Happy 27th Birthday Chris!

This past weekend was Chris' birthday. And what better way to celebrate than to head up to Mooloolaba on the Sunshine coast for some beach, sun, and good times. As soon as I got home on the Friday afternoon, we grabbed our bags and hopped on the train to start our 2 hour journey to paradise. We've been to Mooloolaba once before and really loved it there. It has a beautiful beach, but not the development that you would find on the Gold Coast.

We had decided to splurge a little bit and booked a vacation apartment for two nights right on the water. We used an online discount travel website, so we actually got a good deal. Plus, we were upgraded to a nicer apartment, so it was a really good deal! The apartment had a full kitchen, which was great because we like to cook for ourselves, and an AMAZING balcony that overlooked the ocean.

On Saturday night, we grabbed some chicken and veggies and went to the rooftop BBQ to cook ourselves dinner and sit with a glass of wine and enjoy the beautiful views of the ocean and the Glasshouse Mountains.
It was such a great weekend, even though we both got a little pink. Chris did some boogie boarding and I even gave it a go, even though my bathing suit kept losing it's battle with the waves! What a way to spend a birthday weekend! 

Sydney Day 4

Our last day was amazing. James and Jana picked us up and drove us to the Blue Mountains, about an hours drive from Sydney, where we did an amazing (and exhausting) hike. The 6km walk we did was called the National Pass Trail and was quite tiring, but gave us amazing views! We passed by waterfalls, walked through bush and along cliffs and hiked up some serious stairs! All in all it was absolutely amazing!

After we were done our hike, we ate lunch that we packed of delicious bread, smoked salmon, salami, tomato, sprouts and lots and lots of water! We were obviously being way too health with all the walking and responsible lunch, so we headed into town where we grabbed some beers and ice cream. YUMMY!

Since our flight didn't leave until really late at night, James and Jana took us back to their place where we ordered pizza, played some card games, and ate some oh so delicious mango.

We got on our flight tired, but happy - even more so because there were no screaming kids sitting beside us. Thank you Sydney, James, and Jana for a lovely 4 days! Hopefully we will be back soon!

 

 

Sydney Day 3

Day three started out a bit cloudy and cool so we decided to head to the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) to check out the historical architecture. The building started off, and still is, a shopping centre. The building was completed in 1898, and much work and restoration has gone into keeping it true to its original design.
The building has beautiful stained glass, intricate tiling, a beautiful domed roof and two beautiful mechanical clocks. So, what would you house in such a beautiful building? You guessed it...uber expensive stores! So, we just spent our time admiring the architecture and left the shopping up to people with bigger bank accounts.

The afternoon was one of the highlights of the trip for me. We took the train from Sydney to Bondi beach where we decided to do a 5km coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee. By this time the sun had come out, but the wind had picked up, which was okay because it kept us nice and cool. The walk is absolutely beautiful. You walk along the coast the entire way and see some beautiful beaches, cliffs, and scenery. The walk probably took us a lot longer than it should because we were snapping pictures every few steps! If you are every in Sydney, we highly recommend going for this walk...you won't regret it!

We were very lucky that we had been invited to a Thanksgiving (that's right!) dinner put on by some friends of James and Jana. Lucky for us, the house was in Coogee, so James and Jana picked us up after we were done our walk. AHH! What a treat it was to have turkey (which you have to order special from the butcher here), mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, veggies, pumpkin pie, and apple pie!!! It was an absolute feast. There were probably about 20+ people there and everyone had such a great time...I should have brought my stretchy pants! It was so nice to be around other Canadians and talking about home.

After we were all stuffed on turkey, we were kindly driven back to our hostel where we climbed into bed with our bellies full of delicious Thanksgiving dinner. What a way to end Day3!

Sydney Day 2

 Day two started off with rain, but was still quite warm outside. We decided to start the morning with a walking tour of Chinatown and Darling Harbour. We were able to get out of the rain when we stopped in at Paddy’s Market - a big warehouse that has turned into a daily China style farmer’s market. 

In one part of the market you can buy cheap handbags, clothes, accessories…you name it. The other part of the market is all fresh fruits and veggies at much cheaper prices than the supermarket. We picked ourselves up some bananas, kiwi, and paw paw (papaya) and then continued on our walking tour. The end of our walk took us to Darling Harbour where there are great views of the downtown Sydney skyscrapers. There are lots of shops and restaurants in the area, along with a really neat inverted spiral fountain. We finished up our walk by crossing the Pyrmont Bridge, which is the oldest still functioning swing bridge in Australia. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see it swing open.

After the walk, we went back to our hostel to grab lunch and eat some of our delicious fruit we had bought that morning. Fruit in Australia tastes so much better than anything you get back at home. I could have eaten the paw paw all to myself!

