Photo Shoot

On Sunday, we met our photographer in Clontarf to take some photos of us. The day started out a bit dodgy with some rain, but the clouds cleared and it turned into a lovely day. We had so much fun and couldn't stop laughing the whole time.

USA & Canada trip

It started with a 14 hour flight to Los Angeles, then long queues at immigration meant we missed our connecting flight to Seattle. We managed to catch the next flight a couple of hours later so while we were waiting, Uwe had his first mega hot dog. He absolutely loved it.

We made it to Seattle, the birthplace of grunge and Starbucks. With all these coffee places, Uwe struggled to find a good coffee as the Americans typically add more water to their coffees to fill the cup up to the top. No matter how many times he asked for less water, he never got a good coffee. We spent one day checking out the sights, our first stop was the Pike Place Markets. They were amazing with all their flowers, frest fruit & vegies and seafood.

The weather in Seattle is always overcast and mostly raining with the occasional chance of sunshine. The locals call the west coast of America - the wet coast. In the afternoon, the clouds cleared and the sun decided to shine for a while. While there was a great skyline, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to visit the Space Needle and try to catch a glimpse of the surrounding mountains (by the time we made it there, the clouds had returned). The tower is 605 feet high and the lift ride takes 41 seconds with a great view from the windows. At the top, it was extremely windy, as you can see below with my hair! It was lovely to just sit there and watch the sunset while drinking our water downed coffees!

For dinner, we went to the Pike Place pub where Uwe enjoyed his beer and the dinner was delicious.

We also went to Fat Burger - a typical American eatery. At Fatburger, they serve their burgers in a range of sizes from Small to XXXL. It was amazing and very yummy. If you don't order the fries, it actually is quite healthy (well, that's what we told ourselves!).

Uwe spent the next 4 days at the Microsoft conference and I spent time shopping in Seattle. I loved Macy's & Walmart! But there was also GAP, Nordstrom, H&M, well, the list goes on.

When Uwe finished his conference we drove up to Whistler in Canada. It took us about 5 hours to get there, and was dark and cold when we arrived. When we woke the next morning it was snowing, I was very excited. We quickly got dressed and headed out into the village and into the snow. There were instant snow ball fights between the two of us. So much fun.

The next day I signed up for skiing lessons which were alot of fun as I had never skiied before and Uwe headed off on his own to explore all the runs Mount Whistler had to offer. He met me later in the afternoon while I was still having my lessons and took some photos. Luckily he didn't have his camera handy when I fell over a few times! The next day I did another lesson this time going on the beginners run and made it down without falling over. After the 2 days of skiing, my body ached and I could hardly walk!

We also enjoyed the view from the top of the mountain, above the clouds. There were some amazing views from the top.

On our last day in Canada we took a bus back to Vancouver to watch our first ice hockey game. It was the Vancouver Canucks versus the Dallas Stars. We had seats close to the action and it was a great game. The Canucks won convincingly - 7 goals to 1. We did however have some very drunk and obnoxious people sitting next to us that were thrown out of the game in the last period. Other than that, it was a great, fun night.

Sailing

I just love the Friday night twilight sailing. You get to finish work early, head down to the boat, have a race up and down the harbour, a few drinks along the way and back to the club for dinner. The night before our holiday we also won the raffle again, this time we won a bottle of champagne. Jen is a regular crew member on Fridays and mostly it is just the 3 of us who race.

Byron Bay

We were very lucky with our trip to Byron Bay considering what has happened in the last few days with the terrible floods in Oz. We had a few rainy days but mostly the weather was nice and the temperature was always warm. We walked up to the lighthouse and the weather was wild and windy. The view from the lighthouse was stunning, one side we watched the waves crash into the rocks and the other side was one long stretch of beach. Amazing.




We took our bicycles so we could get around Byron without the hassle of driving and parking the car. It was perfect and Uwe loved cycling through the puddles. It rained a couple of times when we were riding but luckily we took some wet weather gear so we didn't get too wet.

We spent alot of time walking along the beach and swimming in the warm water. The Byron Bay cafe lifestyle was also enjoyed with lots of nice and long breakfasts, lunches and dinners. It had changed since the last time we had been here, no more hippies and combi vans now replaced by the rich and big 4 wheel drives. We couldn't believe the prices of houses up there, similar to prices in Sydney.

Half way through our trip we caught up with friends and rented a house 5 minutes from the centre of Byron. We spent New Years Eve there and had a lovely BBQ dinner and watched the fireworks on TV. We spent the last day cycling around and swimming at the beach. It was a very relaxing trip.

BBQ

Last weekend we finally won the meat tray in the raffle at the sailing club. It was a massive tray and we clearly needed alot of people to help us celebrate the win and eat all the meat. Obviously it was impossible to celebrate without beer!

