Decorating for Easter

I know Easter is still a month away but we’re going to be away for 10 days and then again for Easter so I wanted to be able to enjoy my decoration at least a little bit. We don’t really have a lot, actually I should have bought more the other day from Bed, Bath and Table…. I think I’ll be picking up some more in Queensland 🙂

The entrance…

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The red wooden bunny was one of my new purchases.

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as was the kissing bunnies.

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The lounge room – you might notice most of chocolate Easter eggs are gone….

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The kitchen…

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New cups bought for the girls. Wish I had bought more.

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New tea towel. Again wish I had bought more, especially as they can be used beyond Easter.

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The family room…

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and lastly the downstairs bathroom…

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So tell me… do you decorate for Easter?

The week that was

This week started out VERY wet and resulted in a very muddy pool.

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There was so much rain and lots of flooding in the area.

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There were vegan vanilla cookies….

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and a new pasta dish…

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There was new linen for Christy’s bed.

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Before…

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after…

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And a new lounge and Scottish Highland Dance shoes were purchased.

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The week ended with a wonderful 3 day weekend away for Kevin and I in Sydney …. and more rain.

Lounge shopping

Another sleep in till 7.30am and a bit of a slow morning playing on laptops, packing and having breakfast. Kevin did very well this morning and got pie face to make me the BEST EVER toasted cheese & tomato sandwich.

Breakfast

We checked out of the hotel and to went to get our car, only the find the battery was mucking up – we think when it was valet parked they might have left to car on. Luckily it didn’t hold us up too long and we were on our way.

We’ve been looking for a new lounge for a while now (Kevin’s recliner is totally busted) and I’d like to update. We figure our current lounge is around 10 yrs old so it’s had a pretty good run. Since we were in Sydney we thought we’d go to the Moore Park supa center and since they have so many stores. After checking them all out we went back to Nick Scali – which seemed to have the best selection for us. I had wanted to get a fabric lounge but nothing really grabbed me. When we spotted this leather one on the second visit to Nick Scali it was the first lounge that we had both liked. And amazingly enough it was on sale and today was the last day :-).

Our new lounge

Once we ordered out new lounge (which will take 10-12 weeks to arrive) we had some lunch.

lunch spot

and couldn’t quite believe when it arrived in a plastic (with lid) container on a plastic plate – talk about wasteful.

Lunch

Then we headed back home to wet Wollongong.

Returning home

Nan, Pop and girls were out when we arrived home but we were welcomed by the dogs and got unpacked. Unfortunately when everyone did return we found out the girls had not been the best behaved (mainly towards each other) over the weekend :-(. They had been like this a few weeks ago but I thought we’d moved past it. So we have a family meeting planned for Monday night to set some household rules and consequences for not following them.

Playing in the city

Sydney Tower

Surprisingly we managed to sleep in till after 7am this morning. It was looking a bit wet and gloomy so we played on our laptops before Kevin finally decided to go in search of coffee and breakfast. He did well, supplying tea and raisen toast (from the same place we got dinner last night).

Breakfast

Finally we headed out on the first mission of the day, which involved catching the ferry over to Taronga Zoo.

Zoo ferry

It was rather drizzly and cold and we were definitely underdressed as the weather forecast had been for a warm day.

Arriving at the zoo

Our only reason for coming to the zoo was the activate some annual passes I had bought. This had to be done by the 31st March. I loved these cute posters for guessing animal noses/

Zoo poster

Of course I spotted the Golden nose right away 🙂

Poster at the zoo

This was in the Gondola waiting area (and would be a great way to pass the time with kids) but there were no lines for us.

Brief visit to the zoo

We picked up some morning tea which was enjoyed on the ferry ride back to the city.

Morning tea on the ferry

I might have grown up in Sydney, and we still visit often, but I still get a thrill seeing the Opera House (where we’re attending a concert tonight) and the Harbour Bridge…even on an overcast day 🙂

Habour sights

Sydney skyline

Our next mission was to give our 4 jetboat ride passes to some lucky people. We had planned to come up with the kids last weekend but the weather was really bad and Kevin’s back has been bad and we don’t want to risk causing him further pain. Anyway we were able to make 2 families very happy. It saved them $120 each (way more than what I’d paid).

Jetboats

We weren’t sure what to do next but came across the Justice and Police Museum so thought that might be worth a visit.

Police & Crime Museum

Police Musuem Sydney

It was quite good – more reading than exhibits – so wouldn’t have been great for the girls. We did see Tess, the very first Australian police dog.

