Sunny Sydney Sojourn

Welcome to the new year!

It has been a while since I last posted so I have included some pics of what I have been up to, firstly starting with our fun Christmas. We had time to catch up with all the family, which for me is what Christmas is all about. Jodie and a friend prepared a wonderful feast for us and it was the first Christmas day in quite a while that I was able to sleep in!

With the hustle and bustle of Christmas over, Roddy and I decided to head to the city for some quiet time, so we booked ourselves into the Sheraton on the Park for a couple of days, which was fantastic.

It might seem a bit strange, staying in the city for a mini holiday, seeing I travel there for work every day,  but it was great to really see our city as a tourist and to take the time to just follow our nose and just wander around. There is just so much to see and do!

We went to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) for lunch, we walked over the harbour bridge, we walked along the foreshore at Kirribilli, roamed around The Rocks, meandered through the Royal Botanical Gardens, had a drink in the 'O' bar at Australia Square, ate at some fantastic restaurants, did some shopping at the sales and walked and walked and walked!!

Sydney is a truly beautiful city, there is so much more we want to do, that we are planning for another 'city mini break'.  It was great to take the time to enjoy the perfect weather in one of the world's most beautiful cities. I can thoroughly recommend taking some time out to get to know Sydney - you won't regret it!

Fresh Watermelon - taste of summer!

Boxing Day Family Dinner

Sweet treats called Koeksisters - from South Africa for dessert 

Wandering through the Botanical Gardens

View from the Pylon before we walked over the Bridge -
I can't believe I have never walked across the bridge before - despite crossing it every day by train on the way to work! 

View from the Northern (Kirribilli) side 

My Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Christmas

Its getting closer, Christmas is just around the corner.

I thought I would try and capture some of the festive spirit and put some decorations up around the house. Unfortunately, all of our Christmas decorations, including the tree, are stowed away down the South Coast. So rather than going out and buying more bits of stuff to decorate the house, I have adopted a reduce, reuse, recycle, non-commercial, approach to christmas decorating.

With the help of Pinterest I have started making some decorations to put onto our very rustic tree, (which I found on the ground out the front of our house after a particularly windy day!). So I gathered up the dead branch, put it into a galvanised bucket and started making some decorations to try and capture the Christmas feel.

So far, I think I have been successful. It is certainly a different type of Christmas tree, but it is unique, frugal, environmentally friendly and.................we like it!

I also decided to make a wreath for the front door and with the fantastic instructions provided by the red thread, I made this wreath out of old gift bags and it sits quite nicely on our red front door.

Here are a few pics of my hand made creations - have you made any decorations this Christmas? If so, I would love to see them.

Happy creating!

A day to play

Finally, finally I had some time today to get out my art journal and play. It has been quite a few weeks since I have had time, what with settling into a new job and the trip to Singapore, my feet have not had much time to touch the ground, and my paints have not found their way to paper!

Something that helped was the purchase today of a few vintage stamps from a new vintage store that opened up in my town, Springwood. I was so pleased with my purchase, it was all I needed to get me going again.

So here are a few pages that have me back on track...........

Thanks for stopping by x

Weekend at Wallys

I hope you all had a lovely weekend.......I was blessed this weekend, my daughter, her husband, my other daughter and my son all came up to spend the weekend. It was so lovely to have some time all together. As we are usually all spread across the country, it was so great to have the time to just chill out and enjoy each other's company.

We went out to dinner on Friday night to The Union, a Tapas restaurant at Penrith, which was great - you are always guaranteed tasty food. We then spend Saturday relaxing out on the deck in the beautiful sunshine....the weather was perfect.

Jac and I took a short trip into Springwood, where Jac, (in her 'Where's Wally' clothes) decided to pick up a special fella!

Then Jodie and Max had a snooze and we had lots of great food and drink - a great weekend! Hope yours was good too. xxxx

Life can be surreal

On Sunday at 12:00pm I was sitting on top of the world at the Marina Bay Sands building in Singapore, enjoying a beautiful meal, taking in the spectacular view........the same time the next day I was caught in the 'commuter crush' in Sydney as I had a break for lunch from my new job in the City.


It was a bit of a culture shift both from the aspect of one city to the next, but also from the workplace perspective. The organisational culture where I work in my new role is vastly different from my old job. It will take some getting used to!

This was where we had lunch - in the 'ship' on top of the Marina Bay Sands building which is  
194m (636 ft) tall.

This was the view from Marina Bay Sands - We thought the Singapore Flyer 'ferris wheel' was high at 42 stories high, with a total height of 165m (541 ft) - it is the tallest 'ferris wheel' in the world -  but it is dwarfed by MBS.

The 'Commuter Crush'!

Singapore Sling

Well here I am in Singapore. What an amazing country. The architecture is breathtaking as is the street scape, the food, the people.......and the shopping! I have really enjoyed my time here, a bit of work and a bit of play. My hosts epitomise hospitality and have taken the time to show us the best of Singapore. Here are a few pics of the many I have taken over the week.

The magnificent Marina Bay Sands

Sentosa Island from the Cable Car

Not sure what this building is...but I love the coloured windows.

Skypark - these 'trees' lit up to music. The lights around the tree are a walkway, so you can see how big they are!

Singapore's beautiful harbour with the new Marina Bay Sands building in the background

Singapore Harbour

Some purchases from a shopping trip. I actually found a shop that sold art supplies that I can use in my art journals. None of this stuff is available in Australia, you generally need to buy them online.
I must have spent hours in this one shop!

Gin Sling from Raffles - $26 plus taxes and surcharges!! The most expensive drink ever!

Calm before the storm

The new adventure begins! I have just left my job after 7 years and today I am off to Singapore, for a week, to enjoy a little rest and relaxation (and a little bit of work) with my friend Lesley. When I get back,  I start a demanding new role in a large organisation, that is sure to challenge me.

It was very sad to leave where I worked as the people there are very special. I made many close friends and although I know I will stay in contact with them, I will certainly miss seeing them on a daily basis.

I know my new challenge will certainly push me to my limits so I spent my weekend in refuge visiting my daughter's house down the south coast. I have come back ready to get started, looking forward to my week in Singapore and for the fast pace that I know will follow.

I am determined to keep up with my journalling, it will be so much more important for me now to help me keep my balance.

Here are a couple of pics I took at Jac's place, it was a great weekend and gave me some special time to get centred and ready.