Laura and I
got to experience our first Christmas Down Under by taking a week off of work
and flying to Sydney. We flew out of
Melbourne early on Dec 25th and spent our first three days with
Neal’s Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin; Jamie, Grant and Aiden. We were welcomed to their home with a piano
recital by Aiden and a great Christmas seafood feast for lunch. On the menu was fresh oysters, prawns, smoked
salmon, SA and WA crayfish! We spent the
afternoon eating and catching up as this was the first time Neal had met with
his Australian family.
Food was
certainly a theme for this trip. Grant
and Jamie took us to a couple local favorites for lunch including a stop for
authentic Vietnamese Pho and Lebanese. When we weren't enjoying fine food here, we
keep busy playing Lego with Aiden, fetch with Axl, and learning about the Le
Helloco’s time here in Melbourne. Jamie
is also an excellent cook and gave Laura a couple lessons on Indian and
Malaysian curry and homemade Roti.
Our next
stop was a well anticipated visit with Jeff and Jess whom we hadn’t seen since
our stop in Paihia in New Zealand.
J&J had a full couple days planned for us which started at their apartment
in Marrickville. After a couple drinks
at Casa de Stoy/Ruth/James, Jeff collected us for dinner. We ate at a place called Argyle which is
located in an area called The Rocks.
The night took us to a couple other bars such as the Glenmore and up to
a lounge the 39th floor of the Shangri-La Hotel where we enjoyed the
view and some Martinis.
The next day
we were treated to a big breakfast by Jeff, and then took the bus out to the
infamous Bondi beach. It is a popular
spot for locals and tourists, and you can quickly see why:
There was a
crew out filming the lifeguards for a local TV show called Bondi Rescue. Jeff and Neal may be spotted somewhere in the
background; look out for Jeff’s budgie smuggler.
After a day
at the beach we stocked up on groceries and spent the evening on the back patio
enjoying Jeff’s BBQing. He fired up the
little coal BBQ and cooked up everything from chicken wings, to t-bone steaks,
to a mushroom taster to sample a set of flavored oils given to us by Grant and
Jamie.
It was a
great trip to Sydney, and we look forward to our next visit with everyone!
Now back to
Melbourne to bring in the New Year!
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