We spent the afternoon doing another walking tour of Paddington, Darlinghurst and Potts Point. We walked in some very lovely areas, and some not so lovely areas, but all in all had a great afternoon. We were supposed to meet James and Jana at their favourite local pub at 8:00 for a late dinner, so we decided to stop at Harry’s Café de Wheels for a pie. I got all excited because I thought it would be an actual pie (like apple or berry), but they ended up being meat pies. But, no worries! We settled on a delicious hot dog to share and rested our feet for a bit. Then we continued on our exploration of Sydney. But at this point, we were getting quite tired and our feet were hurting, so we basically shuffled along.

We met James and Jana at this great pub called The Local in Darlinghurst. It’s a great pub that’s off the beaten track, but was still really busy. The bottom is a bar, filled with couches, tables and lots of side benches to sit and have a drink. The upstairs is a really cozy dining room where we had dinner and enjoyed catching up with our friends. The Local has an amazing beer selection, so we got to have a sampling of some of Australia’s great beers with our dinner.   

After that, Jana drove us home and we were so exhausted from a day of walking that we barely had the energy to brush our teeth…but we did!

Next up…Day 3!

Sydney Day 1

After being picked up from the airport from Mr. Jimmy Lam and his wonderful fiancee, Jana Rohen, we were taken on a very quick tour of downtown Sydney and we say the Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and a few surrounding neighbourhoods we were dropped off at our extremely budget hostel, which in Sydney isn't very budget but is very dodgy, we had a nice sleep and then headed out to explore the city. To start the day we had some breakkie at a street side cafe, Andrea had the granola and I had the bacon and eggs...naturally.

Our first stop, you guessed it, was the Opera House. The weather was supposed to be a bit crappy, but this day was really glorious. No wind, no clouds, just all Aussie sunshine. We took many great photos of the Opera House and then followed an insiders tip and climbed the bridge pylon of the Habour bridge, rather than the $250 bridge climb. You could see the entire city from on the pylon and we took some more great photos. After our 200 stair ascent, and descent, we treated ourselves to an afternoon beer and chips break on the rooftop of the Grandin pub and sat in the shade with a perfect view of the Opera House.

Since the afternoon was turning out so splendidly, we decided to catch the ferry to the North Shore and check out the famous Manly Beach. This is also a great way to get a discounted harbour cruise since it essentially runs the same route as the cruise but is infinitely cheaper. The trip was really cool and we got to see the entire harbour and the massive sprawlness that is Sydney. It ended up being so sunny and warm at Manly that we went a little Canadian beach crazy and almost bought swim suits and towels right there to jump into the ocean! But cooler heads prevailed and we just rolled up our pants and sat on the sand.

In the evening we enjoyed a little Chinese food down in Chinatown at the Superbowl where we sat next to a girl and her guy friend who told an extremely lame story about how his sister almost burned down their house when she was nine. Snoozefest. I almost burned down the house when I was 2. It was no biggie. I was high fivin' the firemen as they ate the burnt eggs and bacon I made.

At any rate, we ended the evening with a pint at the 3 Wise Monkies pub, which has three sculpted monkies above the door. It's a cool three level bar with a stage on the third level, and that night was a 90s cover band rockin' the night away. They were really good. Scary good. I didn't realize how good the guitarist was until he went a little nuts during one of the covers and his hands were lighting up a storm on his guitar. Good times.

Be Careful What You Promise

Hello again folks. I know we promised Sydney blog posts and here we are over a week later and we haven't posted a thing. We hang our heads in shame. But not to worry! We will update soon! We've just been super busy lately. Unfortunately, my computer died...again. And since we put all the pictures on my computer, I can't post any pictures to go along with our Sydney blogs. Don't worry, nothing has been lost forever. But, long story short, I use an online backup system and it's a bit of a process to restore data, so we might not have pictures for a while.

Also, we will post about Chris' birthday weekend on the Sunshine Coast at Mooloolaba. Much sun and beaching were had!

Again, sorry for the lack of blogging. We will make an effort to do much better this week :)

We're Back!

Hello folks,

We are back in Brisbane after 4 fabulous days in Sydney. We promise to write a proper blog post in the next couple days, but for now, we are tired and in need of some sleep...and foot massages.

When It Rains, It Pours

Welcome to Queensland, the Sunshine State...but wait...where's the sun? I want a refund. If I had known we were coming to the Vancouver of Australia, I would have just gone to Vancouver.

Since the beginning of September, not a week goes by without rain, rain, and more rain. I'm undecided how I feel about it. It's good for a country that's normally dry and prone to fires. But, we flew halfway across the world for never ending sunshine, blue sky and loads of beach time.

September was the wettest month on record, and I'm sure after the last 5 days, October is sure to set a record as well. Brisbane has had over 250mm of rain in the past 2 days, which means...flooding. Everywhere. There are so many creeks that run all through Brisbane, and every one of them is swollen and overflowing. The creek just by our house has now taken from flowing underneath the road to over it. There are massive puddles (small lakes) everywhere. You can't escape the rain or water. Our apartment is so humid and our sheets feel damp. Today, my bus home was an hour late showing up because of all the flooding and road closures. At least my bus stop is covered.

