Twilight Parade

Sunday 29 January

Twilight Parade.

Weather looked to be ok, no serious rain clouds around, so we decided we'd go see the Twilight Parade, but what with having an early dinner and the inclusion of Lily and Mark in the last minutes, before heading out, by the time we got out to George Street, it was packed. Unlike previous years where we would go out early and stake a spot and stand/sit for 2 hours, this year, we didn't leave home until about 7.30pm. Drove the blue bus into the city and parked in Kent Street car park for $12 flat rate. Lily, Mark, Kaylene, Janet, Evan, A. Cath and I ventured out. Walking up to George Street, we could see that people had already taken all the good vantage points. Crowds on George Street were 3 people deep, so no way could we see anything. The parade was just about to start (scheduled start time was 8pm), so we decided to go to the end of the parade at the Sydney Entertainment Centre - alas, here was also packed to the nines and there were only few street spots to take. So we parked ourselves where we thought the floats would be going down, unfortunately, this was not the case and they were sending performers down a blocked pathway closer to the Entertainment Centre and the floats were going straight onto the road. Not too many floats or performers were going down the path we thought they would be going down. So we didn't get to see many of the performers as they were diverted before they even got to us. We did however get to see most of the floats sans performers. Also managed to get a street view after many of those decided to chase the performers down the side.

There were a lot of dragons, seeing as this was the year of the dragon. I think there were less community groups marching this year, but then not having seen any of the performers, bit hard to tell.

This year they also projected light displays onto the buildings and we were lucky enough to be standing below one of the buildings which had various Chinese New Year projections, so colourful and helped me past the time, giving me something else to photograph since there were no performers for me to take photos of.

The parade seemed to run on time this year and the fireworks were let off just as the parade finished, so there was no time to get down to Darling Harbour. Saw some of it reflected of the buildings, but otherwise just heard the bangs. Will have to make sure we get out earlier next year if we do decide to go again.

Happy 18th & 27th Birthday, CNY and Aust Day

Saturday 28 January 2012

Combined birthdays, Australia Day and Chinese New Year celebrations

Nathan's 27th birthday had passed, and Kaylene's 18th was coming up, it was the Australia Day weekend and we were still celebrating Chinese New Year, so Lily sent out the invites and we prepared for lunch and dinner and a whole lot of eating. The young ones, played a gambling game, which was going to involve shots, it didn't, but they still managed to drink themselves silly - the drinkers. The not so young ones, watched the Womens single tennis final match between Azarenka (won) and Sharapova.The old ones played Mah Jong.
 

Lunch:
Lo Hei (Yee Sang) - which consisted of grated carrots, cucumber, capsicum, salmon and associated spices and sauce.
Garden salad
Bean salad
Lebanese potato salad (Evan)
Cooked cold prawns
BBQ lamb chops
Pork & Italian sausages
BBQ onions
Roasted sweet potato
Corn on the Cob
Japchae (Korean potato noodle) (Anne)
Chiffon cake for afternoon tea (A. Cath)


Dinner:
Lo Hei (Yee Sang) - which consisted of grated carrots, cucumber, capsicum, salmon and associated spices and sauce and pomelo (which we had forgotton for lunch - but I think we should just exclude it and add shredded lettuce next time).
Korean potato salad
Thai beef salad
Crab salad
Cooked cold prawns
Chicken curry (Mary)
Baked potato (Anne) (Joy)
Pea salad with mustard mayo (Veronica)
BBQ lamb chops (were finished during the course of the afternoon with latecomers (Daniel & gf, Nathan's friends and family who had missed out at lunch)
Pork chops
Rump steak
Chicken wings
Pork & Italian sausages
Bulgogi Beef
BBQ onions
Roasted sweet potato
Corn on the Cob

Cake:
Chinese sponge fruit cake (A. Cath bought, Lily paid her back)
Raspberry cheesecake
Costco cream puffs
Watermelon
Rockmelon
Mango (Sylvia)

Erina Heights

Thursday 26th January 2012

Australia Day at Mark and Lynn's

Evan had been commissioned by Lynn and Mark to take some family photos at their place up at Erina Heights (3/457 The Entrance Road, Erina Heights, off Puddleduck Lane) on Australia Day, so he asked if he could bring his assistant, me.

Casey, Shirley and Matty and Shirley's parents were also there as well.

We arrived around lunch time, just after 12. The weather looked to be threatening with lots of clouds and a few showers here and there, but otherwise, it would be perfect for taking photos if no rain came.



As I wasn't sure what was happening that day, I made some brownies to take with us - can't rock up empty handed.

When we got to there place, Evan had overshot the lane that leads to there house, according to Lynn you had to go past a garden nursery and then drive into their driveway in order to get to the laneway. The laneway was not surfaced, so hate to think what happens if you don't have a 4-wheel drive.

Lynn had made mince, guacamole, shredded lettuce for tacos, but she had forgotten the cheese, and the sauce. So we had lunch first and then it was time for the photo shoot. In the meantime, the weather had become hot and humid and the sun decided to come out now and then. Lynn showed us the place after lunch and then it was time for the photo shoot.

