2011 - My Year in Numbers

Looking back at 2011, here's my year by the numbers:
My current age: 35.
Years Matthew and I have been married: 5.
Number of houses we’ve lived in this year: 2.
Number of blog posts: 68.
Number of photos from 2011 added to our Picasa: 2,260.
Number of countries visited: 6 - Australia, USA, Argentina, Uruguay, Ireland and Belgium.
Number of trips we took within Australia: 2.
Number of Australian native animals patted: 3 - koala, dingo and kangaroo.
Number of friends who visited us this year: 2.
Number of times I climbed to the top of the Harbour Bridge: 1.
New relatives: 1 - nephew Warren Stamile, born April 2011.
Weddings attended: 1 - Tamara and Andy, September 2011.
Number of books read: 27.
Number of houseplants acquired: 1.
Number of performances I’ve seen (live music, plays, etc): about 11.
Number of free Google swag items Matthew has been given: around 10, including a pair of socks. (Last year he got a Google snuggie.)
Number of times I’ve complained about how expensive things are in Australia: too high to count.
Average number of times per week I walk up and down King Street in Newtown: 16.
3 things I love about living in Sydney: sunshine, beautiful beaches, hearing a pair of kookaburras outside my window.
3 things I don’t love about living in Sydney: roaches, drivers’ aggressiveness to cyclists, how far away it really is from everywhere else.

Spiders for Neighbors

There are currently two spiders in the tree on our back patio, and this morning I noticed one of them had caught something for breakfast.

Spider with its prey wrapped in silk

About an hour later, still eating the prey, no longer wrapped in silk

LEGO Sculpture

Artist Nathan Sawaya makes sculptures entirely out of LEGO, and we went to his Art of the Brick exhibit recently. Here's Matthew with a LEGO friend.

Cremorne to Mosman Hike

I bought a book, Sydney by Ferry and Foot, from Vinnies (St. Vincent de Paul thrift store) a while ago. Last week, we did our first hike from the book. We took a ferry to Cremorne Point, hiked along the bay to Mosman, then took a ferry back to Circular Quay. It was a warm day, but a really lovely walk, about 3 miles.

Walking through the "secret" garden on the Cremorne side of Mosman Bay

Les Bières Belges

"All Belgian Beers" by Hilde Deweer - I didn't know about this book during our trip!

I heard there are 500+ different beers brewed in Belgium. Not sure if that's correct, but we tried to taste as many as possible during our time in Belgium!

I attempted to keep a running list of all I tried, but I'm sure it's incomplete. But, here's the list below. These are only the ones I had a glass/bottle of myself, so does not include sips I tasted of someone else's:

St. Feuillien Cuvée de Noël, Hoegaarden Rosé, St. Bernardus Christmas Ale, Floris Witbier, St. Helene, Pere Noël, Christmas Leroy, Tripel Karmeliet, McChouffe, Westvleteren XII, Cantillon Gueuze (spontaneous fermentation lambic), Cantillon Rosé de Gambrinus (framboise lambic), Westmalle Tripel, Waterloo 8 Double Dark (brune), St. Berbardus Tripel, Gordons Christmas, Grimbergen Brune, Garre, Dupont Saison, Chouffe N'Ice, Adelardus Tripel, Witkap Pater, Delerium Tremens.

Phew! That's a lot of research. And finally, since I sometimes enjoy the same humour as 12-year-old boys, I will share a final picture. This is the description of Tripel Karmeliet from the huge notebook of beers at the Delerium Tremens bar:

Pics from Ireland and Belgium

Matthew and I had a lovely trip to Ireland and Belgium. We were in Dublin for two weeks, and did a side trip to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway. Then, we went to Brussels and had heaps of fun with Kate and Stéphane. We took day trips to Bastogne, Bruges and Antwerp. 


Here are the links to our various Picasa albums, if you're interested:

Dublin

Cliffs of Moher, Galway and Limerick

Brussels

Bastogne

Bruges

Antwerp

Happy New Year, and Heading Home

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you have a wonderful 2012.

Matthew and I are heading home today - Brussels > Amsterdam > London > Singapore > Sydney. See you on the other side of the world!