Bundeena and the Royal National Park

Last Sunday (26/08/07) we went to a beautiful National Park and a town not too far away from us, both between 35 and 50 Km.

We drove to the Royal National Park (the 2nd oldest NP after Yellowstone in the world) and then we drove through it to get to a small town called Bundeena.

It was the first time we took Caroline's car to its natural habitat.

It was nice to escape the city. Even though the city is just minutes away it is a world of difference.

The National Royal Park has a great natural diversity and now we know it is just at our doorstep we 'll surely go there again for a short escape.

Mind you that wasn't even our main goal. That was Bundeena.

Bundeena Beach; crab; Bundeena - Cronulla -ferry wharf

Even though the weather was horrible a mere 24C? We persevered. It will probably take some years before we 'll get used to these hard conditions the Australian winters throw at us. Anyway we thought we came prepared Slip Slop Slap-ed. But some water would have been more then welcome when we walked the Jibbon Beach Loop walk. A nice walk that took us over the beach, along the coast along cliffs and rugged heath land with breathtaking views and distant city vistas. <hehehehe ...vistas>

City views; Jibbon Beach; cliffs

We also met loads of iconic Australian birds like the Rainbow Lorikeet its call, Galah its call, Laughing Kookaburra its call and of course the noisy Sulphur Crested Cockatoos its call. At the end of our walk about an hour before sunset we heard all of these...... First pleasantly surprised....turning to pleasantly thinking we don't have that racket at home especially when trying to sleep in. So we enjoyed it probably more then the locals do.

Rainbow Lorikeet and Kookaburra

RSL Raffles

Caroline and I have joined the local RSL club, Club Five Dock with cheap drinks and pokies. And with our membership we each received vouchers worth AU$75 for free meals, free drinks and raffle tickets. The raffle tickets for the Sunday Meat raffle and the Friday Surf and Turf raffle were particularly good for us. On one Sunday we went for the Meat raffle and I won......twice. First I chose a huge leg of lamb thinking of going for value rather then the size of our fridge and then I won again and chose 5 pork chops.
The next Friday there was the Surf and Turf raffle unfortunately I was still on my way home from work so Caroline went on her own with our vouchers after she finished work because the vouchers were only valid for a limited time. And then she text me what was keeping me, because she needed me to carry the loot.
She won big time. As there was a whole variety the first time she won she went for the Surf (a small cooler containing a dozen Sydney Rock Oysters and what must be at least 1 Kilo of cooked prawns) ...

....then with her 2nd win as it was Surf and Turf she choose 5 big rump steaks. When she won a 3rd time she was slightly embarrassed for having won again but she stood up and chose 6 nice lamb steaks. Our fridge is stuffed and we really enjoyed the shrimps but especially the oysters.
We had them Kilpatrick our way (one oyster in a Bloody Mary filled shooter)
This is how our night progressed:

The first 1/2 dozen with half the prawns.

As we started the 2nd half dozen of oysters the pile of prawns had diminished significantly.

......until there were none left......
....

Red Meat

For those who say eat fish at least 1-2 a week.

Ooops!!! Wrong House

A policeman rescues a woman from a house that is on fire, unknown to him it is the wrong house.

Finally arrived in Sydney

......continuing from Melbourne.
From Melbourne we finally went to Sydney on the 30th of May. It was only a few hours flight from Melbourne that went by uneventfully. From the airport we took a taxi to our hotel where we would stay for the next 2 days. We stayed in the Old Sydney Holiday Inn. From the view of our hotel room there was no mistake about it. We had arrived in Sydney!!!

It was good to be back in Sydney and it seemed like we had never left. We knew the area around the Rocks well because we used to live just off Martin Place for 4 months. And the 'do you remember when we/I...?' were around every corner.
The Botanical Gardens were also great to see again too. We shared it with a whole flock of noisy Sulphur Crested Cockatoos when we were there.

Although our hotel was nice and we really enjoyed our time there we had to move to our new home for the time being. It was a self catered apartment on Bond Street in the CBD which we had let for a month. It looked just like a hotel room because it was part of the hotel, without the housekeeping and room service.
Then we started looking for a place to live and do all the administrative stuff (Medicare, drivers licence, bank accounts, etc), again the weather had caught up with us. The worst storm NSW had seen in 30 years hit us.

(Needless to say we were glad we didnt go to Manly that day)

On top of that there is/was a housing shortage in Sydney which meant some people look for months before they find anywhere to live. And the way it all works here with viewings only in time slots of 30 mins on a Saturday between 10.00-14.00 with 10-15 people queuing to watch one property our chances of even finding a house were slim to none. But we found one purely by chance walking into an estate agent who was about to show a townhouse to someone else if we cared to look at it. And we liked it, it was far better then the other houses we had seen before. The street we are at is parallel with a busy shopping street, but the great part is where we are it feels and is like being in the middle of suburbia, hardly any traffic/people deserted almost. Another nice feature of the area with water on either side of us is you can go to the heart of the city by ferry which we plan to do when summer is here.
The suburb we live in Sydney is called Five Dock (Google map).
And because the house came unfurnished......

...........the race was on to buy all our furniture and have it delivered ASAP. Not to mention all the other stuff we needed from bins to teaspoons to mattress covers to you name it. On the bright side everything is new and to our liking.
But every once in a while you find you are still short of a certain item. Especially when cooking. We went to the Dutch shop in Smithfield 't Winkeltje to stock up on some frikandellen and kroketten almost as soon as our fridge arrived........and then you find yourself without a deep fryer.
After weeks of waiting we finaly received our sofas. We dont have to sit on the benches we use for the dining table any longer.

