Birthdays weekend

So many good things came together this weekend: Ros and Pete stayed over a few days on their way down to Geelong (they've said goodbye to Sandy Beach), Maxie started to feel better after a horrible week with a cold, and Angus and Jody both had big birthdays to celebrate. It was super special to enjoy the celebrations together, all 14 of us, on Saturday at Josh and Jody's.

 We had to take this shot to record how big these boys are growing!

In between soccer games outside with the boys, Ella gave us a great solo gig on her Tenor Sax..... Is there anything this girl can't do?

 And Claire produced a cheesecake birthday cake (yes, made of cheese) - quite stunning and amazing!

 Angus turned 12 this week. Beautiful boy!

 And this gorgeous girl (Jody) celebrated one of those big birthdays too!!

 Two gorgeous girls in a wonderful decade of their lives ……………..

Canberra was pretty mild by August standards for Ros and Pete's stay. In between family lunches, brunches and birthday celebrations we did lots of walking (mainly to the new Sanoma Bakery in Braddon) and coffee drinking. I thought we'd see the sun today - going by the sunrise ……..

 but it wasn't to last long …..

 .. but that didn't stop us heading for the lake for our morning walk …….

.. and a final coffee (and kimchi jaffle) from our new local, INTRA......

 We're looking forward to seeing Ros and Pete set up in Geelong. That's only one day's drive away for us!! 

Family

We're really going to treasure these pics of a happy morning this morning celebrating Ollie's and Rod's birthdays - at the Hyatt!

 That last candle proved to be a challenge even for Ollie.

 Only Rod was successful in the end .............

The kids agreed to an outdoor photo session - but I knew I didn't have much time. Abi chose the location and I couldn't worry about the lighting or the background could I!!!

 It was a bit uncomfortable to start with .........

 But then Ollie told a very funny fart joke ........

 

 

Isn't this the most beautiful young 14 year old you've seen (since the 1990s anyway)?

 And beautiful Ella .....

24 hours in Melbourne

Claire's work was selected for the Exploration 14 exhibition of emerging artists at the prestigious Flinders Lane Gallery. We were all in Melbourne last night for the official opening of the exhibition - so exciting!

Each year one of the emerging artists "wins" a solo exhibition at this beautiful gallery. Because Claire had prepared us we were fairly unsurprised to hear that Annika Romeyn (another ANU student and coincidentally a former student of Claire's at Lyneham High School in another lifetime) was announced the "winner" of this rather wonderful opportunity, as her work was a clear favourite of the gallery  director.

The night didn't end there. We celebrated Claire's amazing achievements with a wonderful Italian meal after at Yak on Flinders Lane - with flavours to die for!

We kidnapped the boys this morning and took them for a tram ride up Elizabeth Street to the lovely old Victoria Markets. Rob had promised them a brattwurst and sauerkraut, but they were in no hurry, and spent ages taking a keen interest in all the food stalls, even the old school seafood and butchers' stalls.

They were amazed by seeing rows of beautifully arranged pigs trotters, livers and pigs ears for sale.

Ollie enjoyed his brattwurst but Rob couldn't tempt Angus - he preferred the raspberry doughnuts from the Polish baker.

The Victoria Market has an area out the back devoted to the sale of cheap bling and ticky tack and the boys were looking forward to checking that out.  But they were easily distracted by these cages of gorgeous chickens (for sale).

The boys eventually chose wisely at the bling stalls - selecting Pokomon cards to build on their existing collections.  I watched them play a game with them as we tried to warm ourselves over a hot coffee - It was surprisingly mathematical!

The boys showed us their hotel afterwards - the Intercontinental on Collins Street.  I offered to swap them our room keys at the Melbourne Citigate (on Flinders Street) but they wouldn't agree!

We love Melbourne, especially in Winter. The laneways are full of convivial warmth and life, the shopping and food outlets are amazing and we love the surprises around every corner - like the old ANZ bank building on Collins Street - still trading to this day - and looking amazing!

We met up again tonight: drinks at the old Young and Jacksons Pub opposite Flinders Street Station and then the most wonderful Japanese meal at Kenzan on Flinders Lane.  Claire chose beautiful dishes for us - fresh, delicately balanced flavours - enhanced with Japanese plum wine and semi dry sake - unforgettable! The boys just adored the food too. They'd been looking forward to it all day. They knew what to expect as they'd been before!

The best zoo in the world

The early morning bus number 373 from Coogee Beach takes us through Saturday morning awakening traffic to spectacular Circular Quay. It's still too early for the indigenous buskers to be working but it's fun to watch them applying their body paint straight out of the Chromacryl bottle.

Armed with our Zoo passes we board the Taronga Zoo ferry and take the best seats in the house to capture that amazing bridge, that amazing opera house, Kirribilli, Garden Island, and, best of all according to Ollie: the bumpy waves.

We had to see the crocodiles first. Ollie quickly became impatient with my map reading ability so tried to find where they were himself. Jeremy also became disillusioned with my map reading ability and took over the job too. He ended up as lost as I was - we just zig zagged back and forth around the "best zoo in the world" on this perfect Spring Sydney day with both O and A finding delight in every ordinary and wondrous thing - even the sleepy crocodiles who were doing a great impersonation of big hunks of logs in the water.

The cable car ride was too thrilling for words - gave us the best view of the elephants and that stunning harbour view.

Ollie's day was made perfect by the crocodile treat to take home and an extra bumpy ride back to Circular Quay on the ferry - this time up on the top deck.

Back at Coogee there was time for a quick drink and then some beach time. Angus caught up on some sleep as I tried to emulate the womb experience for him by trundling him up and down the paved boardwalk in his stroller. Ollie headed straight for the water and ended up getting happily soaked as his "paddle" went a bit out of control.

We ended a perfect day back at the apartment with imported beers and great takeaway from Coogee Thai. 

We woke today to another perfect Spring day. We enjoyed breakfast at Barzura's with the Davies who were recovering from a noisy night at Coogee Sands. We handed over the keys so they could enjoy the next night at our apartment while they caught up with son Gareth. We envied them being able to stay on.

Back in Canberra we were able to catch up with the beautiful Ella who dazzled us with her smiles and her dumpling soft thighs. She is very settled at the moment, sleeping well and just starting to roll onto her side. She slept her first full night in her cot her last night.