Day Three Hundred and Eighty Two

Tuesday

After a broken nights sleep, lots of noises around hotel, we got up and had a good cooked brekkie. We packed up and shipped out and headed to the cultural centre at Bowali

Bowali visitor centre

Bowali (Bor-warl-ee) is a Gun-djeihmi name for the local area and creek on land owned by the Mirrar clan. The building's design was inspired by an Aboriginal rock shelter.

Information staff are available to help you plan your Kakadu visit. Every half hour, there is an audio-visual presentation, giving different perspectives on Kakadu. The habitat display and library have detailed information about Kakadu and how much there is to see and do. Refreshments are available from the Anmak An-me Cafe.

After that we made our way to the Windows on the Wetlands viewing spot where you can see lots of wetland wildlife.

It was then back in the car for a couple of hours driving back to Darwin.

In the evening we met rick and Anna at the Hanuman restaurant for dinner which was great.

www.hanuman.com.au

Darwin was crawling with 4000 septic tanks as a US aircraft carrier had docked for 4 days.

Soon enough we were home and in bed.

Day Three Hundred and Eighty One

Monday

Off to Kakadu! We got up early and hiot the road by 8.45. Kakadu form Darwin is about 250km, it's funny the sat nav takes you tothe road to kakadu and effectivley you drive a striaght road there. The next turn off symbol on satnav was 216km when we joined that road.

We got to our first activity a cutlural cruise on the east Alligator River.

Guluyambi East Alligator River Cruises - Guluyambi Cruise

We then drove to Ubirr, a fantastic place with lots of Indiginous Rock Art and rock formations that let you climb up high and view for miles.

PHOTOS TO BE ADDED SOON

After that we made our way to the hotel, a classic place in the shape of a crocodile

http://gagudju-crocodile.holiday-inn.com

Was very relaxing and we had a nice dinner and cocktails in the bar/restaurant.

Off to bed.

Day Three Hundred and Eighty

A relaxed day.

We did some shopping this morning, had a big fry up brunch at home. We hit the pool in the afternoon and then this evening we joined post wedding drinks at the Darwin Bowls Club.

Spoke to folks briefly this evening. I'm about to watch world cup game, the other two have long since been in bed.

Tomorrow and Tuesday we are in Kakadu so limited blog updates.

So, bro has left his blog site open. Time for his sister to have a little blog. Much fun is being had up here in Darwin. Its very hot but we are coping well! We've had a great time with Anna's family and friends. Tonight we be out last official wedding event. It will be sad to say goodbye to everybody for another few years.

Its great to spend some time with bro and Kate. I wish Peter was here to join in. Tomorrow we are off to Kakado national park. This will probably cause much distress for Adrian. Ever the cautious Pom he has filled the car with water incase we get stranded. I'm banned from going into the sea in case I get eaten by Croc/shark/jelly fish/sea snake etc.etc. Anyway, its lovely he cares so much! Goodbye blog readers! It was nice to invade bros space for a while! He's just woken up and no doubt will not be amused that I'm blogging in his space.! Much love Hazel xx

Day Three Hundred and Seventy Nine

Saturday

Anna & Ricks Wedding


Stubbie Holder Gifts!

We got up and I dropped Hazel at Anna's Hotel for the day. came home and picked up Kate and we spent the morning at the Darwin Museum. Was very interesting, it's a bit of a strange combinations of exhibits but the info about cyclone Tracy was good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Tracy

Kate and I then went into Darwin itself for lunch and shopping. In the afternoon we got ready, picked up Hazel and went to the Wedding Ceremony. It was a lovely ceremony in the grounds of a National Trust property.


The Happy Couple


Anna and Hazel

After the ceremony we made our way to the the Crooze restaurant for the reception. Also very nice with great speeches, food drinking and dancing.


Hazel and Penny - Mother of the Bride

Day Three Hundred and Seventy Eight

Friday

33 in Darwin today.

