Sydney Central

The next day we got up at around 10:30 and headed into an organic coffee shop for breakfast.  The coffee was excellent (the norm in Australia) as was the salmon and ricotta omelette I had with it.

Holly was better still but was still having one or two problems with her eyesight, so we decided we'd make try and make the most of the day by going into central Sydney for some sightseeing and see how things went.

Marcus drove us to his local station and we took the train into Sydney.  Getting off at the harbour I was astonished at the scale of things.  The buildings, the harbour and the harbour bridge were all huge, making the opera house appear small in comparison.  It felt incredible being there and I immediately warmed to the city, bathed in beautiful sunshine.

After stopping for a drink by the opera house (and as Holly felt up to it) we decided to head out to Manly on the ferry.  I took a large number of photos from the deck of the boat and we finally reached Manly by mid-afternoon.

Manly is a seaside resort with lots of old victorian buildings.  It had shops, restaurants, coffee shops, pubs and bars many of which are scattered along the seafront.  After walking to Manly beach we stopped at Murray's restaurant for something to eat and to try out some of their delicious beers.

After a couple of hours we headed back to the boat and returned to the city centre.

On reaching shore we headed into the Rocks to have a look around, before going to the Australia Hotel (one of the oldest pubs in Sydney).  We stayed there for a bit and then took a cab to China Town to have dinner at a Japanese restaurant Holly and Marcus had been to before (which had a touch screen ordering system).  On being told there was a half an hour wait, Marcus led us to Darling Harbour to have a quick look before dinner.

We may have got a little carried away with the ordering system and we left the restaurant after a couple of hours, stuffed to the brim.  The food was great!

Tomorrow - to Melbourne!!

Destination Sydney!

We awoke up on the 28th at around 10:00 and packed for Sydney. Holly still had some vertigo but was clearly on the mend. Because of this, the decision was made not to go on a wine tour but to go directly to Wandin vineyards for lunch. Myself, Holly, Marcus would then head to Sydney, dropping Joss off en route at his mum's.

At around midday we all headed off to Wandin where we met up with Aggie and Eric (Aggie helped run the restaurant), a couple myself and Holly had first met only a few weeks into our relationship almost 4 years ago. They were as lovely as they were back then; both welcoming and in good spirits. We chatted and ate a great deal of delicious food until we were finally stopped in our tracks by the deep fried goats cheese (delicious but deadly!).  It was also great to see my first wild kangaroos and wild black cockatoos while we were there.

After saying our goodbyes and accepting a gift bottle of wine from Aggie, we headed off to Sydney.  It was a long drive in which I got a 2 hour talk from Joss about all things Minecraft (his favourite computer game).

Having dropped Joss off we headed back to Marcus's flat where we stayed up for a little bit until exhaustion kicked in.

Tomorrow - Sydney in a day!

Christmas with the in-laws

I stayed up late  to watch the Swansea v Man United game, which Man United should have won but ended up drawing 1-1.

Little did I know when I woke up late morning on Christmas Eve that I would be spending the whole of Christmas with my in-laws, interspersed with trips to see Holly at her sick bed. But sadly, that's the way things turned out. Because of this and the fact that most of the time was spent eating, drinking with a little bit of swimming thrown in I shall keep the 3 days of Christmas brief and all on the same post. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy Christmas. Holly's family are lovely and we really did the best to make the most of a bad situation. It just wasn't the same without Holly.

Holly had really bad sun/heatstroke. She was badly burnt, dehydrated, was sick and had vertigo. I spent much of christmas eve, christmas day and boxing day checking up on her, providing her with water, food, moisturiser, aloe vera and helping getting her to the toilet.

On Christmas Eve it was sunny so myself and the in-laws got to make use of the pool. Joss and Marcus arrived back at the house on Christmas Eve at around 8:00 in the evening. The dinner was delicious.

We got up on Christmas Day and I helped Holly into the lounge, though she could hardly see. We handed out presents to each other around the Christmas tree. I received a stubby holder of Australia, a beach towel and a Newcastle Jets football top (thanks in-laws :-)). Holly started feeling sick, so we headed back to the bedroom, via the toilet.

Leaving her to sleep, the rest of us went to the patio to have our Christmas day breakfast of fruit salad, bacon, eggs, croissants, danish pastries and champagne by the pool. The food and drink were delicious but sadly the weather was terrible and would stay so all day, with rain pouring down. We were confined to the covered area of the patio.

Apart from helping Holly we spent much of the day chatting around the table and by the evening we were ready for our Christmas dinner. Yet again the meal was delicious. We finished the evening with a fortified wine before heading to bed.

