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And now for our 12 days of Christmas in Sydney with Mum!!!
Tuesday 22nd December 2009, Blue Mountains to Sydney
So when we left you last we had just walked up a very large hill in The Blue mountains and then would you believe it we come out of Central station at 3pm in Sydney with the expectation of a nice easy 10 minute walk to our apartment only to discover another enormous hill which we all very begrudgingly then had to walk up!!! Believe me when I say walking up a hill with no less than 30kg on your back is not fun!!!!
We eventually arrived at our apartment to be met by crazy Janet (she was lovely really) from Mauritius. The apartment was lovely and cute with my room in the attic and then Caroline and mum took the downstairs room which had a double and a single bed in it. There was also a cute little living room, kitchen and bathroom. Small but cute!!! Once we had all checked in Caroline and I proceeded to unpack the WHOLE of our bags!!! A wonderful thing after 8 months of living out of it!! This was also the time to start throwing certain items of clothes out, the manky and old items!!
Once we had used the net (in the apartment, no internet cafes for 12 days!!), I went to the supermarket to get provisions whilst mum and Caroline started to get ready for a meal out. I changed quickly once I returned as the supermarket turned out to be further than we thought.
Dinner tonight was on Crown Street in Surry Hills, which is the main street just round the corner from where we were staying. Surry Hills seemed like a nice area (Simon Bowman lives there we have now found out) but a real mix of people. From your hooded chavs through to the business men and the ladies that lunch. We had a fantastic meal at a lovely Italian on Crown Street accompanied by some beautiful wine!!!
Wednesday 23rd December 2009, Sydney
Lie in today until about 10am. Personally Caroline and I wouldn't class this as a lie in but mum would!! Ha Ha! After sorting and dressing we had a wonder down to Surry Hills shopping centre and worked out opening times for various things over Christmas before making our way on foot (with a few wrong turns) to Darling Harbour.
Once at Darling Harbour we had a nice lunch overlooking the water and then found ourselves a nice Seafood restaurant to book for Christmas Eve. The restaurant being Nick's Seafood Restaurant. After this and having a look around the harbourwe then walked all the way along the water's edge to Circular Quay, catching our first glimpse of Sydney Harbour Bridge and The Opera House on the way. As we kept walking the glimpsing turned into full on views. Lovely. A bit of a long walk but well worth it for the views.
Once round at Circular Quay we treated ourselves to a glass of wine (or 2) on the water's edge, whilst chatting and people watching before heading home via the supermarket for our dinner of hot roast chicken and various salad washed down with a nice glass of vino!!
Thursday 24th December 2009
This morning after getting ready and sorted we headed out to do our very important supermarket shop for Christmas day. First stop of the tour was to the budget shop in search of a Christmas tree but they were all a bit tacky so in the end we opted for a candle holder shaped like a Christmas tree and Mum brought some fresh Christmas coloured flowers from a stall in the market. We also brought mine and Suzie's Santa hats and reindeer horns from here ready for the beach tomorrow tried to persuade Mum she needed some tool but she was having none of it. Next stop was to Coles where we brought enough food to feed a small army but it is Christmas after all and an extra special one at that!! The final stop of the shopping trip was the most important one of all to the bottle shop to stock up on wine and beer for tomorrow.
After returning from the supermarket we had a quick lunch then headed into the city by then it was about 3pm so we then decided we would have a 1 hour Christmas Eve shopping spree as none of us had brought anything for each other. So we all went our separate ways and arranged to meet in a hour we couldn't have any longer as we needed to get back, to get ready for our Christmas eve meal at darling harbor but before that we wanted to see the fireworks and carols . One Hour Christmas shopping is a lot easier said than done!! At one point I was quietly confident that I would be finished in half hour and have time for a quick drink before meeting up with the others. Then I happened to get involved in trying on tops (I know you're not surprised!!) for us to wear on Christmas day so then after telling Mum and Suzie not to be late it was actually me for a change who was late. I hadn't even finished so poor Suzie only got a Christmas top from me but I promised to get her something else after Xmas.
