St Patrick's Day is also Steven's birthday so today we went out for a nice brunch at Manly with Carl and Martinette. We went to a cafe called White Water and it seemed that Eggs Benedict was the order of the day as Steven, Jo and Carl all had the same. I went slightly different and had Pear and Walnut bread with stewed rhubarb, banana and honey - very yummy indeed!After breakfast we took Steven shopping to get him a birthday present - Jo and I bought him a nice Quiksilver T-shirt and some thongs (aussie terminology for 'Flip Flops' before anyone raises their eyebrows!). Steven treated himself to a few more T-shirts, a pair of shorts and a pair of long combat style pants (Aussie for 'Trousers' before anyone raises their eyebrows - again!). We went got home in the afternoon we had a modelling session to see Steven in his new outfits, before Tanya and Nia arrived for the night.
Pose, Monkey Boy!
We had struggled to find somewhere to go for dinner but settled on 'Fish at the Rocks' and it was a great choice. We arrived in the rocks and finally managed to find somewhere to park. Be in mind, it was St Patrick's Day and the Rocks is the most popular place for the Irish to get drunk in the whole of Sydney!
Ooooh, you Chocolate Tart!
Dinner was wonderful and the menu suitably seafood - I had prawn ravioli to start, Steven and Jo had the grilled scallops. For main I had a very nice baby barramundi filled with minced prawn red curry, Jo and Tanya had the Jewfish and Steven had the Kingfish. We all succombed to dessert and we weren't disappointed - the Chocolate Tart was fantastic!
I've been very lucky this week as I was able to take off two days to spend with Steven while he is here visiting. I took off Wednesday so we could go kayaking at Manly and I took off Friday so we could take a drive to enjoy the best of Sydney's north.Jo took the train to work so we could have the car and we headed to Palm Beach at about 10:30am.
Steven enjoys a walk along Palm Beach
It was super hot and it was a good thing we were at the beach because you certainly needed to take a dip to cool down! I went in for a quick swim and Steven paddled around up to his knees. The water was lovely but there was so much kelp it made swimming a bit crap.
The "Summer Bay Surf Club" at Palm Beach
After our swim we had to head up to the surf club, as used in Aussie Soap 'Home and Away' - as you can see from the Summer Bay sign. It is an actual livesaving club as we had a nice ice lolly there to prove it.
After some lunch we headed down to coast and stopped off at Whale Beach and Avalon to take a look around. We even managed to pick Jo up from work on the way home (as we got stuck in Friday afternoon traffic). Wish all Friday's could be like this!
Steven arrived on Monday night to stay with us for the week. We met him at the airport at 7:30pm and he brought the English rain and drizzle with him! Jo was very happy though as he came bearing gifts of PG Tips :)
I took Wednesday off work and the weather was much better so we decided to get the ferry over to Manly and do some kayaking. The queue for the ferry was ridiculous! I've never seen it so busy, but luckily the ferry can take about 1100 passengers so were able to get on board. The trip takes around 35 minutes and after arriving at Manly we took a walk down the Corso to the beach and then to find somewhere to have some lunch.
After lunch and some walking around we found our way to the kayaking place - it's not far from the Wharf and only cost us $15 for an hour (each). After a brief introduction (which consisted of "Don't go near the wharf or ferries" and "Do you know how to paddle?") we put our life jackets on and dragged our kayaks into the water.
Our sea kayaks at Manly
Steven then fell in while attempting to get into his kayak (I was already paddling out by this point) and managed to get in on his second attempt..hehehehe.
The water and weather was beautiful and calm, we paddled down past Fairlight beach and round to where the boats are moored and really just enjoyed being out on the water. We paddled back in an hour later and treated ourselves to a nice gelato as a reward for our efforts.
It was hard to get to sleep last night as Sydney was covered by a huge thunder storm. The weekend had been really hot and muggy, we were at the beach on Saturday taking a dip in the beautiful cool water at La Perouse.
Sydney's La Perouse Beach
When it's so hot, and you've walked 10 minutes down a hill and along track the last thing you want to do is to go and find somewhere to buy a cool drink or an ice-cream (and still have it cold by the time you get back!). So that's when you need "Munchies Afloat"!! The floating convenience store!
Munchies Afloat - How cool is that!
The heat continued through Sunday and it all had to come crashing down at some point. A southerly change came through late on Sunday night and was eventuated was a massive lightning storm across the whole city.
Lightning strikes Centrepoint Tower in the heart of Sydney
Today was another 'Community Day' for me - this is a paid day where I can volunteer my services and myself along with 9 of my team mates from work went along to Taronga Zoo.I arrived as specified at 7:30am, ready and willing to start work for the day. Our designated keeper came to get us at 8:15 (!) and our post was with the miniture penguins.
Taronga: The Zoo with a view!
Two of my colleague were assigned with shovelling the old sand out and putting new sand into the enclosure. Scott and I were tasked with cleaning the little huts (16 of them) out by hosing and scrubbing them clean. The huts hadn't been cleaned since they were put in last July so there was a fair amount of penguin poo to be scrubbed off that's for sure!After we had finished those it was time for morning tea and a cup of coffee in the Keeper's staff room by the Elephant enclosure.
We were all set for more work but the keepers seemed happy with our mornings efforts and gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the seals! I got my picture taken right next to one called Kira and even rubbed her belly! The keepers showed us how they train them using a whistle and some fish and another seal put her flippers up on my knee as a trick! So cute. I was so disappointed that I didn't take my camera along, but another lady in our group took a picture of my with the seal so if she e-mails it to me I'll post it here.
I haven't been to the zoo for a while and they certainly have been doing lots and lots of renovating and refurbishing! The place looks great, the animals are very well cared for and spending the morning with some keepers really showed me just how much they love the animals they look after. The new elephant enclosure looks great and they are still building and expanding to improve the enclosures for many of the other animals - if you haven't been to the zoo or it's been a while I'd highly recommend you give it a go. Make sure you visit the giraffes - well known to have the best view of Sydney bar none!!
Pose, Monkey Boy!
Ooooh, you Chocolate Tart!
