Family Lunch

Light fittings. Very cool.. @ Manly Phoenix where we went for a family yum cha on Sunday.
Ok..so the trolley girl was far better @ dispensing dumplings and dim sum, than at holding a camera still, but here- just a little blurry - we are:


What have you got there?

You're not REALLY going to put that all in your mouth at once????..

Yes I believe you are:

Mind you - it was a very very good lunch and has earned a firm spot on the places to revisit list.

Crescent Moon

Delights of Parramatta

Louise and I took a mid week excursion to Parramatta. ( Parramatta is a suburb of Sydney about 20 kilometres west of the CBD). We went by river cat, hence making the voyage in the same manner as Governor Arthur Phillip in the late 1700's. (our boat was possibly faster though).

Parramatta is taken from the word "Burramutta" which the local indigenous people used for the area and means "place where eels lie down". - Hahaha I wonder if the local footy team (the eels) knew about the lying down bit, when they named their team!

Parramatta was settled in 1788 when Governor Phillip organised the building of a country home for himself (Old Government House - which is now Australia's oldest building).(Interestingly, the only reason the house still stands today, is that it was leased from the government by The Kings School ( Australia's oldest and poshest boy's boarding school)from 1900 -1969 who renovated and maintained it - otherwise the building would have fallen derelict and been demolished which would have been a sad state of affairs for our national heritage.
Parramatta is also the place where Australia's first farms were established. We visited the fledgling Heritage Centre, where I was amused to see the Australian Government was as renowned for it's shoddy work in 1790 as it is today! Today, Parramatta is known for the Eels and for being the capital of Greater Western Sydney and a major satellite business district...
So I was quite interested to go there (never having been before).. My impressions ..the business district is smaller, drearier, quieter and less thriving than I had expected. BUT the gentrified Parramatta Park and Parramatta river walk were a delight:)

We enjoyed a lovely stroll on the path beside the river on which there is an entertaining visual representation of the history of Australia's settlement set in the pathway, then lunched here beside the river.

After lunch, we continued on our tour of the park, past the Boer War monument before taking a very, very long-winded and historically ambiguous tour of Old Government House conducted by two separate individuals (one for downstairs, one for upstairs) who managed to contradict each other's history lesson and thus rendered the whole exercise fruitless as far as I was concerned. If you're going to give out guided tours of historical sites, then it would be good to at least align one's facts!! - yes I'm pedantic about these things...
and... beefeaters would never stand for shoddy vague history lessons).

After our Government House tour, we coffeed @ Westfield (very tired and run down - the building - not us!!) , then returned to Sydney by train. - a most entertaining and illuminating day's outing!

Flying Trip to Brissie

We haven't been to a party in Brisbane in about 30 years, so it was an amazing coincidence to be invited to 2 separate parties in Brissie on the one night. We decided the easiest thing to do would be to split by our family loyalties, so Barry attended Lloyd's 60th, and I attended Rhys's 18th. We split our flight arrangements too.. he flying on Virgin, me and my tray of rocky road on Qantas. I felt like the Royal Family!
It was great night for Rhys. He enjoyed his party and I'm sure absolutely knew that he was the star attraction:)
He spent most of it outside wandering up and down smiling happily. The pizza was a huge hit.. a piece in each hand guaranteed to make a boy happy and he smiled like a champ when we sang Happy Birthday.. I was so pleased he had a happy day, for him and especially for Ros and Tony.


About 60 family and friends were there to celebrate with him. It was exciting for me to catch up with both my sisters and my nephews and niece ,some of whom I hadn't seen for a few years.
and my how they'd grown!! Gorgeous kids all!!


This last pic is for Josh,(looking a little uncertain above) who took a litlle while to warm up to the batty lady with the camera, but came good in the end!!:)

We kicked on at the after party back at Ros's..this last pic was taken long after bedtime at the end off a happy day:)

Dinner with Tim and Millie

It's an extremely gratifying thing to watch one's children grow into adulthood. We were invited to dinner @ Tim and Millie's on Tuesday night. It felt like a milestone to me. They have organised their unit into a beautiful home -(it is indeed a castle!) and entertained us with a beautiful meal. We are so proud of you Tim and Millie:)

Domestic God and Goddess in action.

Coincidentally, with NO consultation(and no previous knowledge of the household decor), Megan arrived coordinating with both Tim and the couch!!.. All 3 are beautiful:)( but who knew black and white checks were so in!!????)

Saturday -An Auction, Lunch and a Walk around Manly

We started the day with a spot of househunting. We found a house we LOVED complete with 1960's kitchen and bathroom. It was due to go to auction half an hour later, so we hung around out of curiousity to see what it would fetch. About 40 people turned up at the auction - obviously mostly neighbours having a sticky. There were 2 competing bidding parties -both young couples in their mid thirties. Bidding opened at 1,400,000 and in five minutes the gavel fell at 1,540,000. The winning bidders were a nice young couple with a young baby ..it'll make a lovely home for them and I'm a teeny bit jealous:).... .


We then ventured down to Manly and walked around to Shelley Beach to work up an appetite for this. mmm Spanish omelette @ Bench..so good - go there .

To walk off the excesses of melting cheese on the Spanish omelette, we decided to walk around North Head. The walk from the road outside the hospital, up to the head and back clocks in at 6 k's . flat and easy..a great little walk although mainly along a boring road.. fabulous views at the end though.