Purple fig

The Wall

2012-02-14T23:49:00.002-08:00

Gate 42, Row G, seat numbers 289 and 290 at the Allphones Arena at Sydney's Olympic Park gave us a GREAT view of Roger Water's The Wall concert last night. Over 20,000 people in the audience and we didn't see one face we knew-although a lot of people were our vintage, and wearing their favourite Pink Floyd merchandise. After all it's been 32 years since the Wall was first performed (in Earl's Court, London).

They say this show cost over 37 million GB pounds to stage. The pyrotechnics, animations, graphics and surround sound were pure Pink Floyd, including the small plane that crashed into the wall (in flames) in the stunning concert opener.

I just loved all the projections of the original Gerald Scarfe animations from the 1982 film and the historic Wall Concert in Berlin a decade later. They give the production a really strong, graphical anti-war stance with all that visual imagery inspired by the 30s, pasted with stuff from the 60s & 70s and current stuff too.

All the songs from the album were there - including the "we don't need no education" refrain from Another Brick in the Wall (Part 11). (Roger Waters must have had some really BAD teachers growing up in Britain in the 50s!)

I don't know where these kids were from - hopefully from a school in Australia. Their teachers were at the front in the pit doing all the actions along with them (just like Claire does with the Bom-Funk preschoolers)!

With the brick wall almost completed we had the wonderful Comfortably Numb - but we really missed Dave Gilmour on this one!

And of course - no Wall concert is ever without a flying pig Trust Us.

I got some decent little iPhone video clips too but for some reason they won't upload. I'll have to get some advice on that.

I overheard one young thing gushing afterwards that the concert "was INSANE - like totally!" I would have to agree!!

A big week

2012-02-13T02:22:00.000-08:00

Ella's big news on our return from Malaysia was her "loose tooth". Initially she was quite upset by its wobblyness and tendency to bleed (yikes!). But by lunchtime Saturday it was a source of obsessive fascination and a menu choice changer on our lunch date at Happy's.

With Lunch date over Ella rang us an hour or so after, very happy, very excited; tooth had fallen out.

It was the start of a big week of firsts: first day at preschool for Ella (very successful) (especially with a new smile to show off)......first days back at work for me.....

......and first day on the job for Wayne's team, fixing up the leaks in our ensuite shower and toilet. A scene of mass destruction at the moment, but all will be fixed!

Bon Ton

2012-02-01T04:44:00.000-08:00

We've spent the whole of the last 28 hours at Bon Ton...so not much to report. We had our least enjoyable meal of the trip yesterday, a late lunch at a Chinese seafood restaurant at Pantai Cenong. My whole fish in a hot chili sauce was good but Rob chose dishes that were too fried and not too flavoursome. The flies were terrible and the outlook wasn't too good either. We decided we'd stick to Bon Ton for the rest of our stay.

We got over our lunch experience last night with sunset drinks at the Rick Stein anointed Nam Restaurant at Bon Ton.

The cats are not allowed in the restaurant!!!!

Our Big Bob spends the nights and early mornings on our verandah then when we surface in the morning he requests to be let out the back door where he spends the rest of the day lazing in our open bathroom and sun deck. Yesterday while I was out there he jumped onto the bathroom basin expecting me to fill it so he could have drink. Of course I did what he expected!

The no make up, no GHD, Bon Ton look.

Gorgeous sunsets are Bon Ton's specialty and come free with evening drinks. Every hour or so during the day an Air Asia (small) jet lands or flies out of Langkawi airport from and to Penang. The airport is quite close to Bon Ton so that's another thing we can do during the day (look at planes). That's two of Rob's loves covered at Bon Ton: cats to pat and play games with and the occasional plane to admire in the sky.

Today seemed to just fly by: 9 hours sleep, late breakfast, 3 hours or so by and in the pool, rest in the afternoon, read another book (me) have my lovely new reading glasses delivered by Mr Lee from iZone Optics right to the door of our villa at Bon Ton. Then it's time for sunset drinks again and dinner at Nam Restaurant.

This place is a visual delight and such a lovely place to stay. We have loved it! The owner is an Australian. She's staying here at the moment. We watched her last night getting some of the staff to realign this row of daybeds. They use a bamboo pole to check they're the same distance from the pool edge. They do look nice all in a row! We guests mess them up during the day moving them into shaded areas under the umbrellas, or the sunny bits, depending on the whim of the moment. We've found it a rare privilege to stay at a resort where there are only 8 rooms (villas). We mostly have mornings at the pool to ourselves.

Our final evening meal in Langkawi is very memorable: a selection of Nyonya style dishes served on banana leaves. Very delicate beautifully balanced flavours. We shared a wonderful dessert platter too of some old favourites: black rice pudding, a fusion style creme brulee with glutinous rice, handmade coconut icecream and fresh mango, banana with a passionfruit syrup. Yum! Love Bon Ton.

Day two Langkawi

2012-01-30T03:55:00.000-08:00

Continuing our Langkawi wildlife theme, look what I found in our outdoor bathroom last night! Rob gently tried to "move him on" and this is where he moved to, until Rob found a better place for him. It was a good lesson to us that in an outdoor bathroom always make sure the toilet seat is closed!!

Our hotel arranged a hire car for us today so we could explore the island (it cost us AUS$27 for the day and was delivered to our hotel for us - we paid an extra AUS$10 for a half a tank of petrol which proved to be a bit excessive). We headed north up the coast first (looking for a petrol station) and then onto the famous Langkawi Cable Car base station.

The crowds were light this morning so we were in our cable car very quickly, on our way to the first viewing platforms at 625metres, high enough that the air even felt a lot cooler.

Although cloudy and hazy today we had amazing views from this level of the whole island/s that comprise Langkawi. This view is looking SSW down towards where we are staying at Pantai (beach) Cenang.

The photo below shows how tiny this island is. In this one shot you can see the north coastline, the south coastline, and if you look hard enough you can even see the east coast too. That's how small it is!

This gaggle of girls befriended us. They were our excitable cable car companions, who were all from Nanjing China. We initially thought they were Japanese; they were so refined and stylishly dressed, with such white skin ('scuse the stereotyping!). They wanted their picture taken with us???!!

This suspended walkway from the 652m level was an eye opening experience - quite an engineering marvel. Rob and I both remarked that there is no way you would find engineering marvels like this in Indonesia (and if you did you would NEVER be game to use them).

We went up to the highest level (700mts) and really enjoyed the whole experience. Even with all the haze today you could still see north far enough to see the landmass of Thailand over the sea and though the haze. It's that close!

Then it was back down to nearby Telaga Harbour for lunch overlooking the gorgeous yachts moored below us. That's "Sassy Bikini" in the left of the picture, a very opulent new looking yacht flying the Australian flag.

Rob always assumes any ritzy looking Australian yacht we see belongs to our Russel (Crowe).

But we forgot about the concerns of rich yacht owners when lunch arrived: garlic prawns (a salad), green chicken curry, beef rendang and a bok choy dish. Everything so fresh and flavoursome - we have not had one bad meal here in Malaysia!

We set off on our driving adventure again This time to the furthest NW you can go, to the 5+++ Andaman, Langkawi. Unfortunately we'd just had lunch so we couldn't even fit in a drink at the Andaman today. I did like the look of its reception area though.

This gentleman (could it be George Clooney?) was seen arriving at the Andaman in his gleaming black "sports car".

A little further on the NW coast we stopped at Pasir Tengkorak Beach, very popular with local people but looking disgusting today with mounds of rubbish everywhere and ugly metal shade structures in the "park" fronting the beach.

From Teluk (bay) Ewa on the mid north coast we got a great view of the massive Langkawi cement factory and along the road we got great views of the rubber tree forests which also provide a good living for many Langkawi locals.

But this was my favourite beach that I saw today: Tanjung Rhu on the far NE coast of the island. White sand, very clean, uncrowded, blue blue water, pretty limestone outcrops like in North Vietnam's Halong Bay.

Typical of Asia most of this beach was fenced off for the express enjoyment of the guests of the Tanjung Rhu resort. There were no adequate change facilities or stylish restaurants or cafes on this public section of the beach, making it quite difficult for tourists wanting to spend a day at a lovely beach. Although we found the ice coffees (kopi ais) very nice at this little local cafe (and only AUS 65c each).

It was very easy driving on the quiet roads of Langkawi today. It only takes two hours to drive right around the island (if you don't make any stops). It's an island of small (fairly unattractive) villages scattered with funny little tourist "attractions" and mostly charmless hotel developments (with some exceptions of course). You would have to be very careful where you chose to stay here. It would make all the difference.

I can sitted on teh compooteh

2012-01-29T04:32:00.000-08:00

We were amused to find Big Bob sitting on the laptop last night. Rob reckons he was looking for his picture on Purple fig. He seemed to be finding Purple fig rather soporific going by the look on his face.

Not a lot to report on Langkawi today - breakfast provided to each villa, eaten at a time of our choosing, on the verandah - three hours lazing by (and in) the pool having cool drinks brought to us - 2 minute taxi drive to Pentai Cenang for a very late, very long lunch at Jimmy's Padi Cafe (Indian/Malay) - eyes tested and frames chosen for new reading glasses from Pentai Cenang upmarket optician (yes I have lost ANOTHER pair of reading glasses) - taxi back to Bon Ton and time for a beer on the verandah as rain starts falling (no sunset tonight). Big Bob has not left our villa all day. He really likes us a lot.

This was the view from Jimmy's Padi Cafe. Because we ate at such a weird hour (3.30pm) the restaurant was empty except for us so it was good fun keeping tabs on the water buffalo, the bird life and the astounding monitor lizard we had a few sightings of in the padi.

We enjoyed another wonderful meal : samosas, chicken rendang, a beef "salad" and super flavoursome hand made icecream. Yellow watermelons are also in season on Langkawi; a first for us.

We've discussed at length how Langkawi differs from (Ubud) Bali - far less crowded, far less developed, better infrastructure, higher standard of living. The food is just as beautiful in Malaysia (it's amazingly good) BUT it is no where near as beautiful. In Bali even the rice paddies look like they were designed by a landscape architect and the simplest village buildings are built with great artistry. We're lucky to have the chance to compare!

Penang - Langkawi

2012-01-28T04:45:00.000-08:00

We took a taxi to Gurney, on the outer rim of George Town, on our last afternoon in Penang. It was a complete change from the ancient melting pot of old George Town; all prosperous high rise apartments and glitzy shopping malls.

We went for a walk along the esplanade and found some great food for an early meal before entering the upmarket Plaza Gurney. We headed straight for Birkenstock and each of us bought another pair of shoes - can't resist those AUS $70 Birkies. It must make the Malaysians wonder - why buy such ugly shoes when we could be spending our money on designer handbags or a Rolex watch studded with gold and diamonds. The shopping malls are full of great food outlets too. The young people are looking pretty solid to us - no wonder, all they do is eat.

We enjoyed a beer in the front courtyard of the Yeng Keng on our last night. We have loved staying at this hotel so much!

The flight over to Langkawi early this afternoon went like clockwork and by around 3.00pm we were already settled into our gorgeous Yellow Orchid villa at the Bon Ton Resort. This is quite a small resort. Guests have their own villas (there are only 8 villas) which are genuine old Malay country houses - very rustic, with outdoor bathrooms and very stylishly decorated. We both love it!

This is the front verandah of our villa.

And this is the view from the veranda towards the swimming pool and wetland/lake beyond.

And this is the view back towards our villa from the swimming pool.

And we have a cat to keep us company during our stay. He's on our verandah snoozing all day. Rob has christened him Big Bob. Bon Ton Resort supports a cat and dog sanctuary which is quite near the resort and a lot of the cats roam freely around the resort. They are fed properly and very well cared for so they are not a nuisance to guests. They provide decorative interest for those of us who quite like their cats. Big Bob even came inside our villa tonight and was a very refined and exemplary guest for the time he was allowed in.

Feeling very hungry by around 5.00pm we took a AUS$3.50 taxi ride into nearby Pentai Cenang (Langkawi's main beach village - only a 15 min walk away from our resort but way too hot to walk at this time of the day!). We quickly found a beach side restaurant (The Beach Garden Restaurant) that was prepared to serve us a delicious meal and drinks at this awkward time of the afternoon.

White clean sand, palm trees, blue clean sea, uncrowded beach, beautiful food, cold beer and fresh fruit drinks - perfect. I even ordered dessert, mango and cashew strudel with coconut icecream.

The tourists here seem to be mainly English and German. The wealthy looking Middle Eastern couples we saw on the plane coming over are probably staying at the really ritzy resorts in the secluded north of the island.

Our first sunset back at the Bon Ton Resort was just perfect. This villa, built over the wetlands, is the games room and library for the resort and a beautiful area to sit and read or play scrabble(?) with an afternoon beer or G&T.

