Breakky in the park

Between days of rain and forecasted days of rain, we had a brilliantly sunny Saturday morning. I made the most of it by meeting up with some friends at the Sydney Park west of the CBD. The Sydney Park has just been redone recently, and now it seems to be the go-to place for Sydney doggies. So between seeing friends and seeing dogs, it was a great morning!

 

 

We met up by “the chimneys,” which are actually old chimneys from when the area was the main brickworks in Sydney. The brickworks was set up in the 1870s and stayed in production until the 1980s. Since then, the old kilns and chimneys have somewhat fallen into disrepair, but the city is now trying to keep them somewhat maintained, since they’re such an important historic part of the area. 

 

 

 

From the chimneys, we headed into the little area of St Peters to get some breakky. This is a super trendy area to live in, so the cafe was cute & quirky, complete with a car inside. 

 

 

Then we headed out to the park. It was a lovely day, so sunny and with just a little breeze. It’s starting to turn cool, so it was perfect for sitting in the sun. 

 

 

The hills of the park are mostly built on the torn-down parts of the brickyards, and covered-over rubbish mounds from the landfill that also used to be there. (Fun fact, landfills are called “tips” here - as in “I’m taking my rubbish to the tip.”) So under those lovely hills are the remains of an old tip - covered over with dirt and now a park!

 

 

 

When the park was redone, they added in some wetlands features to provide a home for some of the birds & other creatures who have been pushed out with all the development in the city. There are some rain gardens and ponds where lots of birds seemed to be having a good day too.

 

 

 

If that bird looks giant, it’s because it is. It’s an Australian Pelican and like so many other things here, they get really big. They are pretty intimidating up close - I think one could take me in a fight. 

 

My favorite part of the park was how many off-leash areas there were! The dogs were going nuts and having a blast playing with each other! Too fun!

 

 

It was just a lovely day to be outside and enjoying a nice part of Sydney!

 

Weekends in the water

Between moving and going to parades, we’ve been taking advantage of the lovely summer weather to get some beach time in! It’s supposed to be cooling down, but the last three weeks in Sydney have been consistently hot - around 90 every day - so we found time to make a couple trips to the ocean. 

Most recently we went to Shark Beach. Not only is the word "shark" in the name of the beach, but it also has a shark net. So it was a little hard to psych ourselves up for getting in outside the net! But we wanted to check out the sealife, so we went for it! (And of course, there are rarely dangerous sharks in the harbor, so we figured the odds were in our favor!)

Luckily, we made it through the day without getting chomped on by a shark! =D

The beach has a really lovely little kiosk on it. The fabulous people of the eastern suburbs were brunching there. Maybe next time we’ll wear some appropriate clothes and we can join them. 

A few weeks before, we went out to Little Bay beach. It was a gorgeous beach, sort of framed on both sides by cliffs. You can hang out on the sand, or hang out on the rocks along the cliffside. 

We took the GoPro on both of our trips and got a few good minutes of footage of our underwater friends! 

A little stripey hanging out

A small school of garfish

Hopefully we get a few more warm weekends before the summer is completely over, but either way, I can't complain!

Happy Mardi Gras in Sydney!

Mardi Gras is a BIG deal in Sydney. From mid-February to mid-March, there are Mardi Gras-themed things happening all around. It’s mostly geared as a festival for the LGTQI community, but almost all the activities are geared toward families & the general public, so it’s a lot of fun!

This year we went to see the famous Mardi Gras parade. The past few years it has rained on parade day, so I got complacent and skipped it. But this year, some friends from work invited us to their apartment with a view of the parade route. So even if it poured, we were going to have a ton of fun. Luckily, the weather was perfect parade weather: clear, sunny, and a bit of breeze. 

The parade leaves a little bit outside the CBD and down Oxford St. We had a lovely view of Oxford Street from the apartment, but there was also plenty to see on our way! The streets around the parade route shut down before the parade starts, so lots of people were walking in.

People of all persuasions take the opportunity to dress up & look festive!

This was a dress made of comic book fabric

A very Sydney thing to do is to take milk crates down to the street and stake out a spot on the route. It's a holdover from when the parade was much smaller and people would just sit on milk crates and watch the much smaller parade on a much smaller street. These days, you can buy fancy seating in VIP areas - or you can still just bring your own.  This family was one step up from milk crates...

While we weren’t quite close enough to fully enjoy all the glamour of the day, we got a great view of the parade! 

All the apartment buildings down the street were decked out. 

Our vantage point was great for watching all the floats & parade entries. Interestingly, they don't throw beads like the Mardi Gras we are used to. It's almost more of a show than a parade. There was lots of music and dance routines...

Except for the military - no routines for them!

It was very fun, and I’m glad we got to see this famous celebration. =)

A new place!

After our real estate adventures of the past few weekends, we've gotten lucky with a new apartment that we are really loving!

We moved to the neighborhood of Potts Point, which is on the other side of the bridge than we were on before (we're now on the same side as the CBD). Which means no more commutes across the lovely Harbour Bridge and glimpses of the Opera House.

But, it's not all bad news! Our new neighborhood is a bit bigger, so there are lots of cafes and shops to explore! It's also very green, with lots of giant trees and beautiful parks around. 

There are also great Saturday markets!

The community is a bit more "happening" than Milsons Point. On our first weekend living here, we went to the Kings Cross festival. There was a long communal dining table set up, and lots of local restaurants to buy food from. We met up with a couple people I knew from work, and had a lot of fun!

Our new apartment is really fun too!

It's definitely bigger than our old one. We even have room for a table to eat at! This, by far, has been my favorite thing. 

Our kitchen is maybe a little bigger too. The washing machine is in the kitchen, which is a new experience for us but a pretty common design here. There's no dryer, so we hang our clothes outside. With the Sydney summer weather, I think it's actually almost as fast. We'll see what happens in wintertime! =)

Again we got an apartment with a built-in TV, which was lucky! There's plenty of space for our couch and just for hanging out, which has been so nice! 

But the best thing about our location is the grounds around the apartment complex. We live at the bottom of the hill, and to get to our spot, we walk down lots of stone steps through a beautiful garden. Lots of gorgeous trees and flowers! And a possum now or then. 

We love our new spot and I'm super excited to explore all the fun things there are to discover in our new neighborhood!