Palm Beach

Saturday was a beautiful spring day. Or as T would say, it was hot, sunny, and no good! But to me it was a perfect beach day. So I joined three of my friends from work and we took the 1 1/2 hour bus ride out to the beach.

Palm Beach is a really gorgeous beach, and since it's so far outside the city, it wasn't too busy either.

The four of us found a spot, and then did what you do at the beach: whatever you want!

It was just warm enough to get hot hanging out on the sand. But the water was still really cold! So I only got in twice and both times it was realllly fast! But Andres did manage to capture some pictures.

After a couple of hours, we had planned to go get some lunch at one of the nearby cafes. Unfortunately all the power was out so there was no food to be had. Even worse, a bushfire started nearby. We noticed it when it was still small.

But within 10 minutes it was out of control and racing for the buildings at the top of the ridge.

Luckily no one was hurt and no buildings were destroyed. But the smoke, sirens, and general concern definitely added a sour note to the beach day. On the other hand, we did get to see helicopters with the water-dropping buckets, so that was fairly exciting!

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/09/28/08/32/nsw-facing-severe-fire-weather

Before too long, I caught a bus and began the long ride back to the city where I met up with T for a fun dinner out. Couldn't have asked for a better spring day!

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Art & about

On Monday I went out at lunch with Susan to check out some art! Sydney is hosting a city-wide art exhibit with art installed all around in public spaces. There are giant snails all around the city!

Aren't they cute!?

There is also more traditional artwork hanging up in various areas.

It was like getting to go to an art gallery for free. And outside!

We ended our walk at Hyde Park where we checked out this cool mirror installation.

And then we headed back to the office. It was a great springtime lunch with art and sun!

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Sydney marathon

On Sunday morning I got up early to watch the Sydney marathon. The marathon was a big deal: a lot of the streets in the city were shut down for it - including the Harbour Bridge.

Lucky for me, the marathon started right under the bridge on our side of the Harbour, so I didn't have to go far to see it!

Starters in the half marathon

The first race - the half marathon - started at 6:15. I don't know how many runners were in that one, but it seemed like an endless stream.

In the far right of the pic, you can see all the people coming up the hill

The most impressive race started an hour later: that was the start time for the full marathon participants in wheelchairs.

And then the marathon runners started. Even Toby poked his head out to watch.

After it was underway, I walked up on the bridge to see all the runners going across. It was pretty cool to see the bridge - which I usually see packed with cars - full of runners.

As fun as it was to see all the runners, I was pretty happy to be watching in my cosy jacket and heading back inside for my breakky. Laziness has its perks!

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Walking around Millers Point

On Saturday, Toby graciously agreed to go on an afternoon walk with me. (Or, as he sometimes describes it, he "walked me.") So we headed across the bridge and then back under it to wander through Millers Point and Walsh Bay. We'd been through here a couple times before but I wanted to spend more time walking by the historic buildings.

We walked by Lord Nelson, which is one of Sydney's oldest pubs.

We also walked by a lot of old warehouses that have been converted into housing for fabulously wealthy people.

A lot of the areas looked like they hadn't changed a bit in 200 years. If it weren't for all the cars, you wouldn't know what century it was.

In one of the areas where the old building have been refurbished and look quite modern, we saw this really cool art/light post.

The rest of our walk was pretty uneventful, except for the fact that we accidentally photobombed two separate wedding photo shoots in the Rocks as we walked home. We felt bad (Toby didn't), but there were so many bridal parties out, it was impossible to avoid them all! On the upside, we'll live on forever in someone's wedding photos.

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Painting class

On Friday I had half a day of work. The other half was a team activity for the tech writing team! Yay for half days of work and fun activities!

Our team activity was painting class. Painting, and art in general, is not something I'm good at or prefer to spend too much time on. But I was up for trying something new!

We caught a cab from the office and headed out to an art gallery in Sydney's inner west. The gallery was really cool, and there was afternoon tea waiting for us when we arrived.

There was also an art gallery dog, who was super friendly.

Our first art endeavor was painting with bamboo sticks and black paint. While this might sound simplistic, it was right at my skill level.

Some instruction on how to be in touch with the left side of our brains and paint with confidence

I had a few successes.

And one really disturbing miss.

Not a grenade - it's supposed to be a turtle

We also did some watercolor painting toward the end of the day.

Susan with her amazing painting of Coit Tower

Mine is the giraffe at the far bottom

We lined up for a final group shot with all of our collective artwork.

And then it was time for the weekend!

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A year in review

In honor of our one year anniversary, here are some of my favorite pictures from the past year. 

September

This picture was one of our first few days here. We'd taken the ferry over to Circular Quay to check out the iconic sites. It felt super weird to be standing at the Opera House!

October

I really started dragging us out and around to places in October. This was us taking the Eastern Coastal Beaches walk for the first time. It was a super windy day - which was not expected! We also learned how fast you get hot in the sun here. 

The other highlight of our second month here was my cousin's visit! We didn't know that many places to go and we weren't Sydney experts yet, but we gave it our best shot. It was so awesome to see family, and we had such a fun time!

November

In November, we flip-flopped and I went up to see Megan in Brisbane. What a super fun city! I think I'll have to drag Toby there sometime. 

December

Our first time seeing Aussie animals!

And our first Christmas in Australia. It was a little bit sad compared to our usual family-filled Christmases, but it was fun nonetheless.

We also celebrated our first Boxing Day with a trip out to watch the Sydney-Hobart sailing race. That was super fun!!

January

In January I celebrated my birthday in warm weather for the first time ever. Needless to say, it was completely amazing! 

February

February was the hottest month of my life. But there were only a few moments where I thought I couldn't stand it. For the most part, the warm weather just meant we could do stuff like go to the Thai Festival. 

And when it wasn't blisteringly hot, it was pouring rain - like the day we went to the Royal National Park. But the rain didn't deter Toby from throwing the boomerang like a pro!

March

In March, our stuff arrived!!! What a magical day. 

April

In April, we celebrated our first Anzac Day. I made Anzac cookies for the first time, and I spent the day in the city watching the various ceremonies and festivities. 

I also cashed in my Super Bowl bet win in April. It was a full day of activities, including a trip to the Fish Markets, brunch in Glebe, a walk through the city, and a picnic dinner. Toby was a super good sport for the day.

May

May brought us Vivid Sydney, which was totally amazing. The highlight was definitely getting to choose a design for the bridge and making it light up!

June

My lovely workmate Rachel invited us up to the Blue Mountains for a day in June. It was winter in Sydney and it actually felt like winter weather in the mountains. It was amazing - I had no idea such beautiful mountains were so close to Sydney!

July

Obviously, the highlight of our July was Holly's visit. It's pretty much all I thought and talked about the whole month until she arrived, and then it's all I thought about after she left. To spare us all, I'll just put in two pictures to represent how amazing the end of July and the first of August was. 

August

To ease the sting of Holly leaving, we had a fun weekend getaway to Hunter Valley. It was fun times of drinking wine, cooking meals, playing games, and hanging out with friends!

It's hard to pick highlights from a year full of so many wonderful things! We are truly lucky to get to have the experiences and fun times we've enjoyed. Here's to at least one more year!