Sculptures by the Sea 2014

This week it was time for the Sculptures by the Sea walk in Bondi. I really loved it last year. Toby tolerated it more than anything else - even when we went on a weekday evening, it was pretty packed with crowds. So I gathered up some newly-arrived expats and we headed out on a Wednesday evening for a walk and dinner!
We met up at the office and caught a bus out to Tamarama Beach. There were 8 of us in total, one who'd been in Sydney a total of 6 days. I am starting to feel like an old-timer now!
The walk and sculptures were really lovely. It was getting towards sunset when we got there but that made the light even more beautiful I think.

One of the first sculptures we came to was this big, mirrored box.

It was cool because it reflected the ocean and yourself inside.

This was one of the larger sculptures; by the time we were finishing the walk and it was dark, the sculpture was lit up.

Most of the bigger sculptures were gathered in the big park overlooking Bondi.

This one was cool because the top two parts moved and rotated around in the wind - and it was plenty windy!

Towards the end of the walk, near Bondi Beach, was this cute sculpture: it was modeled after the famous Bondi Baths pool. You get this view of the pool when you do the walk to Bondi, so I've seen the real thing many times!

And lastly, this wooden-looking sculpture of a jumping whale won my vote for this years' favorite.

It got dark almost exactly as we finished our stroll and got to Bondi. Perfect timing to finish looking at sculptures and have some dinner!

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Happy Halloweeen!

Halloween is not celebrated very much here. Toby and I love Halloween, so last year it was a little bit sad because we really felt the distance with no one dressing up, no decorations, and no parties! This year, though, we had plenty of social events on the planner, so we were feeling optimistic!

People definitely know what Halloween is, but it's very much viewed as just little kids' holiday. The tiny ones might get dressed up if they have a party at school. Also, some neighborhood councils will organize trick or treating in a few streets, but that's really it. Unless you live on a street with lots of little kids, you certainly don't go out and buy a lot of candy or expect to see many costumes.

But the holiday is catching on, especially at places like Atlasssian where there are a fair few Americans. In fact, most of my work afternoon on Friday was completely shot: first with a team party and then the company-wide Halloween party. What a good start to Halloween!

Our team party was to celebrate us hitting our sales goals for the quarter. It was organized to have different food and cocktail stations, themed by country. Different team members were assigned to serve food and make drinks, and I was unsurprisingly assigned to make Old Fashioned cocktails at the America station! Notice the theming for America: red, white, blue, and camo. Ha!

My fellow bartender for the day!

Here I am, mixing drinks like a pro.

 

There were a few diehard America fans.

But the Australian, Brazil, and dessert stations were pretty popular too!

We partied on for a couple hours, and then it was time to head down to the full Atlassian party.

The theme was Zombie Prom, and a few people dressed up. There was also a great face painter and crafts for the kiddos, too. I didn't dress up or stay too long, because I had to head home and transform myself into Kate Middelton for the nighttime Halloweeen bash!

The "grownups" Halloweeen party was out at Esther and Andres' apartment. I had been working during the week on crafting some themed treats, which turned out pretty good, I think! At the very least, they wowed all the expats who didn't know how completely full-out you're supposed to go on Halloween - with themed food and all!

The best thing about the party, besides hanging out with lots of people we like, is that everyone dressed up!

We didn't stay too terribly late, because Toby had to get up the next day and do this to himself:

That is a zombiefied T, ready for the Sydney Zombie Walk!

The Zombie Walk was down at Hyde Park and is a yearly fundraiser for the Brain foundation. The idea is that all the participants dress up as zombies and then amble around a few square blocks in the city. Toby signed up with a co-worker and met her at the park for the big, weird event.

Toby's co-worker. She was a huge hit.

A giant storm came up right before the start of the walk, but the walkers carried on. You can see the big crowd of them across the street from the coffee shop where I was hanging out.

And then we came home, where everyone was very happy with our Halloween's festivities!