The rain will come down in torrents and then suddenly stop just to start downpouring again 2 minutes later. The last couple of nights it has rained so hard, the sound on the roof wakes us up. I think it's time to buy a boat.

Tomorrow it's supposed to get a bit better, with only a shower or two. Then the sun should come out for a couple of days before the rain returns.

I know the sun will come back eventually, but I'm tired of all this rain. Plus, my $3 umbrella is at the end of its days.

I think now that we've set records for rainfall, we should set some records for heat and sunshine! Though, I'm sure if that happens, I'll be writing a blog post complaining about the heat. So, I guess we'll just take it in stride and maybe make ourselves some ponchos out of garbage bags.

Pass It On - Chicken Breast Stuffed with Smoked Samon and Goat Cheese

We've made this recipe twice already, and I definitely see us making it a few more times in the future. I think it's one of those recipes that would impress your family and friends, but it's really not too difficult to make. I think the hardest part is actually rolling up the chicken breast around the filling. I always seem to have stuff leak out. But in the end, once it's cooked, it looks (and tastes) amazing. I like to serve this with scalloped potatoes. It makes for a pretty rich tasting dinner, but your tummy will be loving you for it! It also goes really well with a simple spinach salad. If I have the time, I like to prepare this in advance. I do all of step two and then place the chicken rolls on a plate covered with cling wrap and stick it in the fridge until you are ready to start cooking. Take out of the fridge about 10 minutes before you start browning the chicken.

Chicken Breast Stuffed with Smoked Salmon and Goat Cheese - from AWW Chicken
   -serves 4   Prep: 25 min   Cook: ~30-40 min

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives
100g soft goat cheese
4 chicken breast fillets (800g)
4 slices smoked salmon (120g)
50g baby spinach leaves

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan forced).

2. Combine chives and goat cheese in small bowl. Cut fillets in half horizontally almost all the way through; open out each fillet. Spread each fillet with a quarter of the cheese mixture; top with one slice of salmon and a quarter of the spinach. Roll each fillet tightly to enclose filling; secure with toothpicks

3. Cook chicken in large oiled frying pan, uncovered, until browned.

4. Place chicken on baking tray and bake in oven about 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

5. Let chicken rest 5 minutes. Remove toothpicks, slice chicken thickly. Serve with potato and veggies...or whatever you want!

T-7 days...and counting

That's right folks, in seven days we'll be on a plane for a short flight down south to the beautiful city of Sydney. We're really excited to explore a new city, get in some beach time, and meet up with our friends James and Jana. We are only there for 4 days, but luckily it's fairly affordable to go to Sydney from Brisbane, so who knows...this might be the first of a couple trips.

We've borrowed our Lonely Planet Sydney edition from the library and mapped out our walking tours, beach expeditions, drinking holes and harbour cruises.  Now all we need to do is pack and count down the days!!!

Sydney...here we come!

Winter

Here in Australia, especially in Brisbane, it's pretty much warm all the time. Sure it gets cooler at night, and right now it's cooler than usual, but it's still warm all the time. There are no days when the high temperature falls below 20. It's still funny to us that everyone complains about the weather on a cloudy day when it's 23 outside. That's weather that no Edmontonian would throw a stick at, especially in the depths our winter.

But while it's nice to not have to put on your coat, toque, gloves, boots, scarf, etc to head out and face the chilly weather, or scrape the ice and brush the snow off your car, or walk through knee deep snow...wait, where was I going with this? Oh, right. While there is all that bad cold weather stuff, there is something to say for that relief of finally entering a warm building back at home that you just don't get here. Facing the weather and braving the elements is sort of the price to pay for entering a warm building filled with warm food and warm friends and warm feelings.

Just a thought from down under. Cheers!

Flowers

Every Wednesday at lunchtime in the city (downtown Brisbane) is a farmer's market at Brisbane Square. You can buy fresh fruits and veggies from local farmers, fresh cheeses, pastas, breads, seafood, flowers, herbs...you name it. It's also a great place to grab some lunch as there are many vendors who sell delicious meals. I've met Chris at this market a few times, and we grab a bit of lunch, or some herb plants to add to our balcony garden, or some fresh fruits and veggies. Even though the market is crazy busy, I like walking from vendor to vendor and looking at the lovely things they have to offer.

Well, this Wednesday I came home to a lovely surprise. Chris had gone to the market on his lunch break and bought me some beautiful orchids. I've never had orchids before, so it was a really lovely surprise. I love how delicate the flowers are, and how vibrant the purple colour is. I wish that they could last forever, but I'll just have to enjoy them while they last...I guess that makes them even more special.