Vivid round two

After a Vivid-free weekend, it was time for a second visit! I headed out after work with a couple co-workers to take in the lights!

First stop was Martin Place, which is directly across the street from my office building. This is the first year it's been included in the festival, and there was some fun stuff: a water/light feature, lights in the buildings that use fog machines to show their beams down through the street, and of course lots of cool, random light installations.

My favorite thing, though, is this circular building that is lit up like a tree, complete with birds and bugs that move around in it. Now that I've seen the building like this, it's never going to look normal to me  again.

My other favorite thing was walking up close to the Opera House and watching the light sequence from start to finish. (There is music too.) The sequence starts with sound snippets from when the Opera House was being opened after construction, and the lights on the sails mimic the construction process, going from blueprints, to foundation, to plumbing and piping, and ending with tiling. It was fascinating!

And, of course, the Customs House (top left and bottom right) and the Museum of Contemporary Art buildings looked amazing.

It was another amazing Vivd night!

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Showing San Francisco how Sydney does beaches

This weekend I met up with a co-worker from San Francisco to show her the Bondi to Coogee walk. And no surprise to me, she fell in love with the gorgeous coast of Sydney!

It was another unseasonably warm day, so perfect for a clifftop walk.

One interesting thing about the walk was that there were lots of people camped out along the edge of the cliffs. It's whale migration season, so lots of people were out, hoping for a glimpse of whales heading north to breed.

Our walk was just perfect, and once in Bondi, we found a little cafe for lunch. And what better way to close out an lingering summer day than ice cream?!

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It's Vivid time!

One of my all-time favorite Sydney events is back! I just loved Vivid Sydney last year, and this year is shaping up to be just as good!

I went the very first night with a couple people from work, and it was a perfect night! It's still pleasantly warm here (this month is on track to set a record for the warmest May), so it was great walking around weather. (Just to put into perspective how warm it is, we saw plenty of people walking around in sundresses, even though I thought that was a bit much. Last year at Vivid, I wore a pea coat.) But you won't get any complaints from me!

We headed down to the "main" area, which is The Rocks and Circular Quay, even though there are displays all around the city this year. We managed to get there right as the sails on the Opera House were lit up!

One of the things I love the most about Vivid is how many interactive light features there are. There are very few exhibits that you can't walk right up and touch, and most of them react to interaction somehow. So kids love it, but it's pretty fun for grown ups too! There were a couple standouts for me this year. One was the big bunnies out on the point by the bridge!

Another was a cool "graffiti maker" - you put your face in front of a digital camera and then the lights "painted" your face graffiti-style on the wall. Super cool!

There were other really cool small exhibits scattered throughout the area too.

And of course the buildings looked awesome too!

This was Cadman's Cottage - the whole building looked like a forest scene. Occasionally the "wind" would blow and leaves would look like they were falling from the trees. The kids went crazy trying to catch them!

It was a fabulous first night of Vivid. I'm planning on many more to come over the next couple of weeks! =D

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Work treats

Australia's Biggest Morning Tea was this week. It's a big fundraiser for cancer research, but it's also a great excuse for everyone to bake their specialty and for everyone else to eat tons of good food for a $5 donation. I didn't bake anything this year, but I did my part by eating!

There was lots of great food.

And LOTS of people.

Of course, the entire company was in a stupor about 2 hours later. But it was fun!

The other treat at work was provided by someone who just got back from a trip to the States. Clearly she didn't think much of Americans' taste in candy!

 

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The most patriotic mattress you'll ever see...

...and other random pictures.

This weekend was big rubbish pickup day at the apartment. When Toby and I walked by the collection area, we saw this mattress, which cracked me up to no end.

We also made a trip to Ikea where we experienced the most high tech parking garage I've ever seen. All the little lights indicated if a space was open and each row listed how many open spaces were in that row. It was maybe the best use of technology ever!

And, lastly, I ended up on Australian TV this week! Here's hoping I can retire off my successful TV career!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-19/atlassians-dynamic-duo-playing-to-win-from-start/5463460
(Around the 2:00 mark, and a few other times near the end)

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High tea at Gunners' Barracks

On Sunday, Adele and I went to high tea in Mosman, a little suburb about 15 minutes north of where we live. The tea was in a sandstone building called the Gunners' Barracks. Like the name suggests, the building is part of historic fortifications built to protect the city (the barracks building was built in 1873).

Next to the barracks are a set of convalescence buildings from World War II. Now they are offices and house random businesses, but they look pretty much like I imagine they did during the war. The main building was called the Hospital on the Hill, and apparently it now has an exhibit about the area during the war. I didn't get to see it during our tea visit, so it's on the list now!

The area overlooks the harbor, which means there are great views for people to enjoy as they drink their tea nowadays! The old tunnels with musket loopholes are still there too.

We had a lovely table outside overlooking the water.

And the tea was amazing - all of the food was great and there was so much of it! The egg salad sandwiches were curried (pretty much how it's always served here) and the scones were served with jam and clotted cream: I felt downright British!

We had a great time on our girly, fun tea adventure!

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Pyrmont wine & food festival

On Saturday, T and I headed over to Pyrmont for a wine and food festival. The festival was featuring products from the Mudgee region, which is north and west of Sydney. We've never been, but now I kind of feel like we have!

Of course we caught the ferry over to Pyrmont, and it was a perfect day for it! Summer is still hanging on, so it was a lovely sunny day in the 70s.

The park where the festival was held is about a ten minute walk along the harbor from the ferry wharf.

We walked by the Star casino, which reminded me again that we have yet to go there. It's now added to the winter bucket list!!

The festival was in Pirrama Park, which is a cool place because you can see both the Anzac Bridge and the Harbour Bridge from the park. It wasn't too crowded when we first got there, which made both of us (but especially one of us!) happy.

The way the festival was set up was that you paid twenty dollars for a glass and five tasting tickets. I thought twenty dollars for five tastings seemed kind of pricey, but it turns out that at 11 in morning, five is plenty.

There was also a little bit of food to try, like these fun cheeses.

And we didn't eat anything at this place, but Toby loved the name of it so it was worthy of a picture.

It was a lovely day, and bonus, I found $2 on the ground! And double bonus, my level of excitement about free money made Toby laugh.

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