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

Grace's Massage

By chance, as well as Oli, Grace also bought me a massage for my birthday - can't complain! We hadn't found time to go together yet, but eventually we were both free on Tuesday and met at Circular Quay and caught the ferry across the harbour to Neutral Bay. Seeing as we live in the Eastern Suburbs below in Sydney, we hardly spend any time in the Northern Beaches, so it was nice to go on a little adventure.

We went to this lovely little place called Thai Waya and had the most relaxing full body thai massage. It was very different to the one I had on my spa day, as at Park Hyatt they used a lot more oil etc. and this massage was more about working out the knots and all our stress from exams (well, Grace's stress.... I'm not feeling particularly stressed at the moment!). They properly climbed all over us and even used their knees to massage us! Kinda bizarre but actually amazing. I'm going to have to be careful not to get too used to weekly massages...!

Afterwards we stopped by a bar right next door called Cactus Blue and decided we would just have 'one drink' before we caught the ferry back. Several drinks and a free birthday-shot of absinthe on the house (!? and also bleugh) from the barman later, we finally left. We should have seen that coming.... look at the size of our wine glasses buckets.....!

The ferry ride home back into Circular Quay was amazing. Its nice to get out on the water sometimes and properly take in the Opera House and the bridge from a different perspective. The city is always so impressive at night.

Thank you Gracie for a lovely girly evening! Loving the fact that I've somehow managed to drag my birthday out for a good three weeks....

B

Surprise Spa Day

So the other day, Goose suddenly dropped into conversation that we were 'busy' on Thursday afternoon and that I had to keep from 1pm onwards free. After Oli saying that 'his present wasn't arriving in the post' I put two and two together and knew that they were up to something.... Both furiously denied it but I was awfully suspicious and was very nervous about whatever adventure they had planned for me. Worried to the point where I was more scared about 1pm coming around that the exam I had at 12pm. 

Finally, I met Goose and she shoved me in a taxi and whisked me away into the city for a.... SPA DAY! I was correct in my suspicious of her and Oli sneaky-skeakying behind my back and this whole afternoon, all the treatments and everything for both of us, was a prezzie from Oli. 

On the way she read me out a confirmation email about what pampering we were going to receive and we arrived 20mins later at Park Hyatt Hotel Spa in The Rocks just on the western side of Sydney Harbour. We were chaperoned from our taxi into the hotel and directed upstairs to the spa - Goose even took the lift! Up there we were greeted by a lovely woman who told us that we were receiving an hour full body massage and an hour facial. HOUR FULL BODY MASSAGE!? Genuinely the best news I've ever heard. 

She then gave us some locker wristband things and showed us to the changing rooms and told us we could go and relax in their rooftop pool for half an hour. We changed into our bikinis and snuggled into those amazing fluffy white dressing gowns thats spas have, and headed up to the pool, where we were greeted with the most incredible view and two glasses of champagne!

Thats a 'two-one' I'm doing, not a 'fuck-off'

We had a little swim and then headed down to our spa room for our massage and facial. The two hours flew by and we both went into some kind of trance state and then all too soon we were left alone to get changed and go back to the real world. 

We delayed the reality check a little by venturing back up to the pool and lounging in our robes for a bit, enjoying the view and singing Oli's praises, but then eventually said a HUGE thank you to the staff and stumbled back to normal life. We wandered around the harbour and The Rocks for a while and found this little beauty....

I WANT ONE! I'm going to move to Sydney and drive it back and forth from my house to the spa and back again.

What a lovely spoiley surprise day! Oliver, congratulations, you done good boy, and how nice that Goosey and I could enjoy it together. An enormous thank you from both of us. I don't know why I was so worried.... silly me.

B

Sydney Running Festival

The city was in chaos today as it was the Sydney Running Festival and there were people running EVERYWHERE. There's an organized 10km run, half marathon and marathon and they all end at Sydney Opera House. My bar is in prime location as all the runners run past on their home straight! Getting to work was a right pain though because all the buses stopped on Elizabeth Street and I had to talk down to Circular Quay, darting across the running routes and dodging speedy runners.

Coming down into the harbour

Home straight!

400m to go

Looking out from my bar towards the last leg of the race along the Quay

When I got to Searock it was dead as everyone was being very conservative as it was 10 o'clock in the morning, however things soon picked up a bit as everyone wanted to celebrate and have a drink. Endless runners came in with their medals, looking very pleased with themselves. I happened to notice that most of them were only the 10km runners though... perhaps the half and full marathon runners take their sport more seriously! Anyhow, it was fun to join in with the celebrations and the atmosphere down in the harbour was amazing.

Tally also dropped by for some drinks and I managed to wangle her some oysters for a quarter of the price they usually are! She's celebrating her last week in Sydney as she leaves on Saturday and so she's benefiting from the perks of having a friend who works in a bar...! 

Going to be so sad to see her go but I'm not jealous of her returning to the British winter...

B

Harbour Bridge Walk

Today a few of us decided to head out and explore a little. Jack, Stan, Kellie, Meaghan, Adam and I caught a ferry across from Circular Quay to Milson's Point, and planned to walk back across the Harbour Bridge.

The views from the ferry were amazing. I've done it once before at night, but it was great to see it all again in the day.

The journey was really quick as Milson's Point is just across the harbour. When we arrived, we had a quick wander around the famous Luna Park, which is all a bit weird and very dated. Felt like the set from a strange thriller or something.... Apparently, even though the rides aren't very good, it's quite fun at night, so we may come back.

Next we headed off to walk up over the bridge. The views from there were amazing too, and we could see people above us who were doing the Harbour Bridge Climb - I would love to do it, but it costs $200!

Once we were over the other side we took a stroll through The Rocks Markets, where lots of amazing jewellery and trinkets are sold from tiny little boutique stalls. There was one man selling pendants and bracelets made from the inner parts from old watches. There were so beautiful, I may have to invest in one at some point....

We spotted some food stalls and I bought a butternut squash, feta, spinach and pesto wrap for lunch which was delicious. A $10 lunch out here is pretty cheap... I still can't get used to the prices out here though.

The markets were really nice, and thankfully not too busy. None of that awful hassling going on either, where people grab you and drag you into their stall. I bought a small silver ring and a birthday present for Hannah (Moo, if you're reading this, I hope you're impressed with my planning ahead!)

Once we were back down in the harbour again, we got distracted by this crazy contortionist woman...

She was very weird.... her big finale was climbing into this tiny little glass box which was up on stilts. She calls herself "Bendy Em" and well yeah... she was pretty bendy! She's apparently the only contortionist who does it live on the street. Pretty impressive... but still, very strange.

After that, we headed over to the Opera Bar on the east of the harbour to enjoy a drink in the sun before it set. Kellie lives in New York and obviously she still can't drink because their drinking age is 21 out there, so she still finds it a total novelty to order a drink at a bar! She doesn't even know what her favourite drink is... crazy!

Despite it still being Winter, and far from peak season, the bar was still buzzing and full of people enjoying the weather. I think I'm going to apply for a job down here on the waterfront as I really like the atmosphere and they pay well! $20 an hour during the week, and more at the weekend. So good!

Tonight we're heading out to Chinese Laundry, which is a famous electronic dance club in Darling Harbour, so I'll post about that tomorrow.

Here's a little snap of me being a tourist...

Tada!

B