Photos from December

Okay, so I took an embarrassing number of photos of Mackenzie last month, and I just now edited and uploaded them all. There are still a huge number of puppy photos in our December photo album, but if you're interested in wading through, here it is! :)

December 2012

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all the best in 2013.

Trip to Portland and Houston

Three days after we got home from Tokyo, Matthew and I left again, this time for the U.S. M had to be in California for a business trip, so we flew in early to spend some time in Portland, and afterwards we went down to Houston to spend Thanksgiving with M's family. We had a great time seeing friends and family, and miss everyone already. Photos from the trip are below.

Trip to Portland and Houston

Anne and Tom's Visit to Australia

Matthew's parents were just here visiting Australia for the first time, and we had a lovely time together! We showed them around Sydney, then we went to Melbourne for a few days, drove the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, then headed to Adelaide for three days, then back to Sydney. It was fun showing them places we'd been before and also exploring new places together (it was our first time to South Australia).

We visited four different wine regions: the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, McLaren Vale and the Barossa Valley in South Australia. 

We saw heaps of animals at Healesville Sanctuary (near Melbourne) and Cleland Wildlife Park (near Adelaide). I even got to hold a koala at Cleland, which was very exciting for me, and was one of the highlights of my entire time in Australia so far! :)

We also saw wild koalas for the first time while driving near Cape Otway, Victoria. Matthew spotted the first one, and we pulled over immediately and took pictures, but he was quite off in the distance. Then we got back in the car, drove a bit further, and started spotting another and another; it was pretty awesome! Here's a video of one of the wild koalas eating some dinner.

A few photos from along the Great Ocean Road.

Anne and Tom at Cape Patton Lookout

At the Twelve Apostles

At the Twelve Apostles

Here's the album with the rest of our photos from the trip.

Anne and Tom's Visit to Australia

Easter

Happy Easter/Happy Spring/Happy Autumn! Here are two popular Aussie Easter items: a chocolate bilby, and a hot cross bun.

Despite the fact that Easter happens in Autumn here, Aussie Easter still involves spring things like eggs and bunnies. There are plenty of chocolate bunnies in the shops right now. There are also chocolate bilbies! The bilby is a cute Australian marsupial. Feral rabbits are an environmental pest here, so years ago someone introduced the concept of an Easter Bilby.

Hot cross buns aren't really a big deal in American Easter celebrations, but they're quite popular here. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the two main grocery store chains alone (Coles and Woolworths) will sell an estimated 90 million hot cross buns across Australia over Easter.

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!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all our friends and family!

Since our Christmas card didn't allow for captions, here's the photo key:
1. At Tamara and Andy's wedding, September 2011.
2. We met a dingo in Healesville, NSW, August 2011.
3. Harbour Bridge Climb with Janine and Deanna, April 2011.
4. At Iguazu Falls, Argentina, May 2011.
5. In Portland, OR, September 2011.
6. At The Big Merino in Goulburn, NSW, October 2011.

Hello from Dublin!

As you may know already, we're in Dublin!

Sláinte! from the Gravity Bar atop the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.

We're here for a work trip for M, then we head to Brussels to spend Christmas and New Years with our friends Kate and Stéphane.

Winter may not be the ideal time to travel to Ireland, but we've really enjoyed it so far. In fact, we've been pretty lucky, and the weather really hasn't been too bad. 

This past weekend, we rented a car and drove from Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher, and then stayed overnight in Galway. The Cliffs were amazing. The wind gusts were crazy - I almost got blown over and had to go over to the side of the path and hold on to the wall! Driving through the Irish countryside was beautiful, and I'm so glad we got to see it, even if it was a short road trip. 

We're here in Dublin a few more days, then on to Brussels! Looking forward to relaxing with good friends, eating frites and chocolate, and drinking Belgian beer!

We're sad to be so far away from the rest of our friends and our family on Christmas, but we'll be thinking of you! xoxo

Melbourne Trip

Matthew and I went to Melbourne August 7-11, and had a great time! We went to the Queen Victoria Market, the State Library of Victoria (where we saw Ned Kelly's armour), walked down Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, thoroughly enjoyed the Healesville Sanctuary (where we paid a little extra and got to pat a dingo), had some wine in the Yarra Valley, and went to the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharohs" exhibit at the Melbourne Museum. We also visited Cook's Cottage, the Old Treasury Building and both locations of the National Gallery Victoria.

Finally, we had lots of good food and drink. Our favourites were Movida Aqui and Cumulus Inc., and the coffee at Sensory Lab. However, there are so many more places we want to try on our next visit.

Here are our pictures from the trip:

Melbourne Trip

The Americas! (Part VI)

A and I spent the day in Austin with The New (but not as new as T.N.N.) Niece.  The drive from Houston was fun and we (A and me) always get into good conversations as the miles roll by.

