Birthday props!

On Friday, my dear cousin Daniel reached that age. We'll whisper it together. 30.



To mark this descent into middle-age, Romina threw the party to end all parties, complete with flamenco dancers, free-flowing sangria and an iced vovo cakes. That's right ladies and gentlemen - an iced vovo cake. I'm going to go ahead and say right now that the genius you behold below started right here baby, with yours truly. I mean OK. Romina was right there with me on the idea. And yes, its true she carried it from conception to reality without a hitch. But hello. A creative brain like mine cannot be held back.




Besides. When you think Daniel, you think biscuits. The man's obsessed. I reckon he could smell a biscuit in a cupboard three doors down. He's a connoisseur in the art of biscuit eating. So much so that when he eats them, he experiences a rare form of memory loss similarly experienced by people coming out of a coma - although physically present in the moment, he has no recollection of the events that led him to be holding an empty biscuit packet that a mere 10 minutes ago was still full.




And the iced vovo is his favourite of all my friends. The one he can't live without. I mean, his wedding vows? "Till death do us part, or you take away my iced vovo". Sorry Rom. It's not you. I reckon it's the little pink marshmallows. No-one could compete with those darn things.

Voila! Iced Vovo cake genius. Hold your applause.

Rom and I workin' some attitude.

Jack says "lemme hear some woop woop"

Daniel says "lemme hear some woop woop"

So, I think my favourite part of the evening was watching Daniel flamenco it up with the lady dancers, if you know what I'm sayin *wink wink*. Now, let me say right here that Daniel has had dancing lessons folks. In fact, he and Rom reunited at salsa lessons, which led to dating, which led to marriage, which led to iced vovo cakes at his 30th birthday bash and so on and so forth. But alas, on the eve of celebrations honouring his survival of 30 years on the planet, Daniel did not put his best foot forth.

I mean, was it funny? Hell to the yeah! Some might say sad. But not me, no siree. I was laughing my ass clean off the table kids. That was the funniest thing Ive seen in months. Skinny white dude pretending he knows how to dance the cha cha? CHECK! Topped my night off like a cherry on a sundae. (Kidding Daniel - ya did good kid. Kinda. I mean it really was funny. But i totally laughed with you, not at you. *coughs*)

In all seriousness, it was a really fantastic night which Romina could NOT have pulled off without me. Just kidding, i did nothing. We had a great time!! Happy birthday Daniel, hope when we're old and grey we're still doing the two-step same as always.

Dan and Rom :)

A Streetcar Named Desire

I couldn't think of a more witty blog post tonight, sorry folks. I'll take suggestions though. Give away a mars bar to the best one? Anyone? Are you out there?




OK, so not much to report this week, except that Jo has been away in New Zealand visiting the fam, which means i have had 5 days of watching whatever i want whenever i want on foxtel and it has been GREAT. I mean. Of course it's great when he's here. I'm just saying. It's also been great while he's... not. But for the most part it's WAY greater when he's here. Except for the foxtel thing. Cause honestly? That's been...really great.




I'm talking unlimited access to SVU, Oprah, Jon and Kate Plus 8, Friends, Project Runway, Sex and the City, the Gilmore Girls....and new discoveries too, like 30 Rock, which is really very funny. No Megastructures or Megamachines or Megabuildings!




Not that I'm some sort of television addict. I mean yes, i like watching mindless trash TV. So what? Is that a crime now? And how much TV is too much TV anyway? 5 hours? 6? Says who? I work hard! If i want to watch a few hours of television when i get home than i will! Yes siree bob. No problem here...*stares blankly at screen as brain cells are rapidly vaporised*




Besides, i did do one cultural thing this week - Leah and I went to see Cate Blanchett in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Names Desire. Let me just say this:




Cate. Is. Freaken. Amazing.




Seriously. She was fabulous. She was the perfect Blanche DuBois, first of all - sort of reminded me of Vivien Leigh's version in the old movie, except better. She's just so natural, i really can't stop blubbering on about her to anyone who'll listen. When we tried to describe her performance to Chris afterwards, we found ourselves reverently blubbering words like "luminous" and "resplendent" and "gifted", which yes, OK, was probably taking it all a bit too far, but hello. It's Cate Blanchett. We were a tiny bit in awe.




