some tops and who knows, I may even start selling my creations.



Due to my Mum's experience, she was able, to just cut the fabric on the right angle and trim it here and there with her eye, so we didn't even use a pattern. I have a couple of skirts I love and so will try and copy those and learn some pattern making in the process.



I've got a really old machine that I can work on at home, but it's far easier at this stage to use this brand new Singer.

Australia Day, Invasion Day, or Just Another Day Off From Work?

If you read the blurb and listen to the politicians, today, "we come together as a nation to celebrate what's great about Australia and being Australian. It's the day to reflect on what we have achieved and what we can be proud of in our great nation. It's the day for us to re-commit to making Australia an even better place for the future".

I can't get excited about this day at all. Knowing our history, and significance of this actual date January 26th (On January 26, 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales and became its first Governor), and that the first official celebrations were held in 1818 to mark the 30th anniversary of white settlement, I refuse to be a part of this - and call me un-Australian if you will.

Until we as a nation observe the inequities, accept that this land was not terra nullius, apologise to the Aboriginal peoples, and honestly and authentically respect and integrate indigenous culture and law into modern Australian culture, and finally choose a new date to celebrate together as a whole nation, how can we continue to stick our heads in the sand, light fireworks, award actors to UN Ambassador positions and not find the whole thing vile, embarrassing & totally repugnant.

SPT: Personal History

My Mum brought my sister and I up solo until we were about 4 years old. Then she met and fell in love with a special man who became my step-dad. He made such a huge impact on all our lives. He completed our family. They loved each other, they loved us, and we had a very cool open relaxed family life. Our lives were forever changed in 1995 when he died after battling cancer for a long time.



My sister or I snapped this whilst they were dancing around the house one night. He made her very happy. This photo always makes me smile .

Crown Street Womens’ Hospital – is now a part of an apartment, hotel and restaurant and shop complex. There were 3 women’s hospitals in the space of around 2 km’s in the inner city of Sydney and all of them no longer exist.



This is my primary school. I went here with my twin sister and cousins. My Mum and her 8 brothers and sisters also went to Crown Street Public. This school was built in 1879.



Surry Hills where I was born and bred. My roots. My Mum still lives in the house in which she was born here. The suburb has changed from working class to gentrified & trendy, with some of the best restaurants and shopping to be found in the city. I no longer live here, but close enough and it will always be close to my heart.



More other SPT’ers here and here.

This Should Inspire Me

Found via Kat's Paws at Blogthings, this should become my mantra. I need something like this to hang on to and focus on right now: My Life Path Number is 3

Your Life Path Number is 3

Your purpose in life is to express your unique self. You are a creative and artistic person with an interesting view on life. Witty and outgoing, you enjoy sharing your crazy ideas with anyone who will listen. A total social butterfly, you're the life of any party. In love, you inspire and enchant your partner. You are often an object of fantasy and desire. While you are very talented, you sometimes lack the ambition to put your talents in play. And while your wit carries you a long way, you occasionally use it to mask your true feelings. Your natural abilities can bring you all the success in the world ... if you let them

Go find what yours is now.

Absolutely No Images Will Be Contained In This Post, I Promise.

Saturday 21 st January will go down in history as a shit of a day. I laugh as I write this. Thank God I’m laughing because earlier I was so close to crying and losing my mind. The vodka is probably helping my sense of humour along, but basically I’ve just given in. I think I have grown.

Let me go back to the beginning. I’m kind of a germaphobe. I’m a bit anal. I detest shoes in the house and bad hygiene and basically like things to be clean. Really clean. Even though I’m very untidy but that’s a whole other story. Well today, we slept in, the sun was shining, it was warm, it felt like a great start to the weekend, I’d started preparing breakfast, opened our french doors leading out to a back courtyard, and THEN JD NOTICED SOMETHING WHITE IN PATCHES ON THE GROUND AND THEN WE NOTICED LUMPS OF SHIT, YES SHIT AND THEN WE REALISED OUR BACK DRAIN HAD OVERFLOWED SEWARAGE AT SOME POINT OVER NIGHT.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!

