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!

September 13: Ballerina Girl

We don't think Anna Pavlova has much to worry about!

September 9-11: Currarong

Took a trip down to Currarong this weekend with Emily, Matt, Kath and Tom.  We left on Friday straight after work and drove 3 hours South to this little village by the ocean. We were staying in a traditional fibro cottage (cement board) which was really cool (if a little chilly at night).
Emily took us on a bush walk to Lobster Bay on Saturday as the weather wasn't great but the walk was good fun.  We built up enough of an appetite for a massive Barbie and a few drinks on saturday night which helped us to forget how cold it was in our little cardboard house.
Sunday we took a drive through a local weapons testing range to Honeymoon Bay which was incredible!  We spent a couple of hours soaking up the sunshine on our deserted beach before driving back to Sydney via the bakery in Berry, which we are defo going back to!
The weekend ended in disappointment as Wales went down fighting 16-17 to SA in the World Cup.  Never mind - at least my boss isn't South African.......bugger!

September 7: Another hard day at the office

August 24-28: Byron Bay

Last week we jetted off to Byron bay for a short break before Lara had to head back to the UK.  We flew up on Wednesday and rented a small house in an area called Suffolk Park which faced onto Tallow Beach - a 7mile long stretch of pristine beach surrounded by national park.
Unfortunately the weather wasn't great - it rained for two out of the 4 days - but we used the time to explore the local countryside - famous for dairy farming, macademia nuts and hippies!?  We travelled to Lismore (dull), Mullambimby (quaint), Lennox Heads (wet) and Nimbin (stoned).
On the sunny days we spent time on Byron and Wategos beaches watching the surf schools and enjoying the sunshine, and ventured up to Byron lighthouse which is the most Easterly point on mainland Australia.  We also ate well! Thanks to Richard & Annie we found a great Fish shop in Byron called Mongers and barbecued every night consuming more than our fair share of Prawns which were ridiculously cheap.
We all loved Byron and will definitely head back again, but maybe in summer next time!