20th - 25th July - Sydney, Australia
We arrived in Sydney to be met by Lou (an old Colindale mate) and Chris who moved out to the good life two and half years ago. It was great to see them again and share all the goss over several glasses of wine! By chance we timed our flights in and out of Syndey amazingly - it was Lou´s 30th birthday the day we arrived ( a good excuse for a posh nosh and swanky cocktails in the Shangri-La overlooking the harbour) and they had a weekend booked in the Blue Mountains for more birthday celebrations which we were invited to join!
We ticked most boxes on the Sydney Tourist Trail; the Opera House where Leighton Hewitt and Rebecca Cartwright (pretty one from Home & Away) were getting married (although James misheard one of the papparazzi guys and thought he´d said Matt Cartwright so not thinking there´d be a pretty dress to see we didn´t hang around!), the Botanical Gardens, Hyde Park, posh shops and Bondi Beach (where Lou is Baywatch sylee lifeguard). After a day or so doing the sights - and civilised afterwork drinkies of fine wine and nibbles overlooking the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge - we headed to the Blue Mountains for the birthday bash and Christmas Dinner in July!
The chalet Lou had booked was stunning!! A huge new place nestled in the forest - perfect for the ten mates originally going and two pikely travellers kipping in the pool room!
The Blue Mountains are beautiful - huge landscapes of forested valleys with great steep escarments - ´blue´because of the bluey hue as far as you can see given off by the Eucalyptus trees. The boys went for a hearty walk (which James says was pretty knee trembling in places but beautiful) while us girlies did more ladylike things like window shopping in the pretty shops (some dedicated to Christmas goodies) and having tea and cake!
Later on Saturday evening we had a mass preparation for the Christmas feast followed by a 1930s Murder Mystery. As we´d forgotten to pack our fancy dress gear in our backpacks we were lucky that Lou had raided her school costume cupboard. After greasing the hair with masses of conditioner, application of plenty of eye liner (for boys and girlies) and donning our costume cupboard goodies we were all in role and set for a jolly good bash with jolly good chums - what´ho!!
As the pics show we had a great time with all Lou & Chris´ lovely mates and even James cremating my dates in bacon didn´t spoil the fun!!
On the Sunday we had a good stroll through the bush to clear the cobwebs and then headed to a picnic area to scoff the remainder of the cheese and chicken. We were greated by a huge flock of Cockatoos (which look pretty but sound just like crows), who took a fancy to our leftovers. Luckily they weren´t Kookaburas as Lou has told us how determined they can be when you have a good looking picnic on offer - although the boys didn´t believe a word of it!! And we saw our first wild kangaroos!! Lush!!
Back at Lou and Chris´lush flat we scoffed more cheese and wine (lush!) and loafed on the lush sofas. (Thank you for having us - it was lush!)
We ticked most boxes on the Sydney Tourist Trail; the Opera House where Leighton Hewitt and Rebecca Cartwright (pretty one from Home & Away) were getting married (although James misheard one of the papparazzi guys and thought he´d said Matt Cartwright so not thinking there´d be a pretty dress to see we didn´t hang around!), the Botanical Gardens, Hyde Park, posh shops and Bondi Beach (where Lou is Baywatch sylee lifeguard). After a day or so doing the sights - and civilised afterwork drinkies of fine wine and nibbles overlooking the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge - we headed to the Blue Mountains for the birthday bash and Christmas Dinner in July!
The chalet Lou had booked was stunning!! A huge new place nestled in the forest - perfect for the ten mates originally going and two pikely travellers kipping in the pool room!
The Blue Mountains are beautiful - huge landscapes of forested valleys with great steep escarments - ´blue´because of the bluey hue as far as you can see given off by the Eucalyptus trees. The boys went for a hearty walk (which James says was pretty knee trembling in places but beautiful) while us girlies did more ladylike things like window shopping in the pretty shops (some dedicated to Christmas goodies) and having tea and cake!
Later on Saturday evening we had a mass preparation for the Christmas feast followed by a 1930s Murder Mystery. As we´d forgotten to pack our fancy dress gear in our backpacks we were lucky that Lou had raided her school costume cupboard. After greasing the hair with masses of conditioner, application of plenty of eye liner (for boys and girlies) and donning our costume cupboard goodies we were all in role and set for a jolly good bash with jolly good chums - what´ho!!
As the pics show we had a great time with all Lou & Chris´ lovely mates and even James cremating my dates in bacon didn´t spoil the fun!!
On the Sunday we had a good stroll through the bush to clear the cobwebs and then headed to a picnic area to scoff the remainder of the cheese and chicken. We were greated by a huge flock of Cockatoos (which look pretty but sound just like crows), who took a fancy to our leftovers. Luckily they weren´t Kookaburas as Lou has told us how determined they can be when you have a good looking picnic on offer - although the boys didn´t believe a word of it!! And we saw our first wild kangaroos!! Lush!!
Back at Lou and Chris´lush flat we scoffed more cheese and wine (lush!) and loafed on the lush sofas. (Thank you for having us - it was lush!)
posted by Polly and James at Tuesday, August 02, 2005
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