To cut the story short, because let’s face it, there aint nothing pretty about human waste – a very nice and competent plumber (how do these guys do this job – they should paid more than anyone else on the planet) fixed our problem. But the entire day and I mean entire day was spent only dealing with this problem and we will still have to do more cleaning up tomorrow – both of us were so over it we did the emergency clean today once the plumber had gone and the rest can wait until tomorrow.

Dinner is booked at our favourite local Italian at 7.30pm and we are going all out to have ourselves a very nice evening.

The Little Things

Huge thanks to my Mum for looking after all my thirsty plants all that time I was gone. This was one of the nicest gifts I had on arrival as I opened the front gate.



Why get rid of the Christmas decos when they look this good!



I never noticed the expressions on each dolls' face before. Lonely, confused, surpised, stoic.



Also heard a very funny thing last night in relation to the price of a certain super expensive product that would cost nothing to make:

"That's daylight robbery!". Hee hee.

Family

Here is a quote from an Australian Aboriginal Elder that totally resonates with me:

You white people don'tunderstand what we mean by "family". When a baby is born, it is given to its "mother". That means, the mother who bore it, all her sisters and all her aunties. they are responsible for caring for it and teaching it. It is also given to all its "fathers". That means, its natural father, all his brothers and all his uncles. They are responsible for caring for it and teaching it. Everyone else in the tribe is brother and sister. We think it is really primitive for a baby to have only one mother and father!

If the whole world lived like this it would definitely be a better place.

I am lucky enough to have these beautiful girls in my life who make my life richer.

Because I Don't Want to Believe it's Over

Excuse the moon-tan please, but I had just had 2 months of winter. But check out those sea colours.



This was the final morning, the gloominess was appropriate and matched our moods. We didn't want to leave.



Something big was chasing a huge school of jumping fish and these birds were cashing in on the action. this went on for hours.



Ah, the serenity.

Iconic

Cricket is Australia's no. 1 summer sport. And one of the few good things the Brits and their colonisation brought to many parts of the Commonwealth. Beach cricket is cool. Fielders can choose to cool off in the water and take stunning diving catches, and tennis balls hurt far less than a 6-stitcher.

But what about this stupid game they've now invented - 20/20. One day cricket is predictable enough but at least with 50 overs each you've got more chance to "play" cricket. With only 20 overs each, it's a slog-fest gone mad - the game just does nothing for me at all. Do the dudes in control think that the average joe blow's attention span can only handle this sort of length or has it got something to do with tv coverage, advertising & ratings? Or is it just the perpetual need for the human to have to keep on reinventing the wheel. Give us a break please! We've got Test, 4-day cricket, 1-day cricket and even a 6-day Test - isn't this enough already?

SPT Tuesday - without theme

I've been such a bad girl. I do love the whole SPT community but I have been unable to participate lately and now I feel out of it. I briefly glimpsed last weeks entries and they were so awesome, everyone is being so creative and I've got nothing good to add. I haven't got a scanner and I actually have very few old family photos - my Mum has them all.

So I'll add something here just to appease the guilt for now but it isn't in theme at all but from last week's holiday. I'll try to snap something today that might be more appropriate.

What, Half the Month Has Gone Already?

Can't believe it is the middle of January already. 2005 flew by for me so quickly and I feel like I achieved almost nothing. I'm telling you all now and putting it in B/W:

This year is going to be different! This year will be the year of turning ideas into reality! This year will be the year of creativity! This year I'm going to kick butt!

So having said that, here is some of what we got up to down south. It was all about early rising, early to bed, walking, relaxing, recovering, and soaking up the sun and salty ocean. It was lovely!

This is one of my favourite beaches in the whole world. Unfortunately the day was slightly ruined by a family of absolute etiquetteless arseholes. We arrived early and the beach was almost empty. The whole beach practically available. We found a little nook between some bushes and trees on a high part of the beach (the beach backs on to national park so the bush meets the ocean). We'd just put down our things and JD was just about to ram in our umbrella when out of the corner of our eyes we saw a woman and then a man and then there 2 kids walking up and standing a few feet away looking at our spot. The woman then says "yes this is where we were yesterday". JD gets a bad feeling, so do I but I say " put the umbrella up please, NOW". The woman then plonks herself down 3 feet away from where the point of the umbrella would hit the sand. Flabbergasted! Shocked! Astonished! Confused! Pissed Off is how I felt. I just could not get this. The audacity. The weirdness. I wanted to stay to claim our piece of heaven but JD couldn't be bothered and so picked everything up and started walking down the beach. I looked at them and said " are you serious? we were here first, what are you thinking?" and they all looked at me like they didn't speak English.