Or stroke a cat or two or three.

Day four Penang

2012-01-26T22:24:00.000-08:00

We waited until around 4.00pm yesterday to make our way (by taxi) to Air Itam, about 30 minutes SW of Georgetown, the site of the Kek Lok Si Temple, the largest Buddhist Temple in all of SE Asia.

The temple complex is built into the East face of Penang Hill and is quite a drawcard on the island for Buddhists and tourists alike. During Chinese New Year the temple is lit up with over 200,000 festive lights from sundown, which is a truly remarkable sight.

Even at this time of the afternoon, only an hour or so off closing time, the whole temple complex was a madhouse: thousands of people, floors and floors of exuberantly coloured and decorated Buddhist religious objects for sale and set up shopping mall style. In the actual prayer spaces there was more smoke than you could poke a joss stick at. No surface has been left uncoloured or undecorated. We found it absolutely OTT.

But being so high it gave us a wonderful view NE towards George Town and the sea beyond.

This 7 storey pagoda of ten thousand Buddhas was completed in 1930 (forty years after the main temple was started).

...... And I did see a great idea for growing pumpkin vines!

The temple was a wonderful showcase for religious commercialism. One of the most popular items for sale were the roof tiles(?) hand painted with meaningful symbols by the Buddhist monks (this painter was a female monk).

At the highest point of the temple was the 30.2m bronze Kuan Yin statue completed in 2002. The current project is the construction of an octagonal based dome for it. The temple does not appear to be short of cash!

But this (below) would have to be my shot of the day/trip I think. The young girl was dropping a coin into every pot around the base of the Kuan Yin statue. Her younger brother and her mother were following just behind her. I was able to get her mother's permission (just by gesture) in time to get this magic shot! I didn't even need to crop it or anything!

It was all so mad at Kek Lok Si Temple that we couldn't stand to wait around another 2 hours in the Air Itam township for the temple lights to come on so we cut our losses and caught a 201 Rapid bus back to George Town at temple closing time (6.00pm). We are so lucky that this modern efficient bus service has so many runs that are close to our hotel.

This morning we caught up with the wonderful Joann Khaw (our guide from the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion tour the other day). She had agreed to take Rob and I for a private walking tour around the local area, focussing on food and markets and local culture. Two other lovely Australian women staying at the hotel also joined us (by our invitation).

First food related stop was at the Chowrasta Morning Market, off Penang Road where Joann showed us freshly picked nutmeg. The red outer part of the nutmeg seed is what mace is made from (I didn't know that).

The outer husk of the nutmeg seed is dried and preserved with a dusting of sugar(?) and sold as a snack food. We found it delicious; tasted just like preserved ginger.

It was very exciting to try "century eggs" for the first time (eggs preserved by soaking in brine for 100 days).

They're eaten in Penang with ginger pickles, which we found a delicious combination. It would be a great addition to an antipasti platter!

Further down the laneway Joann found us a spring roll wrapper maker. That's a springy ball of dough in that girl's right hand. She wipes it lightly over the hot griddle creating the finest disc of dough which the other girl lifts off as it cooks. They're making two at a time over two griddles, very fast. Other market sellers buy their spring roll wrappers from this shop, fresh every day. They would fill them with their own fillings and (usually) deep fry them.

The people in this shop make up a sweet rolled biscuit flavoured with ground peanuts (and more sugar no doubt) out of their wrappers. They were delicious too.

Fancy some jellyfish or some pork tendons (bowl on the right) anyone?

Joann bought us some local dishes to sample at a little food market off Chowrasta Lane: curry mee (what we think of as laksa), dim sum and fish balls and a variation on char kway teoh. We also loved the local favourite: kopi ping (iced coffee).

Joann spent over four and a half hours with us (cost us AUS$20 each with all the food and tastings included!!). We learnt so much more than just about the food - local politics, sociology, architecture, heritage area development challenges, professional challenges and much more about her own passion for the Chinese principles of Yin and Yang and the benefits of a daily dose of coconut oil!

Rob took this shot of another building on Campbell Street that he loved the colour of. It turned out to be George Town's best textiles (fabric) shop!

Day three Penang

2012-01-26T05:16:00.001-08:00

We'd learnt from our visit to Lebuh Leith earlier in the day that the Red Garden Night Market right beside the Cheong Fatt Tze Blue mansion might be a good choice for our meal last night. It proved to be a great choice. I loved my meal: a whole fish (small) seasoned and deep fried (very fast) served with crunchy ginger together with a green mango salad and a plate of spicy kangkung (sort of spinach). Rob stuck with bar-b-que chicken wings & satays which combined well with the salads and kangkung he shared with me.

With the temperature becoming cool enough to really enjoy walking we set off from Lebuh Leith, quickly finding the most stately streets of George Town where the early British colonial buildings were constructed........... looking out to sea from their new Asian seat of power. This grand old building is now George Town's Town Hall.

We eventually wound our way back to the Yeng Keng via the sweetly named Love Lane and happened upon this little art gallery just around the corner from our hotel.

We must have spent around an hour there, being entertained by these two gorgeous things. It was their art work on display but they seemed to be more interested in showing us a good time, playing the ukelele, plying us with special Chinese New Year biscuits (handmade by Grandma) and tea and making little gifts for us of Ang Pow with hand written good wishes in them.

We spent about AUS$4(!!!) on postcards and offered them a place to stay in Coogee if ever they visit Australia. They both seemed delighted by this. Rob and I fell in love with them both and would love to take them back with us!

Back walking the streets this morning, this time down Lebuh Campbell and then Lebuh Pantai, we see so many things of interest. We were intrigued watching this guy, the fastest Roti maker in Asia. He was hyperactive, pounding out the dough, rolling it, cooking, handling orders, making drinks, sorting change; none of the guys working for him were fast enough. He was awesome.

But we were heading to the Penang Peranakan Mansion in Church Street.

Peranakans are descendants of late 15th and 16th century Chinese immigrants to Indonesia and Malaysia. Baba is the term for males and Nyonya for females. These Chinese immigrants were from the rich merchant class and intermarried with local Malay women. In colonial times they became quite Anglophile and aspired to all things British. Peranakans number about 20% of Penang's population. Apparently the Peranakans and the ethnic Chinese population, who mostly trace their ancestry to coolie labourers who came to work in the tin mines in colonial times, are quite dismissive of each other, to this day!

Anyway this beautifully restored mansion recreates a rich Peranakan family's home life in George Town in the 19th century. We had a fantastic guided tour that helped bring the stories of the family and the times alive for us.

This story is for Jody. The Peranakans, unlike the Chinese, did not believe in foot binding and so developed the highly specialised craft (particularly in Penang) of the beaded, embellished regular sized shoe, a craft that continues to this day. Jimmy Choo comes from a Penang Peranakan family who were shoemakers in a little shopfront near Lebuh Leith. Jimmy did his apprenticeship with his father before making the move to London (where he set up business initially in Hackney in the eighties). So now we know where it all started! There was an enormous shoe collection at the mansion.

Our guide explained that for traditional celebrations Peranakan women favour embroidered tops and sarongs from Indonesia because their designs are more refined than Malay batiks and embroideries.

She also defended the presence of the bats we could see hanging from the ceiling of this temple. Apparently bats signify good fortune in Chinese mythology.

Someone must have started the practice of sticking the coloured entry stickers onto the bamboo plantings in the front courtyard.

After our tour and a refreshing cold drink in the Nyonya kitchen we headed up Lebuh Pantai past the new wharf side developments up towards Fort Cornwallis and the Queen Victoria Clock Tower (donated by an eminent Penang Peranakan in celebration of QV's jubilee in the late 19th century).

We were heading back to Lebuh Leith to Passage Thru India, just opposite the Blue Mansion in one of the original shopfronts that used to cater to the domestic arrangements of the Cheong Fatt Tze family in its heyday. Passage Thru India is a highly recommended local Indian restaurant.

And our meal there was just wonderful: Tikka butter chicken, "mutton" in spices and roasted in the tandoor, 7 vegetables with fruit and nuts in "white gravy" and garlic naan.

This was the best Indian food we have eaten EVER. I want to take this restaurant home with me. The desserts were amazing too: saffron and almond icecream and a kind of carrot halva served with Marsala tea. YUM.

Day two Penang

2012-01-24T23:41:00.001-08:00

We got a taxi to Batu Ferringhi (beach) last night; to see Penang's famous tourist beach resort and to have a look at the development along the way on the North and NNW coastline of this small island state.

Once again we had a very talkative Indian driver who took his tour guide duties very seriously for the full length of the 45min drive. We were so relieved this time though that his car was in very good condition with mufflers and AC fully operational and Cyril's English was very clear.

Batu Ferringhi was very crowded (Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday week) and full of foreigners, although as Cyril explained, a lot of the foreigners we see tonight are from Bangladesh and Burma, immigrant workers in Penang's huge electronics manufacturing sector out to enjoy a rare holiday due to CNY.

We arrive just in time to see the sunset on the beach. It always blows me away to see young girls in face veils on the beach and, in tonight's case, two girls walking along the sand with their brother(?) in full black burqas with black niqabs covering their faces too.

The young men were out on jet skies, churning up the waves.

We weren't very impressed with what we saw of Batu Ferringhi. Cyril says that the tourists like the Hard Rock Hotel and the Holiday Inn and all the bars and clubs along the beachfront. It wasn't to our our taste at all. The night markets are supposed to be very popular but tonight all we could see were stalls and stalls of cheap Chinese rip offs. It made us extra pleased we had chosen to stay in George Town this visit.

We were so turned off by the tourist scene that we purposely chose to eat at the Long Beach Cafe on the beachfront where we could choose our dishes from the range of hawker stalls.

Although lots of foreigners were there too. Rob took this picture so we could get a shot of the well upholstered Dutch couple next to us who spent the whole time feeding their faces and guzzling their beers (just like we did) without saying one single word to each other, in over an hour!

It was hard to find a taxi back so we braved taking a 101 bus back to Chulia St. It worked out to be a very easy option and very comfortable with the modern bus fully air conditioned - not bad for our AUS 75cent fare.

After another beautiful Yeng Keng Hotel breakfast this morning we went walking up busy Jalan Penang and into Lebuh Leith to catch the 11.00am tour of the magnificent Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. This mansion was declared number 3 of the top ten mansions and great houses of the world by Lonely Planet last year. The house was fully restored by the current owners in the nineties, winning many architect and heritage awards in the process. The house is now a boutique heritage hotel. Scenes from the French film Indochine (starring Catherine Deneuve) were filmed here in the nineties.

Like most of the architecture in old George Town it is a photographer's dream especially with its deep blue Indigo paint treatment, but we weren't allowed to take any photographs inside - only outside.

We loved our 1 and a half hour tour with Hokkein Chinese guide Joann. She was a born story teller and actor and really brought the life and times of the remarkable Cheong Fatt Tze to life, a self made man who became an international capitalist, with 7 wives and 8 sons and 6 daughters. His last son was born when Cheong Fatt Tze was 75 years old. According to the terms of his will the house could not be sold until that youngest son had died (which didn't happen until the eighties). By then this magnificent house had fallen into very bad disrepair having been tenanted out to 26 different families.

Joann explained all the careful attention to Feng Shui in the house, making it very entertaining and easy to understand, and pointed out the layers of architectural features Cheong Fatt Tze added to his house as he became an international traveller and a very rich man.

It wasn't too far from here to walk to the seafront Eastern and Oriental Hotel - founded by the Armenian Sarkies brothers in 1885 and a favourite of the elite in Penang in colonial times. Based on their success with the E & O the Sarkies built Raffles in Singapore two years later!

Apparently the hotel was closed down in 1996 after a few decades of decline, but luckily a full restoration was completed by new owners and it was reopened in all its glory in 2001.

We thought its bar area was rather beautiful, overlooking the hotel swimming pool and the sea beyond. High tea at the E & O is rather nice they say. However they stress that dress for that must be "elegant casual" and I don't think we have anything with us that fits this category. We will have to make do with drinks at this lovely bar!

We strung this experience out as much as possible before making our way back to the afternoon heat of the George Town streets and laneways. We walked down rapidly gentrifying Lebuh Muntri where Rob continued his fascinated study of all the different heritage floor tile patterns.

While noticing the enormous challenges of the restoration work still needing to be done in this precinct.

At the end of trendy Larong Stewart on Jalan Masjid Kapital Keling we found ourselves at the Goddess of Mercy Temple, the oldest and most popular Chinese temple on Penang, founded in 1801. It seemed to be where it was all happening this afternoon: smoke, heat, hundreds of people, incense, bird sellers, monks begging and blessing, beggars and bystanders.....all together.

