December 2004, now that was a good time. We married and went on honeymoon to Australia which is where this whole idea came from. We had the most amazing holiday and it was the best vacation I have ever had. This blog tonight is unapologetically a recipient for me to indulgently reminisce about the good times and give a little glimpse into our inspiration. Now, I fully realise that being on holiday is nothing like living in a country but that place really is very beautiful and it gives you a really good feeling. In my numerous forum searches and browsings I have heard the term "same shit shinier bucket" used. Now I believe we have our expectations about Australia set just right. I know that we aren't going to live in a mansion on the beach with an infinity pool and unending disposable income, because we don't have that here. I do however know that we will match our lifestyle to what we can afford leaving us enough slack to enjoy the amazing country that Australia is and is demonstrated in the pictorial below!
Waiting in the super nice lounge at Heathrow for our flight to depart - this is Sunday 5th December - so exciting as we flew Premier Economy with BA.
Perth - so very lovely and so very hot! We entered the hotel lobby on our 1st day around lunchtime and although it was hot it felt OK and we discussed that we could cope with that! The automatic doors opened and we stepped out from what turned out to be the air conditioned lobby into the sunshine and it was like entering an oven with a hair dryer on to create a stifling hot breeze. We did acclimatise but my goodness it was hot!
Andy with the Indian Ocean in the background north of Perth. We both went in the water on this day and it was lovely. The beaches were all pretty quiet also.
This is Jacqui and her ex. Jacqui is Andy's cousin and she emigrated to Perth from Scotland 6 years ago. Jacqui recently visited us here and she was very excited about our impending move to Sydney and provided lots of useful tips. We will see her and her fiancée when they marry in Perth in October.
This is where I spent the 1st Year of my life in 1978 in Perth. We visited and I swear I could remember the back of the house. We didn't see it but I described my recollection to Mum and she confirmed my memories.
Really hot here in Uluru! So hot that we went for dinner that evening and on the way back to our room stripped to t-shirts and jumped in the pool which was such fun!
Uluru in the Red Dessert. Wow. Just Wow.
We didn't climb it as a) the Aborigines don't like people clambering all over their sacred monument and b) it is so damn hot that it makes it pretty dangerous to exert yourself that much hauling your sorry sweaty butt over this monstrous natural phenomenon.
My true outback Aussie guy or my little IT geek.....?
What a vision. We watched the sun set over this beautiful red rock while eating traditional Australian fare with silver service. Lovely, we were really falling in love with the country now!
We are in Cairns here on the Karunda train, so humid my hair just frizzed beyond the capability of any styling product for the whole 3 days we were there.
This is in the Raw Prawn which was a lovely restaurant where we enjoyed a bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne (as we did in every Australian City) and where the affectionately termed "prawn brain incident" occurred. So, Andy has garlic prawns which he has to shell. This, he as done many times before. Unfortunately this time his prawn meat extraction was, shall we say a little enthusiastic and he managed to slurp up some prawn brain. The recollection of this story even now after 5 years still makes me shudder. The trauma all over his face was horrendous as the hideousness of the flavour became apparent and it has made him very cautious with crustaceans ever since!
This was also the night we witnessed "Crab Girl", we were at the time childless but we held this little girl as an example of how children should behave in a restaurant. Crab Girl was Chinese and about 3 years old, sitting at the table the whole time, no messing around, using chopsticks and eating crab, lobster etc. This is what we aspired to for our future progeny. We are working on it still!
This is Mission Beach just below Cairns. This epitomises what I love about Australian beaches, expansive, dramatic, largely empty and simply stunning.
I'm sure the novelty of these guys will pass eventually but they are crawling around all over the place! I even shared a shower with one on a camp-site once.
A local. This was at Steve Irwin's zoo near Brisbane. I plan to go and visit these guys in their natural environment up near Cairns at some point in the future.
Lots of these too!
Christmas 2004 - our 1st hot one. The next one will be Christmas this year.
Contemplation.
This is one of my favourite places on earth. The Hunter Valley. What's not to love.
We stayed in the Susie Wong suite here in the Hunter Valley. It was just breathtaking walking across the vineyard for dinner in the restaurant.
Now, this is why we want to live in Sydney, Australia. Really, how beautiful is that, all that green in the sweeping bay is the Botanical Gardens where the fruit bats hang out (literally) and it is just stunning. This is the view from the AMP revolving tower where we had dinner and watched the sun set over the whole of Sydney. When Finn and Isla can match up to the standards of Crab Girl then I will take them there.
Iconic. We will be lucky to live here!
Oh, the debate. Which picture to end with. I decided that this one gives another last glimpse of a beautiful place that is firm in our hearts.
No comments:
Post a Comment