My Perfect Weekend...A Short Post By Jessica Walker

Tim Romano, that title was for you in honor of the shallot, you're perfect onion.

This weekend was absolutely amazing. It was one of those moments when I really couldn't believe that we actually live in this amazing place, it was like a mini vacation and we didn't even leave Sydney.

Friday we unwound from the week with a few drinks just down the street at the Woollahra Hotel. On Saturday, after breakfast at Lemon in Surry Hills with Erin, Pieter, and Saskia as well as a few errands (including a stop for some beach towels and a frisbee at Bondi Junction), we set out for Bronte Beach - a mid-sized beach in between Clovelly and Tamarama beaches. The surf here is incredible and we got a front row plot of sand to watch the Bronte Boardriders in action and learn a little more about the Bronte Beach local culture. Like, if you wear underwear under your board shorts at the beach, you get an atomic wedgie. Seriously. We watched someone have his red briefs ripped through his board shorts and over his head tearing about the time the butt reached his forehead. Ouch. On Saturday night, Chris and I decided to top a wonderful day at Bronte Beach with a fabulous steak dinner at Bistro Moncur - a Woollahra institute. Most definitely, one of the best steaks in town. And they had a Cotes du Rhone on the wines du jour list - perfect!

Not to be out done by Saturday, Sunday had us at Maroubra Beach, which of all of the beaches we've been to so far, is our favorite. Sydeny's largest beach (even bigger than Bondi). It's Sydney proper's southern most beach, which means it's less crowded than most of the others. The surf is pretty intense and waves average in the 5-6 foot range, which makes for good surfing (board and body) and for splashing around near the shore.

As has become our Sunday routine, we made some dinner. This time we made our own pasta and bread from scratch turning those into Asian dumplings and chocolate chip bread for desert. Another amazing meal.

Even though the beaches (white sand and all) were fantastic and our meals were top notch, my favorite part of the weekend was spending time with Chris. Nothing compares to that and I'm so happy to be sharing this adventure with him.

You Know You're Boring When...

...someone falls asleep and begins snoring on the conference call that you're hosting. True story folks, apparently I really know how to bore the hell out of people on the phone. This past week, about 10 minutes into a call with the Japan team, mid sentence I'm suddenly interrupted by the deep, rumbling snort of a man well into the REM cycle. Now I'm not really sure who learned the biggest lesson: me, with a lesson on the need to spice things up on my teleconferences; or, the dude who fell asleep and learning the true meaning (and importance) of using the mute button on the phone(which truthfully, is something they teach you as an intern).

Bridging The Weekday Gap

So the blog is turning into more of a recap of our weekends, which isn't what I had intended - but that is when all the interesting adventures are taking place.

That being said, last Saturday we headed out to Darling Harbor to watch the Dragon Boat races as part of Sydney's Chinese New Year Festivities. It was fun to watch the dragon boats...but after one race, we kind of felt like we saw the whole event.



Afterwards, we decided to walk around the harbor and accidentally discovered the Pyrmont Bridge - the world's oldest electric swingspan bridge. I say accidentally, because we were taking pictures of the races on the bridge when we heard an announcement saying the bridge was closing. We wondered how the bridge could close as there were no gates and no one seemed to be moving off the bridge. As we looked around, we noticed a small section of the bridge (maybe a 1/4th of the overall length) start to close its gates (which were well hidden) and I dragged Jess closer to get a better view. The bridge section swiveled around its center and opened about 90degrees. I really can't explain the bridge in words, so hopefully this video makes more sense.



On Sunday, we went into Central Sydney to climb the Harbor Bridge. One of Jess' work colleagues was in town for meetings, and we decided to share this adventure with him. After a nice lunch at the Glenmore Hotel, we made our way to the base of the bridge for the climb. The climb basically takes a path along the outside arch the bridge and down the opposite arch. For safety reasons we were fitted with a special suit and harness and we couldn't take camera's (or most personal belongings) on the climb, which was disappointing but understandable (no one wants to drop a camera on the traffic below). After a small safety demonstration, we were on our way climbing to the top. Most of the climb is very minimal, with the worst section being 5 separate ladders to get the base of the arch. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the bridge (hence being a guide) and provided some interesting insight. For example 80% of the bridge is made out of British Steel, and the Australian government continued to pay on the bridge until the 1980s when the British decided that waive the remaining balance. The climb provided some of the most amazing views of Sydney I have seen, and I highly recommend this diversion for anyone planning to come visit.