Penang

2012-01-24T00:30:00.001-08:00

We were so happy to arrive yesterday evening at the Yeng Keng Hotel on Chulia Street in the World Heritage listed zone of George Town, Penang.

We thought that taking the train North from KL Sentral would be a great way to see the countryside. However for over seven and a half hours all we saw was one type of country: very flat with the occasional poor looking tiny village set in cleared land in the jungle. Rob and I were left wondering where Malaysia gets all its wealth from.

To end off the day's journey we were driven the 45 min trip from Butterworth Station over the 13.4klm bridge to Penang Island and to our hotel in a 35 year old Toyota Taxi with no muffler or air conditioning. Our lovely Indian driver gave us a tour commentary the whole way over, most of which we couldn't understand but which required responses from us.

Our hotel seemed just heavenly, on arrival...very quiet, very cool, very friendly and with beautifully decorated rooms in 30s Chinese style (and a swimming pool).

Our room opens to this shaded gallery. There are beautifully styled areas to sit and relax throughout this small boutique hotel (only 20 rooms). It's located in one of the oldest intact 19th century buildings in the heritage area of George Town.

The front of the hotel and attached cafe bar draws in other visitors but hotel guests are free at any time to get unlimited drinks and fresh fruit, and sit and read (all provided), people watch or sip G&Ts or beer (alcohol's not free, but very cheap all the same).

We loved our hotel breakfast this morning. As well as the usual omelettes, fresh fruit and cereals etc they bring in a range of local Nyonya delicacies every morning to tempt us. We'll look forward to breakfasts while we're here!

We spent some hours just wandering the streets around our hotel this morning. The area is predominantly Chinese (who comprise 46% of the population of Penang). It was still very quiet today with most businesses closed. Apparently things don't get back to normal after Chinese New Year until the 25th January. The street arcades are a photographer's dream. As we walked through we could see many families relaxing and eating together. New Year is a time for family reunions and feasting just like our Christmas. Lots of the young men were letting off firecrackers outside the doors (Tom Thumbs and Double Bungers) and little kids were setting off Throw Downs with the help of grown ups.

This area would be more Chinese than it is in China today I'd say!

We came to the Kapitan Keling Mosque, two blocks from our hotel (the call to prayers woke us at 5.00am this morning - but didn't stop us sleeping in then till 8.00am). Its the oldest mosque in George Town, originally built for Muslim Indians working for the East India Company. We were lucky enough to catch this little vignette of a fashionable Muslim Indian (?) couple getting some wedding shots taken in the grounds of the mosque (and here on the road outside).

And a little further on the Yap Kongsi (clan house for the Yap clan) and Temple on Lebuh (street) Armenian. The original Chinese settlers (most started as labourers) were from all over China so these traditional clan houses and family temples are a big part of George Town's cultural and social (and architectural) heritage.

The heritage tours by tri-shaw are for the tourists. There is a combined weight limit of 135kg for passengers. We saw a fair few today who would have extended that limit - not a pretty sight.

Labuh Armenian is a very pretty street with some trendy galleries and shops and cafes being developed now the heritage listing is assured. I liked the look of the Penang Islamic Museum at the end of the street but it was another building that was closed today.

Another area we found today was the Clan Jetty on the NE waterfront of the old Georgetown harbour. They're rows of teak houses built out on the water by the original Chinese workers and fishermen on the waterfront. They started on their boats then moved into these houses as they made more money. There are rows and rows of them. It feels a bit invasive walking up the central plank paths but everyone gave us a friendly greeting.

Most of them are decorated for New Year and lots of families were at home today and in a very relaxed mood.

No railings on the jetty as it extends out to the water - lots of little kids living on these jetties too.

I think these families would enjoy living over the water in their teak houses far more than their counterparts living in those big apartment blocks around the edge of the central heritage area of George Town.

Where have we eaten so far? Last night with all the Chinese restaurants closed we headed to Little India, which was a really rocking place; please add the sound of very loud Bollywood music to this street scape. We ate at Sri Ananda Bagwhan which came highly recommended. The food was fantastic but the whole experience was a bit too hot and noisy and confusing for what I needed last night.

Today for lunch we found this great open air food hall full of Malysian hawker food outlets. it was very cool and breezy and we both were able to try our first Penang Laksa. Which turns out to be very different to our favourite Singapore style laksas at home. Penang Laksa is based on fish broth and strongly flavoured with tamarind (and coriander and chili) It will take a bit of getting used to I think.

I couldn't stop Rob taking this picture of me......just taken my hat and glasses off......so, so sweaty and hot and not had the chance to let that fresh lime juice do its magic yet!

Day three Kuala Lumpur

2012-01-22T04:08:00.001-08:00

Starting the day with a bowl of "porridge" with dried oyster and peanuts soaked up with rounds of you tiao (Chinese fried bread) has much to recommend it. We even stayed around long enough to enjoy a cup of Nanking tea this morning too - which is a very dark strong tea, specially brewed for us, and served with Carnation milk (for an extra nice Chinese touch!).

Well fortified we headed out then by monorail to Chow Kit station on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, the main thoroughfare of this older KL district which has been settled predominantly by Malay people. This was the view from the overhead monorail station at Chow Kit.

It was very clear that this is a poorer area of the city, but with touches of modernity and development just starting, in stark contrast to the original buildings .

The Chow Kit wet market is very extensive and well known in KL. It was very crowded today even at 11.00am when we were wandering around. By the women's dress we could tell it was a Muslim neighbourhood, even if we hadn't known the majority of people living around here were Malay.

We'd never seen these brightly coloured dried foods before.

Although there were few surprises with any of the other food on sale. It all looked a lot like what we saw in the wet market in Denpasar, Bali.

We'd never seen this before in Hindu Bali though. Look closely (below) that is a cow's head and hooves - all halal too I am sure!

The only smells in this market were of delicious fresh fragrant food. Even the seafood section smelt sweet like the sea. Everything was fresh and as clean as could be under the circumstances.

Darren told us the other night that many Malay people have not been able to access opportunities for education and employment in the past (even though Malay people have gained greater representation in government). We certainly saw many young men around this market area today doing menial and unskilled work, more like in the villages of Indonesia than in the CBD areas of KL.

Although I admired the diligence of these two cheeky young men creating beautiful displays of banana bunches and jackfruit in this fruit stall.

Rob was very brave ordering and eating food at the market granted his experience in Bali. Nine hours has since elapsed since he consumed the (delicious) food and nothing untoward has resulted so I think it is all going to be good.

Back in the CBD this afternoon we joined the bulk of KL residents on a Sunday afternoon, inside the shopping centres. This one (below), the Berjaya Times Square, was Rob's worst nightmare: ten floors of tacky shops, constructed around three separate huge wings, all very crowded and with a cacophony of noise as a constant backdrop: drums and cymbals backing the lion dancing displays on centre stage and a different version of banal Asian hiphop music broadcast from every shop. Aaaah!

It even had a theme park in one of the wings. This picture shows the roller coaster ride in full flight complete with roars and blood curdling screams to add to all the sound effects.

Opposite Times Square was the Low Yat Plaza; seven floors all devoted to the latest ICT technologies. There were a lot of very excited and interested looking males in this shopping centre.

We walked back to the Parkroyal through the horribly tizzy and down market Sungwei Plaza which meant that we'd had a look at all of the significant shopping plazas surrounding our hotel in the past three days. We've decided eating and shopping are the dominant interests of Kuala Lumpur residents.

Earlier in the day I took these shots from the window (on the 15th floor) of our room at the Parkroyal, looking north along Jalan Sultan Ismail. Tonight it's been great to see from our window all the fireworks celebrating Chinese New Year's Eve - a huge night for the very large Chinese community in KL. It's a public holiday throughout Malaysia tomorrow in recognition of the significance of the day.

..... and this closer view of the hotel's (under used) swimming pool (takes away too much from shopping time!).

The weather in KL has been relatively kind to us - around 31-32o most days and only one or two heavy storms. Not too stinking hot and not wet enough to stop us doing too much.

Day two Kuala Lumpur

2012-01-21T06:27:00.000-08:00

It was a late start for us on Saturday after our two very late nights - and no need for breakfast. We thought a Hop on Hop off bus tour of KL sounded an undemanding option for the slow day we felt like we needed. We hopped on the bus at number 6 stop on nearby Bintang Walk at around 11.00am and found ourselves at KL's famous Chinatown in no time at all.

.........and quickly found the laneways in and around Petaling Street, home of KL's rip off trade and thousands of genuinely fake designer bags, watches and sunglasses. The illegal DVD market is based here too. Daren told us last night it is controlled by Chinese Triads in KL.

But in amongst the tat we can see it is a market place for locals with fresh fruit stalls, roadside eateries, restaurants and fresh food and flower stalls.

For lunch we can't resist trying some of Madame Hong's curry puffs, some dried sugared ginger for dessert and freshly cut papaya to finish off with. I even bought some fake Louis Vuitton make up bags in Chinatown - only AUS$3.80 for four of them - can't go wrong.

The hour or so there really seemed to tire us out so we spent the rest of the hop on hop off circuit on the bus (except for the interminable stops to take photos of national monuments and public buildings!!!). This was a great way to see all of the city for a pair of tired tourists but we thought too much of it focused on the huge empty public spaces and buildings that this new Asian city is so proud of having built in the last 20 years - but which don't interest us as much!

We walked back to the hotel after for a well deserved nanna nap before venturing out again to have a look at the KLCC area in the evening. We approached this modern glitzy shopping area by walking through the KL city park, which at this time of the day was filled with couples and families enjoying the approach of sunset and the view of the water feature in the lake.

Once we'd walked though the opulent, marble encrusted Suria KLCC Mall we were in the forecourt of the Petronas Twin Tower along with all the other amateur photographers waiting for their sunset picture opportunity.

These pictures are the best of what we managed to capture. I have found the towers to be irresistible, quite delicately beautiful and gem like, especially in this light. They were built in a rush of optimism in time for the big Asian financial meltdown of 1997-8 (I know there is a theory about the relationship of world's biggest skyscraper building and financial meltdowns; this seems to add proof to the theory!).

and this bank building opposite the towers tries its best to keep up appearances.

And the view walking back from the towers, through the KL City Park was even more stunning!

Hungry by now we found our way back to Jalan Alor and our favourite Cu Cha restaurant, home of the best Char Kway Teow we've ever experienced. We didn't venture to Darren's favourite restaurant tonight. His was the real deal: Chinese language only and no helpful pictures on the menu - too hard for tourists on their own! Saturday night at 8.30pm and the whole street was really buzzing!

We ordered up big tonight - local favourites:, bar-g-que chicken wings, satay, oyster omelette along with our C K T and Tiger beers.

And later found ourselves as close as we were ever likely to get to the preparations for a Chinese New Year lion dance. It was a big excited troop of young men and boys all with elaborate costumes and really playing up for the appreciative crowd.

Providing a colourful and noisy end to a day that started rather more slowly for us.

Day one Kuala Lumpur

2012-01-20T17:27:00.000-08:00

Friday morning in KL and this is the view down to Bintang Walk from the third floor of Lot 10, an upmarket shopping centre that is virtually next door to our hotel. We can't resist the Birkenstocks for around AUS $90 but we tire quickly in the face of so many other big brand stores.

The streets are lively with shoppers, students and workers but it is not too crowded, nor is it too noisy even with the monorail overhead.

We admire the food court in the LG floor of Lot 10. The Chinese corporate type who owns the block has ensured that Malaysian street hawker food is featured, hutong style in the food court. We didn't try the Frog Claypot on this occasion.

We walked on down Bintang Walk to the newer end of town, past the Farenheit shopping centre and to the super glitzy Pavillion shopping area. To stimulate thinking about world peace (!!) an exhibition of painted bears representing each country of the world was attracting a ton of attention at the entrance to the Pavillion.

Once inside the Pavillion it was hard to ignore that Chinese New Year is being celebrated on Monday - heralding the year of the dragon. Much of KL is festooned with red, pink and gold decorations at the moment in readiness for the celebration.

The Pavillion has more high end designer shops per millimetre than I have seen anywhere. But even in this setting Topshop and Topman have found their place.

We're obviously hopeless shoppers because we fairly quickly tired of all this too.

Luckily for us the Pavillion has a food court too, including lots of Japanese inspired eateries. It was fascinating to watch this young woman making fresh soba noodles.

But tired out from a few hours of looking at shops we found a good spot to relax with a Hoegaarden.

We'd booked ourselves into a Food Tour Malaysia Off the Beaten Track Tour on Friday evening. As newbies to KL we were quite challenged by the prospect of making our way by train to Petaling Jaya a satellite township on the SW outskirts of KL to meet Darren Teoh, the tour leader, at the Taman Paramount train station. So much so that we arrived at Taman Paramount with an hour to spare and quite relieved to have made it and be out of the crowded peak hour trains.

