AFL, Christmas in July and a bush walk!

So I haven't posted for a while; unfortunately Steve's grandma passed away 10 days or so after we arrived so the last week has been spent up in the Blue Mountains attending the funeral and helping out wherever we could. 

We are now back in the Northern Beaches and are trying to get into some sort of routine. Steve is looking for work and I can't wait until he does so we can start to look for our own place to rent.

I attended my first AFL (Aussie Rules football) game last week. Notice I don't say match anymore; it is a game, NOT a match. It was fun to start with, but I don't think I'll get used to the length of it - the game lasts over 2 1/2 hours. Luckily I was with a couple of other girls, so we drank wine and gossiped most of the day, much to the annoyance of our other halves sat in front of us. Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) was great though; easy to get food (important) and wine (even more important). 

The old part of the SCG.

One of the stands was being demolished though and they were only part way through. Check out the crane holding up the big screen in the below picture!

I have also experienced my first 'Yulefest' or 'Christmas in July'. It is absolutely FREEZING up in the Blue Mountains at the moment, so it's the perfect time to have Christmas dinner! Steve's Dad booked us tickets for just that at the local golf club and we had a hysterical evening last Saturday with friends and family. My favourite part of the evening though had to be the Kath & Kim impersonators who were brilliant. And that was before someone (we don't know who yet) set Steve up and he was half-dragged onto the stage by Sharon and Kim. I don't think I have ever seen him look so embarrassed. But it made my night... If you are ever in Oz during Winter, make sure you attend 'Christmas in July' wherever you are. Who wouldn't want to celebrate Christmas twice in a year?! And you don't need to go to the trouble of buying presents or posting cards. Result.

After eating a massive Christmas dinner the night before, we had to go for a bush walk the next day. There was not a cloud in the sky and we had a beautiful walk down to Wentworth Falls.

The beautiful Blue Mountains.

Standing at the top of the Falls.

So it is now on with the job search for Steve, and I will be attending a few open houses over the next few weeks to see how far our money will go (not far I imagine). Will keep you updated...

Seven days in: cars, golf and...sunshine!

Well we have arrived! Actually we arrived a week ago, but jet lag has severely claimed both of us despite getting bumped up to Business Class for both legs and managing to sleep for a massive nine hours in total! This is huge as I normally only get about four or five hours sleep on the journey to Oz. Business Class was something else; I'm not sure I'd pay for it (a whopping £5000 each) but to get it for free (well, the cost of two premium economy seats) was amazing. The best thing is having a double bed when both seats are lying flat and having the privacy from screens so it almost feels like you're in your own private room. We stopped off at Singapore for an hour (photos below) and arrived in Sydney at 5am last Thursday.

Steamy in Singapore.

Not looking TOO bad after 13 hours on the plane.

So here we are. We haven't done too much in the last week - waking up at 5am and falling asleep at 3pm and again at 8pm has put a stop to most things. But the weather has been fantastic. I don't think I've ever seen the Mountains so sunny the last few times I've stayed here. By Mountains I mean the Blue Mountains, which are about 100km west of Sydney. It is absolutely freezing (we are about 950m above sea level), but the sun has now been shining for seven days straight. Coming from the UK after such a washout of a summer, this has been a welcome change.

We have managed to get one thing done though - buy a car. This was a bit of an adventure yesterday as we set off for the ominous-sounding 'Car City'. Our brief was a medium-sized car (it's a struggle to find a small car round here!) that would last us about 12 months without breaking down, with a budget of $7000. Sounds simple? Not at all. Car City has hundreds of cars but we only found about three that we actually liked and that we could afford. Cars here are not cheap, and having been brought up on European cars (particularly German ones) I was finding it difficult to consider Holdens, Fords and Hondas. In an ideal world I wanted a 4x4, but those in our budget were pretty scruffy and needed a bit of work. We will hopefully get a newer one next year when we have both been working for a few months. The other half finally convinced me to look at a Holden Commodore which was at a good price and was in surprisingly good condition for its nine years on the road. I took it for a test drive and it drove just like our Audi A4 which was nice and familiar. So we are now the proud owners of a good old Aussie Commodore.

Apart from that, I had my first experience of a golf course this week as I drove around on a cart with my father-in-law while my husband played 18 holes. It was fun to start with, but three hours of watching Steve line up a golf ball, look at it for ages, sigh and then move it again, got pretty tedious. I think it will remain as something he can go off and do on his own or with his Dad/cousin/uncle, while I amuse myself with something I am interested in!

So that's about all our news from our first week down under. We're off to Sydney tomorrow which I'm really looking forward to, as we'll be catching up with other members of Steve's family and some friends too. And it's a lot warmer down there! I also have my first AFL (Aussie Rules football) experience on Sunday so I'll be blogging about that next week. 