Joel Edgerton was fantastic too, as Stanley (though when it came to his famous line "STELLA!", i think we secretly wanted him to deliver it in a more Elaine-like way than he actually did. She's ruined it for all Stanley's i say.)




I mean it's a great play anyway, but it becomes pretty brilliant when you have two wonderful performers as leads - makes it that much better to watch.




In other news, i learnt a new word today - auspices. I'll let DT tell y'all what it means though, since he's the one who spent half an hour today looking for a definition that made any sense. What a weirdo. *ducks*

She'll be coming round the (blue) mountain(s) when she comes...

On Wednesday - another bright and sunny day, I'm just sayin' - we took a day trip up to the blue mountains. Jo and I have been a few times now and we both really love it up there. Something about that clean mountain air i guess...though i can't say he loves watching me spend hours trawling through second hand book shops and antique stores. But hey. Who's counting right?

Ok, so away we went, and after a quick lunch our first stop was Scenic World, which basically has a bunch of different activities you can do amidst the parkland of Katoomba - home, of course, to the famous 3 sisters. We hopped on the skyway first, which is trundles you across a canyon of sorts, and even has a glass bottom, for those who get excited about that sort of thing. Here's Dawn looking not at all concerned about being on the skyway...

We did get lovely views of waterfalls and miles and miles of bushland - beeeeeautiful!

On the other side, there were several walks you could take, so we did indeed take said walks and took in some of the beautiful scenery along the way.

Jo and his mum at one of the look outs

Dawn at the base of the waterfall! Pretty :)

The 3 Sisters - legend has it that the three sisters were real - aboriginal women from the Katoomba tribe. They fell in love with three brothers from another tribe, but tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers would not accept this, and decided to use force to capture the sisters, causing a big battle (men. *shakes head*). Because the lives of the sisters were in danger, a witch doctor turned them into stone to protect them. He intended to turn them back into humans after the battle was over, but alas, as sometimes happens in battle, he was killed, and in a cruel twist of fate, was the only one who could reverse the spell. And so, dear readers, the sisters remain as rock, reminding generations to come that boys are soooooo totally not worth the trouble they cause.




Goofin' around with the skyway in the background.

Next up, we took this train thingy that heads straight down into the valley. It's VERY steep, but we put on our Indiana Jones hats and survived it.

Dawn and I on the train thingy

Oh, that's me riding a copper horse.

Once we got off the train, we took another long and windy walk through the bush. Very cool down in the valley, and we were lucky enough to spot a lyre bird digging around - they are very shy and very rare to see in the wild! We also came across an old cabin used by the minors back in the day - cause they did a lot of mining down there, apparently.

Dawn and I in the cabin. Do you feel transported back in time? Neither did we.

Love this picture Jo!

Next up, we visited the nearby town of Leura, which has a toy and train museum that we made time to see! The museum is in the lovely old house, and it has beautiful gardens too - there's Dawn hanging out with the roses. The museum had me dolled out pretty quickly (Barbie through the ages anyone? That gal has a hella lot of outfits, let me tell you), but i loved the flowers!

Tulips!

Pretty in pink

Out in the gardens

The old house where the Toy Museum is

It was time to head back after a quick stop at the bakery (cause who can resist a blue mountain bakery. I mean really. It's the proper thing to do.) Then, back to my parents where Mum had prepared quite the feast for our arrival - fresh pasta and chicken schnitzel and sausage and meatballs....Daniel joined us for dinner too, and it was fun to reminisce on old times. We particularly enjoyed swapping stories about the mushroom man...but i reckon that's a story for another time.

So that's the visit! Phew, mammoth few days, but lots of fun. It was back to work for me the next day, and Dawn flew out that night...tearful goodbyes at the airport - little did she know she would be seeing Jo sooner than she thought!!

Happy Fathers Day Daddy xxx

Very quick post to say Happy Fathers Day to the old man - we've had our fireworks over the years (some spectacular ones if i do say so myself, not to brag or anything), but at the end of the day theres love and that's the main thing. We had great BBQ today - lots of food and wine and apple pie and old Italian songs on youtube (gotta love modern technology).

