Round-up of a perfectly gorgeous Sydney winter weekend

So how about this weather? Warm, sunny and most importantly - long-lasting! This whole weekend has been so lovely you can't help but want to be outside.



We started out weekend by having a delicious dinner cooked by me (partially) and Romina (mostly) at their place on Friday night. In keeping with the current trend of re-naming all great super-couples (TomKat, Brangalina etc), we've christened Romina and Daniel 'Romaniel', which i think works superbly. On the train back to their place, Romina and i spotted a man wearing a big, red hat, which gave us some amusement because you don't often see a man wearing a big, red hat on the train after all. "Maybe he's a pimp," she said to me. "Maybe he's a Jazz Musician!" I replied, thrilled at the thought without knowing why.




We cooked up a delicious chicken, mushroom and brandy pasta and had a great time exchanging gossip from the last three weeks since we have been away. Although i was somewhat disappointed that the fabled matching monkey pyjama pants failed to make an appearance - maybe next time, Romaniel?

Romina, Daniel and Jo enjoying their dinner (which we slaved over, right Rom?)

Cute cupcakes for dessert!

Saturday dawned bright and beautiful, and we dashed over to Maria and Peter's to see Jack, who I've missed terribly since we've been away! The little chicken has grown, and has some new words, and was pleased to see me i think, but then again he was also pleased to see the ducks at the park, so who knows really. Still, the football-turned-kiwi toy was a big hit, and we enjoyed our lunch with them and playing ball with all the kids in the park - it was the perfect afternoon for it. I do have pictures, which i will post later in the week.




From there, we dashed over to pick up DT, otherwise known as Turnsie, and frantically rushed home to watch the Bledisloe Cup (we missed a bit, but after a few beers no one remembered that). Alas, Australia was defeated once more by the All Blacks. We'll get those pesky kiwi's next time...




Turnsie and I had a great time browsing youtube for old NRL ads from the 80s and early 90s (the glory age of footy i call it), before he and Jo headed out to town to catch up with some friends, and I watched Harry Potter! Goblet of Fire, for those interested.



Today we headed to Balmoral for brunch with my bestie Leah and her boyfriend Chris. She is housesitting there at the moment, so we brunched (and then lunched!) on the balcony, looking out over the trees and right through to the beach and marina, which was lovely. We had poached eggs and bacon, pancakes with warmed strawberries and maple syrup, and croissants with jam...so yummy. Leah called her kitchen one of 'perfection' for the food it delivered, a description i will allow her even though she was 15 minutes late to her OWN brunch because she'd been shopping, leaving us stranded and confused as to whether we were even at the right house. The garden was more like a forest (a haven for spiders...) and the house itself looked like it had been plucked from Mediterranean Europe - "...are we in the South of France...?" Jo quipped.

Me and the lovely Leah


View from the balcony



Moi

We spent most of the day there in the end, and it was, as always, full of insightful, hilarious conversation and banter that probably only our group would find even remotely interesting (and is, in my opinion, what makes it so special).

But! We had to rush off again by mid-afternoon because we were off to the movies to see The Proposal, which I've been wanting to see for awhile, and which i completely enjoyed! In fact i think Sandra Bullock is better at comedy than she is at anything else really.

Back home now, and our wonderful weekend is almost over....another week ahead, but probably time to fit in some TV before that, so I'm off.