Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone - hope you all have a wonderful day full of presents and food! We miss you all loads. Lots of love, Lucia and Dave xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Remember those Lindor chocolates...?

We opened them the other night and they were disgusting. Coffee, orange and raspberry flavoured Lindor?? Seriously, the orange ones were just about palatable, but the other two flavours were disgusting. Let this be a lesson to you Lindt, don't mess with a tried and tested formula. Milk chocolate Lindor (maybe the white chocolate ones too) are really the only way to go...

Dave's parents arrive in Sydney

Dave's parents arrived in Sydney on Friday so went to meet them at their hotel on Friday evening for a couple of jetlagged drinks. On Saturday they were due to pick up their campervan so we went with them early in the morning to the rental place - it took quite a while to sort everything out but eventually we were on the road to the campsite that they had booked for two nights. That is an actual picture of their campervan by the way - talk about advertising to the world that you're a tourist!

Despite some dodgy Googlemap directions from Dave's dad we eventually found the campsite. Only 20 minutes or so out of Sydney, it's situated in the Lane Cove National Park which is beautiful - I never even knew it existed until Saturday! Back at our apartment we decided to organise a picnic from David Jones Foodhall (if we could do all our food shopping here, trust me, we would!) at the lounge area by the pool to make the most of the gorgeous weather. We spent the rest of the afternoon splashing around the pool, sunbathing and reading (like most weekends recently) whilst Dave's parents chilled out a bit and got over their jetlag. Saturday evening we went out for a few drinks and a posh curry by Darling Harbour. The photo on the left is the view from the restaurant - beautiful hey?

Sunday was Dave's cousin's birthday (she lives in Sydney) so Dave's mum surprised her by gatecrashing the party. After a few drinks we decided to go for a wander around the Opera House and a drink at the Opera Bar to make the most of the evening sunshine. Then back to our flat for what turned out to be  a delicious BBQ (beef, parmesan and sundried tomato burgers followed by Dave's delectable chicken skewers, various salads and a good bottle of vino bianco). 

A rather exhausting weekend but lovely nonetheless. Dave's parents return on 24th December just in time for the Christmas festivities - that is lots of mince pies, chilled mulled wine and Christmas cake!

THE bread!

Erin the little honey bun got me the bread - the delicious fruity, nutty, cinamonny bread that she sometimes has for lunch. I have a whole loaf of it. I'm going to have to put it in the freezer to ration myself I think. It's been sitting under my desk all day emitting the most yummiest smells - I'm rushing off home now to toast some and slather it in butter. I don't know what I'm going to do when it's finished....it will be a sad, sad day.

Our little Christmas Tree

Our little Christmas Tree is up! I managed to find us a bargain 5ft Christmas tree for $19 so we had a random evening of buying decorations and making our flat look festive. We went for a red and gold theme so all decorations in the flat fit in with that! The Christmas tree itself looked a little sparse so we had to get some tinsel to bulk it out a bit, despite my hatred for the stuff. We also threaded some baubles onto ribbon and have hung them above the sprinklers in our kitchen - probably a massive fire hazard but all for a good cause (that is, making the flat look festive). We even bought little candy canes for the tree, although I found out yesterday that the pig (Dave) came in drunk on Friday night and ate one of them, so now we only have 11 and hence can't count down the 12 days of Christmas. Typical. I downloaded a CD of carols sung by the Kings College, Cambridge Choir too to get us even more in the festive mood! It's just the sun and heat we have to sort out now..and the lack of mulled wine and mince pies.

Dave's embarrassing incident

Last Thursday we decided to do some late night shopping. We were wandering around David Jones Foodhall (posh department store, a bit like Selfridges) looking at all the yummy food and came across a little stall sampling some Christmas puddings. There was no-one there but there were some (closed) tupperwares filled with little bitesize samples of the puddings. Dave was hungry; he decided to go for it. Unfortunately just as he had uncovered the tupperwares, the sales lady returned and looked at Dave incredulously wondering what on earth he was doing. Luckily for him she was quite good natured and actually let us have some more samples. It was so embarrassing though - I can't take him anywhere!!

