Australia is beautiful one day, perfect the next....

While poor ol' Christchurch is being flooded and blasted with more earthquakes we are driving through the beautiful Australian countryside visiting family... Today we came about 3-4 hours south of Sydney to visit my Aunty Mickey and Uncle Geoff. It is *so good* to see them again! The picture I have uploaded of my cousin Georgia's farm just does not do this place justice. After dinner we walked up the hill (and were surrounded by wild kangaroo, as well as their minature Galloway cows and Alpacas) and looked over the lake and the native bush... It is truely amazing here. However, we need to get back to Brisbane because Sam is throwing a party on Friday so we are going to leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow.... 16-18 hours solid driving. WISH US LUCK! We will stop for the night if we need to, but if the weather is good and the traffic is clear we will try to just get back to her house so we can enjoy as much of Friday with her as possible.

It is so hard to believe this morning we were with Jess in Stanmore... the kids miss her already (especially lil' Lucy who got to sleep with Aunty JJ and totally take over her bed).

Happy happy birthday Dad/Oogah!!

We love you Dad and hope you have a wonderful and safe birthday - we will be thinking about you
xxx

My mate Phil

Ground Control to Major Tom, Funky to Funky....

Car 2 to Car 1 - missing you badly. Over. Here are some photos to mop up.... Dom-a-knocker (in Jessica's jewellery studio)

She mucked around for 5 minutes trying to not squint into the sun and then I got bored. So sue me. I can't stand around in the rain forever...

Jessica's AMAZING christmas tree.... she, very smartly might I add, kept it at work at The Strand so it didn't clutter up the apartment - which is very palacial but we need the space for the Vintage Gems...

Bats (aka Flying Foxes) at the Botanical Gardens. How odd that they picked the one tree that looked DEAD.

A couple of dirty ol' Ibis birds that will eat the food out of your hand if you don't watch out...

Yet another filthy old Ibis bird messing up the scenery.... (I actually quite like them, secretly....... very secretly.....)

Here we are at Dumpling King (aka Yee King North China Handmade Noodles) where the food is great and the reciept was in Chinese.

We are now at home and Dom is "making" lebanese bread sandwiches... which are gritty, too salty, cold and the bread is mouldy. Such is life when Dom is in the kitchen. I am abstaining for the obvious reasons. Love ya Dom. (Jess is laughing sayiing "poor Dom... but it was kind of not-great"

Chinese Themed Day

What a day! We got ready and headed out to do something from my bucket list - see the terracotta soldiers from the First Emperor's buried city. There is a travelling exhibit here in Sydney for 3 months. Sigh, dream come true. The NSW Art Gallery was amazing enough by itself, but this was a real treat. Of course we had to wait in line for 45 minutes to see it, but we didn't mind. On the way to the exhibit we went to Circular Quay to take a picture of the Opera House for Chuck, and then wandered thru the Botanic Gardens. Let me just say that Jessica doesn't like "dirty old Ibis birds" AT ALL... I got lots of pictures of them but I won't put them up in the same post as Jessica :) After the soldiers we headed over to China Town to have dumplings for dinner at Jess' favourite restaurant. Even Lucy ate them :) It was a great day and now we are going to relax before we start our trip back to Brisbane tomorrow. Sebassy giving "side cuddles to Aunty JJ" on the way back to Central train station

Shopping in China Town for a paper fish like the ones in our restaurant... no luck if you can believe it. All this Chineseana and no paper fish!

Chuck, your wish is my command! Beloved family members in front of the Sydney Opera House (Harbour Bridge to the left... check the photo of Sebas and the busker to see it)

This guy was amazing... I want to take up playing the didgeridoo.

Do I look happy? I was... I've wanted to see these for years. I was tempted to buy this statue for $2000 but sadly it would never have fit in our luggage.

Sydney with Jess

Jessica works in here... We don't know who the girl is beside us - she is just there for visual effect....

Yes yes yes, why is Jessica in JEANS in Sydney at Christmas when it is 34C and super humid? Well she is a little crazy... enough said. Here are the girls "talking about wishes" in the Camperdown Cemetery on Boxing Day.

Well........ someone looks good here! And you can see the glorious velvet wallpaper. If you are looking for amazing custom made (handmade) jewellery go to The Rox in The Strand and see Jess or Phil.

Meg loves frangapani so when we were at government house and she found some frangapani trees she went a little mad... we wore them all day and they still smelt amazing by bedtime.

Bye Tom.... this is before his marathon train trip (15 hours) up to Brisbane. Oh yes, not loving the idea but going anyway. Welcome back from Brazil.

Christmas 2010

Lucy isn't really suffering from depression... she is just really tired (7am, Nambucca Heads, Australia)

Okay Chuck, so Meg needs sandals, we know that... focus instead on the photocopied nameplate on the christmas chair and the background - halarious! We went to the world's smallest mall and found a santa wandering around and begged for a photo. He said "sure, but you'll need your own camera" Gotta love the budget Santa!

And this time with Colt, the sleeping Christmas elf

DREAMWORLD BABY!!

Merry Christmas folks!

My new friend the kangaroo

Seb, Dom and Megane

Lucy's favourite ride

Dom and Seb are on here.... it is called Wipeout and you go up down and round about! If you enlarge the pics you will see them - Seb has a white top on and they are about 1/3 of the way in, on the left...

Can you see them? Here they are about to plunge to certain death (but actually they didn't...)

Phew, my boys are alive!

Lucy and Dom, Seb and Meg... as you can imagine Seb loved this ride!

Okay fine, it was pure torture for me cos I can't stand fun and heat and rides... but the kids will never know that. Dom and Seb went mad on the scary rides, Meg tagged along with them occasionally and Lucy and I went hog-wild in Wiggles World for hours. Sigh. Lucky lucky me. I have to admit that I really liked the kangaroos xxx

Kristy the fire poi dancer!

Words fail me so I'm using pictures... (this all went down in the back yard about 5 minutes ago)

Colt Jesse-Trapper

A minute after I took this photo (Megane had been pushing him around like he was in a car) he decided to decapitate himself by squiggling down under the tray...)

Colt and Seb at the park - after we played there for a while we noticed signs saying "magpie danger, wear a hat, carry an umbrella, walk quietly and quickly out of the area..." Luckily none of the kids were maimed or attacked - but I got some great magpie photos (pre-noticing the sign of course)

Traps was laughing and having the best time :) It was his first time ever in a swing.

What a cutie little chubba xxxx

Anna Koala ma niece d'amour xxxx

(kangaroos in the distance....)

We had the best time at Daisy Hill Koala Center! We saw a few kangaroos in the bush and lots of birds (and ants... lots of ants). It was really relaxing after the zooming around the shops and stuff...

After pics....

Quality isn't what we wanted because it was from a phone... in the dark, but you get the idea. Colt - as the youngest person - got to put the star up... and then Lucy wanted a turn. The tree is magnificient (spelling???) so I'll take better photos tomorrow.

Starting the tree....

Here is the "before" photo of the tree (for which I am going to be disowned by Dom and Sam) where they are making plans for what to do.... after photos are coming soon. Just have to work out how to get them of Jack's phone cos my battery died right after this....

oops, sorry Sebas - I forgot the most important bit....