Australia Day

January 26 was Australia Day, Australia's national holiday, which commemorates the First Fleet's arrival in Sydney in 1788. We went over to our friends the Swartzes' for a BBQ, then went to the Australia Day festival in The Rocks, where we saw the bands The Hungry Kids of Hungary and Cloud Control.

Here's a short video I took of some famous opera house and the Aussie band Cloud Control.

Spider Sighting - Arachnophobes Skip This Post

The other night, I saw a Hunstman spider on the wall just outside our balcony door. They are huge spiders, and Matthew and I were both creeped out! See below for photos.

WARNING: photos not safe for arachnophobes. 

If you’re ready, scroll past the crochet spider!

Spider by CabinGirl61 on Flickr.


Here it is on the wall outside our balcony door:

Now it has moved, and is on the outside of the window - Amanda's hand for scale:

Luckily they're not venomous, but still - yikes!

Day Trip to the Blue Mountains

On Monday 24 January, Matthew's co-worker Gordon took us, their other co-worker Pavel and his girlfriend Natasha, to the Blue Mountains.

The Greater Blue Mountains Area is more than 1 million hectares of bushland, which received UNESCO World Heritage Listing in 2000. The eucalytpus oil in the air from all the trees creates a blue haze in the air, hence the name. They are not technically mountains, but sandstone plateaux with more than 100 species of eucalypts growing in the gorges.

We started off in Glenbrook at the Blue Mountains National Park, where we went to the Euroka campground, to try to spot kangaroos, who usually hang out in the grass there. Unfortunately, the roos were not around at that time. We walked down the track (trail) to the Napean River, and back up again, which was rough in the heat and humidity. However, hearing the bellbirds and the whipbirds made it worthwhile.

Bellbirds have a cool song where they simply "ping," then other ones nearby will "ping" and you get this chorus of rings around you. Here's a random video on YouTube. Matthew and I call the whipbirds "laser birds" because their song sounds like a laser warming up, then firing - here's a link to an excellent recording from Birdsaustralia.com.au.

After Glenbrook, we drove to the town of Katoomba, where we stopped for lunch before heading to Echo Point, which overlooks the Jamison Valley and the Three Sisters.

The Three Sisters is a sandstone rock formation shaped by erosion; they are about 900m/3000ft tall. Next, we drove over to another lookout to see Wentworth Falls.

From the Jamison Lookout, we hiked over to Wentworth Falls, walked over the top of the falls and down a little bit around the far side of the falls. Don't worry - at the top, a fence along the trail keeps you well back from the edge of the falls!

We spotted several baby goannas sunning themselves on the sandstone on the side of the track.

Afterwards, Gordon drove us back to the train station, and we caught the train back home. What a great day!

Here's a link to the rest of our photos from the day and here's a short video I took showing a panorama of the Blue Mountains at Echo Point. (May want to turn your volume down, there's some wind noise on the video.)

Lebanese Sweets from Bankstown

A week or so ago, we took the train to Bankstown to run an errand, and while we were there, got a cafe sua da (Vietnamese iced coffee) from one of the many Vietnamese places there, and also stopped in at Chehade El Basha & Sons, a Lebanese pastry shop. We were only going to get a few items, but buying by the kilo or half-kilo is a better deal, so...

The biscuits (cookies) were just okay, but everything else - mainly just cashews, pistachios, phyllo and honey - was really yummy.

I Can't Resist - Hehehe

In doing a random Google search for a park, one of the results was a page from the National Public Toilet Map. Heh, what? Apparently the Toilet Map, a project of the "National Continence Management Strategy," is funded by the Australian Government.

So there you go. Now you know where to go when you need to go!

Birthday Concert and Another Dinner

For Matthew's birthday, I got him tickets to a Philip Glass concert, who was in town as part of the Sydney Festival. The concert was last night, and first we went out to dinner at Est. Restaurant, which is has an elegant dining room.

When we first sat down, they offered us glasses of champagne from a Dom Pérignon-branded trolley(!), but we resisted. As we had to get to the concert, we didn't have time to do the tasting menu, so we ordered à la carte, and had a few wines by the glass. It was an excellent meal -- nothing that was simply amazing, but all quite refined and good overall.

To start, we shared:
Sashimi of tuna and Queensland scallops, lime, dashi, hazelnut, radish and white sesame oil.
Grilled white scallops, pork cheek bacon, king mushroom, tarragon and sweet corn salsa.

Our main dishes were:
Roasted, boned squab pigeon with cherries, almond cream, hazelnut picada and pan juices.
With a glass of 2008 Descendientes de José Palacios Pétalos (Bierzo, Spain; Mencia).
Juniper crusted saddle of venison with black cherries, beetroot, cocoa soil and semolina potato gnocchi.
With a glass of 2007 Pierre Amadieu Gigondas 'Romane Machotte' (Rhône Valley; Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvèdre).

Finally for dessert, we shared:
Valrhona chocolate delice with black cherries, sesame and cocoa nib ice cream.

