Good Friday

Grace, Goose and I ventured off in the car that Grace is borrowing off her Godmother to Bondi to spend the day enjoying the weather and having a good old girly catch up. The weather out here has been awful recently as we are steadily easing in to the Australian Winter, but thankfully the rain seems to be holding off for the big Easter Weekend and was a bright and sunny 25 degrees!

Grace picked me up from my place and then we swung by to get Goose from hers and drove on to Bondi. All of us were a little hungover from various events the night before and spent the journey relaying some of the ridiculous things that had happened. Grace had been at a wine tasting which had been hosted at her Godmother's house and the girls had succeeded in getting the sommelier pretty drunk and convinced him to open a very expensive red wine, Goose suddenly remembered how we had tried to get a security man to teach us how to use the slot machines in the pub (!?), and I had scratches all over my knees from attempting to break in to the Roundhouse via the external balcony for the event which I had failed to remember to get a ticket for....  I didn't really care about the event at all, it was more just the game of trying to get in. Needless to say, I was found and escorted away. Naughty me.

We found a place to park not too far from the beach and wandered down to find a cafe to grab some breakfast and a coffee to have on the beach. We threw off our shoes and went for a paddle in the sea and had a good giggle watching all the asians take their holiday snaps. This has become one of my favourite passtimes when on the beach in Australia... I mean, does taking a photo of your family really require you to get into the deep squat position!? The sun was blazing and we sat and relaxed in the sand for a while, watching all the surfers do their thing and feeling a little bitter that we hadn't invested more time in learning to surf this year. At one point an aeroplane spelt out 'Jesus = Love' in the sky, which  was.... amusing. I spose it was Good Friday an' all....

...and then she threw me on the ground.

Sadly Grace had to go back home to pack and get herself to the airport as she was flying to New Zealand that afternoon, and so she left Goose and I in a happy hungover heap on the beach. We stayed for a little longer and then went for a wander around the back streets and invested in some retail therapy. There are some really good shops in Bondi, if you know where to look, and most of them had some kind of Easter sale on which proved to be a little taxing for our bank accounts.... whoops. I found some awesome dresses which will be really useful for upcoming 21sts this Summer when I get home and Goose and I actually bought the same pair of sandals, with the promise that we wouldn't wear them on the same day out here, but the quite nice and sentimental idea that when we wear them independently back home we would think of each other and our lovely day spent in Bondi. TWINS! If you're heading down, some good shops to check out are Carousel, Me and Moo, Academy Brand, nANA jUDY and Tuchuzy.

This one's for you, Moo!

We then finally decided to go and get some food and after a browse around the various cuisines on offer we settled on Mad Pizza and shares a sweet potato and feta pizza (sounds strange but it was amazing) and a chicken and rocket salad. 

...and after pizza we moved on to a random little cafe opposite called Shabbaba which had coffee.... AND BAKLAVA! Praise the lord for Shabbaba, I think they saw us coming.

Finally we decided it was about time that we stopped spending money on clothes and food and head home to go and sleep. A lovely girly day and a very Good Friday! I was feeling a little sad about not being at home for Easter as it's one of my favourite times at home, what with all the baking and the Spring walks and, er, well.... chocolate, but now I'm feeling a little better and this weekend is looking set to be a good one.

Happy Easter!

B

Family

The fam have arrived!

Sadly, even though I was 45mins early to the airport, I managed to wait in the wrong arrivals hall and so our reunion was a little disjointed, but eventually we all found each other. Arrivals was packed as everyone was coming to meet their friends and family who were flying out to Australia and there were lots of smiling faces and tearful reunions going on around me. 

Once we were finally together again we hopped in a cab to get away from the thronging masses as quickly as possible and arrived shortly at the hotel. They were all very pale and jetlagged and just, well... squishy! You forget how much you body changes throughout the seasons, and comparing their pale English winter skin to my Australia summer skin was absolutely hilarious, no offence guys. 

After they had showered and unpacked I took them down to Coogee to let them thaw out a bit. It was a boiling hot day and they just kind of melted onto the beach in the heat. This was Moo's reaction to this sun...

Squinty mole rat

As per my usual routine, I made them do the Coogee to Bondi walk that afternoon too. Sadly, after only about 20mins, this was the state of them... I felt a bit mean.

Ella was dying of heat exhaustion, my Mum was simply just really over tired, my Dad had blisters already, and we'd totally lost Hannah. Brilliant. However, we eventually found some water and some plasters (and Hannah) and finally made it to Bondi where we had an early supper at Lush. Needless to say, they pretty much went straight to bed after that!

The next few days were a little more successful as they slowly acclimatised and got over their jetlag. We explored Sydney and did very touristy things like visit Circular Quay and the Opera House and stuff as my Dad and sisters have never been to Australia before and wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

We beached, and shopped, and visited some family friends and desperately tried to feel Christmassy in the heat! Sadly the weather wasn't all that great for them as it's was quite overcast and muggy some days, but still a hell of a lot better than the English winter.

Finding it very hard to get it into my head that it's the 23rd December....!

B

Long Time No See, Stranger

A certain Mr Oliver Amphlett has come out to visit! 

I went to go meet him at the airport and after a little bit of an emotional (on my behalf... with everyone staring, it was very embarrassing) reunion in the airport we headed off to begin our intense three week catch up and travel adventure!

We spent the next few days mooching about in Sydney, waiting for Oli to get over his jetlag, going to places like Searock, UNSW campus, Circular Quay etc. As my standard jetlag cure for everyone who first arrives in Sydney (Harry was the first victim, my family shall be the next), I made him do the Coogee to Bondi walk. It's quite a long walk, but the views are amazing and you go down into each little cove and can see all the different beaches. The walk finishes by walking past Icebergs which is a super famous sea pool/bar/club just on the edge of Bondi, and then you end up right on the beach where we stopped for a few drinks at The Bucket List.

We spent some time shopping in Surry Hills and found the most amazing cupcake place called Sparkle Cupcakery which is a very cool little place and the cupcakes are YUM.

We also found a shop with a skate park in the back of it....

...how incredibly hipster. I also found my new favourite shop which is called Service on Oxford Street. It stocks loads of amazing one-off stuff by Australia designers and everything is beautiful and very unique, but sadly pretty spenny. 

One of the days we went to the markets in The Rocks and then headed to right underneath the Harbour Bridge for Oli to do some of his long exposure photography.

We also went to go see Justin Martin play at The World Bar with Harry which was a good night out, and met up with Nelly for a nice supper at a gorgeous little tapas place near home called The Spanish Fly. So strange to all be out in Sydney together!

We leave for our big East Coast road trip early tomorrow morning... very excited!

B