Me and Dad

Mum and Cooper thrown in for good measure

Last night we feasted on a home cooked Italian meal made by Chris - papadelle (made from scratch, if you please!) with veal ragu, home made bread, and some sort of fruit and chili chocolate tart, which Leah kinda scared me off at first....but i tasted it and it was lovely. So thanks guys! Fun times as always.

Plus I'm onto my last Potter - i haven't read the 7th book since it first came out, so it's practically like reading it for the first time!! Right?? Kind of?? Bah. Anyway, another hugely busy week lies ahead. Movies, plays, parties...you'll hear all about it soon enough.

A wild time at Wildlife World.

So to continue the re-cap of Dawn's visit, i will briefly take you through Tuesday, when we headed off to Darling Harbour for a bit of an explore - and spent a very long time indeed lusting after sweets at the British Lolly Shop! Lots of sour stuff, yummm. We decided to head over for lunch at Baia, an Italian place we like, and of course feasted on garlic pizza, tomato and mozzarella salad, pastas and panini's...and a cappuccino to top it all off.

Jo and his mum at Darling Harbour

Then it was off to Wildlife World! Which claims to be Australia's number one tourist attraction. Err. Not sure about that, but we did have a good time checking out all the aussie wildlife on show. Here is a selection of what we saw...

A stick insect...which i poked, hoping for a reaction. Alas, did not get one.

Creepy crawly spiders. Jo loved to touch. *strokes spider*


Snakes! Ew. Australia, lucky country that we are, is home of the top three most venomous snakes in the world. These are the Fierce snake (or inland taipan), the Australian Brown snake and the Taipan.
I mean. In case you were headed off for a bushwalk and needed to know.

Some lizards, like the frilled lizard that Jo is making friends with here.

Koalas! Awww, some nice animals, finally. Here is a mother and her cub, who will reside in her pouch for about 8 months before moving out. Like most Australians, koalas are pretty darn lazy. They can sleep for up to 19 hours a day, and the rest of the time, they eat. And since all they eat is eucalyptus leaves, and we idiot humans keep chopping down their only source of food, they are becoming more and more scarce in the wild.

Kangaroos!

Real ones too, don't worry. There are over 40 species of kangaroos in Australia actually, but we saw red kangaroos and grey ones. The red kangaroo are the largest marsupials in the world - they weigh over 85 kgs and stand taller than a man. Y'all don't want to hit one of those with your car. For your cars sake. Kangaroos can't go backwards - which is why they feature on our coat of arms, to represent a county always moving forwards.

Kookaburras. These furry birds are cute! They usually live in the same area for life, and also mate for life. When they make noise, it sounds like laughter. Which is why they are also unfortunately known as the laughing jackass. Oh well.

Womabts. Don't ya love them? It's pretty rare to see them in the wild, since they only come out at night and are only found in certain parts of the country. During the day they hang out in their burrows - depending on the species, the burrows can turn into interconnecting labyrinth type things where whole communities of wombats will live. Minus David Bowie of course.

Annnd pretty butterflies :)

Nice picture Jo

It was a great day out, even though i did start feeling sick a little later and ended up in bed with a temperature...but we shall not speak of that. Gotta run, we're off to see Leah and Chris - Chris is cooking us dinner, so hopefully we survive. Coming up in part three of Dawn's visit - the Blue Mountains!

Oh hi. Remember me?

So yes, i have been busy. What a fun time we've been having this week with Jo's mum Dawn visiting us! So fun that i haven't had any time at all to blog about it, which means I've been left with so much to talk about that I'll probably have to split everything into two or three blogs just to get through it.




Saturday morning we were up bright and early to collect Dawn from the airport - well, Jo was anyway. I had to wash my hair... And then here she was, in Sydney, in our apartment, which is funny because we are always used to seeing her in New Zealand! It was a strange but welcome sight. Our adventures began at the number one tourist destination of the eastern suburbs - Westfields Eastgardens.




Well! We had to do groceries! Yes, i admit, we left this until the last minute. And yes, i also admit that we made Dawn make up her own bed. And then, to truly make her feel welcome, we abandoned her on her first night in Sydney and went off to see a show...but apart from those teeny tiny details, we were off to a great start.




That afternoon i had a birthday party to attend - the delightful Yash turned the grand old age of ONE, and we had a lovely time at Sonali's place stuffing our faces with cake and blowing bubbles at Yash and Jack - they thought this was completely hilarious by the way. What is it with kids and bubbles? And yes, Sonali made each and every one of us wear party hats. I tried to discreetly abandon mine, but caught me every time.

