So dad and Charlotte arrived safely and in one piece thankfully, and were thrown straight into Sydney sunshine lifestyle and the tourism trail!! I was working but Daire played tour guide to the max and walked them around the bays from our house to the Opera house via a swim/sleep/coffee at the Boy Charlton open air pool. Beers at the opera house followed by BBQ at home and an early night prepared them for doing the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb in the morning.
Day 2 was lunch at the Pyrmont Fish Market, where we also picked out and bought Adam and Steve...our two lobsters that were to play the central role in Christmas lunch!!! Relaxed evening showing Dad and Charlotte the local wine bars etc...
Christmas eve...we beached at Bronte where the waves were amazing! Adam and Steve had been given B&B free of charge so we went and collected them before getting ready to head out to Durty Nellies, the only place where the outside is 30 degrees Australian heat, the inside is old school Irish Christmas complete with Santa’s helpers serving ALOT of Guinness!!! Dad set a very fast pace which saw the boys singing and dancing soon enough!
Christmas Day – we all had Stocking and ‘Merry Christmas’ T-shirts customised by moi! Alan and Carol had given us a lovely bottle of bubbles so we opened that whilst checking out some of Santa’s little gifts!! Feasting on breakfast to beat a smaller hangover before it took hold I got to use Santa’s special gift of a blender...of course it was for both me AND Daire (so he tells me!)! Everything is a little surreal...the sun is shining, we are eating breakfast in our togs and Christmas t-shirts! We headed to Coogee for a swim and enjoy the sun, however by now the clouds were getting thicker and shielding the heat of the sun....needless to say we gave up cold and festive after an hour!!! L Home to start eating.....homemade smoked trout pate and humus, followed by Red Thai Prawns and Mango salsa started our eating slowly interrupted only to open our gifts. By now Adam and Steve were already in the fridge...they had been slow to react when charlotte tickled their bellies in the morning so they got put in the fridge to pass in their ‘sleep’! Dad and Daire prepared the cutisations (if you hadn’t guessed, Adam and Steve were Eastern Rock Lobsters)... I made the sauce and Daire stood in the rain cooking them on the BBQ. By now the rain was beating down like crazy...so we got to snuggle up in front of the T, the weather just breaking long enough to walk off lunch. It was all over....weird really, fab day but totally different and I was especially pleased to have my family there to make our first Christmas away from home exciting and fun.
Boxing/ St Christopher’s Day we were slow to rise but the Bay was soo busy as the Sydney to Hobart vessels were mostly docked down at the Yacht club. So there was lots of action, Dad and Daire were out with the binoculars whilst Charlotte fell asleep less than three hours after she had woken up. Needless to say we were all in our Sunday best and ready for the races in time for the second race...Charlotte picked the winner straight off!!!! Needless to say Charlotte and I went on to pick another winner....in comparison to the boys’ bad choices! Great afternoon and the weather held out for us too....Christmas left over’s for dinner, movie and bed.
The next 4days was a blur of camping, raining, building the mother of all fires (dad found his camping forte), quad biking, kayaking, horse riding and leaches (Dad and Charlotte got 4 between them!)!! Dad and Daire then enjoyed the Hunter whilst Charlotte and I endured manicures, pedicures, take away and sunbathing!
New Years Eve....$10 steak for lunch, preparing picnic and then made our way to Rose Bay for our ferry to Shark Island where we spent the watching the evening unfold...two lots of fireworks. It was totally amazing, none of us have never seen fireworks like it....the TV does not do it credit. It was late by the time we all fell into bed...Charlotte evcen declined the offer to open her gifts at 2am!!!! Up around 10am on New Year’s Day (Charlotte’s birthday) Daire and I (mostly me) got a bit emotional watching London count down and celebrate the New Year. I can’t tell you how much of us is still on the UK and Ireland....we really forget we are the other side of the world sometimes.
Anyways, enough of the mushie stuff....x4 people were shattered so we all slept all day pretty much, felt totally bad for charlotte – she celebrated her birthday with 3 sleeping people!! Daire and I did booked a nice place for dinner which was delicious (thanks Dad). Charlotte ate the world.....I hope we made up for a day of chilling?! The last few days of their trip I had to work but the weather was great so the guys did loads of beach action and worked on their tan. We went to the open air cinema on their last night and it was weird saying goodbye to them, mainly as it feels like 2 minutes since I saw them last in Felixstowe. Hopefully we’ll be back soon for weddings etc so it won’t be too long before we get to see them soon. But for now....we have to concentrate on the next itinerary....Daire’s parents arrive in 2 days.
Wish we had time to find out what’s happening at home....speak soon though...