A lovely chilled out weekend

After an extravagant weekend in Melbourne, we decided this one would be a more chilled out affair. We had a nice lie in on Saturday morning and then made our way to Leichhardt, which is the Italian precinct of Sydney. We had a wander arond the Italian Forum, which is an Italian-style piazza in the middle of Leichhardt with lots of Italian shops and restaurants.

It was completely dead so we decided to walk over to another suburb, Haberfield, which is meant to be quite Italian too. There was a bit more happening here; we found a nice delicatessen and bought lots of Italian meats, cheeses and vegetables (which we devoured for dinner in the evening - delicious) and then we went to a pizzeria called Napoli in Bocca for a spot of lunch. Nice pizza, but not as good as the pizza you get in Teramo near where Daddy is from in Italy.

After lunch I treated myself to an Italian fig biscuit (they're amazing - whenever we used to go to Italy, we used to get them from the local pasticceria). It was delicious, but I was slightly put off by Dave staring at me and wimpering whilst I was eating it - he is still on his diet.

Sunday was another chilled out day - we spent most of it by the pool sunbathing and reading - the little pool and lounge area at our flat really makes it feel like you're on holiday, it's lovely when the weather is good!

Frost*

I thought it might be nice to write a post about where I've been working for the past few months whilst I've been in Sydney (unlike Dave I haven't sold my soul to American Express). The company is called Frost* and it is an independent design studio of around 30 people. They work across various media for a diverse range of clients including Qantas, American Express (!) and Nike, to name a few that you would know. There is also a fashion department here which designs graphic style tshirts.

My role here is as a receptionist, so nothing very glamorous. My main duties are answering the phone, maintaining tidy and well-organised studio spaces as well as general administrative duties. It's not the busiest or most stimulating job in the world but it enables me to earn enough money to pay the bills and to explore Australia, which is, afterall, the reason that I came here! Only another 3 weeks here though so after that the job hunt will begin again...

The perks of being a receptionist...

Being a receptionist, I have to book a great deal of couriers on behalf of people in the studio every day. The perk of this? The manager of the courier company just came in to give me a Christmas card and a little present - a box of Lindt Lindor chocolates (my favourites!). I was going to share them around the office but it's only a small box with 9 chocolates in and seeing as there are over 30 people in the studio, I think I'll keep them to myself....and as Dave is on a diet at the moment, I really can have them all to myself. Yum yum!

A very wet weekend in Melbourne - part II

Our second day in Melbourne was another miserable one - it rained on and off almost all day, which didn't make it much fun walking around discovering the city! Again we found a little cafe down a random alleyway for breakfast in the morning before getting the free tram to the Queen Victoria Market which is meant to be Melbourne's "premier open-air market". One word of advice, if you're ever in Melbourne, don't bother going there. The only good thing we found was a packet of licorice allsorts, and even they were a bit chewy and jaw breaking.

Cold and wet, we walked to the Old Melbourne Gaol where some of Australia's most infamous criminals including Ned Kelly and Squizzy Taylor (yep, I don't know who he is either) have been imprisoned. The tour started with The Watch House Experience where you are actually arrested and locked up in one of the cells by a Charge Sergeant. The photo on the right is us in jail. The rest of it is self-guided, and due to Dave being the slow reader that he is, we must have been there for almost 2 hours! You can imagine how bored I was (although grateful for being warm and inside) after 40 minutes...

After the Gaol experience we headed up to the "Italian" part of Melbourne to sample some good traditional Italian cuisine. Inevitably, I was disappointed; no-one can cook as well as my dad - in fact, my mum can cook better Italian food than what was on offer - and I have made a vow (probably shortlived) to myself that I won't go to anymore Italian restaurants whilst I'm in Australia. By the time lunch was over, our flight back to Sydney was looming so we headed back to the hostel to collect our bags and to the station to get the bus to the airport.