 

 

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Back in AU

We got back to our Aussie home a week ago Saturday. It was a long flight home, with a long layover in Singapore, but we made it safe and sound! We had all weekend to try and get back on Sydney time, but it probably took me until Thursday until I stayed awake past 9 PM. I guess I'm getting old!

It's solidly springtime weather here, but I get the feeling that the city is willing it to turn into full-on summer. There have been a couple cool mornings, and these tender Sydneysiders wrap up in coats and scarves like they're about to die. But it was a warm sunny day on Saturay, and it was shorts, sunnies, and sun dresses as far as the eye can see!

I went to a small birthday gathering for a new co-worker on Saturday. He's new here from Germany and so he wanted to have an Aussie barbeuqe on the beach for his celebration in true Aussie style. Unfortunately, it was at Bondi Beach, which any true Aussie avoids at any cost on a sunny Saturday, especially when the Sculptures by the Sea exhibition is on. Tourists, ugh! ;-) But many of us were good sports and made the trek out.

This is a typical bus ride to get out to Bondi on a sunny day

The forecasted thunderstorms had started to roll in by the time I arrived, but the disappearance of the sun and the arrival of a cold wind was stopping none of these beachgoers!

Lured by the cool breeze and the storm clouds coming up, Toby braved the Saturday crowds and met me at Beach Burrito Co. This consistently has been the place people have told us to try for Mexican food if the other places in Sydney have disappointed us.

 

And while we had a good time and were happy we tried it, sadly, we've not found our True Mexican Food source. We think we might be done with the search and just save our funds so we can eat proper Mexican food 24x7 next time we're in the States!

 

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Sweden day 11, 12, and 13

Day 10 of Sweden was spent mainly in checking out of our apartment and catching the train back down to Lund. We had another fun, first class train ride with snacks and games.

And then our last few days were upon us! We spent them hanging out around Staffanstorp and Lund, just chilling out and enjoying being together.

There was lots of good homemade meals, courtesy of Chris! Like mushroom risotto (with some Aussie Hunter Valley wine!).

There were homemade crepes for breakfast on our last day.

Michelle also contributed to our waistlines by making a Swedish dessert for us, kladdkaka. It was like a fudgy cross between a brownie and chocolate cake, and it was soooo good! This one's going in my recipe box.

Besides eating at home, we also went to a vegetarian Indian restaurant in Lund for lunch one day. Chris and Michelle discovered this on their very first few days in Sweden and have been waiting on us to visit so Toby could get his curry on with them!

We also went to a wine and cheese tasting at a cute little cheese shop in Lund. Even though it was all in Swedish, we had fun!

Here are the guys at the wine and cheese tasting. This is typically how it goes when I try to take pictures of them for my blog.

Sweden made sure we didn't leave without getting some legitimate Swedish weather. Our three days in Staffanstorp and Lund were very gray, if not downright rainy and cold.

But that didn't stop us from going out and doing some fun things! We spent a day checking out all the sights of Lund, like walking around a cool Swedish furniture store. Everything in it was so different and modern - I loved it!

We also did some fun window shopping in the city center of Lund. The streets in the main part of the city are all cobblestones and the buildings have heaps of character. So it was just fun to walk around all the cute shops. And, of course, the requisite H&M!

We also paid a visit to Michelle's office. She works at ESS (European Spallation Source). Her job is super cool: right now ESS is in the planning phase of the proton accelerator that will be built in Lund in the coming years. It's a partnership project between many European countries so their scientists can come and do research at the facitlity. Michelle does important work like planning the requirements for all the lab buildings, making sure they'll support the different types of materials that will be used in experiments, the building materials are sustainable, things like that. It's a fascinating project, and we are proud to know a scientist who's making such an impact on the future of science!

The rest of our time was spent playing games, catching up on TV shows, and hanging out with this guy.

Before we knew it, it was time to start the journey home. We had an amazing visit in Sweden! Stockholm was absolutely beautiful, as was Copenhagen. Our food experiences were fun, tasty, and adventurous. Learning about Swedish culture and oddities was fascinating. But, of course, the best thing was just hanging out with our friends! We can't wait to go back!

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