We then went back to the apartment and all got showered and dressed up before getting a taxi to Darling Harbour. We watched the carols for a little bit but Suzie and I got quickly bored so we went over to get a glass of wine from a bar where we could still see the carols and then Mum joined us after changing her mind about the wine we don't take much persuading us Hewitt girls. By the time we had finished our wine it was time to make our way to the restaurant Nick's seafood Restaurant but as soon as we stepped into the restaurant the fireworks started so we all rushed back out again. The fireworks were amazing and we all got some fab pictures. We had a really nice meal, we shared a seafood platter for starters, and we all had fish for our mains and finished off with 3 yummy puddings and coffee washed down with 2 very nice bottles of wine.
After we had finished our meal we all got a taxi Suzie and I were going out after to meet Emily and Jo Suzie's friend from back home at an Irish bar called Scruffy Murphy's.Mum decided this really wasn't her scene so after dropping us off at the bar she went home. We had a really good night it was lovely to see Emily and we also bumped into a couple of other people we knew Kevein who we were on tour with on the west coast and Anthony who was on our boat on the Whitsundays it such a small world!! We eventually rolled in at about 3am after telling Mum we wouldn't be late whoops, gave Dad a quick drunken phone call before going to bed.
Friday 25th December 2009
IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Was my wake up call for Suzie this morning while banging a saucepan at around 9am she was not best impressed as you can imagine she's so grumpy in the morning. So we had a small argument before mum made us make up nothing too serious though. So we all had a cup of tea in bed before going through for a small present opening in the living room it didn't take very long at all not like other years. We then cracked open the pink champagne and got breakfast on the go smoked salmon and scrambled egg (Note to self this is not the best breakfast idea when you've got a bit of a hang-over) but hair of the dog works well!!
We then all got ready Suzie and I in our Christmas tops which I had got us, Suzie said Santa's little helper and mine said Naughty girls get more presents!! Complete with our Santa hats and reindeer horns we really looked the part. Once we were all sorted and armed with our Christmas picnic we caught the bus to Coogee Beach where we had decided to spend the day unfortunately it was very over coast today and rain looked very likely :-( not part of the plan!!! It took about 40 minutes on the bus and when we arrived it was heaving so we battled our way through and found a nice spot to set up our picnic. First thing was first to open the beers before starting on the food, we had been there about 20 minutes when it started to rain but we sat it out typical English style we had come for a picnic therefore we were staying for a picnic. The main dish of the day was King Prawns and Avocado salad and to accompany this we had lots of snacky bits and wine. Mum was really enjoying herself sat there with her rain jacket on and her umbrella up it wasn't just wet it was also quite cold as well. So to warm us all up I nipped across to McDonalds which was open and very busy (Why??? Would you want McDonalds for you Christmas dinner??) to get us all a coffee. We managed to sit there for a good 2 hours before the heavens opened and we had to take shelter.
While we were taking shelter Mum got enlightened!! A very drunk 18 year old English girl who thought we all looked like triplets then proceeded to tell us all about her sex life including about c*** rings etc very funny but not really what Mum wanted to hear on Christmas day. Mum was about ready to go but before we could go I persuaded Suzie we should strip off to our bikini's for pictures on the beach she wasn't very keen but did it anyway. So we got undressed ran very quickly down to the beach I did a quick sand angel, we then ran to the life guard tent had a few pictures there got one of the life guards to take pictures of us in the sea we then ran back very quickly and got our clothes back on it was bloody freezing and raining heavily by then (But we were in Australia for Christmas so we had to have pictures on the beach). We then caught the bus back to the apartment to get warm.
This evening meals was steak, salad and chips followed by custard filled proffita rolls with more wine very nice!!! After we had eaten which was quite late Mum decided she had had enough excitement for one day so she went to bed and Suzie and I went to the apartment next door as the lads who were staying there had invited us to go over for drinks.
Saturday 26th December 2009
All plans for an early start went out the window this morning we all didn't wake up till around 11am. Once we had all got sorted we headed out with the intention of getting to Watson bay to watch the Sydney to Hobart boat race but we were told we were a bit too late to get there so we got the boat over to Rose bay instead to watch the start. We then got the bus to Watson Bay where we got to see the boat again so all good as we thought we would miss then here as it took us a while to get there. We then had a leisurely walk along the coastal path and got some good views of the bridge and the opera house. We finished our walk at the Watson Bay hotel for fish and chips this had to be my substitute as I was craving mash potatoes and gravy and still am but haven't found any yet!! We then got the boat back to circular Quay where we went to Guylian café in the Rocks for a very sickly hot chocolate and then across to the Orient hotel for a beer not the best combination we all felt a bit sick after!!! We then returned to the apartment for a relaxed evening with leftover food from Christmas day.
