November 6: Long Reef

Today we took the bus North to Long Reef beach which has a links golf course with one of the best views anywhere (straight ahead on the cliff in the top photo).
We're gradually realising that the more difficult it is to get to a beach, and the less facilities there are close to it, the less crowded it is at the weekend.  The beach was great apart from being covered in blue bottles (the little stingy jellyfish rather than the big fat flies!).
On the main road by the bus stop we found a fantastic pie shop called Upper Crust - must be one of the best pie shops in Sydney!
It clouded over later in the day and we only just made it back to the bus stop before the heavens opened. We must try to remember to carry our umbrella with us in future!

November 5: Guy Fawkes

'Remember Remember the 5th of November Gunpowder treason & plot', means absolutely nothing to your average Australian.  No bonfires.   No fireworks.  No Sparklers.   No rock hard toffees to break your teeth.  No sound of sirens all night.

Never mind - at least the sun was shining.

Coincidentally the bloke carrying the surfboard was called Guy Fawkes.  Who would have thought it!?

November 3: Jacarandas

The Jacaranda trees are all in full bloom at the moment, and the colours are amazing!  The photos above are of a group of trees on Circular Quay, and the trees outside our apartment.

October 31: Happy Halloween!!

October 25: Our next apartment?

Daisy is doing her bit to help with the flat hunting.
She insists its bigger on the inside than it looks - obviously she's going to be a real-estate agent when she grows up.

October 23: Breakfast Picnic on Newport Beach

This morning we left the flat early and took a breakfast picnic up to Newport Beach.  As you can see from the photos its nothing like the Newport we're used to.  We thought we would be the only people on the beach at 8:30am but we were surrounded by hundreds of Little Nippers which is the junior lifesavers club which you can find on most beaches every sunday morning.  Apparently Newport is one of the biggest clubs on the Northern Beaches - there were red & yellow hats everywhere.  Daisy thought she was part of the gang and Nick had to spend most of the morning spinning her round just to stop her running into the sea.
The weather has really stepped up a gear this week.  By lunchtime today it was around 30 degrees.  Time for some stronger sunscreen we think!

Who's afraid of the big bad All Blacks?

Daisy has a go at her own little Haka.
If they can't scare a two year old girl how on earth is all that dancing and poking their tongues out supposed to scare 15 fully grown men?

October 16: Picnic at North Head

Today we packed our bags with a picnic and pushed Daisy up the long hill to North Head.  The weather has changed this week and it's been really clear and hot (around 25-28 degrees).  The photos give some idea of just how clear it is but the colours are amazing in real life.  After having our lunch we walked around the trail which follows the headland with fantastic views back towards Vaucluse, Watson's bay, The City and Balmain.  Luckily it was downhill all the way home!

October 12: Night Noodle Market

During the Sydney food festival there are events happening all over town but one that sounded good to us was the night noodle market in Hyde Park.  The market runs for 2 weeks and is a celebration of all types of asian food, with everything from steamed pork buns to mongolian curry!  Daisy had a good go with the chopsticks but  she's going to have to practice a bit more otherwise she'll be going hungry in future!

October 9: Lorikeets on the balcony

These little buggers are everywhere and are perhaps the noisiest birds we've ever come across.  They normally travel in massive flocks but these two seem to have taken a shine to Daisy.

October 8 Part 2: The night we beat the Irish

Some slightly blurry photos of the small (but loud) Welsh contingent in the Steyne celebrating the 22-10 win over Ireland in the Quarter Final of the World Cup.

October 8: Art & About

There's an arts festival happening in the city at the moment called 'Art & About'.  There are lots of different events and shows going on but one of the more interesting exhibitions is called 'Laneways', which has involved a number of artists taking over some of the smaller lanes that connect up the main streets.  Our favourites were a display of giant exercise balls wrapped in fabric, and an enormous stripy inner tube suspended between two buildings.  We're never going to make it as art critics are we?
There's also a specific piece called 'Acts Of Kindness' by a British Artist called Michael Landy who has made up a massive jigsaw based on individual stories of kind acts which have happened all over the city.  The overall jigsaw is in Martin Place but there are copies of each piece at the spot where the act happened.  The piece was commissioned by a famous Australian Philanthropist called John Kaldor who is well known for having a fantastic art collection (think Satchi) and has recently donated his entire collection to the art gallery of NSW.

October 4: Six Months

Six months since we arrived in Australia!  We can't believe how quickly the time has passed.  We've had our ups and downs, explored lots of Sydney and other part of NSW, met loads of great people and had coffee and cake in some of the best spots in the city.  We're looking forward to what the next 6 months will bring....

October 3: Long Weekend Part 3

Last day of the long weekend and the weather took a turn for the better today.  We left the house mid-morning and went for a long walk from Manly around to Shelly Beach and back along the North Steyne.  Everyone was out and about today not just because of the weather - it was also the final day of the Manly Jazz Festival.  We didn't spend very long watching the acts on the formal stages but stumbled across this fantastic group called Hot Potato who were basically a bunch of kids who were all fantastic Jazz musicians.  They wandered around Manly like pied pipers with people trooping behind them in true New Orleans style.  Daisy loved it and cried when we tried to take her home - so we followed them around for another half an hour until they'd run out of tunes....and puff......unlike Daisy who just kept dancing!

October 2: Long Weekend Part 2

Wet again today but we borrowed a Goget car and took a drive up North to the Kuring-Gai Chase National Park.  We drove up to Akuna Bay and around to West Head where Gem took the photos above of Lion Island and Barrenjoey Head & Palm Beach.  Daisy loved her new car seat - especially the built in drinks- holder.  Being Australian its only really sized to take bottles of beer but we managed to squeeze her water bottle in.
For some unknown reason our car had 'vanilla' written on the bonnet?  Suggestions on a postcard.....

October 1: Long Weekend Part 1

This weekend is the spring bank-holiday in NSW.  The weather was supposed to be rubbish so we didn't plan much.  On Saturday we went to the Darling Harbour Fiesta - a celebration of all things South American - which was running over the 3 days of the long weekend.  The fiesta wasn't really up to much.  We had some food and watched a massive Zumba class which seemed to be full of Asian men (must have been something to do with the teachers) and decided to give it up and head to the playground.  We're learning that playgrounds + long weekends = chaos.  Daisy fought of a few other kids for a turn on the slide and then took a spin on a carousel which we think she enjoyed (could the smile be any bigger?).

Kookaburras

They look cute - but not when they're giggling outside our bedroom window at 5:30 in the morning.  Roll on daylight saving!

September 17: Manly Picnic & Lantern Parade

Spring-time in Sydney seems to be one long arts festival!  Manly arts festival runs from the end of August to mid September and finishes with a big family picnic and lantern parade.  As we are still the new kids and didn't know the drill and hadn't pre-built our lantern! There were plenty of materials available to build your own but instead Daisy rolled her sleeves up and got stuck in with helping out decorating the main parade lantern - a giant dragon/bird thingy.  Along with the lanterns there was plenty of music, food and face painting.  The day finished with everyone parading their lanterns along the beach.  We think Daisy enjoyed herself!