D-day

This is just a quick post as we are about to set off for Heathrow. In typical fashion, the motorway gods have decided to close the motorway to Heathrow so fingers crossed we make our flight in time. It has been a week of mixed emotions; sometimes excitement, but more often there have been tears as we have said farewell to some dear friends and family. The hardest goodbye of all is still to come at the airport though. So I will see you on the other side! When I can get to an internet connection I will blog about our arrival in Sydney and our first few days in the Blue Mountains. Farewell England and to all our fabulous friends and family. I will miss you all so much.

14 days to go: packing, cocktails and emotional farewells

That's 14 days until we leave the UK; there are only six days until we move out of our flat and leave London. The boxes for the shipping container left this morning - I really hope we see them again in Sydney, and with no breakages would be even better!

We treated ourselves last night to a bottle of champagne as we had finally finished packing the boxes and the sun was out! It's evenings like this I will miss about London and our flat - sitting in the lovely garden with a drink as the sun goes down.

('scuse the lack of make up!)

We've also been doing more rounds of saying farewell to people. I've been out with friends quite a bit recently and it was my last proper girls' night last week - lots of cocktails, yummy food and a bit of dancing in Camden which was perfect.

The Mr and I also had a leaving party for our London friends last weekend, which was pretty emotional but great fun. I knew saying goodbye to our friends would be difficult but didn't realise it would be quite so traumatic. This has made us realise how much our friends mean to us, and the big part they have played in our lives over the seven years we've been together.

The calm before the storm...

So now we just have our last few days in London to look forward to, including more dinners, drinks and golf (for Steve; I will hopefully be in the spa with my friend and her mum!).

Moving to Oz: 22 days to go...

Apologies AGAIN for my lack of blogging, but we've been rather busy booking flights, packing and beginning the long rounds of (emotional) goodbyes.

That's right, we've booked our flights. We leave the UK on 10th July - that is only 22 days away.

To compound this matter even further, we leave our flat (and London *sob*) in 14 days. If you were seated where I am right now, you wouldn't think we had to leave in two weeks. Everything in our kitchen looks like it always has done. Magnets still on the fridge, cookbooks and spices still on the shelf and the washing is going round and round in front of me. I think it still hasn't sunk it yet that I need to vacate this place in 14 days, and during this time I have various lunches, dinners, girls' nights and galleries to attend, so time is precious.

The boxes from the removal company were sent to us last week, and we spent most of Friday and all of Saturday cataloguing CDs, DVDs and books (actually I catalogued everything on a spreadsheet; I think I miss wedding planning!), and packing them. Our living room looks like a bomb has hit it - Exhibit A...

So I'm feeling slightly better that at least we've started in one room... I have a whole day free today which should be spent sorting out clothes, shoes and filing paperwork, but what am I doing? Blogging, spending hours on Twitter and Instagram, and catching up on my favourite blogs. I am taking procrastination to a whole new level...!

Now the plane tickets are booked and we're starting to say goodbye to some incredibly dear people, it has hit me that we are leaving London and the people that mean the most to us in the whole world (except those in Sydney of course!). I've found myself becoming quite sentimental about all things London when I'm walking around town, and my followers on Instagram and Twitter are probably getting bored of my pictures and ramblings about this beautiful city. I spent a fabulous day with my Auntie last week in town, having lunch, drinking too much wine and having a wander around Marylebone High Street.

The beautiful St Pancras Renaissance Hotel. You must go if you're in the Kings Cross area.

Jubilee decorations still up in Regent St. The patriotic side of me is still alive and kicking!

With my Auntie - fab day, with great company, lovely food and good wine (as you can probably see!).

So I think the next few weeks are going to be pretty traumatic and I'm not really looking forward to the goodbyes - I even got misty eyed at my last hairdressing appointment! But I have a lot to look forward to when we finally touch down in Sydney. We Skyped some of the family last week and it got me really excited just seeing how excited they are, and they have already booked us in to do lots of things - 30th birthday parties, AFL games, book clubs, gym sessions(??)...we are going to be pretty busy people in the first few weeks!

I will try and blog some more as we get nearer to our leaving date. At the moment I have a leaving party to plan for our London friends this Saturday, and various lunch and dinner dates with so many dear friends. I just know I'm going to be an emotional wreck at the end of these two weeks!

Friday picture post

I haven't done one of these for a while as I've been away on and off for the last few weeks, so here are some Instagram photos taken in May. As you will have noticed I've been pretty useless with the whole 'Photo a Day' concept...I didn't even last two days this month! So these are just some random pics not connected with Photo a Day May...or June!

  1. The other half pulling a pint at our friend's pub after a long absence. We met when we worked together in a pub about nine years ago, and both had a go at pulling a pint for old time's sake...

