I arrived at Kingsford Smith Airport imagining the welcome scene from Love Actually. As usual it did not work out like that for me and Miss Morri. I spent an hour getting through security because they wanted to check my walking boots. I walked out of arrivals B, and Emma was waiting for me at arrivals A. After a few messages we managed to locate each other for the joyful reuniting, and wandered round the airport for 20 minutes so engrossed in conversation we kept missing the arrows for the metro.
We spent the next few days in Sydney which I love. It is a stark contrast from India, which is now very dear to my heart, but a very refreshing change to be somewhere so clean, and peaceful, and organised. We spent hours walking round the harbour admiring the Harbour Bridge, and the tiling of the Opera House. We sauntered through the botanical gardens, took a ferry to Manly, missed three ferries back because the gin and tonics were so delicious in the blazing sunshine.
We caught up with friends. Having Christmas Eve with friends of Emma from London. We had a lovely evening at Bondi beach drinking wine and for me eating beef for the first time in 3 months. That burger was amazing! Christmas in the sunshine was odd but lovely. With another day of wall to wall blue skies we took a bus out to Coogee and did a coastal walk round lots if the headlands through to Bondi again, which was packed with hundreds of people in bikinis, swimming shorts and Santa hats. We found one of a handful of open cafes and we’re warmly welcomed and tucked into a lunch of roasted pumpkin and halloumi salad, calamari and pinot grigio, perfect!
On Boxing day we checked out of our hotel to spend a few days with Sam, a friend we made at cookery school in Thailand 5 years ago, although when we tried to look for the photos of us together on the holiday non of us seem to have them so we did start to question if we really knew each other at all! We had a fabulous couple of days together, watching the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, my boat dropped out, Emma we’re not sure what happened and Samos won....she claimed she had no information when we were randomly picking them based on whether we liked the sales or not, but I think she might have been lying. We climbed one of the pylons of the Harbour Bridge for some amazing views, walked through the markets at the The Rocks, went to Sydney’s oldest pub, but went in the bar next door for a drink because it was less busy, but mostly we had an amazing time making cocktails.
The finest creation saw Sams new Nutri-Bullet put to the test making a B59, aptly named whilst we were discussing if we should take the B59 on the drive up to the Blue Mountains and because it was probably the 59th cocktail we had consumed on Boxing Day. It contained, and don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, whisky, baileys, milk and Christmas Pudding, hence the need for the Nutri-Bullet. You’ll all be drinking the next boxing day, especially if I have anything to do with it!
After all that fun it was definitely time for a little bit of good and calm behaviour, before going wild for NYE, so we hired a car and retreated to the Blue Mountains for some fresh air, and a day or two with no booze! The blue Mountains are named such because of all the Eucalyptus trees. There are droplets of eucalyptus oil in the air from them, and ease of the way the sunlight reflects through the oil gives the mountains a blue haze.
We hiked around Wentworth falls, and the Valley of the Waters. We went to scenic world and got the cable way over Katoomba falls. We got the sky rail over to the three sisters, named in Aboriginal culture, which are three sandstone outcrops as you look over the Jamieson valley. We went to the Carrington hotel, the oldest hotel in Kattomba, we walked to Pulpit Rock in Mount Victoria, we saw Govetts Leap, and generally wore ourselves out seeing the sights and enjoying the fresh air.
On our second morning we packed up ready to head back to Sydney for our flight up to Cairns, on the drive back we spent a very interesting morning walking around the Norman Linda gallery on the edge of the mountains. He is famed for his paintings of nude woman and caused a great deal, of controversy in his local, community during the 1930s. Well worth a visit, lively sculptures in the garden and we'll informed guide. But then it was time for the off,,and heading to cairns for the new year, woo hoo.
We spent the next few days in Sydney which I love. It is a stark contrast from India, which is now very dear to my heart, but a very refreshing change to be somewhere so clean, and peaceful, and organised. We spent hours walking round the harbour admiring the Harbour Bridge, and the tiling of the Opera House. We sauntered through the botanical gardens, took a ferry to Manly, missed three ferries back because the gin and tonics were so delicious in the blazing sunshine.
We caught up with friends. Having Christmas Eve with friends of Emma from London. We had a lovely evening at Bondi beach drinking wine and for me eating beef for the first time in 3 months. That burger was amazing! Christmas in the sunshine was odd but lovely. With another day of wall to wall blue skies we took a bus out to Coogee and did a coastal walk round lots if the headlands through to Bondi again, which was packed with hundreds of people in bikinis, swimming shorts and Santa hats. We found one of a handful of open cafes and we’re warmly welcomed and tucked into a lunch of roasted pumpkin and halloumi salad, calamari and pinot grigio, perfect!
On Boxing day we checked out of our hotel to spend a few days with Sam, a friend we made at cookery school in Thailand 5 years ago, although when we tried to look for the photos of us together on the holiday non of us seem to have them so we did start to question if we really knew each other at all! We had a fabulous couple of days together, watching the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, my boat dropped out, Emma we’re not sure what happened and Samos won....she claimed she had no information when we were randomly picking them based on whether we liked the sales or not, but I think she might have been lying. We climbed one of the pylons of the Harbour Bridge for some amazing views, walked through the markets at the The Rocks, went to Sydney’s oldest pub, but went in the bar next door for a drink because it was less busy, but mostly we had an amazing time making cocktails.
The finest creation saw Sams new Nutri-Bullet put to the test making a B59, aptly named whilst we were discussing if we should take the B59 on the drive up to the Blue Mountains and because it was probably the 59th cocktail we had consumed on Boxing Day. It contained, and don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, whisky, baileys, milk and Christmas Pudding, hence the need for the Nutri-Bullet. You’ll all be drinking the next boxing day, especially if I have anything to do with it!
After all that fun it was definitely time for a little bit of good and calm behaviour, before going wild for NYE, so we hired a car and retreated to the Blue Mountains for some fresh air, and a day or two with no booze! The blue Mountains are named such because of all the Eucalyptus trees. There are droplets of eucalyptus oil in the air from them, and ease of the way the sunlight reflects through the oil gives the mountains a blue haze.
We hiked around Wentworth falls, and the Valley of the Waters. We went to scenic world and got the cable way over Katoomba falls. We got the sky rail over to the three sisters, named in Aboriginal culture, which are three sandstone outcrops as you look over the Jamieson valley. We went to the Carrington hotel, the oldest hotel in Kattomba, we walked to Pulpit Rock in Mount Victoria, we saw Govetts Leap, and generally wore ourselves out seeing the sights and enjoying the fresh air.
On our second morning we packed up ready to head back to Sydney for our flight up to Cairns, on the drive back we spent a very interesting morning walking around the Norman Linda gallery on the edge of the mountains. He is famed for his paintings of nude woman and caused a great deal, of controversy in his local, community during the 1930s. Well worth a visit, lively sculptures in the garden and we'll informed guide. But then it was time for the off,,and heading to cairns for the new year, woo hoo.
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