Sunny day, sweeping the the clouds away!

There's no more beautiful city in the world than Sydney on a sunny day. I'm calling it now. Some may disagree, and i shall let them - but when there's a cloudless blue sky and endless pockets of this amazing city to explore, there's no place I'd rather be.


Of course, i am bias. If you read this blog you know I'm a passionate Sydney-lover. I guess everyone feels that way about their home-town though, so i don't feel bad about it (and you can't make me.) My point is, the weather's been warm and sunny (after days and days of rain) so we've taken advantage and visited some of our favourite spots.



If you asked me where my favourite outdoor spot in all of Sydney is, I'd say Balmoral without hesitation. For a start, the scenery is really stunning. Views out to the heads, shimmering aqua blue waters, yachts dotting the ocean and shorelines...seriously appealing. The water in summer is always warmer than other beaches because its a cove. It's home to one of my favourite brunch places, the Bathers Pavilion, who also do a damn fine dinner if you wanna go somewhere a little bit fancy. And its lack of public transport is actually a big plus - it never gets as crowded as Cronulla or Bondi, so it has more of a neighbourhood feel.


We were in Mosman for breakfast last weekend, so we decided to head down to Balmoral for a walk since the day was shaping up to be so fine. I'm sure my English friends will see me rugged up in a hat and scarf and jacket and think I'm crazy for wearing so many clothes on such a sunny day, and on this occasion i have to agree with them - i was boiling.

Sparkly Balmoral Beach

Peace dude. Hard out.

Jo loves facts.

The beautiful Bathers Pavilion

Another day, we took a random drive through Point Piper (to check out the houses we'll never be able to buy), and ended up spotting a teeny tiny entrance to a little reserve with stunning views of the harbour. If you blinked, you'd miss it, but i told Jo to pull over and we jumped out to have a look. You had to walk down a whole bunch of stairs and wildly overgrown brush....

 

...but it was well worth it for this view:

There was some sort of regatta happening, hence all the sailboats.

This is my "LOOK AT THIS EFFING VIEW!" pose

Thanks for the great weather, Sydney! Keep it up!



Hi 40 degree days

Sweet Bajesus its hot. REAL hot. Don't get me wrong - i love warm weather as much as the next person, but this freaking humidity is wearing everyone down. Ahhh the curse of the Sydney-sider - we love to complain. When it's raining we wonder where summer is, but when it's too hot we hate dealing with it.

So, best to look on the bright side - and that is going to the beach after work. LOVE! We've been a few times this week, and I'm loving it. Nothing more refreshing than washing the crap of the day away in the sea. Plus, the water's been really warm. Usually the ocean can be bracing, to say the least, but this week it's had that "just peed in" warm quality that i love.

The other great thing about this weather? Sydney looks great in it. The harbour is sparkling, the ferries are steaming, people are out and about at all hours...i love it. Here's a cracking example of how this fine city can look on a sunny day:

I mean really. Why would you want to live anywhere else? (Oh yeah, cause it costs a shitbomb to live here. Still,.Bright side, bright side....) Ah well, that's love for you - no matter the cost, you never want to leave. And i do have a passion for this city.

Since it's been so steamy out, you have to cool down by sticking by the water - the beach, the harbour...anywhere you might get a breeze. Nighttime is the worst. Our apartment has aircon but honestly, it doesn't feel like its working. Until you go outside and realise the temperature's doubled. Sweaty, sticky nights lose their allure after about ten minutes, let me tell you. Ain't nothing sexy about stinking the bed out. But I digress. So we go to the beach, and we take walks around the harbour, and life is pretty good!

In other news - the wedding is now 5 weeks away. Which means, people, the HONEYMOON is 5 weeks away. WOOT! I am so looking forward to all that time off work. (And getting married. Obviously I'm looking forward to that and everything.) (NO WORK NO WORK NO WORK!!)

Downside to the wedding coming up? Everyone wants my money. Final payments are due for everything, which means we're rapidly waving bye byes to our hard-earned cash. The things we do eh?

Hope everyone has an amazing weekend - hens night tomorrow for me, and i intend to be drowning in cocktails by 9pm. Wish me luck!

Good vibrations

So. A word about last weeks weather - it was awesome. Made me wanna run through the streets screaming I Love You Sydney! I Love You Summer! I mean, i didn't. But i WANTED TO.




To show out appreciation to the Weather Gods, we took ourselves, and the pest, to Balmoral beach. It really was the perfect day for it, and the best thing about Balmoral is that it's in a bit of a cove, which means the water is always warmer than you otherwise get. Because I'm one of those people that takes about 45 minutes to get in. I've gotten better as I've gotten older, but still. I'm not one of these dive-right-in types. No, I'm your splash-myself-delicately-to-get-used-to-the-temperature gal. Don't judge.




