Category Australia
The Penfolds is mightier than the Sword!
With half a day left before we had to say goodbye to Adelaide there was just enough time to visit one of Adelaide’s oldest institutions.Setting the scene… In 1844 Dr Christopher Penfolds and his wife Mary emigrated from West Sussex to the crown colony of South Australia. Acquiring 500 hectares of land they quickly set […]
Vales, Velos and Vietnamese!
Luckily for John, the Continental Breakfast was not that enthralling and even with an hour less of sleep – Karen was bright eyed and bushy-tailed as we waiting for our bus. We had blagged the last two places on a mountain bike / wine tour with a company called EscapeGoat. Run by an English/Australian couple […]
Adelaide
One of the quirks of living in another country is discovering that sometimes they do not have the same Public Holidays that you are used to. In the UK we were used to celebrating Labour Day on May 1st – to coincide with International Worker’s Day, but in Australia we now celebrate it on the […]
When Blogs Collide
If you have been following our journey from the start you may have remembered that we attended a wedding in Mumbai,India. The happy couple (and they are still happy today!) Ollie and Neem have since given up the pressure cooker that is ‘New York City’ and donned a pair of backpacks. Luckily for us our […]
Il Vino Veritas
The wait was over. It had been long enough time to go and visit a familiar region – one that anyone who has visited or lived in Sydney is quite familiar with. We had not really thought too much about visiting this little corner of the world as it has been ‘on our doorstep’ since […]
Bright Christmas
At Christmas play and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year. Thomas Tusser Sorry to burst your bubble there Tommy but you have obviously never been to Sydney! Here we also celebrate Christmas in July. Every year in the month named after Julius Caesar, Sydney’s ex-pat community load up their wagons […]
Tell the World I’m coming home…
Well tell everyone except for Cameron, Emmet and Emma Rose who were completely in the dark about the impending arrival of their big brother John. After 18 months away we would be reunited with our friends and families back in Scotland/Ireland for a wee visit. But first we had an incredible journey… Wednesday 27th May […]
Year of the Kangaroo
8th August 2015 So there it is. 12 Months of travelling around and living in Australia. So much done but so so much more still to do. It only feels like yesterday that we arrived off the plane in Perth in search of adventure and (after 7 months in Asia), wine and cheese! What started […]
Let there be Light!!!
“Perhaps we can scare away the ghost of so many years ago with a little illumination, gentleman!” Every May the entire city of Sydney gets out the step ladder, goes up into the loft and opens up an old cardboard box marked ‘lights’ and then drapes itself in them. I am of course referring to […]
Fantastic Four
With the girls coming back from Melbourne we had four days left to enjoy Sydney and expose Laura to as much as possible. Here is how we got on… Day 1: Pub Crawl There are many things to do in Sydney on a Friday night but one of the more random acts is to do […]
Urban Scrawl
Having waved John off back to Sydney, it was sister time to shop, eat, drink and be merry in Melbourne. After an early take off and the most disgusting plane snack ever – tomato and corn muffins with banana and coconut chips we arrived in the capital of Victoria. Soon we were checked in and […]
An Island By Any Other Name…
With a full week in Sydney done we decided to take a few days break and bring Laura up to see one of Karen’s favourite places in all the world – ever since her backpacking trip in 2006. 4 days of chilling and exploring in equal measure up in the Whitsundays! It was an early […]
…and then a step to the right!
We had a whole week in Sydney to introduce Laura to our Sydney bubble before we headed to warmer climates of Queensland’s coast. After the weekend of fun, it was time for John to return to work and the girls to head to the outlets…Birkenhead Point for some retail therapy. We had a great day […]
Sydney Diaries: Babylon Zoo
The day was finally here. We had wanted to go to Taronga Zoo ever since we arrived but when you live in Sydney you need to keep things back for when visitors arrive – otherwise every new visit feels like Groundhog Day (‘Opera House Tour: Again!!) With the reunion of the Hamilton sisters we could […]
Sister Sister
The time had finally arrived – Laura (Karen’s sister) was arriving from Scotland for a wee visit Down Under. In preparation for her visit John was tasked with moving a bed from Cremorne and generally dusting and cleaning whilst Karen went to town on an Australian welcome pack. Armed with flags and posters we eagerly […]
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