So we had to have a bit of a walk around the nearby streets, intrigued by our up close glimpses into life in the suburbs in Malaysia.

I didn't know it at this stage that I'd be eating later at the Restoran Lucky Seafood! in the background of the photo below. Nor did I know that darkness was rapidly approaching and a huge tropical downpour was almost upon us!

The thunder and lightning raged and the rain was so heavy that all we could do was wait it out under the cover of an awning by the roadside. It hadn't cleared by the time we were due to meet Darren at the train station so we both got DRENCHED making our way back. It was a good ice breaker though as the other couple who'd signed up for the tour were also soaked so we could compare stories and look a wet bedraggled lot together. (The new Birkies were also soaked unfortunately!)

The Restoran Lucky Seafood was right into the swing of celebrations for Chinese New Year. Darren ordered us a special Yee Sang dish that Chinese people try to eat at this time of the year as it is very auspicious for ensuring prosperity. We had to use our chopsticks to mix and toss all the components of the dish (ginger, toasted sesame seeds, horseradish, raw fish, various rice cracker things, plum sauce, grated carrot) mounding it as high as possible to ensure the highest level of prosperity for all.

The green juice served with it was fresh lemon with salted plum (surprisingly delicious). While starting to get to know each other a little and hearing a bit about Darren's background (and all about Malaysian food of course) I found Yee Sang a most beautiful, fresh and energising dish - a perfect meal starter.

A little drier by now the 6 of us squeezed into Darren's Nissan Levina for the drive back into KL city, via Little India in Brickfields.

This was my favourite food of the night. Indian food served on banana leaves and no cutlery, everything eaten with the right hand.

Darren's father is Chinese and his mother is Indian, making him very representative of modern Malaysia. He's completed his MBA in Lucerne in Switzerland and friend Sophie, along for the ride tonight has just returned to KL after a few years in Melbourne completing her Arts Communication degree at Swinburne.

Eating this delicious food with our fingers really loosens the conversation. Darren is prepared to talk (intelligently) about anything to do with Malaysian politics and society. He very cleverly makes us all feel relaxed, like we're in the company of friends.

We love this food! That milky looking drink served with our curries and breads is actually chai tea - a perfect combination.

The Hindu temple down the street looks like the grandfather of the merest facsimile that was built at Mawson in Canberra in the late nineties.

We'd talked so much it was already around 11.00pm by the time we arrived at the next eating place in the Kampung Baru district of KL just to the NW of the newly developed KLCC/Petronis Twin Tower district.

According to Darren we sampled the best satay pork and beef with chili/peanut sauce in KL at the little roadside eatery he selected for us in this district.

Close to midnight by now it was quite a thrill then to be driven around and right below the Petronis Twin Tower and KLCC, gorgeously lit for the admiration of the throngs of people and cars still lining the roads this late at night. It is definitely a beautiful and elegant building.

We end up in Jalan Alor, which Rob and I had found on our first night. The food outlets there obviously meet with Darren's approval.

We managed to squeeze in some bar-b-que chicken wings (sticky with soy sauce but so smoky and tender too) served with a type of bok choy with fermented bean curd and our first Tiger beer of the evening (or should I say early morning).

The young couple with us were from Melbourne. They were here to take advantage of Malaysia's extremely good reputation for high tech and high quality dental work at a third of the price it costs in Australia. Chris had just had a wisdom tooth removed this morning. He also gave me a blow by blow account of having his teeth laser whitened and his wife Tina horrified me with her accounts of having all her teeth capped in porcelain (for cosmetic reasons). Her smile was perfect but OMG what a process to go through. They were a lovely open talkative couple, well travelled and good company for the night.

Once again preparations for Chinese New Year result in random acts of noise, firecrackers and lion dancing in the streets, even by young children like these.

It's getting close to 2.00am by the time we walk the short distance from Jalan Alor to the Parkroyal. The night's experience will be one of the highlights of our stay here. It's been amazing!

Arriving Kuala Lumpur

2012-01-19T15:49:00.000-08:00

Kuala Lumpur airport must be one of the most modern and efficient in the world. We landed, transferred terminals got through immigration, picked up baggage, changed money and were sitting in our prepaid taxi (no haggling) all within about 50 minutes. The airport is connected to downtown KL (the Golden Triangle) by a 70klm expressway so our 74Ring. (about $25) taxi ride to the Parkroyal on Jalan Sultan Ishmail seemed to take no time at all.

It just didn't feel like we were in Asia though. Where were all the people?

A quick walk around the corner from our hotel past the humongous shopping plazas, along Bintang Walk and then left down Jalan Alor revealed more familiar sights (and smells)...

Although by Australian time our bodies were feeling like it was around 3.00am we couldn't resist ordering our first Tiger beer and plate of Penang style Char Keow Teoh (very smoky, quite fiery chili with delicious morsels of tender prawns and bar-b-que oysters) at one of the little road side restaurants.

and a pack of 15 hand made Chinese cookies filled with beautifully flavoured fillings based on lotus root, bean paste and some other unfamiliar ingredients, for dessert.

and washed down with bottles of Seaweed Jelly Drink for later.

We're looking forward to our first full day in Kuala Lumpur. We've slept in after our late late night of exploring and feasting but that is compensated for by KL being 3 hours behind Australian time. So it's really only 8.00am here; time for breakfast.

Charlotte Pass (2)

2012-01-15T22:14:00.000-08:00

This was our second stay at the Southern Alps Ski Club Lodge at Charlotte Pass, for a weekend of walking, eating and socialising in the company of friends. And this most beautiful part of Australia is so close, only 2 and 1/2 hours from Canberra.

Last year on our first afternoon walk from Charlotte Pass we'd had to turn back before reaching the summit of Mt Stillwell because of encroaching cloud and bad weather. This time we managed the summit walk easily, as we admired the profusion of summer alpine wildflowers and the fabulous views all around us. Mt Stillwell is 2040 metres above sea level but it's an easy climb (and only a 3.8km walk) if you approach it like we did from the end of Kosciuszko Road on the ridge above Charlotte Pass village.

Saturday we tackled a 6.4klm walk from Guthega village, over Blue Cow Creek and alongside the Snowy River to Illawong Lodge, later crossing the suspension bridge below this isolated spot to gain an up close look at some lazy trout in the Snowy River. For much of this walk we followed a narrow track along the relatively steep slope of the river valley. At Blue Cow Creek we chose to use the more modern bridge rather than the original flimsy flying fox contraption.

A wooden platform outside the old Illawong Lodge (hut) was a great spot for morning tea and a spectacular view of the valley below us.

Rob was the first one to walk across the suspension bridge. It felt like quite an adventure as it swayed a lot and felt quite flimsy as you made your way (singly) across it.

But from this angle the views of the river were just spectacular.

The walking was tricky on such a narrow, uneven and steep path. Maddy twisted her ankle on the return walk and had a difficult trip back to the car (with her Mum and Dad) and needed ice baths later back at the lodge.

Yesterday we completed another beautiful walk starting at the Perisher Valley Reservoir, to the spectacular Porcupine Rocks, overlooking both the Perisher and Thredbo River Valleys.

This was a gentle walk, only about a 5.4klms round trip, that led us through fields of button grass and groves of snow gums, now nicely regenerating after the devastating fires of 2003.

With spectacular views back to the Main Range and a clearly visible Charlotte Pass village in the distance.

J & J have done these walks before and have quite a history with this particular Porcupine Rock walk. The area has a "Picnic at Hanging Rock" quality and children have been misplaced here on earlier occasions (but safely found!).

At the spectacular Porcupine Rock escarpment Rob proved his confidence with heights to any doubters by getting this close to the fabulous view of the Thredbo River Valley and the small township of Bullock Flats in the distance.

The rest of us preferred to keep our distance while still enjoying this brilliant vantage point on Porcupine Rock.

The only small irritation in this part of the world is the humongous green eyed March fly. We proved that they much prefer denim to the synthetic material of outdoor adventure clothing. And Maxie proved they much preferred her NYDJ denim jeans to Rob's Rodd & Gunn denim jeans!!

You can see in the pictures below why this rock outcrop has been named Porcupine Rocks!

Rob was trying some "creative settings" in this shot - very suited to the way the skies darkened and the wind sprang up on our walk back to Perisher.

There was just enough time for some well made coffees at the Perisher Village outdoor cafe at the end of our walk, before the rain started.

The walking here is wonderful but so is the time with friends - great wine and food that is shared, plenty of time for talking, reading, Sudoku and Scrabble and watching the ever changing skies alter the mountain landscape outside the full length windows of the lodge. We're thinking this needs to be an annual event!

40 years ago today

2012-01-07T23:36:00.000-08:00

40 years ago today Rob and I got married. We only look like we were about 16 in this photo but we were actually a couple of years older than that. Me and my two sisters had dark hair then (all natural) but mine has turned blonde as I've matured!! Rob's hair was longer and floppier then but he has just as much hair coverage now as he did then, lucky man.

Those hats and the cotton voile dresses were a bit of a tribute to the hippie times. My sister's dresses were made out of a Zandra Rhodes printed fabric featuring purple and brown feather and stripe motifs. Like Wow Man.

It was a perfect excuse for a celebratory breakfast and family get together after all our independent travels in the past few weeks. Ella enjoyed opening her belated Xmas present from London Eddie. She has always loved Russian dolls and never had one of her own before, but now she does thank you Eddie!

She's always liked baby dolls too, but never been encouraged to get too clucky over them........all girls need to aspire to a whole range of roles after all. With new baby sister's arrival drawing closer though it seems that Polly the Dolly is becoming a more constant playmate.

The three kids were so excited to be back together again after their holidays apart.

We used it as an excuse to celebrate Rob's birthday which is coming up in the next week and drink a toast to the longevity of our marriage with a glass of Majella (which is appropriately ruby coloured for this ruby anniversary).

Today's was a lengthy, laid back gathering lasting well into the afternoon. Everyone seemed happy not doing much but eating, chatting, playing games with the kids, making and flying paper aeroplanes................

and playing down and dirty games of backyard Volleyball. This got quite serious at some stages as Ollie and his "Parps" are both very competitive when they play any kind of sport.

In 1972 Rob and I:

Got married on Saturday 8 January at the Mary Immaculate Catholic Church, Ipswich Road, Annerley Brisbane

Spent our honeymoon at Port Macquarie

Lived in a flat at 27 Wambool Street, Bulimba from January – Easter 1972

Jude got her driving licence in Brisbane

Moved to Canberra at Easter with all our possessions in our VW Beetle

Stayed for a nice long time at the Brassey Hostel in Barton on our arrival in Canberra

Rob worked for the Commonwealth Audit Office in Canberra

Jude got a job at Georges Fabric Store (where Ken Cook is now at Bailey’s Corner) until a Public Service job came up in the Department of Navy later in the year

Rented a 2 bedroom flat at Endeavour Gardens, Launceston Street Lyons when we had to move out of Brassey Hostel

Both turned 21, allowing us to vote for the first time in the historic election in early December when the Australian Labor Party defeated the Liberal/ Country Coalition which had been in power for 23 years. Gough Whitlam became Prime Minister of Australia ending conscription and introducing universal health care, fee free tertiary education and legal aid, and ordered home all the remaining Australian troops in Vietnam. Such exciting times!

But look how far we've come now in the short space of 40 years!

Glebe, Newtown

2012-01-05T01:01:00.000-08:00

Coogee has been crowded all week. Until yesterday the temperatures were very mild for January, so the streets, the cafes and the beaches have been filled with happy sunseekers.

We took a break from the Eastern beaches last night and headed over to Glebe; time to catch up with some family members there, particularly the gorgeous Z and 10 week old baby A.

Z has grown a lot and seems even more bright and sociable than when we last saw her a few months ago. She was fascinated with our cameras and pretty determined to operate them (correctly too) on her own. Not surprising really!

Baby A was very serene and cuddly throughout our visit and while his mummy and daddy plied us with the most beautiful food (and drink), served outdoors in their Glebe courtyard garden.

We took C's very well informed advice about the best cafes and shopping in Newtown on our visit there today. We were on light rations though after last night's beautiful meal so all we could manage at Black Star Pastry on Australia Street was a cup of tea. The famous watermelon and strawberry cake will have to wait for another day. We sat on the pavement with the other patrons and enjoyed observing the inclusive, diverse and quite bohemian character of Newtown.

I could just manage a papaya salad at Tre Viet by lunchtime. That should last me the rest of the day the way I feel.