Boarding the plane, we discovered it had been a sweltering weekend in Sydney - up to 38 degrees - and on arriving home, we were hit by the remnants of the heat. Just our luck! Melbourne is lovely - I would have liked a little longer to explore it properly so we're planning on going back - but I think I prefer Sydney!

A very wet weekend in Melbourne - part I

The time had finally come for us to jet off to Melbourne after a long week of work. Our flight with Tiger Airways was delayed by around half an hour so we didn't end up landing until about midnight and then it took a $60 cab ride to where we were staying - The Greenhouse. Being my first time in a hostel, I was actually pleasantly surprised; apart from the fact that our room had no windows and it was quite noisy at times, it was a fairly nice place to stay! Really central, very cheap and, most importantly, clean. Breakfast was included in the cost but we went downstairs on Saturday morning to find just cornflakes and bread; we decided to eat out.

Venturing outside, we found a little lane full of buzzing cafes, which is apparently what Melbourne is famous for - we settled down to a coffee, newspaper and bowl of muesli. Relaxing and delicious. After this, we meandered around the streets of the city, familiarising ourselves with the place. Dave wanted to go down to the Yarra River so we took a walk there and decided to get a ferry up the river to a place called Williamstown. Although a little cold, this was a great way to see the city. Unfortunately, Williamstown wasn't as exciting so we decided to get the train straight back!

Back to Melbourne CBD we went to the Docklands for a spot of lunch and a wander round Harbour Town, which is an outlet centre. Typically though, when you've decided you want to go shopping, you can never find anything nice! By this time the weather had began to turn and our walk back to the hostel was a wet one.

Dinner was at Ca de Vin in the Melbourne GPO, which was a lovely little restaurant, hidden in an ambient alleyway - rather romantic! After this, we ventured to a bar we'd been recommended by a girl working in Ted Baker called Cookie, with four floors and a rooftop cinema and bar. We decided to brave the rooftop bar - great views but it was freezing cold and absolutely pouring down. We had a quick drink, took some photos (mostly obscured by the rain) and headed to the Crown Casino - the biggest casino in the southern hemisphere. Dave had a flutter, I had an Irish coffee to warm myself up, and we eventually made it back in one piece, but a bit wet and miserable, to our hostel.

A revelation

I emailed this to Dave this afternoon and he said it was a blog post in itself so here it is...

Oh my god. I was doing the flowers and Erin, one of the interns here, was making her lunch. She was toasting this amazing bread with dates, macadamias, raisins, seeds etc. She then slathered it in butter and let me try some. It is actually the best bread I've ever eaten in my life. But apparently it's from a deli near where she lives in Cronulla - $8 - I've asked her to either find out who makes it and where I can buy it, or to buy me some, because I actually cannot live without this bread in my life. That is how good it is.

It really is very good bread. I can still taste it in my mouth. Nom nom.

High Tea at the Victoria Room, Darlinghurst

Saturday was the day I had been waiting for all week - the day of High Tea at the Victoria Room in Darlinghurst. High Tea is very big around Sydney, it seems as though every bar and restaurant does it in an attempt to captivate what they think is "English"; I'm not sure I know of many places to go to for High Tea in England, other than the Ritz.

Anyway, we arrived a little early for our booking, and were both very hungry having saved ourselves since breakfast for the treat; luckily they managed to fit us in and we had soon ordered our tea and the anticipated selection of sandwiches, petit fours and scones. The place itself was done in what I suppose can only be described as British-Raj style - it was very shabby chic. After what seemed like forever, High Tea came out in all it's yumminess on the traditional three tiered silver stand. On the top was a selection of tiny crustless sandwiches, of which our favourite was cucumber, creme fraiche and dill; the second tier housed the little cakes - a mini cupcake each, a viennese whirl each, a chocolate and raspberry mousse each, and a lemon tart each; the bottom tier held the scones complete with cream (not clotted unfortunately) and jam. The sandwiches and cakes were delicious but the scones were a bit a of a disappointment - I don't think a scone is quite right without clotted cream!

