Our Little Jaunt

Friends and their loveliness

Originally we started this blog for family and friends back to to see what we’re up to. It’s evolved and changed a bit in places and we like the direction it’s taking.

However, I am mindful that we more often than not blog about what we’ve done and where we’ve been, not so much about some of the great people we share that time with.

Of course it would not be fair to name and shame this lovely lot and so I will be delicate about it.

Firstly, I reconnected with an English colleague from a fair few years ago when we first arrived. She in turn introduced us to her fella and from the off we became good friends. Recently I realised just *how* good. And no, they didn’t ask us to put our car keys in a bowl.

A common theme we share is being so far away from our families and so in a sense, your closest friends begin to fill that gap. Last weekend we went on a trip to Melbourne together and we had a bit of a heart to heart (sponsored by Chandon). She said some thoroughly genuine and lovely things which dispelled any concerns I may have ever had about us suddenly arriving and encroaching on their established life here in Sydney. They, for their part, have gone on to introduce us to some equally great people.

It’s always a bit of a comfort when you realise that someone is going through the same feelings as you. Makes you feel less alone and more connected.

Being away in unfamilliar territory like this is a little bit like being back in the playground in your first week at school – you have to go through the rigmarole of getting to know who you do and don’t want to spend time with, why, what makes them tick and how much you can depend on them. You experience that awkward ‘will you be my friend?’ moment but far more self consciously because you add adult values to the equation.

Effectively, it’s the adult equivalent of  asking them if  they’ll let you play with their My Little Ponies…..

At the same time as working all this out, you find yourself being somewhat reliant on people you might not otherwise have lent on, purely because they are all you’ve got.

Does that sound cold? I think everyone does it at some point in their lives, both as an adult and as a child.

You don’t want to rely on people back home because whilst they may wish to help you out or support you, the time difference and distance makes this even more of a challenge than it would otherwise be. I don’t want to worry the people I would usually talk to -  my sister in law or my mother, for example – over something which may turn out to be rather trivial, or about something which I need feedback on quickly. Which is where our ‘Australia’ friends come in.

People talk a lot these days about how horrible people are to one another. I can safely say that we have received nothing but kindness from the people we’ve met over here in Sydney.

Take the ’social media crowd’ as I will call them. From the off, we were invited by @ScottRhodie to ‘SHTBOX‘   – a Friday night weekly gathering of Twitter users at The Clock in Surry Hills. That wasn’t even a toe dip. That was a full on ‘push you in the deep end’ moment. Which is, to be fair, what we love.

From then on in we met a variety of people who dabbled in or worked in social media – from filmographers and photographers to PR people, journalists, tekkies,  marketeers and more . A totally eclectic mix. I am not saying we clicked with them all (if you will pardon the pun) but isn’t that the beauty of meeting people?

That led to us to attending and getting involved with a number of sites and events, from IgniteSydney to Digital Citizens (at the last of these we attended, Himself was a speaker) and a load more besides, including one lovely lady I now consider a friend asking me to guest blog on her fabulous Law&Shoes site.

Our colleagues from both our places of work have been great, too. I mean it is rare to want to socialise with the people you work with all day but both of us have had great experiences.

Which brings me to our friends and family back home.

We miss you, terribly. Thank you for the cards you’ve sent and the texts, calls etc. Particularly for the pissed up early morning Sunday calls and texts – we do love those. Those fill us with joy . (Anyone who went to our wedding will appreciate that pic!).

Sorry for OUR (mistaken/pissed up) early morning/late night calls/texts. Thank you for bothering to facebook and e-mail us and for reading this.

Most of all, thanks for keeping in up to date with what’s going on in your worlds. Makes us feel closer to you and not so much like we’re on complete the other side of the globe….. which sometimes can feel almost like another dimension.

We look forward very much to welcoming those of you who are coming over in the near future. Get those flights booked!

Big love

Herself

x

Tags: Australia, Digital Citizens, friends, making friends, shtbox, sydney social scene

A Day in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, NSW

After our first trip to Katoomba, we couldn’t really grasp what everyone was on about – it wasn’t that good, the cafe’s and restaurants had been a bit touch and go, and the weather had been awful, so we were hoping for better things – we weren’t disappointed.

[photos to follow tomorrow]

As per our other post, we were renting a cottage in Leura – 10 minutes from Katoomba by car, and on the Saturday morning, we headed over to Echo Point in Katoomba to see the Three Sisters and the views that we kept hearing being raved about.