We were home in time to see the wonderful (and surprising) Iron Lady at the Randwick Ritz, the first movie we've seen so far in 2012. Meryl Streep does another amazing job (as does her make up artist) with this role.

Summer days

2012-01-02T02:35:00.000-08:00

We've done the Coogee changeover with J & J & E, having caught up with them on New Year's Day for lunch at our favourite Cabramatta Vietnamese restaurant, Thanh Binh.

Ella rated her week in Sydney as 100/10 with the highlights being her day at Luna Park and the time spent at Coogee Beach. It was also clear that in the past week she increased her love affair with Coogee's Gelatissimo and her New Year's Eve fish and chips meal at the beach seemed to be highly rated too. She told me all this over lunch.

Ella was also able to advise me on the functions of my new very much smarter phone. She shot this nanosecond long segment of a video clip to explain to me how this function works on my phone (all new to me). Ella is the proud owner of a Christmas iPod so knows all this stuff backwards already. J & J said Ella made a video of them cleaning the apartment with her iPod the morning they left. They had to check through all the footage in case there was anything incriminating. I'm still at the level of trying to build my new contacts list on my iPhone......so sad.

Coogee is very crowded, today being a public holiday. We were glad we didn't have to use the car. It was an absolutely perfect Sydney day: 26oC and a cool sea breeze all day. We went for a long walk along the headland and spent ages after reading in the shade of a tree....a really lazy day. We just snacked on what we could find in the apartment today; every cafe, eatery, checkout and movie theatre has a queue, all the buses to and from the beach are full and the roads are clogged with traffic. Things should start getting back to normal tomorrow.

All these photos were taken with my iPhone, then downloaded to the Macbook, then uploaded to the blog (how good is that?).

Bees

2011-12-27T04:00:00.000-08:00

For the past two weeks some very busy bees have been building this hive onto a branch of the silver birch tree just outside our living room.

The wonderful Lyn and her Pat from the Canberra Beekeepers Association came early this morning to remove the hive and transfer the bees to a safer location away from little kids and pets.

It was a fascinating process to watch. First they used some brilliant DIY gear to remove the hive from the branch........

......then transferred each layer of honeycomb to its new home. Lyn examined each piece really closely - checking to see where the Queen Bee was, apparently. Look at her doing this with her bare hands!

The bees got a bit feisty after a while so they set up a smoker to calm them down. There were at least four chunky layers of honeycomb in our hive.

The Queen Bee sighting proved to be elusive however.

Lyn says there is no honey in our hive...but it was full of pollen, for all the baby bees. She thinks it's Grevillea Robusta (Silky Oak) flower pollen - very yellow.

The new home for the hive will sit under the tree for 24 hours to collect any remaining bees that may have missed out on the move. Lyn and Pat will then collect the hive and take it to its new location.

Although it was a fascinating process to watch both Rob and I got caught out 3/4 of the way through - lost our focus a bit and both of us ended up being stung. I got stung on the face and Rob got stung on the back of the neck. I had forgotten how much a bee sting hurts - especially on the face. And to make it worse the bee got stuck in my hair so it was a horrible few minutes until I was sure it was gone.

Lights, action

2011-12-27T03:17:00.000-08:00

We joined many thousands of other people on Christmas Eve at Bissenberger Crescent, Kambah. The mood was mellow, the sky was lit with over 80,000 Christmas lights (90% of them LED - and that was just from number 47) and the collection of gold coins for the various charities was growing by the hour.

I presented Ella with a new red hat for Christmas and was very amused by her decision to wear it for the next 36 hours, including throughout our sunset viewing of the Christmas lights.

The mellowness of the evening continued on to a very laid back Christmas Day for us. With everyone somewhere else this year we had lunch together with Mum at Rydges and spent the rest of the day doing very little. We thought a lot about loved ones near and far of course, as you do at Christmas!

More feasting

2011-12-19T00:56:00.000-08:00

Jennie and Wayne continue to host our yearly pre Christmas gathering at Murrumbateman despite this time of the year being such a busy one for farming folk. We all love this opportunity to share some Christmas festivity and prepare a feast of food with some wonderful wines. After all these years it's the tradition of it all that is a big part of the fun too:

...the kids entertaining us with Christmas music (although this year Sophie took on this role by herself) as the sun sets behind the vineyards.

.......Maddie telling us her school survival stories, and Maggie having the opportunity to pretend she's a farm dog for one night of the year.......

.....and Thomas being totally cool and confident about his up and coming Year 12 Graduation........

...and us exchanging presents and long standing jokes....... and enjoying the chance to share wonderful food together.....while we catch up with news of family and country life. We enjoy meeting up with Shane the grafter again. He's almost finished grafting onto all the old sauvignon blancs, turning them into far more interesting (and valuable) Sangiovese and shiraz vines.

Roland only allowed us one ingredient per couple this year. We had to make a plated dish AND a finger food (to have with our pre dinner glassES of Majella) with our one ingredient. I was very challenged this year when I drew couscous, which I thought would be impossible to make into finger food.

My solution was to bake mushrooms stuffed with couscous, pine nuts, Sicilian olives and a few other things, topped with Sheep's milk cheese - which ended up quite delicious! I made a lamb tagine for my plated dish which was not very Christmassy but which went well with our D'Arenburg Shiraz.

Jennie did wonders with her "seafood": delicately sauteed scallops on crisply fried peppery salami as her finger food and Narooma oysters and smoked trout mousse as her plated meal, served with a beautiful Reisling from Alsace.

Judy scored duck as her ingredient and presented a truly stunning and very seasonal warm duck salad with beetroot and pomegranate as her plated dish. Amazing, delicious and so very French!

Maxie's ingredient, cranberries, presented some challenges too, as you can't get fresh ones anywhere in the Southern hemisphere. Yottam Ottolenghi was the inspiration for this gorgeous tart, which Maxie plated artfully with chocolate scrolls, cranberry coulis and fresh berries. I loved Maxie's cranberry based finger food too: caramelised onion, walnut and cranberry on puff pastry rounds. Yum!

With the Murrumbateman feasting done for another year we know that Christmas Day is just around the corner now!

Girls in Black

2011-12-19T00:08:00.000-08:00

We were lucky enough to have visit from Melbourne Erin this weekend. Ella has always thought Erin was pretty special so when she arrived Ella tried to be as entertaining as possible, doing her best tricks for her on the swing set, sending the best paper aeroplane flights from the new tree house and taking lots of portraits of her with Rob's camera. The mild sunny weather on Saturday afternoon created the perfect backdrop for our relaxed girl time together in the back garden.

Although by early evening things had calmed down enough to do some quieter puzzles and craft together.

Sunday morning the whole Canberra branch of the family gathered together at our favourite breakfast cafe. The kids all greeted Erin warmly but I was amused to see how quickly Angus got back to examining his Top 10 Singapore travel book while the rest of us socialised. He even managed to get Ella interested in his new favourite travel destination!!

The start of 2012 will bring with it a big year for baby girls in our family. We all agreed that Jody and Erin and their baby girls looked absolutely beautiful this morning - especially against the backdrop of the courtyard garden at the Hyatt. Their black outfits were very "Melbourne" I thought.

And how impressive, with 10 or so weeks to go, that these two beautiful girls are still able to crouch down for the sake of the group shot (and get up again) so gracefully.

Coincidentally I dressed very "Melbourne" too............

...along with all our beautiful girls...............

So this is Christmas

2011-12-12T03:17:00.000-08:00

I hope this collection of photos captures some of the fun we had yesterday at our family (early) Christmas celebration. We started at midday with the little ones waiting patiently while the adults unpacked their contributions to lunch and their bags of presents - and had their first glass of Marjella poured.

But then it was time to open presents.............

In the pic above Ollie is wearing his present from Ella-a handprinted T-shirt with an Ella original design. In the pic below Ella is wearing Ros and Pete's present from the Coff's Coast. She LOVES this dress and describes it ecstatically as her "dress that looks like money".

Star Wars Lego continues to be a popular choice of present.

It is lovely to have so many adults around to help with the unwrapping , including a full suite of grannies and grandpas (and even a great-grandma).

Ollie loved his new chess set. Better watch out Pa Pa!

Things were on the verge of being out of control at times, but we managed to keep just this side of total mayhem.

Ella enjoyed unwrapping a whole new wardrobe under the tree this year. These board shorts are heading straight to Coogee after Christmas, for lots of swimming in the ocean with her Daddy!

But then, we were ready for lunch. Rob and Rod averted a mini disaster by getting the chicken cooked before the first of Sunday's big storms hit around 2.00pm.

We struggle to get group shots of the kids.......this one worked for Ella but not for the others. We'll keep trying!

Our lunch was a great success. The kids were happy and delightful company, the food was wonderful and we'd kept it all so simple and low key this year that everyone felt very relaxed. The gathering storm outside just made us feel even more cosy and cocooned inside together.

And we even managed to get a great group shot of the these gorgeous kids (thank you Claire)!

Rob had got the new tree house and swing set all set up ready for our celebration today. Unfortunately the stormy weather meant it was never properly launched. When the really big storm hit around 7.00pm last night I thought there was a chance it might float away in the rapidly rising flood that was our back yard by then. No chance of that however with the number of screws and bolts in this safe construction!

Merry christmas to all our loved ones who weren't able to join us this year!

Bom Funk

2011-12-12T02:48:00.000-08:00

It was time for the end of year Bom-Funk Dance Studio Showcase XIV concert last Saturday night. The performance of Claire's preschool class was of special interest to us as was Ollie's Boyz Funk group. Jeremy had the job of keeping the preschoolers calm and focussed before they were due on stage. The pic below sums up his success at that particular job.

But once on stage the preschoolers transformed themselves.......

Their dance told the story of a jewellery heist - complete with gangster thieves, laser security beams (that's the red wool), dramatic tension and lots of opportunities for stylish dance solos and group sequences. These 4-5 year olds had a full 5 minutes of dance moves to memorise!

6 months ago at their last performance it seemed like Claire had achieved miracles just getting them up on stage with the occasional set of dance moves from isolated individuals done in the correct sequence. Now look at what she has achieved with them!

Totally cool and confident performers!

While Ollie's Boyz Funk group is as hip and happening as ever (and spot Ollie's cameo appearance in the jewellery heist scene, above)!

Thomas

2011-12-12T02:20:00.000-08:00

We've been lucky to know Thomas for (exactly) 18 years now. He was born in December, 1993 just as we were preparing (training in Sydney) for our big 6 week Canada/US trip with Ice Hockey Josh. So we didn't get to meet blue eyed baby Thomas, and start our relationship, until our return to Canberra in early February 1994.

He's always had an air of quiet, calm, self assurance which no doubt has contributed to his consistent success at school, especially in mathematics, science and languages (thank you for all the translating you did in France for us Thomas). His musicality blows us away (and thank you for all those impromptu performances) and what he doesn't know about Soccer isn't worth knowing.

Jurgen celebrated Thomas's birth all those years ago with a 21 bottle purchase of the 1993 Bailey's Shiraz (from Rutherglen).

Thomas was legally able to enjoy a glass with us this year. We thought it tasted better than ever!

Thomas has two sisters so is better equipped than most 18 year old males to stay calm in testing situations. It is no wonder they adore him.

Happy birthday Thomas and may your future continue to provide opportunities for you to use your wonderful talents and education.

A jolly weekend

2011-12-06T00:46:00.000-08:00

Maxie's birthday and other end of year celebrations combined to make this an unusually jolly weekend.

We started on Friday with an 18th birthday shopping expedition and lunch afterwards with young Thomas L. Saturday we celebrated Maxie's big birthday family style at the green and shady Lowe Street Park in Queanbeyan, then a big night out afterwards with work friends. Sunday it was playtime with Ella in the morning and catching a movie in the evening (The Ides of March - brilliant!) with friends and a late dinner at Mecca Bah afterwards, once again in celebration of Maxie's big birthday.

Last night it was out again; this time catching up with Hugh and Joanna and all their travel tales before the end of the year. We've had fun but it has been a marathon of enjoyment!

My 97 year old Mum will treasure this pic of gorgeous Ollie enjoying a cuddle with Great-Grandma.

The bikes and scooters were out in force. Ella's bike is a fully restored vintage model that her Daddy spent many hours (and dollars) modifying to meet her specifications (must be painted red and purple and have pink streamers!).

Some relaxed family time together....

....... and our old favourite birthday carrot cake. Ella was waxing lyrical about the joys of icing ---she wishes "it would rain icing" ---- while O and A just got on with demolishing their portions.

We organised Secret Santa and sorted out the menu for next weekend's family Christmas lunch, very inefficiently thanks to my having drunk two glasses of sparkling shiraz.