Our gluttonous afternoon was followed by a lazy few hours by the pool with a book at our apartment catching the rest of the sun. Sunday was spent doing exactly the same thing (minus the High Tea, of course). A restful weekend as this Friday we're off to Melbourne, yay!

I've given up on yoga!

After my two week trial at the yoga club, I decided it wasn't really for me - I liked the exercises but I wasn't so much into the meditative aspect and, although I know it's meant to be relaxing etc etc, when I've exercised I like to feel as though I've actually done something. I like to ache the next day! So I decided to try Pilates instead which is supposed to improve the strength of the core muscles around the abdominals, hips and lower back. I discovered whilst trying to find somewhere to do it that it's an incredibly expensive hobby - the cheapest way to do it is just to join a gym where they do classes. Luckily, I managed to find someone on Gumtree who wanted to transfer their gym membership for super cheap, and not only do they do Pilates there, but also Spin, Bodypump and loads of other fun classes.

My first class was on Sunday and OH MY GOD was it hard. My tummy muscles must be really weak - you basically have to support yourself the whole time with your abs - I had to give up on various occassions because the burn was too much for me to cope with! Anyway, the instructor is really good, although a bit mean because he says we'll do an exercise for 8 but then says the first 2 don't count - massive group sigh! Monday morning my whole body ached but it was a satsifying feeling knowing that the exercises had actually done something. I went back for more pain on Tuesday but didn't feel so achey on Wednesday morning, thankfully. All in all, much better than yoga I think; we'll see whether in a month's time I've got the killer abs that Pilates is meant to give you (I doubt it - I think I'd have to stop eating so much cake for that to happen!)

The Opera Bar

Tuesday night we ventured to the Opera Bar to meet Loren and Latch (Kirsty's sister and her boyfriend), who are in Australia for a couple of weeks on holiday, for a drink. The Opera Bar is located on the lower concourse of the Opera House and has amazing views of it, plus views of the Harbour Bridge and the famous city skyline. Here's a photo I stole from the internet...

Never one to turn down a cocktail list, I sampled two different ones - "Twiglight Tryst" which was tequila with maraschino and raspberry liqueur blended with fresh lime and raspberry; and "Loves Me Not" consisting of vodka, lychee liqueur and campari with blood orange. The former was definitely my favourite of the two, the latter being ruined somewhat by the eyeball-looking lychee sitting on the top of the glass. Sydney has some amazing cocktail bars, my favourite being the Ivy, where the barman mixed me a special cocktail, as the one I'd chosen on the menu was apparently a "real man's drink" and would have me drunk with one sip. I think I must have already been drunk to not have answered back to that sexist comment!

...and the rest of the weekend...

The rest of our weekend was spent doing mainly house related things, that is food shopping and cleaning, none of which is worth writing about. Although I did make sultana scones on Saturday - Dave is having a "bring a cake to work" day to sell for charity so I thought I'd do a dry run (and just as an excuse to make something yummy to eat). They turned out really well so hopefully I won't embarrass him at work by giving him crappy cakes to sell.

On Sunday we ventured to Newtown, a suburb in the Inner West, for the annual Newtown Festival, a free community festival featuring dog shows, 5 stages of music and performance, writers tents, market and food stalls. Apparently the festival usually attracts about 80,000 people and even though the weather was rainy on and off, it certainly seemed that way. We wandered around the stalls, which all seemed to be selling very hippy fare, and eventually sat down to listen to some of the free music, mostly (actually, entirely) featuring bands we'd never heard of! It can only be described as very "Brighton" - lots of hippy, alternative people about.

