Christmas at The Village Resort

This Christmas, we decided to get away from it all and go up north to Port Macquarie for a week.

We left on Christmas Eve, Sat 24 December. Evan, U. David, A. Cath in their Rav and Janet, Fiona and I in our Mazda. Stopped at Hungry Jacks along the way for a late lunch before arriving at The Village Resort just after 4pm. Checked into Unit 3 and got my jigsaw to work on during the week, the waterlillies one which I had started in November, but never got to complete.

Christmas day and Santa had found us.

Christmas Gifts

These are the gifts I got this christmas.

Sue Hoy: Harrods bag
Maria M: Hand cream, foldable bag and bag holder
Helen: Bottle with filters and soap set
Fiona: Thomas Sabo tennis racquet charm
Iveta: Salad bowl
Ronald: Christmas tree dish
Pat: Scrapbook paper
Katherine: NY Dvd
Jenny: Honeycomb chocolates (gave to Jacq)
Margaret: Xmas table placemat
Bich: Perfume
Kasia: Soap set
Lily: Sleeveless top
Seeto's: Scarf and makeup bag (not pictured)

LTS Christmas Dinner 2011

Wednesday 21 December 2011

Hi all,

Christmas dinner has been booked at Il Buco restaurant http://www.ilbuco.com.au/ 

It is classed as Italian Seafood restaurant.

It is located only a few streets away from here with parking available on street. Address is 142A Liverpool Rd – it is between Wentworth Rd and Burwood Rd. I suggest we park on Heldon St as it would be closest side street but apparently you can park on Liverpool Rd after 6pm.  (It is on the farther side of the road from us so best option would be to turn right from Burwood Rd to get to it)

It is fully licenced (but also allows B.Y.O wine between Tuesday and Saturdays at $3.50 corkage per person if interested).

I have made the booking for Wednesday 21^st December at 6pm for the 8 of us in the name of Giles.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there.

 Jenni

Wednesday 21 December 2011
 I had the Vitello Al Buco: pan-fried veal with prawns, shallots finished with a pernod cream sauce $29 and for dessert a creamy chocolate cone.

Lights of Christmas

Tuesday 20 December

Drove out to city to see St Marys Cathedral and Town Hall lit up. Parked in Kent Street parking and walked to Hyde Park and St Mary's via David Jones window displays.

The Lights of Christmas features several different scenes all highly decorated  in colours that are present in the Sydney region. In the first scene we are greeted by the universal symbol of peace, the Dove.

We then move into the Growth segment where we see familiar plants and flowers growing over the facade of the catheral, such as Jasmine, Wisteria and Jacaranda. An owl appears in the tree as we see reflections of foliage in the pond below, the owl takes flight as a feather falls - imparting his wisdom.

We follow the feather as it drops into a pond below, sending out ripples which signifies the effect our wisdom can have on others.

We now enter the water and can see above and below; a metaphor for seeing things from a different perspective which gives the wisdom required to bring about peace. Light rays appear from the colourful stained glass windows; the dawning of a new beginning bring us hope.

In our final scene we return to the traditional Christmas imagery of a tree growing from seedling. The tree, an iconic Sydney fig highly decorated with colourful baubles, places us in the present.

Artwork features The Madonna and Child

Afterwards we walk to Martin Place to take photos of the big Christmas tree, then make our way to QVB and the Swarovski Christmas tree and then finally make it to Sydney Town Hall where the projections continue.

Ken buys some donuts from Woollies and we snack before walking back to the car and driving back home.

Myer Xmas Wrapping

My annual help Vision Australia out with Vanita.

The training day was on Sat 10 December at 10-11.30am. Our co-ordinator, Peter Longhurst wasn't quite as succinct as previous co-ordinators, with definitely no skill in wrapping. It was only suppose to be an hour and a half, but it stretched to 2 hours, eating into my shopping time. Organisation of materials was also non-existent, it was left up to us volunteers to ask Myers staff for extra paper and ribbons when supply was low.

I volunteered for Sat 17 and Sun 18 from 10am to 2pm on both days at Macquarie Shopping Centre, Ryde. Forgot that they now have 3 people manning the wrap stall, so on Saturday we had a young asian girl who had just finished her HSC help out and on Sunday we had a Uni asian boy, who had also been with us on last years shift.

The Saturday shift started off with a bang, we even had people queuing to get their gifts wrapped and there were a few large boxes included in those. Someone even bought a kitchenaid (I want one). The poor lady who was on the afternoon shift was left to carry on her own, although I did stay back to help her out with wrapping some unusual shaped gifts for this Indian women who couldn't control her nieces and nephews, which the mum had left her with.  But couldn't help her out for the rest of the afternoon otherwise I'd have no shopping time left. Used the time to go buy my Christmas gifts for work and other friends. Why is it so easy to buy presents for yourself and not others.

Ken's Shock Announcement

Thursday 15 December 2011

Ken announces his engagement to Angel via email with subject: Wedding Bells

"To all my Uncles and Aunties and Sydney Cousins...

Can't hold it in any more...