Sunday 27th December 2009
This morning we caught the bus to Coogee beach to do the walk coastal walk from here to Bondi beach. It was a really good walk with some fantastic views and lots of different bays to look at including Bronte and Clovelly which where lovely. Once we reached Bondi we went to the Icebergs leisure centre for coffee and sat on the balcony which overlooked Bondi. We left here and caught the bus to Bondi junction and then caught the train to Circular Quay to meet my friend Gemma from work who is now working at Sydney Children's hospital. Typical Hewitt girl's style we were late!!
We had a really nice lunch with Gemma at The Rocks at the Algarve it was great to catch up after all this time. After lunch we had a wonder around the market and I brought a ring with some of Dad's Christmas money - Thanks Dad. We then had a quick look in Ken Dome Art gallery where Mum got a new jumper and we then headed back to the apartment to get ready to meet Emily and Jo for Suzie's surprise at Scubar in the city. Suzie'ssurprise was a Darren one of her friends from back who she's got a bit of a soft spot for and she didn't know was in Sydney till she looked on Facebook and ruined the surprise Emily was very disappointed she'd worked it out. Mum stayed with us for drinks here but then decided to go home and we all got a taxi to The Rocks to the Orient hotel so it was another late night for us.
Monday 28th December 2009, Sydney
Well today we had planned to go to Manly but we woke up to rain!! This was turning into a regular occurrence for our time in Sydney but never mind being Hewitt girls we continued with it anyway!!! So instead of going to Manly we caught the train to the Town Hall stop which is just by the main shopping street. Firstly we went to Myer to exchange some jewellery for Caroline and we all couldn't resist buying some more-well it was in the sale! Next on the list was Haigh's chocolate Shop to buy some belated Christmas chocolate. If you remember we went to The Haigh's chocolate Factory in Adelaide, famous Ozzie chocolate!
From George Street, we walked down to Darling Harbour, because as it was still raining we were considering going to the cinema. But once we got down there we were surprised to find the only films showing were all 3D films that none of us wanted to watch! We were told about another cinema but typically that was back on George Street! So before making any decisions about the rest of the day it was time for some energy restoring in the food court at Darling Harbour.
After lunch as the rain had stopped we went to The Chinese Friendship Garden for a look at that. Mum loved it, I liked it, Caroline like it but did it a lot quicker than either of us two so had a fair wait ahead of her!!! Sorry Caroline. It was a lovely garden with lots of big trees, flowers, water features, a waterfall and a big lake filled with huge carp fish.
After the gardens we walked back up to George Street, checked out the cinema but because Meet the Morgan's wasn't showing until later on we decided to put it hold and go and have a look at China Town. Now I must say Sydney's China Town is the smallest ever but we had a walk along the strip, had a look at the market and then decided on having Chinese for dinner. We had a nice meal at one of the many restaurants along China Street.
Tuesday 29th December 2009, Sydney
Today we made a good early start and went to Sydney's Botanical Gardens. Mum a very happy lady. We arrived at about 10:30am and then had a good few hours of wondering about. But prior to wondering about we went to the visitor centre to bag a map and see if anything was happening in the Gardens that day, and also to get a coffee from the café. Caroline went in to get the coffee and when she came out she had the good but surprising news that the Botanical Gardens restaurant still had a limited amount of tickets left for New Years Eve! It didn't take us long to decide to go for it! The other options were cheaper but involved spending 14 hours in a park waiting, so as it was a once off we decided to go for it! This also meant we could all relax about New Years Eve and stop worrying!!
So anyway the Botanical Gardens, we all had a good walk around taking in all the pretty flowers and the spectacular views before walking up to Mrs McQuarie's Point, which is part of the Gardens but on the side of them. This is also where we lost each other, I had told mum and Caroline to carry on as I was watching a plane write a message in the sky and wanted to wait for it all to be complete before continuing on. So they had carried on to Mrs McQuarie's Point but unbeknown to me they had left the path to go to the toilet and I had continued round, so on reaching Mrs McQuaries Point and Chair I couldn't find them anywhere. The problem with this as well was that the path went in about 4 different directions so it wasn't an easy task to find them and as I didn't have a phone it was a bit of a problem. But anyway we eventually found each other and after taking a few photos of various good old Sydney attractions Caroline and I had to leave to attend a hairdresser's appointment, whilst mum carried on without us. Whilst we gone mum had lunch in the gardens and continued her Botanical Gardens experience before heading over to the Opera House to have a look at the outside of that.