Our end of year fancy dinner that night was at Waters Edge Restaurant, with my work friends in the RED group (and partners). It was a beautiful wintry cool Canberra evening on Saturday and we enjoyed our big night out at this fine restaurant in its special lakeside setting.

We were up early Sunday morning ready for some time with Ella while her Mummy and Daddy got Christmas shopping organised. I thought she would enjoy a visit to the Kingston Bus Depot Markets but they proved to have limited appeal so we spent some quality time nearby, checking out one of her favourite sliding places - the Telopea Park skate slide.

Rob captured us having a d & m at this point. From memory I think we were discussing the relative merits of macarons and meringues.

Breakfast with Obama

2011-11-29T01:58:00.000-08:00

No we didn't have breakfast with Obama, but we did have a leisurely Sunday morning breakfast at Obama's hotel - the one where he stayed during his 22 hour stopover in Canberra recently. The hotel looked to have recovered from the onslaught of Obama and his entourage and was coping well with the crowds of Canberrans lining up for the breakfast buffet.

We took a walk afterwards to help our over indulgence settle. It was a relaxed way to celebrate a relatively quiet weekend before the next few weeks of social mayhem leading up to Christmas.

Ella is fascinated with all the flowers out at the moment after our mild, dampish Spring. We reckon this is the biggest dandelion seed we've ever seen in Canberra. Ella can never resist spreading the dandelion seed joy.

We ended up at the Katie Bender memorial opposite the old Canberra Hospital site across the lake; a happy group of climbing rocks for Ella and all the other little kids, but filled with sadness for those of us who remember the tragic events of 2003 so well. It is another reminder of how lucky our family has been over the years.

cupcakes, Kylie, k.d. and Picasso

2011-11-20T00:17:00.001-08:00

Ella was extremely motivated to make a batch of cupcakes with me this week. I was fairly unprepared, head full of a heavy cold, sleep deprived and the dishwasher full and running with all my best equipment, but I did my best - with lots of help and encouragement from my offsider.

Getting the mix into the patty pan was the most fraught time - and we had to do it all so quickly!!

But we did it, and Ella's verdict was - perfect (even before it was cooked). We took our time icing this batch afterwards (pale pink with silver cachous). A perfect way to spend the morning.

We headed off to Sydney that afternoon. While Rob drove I was able to catch up on some sleep, in between blowing my nose.

After admiring Juan the Spanish sparky do his usual careful job of installing some more lights at 8/85 we took the opportunity on Friday to see the other Spaniard... the Picasso exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, drawn from the collection of the Musee National Picasso in Paris.

We were lucky enough to visit the beautiful Musee National Picasso in Paris back in 2005 (wasn't Rob's hair long then?) but it was still good to see this carefully curated collection of work in the NSW gallery spaces. Visitor entry is timed so there was plenty of space to view the work - and not the hordes of school children like there were in Paris. I think the beautiful bronzes were my favourites in this exhibition (we'd loved them in Paris too!).

Saturday morning we visited the Eveleigh Farmer's Market in Darlington and had our breakfast prepared by Kylie Kwong - steamed savoury pancakes with organic egg and veg and organic pork dumplings with ginger tamari. This breakfast was worth the trip to the markets...such a thrill..... as it is so difficult to find a seat for a full meal at Kylie's Billy Kwong restaurant in Surrey Hills.

And seeing k.d. Lang and Sass Bang Boom on Saturday night was just wonderful too. She was in fine form.....very relaxed, gently whimsical and funny...and that amazing voice and musicality.

We loved the audience too......lots of female couples, very stylishly dressed. The word is that more men are starting to come to her concerts in Australia this time around. My guess is that a lot of men here (especially older men) are only just coming to terms with the gender bending aspects of k.d. Lang's persona. Go k.d., go Kylie, I say (and go cupcakes for that matter too)!!

Catch up

2011-11-14T00:14:00.000-08:00

Although the past month has been full of birthday celebrations and travel tales we've still enjoyed some great times at home with Ella.

One wet and rainy Thursday morning at the end of September we all discovered how much we still loved the Easybeats She's so Fine (thank you Grandpa). Ella loved Little Stevie's wild introduction and used all her dance moves through the endless repetitions of the song's limited lyric line.

And then more wild times at Floriade in mid October as Ella experienced her first ferris wheel ride high above the beds of tulips (she loved it!).

And then a lovely afternoon with the P families - more birthday love for me as well as the company of two gorgeous boys - and some birthday cake.

J&J&E were meant to be with us too but we found out they were waiting at Canberra Hospital for Ella's split ear to be attended to (caused by a fall against an architrave in the hallway). After an 8 hour wait she had two beautiful neat stitches installed in her ear- which in no way made up for the horror of waiting 8 hours to be treated.

But less than two weeks later she was fully recovered and back in her beloved Erindale Pool - for swimming lessons.

We were astounded to see the progress she had made since last swimming season. She launches herself through the water with great confidence, floats on her back, can "swim" for 3-4 metres using all the right overarm strokes (but not breathing yet).

She really likes and trusts her teacher - diving to the bottom of the pool on command........

......... to retrieve objects.......

...and does very tricky dolphin dives.......

......pure happiness.

Ella is loving the warmer weather and all the growth in the garden..especially when it means she can collect bouquets of flowers in her favourite colours: red and pink and orange roses and purple daisies and petunias.

Us girls visited one of the open gardens in Farrer last weekend - a fund raiser for the acquired brain injury foundation.

We'll have to do this again when the opportunity arises. Ella LOVED the garden - all its meandering secrets and spaces, the silky bantams.........

and Edward the aged black cat.

We stayed for ages, enjoying the late Spring sunshine and the delicious tea and scones served with homemade grape jelly (we sat under the grapevine from which the jelly had been made) with oodles of whipped cream.

Our Sydney reunion

2011-11-07T02:07:00.000-08:00

The sisters' (and spouses) annual Sydney reunion weekend began last Thursday afternoon. The morning's steady rain and cloud cover disappeared just as we set out from Coogee for Tamarama and the 15th Sculpture By The Sea exhibition on the Tamarama to Bondi coastal walk.

These steel Easter Island figures on Tamarama Beach were an arresting sight as we started our journey of sculpture discovery.

This was the first time we had visited this exhibition on opening day, and in this beautiful late afternoon light.

.........even though the rain earlier had caused some rough seas and the closure of Tamarama beach.

We especially enjoyed Sculpture By the Sea this year. We always feel very happy anyway to be together at the start of our reunion weekend, but this year the standard of works also seemed to be higher than usual.. with quite a few highly crafted works in metal - including this amazing piece with all its plumbing references.

........very aptly placed on this vantage point overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

I am always inspired by my stylish sisters (and their spouses). It's great fun to share some quality time together in Sydney - away from our work and other responsibilities.

Rob and I were excited to see this work by the Yirrkala artist whose work we had admired in Darwin last month.

It must be an enormous job to install the sculptures in this setting. This one still had a few finishing touches to be completed. It made us realise it would be interesting to visit the site in the week before the opening to observe some of the installation processes.

As we got closer to the end of the exhibition we were all starting to look forward to our first celebratory drink and meal together at the Bavarian Bier Cafe on Campbell Avenue, Bondi Beach (the first of many great celebratory meals together this weekend).

Ros (and the other sisters) always enjoy some retail therapy in Sydney, so while we spent most of the day on Friday exploring the new(ish) Westfield in the CBD Rob and Pete took a long drive north all the way up to the oh so exclusive Palm Beach.

Rob caught Pete gazing out to sea at beautiful Avalon Beach, on the way up the coast.......

which seemed to be a magnet for surfers today.....

......and a fully restored 1956 Ford Thunderbird (much to Rob's delight).

On Saturday we spent some time exploring the vibrant suburb of Surry Hills...... time for another visit to Brett Whiteley's studio in Raper Street (first time for Ros and Pete).......

....and a wonderful lunch at our new favourite Polish restaurant Alchemy in Crown Street, and time to explore some of the funky independent stores and galleries in this buzzy suburb.

On Sunday we were able to find our way (eventually) to the wonderful Artisan Eveleigh Markets in Darlington in the morning, then lunch at the Fratelli Fresh Cafe Sopra in Walsh Bay. I would rate our meal here as the best of the weekend but the setting was a bit frantic and Italian to be a relaxing experience.

We all agreed it was a fantastic long weekend. Ros had the chance to eat some sublime gelati, and spend some quality time in David Jones. We all enjoyed Midnight in Paris at the gorgeous Randwick Ritz and Ros and I even squeezed in an extra chick flick at Bondi Junction on our last night (I Don't Know How She Does It). We had lots of time to laugh, drink beer and good red wines, share music and endless family folk lore (and all those styling tips).

Can't wait for our next reunion weekend!

Twin Falls & Jim Jim Falls, Kakadu

2011-10-30T01:34:00.001-07:00

We picked a very hot day for our trip to the edge of the Arnhem Land escarpment -to Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls - with driver/guide Steve from Top End Explorer Tours. In these last few weeks of the season we were Steve's only passengers so we had the undivided attention of this genuine Kakadu character and fearless four wheel driver.

It was an exciting drive to the Twin Fall gorge - a tough, sandy, 60klm or so, four wheel drive track that the Landcruiser handled easily even though the bumps and gullies looked pretty mountainous to me. We also drove through 80-90cm of water at Jim Jim Creek - "that's nothing", said Steve, "compared to how it is in the wet season"!

This was (saltwater) crocodile country so the small boat that carried us up the Twin Falls Gorge was a sturdy little thing.

Once off the boat we had a long, difficult walk over sand slippery boulders, and a short boardwalk (which gets removed by helicopter at the start of the wet season) to get to where the spectacular Twin Falls makes it's way over the edge of the escarpment to the Kakadu floodplain below.

140 million years ago (the age of dinosaurs) Kakadu was under a shallow sea. The sea cliffs that formed the shoreline are the remnant escarpments we're seeing today. They've been eroding at the rate of 1 metre every thousand years, so these escarpments would have been a huge amount higher when the dinosaurs roamed this region.

We were hot and bothered from navigating the boulder walk (in 39oC heat) but no swimming allowed in this beautiful pool!

Steve then drove us North to the point on the track where we could start the walk to Jim Jim Falls. By now it was REALLY HOT and our boulder walking track was very craggy, slippery and uneven...and over a kilometre to navigate to the Falls. Very helpfully Steve estimated that the capacity of the boulders to absorb heat probably made the track around 70oC at some points.

Steve was a bit younger than us: curly long grey hair, no hat, beer belly and surf sandals (get the picture). He was also carrying a pack with all our lunches and spare water. He still managed to dance over those boulders, while I made every gingerly step a very considered and sweaty one!

But, no crocodiles at Jim Jim Falls, nor any actual waterfalls at this time of the year, so it was fabulous to take a dip and cool off in the crystal clear water, straight off the escarpment.

Steve was a very interesting fellow, despite his ruffian persona. He lives with his German scientist wife and young son in Jabiru, along with a local Aboriginal elder artist and his grandson, plus extended family members at various times. His insights into the the issues facing Aboriginal people in NT and the impact of the government's Intervention and the effect of mining royalties on local communities were very thoughtful, sensitive - and eye opening.

He was also a politics junkie - knew as much as we did about the minutiae of current federal politics (if not more). Apparently he quizzes all his clients about what they think of Tony Abbott. He reckons 98% of his clients think he will never be Prime Minister!

Rob did enjoy meeting someone new to have a good rant with!

Kakadu - Yellow Water Wetlands

2011-10-28T03:21:00.000-07:00

The Gagudju Lodge at Cooinda, on Yellow Water in Kakadu, is only about three and a half hours drive from Darwin, allowing some time to buy a case of mangoes from a farmer's truck on the way down.

Kakadu has World Heritage listing for both its cultural and its natural value. Generations of Aboriginal people have lived on and cared for this country for tens of thousands of years and it's a land of exceptional beauty and unique biodiversity.

However, it's hard to get around the fact that there are lots of estuarine (saltwater) (person eating) crocodiles living in the wetlands of Kakadu.

On our first afternoon at Cooinda we walked to the Yellow Water billabong and straight away saw our first crocodile, cruising slowly beside us on the smooth waters reflecting the late afternoon light. We later found out it's nick name was Pluto Pup, but I won't tell you the story about how it got its name.

The sunset Yellow Water cruise boat was just returning........

....and we were extra careful to stay on the specially constructed metal walkways at the edge of the billabong.

We joined the sunrise cruise ourselves on Saturday morning. At this time of the year, the pre monsoon storm season, a lot of the Kakadu wetlands on the floodplains have dried up so large billabongs like Yellow Water become a haven for all sorts of animals and birdlife waiting out the end of the "dry".

Including many, many crocodiles... and I have not used the zoom on my camera to get these shots! There is an average of about 26 crocodiles for every square kilometre of wetlands.