We got up and all headed over to Crocodylus Park. This is where Anna's dad John works and we bumped into him briefly on our arrival. http://www.crocodyluspark.com/

It's an interesting place, effectively a Crocodile farm and they make no excuses for the fact they are farming crocs. It's an interesting place as you can see from pics below.





We came back to apartment for lunch In the afternoon Kate and I went to Aquaascene to feed the fish.

This is where the fish come in at high tide to feed. Was good fun.



We came back and went for a stroll across the road to beach and to watch the sunset, which was very nice. Had a Thai takeaway in the evening.

Tomorrow is Anna and Ricks wedding.

Day Three Hundred and Seventy Seven

Eeeek it's hot up here in Darwin! We got up and I drove Kate and hazel to the Cullen Bay Spa. I came back to apartment and spent morning watching the political events unfold here in Sydney. It's quick down under, they met this morning and effectively chucked out the PM Kevin Rudd and replaced him with Julia Gillard. I have to say Rudds departure speech was very emotional, if had showed a bit more emotion during his time in office it may have been a different story.

The BBC's Nick Bryant has more...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/nickbryant/2010/06/farewell_to_rudd.html

I picked up Kate and Hazel and we had lunch at the Buzz Bar at Cullen Bay

http://www.cullenbaymarina.com.au/5.html


At lunch

We came back to apartment and Kate and I went for a swim across the road which was good, but water was pretty cold!

We then came back and changed and headed to the Mindel markets to meet lots of people going to the wedding, get some food and watch the sunset. It was very nice but super busy!

http://www.mindil.com.au/

Day Three Hundred and Seventy Six

Up early to fly to Darwin. Bill picked us up and drove us over to the airport. A swift check in and we grabbed some brekkie at the airport. Did some shopping and then it was 4.5 hours on the flight to Darwin. Not a bad flight, a few idiot people on there and people kicking the chair behind me.

Met Hazel at the airport, great to see her after 8 months.

Picked up the hire car, a plush new Toyota Camry.

Found our way to the apartment which is very nice and practically on the beach.

We went to woolies to stock up on food and booze, it's interesting the amount of rigmarole to go through when buying booze up here, addresses, ID etc etc, I guess it is to reduce the incidences of indigenous alcoholism up here in the NT.

Had a Skype call with folks, funny to have hazel with us this end.

A dinner at home and then I'm just watching England Game on TV, others have gone to bed.

Day Three Hundred and Seventy Five

Tuesday

Final day at work before our trip to Darwin, got most things wrapped up at work before leaving. Hows this for a small world...

We are off to Darwin for Anna's Wedding to Rick. Hazel (my sister) met Anna at a U2 concert years ago. Anna met Rick presumably in Darwin. My colleague Jane happened to ask what I was going to Darwin for and I said a wedding, she said oh my friend is off to Darwin for the wedding of her son on Saturday. Turns out Jane's friend is Ricks mother...

Six degrees of separation anyone...

Much packing this evening...

Day Three Hundred and Seventy Four

Monday

Not a great deal to report, a good day at work trying to get things wrapped up before we go on holiday to Darwin. Had a good Skype call with folks and heard form Hazel who is in Singapore.

Day Three Hundred and Seventy Three

Sunday Happy Fathers Day to the old fella!

Got up late and then we headed into town to do some shopping. Took the train, as you can see, great views that you don't get on the 18.24 Waterloo to Basingstoke



Had to get bits and pieces for our trip to Darwin on Wednesday. We also went and checked out a number of hotels for the folks when they fly over for the wedding next February.

We walked through Darling Harbour to check out the FIFA Fan Fest event in Darling Harbour. It was more out of about the event was implemented on my part than an interest in watching any football.

We came home and then Caroline came over for dinner and we played with some wedding invite ideas.

Darling Harbour Fan Fest Pics

Day Three Hundred and Seventy Two

Saturday

I was up at 4.20am to watch the England game. What a crap performance. Went back to bed disappointed.

We both got up headed over to Willoughby to meet a wedding celebrant - we met her there as it was half way for her and half way for us. She was good. After that we had some lunch with Bill and Carol and then headed over to the shops.

