Summer Bay!

After about a 5 year wait, we finally got around to having lunch at Guy's Mum's house in Avalon. Troy, Guy and Philippe picked us up at about 10:30 and we started the drive up towards Avalon.

We dropped off our esky with Guy's Mum around 12:30 and then took the short drive back into Avalon for a coffee and a walk around the shops. I've been to Avalon a few times before, and I always enjoy it. It's got a really nice atmosphere, all the shops are great and there are endless excellent cafes to choose from, all a stones throw from a beautiful beach.

The Family on the Deck

We headed back for lunch at 1:30 and Roger cooked up a great BBQ, complete with one of Guy's famous salads! We had a great laugh over lunch, sitting on the deck in the breeze of a hot and sunny day looking at Guy's baby photo's (hahaha!) with his Mum and the usual non-stop eating and talking continued over Philippe's spectacular cheesecakes (Raspberry and White Chocolcate - mmmmmm!).

After eating waaaay too much we thought we'd try to be a little bit healthy and we drove out to Palm Beach. Guy and Troy went for a quick dip in the water before we trudged up what seemed like a million steps up to top of the hill to the Lighthouse.

I see you baby, shakin' that ass

The lighthouse is at the top of an 850m "climb" through bushland and on a hot day took bloody forever to get up there! But once we'd made it, the view was fantastic. You could see all of Barrenjoey point and across to the central coast (Pearl Beach, Patonga) where you can catch a ferry across. The lighthouse is on the side you actually see in Home & Away. They never shoot in the other direction as the backdrop is mainly mansions of the super rich! Kind of spoils that "small-town-with-a-caravan-park" feel somewhat.

We had a little photo shoot up there before taking a slower walk back down towards the beach and home.

Palm Beach from the Lighthouse

Merry Christmas!

It was an orphan's Christmas in Sydney this year, so we decided to host a brunch. Before we were joined for eggs & bacon by Philippe, Janet, Donna, Anthony and Nathan, Jo and I swapped pressies and I was a very lucky girl getting some goodies from G-Star :)

Jo cooked up a storm in the kitchen and made brunch for everyone including the best fruit salad ever! Anthony & Nathan had a lunch to go to afterwards, god knows if they managed to squeeze anything else in (unless it came in sparkling liquid form!).

Lou, Philippe, Jo, Anthony, Nathan & Janet all stuffed after brunch!

After Anthony & Nathan left for their lunch, Janet went home (as she had to prepare our roast dinner!!) so we played "Smart Ass" with Donna and Philippe whilst drinking Champagne. As it happens, I was the Smart Ass. Twice. Who doesn't know what a 'Stetson' is - honestly. Heh heh.

Philippe & Donna

In the afternoon we headed to Janet's place for some more drinkies, a great home cooked roast lamb dinner and a yummy tropical trifle made by the dessert king Phillippe. Even though the weather wasn't quite up to the usual Aussie standard it was a great day to spend with friends and relax. Janet invited some of her friends over and we spent a really nice evening drinking red wine on the balcony talking and laughing. Now here's to some time of work to take that relaxing theme forward!

Girl's Christmas Party

Donna had arranged for a girl's christmas party for the Saturday night - 16 girls, all to wear little black dresses piled into Yippiyio in Surry Hills to the amazement and bewilderment of the other diners downstairs. We had a private room upstairs that Donna had decorated to look like Santa's dining room.

We all had personalised place mats with amusing photo's of us and a Santa hat each. We even had our own stereo so we could play music up there - god knows how the restaurant coped with us all singing and dancing - I bet everyone who was eating downstairs will never ever go back there again!

Just imagine it....

God knows how Donna got them to agree to this, but the whole thing was also BYO (Bring Your Own alcohol for the Brits, something Aussies do all the time) and there was even a fridge up there for us to keep it cold!

Carnage.

We were in the restaurant until about 11pm when we all decided to move on, we ended up at a club in the city until 3am after dancing the night away to the best (or worst) of the 70s, 80s & 90s. Oh God. Still, that's what Corona is for - to make sure you have a good excuse and hopefully don't remember much.

The Entrance

We're having Christmas at home in Sydney this year so we headed up to The Entrance on the Central Coast to catch up with Jo's Mum and Andrew for a pre-Christmas celebration.

We headed up on Friday to try and beat some of the traffic but it still took 3 hours even though we left North Sydney at 4pm - we booked to stay at the Oaks Waterfront resort which was in a great spot overlooking Tuggerah Lake and the surf beach, close to the shops and restaurants and the newly renovated Entrance Pub.

We ended up having fish and chips on the balcony on Friday night as we were both so exhausted from a really busy few weeks and a long drive.

Mrs B and Andrew joined us on Saturday morning and we went for a walk around the local area, popped into a few shops, had a nice coffee. Jo and I took a drive around and found a few good surf shops where Jo fell in love with a Shane surfboard. It didn't take long for her to decide that this was the perfect replacement for the stolen Maliboo we just lost. It's a 6'10" Shane Stingray in grey/silver and looks fantastic! She bought it and took it home the next day! Can't wait to take it out for a test ride soon!

The Bank's 1st Birthday Party

Jo has spent a huge amount of time organising the Bank's 1st Birthday Party and managed to get a few extra invites for some friends - Anthony, Nathan, Althea, Christian, Guy and Troy all came along to enjoy the night, a band and free drinks!

They blocked off the back Terrace Bar for the event and invited a whole range of customers and clients and local businesses to celebrate - free beer, wine, champagne and a house cocktail were on offer as well as finger food from Sumalee Thai downstairs which went down a treat!

Guy & Troy (in "Blue Steel" mode!)

Jo booked the Boogaloo Crew as the band for the night and they were excellent. A few piece band consisting of a DJ, Singer, Bongo drummer and Saxaphone player, they play funky dance tunes that really create an atmosphere. They've been booked again to play at the Bank as part of the New Year's Eve party.

Christian & Jo posing for the camera

Thieving Bastards

We were due to go for a surf with Janet today at Bondi - I had gone round to the local cafe to get us both a coffee for the drive and Jo went to get the surfboards from downstairs in the garage.

Jo came running up a few minutes later saying our surfboards and wetsuits had gone and that some bastard had chopped off the padlock to nick them.

So, instead of going for a nice refreshing surf at Bondi Beach we ended up at Redfern Police Station reporting a theft. I hope they break their neck if the thief uses them to surf. Bastards.