Flip Flop Fabulousness

I love my flops in the sand; I'd even love them if I was in a band. I love my flops in the rain; I love my flops with my brain. I love my flops 'cuz the go with pants, I love my flops when I dance. I love my flops when I wear a dress; I love my flops when my hair is a mess. I love my flops and the pretty colors; I love my flops...word to your mothers...?

Definitely not a poet, but here are some pics of my much loved and extremely fabulous flip flops from Pip and Emma Livingstone!! Thanks ladies, Chris and I love our new kicks! Yay Havaianas!

Cottage Point via Seaplane

For our 1 year wedding anniversary, Jess reserved a seaplane to take us to a very exclusive part of Sydney known as Cottage Point for lunch. Surrounded by National Park lands, Cottage Point is a small community that was established in the mid-1800’s and cannot be further developed. The easiest way to access Cottage Point is via Boat or Seaplane.

We left out of Rose Bay (about a 10min drive from our apartment) which is located in the middle of Sydney Harbor. Rose Bay has quite a history with regards to Seaplane travel. There is even an old Control Tower at the point of the bay which previously managed the air traffic in the area. Sydney Seaplanes is the main operator out of the Rose Bay and flies DHC-2 de Havilland Beavers on floats.

We arrived at Rose Bay at about 11:15am and were airborne by 11:30am, despite some light drizzle. The floatplane offers great views of the city, opera house, harbor bridge and beaches in all directions. We flew East out of the main headlands of the harbour and then turned North to head to Cottage Point. Along the way the pilot told us a little history and stories about some notable points. For example, we learned that the reason why it is named Manly Beach is because the first settlers saw the aboriginal men on the beach and noted how “Manly” they looked.

We landed at Cottage Point at about noon and probably didn’t go above 1,000ft for the entire trip. While taxiing on the water, we noticed the amazing houses sticking out of the point which have a variety of styles from very plain to very modern. The pilot noted that there were a couple for sale with a price tag in the $5 million range.

Once docked at the Cottage Point Restaurant, we made our way to the table, which had great view of the bay for boat/plane watching. While the day was a little dreary with drizzle and temperatures below 20C (70F), we made the most of it by relaxing and enjoying some great food. The lunch consisted of three-courses (starter, main, and dessert) – all of which were delicious. My personal favourite was the tomato, mozzarella, basil, and prosciutto starter – which was served with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. During the lunch we watched a storm come through and were slightly delayed leaving, but we didn’t mind as it gave us some time to warm up with some hot tea.

We left cottage point at around 3:45pm, and made it back to Sydney harbour without weather problems…in fact the clouds were actually breaking up over Rose Bay to let some blue sky through. The pilot also made a steep turn around the harbour which gave some amazing views, but probably didn’t set too well with all of the passengers.

This was an amazing anniversary gift (thanks Jess) – mostly because of the Flying but also because it was something that Jess and I got to experience together. I can only hope that in the future I can give Jess something this memorable.

Moonlight Cinema

After we purchased a car we decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood. We walked over to Centennial Park (5 min walk) to check it out. While we were walking we stumbled across something called Moonlight Cinema which happens during the summer. Basically there is an outdoor movie in the park everynight starting at 8:30. Guests are encouraged to pack a picnic to have during the movie. This sounded excellent to us as it turned out to a beautiful day. Tonight's movie was Bee Movie - voice starring Jerry Seinfeld. We packed a light picnic - using some fantastic wedding presents (thanks Katie S. and Kathryn W.) - which consisted of a tomato/rocket/parmesan salad and some beer & wine. We got to the park early to get a good viewing location and enjoyed our picnic while watching the crowd. This also gave us a chance to use our Snowgum chairs - which are great and stayed pretty comfortable even after 2+ hours.

We enjoyed this so much that we will most likely be back to check out The Darjeeling Limited when it shows in a couple of weeks.

We bought a car!

It was a big day today...we bought a car. We found a 2005 Holden Astra with 57,000 kms for the right price. Jess feels like it took way to long to find a car and I feel like it seemed rushed. Can you guess who does the research on cars? We don't actually pick up the car until next week, but it feels good to get that out of the way. Here are some pictures to hold you over...

New Posts

Due to a busy week, we are running behind in our posting. Anyway, here is some of what has been going on....