We got a call from Caroline in the evening to go for a drink and met her at the Union. We then headed to The Botnay for some dinner. We ended up there until closing and then Kate and Caroline went to the Enmore theatre to watch the Socceroos on the big screen. I bailed as I was knackered from getting up early to watch the England game.

Day Three Hundred and Seventy One

Friday

Not much to report today, a good day at work, although both Kate and I finished late, I didn't leave work unto 6.40, seems funny but back at Symbian that would be a normal day! I must be fitting into the more relaxed work life balance of Oz

A quiet night in.

I'm up at 4.20 for the football! Tomorrow we meet another Celebrant.

Day Three Hundred and Seventy

Thursday

Got into work a bit earlier than usual and made good progress on podiatry volunteers. The things I could tell you about feet now you wouldn't want to know!

In the afternoon I took train home and then went to a meeting at Macquarie University at Lane Cove to talk to Chiropractor volunteers.

Picked up Kate form St Leonards which is over the same way and we went to WestfieldChatswood for a quick bit of shopping and ended up buying nothing. Dropped into bill and Carols for dinner and came home.

Getting colder and colder here!

Day Three Hundred and Sixty Nine

Wednesday

Cold in Sydney still. A day at work, had a team lunch out which was nice. Came home and had a skype call with folks. Kate went and watched Sex and the City at the movies and stayed at her folks in Willoughby.

Not much else to report!

Day Three Hundred and Sixty Eight

Forgot the locksmith was coming at 7.30 am and really struggled to wake up and answer the door at 7.45. Kate was just out of shower. The back story is the landlady knocked on the door on Friday offering to put extra locks on our doors..result as we were going to pay to have it done ourselves.

Dragged myself into work on the 9.10 train and struggled to get over the lag of bank holiday weekend. Didn't get as much done as I would have liked but hey.

Came home and cooked a chicken pie, very domesticated!

Still mid week tomorrow already.

Day Three Hundred and Sixty Seven

A day off! Queens Birthday...result.

Felt very much like a Sunday. We got up early, sorted loads of stuff out form our to do list, hit the shops and were back in flat by lunchtime.

Had a Skype call with Hazel in afternoon and then we went for a walk in the park. Sydney Park is literally 2 minutes from the flat and superb. i took some pics and added them below.

This evening I've spent time catching up on emails with folks and other bits and pieces off to do list.

Day Three Hundred and Sixty Six

Sunday

And so the start of year 2 down under.

Got up at 4.23am and dragged myself into lounge to watch the football. Not a particularly great game but a draw was better than nothing. Our goalkeeper played a howler of a game. Went back to bed at 6.20. Got up at about 11am, Kate brought me breakfast which was great.

At 1.30ish we were picked up by Bill and Carol and we headed over to Cronulla Beach. Some pics are below. Was nice to get out and about on the bank holiday weekend. (well it's Queens Birthday celebration weekend, but they are bank holidays to me).

Came home had a cuppa and then Bill and Carol left.

Had a Skype call with folks in the evening followed by some Mexican food.

And congratulations to our friends Kay and Keith back in blighty on the birth of thier daughter Lily Grace

Day Three Hundred and Sixty Five

So that's it, one year, 365 days in Australia...

Sometimes it feels like we arrived yesterday and sometimes it feels like forever ago since we arrived!

I thought I would do a little review of the year and refer back to some of my older postings here and there.

So it all began 1 year ago as we arrived in Sydney, lordy it was cold when we stepped off the plane, funnily we keep saying now it's just like it was a year ago with the cold. We laugh now at how quick we threw ourselves into getting ourselves set up down under. By day fifteen we had found a house in Glebe and took the keys by day eighteen. By day twenty one we had bought a car outright!

We spent a lot of time in those first few months trying to find ourselves jobs we would both be happy in. We sent of countless applications with no success. I think we arrived in Sydney in the midst of the GFC ( Global Financial Crisis - Aussie term for credit crunch).