The so called "Jesus birds" (they walk on water!) are a frivolous presence in amongst the menacing crocs.

If you look closely enough you might see that the croc below is devouring a rather large hunk of a magpie geese. We saw the whole process of the kill!

This pair of jabiru(s) kept a safe distance.

The bird life was extraordinary. I was lucky to get this shot of an azure kingfisher...

This croc was so close to the boat I had to zoom out to get him all in the frame.

People do go fishing in Yellow Water (in very strong large boats) but they don't use live bait. I think barramundi is the most desired catch, but only if they are at least 55cm.

Over thousands of years Aboriginal people have developed all sorts of ways of hunting and collecting food from these waterways safely. But they did not have to contend with the explosion in the numbers of crocodiles since the seventies when they became a protected species in Australia.

It was an amazing two hours we spent on Yellow Water.

Conference culture

2011-10-27T03:38:00.000-07:00

I was in Darwin last week for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Conference. It was a stimulating, energising three day conference..with lots to learn and some successes to celebrate (as well as the continuing HUGE challenges).

At the end of each day there were opportunities to experience some unique Northern Territory Aboriginal culture.

In the late afternoon of the first day we were invited to join some prominent Larrakia elders and their families for a picnic style meal after a tour of special sacred Aboriginal sites around Darwin.

This beautiful child, all the way from Groote Eylandt, across the Arafura Sea from East Arnhem Land, was never out of the arms of some loving family member. I was amused by how much she enjoyed having her photograph taken.

The Darwin Mills sisters are part of the extended family too, and a wonderfully wild bunch of women. Ali "Arjibuk" Mills (on the right) had a national hit last year with her Waltjim Bat Matilda (Yes, that well known song about a sheep duffer, sung in Aboriginal Creole). They would have sung and played and told us wild stories all night!

We met lots of Territory school kids too..including the winners of the Northern Territory Battle of the School Bands this year. They performed all their own material and were exceptional musicians and singers.

Their school was in Yirrkala which is in Yolgnu country (where some of Skinnyfish Music's best artists, including Yothu Yindi and Gurrumul are from). English is a second or third language for these kids, but they all sing in English.

.....and young male dance groups from schools on Elcho Island, just off the North East coast of East Arnhem Land.

We also met some bright spark young urban Aboriginal kids too. The stand out was young (only 14) Jody from Darwin High School who'd impressed us all with her searching question from the audience on last week's Q&A session on the ABC (which coincidentally was filmed in Darwin the week I was there).

Did I mention that Rob came along for the ride too? We even had time to enjoy a drink together on Darwin's beautiful Waterfront before the conference dinner on Wednesday night.

The dinner entertainment was amazing..the most laughs I've had in a long time. It had everything: kids dancing (early on), another performance by Ali Mills, and an incredibly non PC Aboriginal comedian who did the funniest skit I've ever seen about the way Europeans dance compared to the way black people dance.

And, incredibly, there were Aboriginal "gender illusionists" too, who must have spent every waking hour of their lives watching Tina Turner and Beyonce on MTV!

This is me doing my white (old) girl dancing..and not worrying at all about how silly I looked in this company!!

Celebrate some more

2011-10-09T02:34:00.000-07:00

My sister graciously hosted a birthday celebration for me today, a wonderful chance to be spoilt with good wishes from good friends and enjoy more amazing food and wine together. Judy L. prepared Coffin Bay oysters, Jennie F., inspired by our favourite Peter Gilmour, had smoked duck breast and served it caramelised with mushroom risotto.

Maxie had roasted delicate little spatchcocks wrapped in prosciutto and served it with Middle Eastern style salads: maftoul (large grain couscous) and parsley and sultanas.

Followed by this gorgeous almond crumble and raspberry and pear dessert served with honey toasted cream (and chocolate icing).

I am really enjoying (while feeling humbled by) all this birthday love, but I also really enjoyed catching up on all J & W's travel tales, the tempranillo and tapas stories from Spain, sangiovese in Chianti and the now familiar delights of Beau Rivage in Condrieu.... and experiencing the invincible Kenny TomTom. Judy L. had more stories too from the Blue Mountains. We were also lucky to have the girls and Thomas (now a licensed driver) join us for this lovely relaxed afternoon together.

Lunch at Surrey Hills and Balmoral

2011-10-06T00:25:00.000-07:00

There are any number of theme based walking tours you can take through Surrey Hills in inner city Sydney. Taking a designer, architectural, foodie or arty approach to exploring this eclectic suburb will reveal many delights and contrasts.

We started too late yesterday to do much exploring. We'll take a more serious approach when we're back in early November. Our main goal yesterday was to find somewhere to have a good meal well after the time people usually eat lunch.

Walking past the excellent Lebanese eateries on Cleveland Road and Elizabeth Street (all closed) and then around the corner and up Devonshire to Crown Street we eventually came to "Alchemy" a tiny Polish Cafe Restaurant with a distinctly retro feel (retro without irony I mean).

Set in the tiny rooms of an old Surrey Hills terrace, European style wooden furniture, fresh roses on the table, proper Polish comfort food, amazing cakes and fragrant Polish beer....just perfect for this rainy, cool afternoon - as hungry as we are by now.

Rob was ecstatic about his schnitzel, sauerkraut and mash (with a glass of Zamkowe beer). He rarely gets to eat food like that anymore!

But this cafe is worth visiting just for its amazing cakes and coffee. My choice was the chocolate cherry tart and Rob's was rhubarb pie. They don't have the delicacy and balance of fine dining desserts but are very yummy all the same!

Today for lunch we were a world away at the iconic Bathers Pavillion at Balmoral Beach.

As another birthday treat we met up with my friend Tania McM. for a long lunch in this gorgeous restaurant, catching up on family, travel and art news as we enjoyed Serge Dansereau's special Crave Sydney lunch menu. Dessert was another highlight..mango and passionfruit roulade; much much lighter and more subtle than our dessert yesterday.

Tania's generous gift of Serge D.'s French Kitchen will be an inspiring reminder of this lovely meal together and hopefully will encourage us to do that cooking school with Serge sometime in the future.

Quay

2011-10-02T15:29:00.001-07:00

We thought it was worth opening my birthday bottle of Veuve Clicquot a full 6 hours before the official start of October 2. We were feeling very happy, seeing the beautiful new CP print hung and the ceiling fans and lights successfully installed, all ready for the coming Coogee summer.

The streets outside 8/85 were eerily quiet as everyone else was conducting post mortems on the big AFL final in Melbourne.

But for my actual birthday celebration on Sunday night we were off to the amazing Quay Restaurant, at Sydney's Circular Quay, voted Number 26 on the S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurant's List and named the Best Restaurant in Australasia.

That didn't stop us taking a $2.50 all day bus ticket for Seniors ride to Circular Quay from Coogee, the first time I have been able to take advantage of this amazing deal. It's so good that us Seniors can travel so cheaply as we're off to eat at one of the best restaurants in the world.

We had a relatively late dinner booking for 8.30pm. Unfortunately, the cold, windy, showery weather was not conducive to our pre-dinner wanderings around this spectacular part of the harbour, despite the iconic landmarks.

The entrance to Quay is on the third level of the International Terminal building, with its own great view of the Bridge. Tonight it had images of NRL football projected on the pylons - although sadly for the followers the NZ team had won the grand final game against Manly this afternoon.

We had the best table in the house for our dinner. It was a very difficult choice to decide on the four course a la carte menu (instead of the 8 course degustation) and we asked the sommelier to match each of our courses with a suitable wine (by the glass).

Our thrilling, tantalizing meal started with an unexpected but luscious taster of sashimi of tuna, umami jelly and eggplant cream. Then our first courses, which we shared, were: Sashimi of blue mackeral, smoked eel flowers, sea scallops, pickled apple, nasturtiums (the tiniest baby leaves) and Tasmanian wasabi; and, an amazing Salad of rhubarb, endive, beetroot, purple carrot, rosa radish, kohlrabi, goat's curd, pomegranate molasses and violet flowers. The salad was built on a layer of delicious, deep crimson, finely grained crunch (but what was it?). Both our first courses were brilliantly matched with an organic 2011 Thistle Hill Riesling from Mudgee.

Our second courses were: Slow cooked coturnix quail breast, stone ground semolina enriched with Alba truffle butter, buckwheat, farro,walnuts, pumpernickel, paratha, and malt (another beautifully textured and flavoured dish) and gently poached southern rock lobster, golden tapioca, shaved squid, lobster velvet and pea flowers - matched with a divine 2008 Scorpo "Aubaire" Chardonnay from the Mornington Peninsula.

Our third courses were stunning too: Confit of milk fed Suffolk lamb, purple garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, sheeps milk curd, salt bush shoots, fennel pollen, Pantelleria capers, matched with a 2003 Patha Estate "Jezza"Cabernet Merlot from Orange, and the astoundingly rich and gorgeous Berkshire pig jowl, with maltose crackling, prunes, cauliflower cream, perfumed with prune kernel oil (this dish was my idea of heaven), matched with a 2010 Thick as Thieves "Star Jack" Pinot Noir from the Macedon Ranges.

Dessert was an easy pick: the famous Quay snow egg (jackfruit flavoured on this occasion) matched with a lovely 2010 Cascinetta Vieti Moscato d'Asti from Piemonte, Italy and the Ewe's milk ice cream, caramel, roasted walnuts, prune, Pedro Ximenez, chocolate bark, pulled toffee, and vanilla milk skin, matched very cleverly with a 2010 Mount Horrocks "Cordon Cut" Reisling from the Clare Valley. By this time our sommelier was spending more and more time with us explaining each wine (never boring though!). We felt like we were old friends by the end of the night. No wonder you might say, after drinking all this wine - but hey he was a great admirer of our Canberra District wines after all!

Our dinner out at Quay was unforgettable. For a timeless few hours we just gave ourselves up to the sheer enjoyment of the amazing setting and superlative food, the wine and each other's company at this very wonderful time of our lives........... Before catching the after midnight bus back to Coogee!

The longest birthday

2011-09-25T01:30:00.000-07:00

I have a month of celebrations ahead of me. It started with the assembly of the newly delivered swing set on Thursday; very necessary for a girl my age, especially for sharing with my busy grand-daughter.

Friday night we celebrated with my "Red group" friends with drinks at the Hyatt Hotel. Then today it was a wonderful long lunch with J, J & E at the biodynamic Lark Hill Winery Restaurant about 6klm outside Bungendore, south of Lake George on Bungendore Road.

The weather turned wintry this weekend, but the Spring buds on these North facing vines were clearly there (though not too clear in this photo unfortunately!).

We loved our long lunch together: a very seasonal menu, all locally sourced and carefully prepared with Lark Hill wines to match. That's Jody's ocean trout on the right of the picture below. The rest of us tucked into Angus beef tagliate with truffled cauliflower au gratin - delicious.

The dessert menu was small - but it did include chocolate!

Lark Hill Winery is in a gorgeous spot with great views North over the vineyards, with happy, plump chooks wandering around the bush gardens - a very interesting environment for Ella to enjoy between courses.

We took our time over lunch and didn't leave until around 4.00pm.

I felt very blessed to receive this beautiful birthday card (with an amazing drawing of me by Ella) and a special silver and amethyst pendant necklace - especially chosen by Ella and her Mummy - ("the Gingerbread Man" by jeweller, Christine Pyman) - gifts that are SO special and memorable for me and which will remain close to my heart always!!

Spring really makes its presence felt for my birthday month. The bluebells are flowering now in amongst the hellebores, the azaleas are bursting forth and my orchids are looking amazing (I really did grow this one; I didn't just pick it up this week from the florist).

So far I've planted baby spinach, thyme, lettuce, basil, sage, coriander and parsley in my new herb garden. Ella is always my very keen assistant with the watering can.

No jumper day

2011-09-18T02:15:00.000-07:00

Spring has well and truly arrived and we were able to celebrate our first "no jumper day" at the opening weekend of Floriade.

Although Claire and the boys were only just back from their week at Noosa with London D, C & E there was funky dancing to perform at the Carnival Stage (by Claire's Bom Funk preschoolers' class).

Angus and Ella had very little time to show their stuff in their very speedy two minute set.

Ollie and the Boyz Crew managed to set the stage alight in their 2 minute turn.

Commonwealth Park was very crowded, with the flower themed sales outlets and fairground rides dominating the spaces devoted to the usual, improbably colourful, flower beds (I am a pretty cynical about Floriade, sorry!).

Last year Ella liked the little Alice tea cup ride the best, but this year she likes the faster moving attractions. I think a ride on the Ferris Wheel may be on the agenda at our next visit.