For the Uncles and Aunties who saw her at the Por Por Dinner and for my Sydney Cousins who kept on hearing about her...

It's official... as from 9:00pm HK time last night, I am now engaged to Angel Fung Siu Yee... I met her parents on Monday and mum is going to meet the in-laws on Saturday before we leave...

It took a while to get the courage to ask her hand in marriage (I was thinking about it too much, as I always do. Everything had to be right and was I doing it for the right reasons etc) and there weren't that many ROMANTIC locations to propose and time was running out... So TST was the place to do it, in front of mum and so she is my witness, as I spluttered the words out to Angel for her hand in marriage... Got to remember "Ga Ngau" and NOT "Chue Gnaw"...

Stay tuned..."

Now we are waiting to see whether he elopes, has a registry wedding or a wedding in HK or Australia?

SU Xmas Dinner and Summer Mini Launch

Wed 14 December

Took half day flex and went with Kaylene to get hair coloured and cut, etc.

Got home in time to set table and decorate.

Ordered Thai takeaway from  - Family also had thai takeaway.

Decorated some magnetic spice containers with DSP and ribbon, put inside a mini SU stamp, ribbon (from Riot), Tag. Gifts for the ladies in my club.

After dinner, they all had a look at the mini catalog and the goodies they could get and each of them put an order in.

Fiona's Christmas Party

4 December 2011

Made Potato and Corn salad, Tuna Mayo, Crabstick and Prawn Sushi

Dropped by Seeto's to pick up Evan. Uncle David stayed at home.

Fiona gave me a Thomas Sabo charm (tennis racquet)

Kaylene's Formal

Formal Expenses

Ticket for dinner: $125
Dress: Butterfly off the shoulder mini Eclipse KL
Shoes: Tyra Black Patent heels from Zu Was $130 - now $39
Hair: Alan Coban $105

Port Macquarie Schoolies

19 - 25 November

Went to Port Macquarie with Lily, Kaylene, Christine, Christine and Caroline (Kaylene's friends). Janet, Justin and Sophia joined us later that night.

Sat - hot day - but spent most of it driving. Lily drove first and then we switched at Hungry Jacks

Units 29 and 30. Lily, Kaylene and friends in one unit, Janet, Justin, Sophia and I in the other.
They spent the rest of the day doing a jigsaw puzzle.

Sun - Fine day

Mon - Rainy - Jigsaw puzzle day

Tues - Nice and fine but very windy along beaches. Drove to the Lighthouse where we took pictures, then drove down to the beach, but it was very windy so we got back in the car and drove back to the resort for some swimming, and tanning by the lagoon

Wed - Rain. The 2 Christine's left us. Saw them off at airport in wind and rain. They were lucky the planes were still flying.

Thurs - Rain. Shopping

Fri - Rain. Shopping

Sat - rain - cleared as we got to Hexham and was fine when we arrived back in Sydney

Supercalafragelisticexpealidocious

Thur 17 Nov 2011




Went out to see Mary Poppins with Jacq, Janet and Kaylene.
We popped by to pick Jacq up before heading out to the city. Parked in Goulburn Street parking station and walked to the Capitol. Got there with enough time for Kaylene to go to the toilet before heading on in to our seats.

It was a great show and even had the audience as well as us singing along. We were amazed by the cast members ability to remember the actions to the song: Supercalifragelistic - need to see it to believe it.

An enjoyable evening.

Tess's 1st Birthday

Sat 1st October 2011

Marisa emailed these delightful invites out inviting us to help celebrate Tess's 1st birthday.

They had reserved a section in the park, which had cover, bbq stoves and tables with seating.

Marisa went to a lot of trouble making the decorations which hung from the beams as well as preparing all the sweets, which were so adorable. She had gifts for all those who came, in the form of cupcake shells filled with potty mix and a seed (daisy) to germinate. (I took what was left planted them in the front garden).

She made a bee pinata for the kids to play with, but they just had to pull a string each for the pinata to open, but it did take some effort and when it did open, all the lollies came out at once.

The birthday girl stayed awake long enough to take some photos with the family before going down for a nap, then awakened in time to say goodbye to everyone.

I gave her a SU scrapbook album which I had made up ready for the party photos to go into. Also a small crocheted rattle cupcake bought online. Have yet to see the finished album with photos added.

H2Go

I bought these coloured water crystals at the Gardening show when I went with Marion this year at Rosehill.  All you need to do is soak them in water until they expand to marble size. Then you fill your vase with whatever rainbow sequence you want and it makes for a very colourful display.

Family, Food and Vintage Cars

On Sunday 18 September, we, Lily, Janet, A. Cath, Evan and I, walked down to Burwood Park to join in the Burwood Spring Festival. We got there around 12.30pm. Bumped into Jacq, Richard, Ollie and Juliette.