If the weather had been nicer, it would have been a lovely way to spend the afternoon, but the drizzly rain coupled with the fact that alcohol was really expensive and you couldn't bring your own, meant that we left for home after only a couple of hours. Back to the flat to enjoy pie and mash for dinner, and yet more of Lost season 2, which is currently racking up a huge bill in overdue fines...!

Kobe Jones

I thought our Friday night escapade deserved a post of it's own as it was quite a sensational evening! After work I went home for a little sleep as I'd spent the afternoon with a banging headache and just didn't feel up for going out quite yet. I awoke to a phone call from Dave asking if I wanted to Wagamama for dinner with some friends - I'm always up for dinner so of course I said yes! I met up with everyone by Darling Harbour and rather than going to Wagamama we decided to go to a Japanese-California fusion restaurant called Kobe Jones, just for a change - http://www.kobejones.com.au/sydney/7

The restaurant itself is beautifully decorated, very Japanese, with a red and black themed interior and views out to the harbour thanks to floor to ceiling glass windows. Not being versed in Japanese cuisine, other than the Marks and Spencer sushi snack pack (which I love), we relied entirely on one of our friends to order the food for us. The menu being so vast, she ended up choosing the Gourmet set menu - it was very expensive but we decided since Dave had achieved such a good mark for his MSc that we would treat ourselves.

First to come out was the famous Number One Special (a Kobe Jones speciality) - crab salad with avocado wrapped in snapper and baked with Kobe Jones' secret sauce. It was absolutely sensational; I was devastated that there was only one piece each! This was followed by Wagyu Tenderloin and a Sashimi platter - also delicious. Yet more food was to come - Lava rolls and Spider rolls consisting of crab salad and avocado topped with steamed tropical lobster; Wafu style barbecued prawns in a ginger sauce - each one more delicious than the other!

And before I thought I couldn't eat any more, the dessert platter came out including sushi cheesecake, strawberry trifle, green tea creme brulee, a delicious melt-in-the-middle chocolate pudding, to name but a few. I could have polished off the lot on my own. It was an absolutely wonderful dining experience; very indulgent and special. I can't wait to go back there - although apparently they do an "all you can eat" $25 lunch menu during the week so I think until we've saved enough pennies to indulge again, this will have to do! A really lovely and enjoyable night :)

Parramatta and Riverbeats.

This weekend started off quite badly! We had decided to visit a Mexican restaurant we had heard good things about for some fajitas and margaritas, only to find out after we had walked there that it was fully booked. We ended up in a Vietnamese restaurant called Saigon Saigon (we were feeling adventurous) which looked lovely but was a massive disappointment. My meal was okay, but Dave had a duck curry which was really fatty and tasteless. He ended up not eating anything and complaining about the meal too. So no margaritas, no fajitas, and a disgusting dinner! Pick and mix from the shop downstairs and a couple of episodes of Lost made up for it though.

Saturday we took a trip to Parramatta, which is a town about 40 minutes west of Sydney, for their Riverbeats festival and an evening at the comedy club. Riverbeats is an annual festival in Parramatta where the river is lit up with pyrotechnic displays, glowing inflatable spheres and a myriad of music and live performances. The town was buzzing. The comedy club was not so buzzing and nothing compared to Komedia in Brighton. The compere was okay; the first act died on stage; and the second act was a racist, fascist, bigoted drug addict/alcoholic. The only thing to do was to drink lots of wine to numb the pain of the Australian comedy club experience!

Sunday was a beautiful day (if very windy - sunburn weather!) so we decided to make the most of the weather by going for a walk around to Mrs Macquarie's chair, which is a carved out rock on a peninsula in Sydney harbour. We ended up at a lovely poolside/harbourside cafe where we had a bite to eat and enjoyed the views.

Sydney and our apartment.