Shirley had bought new clothes for the kids and Casey. So they changed and poor Shirley had put Isabelle in her pretty dress, but forgot to wash her face which still had food on it. Matty was not behaving for the cameras. Apparently Shirley had promised him Optimus Prime, but he wanted it right away, not later on, so he threw a tantrum. Not many smiles from him, but I think Evan managed to get a few good shots. Isabelle in the meantime was so smiley and Aidan just was not sure what was going on.

Mark and Lynn's property is huge, the gardens are devine, but probably a pain to maintain and there are several houses on the property, the house where they live, a pool house and another which I didn't really get to explore.

After wandering around and through the gardens taking photos, it was time for a swim. Unfortunately, neither Evan or myself had packed our swimmers and towels as it seemed likely to rain. So we watched as Mark, Aidan, Lynn, Casey and Matty went for a swim. Shirley had put Isabelle down for a nap, so she was not going to swim until Izzy was awake. Matty is not very water confident, but was prepared to shoot Mark and Casey with a water gun, but not have them spray water back at him.

Evan wandered around the property taking photos and all the extras Lynn had added to the garden as well as anything that caught his eye.

After the swim, Mark was off to mow the lawn. They have a ride on lawn mower, which he drives. It didn't take him long to mow the gardens. The boys were fascinated, but Matty was too afraid to ride with Mark.

We had afternoon tea in the pool house and then back into the main house for some girl talk and gossip.

We left around 6pm to make out way back home.

Welcome Home BBQ

To welcome Nathan and Sylvia back from their travels to China, HK and Japan, Lily and Janet organised a BBQ.

They went shopping at Costco and bought 30 lamb chops, mini sausages, salads. We had pork chops and sausages left over from our previous BBQ during the week, so these also went on the menu. It was a meat lovers delight.

 After dinner, Nathan and Sylvia got to open their Christmas presents, as well as give some out. They had brought a lot of goodies from Japan. Including some double sided tape, origami paper, lace border adhesives and sushi spatulas for me. Kaylene got spoilt with lots of clothes.

Royal National Park, Audley

Sat 7 January 2012

Mare messaged and asked whether we wanted to go to a beach in the Royal National Park. It was such a nice day, who would say no, so we organised to be dropped off at her place. In the meantime, I asked if Evan could also come, so I messaged him as well as texting him. He was busy mowing the lawn.

So Janet drove Kaylene and I to Mare's place and from there, she drove us to Linda's parent's place. Linda, Tones and Jordan were just about to have lunch, so we left them, bought some KFC on the way to Evan's and ate lunch at his place.

Then Mare drove, Evan, A.Cath, Kaylene and I to Audley. By the time we got there it was around 1.30pm. Apparently the beach that Linda's brother Patrick had suggested was on the other side of the weir, no waves..but not exactly a beach. Kaylene said it was worse than the lagoon at Village resort, so she didn't swim. Linda and Tony had just arrived a few minutes before we had, but Jordan was sleeping, so they let him sleep, but he was awake within a few minutes.Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of him, will have to pester Evan for some. Spent the afternoon trying to read and get some some. Lucky it wasn't an extremely hot day, but warm enough for a swim - which the others did.

Left around 4pm as Mare had to get back to go to church and Lily had invited her and anyone else over for a barbecue (see next blog)

New Years Fireworks

This year, Evan and Mark were the lucky recipients of the Cahill Expressway NYE tickets, and they both managed to get the Midnight session.  Although Evan also had received tickets for the 9pm session too, we opted to watch that at home before heading out for the midnight ones.

After checking out of The Village resort at Port Macquarie 1 hour earlier than the checkout time, we checked out at 9am (see full story in Port Macquarie blog), we stopped by the Oyster Barn. U. David bought mudcrabs and Janet bought oysters which we would have for our NYE dinner, but changed it to New Years Day dinner. After which we drove to the Port Tacking Light House, but the weather was not kind and there was a grey rain cloud above the lighthouse, so no photos were taken there, and we left Port Macquarie to make our way back to Sydney via the coastal route of Laurieton.

We got home by 3.30pm, in time for afternoon tea.  Lily had prepared a feast for us to have before heading out of pork roast, potato salad, etc

We took the train out to Wynyard. Mark, Lily, Kaylene, A. Cathy, Evan and myself. It was packed with party goers, already half drunk going out to celebrate. When we got out at Wynyard they had made the George St entry only so the only way out was through the back of Wynyard. We had to find our way out back to George Street and made our way up to the Cahill entry. Although they had already started letting people in, (Vanita and her mum was there at 9pm, and had already gone in), the queue still was pretty long. We made our way in and found Vanita and her mum who had staked out a section just past the food stands. (Note to self: next time, just find a good spot when your on the Cahill and don't depend on others - can always go in search of them and get them to join you). At least we didn't have to wait too long for the count down to the fireworks and we could see them pretty well from where we were.

We thought we'd have to spend hours getting into the train station, but Lily just found a big guy to go behind and we all followed. we got back in record time. Normally we get back around 3am, but this year we got back around 1.30am, so early in fact, that U. David didn't give them time to have a cuppa and demanded they go home.

Funny story: Evan texted Janet in the wee hours of the morning to say that they got home early, but couldn't get in. No one had the house keys and Ken had locked the garage door. So they spend the time waiting for Ken to finish work waiting in the car. Ken didn't get home until about 3am, and found them waiting to wish him a Happy New Year. Moral of the story - they all now carry their house keys with them.