Dolphins off Manly Beach, Thanksgiving, and Other Stuff

What a nice weekend we had!  Saturday night we had our friends Jo and Peter over for a, "US Wine Night."  She's from New Zealand and he's from Yorkshire, UK so their exposure to US wines is similar to our pre-living-in-Australia exposure to Australian wines.  There aren't many to choose from over here!  Over the past few months we've had various guests schlep wines to us as we planned for the night (think of it as their payment for room and board ;)).  The stand out was the 2008 Belle Glos (Clark & Telephone) Pinot Noir from the Santa Maria Valley, CA.  Next in line was a 2007 Charles Krug Generations from Napa Valley, CA.  It was good to catch up with them after their honeymoon in the Maldives.  I'm envious of where they stayed!

In preparation for the holiday season, I made my first batch of Aunt ZZ's Toffee - 10 1/2 pounds of it!  I've learned (with help from my darling husband, the taste tester) that one should not skimp on the chocolate on toffee - this batch is divine.  Can't wait to share it with our friends!  Thank you to our family and friends who were kind enough to lug Nestle's Chocolate Chips with the wine from the US.  We can't get them here and the toffee wouldn't be the same!  :)

Yesterday afternoon, after nursing hangovers from the wine night we dragged ourselves to the movies to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (part 1).  It was much darker than the previous HP's but still very entertaining.  David was so excited to go see it - he's such a fan!  We almost went on opening night but decided holding out 3 days until the weekend would have to do.  We went to dinner with Janine and Niels at the Brookevale Hotel just next to the mall.  The setup is pretty cleaver - you buy your raw steak/fish/chicken and grill it yourself on the grills in the center of the room.  It's almost like having a home-cooked meal but without having to do the dishes.

This morning I had a wonderful long run - 65 degrees and sunny.  It ended with stretching at Manly Beach where I saw a school of dolphins!!  I had to watch them for a bit before I could figure out what they were - the dorsal fins were popping up out of the water all over the place - I thought they were sharks at first but then realized by the way they were smoothly moving through the water that they must be dolphins.  I bet there were 15+!

We finally got the Mac reformatted and all the programs reinstalled - I'm SOOOO thankful that David worked his magic to protect all of our 8000 pictures in iPhoto.  I would have been devastated to have lost them!  As I type, I'm mesmerized by the picture slide show on Apple TV and listening to Christmas music - it's Thanksgiving week after all!  Don't tell David, though.  Being a Christmas nut, we have strict no-Christmas-music-before-Thanksgiving rule in our household.  David would be ready to throw the sound system out the window if we didn't limit the amount of Christmas music I could play every year ;)

Thanksgiving is hands-down my favorite holiday - it's the type of holiday where you can wish any passer-by a, "Happy Thanksgiving!" and they will be appreciative and wish the same for you.  Clearly it's a US holiday so we don't really get to celebrate it the same way here.  A few Aussies may wish me a happy Turkey Day (or some other cute shortened version of the name)  but I won't get to make blueberry muffins and watch the Macy's Day parade while prepping the stuffing for the bird.  The house won't be filled with the wonderful smells of Thanksgiving and the clatter of dishes and chairs being moved about to set the table for 20...  It makes me sad that we don't get to have those experiences here.  Thanksgiving is one of the things I miss most about being in the US.  David and I will celebrate in our own way - I'll make a roast chicken, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and peas/corn but it will only be the two of us that night for dinner and we will have worked all day.  *Sigh* I suppose that means I'm just saving up a couple years of Thanksgiving to have a blow-out version when we get back!  Look out family!  You'd better plan on a big one at our house that year!! :)

~LAA :)

Last Few Weeks

We’ve been busy! David’s sister Kristie (a.k.a. Gigs) visited from Colorado for a couple of weeks. We had a nice visit and did some fun things together like whale watching and hiking at the Barrenjoey Lighthouse in Palm Beach, north of Manly.

Whale watching was fun – we saw a number of mother/calf pods as they were migrating. We were even lucky enough to see a mother teach her baby how to breach! We didn’t get any good pictures of the experience because none of us have a fast enough trigger finger, but it was cool to see! A storm rolled in toward the end of the trip, making things pretty wet. How cool to see the thunder heads heading toward us!

The hike in Palm Beach was beautiful! The weather was stellar – a sunny, warm spring day. The hike was relatively challenging (straight up a hill) but it was short and the view from the top was great. It’s a great spot for whale watching during the right time of year with 360 degree views of the water! While the lighthouse was officially finished in 1881, it was originally used starting in 1843 to mark the entrance to Broken Bay and the Pittwater which were considered to be the backdoor of Sydney for smugglers. They used to raise a fire in a basket so the smuggler’s ships could see it from afar. We had lunch at The Boathouse back at the base which was a wonderful little spot. Great food and quaint atmosphere built on a deck over the water. We watched the sea planes and paddle boarders glide along the water while we ate.

The past two weekends have been full of celebrations – last weekend we threw a hens and bucks party for Jacs and Sam. The guys went out for a late night on the town and had an absolute blast! The girls went to the opera at the famous Sydney Opera House! We saw Pirates of Penzance which was quite funny. The production wasn’t exactly what I though it was going to be – the set was quite sparse but the singing was beautiful. When we were leaving, they were doing dress rehearsal for the ARIA awards being held the next night. Guy Sebastian was performing with a full choir behind him! It was a great treat – we told Jacs we had organized the whole thing in honor of her ;)

This weekend was about celebrating Janine and Niels and the impending birth of their first son, who we’ve affectionately named, “Legend.” Janine preferred to not have a “baby shower” but rather a “mommy shower” to celebrate. Jacs and I took her to a wonderful lunch at Burnt Orange on the Mosman Headlands and then to the spa for a well deserved massage. I was lucky enough to enjoy my first quality facial – it’s changed my opinion about the skin products I use!

While the girls were at the spa, the guys hit some golf balls and watched some sports. The 6 of us had a great Mexican dinner (man we miss Mexican food!) and called it a night. What a great weekend!

Summer has arrived in Australia. It was quite hot on my run yesterday morning – it kicked my butt! They’re predicting a wet summer but the weather the past few days has been glorious. What a great time of year to be outside!

~LAA :)