Bits and pieces...

The Rouse Hill Farmers Market is held on the last Saturday of every month.  There are markets everywhere here in Australia.  Farmers Markets, Arts and Crafts Markets, Flea Markets - anything you want really.  They are enjoyable on a sunny day.

A storm was brewing last night and before dusk, this is what the sky looked like from our back porch.  Gorgeous.

Trampoline is up and running.  Margot and Fiona are playing with Charlie and Bridget.  Kids are loving it - when they're not fighting.

Not busy but became busy weekend...

We didn't have alot planned for the weekend but it turned out busy afterall.

Fiona went to Chelsea's birthday party at Lollipops!  The kids LOVED it!!  Check out their smiles!  It was a fun place with a great play area, games, and a ride too.  Margot is heading back there next Wednesday for another party!  Yikes!

Fiona with birthday girl Chelsea and Bridget.

Nutcase Fiona with her pom poms!

Fiona and Bridget having a ball!

The girls

Fiona with Bridget and Chelsea's sista Monique (who is also in Margot's class)

Teacup ride

After the party, we headed home.  There was no sign of Fergus and Margot.  Fergus had a game at 3pm.  The official end of a game is 4:30 or so but the unofficial end of a game is about 6 or 6:30pm!  ;-)  The boys usually make a pitstop at the soccer club's clubhouse/pub.  Saturday was not any different, except Mario (Fergus' buddy) won not one but two meat raffles!!!  (meat raffles are common in this party of Sydney).  Anyhow, we ended up back at Mario and Victoria's house for another wonderful ad-hoc evening of drinks, food, and good company.  The girls had a brilliant time with Katarina and Nicolas as well.  

The girls with Nic and Kat.

We ended the evening with a beautiful affogato - frangelico, espresso and vanilla ice-cream.  Delish!

Mars and Vic creating affogatos - Yummo!!

Brrrrrrrrrrrr....

We are sooooooo naive. It doesn't get cold in Australia.  We'll be in flip-flops and shorts all year!

Well, were we wrong!!  It's getting cooooold here!!  In particular from about 5 or 6 pm until about 9 or 9:30 in the morning.  The house, because it's not properly heated, feels like we are camping and sleeping outside!  During the day and afternoon though, the sun is out and it warms to 15 - 20 degrees and it's beautiful and warm!  

Luckily we did bring enough warm clothing and are making good use of it!  

The week went by quickly.  I did go to an Australia's Biggest Morning Tea on Friday.  It is a nation-wide Cancer Council fundraising event and basically you invite your friends to tea and ask people to leave a donation.  This can be at your workplace, home, school etc.  Fiona had it at her house and she made scones, savory muffins, monte carlos etc.  It was a successful day and I drank lots of coffee and ate scones all day!!

a Terrific Tuesday....

Fiona loved and danced away at the Wiggles and their friends concert (Wags the Dog, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, Captain Feathersword and the Wiggles dancers)!!  I even enjoyed it.  They were very entertaining!  The boys are originally from this area of Sydney so they had a great reception.  We saw the Wiggles with Heath and his parents at Blacktown's RSL club, in a very small intimate venue so the wee ones all had a great time!

We made it back in time for Margot's assembly where she received an award "for her continuous effort in all areas of the curriculum."  Great stuff!!   She had to walk up to the altar at church in front of the whole school along with some other kids to receive her award.  She did great!!

Btw, the trampoline is up and running!!!

An exciting Monday...

The girls were very excited today.  The trampoline that Fergus had bought on ebay has arrived. Margot was outside helping Fergus from 5 - 8 pm trying to put the thing together.  Hopefully it will be up by the end of the week!

In the mail for Margot was a package from her classmates/friends at Nootka. Each had written her a letter.  She absolutely LOVED it!!  Margot will be busy for the remainder of the year trying to write her 21 friends and teacher!

Tomorrow will be another exciting day as Fiona and I are heading to Blacktown RSL club to see the Wiggles!  At the afternoon assembly Margot will be receiving an award.  Not sure what it's about but will find out tomorrow!

CBD - the City...

On Sunday, after five hours of Fergus marking "Yr. 10 Major Science Projects", we headed into the city at about 1pm.  We basically did what I did on my own on Thursday.  Fergus wanted to have a look at the World Press Exhibit.  It was alot busier on the weekend. The girls got to rub the boars nose in front of the Sydney Hospital.  Hopefully their wishes will come true.  We spent some time at David Jones Food hall admiring the goodies and testing out a few things.  It is similar to Harrod's food floor.  Beautiful but tres expensive!  We also spent an hour at Hyde Park.  The girls were mesmerized by a couple getting their wedding pictures taken and spent the whole time staring.  It was a big wedding party and quite glamorous and full-on.

After being in Sydney for more than five months, we finally saw the Sydney Opera House up close and personal!! We got there at sunset and the harbour was gorgeous!  We've seen the Opera House from afar but have never parked and walked around it.  We will have to return and take the grand tour before we leave!  Margot spent time perfecting her cartwheels and counting the number of steps to the top of the Opera House - I think we landed on 50!

Blue Mountains

We got up nice and early and headed to the Blue Mountains on Saturday morning.  The Blue Mountains is a World Heritage Listed national park about 90 minutes west of the city centre.  It is a range of sandstone geological structures and rather than a range of mountains, it is a plateau with rugged eroded gorges.  

They are called the blue mountains because of the eucalyptus trees that cover the area.  The trees disperse eucalyptus oil into the atmosphere which makes the blue light-rays of the sun more effective.  

We first stopped at Katoomba (elv. 1017 metres!!) and got out at Echo Point.   The lookout at Echo Point is the best vantage point to view the famous Three Sisters.  The view was vast and breathtaking.  It was also very windy where we stopped.   We met an aboriginal mate named Goomblar and bought a boomarang from him.   When we got back in the car, Margot said, "Hey, that guy just got white stuff all over my pants!"

A short drive from Echo Point is Scenic World.  There we saw the Blue Mountains via Skyway, Railway, Walkway and Cableway.  It was cool.  We particularly liked the Skyway and Railway.  The Skyway has the world's first electro-sceni glass floor.  It is 270 m above the cliffs and rainforests.  The railway is the steepest incline railway in the world at 53degrees.  It was STEEP and pretty fast!!

Fiona with one of the three sisters

We stopped for lunch at Blue Hour in Katoomba.  Service was great, food was beautiful and coffee was smoooooooth!

We then drove more than an hour to the Jenolan Caves.  There are about 11 caves open to the public and one can join one of the many organized tours offered at the Caves.  We did the Chifley which is particularly good for the kids as it was only an hour long.  It is the first cave in the world to be lit with electrical light in 1880.  There were chambers with amazing dogtooth spar crystal and beautiful columns.  The girls loved the adventure!  

The Blue Mountains reminded us of Canada. The small towns looked alot like our interior and coastal towns (i.e. Nelson, Kamloops, Prince Rupert etc).  It was alot colder than we had expected, just like home!  It started to drizzle in the late afternoon as well.  It's a beautiful place.  Katoomba and Leura is only about 90 minutes away from us so we'll be back.