Jack and I braved the waters and had a marvellous time, but some chickens i won't name (Maria and Jo) didn't want to go in because despite the 30 degree heat, it was "too cold". Whatevs - you missed out kids. Being a kiwi, Jo doesn't much get my love for the beach. Maybe it's an Aussie thing, i don't know, but i literally crave it when summer starts to hit. The sand irritates him, for a start, and I'm not allowed back in the car before I've cleansed myself of any stray particle that might remain. The heat, well he can't stand that. I mean he can stand it, but he doesn't love it like i do. I say, bring on the humidity. He says, turn the air conditioning on. *shrugs* maybe I'm the weird one.




So, here's the pest. You have to admit, he has his charms. Even I gave a big ol' 'awwwww' when i saw this one.







Aaaaaand here's Balmoral in all its blue-skied glory...

After a swim, the best thing you can do is lie yourself down in the sun (sunscreen-protected, of course. I'm big on that, 'specially in this country) for a warm up....

Maria, me, pest

Uhuh. We sure do live in a beautiful city, country, planet.

To round off our productive day, Jo took the opportunity to teach Jack a few of life's necessities:

1. How to fart on people

2. How to give the finger.

Yep. That's why we don't have kids.

Happy happy joy joy (its the humidity)

This whole week has been HOT. Not just hot hot either, but humid hot. And SUNNY. And STORMY. It's such typical Sydney summer weather and I'm in heaven. There's that sort of sweet-grass smell in the air, and Christmas decorations are going up, and there are mozzies everywhere and our doors are constantly open so the breeze comes in and it all points to summer and lo, a happy Nell is born.

So i haven't blogged in ages and my excuses are, busyness and laziness. It's just been one of those weeks. Last weekend was all about the wedding (not mine, and it's a whole other post away) and the crabs. Real crabs, not crab crabs, if you get me. We had some family here from interstate for previously mentioned wedding, and since the sun came out to play, we decided a seafood Sunday lunch was in order.

My cousin Ben makes the best crab-in-red-sauce ever, and so I spent the day happily nom-nom-noming, much to Jo's disgust. I believe he referred to me as "an animal", as he watched me ripping them apart and sucking them dry. But. That's how you eat crab. I mean I'm not going to use a fork for godsake. What's the point of that? But he's not much into shellfish so he doesn't get the love, and as Ben says, there's no point trying to convert them. Once you do, you'll just have to share.

The kids were a laugh as always -

Zara the chubster. (Don't worry Z, it's cute right now.
I mean. Hopefully you'll totally grow out of it though.)

"I'm sorry, what? You don't like THIS dress??"

Row row row you're boat, or something similar.

The Raffster playing a childhood staple, backyard cricket.

Christian. I'm pretty sure he's saying "I'm three, dumbass."

On Monday, we babysat Barney. Barney is not a child, as you may remember. He's a dog. But David doesn't like leaving him alone, cause he's precious like that, so we took him on Monday night. I was assured he would go to the door if he needed to go to the toilet, but a couple of poos and several wees later, i realised that wasn't going to happen. And that crap stank. Thank God we have tiles.

Barney

We tuckered him out in the end.

Other highlights from this week included our marriage class, the first of THREE we have to take in order to get married in a Catholic church. Although we were dreading it, Jo was a good sport about the whole thing (being the non-Catholic one), and kept us laughing for the three hours we were there. Yes, you read that correctly. Three hours. Times three classes. That's nine hours of our lives we won't be getting back. Still, if you have to be there you may as well make the best of it, and it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. It's all very new age - what "couple style" are you (wtf?), and why men and women communicate differently (i mean really. duh.), and what sorts of feelings do you feel when you have a fight....and that's just week one. In week three we get to tackle fertility. I mean please. How can i contain my excitement until then?

It was boiling today. Downright boiling. Mum and I went shopping. Her search for an outfit to wear to the wedding continues (hint: try being less fussy.) We checked out the new Westfields in the city (very swish) before heading down to circular quay for a well-earned ice cream.

Trees in bloom

Mum!

This afternoon was so warm we had our first visit to the beach for the season. It was too late for a swim, but...maybe tomorrow! If it stays this warm. I think we're going to have a very typical Sydney summer this year - almost tropical, you know? Sunny and humid until about 4pm, when the clouds will roll in and then it'll be overcast and humid for the rest of the day, till it pours with rain. Gets a thumbs up from me.

The season is in full swing, and as always it seems that this time of year is ridiculously busy. Melbourne Cup has been and gone, which is the start of it all for me (even though this year I MISSED IT because i was sick), and now its all beach and kitchen tea, mum's birthday, my birthday, Christmas parties galore, and then it's Christmas and New Years and before you know it it's January and I'm moaning about the year flying by and frankly I'm tired just thinking about it all, so I'm off to watch Graham Norton.