Tess - first Aussie police dog

and the old court rooms.

Courthouse

I thought it funny seeing these old official documents from the 1950s. All handwritten in books. You don’t find official documents like that any more. It seemed so odd.

Old books

It was lunchtime and we were getting hungry. Not really sure where we were going I spotted Wagamama. It’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to eat at and was rather excited it.

Lunch at Wagamama

Lunch

Love the set up and how you can see the chefs in the kitchen.

Kevin at wagamama

This was our view while we ate.

Lunch time very in Sydney

I ordered my very first bento box, which started with miso soup (another first for me and I really enjoyed it).

Miso Soup

The meal was lovely but the tofu/veg dish was a little too spicy and left me with tingling lips :-).

Vegetarian Bento Box

Loved this building. Not too sure where the palm trees fit in though.

Love old buldings Sydney buildings

We headed back to the hotel as Kevin’s back was sore and my heel spur was sore – good couple aren’t we? :-). Of course, we had to go via Adora handmade chocolates.

Adore chocolate shop

I bought this for myself because I loved the jar. Of course, I’m sure the chocolate easter eggs will be loved as well.

Cute dish filled with easter eggs Easter eggs

Kevin had a sleep, while I played on the laptop and sampled some of the eggs. While on facebook I was reminded that we were supposed to vote today (in the NSW election – ooops).

Around 4pm we headed back out. Since I was now dressed for the show tonight (and NOT wearing my crocs) we decided to get a taxi to the Sydney Town Hall. Such a beautiful, and iconic, building.

Town Hall

Obviously we had to do an absentee vote. One difference between voting here and at home was there were SOOO many people helping out that the line went really quickly.We probably waited around 5 mins, voting took about 1 min and we were out of there.

Absent voting

Since it was much quicker than we expected we now had almost 3 hours to kill before the show tonight. My feet were feeling okay so we walked to Kevin’s favourite store – the Apple Store, where he bought a few bits and pieces (including something that will allow me to listen to my i-pod in the car – good thing since I broke my car antenne off ages ago).

Kevin in the Apple Store

We thought we’d keep walking and happened to walk past this….

Cupcake shop

which of course meant buying these. I know I can make yummy cupcakes at home but they never look as cute as the ones you buy. These were mini ones in case you thought we were being really big piggies :-).

Cupcakes

Now we had to go back via the hotel…which meant I could have worn my Crocs after all. After sampling one of the cupcakes and hanging out for a bit, we set off in search of Nandos.  BIG MISTAKE (said in a Julia Roberts/Pretty Woman tone of voice). We never found it (it was not where the i-phone map said it was) and this resulted in us walking much further. So by the time I hit the Harbour I had blisters from the straps on my shoes (becuase I was not walking on my heel). Not fun. I ended up putting the straps under my foot, but then they rubbed on the bottom. BTW, I was wearing my flattest, comfiest, more dressy shoes.

We reached the Opera House, without having found somewhere to eat as most of the resturants were too busy, too noisy or too expensive for us. But we did spot the man we had come to see – Tim Minchin. If you have ABC2 they are broadcasting Sunday nights concert at 8.30pm

Concert at the Opera House

I think my expression reflects the pain of my foot :-(…

In front of the Sydney Opera House

Still in search of food we found somewhere inside the Opera House that sold sandwiches and wraps, which we took outside to enjoy with a million dollar view.

Dinner with a view

I also made a friend – well, he might not have been a friend since he tried to steal my dinner.

He tried to steal my dinner

After we ate we went inside to wait as it was a bit cool out. While waiting my friend Kerrie managed to find us. We had been going to look out for each other and amazingly we going in the same door. And they were sitting in the row just in front of us – what are the odds? It was nice to have a little catch up. Once we went it we were seated next to a couple who had come all the way from Seattle, Washington, primarily to see the show, and we enjoyed chatting with them as well.

All set for showtime

Waiting to see Tim Minchin

Then it was time to see Tim Minchin versus the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. It was a great show. Funny, great music, and good entertainment.

Tim Minchin

Tim Minchin

The show finished around 11pm and we got out of there fast to get a taxi back to the hotel. No way I was going to manage to walk all the way. Just as our cab pulled up at the hotel it started to rain, so it was a good decision all round. The only problem with going to such great show is that even though we were physically tired, mentally we were wide awake. I ended up uploading my photos before going to sleep.