So I thought I'd write a little bit about the apartment we're living in just so everyone can get an idea of what it's like. Sydney is a city unlike any other in that it has many suburbs within it's centre; people don't say that they live in Sydney, instead they say they live in Surry Hills, or Paddington, for example, these suburbs ranging between 10 and 30 minutes from Sydney's CBD. Each suburb has it's own distinct character and many have wonderful boutique shops and cafes.

We live on the 12th floor of a very plush apartment block in Sydney's CBD so we're right in the heart of Sydney's business centre next to Darling Harbour. This has both positives and negatives. On the plus side we're really close to some great restaurants, cafes and bars, plus all the amenities you'd expect in a city. On the down side, it is dead at the weekend because all the city-workers live in the suburbs and don't venture outside of them once their working week is up. The lack of Sydneysiders at the weekend though is made up for with tourists visiting Darling Harbour and the Opera Quays.

Coming in through the front door, our apartment has a massive lounge/diner/kitchen, which goes out onto the balcony and is complete with all the necessary appliances to make life easy and happy! Off the lounge to the left is the bathroom, a nice neutral colour with a wall full of mirrors and the best power shower. Luckily we also have a washing machine and tumble-dryer in a little utility room off the bathroom so we don't have to share with anyone or wait around at the launderette. Off the lounge to the right is the bedroom complete with a wall full of built in wardrobes (which are all mine!) and glass doors which lead onto the balcony. The apartment block itself also comes complete with it's own gym and pool for residents, plus a barbecue and sunbathing area which is going to be amazing once the weather heats up.

We're lucky to have a lovely apartment in a lovely location - my only complaint would be the colour of the carpets - they are dark blue and show up every little bit of fluff. Coupled with the fact that we have the worst Hoover known to mankind (it is a strange contraption which you have to ensure is completely flat on the floor and then bring towards yourself, rather than the normal kind of Hoover which you push away from yourself), it can get quite annoying! Such is life, I suppose. I now know never to rent or buy a house with blue carpet (or white worktops come to think of it, they never look sparkling no matter how hard you scrub them!).

The Apprentice Australia.

Australia has followed in the footsteps of America and England and is showing it's first series of 'The Apprentice', which started five weeks ago. The concept is exactly the same and the big man with the power to hire and fire is Mark Bouris, an Australian businessman best known as the founder and chairman of Wizard Home Loans, Australia's largest non-bank mortgage lender. One thing is for sure -he is no Sir Alan Sugar.

So far we have seen similar UK-Apprentice related tasks including a cereal challenge, where the teams had to develop a cereal brand for children; an Australian pie challenge, where the aim was to create, market and sell pies; and last night a hotel challenge where the teams had to provide a 5-star service to paying guests at the Sydney Harbour Marriott hotel.

Needless to say there have been similar embarrassment inducing moments for all of the contestants concerned. A particularly hated contestant of mine is Sabrina, past Miss Australia (which she uses to her advantage, but to the embarrassment of others, at every opportunity) and member of Mensa. Both mine and Dave's favourite, and potential winner, is Morello (yes, as in the cherry) who claims he can "sell sand to the Egyptians, oil to the Arabs, and ice to the eskimos"! Whilst the show is in no way comparable to the English version with the absence of Sir Alan himself and brilliant contestants such as Raef Bjayou and Ben Clarke, it is a good way to spend a Monday night!

An antipasto to remember.

We've spent the past few weekends exploring Sydney and enjoying the sunshine (which only seems to happen at weekends here). This weekend was no different. After work on Friday we went for a few drinks to Ryan's Bar - an outdoor bar in the centre of the city, full of corporate types in desperate need for an end-of-week drink. Check it out here: http://www.ryansbar.com.au/. We then took a ferry over to Kirribilli to sample a fish restaurant which we'd walked past and decided was a must-try the previous weekend. It was disappointing considering the price but I did have an amazing dessert (again!) - a Belgian waffle with chocolate and hazelnut nougat with white chocolate ice-cream. Yum. We caught the ferry back to Circular Quay and ended the evening with a walk around the Opera House.

