July 23 Part 3: Nick's mate Hayden

This will mean absolutely nothing to anyone outside of the country, but this is Nick with Hayden Quinn who should have won Masterchef Australia (but was dropped in the semi-finals for using too much salt!).  Doesn't sound exciting but Masterchef here is massive.  Its on TV 6 nights a week and has been running since we arrived - finals week is next week and we're looking forward to next April already!

July 23 Part 2: Emily's Pumpkin Lasagne

How weird is this - Nick, Gem, Daisy, Tom, Kath, Emily & Matt in Sydney!  Fantastic lasagne - it tasted as good as it looks.  Afterwards we headed off to Manly Wharf for a couple of beers to watch the first game of the Tri-nations (minus Daisy & Gem of course - daisy's getting into Aussie Rules and didn't fancy the rugby).

July 23: Return to Eveleigh

We went back to Eveleigh farmers market in Newtown this morning with Tom & Kath, only this time we remembered to bring some cash!  Bought big bags of apples and oranges, organic pork, lamb and duck eggs and plenty of shopping trolley envy for Gem!  Daisy met a new friend - we nearly ended up coming home with a puppy!
After the farmers market we went to a fantastic Thai cafe on Kings road for $6 pad thai, and then over to visit Matt & Emily for tea - photos to follow......

July 19: Daisy in the 'hood

Our House

By popular demand - some photos of our little apartment in Manly.
Daisy checking the mailbox outside the front door, the view from the North facing balcony, and some of the local wildlife!

July 9: Fish & Rocks

Took a walk around the Rocks this morning on our way to the Fish Market.  Although it was a bit nippy, and very windy, it was a beautiful winters day and the sun was strong and warm once you moved out of the breeze.  Managed to get some atmospheric shots of the bridge and the wharf buildings around Walsh Bay.  It took us a good hour to walk from the rocks to the Fish Market, which wasn't helped by having a grumpy baby to deal with.  The fish market was really busy but then it was Saturday lunchtime so we shouldn't have been surprised!  The market itself was really interesting but not quite what we'd expected.  We thought we'd see loads of guys in yellow oilskins dragging around huge polystyrene boxes of fish and ice, instead what we got was the fishy equivalent of Selfridges with massive glass cabinets displaying mountains of weird and wonderful seafood.  Everything from prawns to sushi grade tuna, huge red snapper, abalone and oysters.  We bought a bag full of prawns, squid, ling and Moreton Bay bugs to take home (photos tomorrow!) and then bought a tray of fish and chips and joined the masses sitting on the fake grass in the sun.  It was amazing but don't tell Daisy as she'd finally gone to sleep!

July 4: First day at nursery/work

While everyone in the US celebrated their independence today,  Gem & Daisy were commiserating their loss of independence, with Daisy starting nursery and Gem's first day in work.
It wasn't all bad - look what we found on circular quay this morning!  Surely it's not normal to be greeted from the ferry by a herd of camels?!  Daisy didn't seem to be too phased.  I wonder what she told the other kids at nursery?

Home-made Okonomiyaki!

June 24: Happy Birthday Daisy!

Thankyou everyone who sent Daisy such lovely birthday wishes!  She had a wonderful day full of fun and cakes - just like a birthday should be!

June 17-19: Hunter Valley Wine Tour

Spent a long weekend in the Hunter Valley, exploring some of the best Food & wine that New South Wales has to offer.  We hired a small cottage just outside Cessnock at the Southern end of the wine making region. It was in a very quiet and sheltered spot but also very cold as the windows were all single glazed and there was no central heating!!  We did have a jacuzzi on the terrace, which helped and the wine also helped to take the chill off! We visited cellar doors (or 'wine factory outlets'), at Tallowwood, Briar Ridge, Tallvera, Brokenwood, and McWilliams. We also took a behind the scenes tour at McWilliams which we all enjoyed - even Daisy got in on the act, as she was the only one of us small enough to 'taste the terroir' in one of the old oak barrels! Had a fantastic time and will definitely go back - but maybe in the summer.

June 15: Daisy's First Visitors

June 12: Good Food, shame about the weather.