We all met back at the apartment at just after 5 were we all did a quick change before making our way to Coogee for Stuart's BBQ. Nice Food, good company, enjoyable evening. And then it got messy!!! Mum went home at about 11pm and we all went into Coogee to The Coogee Bay Hotel for several drinks etc etc!!!
Wednesday 30th December 2009, Sydney
Well to say we woke up with a hangover would be an understatement!! But the day must go on and Caroline and myself had to be at the Beauticians at 11am. This was all part of a package that we had bought with some Christmas money (thanks Dad) and along with our hair the other day the treatments were also included.
Whilst we were at the beauticians, mum pottered, so on return mum and I went down to Coles to get stuff for dinner etc and then we eventually all left Surry Hills and caught the train to Circular Quay where we then jumped on the ferry to Manly. We decided that we would go to the beach as it was mid afternoon by now and neither Caroline or I were up for walking. Caroline wasn't that keen on the beach either due to hangovers and heat not mixing well but on discovering she could sleep at the beach life was better! We had a good few hours on the beach, soaking up the few rays of sun that were available, reading our books and watching the local surf and canoe club racing. We knew it was time to leave when they left and the night time fishermen came out!
So from the beach we walked back along the Corso towards the ferry terminal stopping on the way for a quick beer before taking the ferry back to Circular Quay. Dinner tonight was good old pasta bake and broccoli!
Thursday 31st December 2009, SYDNEY NEW YEAR'S EVE 2009-YEH BABY!!!
Well it's here the one event we couldn't miss, New Year's Eve in Sydney! And yes we were very excited, very excited I said!!!!
But firstly we had the day and because we had tickets we didn't have to spend the day sitting in a park, we could actually do stuff! And to make Caroline's New Years Day extra special we took her to a Museum!! Hell she was excited-weren't you Caroline!!
So firstly we caught the train to St James Station where we then had a walk through Hyde Park and took in the views of St Mary's cathedral. From here we walked to Australia Museum which was just across the square and as it had just started raining we were very happy to be inside. We started off in the BBC Wildlife photographer of the year 2009 exhibition, it was fantastic!!! You wouldn't believe what people can do with cameras!! Fantastic! After this we had a quick bite to eat in the museum café before going in to the Indigenous Exhibition. Now as time was restricted as we had to get back to get ready mum and I spend the rest of our time in here, and still didn't finish. Caroline on the other hand became bored so went and found the kids section!! She says she did learn about some other dangerous animals first such as the Jumping Jack ants but then she had great fun growing pumpkins with 4 year olds!!!!
From here we jumped on the train back to central and then headed back to the apartment to tart ourselves up ready for New Years Eve celebration. We arrived at the Botanical gardens just before 7pm and were guided straight to the restaurant. On arrival we were given a cocktail each and a canapé of a scallop on cucumber. After choosing our starter and mains we were served these before the 9pm fireworks. For starter Caroline and I shared 2, 1 was Morton Bay Bugs and the other way a duck platter (duck meat, pate, and duck pate and jelly)-we both decided we preferred the duck starter. But at least we can now say we tried the Morton Bay Bugs. Mum had the bugs as well. For main we all opted for the Loin of lamb, which was delicious!! Entertainment for the night was a band with female singer. But because they didn't come on till 8pm and there was no background music originally it felt a bit sterile but once they started, they were good!!! After the mains, we had about half an hour to kill before heading down to the lawn to watch the 9pm fireworks with a glass of champers. They do the 9pm fireworks for the kids but for the adults it's all a bit of a teaser and left us in great anticipation for the main event!
After these it was back up to the restaurant for dessert, cheese and biscuits, coffee and liquors. Dessert for myself and Caroline was a chocolate taster plate-delicious, I could have eaten it twice over!!!! Mum had a nice Brule. And then whilst having coffee, wine and liquors we danced the night away with the band. You'll be pleased to know we weren't the only ones on the dance floor, most people got up along with 2 adorable little boys, and 1 of them pretty much danced until he could dance no more!!