Saturday morning we went to the Australian National Maritime Museum in search of some culture (culture?? In a country that's only a hundred or so years old...unlikely!). Needless to say, it was quite boring. Saturday afternoon turned into a beautiful day so we decided to make the most of the weather and visited a restaurant down by the harbour for happy hour. We ordered some cocktails, a pizza to share and an antipasto platter; the platter turned out to be nothing like the description on the menu so Dave complained and managed to get the price knocked off the bill. Brilliant! In the evening we went to see 'Mao's Last Dancer' and, luckily, managed to find some toffee popcorn to munch on during what was a very good film, one of the best I've seen in a while actually.

Sunday was possibly the wettest day I've ever seen in Sydney and unfortunately we got stuck out in the middle of it on our weekly food shopping trip. The walk home from the market was NOT fun and we were both absolutely soaked and freezing by the time we got back. A sure way to put me in a bad mood! The rest of the day was spent indoors in the dry and warm with another roast and a film.

Night Noodle Markets.

Last Wednesday we went to the Night Noodle Markets in Hyde Park, part of Sydney's International Food Festival, which is going on throughout October. There were various street-style Asian food stalls selling a variety of Chinese, Japanese and Thai food. Alongside this there was free Asian-style entertainment (although this mostly consisted of two men dressed up as a dragon, scaring little children!).

We managed to scramble our way through all the people to find a little Thai stall selling pad thai for $10; the queue was really long so we thought it was probably a safe bet that the food was good. After a hungry wait we finally got our food and went and sat down - it was nice, a little cold and not enough to satisfy our hunger though so we went on the hunt for dessert. I found the most amazing little stall selling sticky black rice, which is a Thai dessert a little bit like rice pudding, with coconut ice-cream and mango sorbet. It was absolutely delicious!

For the rest of the evening we sat on the grass, watched and listened to the entertainment and chilled out. Unfortunately we didn't plan ahead - the event was BYO - a nice night would have been topped off perfectly with a good bottle of wine (and a few bottles of beer for Dave)!

My first ever yoga session.

Last night I went to my first ever session of yoga (I did try to persuade Dave to come but he was having none of it). I found a studio near where I work who are offering two weeks unlimited yoga lessons for $25 so I thought I'd give it a go! The type of yoga they practise at the studio is called "Vinyasa"; the word itself means "arranging" or "placing in a special place", and refers to sequencing a yoga practice in a particular way, moving progressively from simple to more complex poses in a flowing manner. The sequences of Vinyasa are designed to release tension in the body, while bringing about a state of inner harmoney and radiance. It is a more demanding type of yoga than say, Hatha, for example.

With very little experience of yoga other than the odd DVD here and there, I turned up slightly apprehensive but excited all the same. I met the teacher, Michael, before class who assured me that I would be fine - although I might find the room, which is heated to 30 degrees (to warm the muscles and work them deeper, apparently), a little uncomfortable to begin with. Michael was right - I don't think I've sweated as much since I went to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt! Nonetheless the class was brilliant - I found some of the poses quite challenging, especially the balancing ones, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable hour and a half. I felt incredibly relaxed both during the class, despite the heat, and afterwards. I can't wait to go to the next class, and rather than going to the gym all the time (to burn off all the cake I eat) I'm going to alternate it with yoga. Maybe Dave will come with me one of these days...there were quite a few men there actually, all without their tops on - shame they were all skinny little Thai boys!

Another weekend goes by.

This weekend was another fairly indulgent affair. Having had a bad day at work, I was in desperate need of a glass of wine by 5pm! First we went to the Slip Inn near our house. Luckily the weather was warm enough to sit outside so we spent a few hours in the garden bar sipping on wine and beer with friends(and at $5 a drink, we had a fair few!). Check it out here: http://www.merivale.com/#/slipinn/gardenbar. We followed this by going to the Golden Sheaf in Double Bay with the intention of getting some dinner (apparently they do amazing fish) only to find out when we arrived that the kitchen had literally just shut. Damn!