Sunday lunch Sydney style!  Found a great cafe for lunch today with Tom & Kathryn - 'Madame Char Char' on Crown Street.  We visited the museum of Sydney in the morning to see the exhibition '52 Suburbs' ( http://www.52suburbs.com/ ) and then strolled across town, dodging the raindrops, to Crown street.   It's obviously a popular little place as there were no seats available inside so we had to squash up on a table on the street (see above).  After tucking in to roast chicken & a selection of amazing salads, we weren't in any fit state to do anything much so we moved 2 doors down the street for a coffee to recover before walking home!  Bit of a rubbish day weather-wise - hope it clears up this week for our visitors!

June 9: Vivid 2

June 4 (Part 2): Ice Bear

This is a life size sculpture of a polar bear carved from ice yesterday by a British sculptor to highlight the issue of climate change and to celebrate world environment day (June 5th).  By tomorrow the ice should have all melted leaving just the bronze skeleton exposed.  Very cool.

June 4: 'Yo Gabba Gabba'

Can't believe that our first trip to the main concert hall at the opera house was to watch Yo Gabba Gabba!  Daisy was a bit over-awed at first but soon started enjoying the music and dancing. . . . AWESOME!

May 28: Lighting the sails

Friday marked the start of the 2 week Vivid festival of Light, Music & Ideas, in and around Circular Quay.
We travelled in late Saturday afternoon to catch the end of the market and 'lights on' at 6pm.
There are some fantastic interactive light sculptures, some simple and some complex, but the main event is the 3d projection on the sails of the Opera House.  It's pretty much impossible to get any decent photos without a couple of grand's worth of kit so we've added the link to the VIVID website below, along with a link to a videoclip on the BBC website.

http://vividsydney.com/light

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13585671

'Nobody puts daisy in the corner'

May 22: Perfect Day

Woke up early and Nick headed straight out to hire a kayak for a paddle on the harbour (see above!).
Gem & Daisy walked down to meet him afterwards and then bought coffee and sunday papers and sat on the beach making sandcastles.  Met Emily & Matt for lunch in Jellyfish on the sea-front, before taking a walk along North Steyne, some more beach time, and then back to the apartment to finish the papers.  This is what weekends were made for!

May 21: Everleigh

We recently read about a saturday morning farmers market in Darlinghurst, so we got up early this morning and caught the ferry & bus over to the inner West.  We weren't disappointed!  The market is held in an old industrial shed and has various stalls with fantastic food including fresh veg, bread, cakes, meats and wines.  On this particular saturday there was also a separate market in the shed opposite called 'Finders Keepers' which included stalls from young Sydney based designers selling everything from clothes to greeting cards. After walking around for a few hours we started feeling peckish, luckily most of the stalls sold cooked versions of their fresh food so we picked up some burgers and joined the crowd sat in the sun between the 2 sheds.  This is obviously a popular saturday morning event because the place was packed with families doing their weekly shop.  Next time we have to remember to bring bags (and more money).

May 15: Collins Beach

Packed a picnic today and walked up through Little Manly to Collins Beach.  Struggled a bit to get down the path with the buggy, but the little beach at the bottom was great.  There were a few other people there, but not many.  We spent the afternoon exploring the rockpools and building sandcastles.  Saw our first proper widlife - a Kookabura (look closely at the bottom picture) and a possum (we think?).  Sometimes its difficult to remember that we are in the middle of one of the largest cities on the planet!

May 14: Breakfast at Bills

Left the unit at 7:30 this morning for the trek over to paddington and the famous Bills.  The early start was definitely worth it! The scrambled eggs are as good as everyone says they are! We arrived early enough to get a table before the crowds arrived at 9.  Gem & nick both had eggs & toast, daisy had corn fritters and bunny had a carrot.

Afterward we walked to Paddington Market for a wander around the stalls.  Some good stuff.  Walked back into town while daisy slept and caught the ferry back feeling a bit tired after our early start. Bought (great) coffee from Barefoot, bread from the artisan bakery, paper from Humphreys and cakes from Adriano Zumbo, before putting our feet up on the balcony - feeling quite at home already!