It was a perfect opportunity for us to prolong our enjoyment of this perfect Canberra day with a long lunch together at Kingsley's in Civic's North Quarter.

Ollie, Angus and Ella have reached a stage where they will play very happily together for AGES. We were able to take our time catching up with family news and enjoying our delicious lunch and glasses of Japanese beer. Rob had to keep his wits about him safeguarding his small serve of tomato sauce from the attentions of Angus and Ella who both preferred it to their serves of tartare.

We finished off the weekend by planting out my newly made herb garden in the early evening light. I love this time of the year.

Eddie Australia

2011-09-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

We were reunited at Coogee Beach on Saturday. Davey, Cath and Eddie had travelled thousands of miles from London, with remarkably little damage apparent except for the throaty cough Eddie had picked up on the flight. Ros and Pete had travelled all the way from Sandy Beach (a 7 and 1/2 hour drive that morning) and all the rest of us had driven down from Canberra, for a very special weekend together.

Lunch at Barzoura's on the beach for the 13 of us was joyous and raucous, of course. We were amazed at Eddie's ability and affability in adapting so quickly to the sudden strangeness of this noisy branch of his family so soon after that long flight.

The nearby Coogee children's playground was a welcome spot in the afternoon for the grown ups to catch up on some lost time in the sunshine, to allow Ella some scope to use up her pent up energy.......

and for Eddie to admire her antics on the swing. He found Ella's every move and squeals of delight very interesting and amusing.

The weekend was especially wonderful for Mum. She loves her grandchildren and their offspring, and she had been really looking forward to meeting Eddie. She likes her WONDERFUL sons-in-law too, especially when they sit down and have a yarn to her about lawn bowls!

Rob, Josh and Davey were quickly in deep conversation, and web surfing about, their current shared interest in Maton guitars. I noticed they kept coming back to it over the course of the weekend.

Maxie finally handed Eddie back (almost asleep) to his Mum and Dad so we could get this special pic together. Mother (aged 97 years) and the three "girls" together at Coogee Beach, a reunion for us too.

Davey, Cath and Eddie joined us for drinks at the Crowne Plaza bar in the early evening on Saturday. They all looked refreshed after the opportunity to catch up on some rest. Ella and Eddie were able to continue their rapidly developing love affair, opening presents together.........

........and Ella on permanent duty for nappy changing, tickling games, face pulling, cuddling, whatever Eddie was able to put up with really.........except he seemed to be really enjoying it!

despite the expression on his face in this photo (it was just a fleeting expression).

Eddie slept better Saturday night and the three of them met up with us again at the hotel for breakfast on Sunday morning. They all looked relaxed and happy, and Eddie's cough is improving. I captured this lovely shot of Eddie with his Grandma (that's her nose). He looks very much like her (and his Daddy) as a baby in this one.

We managed to get the best spot for breakfast on this clear, sunny early Spring day, directly opposite the beach park and the Pacific Ocean beyond. It was Father's Day in Australia so the hotel restaurant was crowded with breakfast bookings. There were some amazing specimens of manhood around us (including the men in our family of course) as the Melbourne Storm NRL team and the Wallabies Rugby Union team (and assorted girlfriends, wives, children etc) were all staying at the hotel too.

Eddie was a great hit with his Great Aunties too, when Maxie allowed them some time with him. I think Eddie may share his beautiful brown eyes with this particular Great-Aunty.

But Ella was the one he saved his best cuddles for.

The beach was too hard to resist on this gorgeous morning. Maxie got Eddie off to sleep while the rest of us were able to relax in each other's company, absorb some of the beautiful sunshine and feel some sand between our toes.

While Ella kept Grandpa busy fetching cups full of the ocean (to order) to ensure her sand castle had the required degree of build-ability.

Eddie was properly introduced to the Coogee Beach lifestyle.

and with his usual excellent concentration spent AGES investigating wave action with his Daddy.

He also learnt that in Australia we usually finish off a morning at the beach with a gelati. There was no doubt about his approval of this strange new custom.

Eddie has a another two weeks in Australia, just enough time to win more hearts along the East Coast of NSW and Q'ld and make us all want to see him and his Mummy and Daddy again, with more wonderful weekends together like this.

Some nostalgia

2011-08-30T03:01:00.000-07:00

Spurred on by her great-grandson Ollie's success on the ski fields this year Mum's been talking about her amazing ski holiday in the Snowy Mountains, many years ago (before the war, around 1937-38 we think).

That's Mum, second from the right, in her early to mid-twenties, lined up with her posse of girlfriends, and that tall, dark and handsome ski instructor - "a good sort", according to Mum. The girls are all dressed rather stylishly for the times in their wool jersey baggy pants and fairly light weight button up tops. The ski gear must have been supplied by the hotel as none of these Brisbane girls would have owned any gear of their own.

The girls had a fabulous holiday in the old Hotel Kosciuzsko, built in 1909 by the NSW government but sadly destroyed by fire in 1951. Only the skeleton of the old staff quarters survived the fire which then formed the shell of the new Sponor's Chalet which still exists today on the site of the old Hotel. We spent some time around the lovely water reservoir near Sponor's Chalet in January this year on our Summer alpine adventure.

Over their 10 day stay the girls would have spent hours on the Grand Slam and Percy Pearson ski runs perfecting their early snow moves to the accompaniment of the instructors' orders to "bend ze knees"!

Knowing my mother she would also have enjoyed the stately charms of the Hotel - being "accommodated in style, the exquisite food and refreshments and winter activities"!

It must have been a huge adventure: travelling down from Brisbane to Sydney by train (that would have taken more than a day), then catching a bus from Sydney to the snow fields, via Canberra (and that would have taken most of another day).

She collected this picture of a very new Canberra on the way through. Those of us who know the city well will have no trouble in working out where this is, although the intersection looks very different these days, especially at peak hour.

I always remember Mum saying that she and her girlfriends started saving up after this to go to England for their next holiday, but the war soon put an end to those ideas.

Book Week Birthday

2011-08-25T16:39:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to be invited to the Jerra PS Book Week Parade this week. The drive over was marked by Ella announcing we were going by way of Claire's place - pronouncing all consonants and blends perfectly.

Around 3-4 months ago she would have said we were going by way of Tare's pace. Ella's been putting in some very targeted practice with the support of her Mummy and the Speech Pathologist and all her words are sounding very CLEAR and grown up now!

Ella LOVED seeing all the Jerra kids in their Book Week costumes. I was not surprised when she singled out the various interpretations of Snow White costumes as her favourites!

But Ollie in his Ninja costume was our hands down favourite.

It's Angus's fifth birthday this week, so it was lovely to spend some extra time with him and just appreciate the lovely space he's in at the moment.... dancer / performer extraordinaire, passionate lego and Star Wars player and an all round lovely, fun loving, thoughtful person.

Ella loves him (and Ollie) to bits!

Sister time

2011-08-18T03:40:00.000-07:00

We've all enjoyed a four day visit from sister Ros from Sandy Beach. It's been very special to have some quality time in her company, sharing happy family meals together, checking out the local markets, appreciating the brilliant Fred Williams retrospective at the NGA, catching a movie, and a whole day together shopping at the Canberra Centre!

Ella has always thought Ros is quite special - and with faultless taste in Oobi dresses! She loved showing off all her clever tricks, most athletic moves, and best jokes, so Ros would be impressed.

We spent some time on "our" hill and Ella was able to point out how to sidestep the kangaroo poo, which Ros found impressive.

Ella helped teach Ros what it might be like for her when she's a Grandma: taking time to smell the roses and admire discarded sapphire streaked feathers...........

and blow and catch bubbles for hours in the sunshine..............

Ros spotted this rich velvet and brocade number at the Bus Depot Markets. in a previous life it was possibly a flowergirl outfit for a big fat Mediterranean wedding, but it EXACTLY fits the bill now as the ideal princess dress for Ella. She was dressed up for the ball in this picture and fluffy dog was all geared up to go with her.

It was time for the grownups on Tuesday after Ella went home. An afternoon movie session to see the wonderful Jane Eyre, followed by a glass of champagne at the Hyatt and then a beautiful meal after at Taze in Civic's North Quarter.

Time together for us three "girls" is rare these days. Thank you Ros for this gift. See you soon!

FORM Studio and Gallery

2011-08-08T03:51:00.001-07:00

The beautiful Form Studio and Gallery at 1/30 Aurora Avenue Queanbeyan was officially opened on Saturday afternoon by the Mayor of Queanbeyan, Mr Tim Overall. I had not seen the interior space before so I was blown away when I walked in and saw Maxie and Claire's spectacular opening exhibition "Setting the Scene". Maxie's large expressive portrait sculptures really captured attention in the front centre of this beautifully lit gallery space.

Claire's black and white prints and bold yet contemplative paintings lined the walls.. leading us as viewers around the various "rooms" that comprise this gallery.

It was a chance for all the family to gather in Queanbeyan, including Joel and Imogen from Brisbane and Erin from Melbourne. I captured the three of them in intense conversation as they were standing in front of Claire's Too Much on her Plate series of prints.

I soon found out what Erin was telling them...amazing, but BIG and wonderful news! The news was really the icing on the cake for members of our family on this special weekend.

This spectacular portrait of Imogen also shows one of Claire's beautifully lit paintings in the background.

..and people kept coming back to this expressive group of ceramic heads...

Maxie and Claire were kept very busy handling all the enquiries, the sales and the excitement, with the crowds milling about. It was a HUGE opening.

The seven year old was a perfect host, in between being the chief taster of all the opening show hors d'oevres.

In amongst the crowd you might see me against the white wall in the corner, introducing Mr Tim Overall before he officially opened the gallery and its first exhibition.

Two of our favourite girls, each with similarly timed BIG news, listened intently.

I was blown away by Tim Overall's opening speech: insightful, intelligent, well informed, and so supportive of the arts. Queanbeyan is fortunate to have him as its Mayor.

Our 97 year old mother enjoyed the opening very much. She is always proud of the success of family members and hates missing out on any chance for a bit of a party.

I'm glad Jeremy stood still long enough to be photographed. He is the one responsible for having the vision and commitment to develop Form Studio and Gallery. He deserves to be so proud of the outcome of that vision and the time and expense it has taken to create this beautiful space and resource for the city.

......and in the (right hand side) background you can see our favourite print: Claire's Balancing Act2.

The show continues, every day from 10.00am-3.00pm, until the end of August. Don't miss it.

Friday

2011-08-07T03:29:00.000-07:00

Our very special weekend started Friday with the arrival of Joel and Imogen from Brisbane. It was Imogen's first visit to Canberra, apart from the obligatory school excursion visit many years ago. As you do, we started with a tour of the usual suspects in the Parliamentary Triangle. This part of Canberra looked very picturesque on Friday in the warm winter sunshine reflecting off the lake. Imogen liked our visit to the National Gallery the best.

....even though it took her a while to get that the Sculpture Garden is not really a "garden" in the Brisbane sense (more of a drab, olive green bushland really).

The next big event to celebrate on Friday was Ollie's 7th birthday. He says he can always pick the present that I wrap for him.......apparently I always use striped paper!

Apart from his passion for all things scientific and snow related this gorgeous boy loves Lego Star Wars, Lego Harry Potter, Lego Ninja(?), Star Wars heroes and villains, and fantasy books.......so he's easy to please on birthdays.

Ella loves the boys' birthdays. She's happy when they're happy, there's always beautiful food and chocolate cake, lots of laughter ...and time to be with her favourite boys (apart from her Daddy).

And this was just the opening act to our very special weekend.

Through the lens

2011-08-01T03:59:00.000-07:00

My new second lens arrived during the week: a 100mm, 2.8f Macro lens..woohoo! But I have been a bit too busy with work, fitting in some exercise into minus 8oC mornings and keeping up with family, to really get to know my new lens in any deep sense.

It is certainly capable of taking extreme close ups in relatively low light.

Our big cook up with Ella on Thursday morning gave us a chance to capture some of the fun. However there was just a bit too much pink sticky icing flying around the kitchen for me to feel comfortable about getting my camera too close to the action.

Rob used it to capture this happy portrait. There is something about overdosing on sugar that really brings out the love!

We had more family fun on Sunday celebrating Mum's 97th birthday (just as well she never looks at my blog or she would be mad at me for divulging her age!) with a glass of sparkly and more good things to eat. With the P family away at the snow, Ella was the only great grandchild in attendance. She did a great job of paying Mum extra birthday attention and putting on a great dance show for a loyal audience.

I managed to catch Ella in a quiet moment in this lovely shot, using the macro lens, which meant I could take the picture from a fair distance away in late afternoon interior light. I love the old Dutch Master tones in this shot!

...and then we couldn't resist experimenting with capturing the left overs from our "drinks" party. This is a very artistic shot of the chilli nuts!