Saturday was a chilled out affair wandering around the shops and markets of Sydney followed by a stint in the sunshine at a jazz festival in Paddington. In the evening we took a ferry trip to Balmain (and a very long walk!) for a friend's birthday - lots of good wine, good food, and birthday cake to top it all off.

Sunday has become our food shopping day so we went to Sydney Fish Market, which incorporates a working fishing port, wholesale fish market and a fresh seafood retail market. It was incredibly busy and incredibly smelly, but we did get some good deals on fish - and hopefully it will taste nicer than the rubbish you get in the supermarkets here. The rest of the day was spent reading the newspaper, cooking a roast and an apple crumble (good British fare!), followed by a film. Then bedtime for another week of work....

A food orientated post.

So Wednesday night was our first trip to an Australian cinema, our nearest being by the Opera House. After some deliberation, Dave wanting to watch 'Mao's Last Dancer' and myself wanting to watch 'Julie & Julia', we decided that 'Julie & Julia' it was, provided Dave could choose the sweets.

The film itself, which according to Dave had two of my favourite things in - a love story and food - was somewhat a disappointment. Even more disappointing however were the maltesers that Dave decided to buy. After the massive box that Toni and my brother sent over to us and which we devoured with pleasure in a very short amount of time, we decided that they are nothing compared to the ones we have in England. Here they are smaller, crunchier and with less chocolate; we didn't even finish the pack, a sure sign that Dave didn't like them! Generally, we've found that chocolate here is not great: Cadbury's tastes like tobacco, maltesers are horrible; good job really that they have so many beautiful cake shops to make up for the lack of chocolate!

Despite this, it was nice having a night out similar to what we would do back at home. The cinema itself was quite plush - and almost empty. You can buy alcohol there too so it makes for quite a nice night out if you want to see a film, get some popcorn and have a glass of wine. Only problem is you can't buy sweet popcorn here, only salty - the Australians I have spoken to about this gripe react disgustedly even at the thought of sweet popcorn! Still, it would be nice to have the choice like we do at home; a cinema trip without popcorn isn't quite the same.

The blog begins...at last!

So I actually completely forgot that I had started this blog until today when I was a bit bored at work. From now on I am going to try and regularly update it so everyone can keep up with what we're doing out here. My job fluctuates between really busy and really dead (today being a really dead day where the phone has barely rung) so I'm sure I'll manage to write something every so often.

It seems pointless updating you on what we have done up until now so I'll just start with Dave's birthday weekend. Friday, the day of his actual birthday, we went out for drinks with some of his colleagues by Darling Harbour, and then ended up going for dinner to an Indian restaurant called 'Holy Cow' (nice name, huh) in Surry Hills with some friends. This was followed by even more drinks at an Irish pub in the city. Saturday followed a similar drinking and eating theme with a night of tapas and cocktails in Kings Cross for a friend's birthday. I ordered a litre jug of sangria for Dave and I to share only to find out that he hated it - so I had to drink it on my own; followed by half price cosmopolitans, I was rather tipsy before we'd even sat down to eat! Finally Sunday we just chilled out and went for a nice long walk over to Kirribilli (where I saw Alf Stewart of Home&Away fame) to walk round the art & design market where they had lots of vintage clothes, jewellery, and stalls selling really cheap seconds - I'm going to wait until pay day then take down $40 and buy myself some goodies! We also went to see the Prime Minister's House and Luna Park, apparently the theme park where they have been the most deaths; probably why it's free to get in! A walk round Wildlife World (we have an annual pass) to check up on the koalas, wombats and wallabies finished the day. A good weekend in all!

A blog for you all to keep updated with our adventures! xx