At about 11:40pm we all headed down to the lawn for more champers (Caroline and I managed to bag a few extra glasses!) and the main fireworks! We were not disappointed, they were amazing and coming out of so many different places all at the same time. The evening was well worth the money and to have such a good view of the fireworks as well, we were three happy ladies!!
Once the fireworks has finished it was time to leave the Botanical Gardens and along with 1000's of others make our way to the train station. Mum went straight back at about 1am, but Caroline and I decided to continue. Originally we were with some people who had also been at the Botanical Gardens and then later on we were joined by Stuart. We went to the Coronation Hotel in the city-so not too far to stager home at a very late hour/or early hour depending on which way you look at it!!!!
Happy New Year to you all! Xx We had a fantastic time, hope you did too xxx
Friday 1st January 2010
Happy New Year everyone!!!! Mum very nicely allowed us to cancel the morning out this morning to get over our hangovers It didn't work very well!!! She then decided we'd had enough time to chill so dragged us out of the apartment kicking and screaming (not quite but nearly) we were not happy bunnies. We caught the town down to Circular Quay first of all we went to look at the Sydney Opera house up close before catching the boat to Manly. We did the lovely coastal walk here but unfortunately we hadn't set of until 17.30pm due to Hangovers so we couldn't do it all not that we would have really wanted have today but we got to see some lovely views and got some great pictures. We walked about 5 km and then managed to get a taxi back from North beach to get the boat back across to Circular Quay.
We were glad to get back to the apartment to chill what New Years Day is for!!! We had leftovers tonight for dinner before getting an early night.
Saturday 2nd January 2010
This morning we had an early start and all felt refreshed for a full day of sightseeing for Mum's last day in Sydney : -(We got the train into the city and headed to Circular Quay to do the Middle Harbour Coffee cruise out to Spit head we got to see some of the great sights along the harbor and got made green with envy looking at all the rich people houses one was worth 55 million I really need to get myself on Millionaire.com!!! We got some great cakes while on board it was a really nice way to spend the morning it was even sunny and very hot!!
After the cruise we were walking to the weekend market at The Rocks when Mum and Suzie thought we could just go to the Contempory Art Museum for an hour that's what I was promised two and a half hours later we left!! It was a really good museum with some lovely art pieces but the only problem was I'd done the 3 rooms in 20 minutes and was ready to leave Mum and Suzie were still in the 1st room. So I went off to buy a magazine and a coffee came back and THEY WERE STILL IN THE FIRST ROOM by this point I knew I had a long wait that's why I brought the magazine in preparation.
We eventually we left the museum and went to the market Mum and Suzie grabbed some lunch but by that time I really wasn't feeling very well (Weather or Museum? we will never know)so I didn't get anything. It was a excellent market I just wish I wasn't feeling so bad because I could have spent as much time at the market as they did at the museum but instead I just wanted to get back to the apartment to lay down. Suzie got some lovely prints of Sydney and the Great Ocean Road and we brought Granny a present so it was a successful trip.
On the way back to the train we had a final drink on the waterfront overlooking the Bridge and the Opera house and then returned to the apartment for the dreaded task of packing. We then all got showered and dressed up for our last night together only for the discovery that the restaurant we had planned to go to was closed and all the restaurant were really busy so it took us ages to find a table somewhere but we eventually found a lovely little Italian to eat at. Unfortunately I still didn't feel well a 24 hour bug I think so I eat and then felt even worst so had to go home. Mum and Suzie and had a nice evening together with some very nice looking puddings that they took pictures of to show me.
Sunday 3rd January 2010
This morning was an early one again as we had to check out the apartment by 10am we were a little bit late leaving but never mind. After checking out we got a taxi to Coogee Beach to check Suzie and me into our backpackers where we were staying for the next 2 nights. We then went for Sunday Brunch at Coogee Yeeros Suzie and I had eggs Benedict which was yummy mum had a omelet. By the time we had finished eating it was time to pick Mum's bag up from Jenny the cleaner from the apartment who had very kindly taken Mum's bag to her house so we didn't have to carry it with us. We met Jenny got the bag and then caught the bus to the Airport.
Mum got checked in with no problems and had loads of time before she needed to go through to security so we went to the food court to get a couple of beers before it was time to say goodbye L very sad to see her go. Suzie and I then caught the bus back to Coogee went back to the hostel to get changed before going for drinks at the Coogee Bay hotel with a couple of girls from the hostel.We got back from the pub and then put the world to rights with wine on the balcony!!
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