First stop after arrival was lunch at Chuy's Tex-Mex.  This meal filled a psychic void I didn't know existed.

After lunch was a decent coffee from Flipnotics (which I get confused with Frippertronics - totally different)

We spent the afternoon with The Niece - she's an absolute joy to be around. T.N.'s poppa arrived home and after quick deliberation we went out for BBQ. We ate until it hurt. Literally.

A nice Aussie shiraz on the back porch rounded out the evening.

The Americas! (Part V)

I did my part to improve the US economy by shopping!

Guitar stuff from Guitar Center, a new pair of shoes, bits and bobs from REI. (It only took going to four stores to find 1 pair of size 9.5 black Converse All-Star low tops!)

Afterwards, dinner with grandma and a beer with an old high school friend. Truly, a lovely day.

Houston's sprawl continues unabated. Strip malls, huge 12-lane highways, traffic. It's surreal to be in a place that is familiar and yet you can't remember how to get from place to place.

The Americas! (Part IV)

Monday - travel day. We did the 8 hour drive from Tulsa to Houston with D&D.

Before hitting the road I had some x-rays taken of a small bone spur on my right tibia. (Diagnosis: benign.)

Overheard by Amanda in the clinic's waiting room:

(To be read in an Oklahoman accent)

Old Lady 1: "I tell you, computers are the devil. They got your whole life on there. Except when you want them to."
Old Lady 2: "mmm hmmm. I expect you're right."

Items spotted:

• Longhorn steer
• Camels
• Heaps of extra-denominational churches (e.g. Christ Bible Church of the Savior)
• Religious bumper stickers
• Intense thunderstorms
• Flooding in Paris, TX.  (I have finally been to Paris, France and Paris, TX)
• HUGE lightning strikes
• Natural gas wells
• Buzzards
• A hawk
• Horses
• Ponies (!)
• Cattle
• Wild hog traps for sale
• Goats
• Big box stores (so many...)

An exchange I had with the woman running an antique store in Canton, TX (pop. 5,100) at which we stopped along the way:

Me: "Do you know if there is anything like a Starbucks* in town?"

Her: "Oh gosh, we don't have anything fancy like that here!"

* Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The Americas! (Part III)

Sunday was another lazy day hanging out T.N.N. and the family. We had lunch at L's in-laws house and re-acquainted ourselves with their extended family. There was a brief and frenetic easter egg hunt, finger sandwiches, presents for the weeuns, heaps of food. The day was concluded with some wine and Top Gun. Whatever happened to Kelly McGillis anyway?

The Americas! Part II

Saturday was spent hanging out at L's house with the family, alternately holding The New Nephew and chewing the fat. Tulsa isn't without charm but it's been storming* on and off since our arrival and haven't seen very much of it.

T.N.N. is about as mellow as they come, just spending his time sleeping and looking cute. I've been told that he looks like L (and thus, me) and that's pretty awesome.

We've also got to spend time getting to know L's in-laws and they are lovely people.

*Golf ball sized hail!

The Americas! Part I (The Beginining)

Day 1 was full of travel: 12.5 hours SYD > LAX, 4 hour layover in LAX then 2.5 hours to TUL.

After landing, T. picked us up from the airport and whisked us straight to L's place to see the new nephew. He's as cute as a button and did nothing but sleep during our (short) visit.

We crashed out at 23:30 and managed to get 6.5 hours of sleep, which is about as good as can be expected.

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. ;)

Our First Christmas Down Under

Yesterday we had a lovely first Christmas Down Under. We went to our friends the Swartzes' house for brunch, then took a car-share van to the beach at Nielsen Park, where we went swimming and had a picnic.

The weather cooperated by not raining that day! It was sunny and warm, but not too hot. The water was still a bit chilly - apparently it will be a few more months until it really warms up - but the beach here is quite pretty and the water is really clear.

Afterwards, we went back to Chez Swartz for home-made egg nog and Boggle. What a great day.

Here's the link to the rest of the photos from the day.

Happy Holidays!

Photo: Paris Victory Ball at the Opéra de Paris in 1946, celebrating the first anniversary of V-E Day; LIFE Magazine.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Christmas trees, both real and artificial, are expensive here. So, the other night we decorated the potted plant our friends the Swartzes gave us for our housewarming.

Luckily we had a power adapter, or we wouldn't have been able to use our American Christmas lights. To be honest, our Xmas plant looks a little funny, but hey, at least it's something!

On Christmas Day, we're going to our friends' house, so I started baking some of the goodies we'll take over: applesauce and cinnamon muffins and lemon yogurt cake.

I think they turned out okay, despite the fact that the oven in our rental apartment is a little wonky, and I had to think in grams/Celsius!