Adventure, baby!

Alec

Isis & Matt’s Wedding

After a week of tumultuous weather, Saturday was stunningly perfect for my good friend Isis’ wedding – especially since it was to be held outdoors!

The ceremony as held at Observatory Hill in Sydney, in a rotunda. The view was stunning, so it was easy to see why it is such a popular wedding location.

Isis is Indian and her now-husband, Matt, is a Kiwi, so together they had a wedding that was a bit Indian, a touch Kiwi and a lot of Aussie.

The set-up for the Indian-fusion ceremony.

The stunning bride walked down the aisle by her adorable parents.

A lot of the ceremony was in Hindi I believe, so we didn’t really know what was going on. It sounded amazing, whatever they were saying!

Some blessing was going on here. And promising to be good to each other of course.

Exchanging flower garlands.

Making it official.

Flowers for tossing. Because of the breeze they went in the opposite direction than desired and landed on the guests – a nice fragant shower of flowers.

The groom’s awesome shoes.

Happy day! All dressed up.

The bride’s hands – covered in intricate henna designs. Her feet were covered too.

The very happy bride!

STUNNING location!

Being tourists and LOL-ing.

Aww – romance was in the air!

A full-length shot of my purty dress.


After the ceremony we had time to kill so we stopped by La Renaissance Patisserie Francaise in Argyle St at the Rocks for coffee and, erm, snacks.

The display alone had me drooling.

My raspberry tart. So divine I could have happily eaten a few more. Then again, I am quite the little piggy.

Alec’s mixed berry tart. Almost as good as the ones we had in Estonia.

Being such tourists.

The bridal couple changed into Western outfits for the reception.

The cake! It was uber tasty – some kind of moist vanilla cake with lemon-ish cream.

The set-up. The boat was called the Vagabond Princess.

Happy!

Unsure what’s going on.
Making their entrance.

Appetisers!

More awwwww.

Lunch! Indian-fusion tastiness.

The bridal couple did a very nontraditional dance – starting with a waltz, then breaking into an Indian routine, followed by hip-hop. It was so unexpected and so very very funny.

Posing with our friends.


After the cruise we went to Opera Bar with the bridal couple and friends for more celebrating. We watched the sun go down and had lots of laughs as the bride and groom were able to unwind and enjoy themselves.

Being complete tourists again.

Sun setting over one of Australia’s most well-known pieces of architecture – the Sydney Opera House.

Alec does his Wolverine impression.

The perfect end to the perfect day! Best of luck Isis and Matt, and thanks for involving us in your special day!

Oh Hai!

I just love love love this photo of Alec taken with a wide-angle lens.

Birthday Escape: Glen Davis and Katoomba {Day 3}

It’s cold out here. Bone-chillingly cold. The sky is blue today though so it’s a great day for the drive to Glen Davis, a tiny little town where my dad grew up. It was a mining town where my uncle, grand-dad and great grand-dad all worked in the mines, but became a ghost town at some stage, and has now come full circle with people moving back into the town to retire. It’s quite eerie as it is a town in name only – there’s nothing there except for the houses that have moved back, and they sit amongst the ruins of foundations from the previous houses, school and shop buildings.

There is nothing left here of my dad’s house except the front steps and some foundation blocks, but it was really amazing to visit it and see where my dad was a little boy running around. The countryside is amazingly beautiful, so it would have been a very pretty place to live even though it was so isolated it would have been really hard to get anywhere to get supplies.














After visiting Glen Davis we slowly drove back to Sydney, stopping at Lithgow for food and Katoomba for hot chocolate and waffles. I love this little art deco cafe called Paragon on the main street of Katoomba. It has fabulous chocolate for sale, hand-made on the premisis I believe.






Since we were so close we drove down to the Three Sisters Lookout. We came up here on one of our first dates, two years ago, so it was really sweet to come back and look around again and reminisce.








Birthday Escape: Mudgee and Relaxing {Day 2}

A big fail on behalf of Google Maps (or my map reading skills) lead us to drive into Mudgee while looking for a little town called Glen Davis that my dad grew up in. Turns out Glen Davis was in the opposite direction .. whoops! Never mind, it still ended up being an interesting drive.

A pretty church in Mudgee. Everything was closed when we got there just after 2pm. We ate an an Asian bakery as it was literally the only food place open apart from Subway.

We stopped off at Windermere Dam on the way back to our cabin. It looks fairly good weather here but it had been raining all day on and off, and when we got back in the car it started to snow!










Birthday Escape To The Blue Mountains {Day 1}

For my last 20-something birthday Alec took me away for the weekend to stay in a river-side cabin at Turon Gates, about 4-5 hours hrs drive from Sydney.

After a long and somewhat dramatic drive there, we awoke the next morning surrounded by bushlands.

Our solar-powered cabin, right in the middle of a nature reserve.

Alec takes a look around.

This photo is begging for a funny caption. Pity I can’t think of one!

Scenic bushlands and nature were all around.

It was awesome waking up every morning to look ut of the window at this river. The river was a major site during the gold rush and the remains from the gold prospectors can still be seen here. The river is crystal clear (and bloody cold!). In summer I can imagine it would be a great place to swim and canoe.

Ghost gums – everywhere!

Pretty! I loved how much wattle was everywhere – the bright yellow against olive green and red and brown dirt. So Australian!

Playing with my 50mm lens.

Very obliging boy.

So rugged and manly!

Who da man?

Cheesy! A happy photo on a happy day.

Bev & Chris’ Engagement Party

The city is empty this weekend thanks to the pilgrims, so it was quite a surreal experience being at a bar on a Saturday night and to have no one around.

Bev hired a room at Cruise bar, so we had an amazing view of the harbour.

The happy couple.







“Excellent…”



Posers.




Goodnight!

Doggie Weekend

A few pics from playing with the girls this morning before heading off to Newcastle.

Buffers always aims to slobber my chin.



Kahlua looks grumpy – she knows I’m leaving.


On Stockton Beach – Amy poses for the camera.


Newcastle in the distance.


Amy makes a friend.


Enjoying the sun.







Oh Hai!




Mmmm chips and Coke on the beach.


Zoom zoom zoom!



Engagement Celebrations

Last Friday night we went over Beverly’s new place to celebrate her engagement to Chris. Beverly decided to make us pizza from scratch – supreme for everyone and vege special for me.

Ready to go in the oven.



Cooks hard at work.


Note the pretty wine glass charms – made to look like donuts.


Sleepy.


Why hello there fuzzy thing.


Fresh!



Nom nom nom.



Attempt at being arty.



Dessert!




Can’t wait for the wedding now!

Kiama

We checked out of our house at Callala beach this morning and slowly drove home via Berry, Kiama and Stanwell Tops. The rain started bucketing down after we left Kiama so unfortunately it wasn’t nice enough to take any pics.

Kiama – the little blowhole.


Oh hai!


Wonky self-portrait.


Kiama lighthouse.


Big blowhole. Thar she blows!



Snuggles.


“I love my dad!”



I had such a great weekend. The girls were amazingly well-behaved! Such a pleasant surprise – both my wonderful Alec for taking me away and my loving dogs for not being painful!