Checked out the lion dancing, where Marion found us. She had spent the morning there and was heading on home. We then checked out some of the food stalls, and then the Noisy by Choice competition, and then again saw Jacq and family near the pond where big boys were playing with their big toys - motorised sailing ships and boats. Ollie wanted to see the boats. Nathan, Sylvia and Kaylene also joined us there, they drove to the park. After we said goodbye to the Cheongs, we went in search of a table and food. Sylvia is the best, when it comes to food. She snagged a table with lots of chairs and then headed off with Nathan to buy the food. Lily bought Thai - Pad thai and fried noodles and Spanish - Seafood risotto. Evan bought organic gozlemes, Nathan bought Mexican quesadillas and Sylvia bought normal gozlemes. After eating, we washed it down with fresh lemonade. Then A.Cath bought Dutch pancakes, Sylvia bought Churros for dessert. Then we walked arouns some more. I bought garlic mayo and dukkah, Evan bought garlic oil from Pukara Estate. The we wen to check out the vintage cars. They also had souped up cars too.

Floriade 2011

On Saturday 17 September, Evan, Aunty Cath, Janet and I went to Canberra to visit Floriade.  It was the first day of this celebration of Spring and the weather was perfect.

This years theme for Floriade is a Feast for the Senses and the garden beds feature designs based around a culinary feast for senses. Over 1 million bulbs and annuals are planted in autumn and different flowers bloom at different times.

We left Sydney just before 9am, after Janet and I drove to the Seeto's at Carlton. Then Evan drove us down to Canberra. We got there just before 12 noon. Parked in one of the public car parks along Constitution Avenue and walked through the underpass to the Nerang Pool entry gate.

We stopped and had lunch around 1pm, 2 x Steak and Mushroom pies for A. Cath and Janet and 2 x Hotdogs for Evan and I $4.50 each, so all up $18 (A.Cath paid). Janet later bought a cup of chips for $5 which we savoured. And as we were leaving, I bought each of us a Gaytime for $4.40 each $18 in total.

The flowers were so colourful, some had yet to bloom and others had already died, but the warm weather made it a fabulous day to be enjoying the spring flowers. Lots of photos taken. We finished up at 5pm, even though the gates close at 5.30pm. Evan drove us to outskirts of Canberra where we filled up and then I took over and drove the rest of the way home.

Got back to Hurstville around 8pm. We went out to eat at Hurstville Canton Noodle House, parked in Westfields and had Tofu hotpot, Gai lan, and a sweet and sourlike  pork dish with rice. Got back to the Seeto's place around 9.30pm - had a cuppa tea, before heading home around 11pm. Twas a long day, had a shower and straight to bed.

Garden bed designs we came across in order were

1. Chef de Cuisine:

Chefs are masters of manipulation when it comes to food, using their insight and skill to create sensational flavours. This display is an ode to the Chef de Cuisine with the design forming the classic chef’s hat, necktie and chequered trousers.

2. Bento Box:

Enjoy the beautifully presented Japanese bento box which offers a delicate mix of sweet, sour and salty flavours. The bright colours of pickled vegetables and pretty shaped nori rolls reflect the flavours from the orient.



3. Ice Cream Swirl:

Tantalise the tastebuds with vanilla, berry and honeycomb, some of the favourite flavours of this universally loved frozen dessert. The wonderful experience of ice cream has motivated the creation of endless flavours and varieties.

4. Farmers Market:

See rows of colour representing the market stalls in a farmers market. From the hustle and bustle of trading to the colourful characters, delicious flavours and aromas, the farmers market is an institution and a feast for the senses.

5. Watermelon Wedge:

Savour the flavour and aroma of watermelon which reminds us of hot summer days and gatherings with family and friends. Be refreshed by the ruby-coloured flesh, black seeds, white rind and green skin of a giant wedge of juicy watermelon.

6. Cup Cakes:

The cup cake, also known as fairy cake, is loved by children and adults alike. See large individual tubs sprinkled with brightly coloured flowers depicting cup cakes beautifully decorated with icing and glacé cherries.


 7. Citrus Basket:
Be tempted by this display of lemon, orange and lime segments. Citrus fruits have tangy flavours, distinct fragrances and energising colours.




8. Red Hot Chilli Pepper

See a giant red chilli pepper celebrating the flavour of this widely used fruit. The bright, warm colours inspire us to feel the intense heat of the red hot chilli.



9. A Drop of Wine:

Drink in the subtle flavours and diverse characteristics of the local cool climate wine district. Elevated mounds represent wine bottles.




10. Spice Market
Be enticed by the vibrant colours and smells of a spice market. Mounds of colourful spices are piled high, with their rich aromas stimulating the tastebuds.




11. Cheese Platter
Cheese lovers unite! Flowers and herbs depict a giant wheel of rind-sealed Gouda and a section of soft white cream cheese with fresh herbs swirling through it.




 
12. Chocolate Paradise
Once consumed as a bitter beverage by the ancient Maya and Aztecs, chocolate evolved into a sweet and became a global hit. Colourful flowers form a box of mixed chocolates.



13. Coffee Break
Be aroused by the multisensory experience of coffee. See the aromatic crema swirling on the top of a coffee cup to form a heart-shaped pattern




14. Flaming Barbie

Celebrate the iconic Australian barbeque and our outdoor lifestyle which allows us to cook just about anything anywhere. Red, yellow and orange hues represent barbeque flames.