We finished just in time to walk over to the concert hall and get into our seats without being too rushed. It was pretty exciting seeing Philip Glass again! The concert was about 1.5 hours of his various pieces on solo piano, and it was great.

The last piece was one that he collaborated on with poet Allen Ginsberg, and Glass said he hasn't been able to perform it much since Ginsberg passed away. But luckily, a special guest who was also in town for the Sydney Festival, would help him out, and out came John Malkovich to read the poem while Glass played! It was a wonderful surprise, and a great ending to a brilliant evening.

Birthday Dinner at Restaurant Atelier

The other night we went to dinner at Restaurant Atelier with our friends Lindsay and Grant to celebrate Matthew and Lindsay's January birthdays.

We went for the seven course degustation menu with matching wines. The summer degustation menu wasn't printed, so each course was selected by the chef and was a surprise for us!

We thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Everything was lovely, so it was hard to determine a favorite course. Below is the menu (from my notes!), if you'd like to drool. ;)


2009 Mader Riesling (Alsace)
Flash fried and crumbed Kangaroo Island hen’s egg with white asparagus and goat’s curd.

2010 Ocean Eight Pinot Gris (Mornington Peninsula)
Alaskan king crab spring roll with wasabi aioli, soy beans, pickled daikon and ocean trout roe.

2009 Capercaillie Cuillin Chardonnay (Hunter Valley)
Flash fried and crumbed chicken confit with salt cod brandade, frisée and garlic marmalade.

2009? Bloodwood “Big Men in Tights” Rosé (Orange, NSW; Malbec and Cab Franc)
Or, 2008 Domain Metrat et Fils Chiroubles Cru Beaujolais (Gamay)
Roasted swordfish loin with corn puree, Spanish peppers, eggplant and red capsicum, dusted with fennel pollen.

2007 Chateau Mont-Redon Cotes du Rhone (Grenache/Syrah/Cinsault blend)
Honey braised duck with carrot puree, broad bean salad and a pickled quail egg (pickled in Chardonnay).

2006 Yering Station Late Harvest Riesling (Yarra Valley)
Strawberry sorbet with strawberry salad and basil garnish, and
Poppy custard with fig sorbet and "Pop Rocks."

2007 Grand Maison Monbazillac Botrytis Semillon
Soufflé with mango, paw paw and pineapple, with lime milkshake with a chocolate straw, and coconut ice cream.

P.S. Americans, red capsicum is red bell pepper, and paw paw is papaya!

First Time Embroidering

I've had the Stitch-It Kit for a long time, but I just now made my first embroidered item from it. Yesterday and today I stitched my first tea towel - a cute cat. Not bad for my first embroidery ever!

Photos from New Year's Eve 2010-11

I am belated in posting photos from our first New Year's Eve in Sydney, as I was a bit embarrassed by the volume of dark, blurry photos I downloaded off of the camera! Blurry was the theme of my photography during the evening, but here are a few photos from Pyrmont/Darling Harbour, where we watched the fireworks from the balcony of the Google office building.

Here's the link for the rest of our photos from the evening. We were on the back side of the Harbour Bridge, so not exactly the best spot for watching the light display and all the fireworks displays coming off the bridge, but I'm just grateful we didn't have to queue for hours to get a space at one of the viewing spots at Circular Quay.

Here's a cool time lapse video of the Harbour on NYE. It begins in the early evening, and shows the 9pm and midnight fireworks displays, then the stillness of the harbour the next morning.

Finally, here's the full 12-minute midnight fireworks display from the City of Sydney. Unfortunately there's no sound on the video. Or fortunately, depending on your opinion of the music chosen for the simulcast. ;)

Saturday Night

Last night, our Saturday night started off with a quick take-away dinner before we caught the train into the city to go to the Sydney Festival First Night free outdoor concert with Emmylou Harris. The concert was nice;  the music was not super rockin, but it was still fun.

It was hot and humid during the day, but the by the time we were sitting at the concert, the night was really pleasant. The fruit bats were out - it's still pretty novel for us to be sitting outdoors in a metropolitan city with bats flying overhead.

M's co-worker from California is in town, and after the concert, he invited us to join him back at the bar of his hotel for a drink. The 5-star hotel, just opposite the Opera House, is closing for renovations soon, and the clubby hotel bar is selling the last of its impressive spirits collection. Ralph had a glass of 1970 Macallan Scotch, M had a glass of 1970 Calvados, and I had a glass of 1969 Armagnac. All were terribly expensive, and impressively smooth.

It's funny where life can take you. We started out the evening eating a $10 meal on a bench, and ended the evening drinking amazing spirits older than we are!

Happy Year of the Rabbit

Happy 2011, year of the rabbit! I still need to go through my New Year's Eve photos, hopefully I'll have something up soon.

In the meantime, here is a random photo I came across of actress Deborah Kerr with the tail end of a kangaroo! I have no idea what the story is here, but thought it was a funny photo.


Photo from "classic film scans" on Flickr.