I think the volunteering for Oxfam paid off with Paid work and the job I have now.

And so the year moved on to September and our trip back to Blighty. But prior to this I knew the time was right to pop the question to Kate, and for the romantics among you, you can re-live that day here!

And so as quick as we had arrived down under we found ourselves back in England for a couple of weeks, the highlight of course being Anna/Mikes and Stu/Cates Weddings all on the same day!

Quick enough we took the long flight back to Australia. I then found myself in Melbourne for three weeks working an events logistics contract for Oxfam.

In November and December we had many wonderful days in the company of my folks, we did so many good things starting from here. It was great to see them before Christmas.

November also saw us attend the worlds hottest concert Pearl Jam.

And so soon enough it was Christmas. This was excellent although it never really feels like Christmas when it's 30 degrees plus outside It's always a toughie around Christmas/Birthdays not being able to share it with the family face to face but the Colhouns have made me so very welcome and part of their family it makes up for that absence of the Stewards a long way.

And so into January and another hot day out at the Big Day Out I also took up a role at CARITAS which led to some cool event stuff in February.

March is when we took the decision to move house. Our house in Glebe was lovely but was simply too big for us, and with the potential rent increase simply wasn't worth it. So we started the process of moving ourselves to Newtown.

March highlight was the wedding of Kate's brother Chris to Hannah. Sadly in March we also lost the wonderful Marion Edna Forbes.

And so to April, we moved house to Newtown. A lot of effort but worth it in the end and before I knew I was was working with Oxfam and on a plane to Melbourne for best part of a week helping out with the Event Logistics for Trailwalker Melbourne. This is where I get the most satisfaction out of work, making events happen.

During May we settled ourselves into a routine of actually both going to work regularly. We did some cool stuff like surprise nights away in the city etc.

And so to June and reaching a year in Sydney.

There has been some real highs and a few lows along the way, as I said at the start sometimes it seems like yesterday we left in whirlwind from UK, and other times it seems like forever ago. I don't think we would have changed anything majorly, if we could have everyone in same place it would be great but we look forward to the year ahead with our wedding and celebrating with everyone together in February.

Our timing was good that we left Nokia/Symbian with money in our back pockets which as seen us through the year and allowed to buy a car with no debt and to rent a place without having to worry about money too much. I guess year 2 will see us establishing ourselves even further in Oz with jobs we like and getting ourselves hitched.

Year 1 trip count

Melbourne x 3
Adelaide x 2
UK x 1
Fraser Island x 1

I'll just add a years exchange rate graph for posterity of year one



Finally a brief update on today, we spent the day shopping in town and had a wonderful dinner cooked by John round at Carolines house and watched the Swans play football on TV. I'm getting up at 4am on Sunday mornign to watch England play the USA.

Oh and leave a comment if you are still here reading a year on!

Day Three Hundred and Sixty Four

Friday

This time a year ago we were in the air on our way over!

Got an early mark from work today due to network maintenance, was a short day all round really as I got in a bit late after nipping to post office to pick up package from UK which was gratefully received.

It's absolutely freezing in Sydney now, bitter wind blowing, I've even got the hat out and we have heater on in bedroom.

Got my allocations up to 70% at work, although I'm setting my own targets!

Came home and we grabbed a bowl of pasta up the road at Pastizzi, a great little Maltese place.

It's a long weekend here so three days off instead of two!

Day Three Hundred and Sixty Three

A really productive day at work, managed to completley fill oneof my checkpoints with corporate staff...result.

We gave more thought to our wedding celebrant meeting of last night and will also look at others as we were not 100 percent happy on reflection.

Been looking at accommodation websites for anyone travelling over for the wedding, got a few ideas, interesting to read some of the reviews out there!

Also looked at AirAsia yesterday, some really good prices if you are willing to point to point trips, i.e. London to Kuala Lumpa, then KL to Melbourne, and then a short hop Melbourne to Sydney. From my quick research the KL to Melbourne leg around the time of our wedding, return costs were 175quid economy, or 343quid flat bed prem econ...

