DECEMBER ALREADY

Watching surfers on a beach near Newcastle, NSW

Where has this year gone? I can't believe we are getting close to the end of 2009. We had hoped to be living in Australia by now, but we haven't been able to sell our house. It has been on the market since February this year, unfortunately we have picked the worse time of all to sell due to the credit crunch. And to make matters worse the value of the pound has dropped dramatically against the Australian dollar which of course reduces greatly the amount of money we would have once we get there. It just seems that at the moment nothing is going our way and it is very disappointing. We are keeping our fingers crossed that things start to pick up next year and we can start our new life in Oz.

FREE SHIPPING

I hope those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving have had a wonderful time with your families and friends. Tomorrow is Black Friday so from then until Cyber Monday any item purchased in my Etsy store will be shipped to you FREE OF CHARGE. I have some lovely knitted and crocheted items that you would make fantastic Christmas presents - prices start from $9.00.

SYDNEY

Of course we couldn't visit Australia without spending some time in Sydney, my favourite city. This time we went on the train, it was safer. Only kidding, we went on the train because we all enjoy the journey. There is some lovely scenery between Wyong, where my aunt and uncle live, and Sydney. Also it gives my DH time to sit back and enjoy the scenery too. The train was very busy but we manged to find seats. I love the Australian trains, they are on 3 levels, although if you are looking for seats it can be a bit awkward on a moving train having to go up and down stairs.

Anyway we arrived in Sydney and it was a beautiful day, blue sky and the sun was shining. We didn't have any plans as to what we were going to do, just have a wander around. Amy wanted to go to the Opera House, it is her favourite place, probably because they always show it on TV. So we decided to walk through the city and make our way there.



We got to Darling Harbour and had a look round there. The Australian National Maritime Museum is situated here. There is a submarine to look around and a large ship, a destroyer. It all looked very interesting and certainly somewhere we would visit on another occasion.



We crossed over a bridge, I think it is called the Pyrmont Bridge, and carried on through the city to the Opera House.

We had a walk around the outside of the Opera House and stood and looked at the views over the harbour, the bridge and to where we had been at Taronga Zoo a couple of days earlier. It is a beautiful spot to just stand and take in the amazing scenes. I love it!


We got one of the ferries back to Darling Harbour, Amy spotted somewhere else for us to visit, I told her we would put it on our list for next time. We got on the tram from Darling Harbour to take us back to the station. We had had another amazing day but I was glad to get back on the train and sit down.

I took this photo as we went over the Hawkesbury River, I was amazed I caught the sunset through the bridge supports.

When we were getting closer to Wyong I phoned my aunt and told her we were nearly there. She said my uncle would meet us at the station, thank goodness, I don't think my feet would have made it back to their house.

TARONGA ZOO

We did find Taronga Zoo and enjoyed a fantastic day there. I can definitely recommend it and it is a place we will certainly go back to. As well as all the amazing animals you get to see close up there are several shows you can go and watch. We just caught the end of the elephant show, but we watched the sealions and a fantastic bird show, where birds swoop around the crowd. The setting for the bird show was fantastic too, overlooking Sydney Harbour. We also saw the red panda, I had never heard of this animal before. Whilst we were there it was on the news that the red panda had given birth at Taronga Zoo. We didn't get to see the baby, but mum was gorgeous.

Taronga Zoo is well worth a visit not only to see the residents, but also to get the most amazing views of my favourite city, Sydney!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Sorry I haven't been around for a while, but I have had swine flu and didn't feel like doing much. Thankfully I am now on the mend and looking forward to things getting back to 'normal'. Thank you to everyone who kept visiting my blog and dropping their Entrecards.

Hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween.

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LOOKING FOR TARONGA ZOO

We decided to drive to Taronga Zoo using my uncle's sat nav. This was a big mistake! Before we left the house I had had a look at the map with my uncle and he had pointed to where the zoo was and also told me about various buildings we would pass and areas we would drive through, so I had a rough idea of where we were going. But then we made the big mistake, we took his sat nav instead of taking the map. My uncle's sat nav was nothing like the one we have back home, it is very confusing, to us anyway. Once we got into the outskirts of Sydney it all started to go wrong. We seemed to drive around in circles, driving on and off motorways, paying tolls. We guessed he hadn't updated it for along time. We drove around streets and even pulled up and asked a couple of men for directions, mistake number 2. They seemed more confused than us.

We kept ending up on a road which was leading to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I knew we didn't want to be on the other side of the harbour. So I made my poor husband turn around again and tried really hard to remember the names of the roads I had seen on the map.

We eventually found a hospital I remember my uncle saying we would pass and I instructed poor husband to carry on driving. At last I spotted a road name I remembered and from then we seemed to find our way. What a journey we had had. I am surprised we both stayed so calm.

AMY'S FIRST MODELLING ASSIGNMENT

I am taking a break from my Australia Adventures to share this picture with you. I have recently added hats to my Etsy shop and sold my first one (you can see it here) to someone in Australia which was very exciting as this was also my first Australian customer. I was having a problem displaying the one above on my upside down vase to show it off so I asked Amy to be my model. The hat is made for a teen/adult, but it looks really good on Amy. I really need to invest in a proper display head but until I have the funds I have to use whatever I have. Anyway Amy was delighted to do this. I think she makes a lovely model!