Wild day of Sailing

Last weekend was a nice day to be out on the water sailing - the sun was shining and the wind was blowing strongly. Only problem was we had a chinese gybe. No one was hurt but most of crew had lots of bruises!

Last week

Summing up what has happened in our lives the last week or so:

* We organised our Christmas holiday for this year. We are going on a road trip up to Byron Bay. We leave here Christmas day and come back sometime in the first week of January.
* I bought my wedding dress! After numerous visits to the bridal shops and being told I didn't have enough time to order a dress in (6 months till the wedding), I bought a dress on sale off the rack. So beautiful and what a bargain.
* Lots of wedding planning going on. Still need to sort out a ceremony location.
* Uwe bought me a bike! Its gorgeous and so comfortable to ride. We went out the last couple of days riding around the streets and through Centennial Park.
* I finished my German lessons, I can now speak a little German, but need to keep practicing or I will forget it all.
* Went to an Oktoberfest at a friends house, there was lots of great German food and beer.
* Visited a Wedding Expo, got lots of ideas and lots of free magazines and books.
* We are back to playing tennis every Monday night with some friends.
* Spring has arrived in Sydney and we are loving the warmer weather. Can't wait for summer so we can hit the beach!

The Last few months!!

How exciting have the last few months been for us. First of all, we got engaged!! It was a Saturday morning we went down to Bondi Beach for breakfast. Then Uwe suggested we take a walk down by the beach. Thats where he popped the question and I said Yes!! We immediately went ring shopping and bought an amazing engagement ring. That night, we celebrated at home with champagne.

Since then, we have been celebrating with all our friends and family. Above, we are on the boat celebrating with some champagne. Alot of our time lately is being spent wedding planning. Our reception will be at the Dunbar House in Watsons Bay, a lovely old building near the water.

I started my German lessons recently and is going very well. I'm taking them at the Goethe Institute at Edgecliff and go there 2 nights a week. There is alot of homework to do but Uwe has been practising with me alot and starting to get the hang of it.

Uwe ran in the City to Surf, a 14km run from the city to Bondi Beach. After he had finished the race, we headed for the Bavarian Beer Cafe for some refreshments. I think he deserved it after all that exercise!

Elvis & a little bit of Germany in Sydney

What a busy weekend. It started with Gene & Cates farewell from Hands On as they retire and move onto their next adventure. Jon & Jen came down from Brisbane and stayed with us over the weekend. Saturday night we caught up with some friends and Elvis in the local pizzeria named Elvis Pizza. We enjoyed some wine, pizza & a full on Elvis show from Australias number one Elvis impersonator. He played alot of his greatest hits including Suspicious Minds, Blue Suede Shoes and Wooden Heart. It was a great night with lots of laughs.
As usual, Sunday was a beautiful sailing day and we spent it on the harbour racing other boats. Later that evening, we went up to little Germany. At the moment it is the middle of winter and Sydney has set up an open air ice skating rink, beer tents, Oompah music, Apres ski bar & lots of Bratwurst & Leberkaes. Below is Uwe and Jon enjoying the Oompah music while drinking beer & gluehwein.

Brisbane

A couple of weeks ago we went up to Brisbane for the weekend to visit friends Jon & Jenny. This was our first time in Brisbane together and we had a great time. On Saturday, we walked over the Story Bridge and had lunch at the Story Bridge Hotel before going kayaking on Brisbane River. For dinner, we went to Ortiga restaurant and had some fantastic food, the wine book alone was 42 pages with wines up to $16,000. We settled for something much cheaper! On Sunday we spent the day walking around the city, enjoyed a nice lunch along the river before heading home.

Well done Jessica

This morning we had planned to take the boat out to welcome Jessica Watson home. She has spent the last 210 days sailing around the world solo and she is only 16 years old. Her journey is very inspiring and congratulations to her outstanding achievement. We got out to the boat but couldn't get the engine started. Even with a jump start, we couldn't get it to work. So we decided to take a ferry to the zoo and watch her sail down the harbour from there. You actually couldn't see her amongst all the other boats surrounding her but you did get the occasional glimpse of her pink boat passing by.

The zoo was alot of fun too. The elephants have had 2 new babies over the last few months and they were so cute to just watch them play together. The lions kept fighting each other and we saw seals, giraffes, hippos, bears and Uwe even cuddled up to a gorilla. It was a great day out and we were very tired by the end of the day.

Sailing

You wouldn't think we were a few weeks off the start of winter. It felt like a summers day today while we were sailing on Sydney Harbour. There was not a cloud in sight. Just sunshine and no wind!! Not exactly a perfect day for sailing, but it was still a lovely day. The race was a shortened course because there was no wind but it still took 3 hours to finish. We ended up coming 3rd out of 11 boats, so it was a good effort in such slow conditions. Below is a photo of all the boats behind Gondy.