Excuse my use of 'quid' but this aussie keyboard doesnt have the pound symbol on it!

An evening at Willoughby.

Day Three Hundred and Sixty Two

After work I met Kate on train at Redfern and we made our way home. Not long after getting home Kate's Aunt Barbara and her cousin Yolanda dropped in to see us. They gave us a lovely calender by Maggie Stein

www.maggiestein.com.au

Shortly after they left we had a meeting with another wedding celebrant, it went well.

We grabbed some dinner and then had a Skype call with Crystal. She was on her own and did very well with PC!

We've chilled out for rest of evening.

Day Three Hundred and Sixty One

Tuesday

Got woken at 6am by the clock in the lounge throwing itself inexplicably off the shelf, it was the Sydney one rather than the London one. Didn't get back to sleep after that, perhaps this flat is haunted?...

Not much to report from work, got lots done. Came home and had dinner.

Sent a few emails to people and good to hear I have regular readers here still, coming up to a year in blog so will be doing a review of the year in a few days, I'll try and pull out some highlights rather than the usual day at work/had dinner postings!

Good to see the Aussie make mistakes too

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10262818.stm

Oh and other good news, the folks have booked thier flight over to Oz for the wedding!

Day Three Hundred and Sixty

360 hey...as many days as there are degrees in a circle...

A good day at work, 51 percent of my vollies have a shift allocated, ploughing on with them. Had an interesting volunteer application from someone from Turkey looking for an entire life change and move to Australia...sorry buddy...not on my watch...

Came home and cooked a marvellous risotto.

Not much else to report. Oh it did rain yet again in Sydney!

Day Three Hundred and Fifty Nine

Sunday

Got woken up by the pets at Willoughby during varios stages of the night/morning...very funny.

Dropped Kate off in morning and hit the shops. Had some lunch and then picked Kate up and nipped back to Willoughby for a bit.

Drove back to Newtown and had a good Skype call with folks.

Tv and bed.

Day Three Hundred and Fifty Eight

Saturday

We were up quite early as Kate went to look at Wedding Dresses through the day with her mum and Caroline. The legend that she is, Caroline delivered me banana bread which I jokingly asked her to do the other night.

I spent the day at home, sorting a few bits out, vegging in front of TV etc.

Kate came home and we drove over to Willoughby for Dinner and we are staying here tonight.

Day Three Hundred and Fifty Seven

Friday

The weeks seem to be flying by, its 12 weeks today Trailwalker starts. Good day at work getting more roles sorted, the corporates all seem to be coming through too.

I've not seen rain like it before in Sydney, but today it just belted down

Came home and had a quick Skype call with Alvin and we've had a quiet night in. Kate is off looking at wedding dresses tomorrow so I'm free to do my own thing!

Seems like flights are starting to fill around wedding time from blighty to here too.

Day Three Hundred and Fifty Six

Another wet day in Sydney.

Got lots of rostering done at work which was good. Hit the 300 mark for volunteers too.

Nipped to Willoughby for dinner and have just got home, it's late so a quick blog today.

Day Three Hundred and Fifty Five

Wednesday

A good day at work with meetings and my support volunteer intern started. She was really helpful so should make my job easier.

Came home and skyped with Hazel and then nipped to pub to meet Kate and Caroline. They had been to a Swans event at SCG.

Came home, saw some sad news from home about shootings in Cumbria.

Day Three Hundred and Fifty Four

We both just missed the 8.40 train this morning so we hung around until the 8.55.

A normal day at work. It's funny there's not much I can write about work at this stage, maybe I'll take some pics of the office and post them up to add some interest.

Took a train over to Milsons Point (just north of the Harbour Bridge nr Luna Park) to meet Kate and then a wedding celebrant. 1st of three we are going to meet over the course of this week and next.

We came home, had some dinner and that's it for Tuesday.

Oh and it's first day of winter here, still we be shortest day in 3 weeks...woohoo!