Over the past couple of months I feel like Luke and I have been scrambling to cross things off of our Australia to do and to see list. We have been keeping fairly busy and having a great time making a good dent in that long list.
Luna Park
Luna Park is a small amusement park here in Sydney. It is free to enter so one night we decided to finally walk through to check it out. For two people who love roller coasters and other amusement park rides, it wasn’t easy to have to walk on by each one knowing neither of us could partake in the excitement. We did, however, enjoy taking some silly pictures and talking about the fun we’ll have when the bub grows up and is ready for this, too.
The Cricket
You are probably familiar with some of my past blogs about the different kinds of “sport” of Australia. Australians tend to refer to different kinds of sport (yes, sport- not sports) by first using the word, “the.” We went to watch the Sydney 76er’s in a 20/20 match with Kyra and Sam. Sam was great about letting us ask him specific questions and he kept us filled in on the important things to know. Luke had been following the cricket matches so he had a good idea of how the scoring and everything was supposed to go. We were glad we got to attend with an Aussie friend to get the full effect. If you have specific questions about The Cricket, please direct them to Luke! J
New Camera
We had been interested in buying a nice, new camera for several months. Luke did his usual extensive research and contacted several of our friends that have similar kinds to get their opinions and suggestions. We were ready to have a grown up camera to capture all of the adventures to come including Baby Lucas’ every move! Once we found one we knew it made much more sense to purchase it in the US. So when Trudy came over for her trip, she brought it over for us. It has been amazing to see the difference in the quality of our pictures.
Sydney Fish Market Cooking School
Luke and I have wanted to take a cooking class at the Sydney Fish Market since we first heard about it over a year ago. We decided we better sign up for a class if we wanted to cross this off our list! Bryan and Kim were also interested in taking a class so we went through the list of options and chose a Spanish class.
All class menus involved cooking a meal with seafood. Our menu consisted of preparing various Tapas and then Seafood Paella. The menu: garlic prawns, fried sardines, tomato salad, bread, and the Paella. The first part of the class was actually in a “class” setting. Picture a small lecture hall with about 50 people. The chefs demonstrated and prepared each food for the first half of the evening. The second half was left for us to cook everything and then enjoy our delicious dinner together with a wine tasting.
The demonstration went on and on and we all nervously looked at each other as they prepared each dish. I secretly started hoping that when we walked into the cooking area, that the seafood was ready to go and all we had to do was put it together in a pan and Wah-lah! By the time we started cooking, we were starving and knew it would be awhile before we got to that part.
Prepared and ready to go was not the case, unfortunately! We put on our aprons and away we went. Have you ever cleaned, cracked, and cut a green blue swimmer crab into 6 pieces? Kim has. How about cleaned, cut, and pulled out several small fish from the belly of a cuttlefish before you could cook it? No? What about scrubbing and debearding mussels? Luke has. How about cooking, deveining, and preparing whole prawns? Bryan has. I played the pregnancy card and was in charge of cutting vegetables, shelling fresh peas, making the salad, and assisting with the easy tasks! Thank you Luke, Kim, and Bryan!
Most of the “benches” had five or six people working together to get everything done. It was just the four of us so we were feeling the pressure to get everything accomplished and still make it edible! J As other groups started finishing up, they headed to the dining room to set their tables and started cleaning up their counter tops. We were definitely the last group to start eating our dinner but we made it. Our presentation looked impressive and everything tasted decent. The paella had a different flavor but we ate it, had a good time discussing the experience, and we giggled when it was time to clean up and they kept asking us if we needed take away containers…we appeared to be the only table that still had quite a bit of paella left in our dish! We put Luke in charge of disposing of the leftovers as discreetly as possible.
As we walked out we took our new “cold” shopping bags and our aprons, and prayed that none of us got sick that night. I’m happy to report that we all survived! We would love to take another one of these classes before we move back home. But we all agreed that we probably would not prepare this whole particular meal on our own at home but maybe there will be another that works for us.
Go, Kim, Go!
Our cuttlefish had a full belly when he was caught. Good thing Luke was in charge of this.
The paella- looked presentable, don't you think?
Sardines with a pesto sauce we made
Tomato salad
Garlic Prawns
We had a lot leftover!
Enjoying the Summer Weather
Having beach days where we can relax in the sun have been something we really appreciate. With the rainy summer we’ve had, it hasn’t been easy to find as many days to go as we’d like. Luke bought us little beach chairs which became essential for me. It made it much easier for me to actually relax the bigger my belly became but Luke has been better off laying down than sitting in his chair.
We also try to take walks as often as we can. For a while I was able to walk with Luke to work and then walk back home after. My little setback with the sciatic nerve pain and the waddling has kept me from doing that anymore but I’m still trying to get out and about when I can. Those of you who know about the “Fit Bit” will understand that this is also a good excuse for Luke and me to fulfill some friendly competition!
Enjoying Some Views
We’ve had some fabulous sunrises and sunsets lately.
The spiders are growing, growing, growing! Back to walking in the street in the early morning and in the evening so you don't get a face full of web and/or spider.
New Recipes/ Pinterest Projects
We’ve tried out a few new recipes. I love cookbooks, cooking magazines, and getting new recipes from Pinterest. We know that we need to have some meals in the freezer ready to go after the baby comes. Unfortunately, our freezer space is very small but we’ll do what we can! If you have any good recipes you want to share, please send them my way. (especially freezer friendly!) Here are just a couple of pictures for you.
Thai Green Curry Chicken
Blueberry Muffins
I found random things around that made the letters in our name. I have seen this idea many, many times and decided to just try it myself. Then I got the idea to Mod Podge them on canvas from Pinterest. Luke hung them up for me the next morning!
Starlight Movie
Who doesn’t love sitting outside under the stars? Even better, sitting outside under the stars while watching a movie? The North Sydney Oval is an outstanding venue for this. There is a large screen set up and everyone brings blankets and beach chairs to spread out and watch the movie showing. It’s also a family friendly event. You can bring your own picnic but they also give you the option of ordering pizza or Thai food. They sell bottles and glasses of wine, beer, soda, water, coffee, and hot chocolate as well as various “nibbles.” We can’t really compare a night like this with anything else- bats flying overhead, the Southern Cross and all of the other stars shining in the sky on a clear night, and simply relishing a unique experience in our community.
Rando’s (random things)
Sydney recently opened a Costco and we've been wanting to go to check things out as well as see if we would be making our diaper purchases there. You know very well what happens when you go to San's or Costco...
You buy 60 rolls of toilet paper even though you really don't have the space for it.
I've been craving jalapeno peppers so I was way too happy to find them and go home to make some. Mmmm! We purchased several other items we felt were necessary. Can't wait to go again!
On Valentine’s Day we went to a little French restaurant up the road for Fondue. We went there once before when we first moved here and we’ve been talking about going back ever since. Valentine’s seemed like a good excuse to go so we did and we had a delicious dinner to justify it!
We finally tried a meat pie at the Lord Nelson Pub. May not sound exciting to you but we checked it off our list finally! J Mashed potatoes, peas, and a beef and mushroom pie…Yummo!
The ferry wharf closest to us will be closed until the end of August because it is getting torn down and remodeled. Luke took several pictures so we have some before pictures to remember. We hope that our favorite little café, Thelma and Louise’s, isn’t affected too badly from the wharf closure.
Of course I am having no problems completing the true form of “nesting” and nothing beats those bursts of energy days of cleaning, laundry, and organizing whatever I can find- plus, remember, I’m a list maker so crossing numerous things off my list makes me one happy girl! We're really looking forward to bringing the bub along for most of the remaining list items that we can.
