FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: October 2010

Monday, 18 October 2010

Art & About

We appear to be unable to stop ourselves being super busy. After a fabulous night of gaming on Saturday. We celebrated a dear friend's Birthday at lunchtime yesterday. Sue Lynn, if you are reading, I apologize for you having to cook your own birthday lunch. If its any consolation, it was really delicious! I really regretted not bringing my camera as there were many little cuties there at lunch. Little cuties grow up all too quickly!

An afternoon nap was in order for the whole family. We then went into the City for the night noodle market. Alas, we had the dates wrong and it was not on over the weekend. We were instead greeted by statues being dressed in weird and wonderful clothing. Apparently, it is a Clover Moore thing...

We walked towards George St to hunt for food. As we were psyched for noodles, western food was just not going to cut it. We discovered Chef's Gallery, a chinese restaurant which had only opened recently. It was quite funky inside. The waitresses were friendly and polite. What?!?!?! Impossible! Polite chinese waitresses? They haven't however, forgotten their good business sense. The food came quickly. The food wasn't too bad. The highlight though were the desserts. They looked beautiful! The children were really excited when their dessert buns came out until they bit into it and found sesame seeds. Mummy then got to eat the rest. Mmmm!

Waiting for our table

Waiting for our food

The food came

The chef's gallery

Chilli cucumber

Pumpkin dessert

Little piggy buns

Monday, 11 October 2010

The End of The Holidays

Today is the last day of the holidays. Being the good mother that I am, I forgot yet again that staff development day in Term 4 is at the end of the term and not the beginning of the term. This meant that the children were supposed to be at school today. Ooops!

Oh well, luckily we had the house until 5pm so we could make full use of the day. After a late breakfast, we headed for North Avoca but wound up at Heaven Beach instead. We explored the many paths, lookouts and rockpools before having lunch at a little cafe overlooking the Ocean. The food was delicious!

My chilli baby octopus with goat's cheese salad

We headed back for a nap, and began the packing to go home. It was time to head home. Traffic was surprisingly non-existent until we reached Sydney. We indulged ourselves with some McDonald's before returning to reality. Sigh, back to work tomorrow.

Sunday, 10 October 2010

At the Copa...Copacabana

This weekend, we thought we'd utilize Malcolm's two days off during the school holidays to relax with the children. We found a lovely beach front home at Copacabana. We left nice and early on Friday morning and stopped enroute at Avoca Beach before going to Terrigal for a lunch of pies. After some ice-cream on the beach, we headed for Copacabana to get ourselves settled in for the next 4 days. We were greeted by the most amazing view from deck of our temporary home.

The view from the deck

The house exceeded our expectations. The living are was huge! There was foxtel and there was free internet. What more can a girl ask for? One had important Disney business to attend to at 3pm on Friday. Excursions and dining at PALO are open for reservation for silver castaway members (that's us!). I had better stake my claim before other equally crazy Disney lunatic take up my spots. I was able to book PALO and excursions fairly quickly but was stalled in my attempts to book nursery slots for Jonah and Samuel. Despite multiple emails to DCL, I am still left with a further 19.5 hours to use up. It shall have to wait until my return to Sydney.

The living area

Watching the children play on the beach from the deck

The private path down to the beach

The house viwed from the beach

The deck leading down to the garden

I consoled myself by joining the rest of the family on the beach. The children had a fabulous time entertaining themselves within a "hole" on the sand. We wondered along the beach to the local take-away shop for dinner. The burger with the lot was awesome and the old battered sav made a comeback! We ambled back along the beach back home and de-sanded for bed. We finally initiated Lanella into the world of gaming, ending the night with a couple of games of Puerto Rico.

Jonah trying to push his sister "in-nah-hole"

Success!

Playing on a near deserted beach

Climbing out of the hole

We awoke on the Saturday to a rather bleak and dreary day. We decided to go ahead with our plan to go the Entrance to see the Pelican feeding. Unfortunately, our memory served us poorly. There was no feeding at 11am. The only feeding time is at 3pm which is too late. Lunch was at a little cafe where we found some food that was not deep fried. John Dory with lemon butter sauce...yummy! Disappointment over the pelican feeding was offset by an encounter with a certain bird. The bird theme continued when we got home with a resident kookaburra making itself comfortable on our deck.

Enjoying the view

The pelican just wandering around the shops...

We were joined in the afternoon by Malcolm's parents much to the delight of the children. They had brought along Elliot's tadpoles that they were babysitting while we were at Berry the previous weekend. Nana had also boiled some lettuce and froze them so the little tadpoles will have food. Hmm...I am not sure that my dedication as a mother would go that far. I kept hoping that the kookaburra would eat the little things so that I don't have to carry tadpoles home.

Grandpa was a hit for bringing along beach rods. After watching the start of the second test match against India, an afternoon fishing expedition was in order. A man kindly pulled up some beach worms for bait, unfortunately, no fish were caught. Dinner was a social affair with friends who also happened to be in the area. Ribs and steak BBQ with asparagus and salad made a great meal. It was nice to catch up with Sharon, Paul and little Trinity. Auntie Su made a great cheesecake to cap off another great day!

Heading down for some fishing

Lara, patiently "flapping" away continually so her mother could get a photo of "motion blur"

Showing off her funky hair do

Sunday was another relaxing day. More beach sessions, naps, fishing and cricket. I also managed to get some time to google map all the attractions in New York in an attempt to choose which ones to visit. Dinner was another BBQ, this time with seafood. It will be tough having to face reality tomorrow, the only consolation will be that we don't have to leave the house until 5pm...

Monday, 4 October 2010

A Berry Good End

The weekend was filled with rain which meant that we just had to remain indoors. I guess more boardgames were in order. There was a brief moment of panic when we thought we lost Jonah. The adults were sure that we didn't see him leave the house. Then the Loks spotted a bit of brown sticking out from the red bean bag in front of the TV. And there the little tike was, so engrossed in the DVD that he didn't hear his name being yelled out repeatedly nor did he notice his mother running around the house like a headless chook.

What is that?!?!

Just Jonah...

The covered "outdoor" verandah turned out to be another huge blessing. The area was so large that the children could happily play without being cooped up indoors. The dress-up box was a big hit with the girls. We also found a cupboard full of toys!

Painting in beautiful surroudings

Jonah enjoying the verandah

Despite much fun and merriment, the games weekend, unfortunately had to come to an end. We were joined by our dear friends in Canada for the closing ceremony. And the results were a surprise to all. Tied in first place, were Ethel and Shirley, closely followed by Jason. I came a respectable fourth ahead of Malcolm. Sigh...it appears that we will just have to make another assault next year!