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Sunday, May 1, 2011

Easterssss

Our Easter was pretty low-key, but nice nonetheless. Dave's sister Kathryn came up from Brisbane and we all went to see their grandparents, Mama in the home and Pa in the hospital. We had a delicious lunch at Sakon Thai in Golden Beach. I got a giant kinder egg!!!





With a giant surprise in it!!

Road trippin'

Now that we are up-to-date, I'm going to write about our recent trip to Sydney.
As we are going away soon, We wanted to visit with the family down in Sydney since we won't be back for a while. Dave's cousin Keanen was getting married so it was a perfect opportunity to see not only the Galea side but the Wood side too!
We stayed with Auntie Carmen and Uncle Karmenu. They are such lovely people, we truly enjoyed staying with them.
We drove down on friday April 1st. It's a 13 hour drive, so we left quite early in the morning. Dave and I have a lot of fun together on long car rides, so time went by fairly quickly. We stopped at Big Banana for lunch, only to find out that their kitchen shuts at 2pm! Which was not good, considering it was 2:15 when we got there...Dave had a banana smoothie, and I just got a Big Banana Magnet to add to my collection.


This is something you should know about me. Wherever I go, instead of getting some trinket that will collect dust ( I HATE dusting), I figure a magnet is less expensive, and takes up less space in your luggage and house, so I collect magnets from the places I visit. =]

We ended up driving a little further to Coffs Harbour and had a kebab for lunch. I saw a sign for a pet porpoise pool! I love animals, so I obviously wanted to go, but we were kind of pressed for time, so We decided to leave it for another time. I also saw a sign for Timbertown on the drive down, which is another thing I'd like to do next time we drive down. We alternated driving every 3 hours or so, so we could have a rest every once in a while, which was also quite nice. We made it to Sydney around 9:30pm.

Saturday, we went to Hell on Wheels BMX Jam in Five Dock, which was so cool to see. Hundreds of riders just hanging out and riding. Also, Death Bowl was entertaining, especially when a sausage entered the mix. We got to hang out with a friend of ours who moved down to Central Coast last year, Mick the Lion. It was nice to see him!



That night we met up with Tobi, with MTL in tow. We went to a show which I thoroughly enjoyed until a Creed cover band played, which was our cue to exit. We had what was probably the best Kebab I've ever had in my life.
Tobi is such a good dude, as well as Andres and the 2 Joes. That group is so much fun to hang out with!

Sunday we hung out at the house, and we finally got to meet Dave's cousin Pauline's little angel, Liora. She is such a happy baby, I really enjoyed spending the afternoon playing with her! (Pauline or Janey, do you have the photos from this day?) We also got to enjoy the Swarm of Rainbow Lorikeets that come have a feed 3 times a day in the backyard. =]



We went to sushi for dinner that night with Tobi and his cousin (whose name I can't remember at the moment...). We went to that sushi place the first time we to Sydney together. It was delicious as usual, aside from the fact that they ran out of tuna so Salmon was the only option. I love Salmon so it wasn't a total downer. Of course, We scarfed it. Yum!!!

"Salmon"



Monday, we went into the city via train to apply for our visas for China. It was not easy, because even though I checked their online checklist of items we needed to bring, they wanted another paper from me. Thank goodness I had it in my emails, it was just a lot of work to find a computer AND printer place. We finally got it, and stopped by the french consulate so I could pick up my Baccalaureat Diploma ( I've been waiting for it for 7 years!!!!!), it was really an exciting event.



We also did a little shopping ( sorry, honey!) at my favourite shop, Dangerfield. The music is good in there, the vibe, and the clothes are awesome. I got 2 dresses and a cardigan! I've decided I need to stock up on cardigans, because since I will eventually be a teacher, I'm going to need to hide my tattoos on my arms...Anyway, the day wasn't a total bust for Dave, he found a Smiths Tank that he liked.
We went to have a look at Circular Quay, there was a huge cruise ship docked, something I haven't seen in person ( strange, I know). It was dusk, so the bats ( "flying foxes") were waking up and flying around. It was pretty cool to see, although I was crossing my fingers that none of them pooped on me. No accidents, though, thank goodness!

The next night, we met up with Tobias and one of the Joes to have a few drinks and dinner at this totally rad bar/restaurant called the Cricketer's Arms.


The decor was pretty cool, and the dudes running the bar were wearing very interesting outfits ( The chef was wearing a mustache print shirt, so cool). It was "love song tuesday" and they were nice enough to let me pick a few songs on their Ipod. I picked Wing's "Silly Love Songs"and I had had a few drinks, but I'm pretty sure I picked some Stevie Nicks, too. For some very strange reason, I got sick. I think it was the chicken, because 5 beers never gets me sick, ever. And, later in the week, I got sick AGAIN after having chicken, and this time there was 100% NO Alcohol involved.
Thursday we spent visiting Dave's maternal Grandparents after we picked up our passports from the Chinese Embassy. I really love Nanna and Nannu. We also has dinner at Dave's great Aunt Joyce's, with Dave's parents who arrived that day and Dave's Uncle Reno. The food was delicious! Home-made roasted almonds are just SO good. Aunty Joyce has a really lovely garden.

Friday was Keanen's Wedding to his lovely Finnish Bride, Jenni. It was a simple but elegant ceremony, followed by a Reception at The Sebel hotel in Parramatta. We had some good laughs, really yummy food, and took a few photos.


The next night, we had dinner with the whole Galea side of the family ( bar a few cousins that couldn't make it) at this whole in the wall Italian restaurant in a shopping mall. It was pretty yummy, but I felt sick after...We also had dessert at this amazing Chocolaterie, where I had a fantabulous Banana Nutella Crepe with Dave. It was really lovely seeing so much of the family together at once.

The following day, we started our drive back home to Queensland.
We stopped by this amazing Honey place, which happened to have shut about 15 minutes before we got there, which was unfortunate. But, I did manage to get a photo in front of their Beehive entrance!

We stopped for the night at Angourie Rainforest Resort, which was SO lovely! I didn't realise they were actually apartments, so if we stay there again we'll have to bring our own food, because their restaurant was a bit pricy. We did enjoy the Salmon on a Bed of Lentils, though.
The beautiful balcony!





The next morning, we tried to enjoy the pool, but it wasn't heated and wayyyyy too cold.
Yes, we do still find this funny.


So, we decided to go for a walk in their rainforest walk, which started out so romantic and lovely, but about 50 feet in Dave was being eaten alive by mosquitoes, so we proceeded to start running out of there, but to our detriment, the mud was holding us up....A LOT. we were ankle deep in mud for the rest of the walk/run. Good thing there was a tap at the end where we could rinse our feet off!

We drove home and started our countdown to easter weekend, then a countdown to our trip to China and Europe!!!