Yash! Too cute :)

Sonali and I

While i was off breaking it down with the kiddies, Dawn was doing this...






...riding in the Porsche with the top down! Jo took her on a long drive along the coast and back through the city. How her hair survived, i'll never know.




That night, as i mentioned, we had to leave Dawn to her own devices because we had tickets booked to the hilarious musical Avenue Q, which is basically a send up of Sesame Street. If you have not seen this show (and aren't the kind of person who gets offended easily), get tickets now!! It is SO funny, i literally had tears of laughter streaming down my face for two hours. With numbers like "I'm not wearing underwear today", "It sucks to be me" and "Everyone's a little bit racist", what's not to love? Plus those puppets are so darn cute!





The next day we were off to Maria's for lunch, and a delicious one it was, as always. The girl can cook, I'll give her that. Special appearances were made by my aunt and Vicki with her new dog Cino, whom Jack just loves. It's very funny to see Jack with the dog - it's a rare occasion he has someone smaller than him to play with. He likes to put the leash on him and attempt to take him for a walk - attempt being the operative word, as Cino is usually the one stampeding ahead - Jack's little legs usually can't keep up, though he really does waddle as fast as he can. It's also amusing to hear him trying to talk to Cino. "Cin! Cin! On!" - which basically means "Cino I want to put the leash on you." Or "Cin! Si!" Which translates to "Sit Cino!" Yeah right.




After lunch, we headed over to the beach for a walk and ice cream, of course.

Jack on his trike - the kid loves this thing.

Jo and his mum!

Dawn and I

Me and the little monster

Jack enjoying his ice cream. Check that face out! He was hyperventilating for the stuff, let me tell you. He sucked his little cup dry.

Meet Cino, whose face (I'm sorry to say) looks similar to a bat's.

On Monday, Dawn and I headed into the city for what turned out to be a very full day! We walked through Hyde Park, where we met Romina, and then kept on walking right through the Botanical Gardens, until we made it to the Opera House (hello photo opportunity...) I think the question "Who's hungry" was asked - "starving!" said Rom, hand waving wildly in the air, so it was off the the Guylian Cafe for a quick bite, and the best damn hot chocolate in the city. Dawn had a yummy looking praline and vanilla shake, which she assures me was the best she's ever tasted, so everyone was happy!

Dawn by the fountain in Hyde Park - p.s, winter eat you're heart out - check out that sunshine!

Rom and I and our fine city resplendent in the sun! (did you like that? resplendent? that word isn's used enough, but i'm bringing it back baby)

We continued on around the harbour till we got to the rocks area, which is my favourite part of Sydney, and checked out some of the little stores and cute stone alleyways. One place we loved was the puppet store! Fabulous underground treasure trove of puppets and dolls and toys and other oddities...

One of the many life-sized puppets on display

Before we knew it, it was 2pm and nearly time for High Tea at the Observatory Hotel (the nicest High Tea in Sydney in my humble opinion), and as usual, it did not disappoint! Fine china, exotic teas, delicious little pastries and a glass of champagne for yours truly (ooh, ooh! that's me!) left us very full and very happy. Plus the bathroom in that place is totally awesome. A surprise appearance from Leah topped off the afternoon, and we gossiped the hours away until it was time to move on.

Romina and Dawn at High Tea

We said goodbye to Romina, and Leah, Dawn and I moved off to our next destination, Observatory Hill, which has really lovely views (hello photo opportunity numero two).

Dawn and I on Observatory Hill

Leah and I (and a really old tree. I'm sure it's been there since the convicts)

The great Sydney trek continued, as we made our way back through the rocks and down to the harbours edge again for even more photos.

What do they call this again? The Coat hanger?

Spanish ship docked in the harbour

Our last stop for the day was the Shangri-La Hotel - at the top of the hotel there is a beautiful bar, where we sat and sipped cocktails and ate olives and feta cheese and watched the sun set. A perfect end to a decadent day! We had stuffed ourselves to the gills with all manner of unhealthy and delicious treats, but I'm sure we walked a hundred miles that day, so really, who cares.

Part two coming soon!