    2. The amazing Plaça Reial in Barcelona (see my blog post about our trip here). 

 3. My beautiful café con leche by the beach in Spain. 

 4. Drinks at our amazing hotel in Barcelona. 

 5. My first homemade iced coffee! 

 6. A chilled Saturday morning in the sun (the book, The Thread by Victoria Hislop is brilliant - a must-read if you loved her first two). 

7. The view from the apartment in Cannes where I went for a few days with my friend last week. 

8. A girls' holiday wouldn't be complete without a bottle of bubbles on the balcony! 

 9. A beautiful flower in our garden...thanks should be given to the amazing amount of rain we've had, but I think we've had enough now.

Looking back through these photos, I realise that many of them involve a drink of some kind - be it wine or coffee! Please don't judge - I have been on holiday this month! Have a great weekend.

Sydney...by Sydneysiders

We have recently booked our flights to Sydney (more about that later), so to balance out my recent post on what I want to do before I leave London, I thought I’d blog about what I've got to look forward to about life in Sydney. In fact I have asked three friends of mine, currently residing there, to let me know what they love about this city and its surroundings, and their favourite things to do. So this is Sydney, according to Sydneysiders...

Heather is my cousin-in-law and lives in the Northern Beaches.

• Running from Queenscliff to Shelly Beach as the sun is setting - you can't beat the fresh ocean air. 
• Having coffee at Pilu Café overlooking Freshwater Beach with my girlfriends. 
• Balmy summer nights out on the jetty at the Wharf Bar in Manly, watching the Sydney Ferry cross the harbour.
• Eating fresh seafood at the Fish Café, Manly.
• Drinks at the Opera Bar in Circular Quay, under the Opera House and with views to the Harbour Bridge.
• Taking part in the annual City-to-Surf fun run. The views and crowd atmosphere as you run through Bondi is amazing!
• Shopping in Paddington.

Opera Bar at the Sydney Opera House (image from Opera House website).

      Michelle emigrated to Sydney from the UK nearly four years ago with her Australian husband, and lives in Sydney's Inner West. She has a two-year-old daughter.

• Getting my fab skinny chai latte at Ashfield pool cafe after a swim with my daughter. It's the best chai latte in the Inner West!
• Going swimming at the outdoor pool at Cabarita at the start of summer...beautiful.
• Going for a swim on the beach on New Year's Day. It blows away the cobwebs...and the hangover!
• The outdoor playgroups that happen all year round are great. I'm pretty sure any mum will agree the fresh air tires the kids out more!
• I love going into the city early on a Sunday morning and driving over the Harbour Bridge on the way to a beach...it's breathtaking.
• Everyone seems to have embraced me and my family since we moved here. And everyone wants to talk and say hello...

Harbour Bridge (image from Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb)

     
 Teya is also my cousin-in-law and lives in the Northern Beaches.

• Going to any of the markets, including Bondi, Manly, Balmain, Rozelle, Kirribilli, Glebe, depending on what you're looking for.
• Catching the ferry from Manly to Circular Quay is the perfect way to get to the city. The fast ferry also serves booze, but the service is too quick to finish a piccolo of champagne!
• Going to any of the outdoor cinemas in the summer - I went to the one in the Botanic Gardens earlier this year.
• Canoeing or kayaking on Narrabeen Lakes or in Middle Harbour.
• Sculpture by the Sea from Bondi to Bronte.
• Eating yum cha in Chinatown.
• A pub crawl around the Rocks, including taking in the view from the Glenmore Rooftop Hotel.
• Playing two up on Anzac Day.
• Enjoying a hot Christmas Day and having seafood and cold cuts for lunch with a cold crisp glass of champagne or Sauvignon Blanc...or beer.
• Any restaurant that's BYO booze (I believe this is rare in the UK)!

Sculpture by the Sea in Bondi (image from website)

Do let me know if we have missed anything off this seemingly never-ending list of things to do and enjoy in Sydney, if you live there or if you have just visited.

Details

Pilu Restaurant,  Moore Road, Freshwater NSW 2096. www.piluatfreshwater.com.au

Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly Wharf, East Esplanade, Manly NSW 2095. www.manlywharfhotel.com.au

Manly Fish Café, 25 South Steyne, Manly, NSW 2095. www.fishcafe.com.au

Opera Bar, Sydney Opera House, Lower Concourse Level, Sydney, NSW 2000. www.operabar.com.au

Sydney Ferries www.sydneyferries.info 

Sculpture by the Sea www.sculpturebythesea.com

Rooftop Hotel, 96 Cumberland Street, The Rocks, Sydney, NSW 2000. www.glenmorerooftophotel.com.au (currently closed for renovation).