The day this fishy sharky cloud appeared in the sky was the day an aerial photographer managed to snap a shot of a 3 metre shark swimming in exactly these waters. Apparently a white pointer was accompanying the smaller shark. We saw a small sting ray and lots of fish but thankfully no shark except in the sky.



And this just made me smile. And restored the good mood that the selfish family had taken.

Hot & Sticky

It's summer alright. The back of my neck is so hot and the air is so tropical. For anyone who has been in Sydney all summer, today feels a bit cool, a bit fresh and definitely not hot. But for me it feels like HOLIDAY. And it is.

Loving all the fruit in season, loving the rosella's screeching in the trees, loving seeing the beautiful expressive amazing loved filled faces of my nieces, loving seeing my family, loving wearing no shoes, loving that JD still has 6 more days off until he has to return to work.



If you're in Sydney, Flickerfest runs until the end of the week down at The Pavillion. I hope to make it there when we get back.

Just realised it was our good friend Andreas' birthday yesterday - we'll call you when we get back & hope you had a great one!!

Ciao for a couple of days.

Early Rising

Awake again at 5.30. Grinning at each other. Hunger pains and pink fluffy clouds pull me out of bed. Delicious spelt and fig muesli with peach for breakfast and then down to the beach. Almost no other cars on the road until we get to the beach and parking is hard even at 7am. The few people left in Sydney at this time of the year all have the same thing on their mind. Walking exhausts me and so we don't even complete 1 lap. But so lovely sitting on the sand, feeling the breeze, watching the surf and 1 brilliant surfer having the longest rides and doing all sorts of tricks. A quick visit to my sister & bro-in-law to hear all about their big night out and had a very delicious cup of sweet organic coffee, yummmm.



Quick detour via Centennial Park, and that looks like a ghost town too. Weird. Home for lunch. Sorting out accommodation for us to have a few days down south now and it's looking possible. I just wish I could breathe better. This heat and humidity must be doing some good, it feels so nice to wear almost nothing and I'm warm.

Back on Deck

Greetings one and all! Back in the land of living, the southern hemisphere and home. It's day 3 and this morning was the first time both JD and I felt like good. The first 2 days were shockers due to us both feeling so sick - the endless coughing of the past 2 weeks had exhausted me and JD's flu symptoms started just before take off. Which made for an awesome flight home. NOT. And with Qantas stuff ups on the ground resulting in a cabin temperature of about 50 degrees for over an hour we were absolutely stuffed on arrival. We'd organised a birthday yum cha for my mum, so while JD sweated it out alone in bed at home I can assure you those dumplings went down a treat - it was the best comfort food I could have hoped for.

Used the time lag nicely this morning, and headed down to the beach early. The wind and sun and ocean were so tropical and soothing. Spent the rest of the day with the family - the nieces in particular and got some beautiful kid love and energy which had been the thing I'd missed most while I was away.

We had planned to head north for a short break but this is on hold until we feel better - so for now lots of rest is needed.

Thank you everyone for your good new year wishes and I hope to be bringing you photos again more regularly. Here is the departing shot from the winter wonderland and here is one from this morning.

Happy New Year - Frohes Neues Jahr

Hey Everyone! Welcome to 2006 and a New Year! Hope everyone had themselves a good one.

I started celebrating at 2pm here when I knew it was midnight at home & talked to family and got nice SMS's from friends. And then our real one was very nice and relaxed. Spent with old friends from here, at the same house in the country where we've spent a couple of Silvesters'/New Years' already in a valley near a forest. The only difference was that 8 kids joined us this year, and all but the baby made it easily until midnight when we let off the fireworks. Germans are still allowed to buy and light fireworks here unlike us in Sydney, and they tend to go over the top with the semi professional gear they burn up. From our vantage point on one side of the valley we could see and enjoy the fireworks all the way to the next village and the whole valley.

So I wish everyone a wonderful prosperous safe healthy happy love-filled year!