And today all our stuff from the UK arrived. Minus one paperweight we bought in Death Valley , but we had declared it and that was seized for quarantine reasons. Leaves us to unpack it all. It almost feels like Christmas.

Talking Cats

If you place a video about talking dogs you have to place one about cats too.

Talking Dogs

Talking dogs.

Visit 171 Starbucks in Manhattan in one day

This guy visits all 171 Starbucks in Manhattan in just one day.
I thought going to all the Walkabouts in London in one day was hard work.

One Rat Short

One Rat Short a nice and sad short about 2 rats who find each other.....

Sam the shoplifting Gull

Sam steals crisps, but only one particular flavor.

Homer vs Cerne Abbas

Homer vs Cerne Abbas

A doughnut-brandishing Homer Simpson was painted next to the giant on the hill above Cerne Abbas, Dorset, to promote the new Simpsons film. The painted Simpsons character has been painted with water-based biodegradable paint which will wash away as soon as it rains.

Melbourne

............... Continuing from 'We had a great time in Hong Kong and Macau'.
From Hong Kong we flew to Melbourne where we landed on 26/05/07.

It was nice to be back in Australia especially to think that this time we didn't enter it as backpackers but as permanent residents. More shocking Caroline and I arrived together as husband and wife!!!! Something we couldn't have imagined 3 years ago when we both backpacked Australia.
In Melbourne we once again stayed with friends of Caroline. They live about a 15 minute ride from the city. And of course the weather wasn't on our side again.... with lots of rain. But that was GOOD!! So we kept saying to ourselves. Our new country is in the middle of a drought with severe water restrictions in some areas.

Above the gallows where Ned Kelly, the infamous bush ranger, was hung and his death mask. We saw them at the Melbourne Gaol a museum and former prison.

Another thing we did in Melbourne was visit Cook's Cottage a cottage built by the parents of Captain James Cook (originally standing in England). Unfortunately it has been lost in time whether Captain Cook has actually lived there or not. But as his parents had lived there he must have at least visited it.

Tooheys Extra Dry

Baseball Expirement

If you drive a van at 100km/h and from that van you shoot a baseball at the same speed in the opposite direction what would happen?

Drunk Monkeys

See how Vervet monkeys in St Kitts steal drinks from tourists in order to get drunk.

The M500

This is a water resistant mobile phone watch. Made here in Australia.
The water-resistant M500 works on GSM Quadband frequencies which are 850Mhz, 900Mhz, 1800Mhz and 1900Mhz. This allows any individual who has a GSM SIM card to use the M500 in any country around the world. The M500 has a built-in MP3 and MP4 player, Voice Bluetooth, Data Bluetooth, 128MB standard memory and U Disk functionality for all JM2E (Java) applications. For further information visit SMS Technology Australia.

The Simpsons Inside the Actors Studio

Inside the Actors Studio, the people behind the voices of the Simpsons.


Just in time for "the Movie"

Help!

The Beatles' Help!

Yellow Submarine

The Beatles' Yellow Submarine

We had a great time in Hong Kong and Macau

On the 20th of May we left the UK for our new homeland Australia (that is why the lack of recent updates). But first we would make the most of our journey and have a stopover in Hong Kong.

It was very hot and humid and it rained quite a lot. If you didn't get wet because of the rain you would get dripped on by the many airconditionings working overtime overhead.

A ferry ride or 2 is not too be missed so we did and there for we didn't miss out on the magnificent views it gives you of the city by day and night. One day we took the ferry to Macau for a daytrip.

We walked everywhere in Macau as it isn't that big, everything is local. We had walked all morning and were looking for a place to eat and cool down. When we finally found a place and were seated by the waitress and given our menus the waitress came back to say in broken English the chef had walked out?! No lunch.... That was okay at least we had a chance to cool down and enjoy a coke. We went off and close by there was an ice cream shop with the weirdest ice creams. Ginger, yellow beans and other flavours I can't think of right now. One caught my attention the Durian ice cream. It is a fruit I only knew from TV as being foul smelling and therefor banned from public transport and hotels. I just had to try it. I asked if I could have a sample. The flavour was nothing like I have ever eaten before and hopefully never will again. Caroline was not impressed when I convinced her to try it as well. It took a decent meal for the taste to finally disappear.

For those of you collecting stamps in their passports going to Macau on a day trip is a very good way to get some. Once you have returned to HK you will have a full page in your passport of entrance and exit stamps just of HK and Macau.

Another thing we liked doing in Hong Kong was going to the different markets (bird-, flower-, goldfish-, jade- and night market). A visit to a wet market is also a must as it is quite different from the markets we are used to in the West. I must say it is not for the squeamish.

The last 2 days we stayed with friends of Caroline's who live in a nice area of HK. Away from the city and away from all the traffic and people. Their apartment has floor to ceiling windows with a great view of the South China Sea and several islands. At nighttime you could see all the little fishing boats with their bright lights fishing for squid and during the day we saw several dragonboats practising for the race below.

Getting around was very easy and the ferries and taxi's are very cheap. All in all we had a great time exploring downtown HK and Macau. HK was nothing like I expected it to be. We would definitely like to go back. And when we do, we'll be taking empty suitcases, there are plenty of bargains to be had.