I loved spending a few little happy moments with Holly throughout the day, relaying some of the conversations we'd had at the table and pulling a cracker with her after dinner.

I spent more of Boxing day by Holly's bed side as she was feeling a bit better.  The weather was horrible again so we again spent some time around the covered area of the patio.  I stayed up for my last late night football match.  It was a fantastic match between Man United and Newcastle which Man United won 4-3, scoring in the last couple of minutes.

Tomorrow...Wandin.

Heatstroke and a BBQ

I stayed up late to watch some premier league football early on Sunday morning. It was great to have the option to view all of the premier league matches. I ended up solely watching the cricket as the Twenty20 match between England and India was engrossing, England finally winning with a 6 (Morgan) off the final ball.

When I eventually got up on Sunday me, Holly and Kimberley spend quite a large amount of time by the pool. Holly decided against getting in and swimming, sitting in the sun for an hour or two. Little did we know then that it would come back to haunt us.

After half an hour or so Sasha came round. It was good to see her again and she joined us in the pool for a swim...after an hour or two we said our goodbyes and she left.

In the evening myself and Holly were picked up by Leesa and we headed round to her house in Newcastle for a BBQ. We had a great time meeting her boyfriend Chris, her mum, Yvette, her boyfriend Matt and their lovely kid Aiden. Yet again we were well fed and we watched as they all opened their Christmas presents to each other. At around 11:00 we said our goodbyes and headed back to Fennell Bay in a taxi.

Marie, Susan and Kent

On Friday morning we headed out mid-morning to see Marie (Holly and Kimberley's old guitar teacher). She couldn't have been more welcoming and lovely. At the age of 75 she seemed amazingly fit and healthy. She hardly sat still the whole time we were there, fussing over us and ensuring we all had enough food and drink. Her husband Barry was equally endearing, cracking jokes every few minutes (quite a few at the pom's expense). It was great to see how switched on he was at over 80 and how much life he had left in him. We sat down to lunch and were served up spag bol with bread and butter. Marie's son Steve was also there as well as his filipino wife and kid. The experience was one of my favourite of the trip so far.

We said goodbye mid-afternoon and headed into The Dockyard, a bar along Newcastle foreshore, where we met up with Susan and Kent. It was great to finally meet them both. After a couple hours of chatting we parted ways and headed back to Fennell Bay.

On getting back I had another dip in the pool to cool off.

We had ham salad for dinner and I decided to stay up late and watch the early morning football and cricket on Fox...I was amazed that they had all the premier league games on (the only downside being that it started at 2am). Fortunately England won the Twenty20 cricket against India with a 6 off the last ball. Glorious! :-). Lie in tomorrow!!

Ray of Sunshine

Kimberley turned up at lunch time the following day, midway through my blog catch up. The weather was hot but overcast and there was a storm threatening. By early afternoon I was keen for a swim again, so I headed down to the pool to clear it out as there had been high winds overnight. Kimberley and Jill came down to join me for a short swim.

In the evening we all headed out to Ray's (Kimberley's friend) house for a bbq. Kim was kind enough to drive. Ray was lovely, as was his wife Niki. He has a passion for VW cars and has a huge collection of model cars along with 4 different full size VW cars.

We had a great time and particularly enjoyed Ray's Keytar, which had a demo track of Last Christmas and a wah wah distorter. Meanwhile, the filipino girls at the party were having fun with the karaoke machine. We had plenty of delicious food to eat and left the party soon after 10 to go and pick Garry and Jill up from a meal they were having with friends.

A Day to Ourselves

The previous evening myself and Holly had decided to have some time to ourselves. We were looking forward to spending some time in Toronto, at the Yacht Club overlooking Lake Macquarie.

I spent much of the morning trying to catch up on my blog, which i'd let slip a bit. After lunch myself and Holly were hot enough for us both to decide to have a swim in the pool. It was great to get in there and swim a few lengths.

By the time mid afternoon came round we were ready to go to Toronto. We had a Gelato in the Queen of Tarts before spending a bit of time by the lake in the shade. We then walked to the Yacht Club (via the old victorian station), were we spent a couple of hours before dinner having some drinks while overlooking the lake.

I tried to book a seat in the Yacht Club restaurant but was told that they were fully booked for the evening. Instead we decided to try a nearby restaurant called Hughzies. It was beautiful food but very expensive, particularly when we added a beautiful hunter valley wine (made using old vines) to the bill. The entree was big enough to be a main, so we struggled to finish the main course. Will definitely be bearing that in mind for the future.

Finally, we headed back to the house on foot, stopping to admire the beautiful sunset on the way.