Katoomba: Three Sisters/Echo Point/Scenic World

Echo Point and Price Henry Cliff Walk

This time our trip to Katoomba was in beautiful sunshine, with not a cloud in the sky. We headed over in the car and parked up in a side street near Echo point before walking the 5 minutes to the viewing point and platform near the visitors centre. The views are stunning over from the point, towards the Three Sisters and out over the valley below. The drop must be somewhere near 1000 ft – I can’t think that I have seen anywhere like it. The only straight drop similar that I have seen, is the one in Norway at Preikestolen. We took plenty of pictures this time and to explain just how bad the weather was the first time that we went – we hadn’t even noticed/seen the visitors centre – which was about 50m back from the edge – the fog had been so thick that we had just completely missed it!

So anyhow, we walked from Echo Point over to the Three Sisters, and looked back over the valley to Echo point and then descended the steepest walk that I have ever done – The Prince Henry Cliff Walk! Down the side of the cliffs on a narrow path and steps/stairs/ladders descended down into the bowels of the valley – it must have taken about an hour to get down to the path which would lead us through the forest towards the famous Cable Cars/Skyway at Scenic World.

There is a bit more information on the walk that we did here: Price Henry Cliff Walk Katoomba

and there are LOADS of walks in the area – detailed here at Wildwalks

To be honest – if you aren’t fit then you will struggle. I wouldn’t take kids down there to be honest, but there were a few people with young ones – but it was full of steep steps and lots of railings.

The path at the bottom had loads of different walks that you could head off and undertake, but the climb down certainly gave everyone something to think about in terms of aches and pains, so we just headed off to the vertical railway station and about two hours later we arrived – a little jaded to say the least!

Katoomba – Scenic World

From the bottom of the valley back up to the top there are about three or four options…

One – stay down there, Two – get the vertical train (Scenic Railway) ride ($11 one way), three the Scenic Cableway (again $11) or Four – to walk. One and Four weren’t an option, so we opted for the Scenic Railway… It basically rises almost straight up the cliff face and up to the Scenic World complex. Herself had an absolute episode on this thing – now bearing in mind that I am not a big fan of heights either, she nearly made me panic in her petrified state – beware – if you are of a mild constitution it might frighten the living daylights out of you… however – its a great experience.

We had a wander about the shop up there and a look out on the platform we grabbed the most expensive coffee in the cafe/restaurant from the most miserable woman in the world (why be involved in customer service if you hate all and sundry) and then took the Scenic Skyway ($9) back over towards Echo Point. We arrived back at Echo point having spent about 5 hours doing the loop and it was a fabuous way to spend the day. We didn’t race around, and I am sure you could do it quicker – but we had a lot of fun, and I would recommend it to anyone.

The photo’s (coming) show it all really… I can’t really say – oh it’s beautiful… just look at the pictures.

Well – that’s about it for our Katoomba experience, apart from to say that the shop at the visitors center sells some amazing slippers, that we invested in, and that we only found one bottle shop – which had a really really good selection of wines – on the high street, between the station and the Westpac bank on the left hand side – it was next to an Italian I think.

Anyhow – tomorrow, I’ll write about our second trip over to the Jenolan caves as well as get all of our photos sorted out and uploaded into this post & the one about Leura!

Much love,

Himself!

Some Links About The Blue Mountains and Katoomba

http://www.bluemts.com.au/

http://www.visitbluemountains.com.au/

http://www.visitnsw.com/town/Katoomba.aspx

http://www.wildwalks.com/bushwalking-and-hiking-in-nsw/blue-mountains-katoomba/

http://www.bluemts.com.au/tourist/thingsToDo/threeSisters.asp

http://www.katoomba-nsw.com/

Tags: Blue Mountains, Echo Point, Katoomba, NSW, Scenic World, Three Sisters

A Weekend in Leura in the Blue Mountains, NSW

This ANZAC bank holiday weekend, we were invited by some friends to head back up to the Blue Mountains to Leura to a cottage, and to explore the towns and villages that were so interrupted by the bad weather when we visited before.

ANZAC day is the Australian equivalent of Remembrance Day in the UK – a day of celebration, remembrance and mourning for the fallen troops and servicemen of military conflicts and actions. Less we never forget.

We were initially invited to head up to a cottage in the Leura about six weeks ago, and after our mixed time up there the first time; (Read about it here: Our first time in the Blue Mountains)

The plan was to leave Sydney on Friday night and to drive up in two cars (for the six of us) and get an early night before having a good walk about on Saturday (as the weather was better than Sunday) and then to head to the Caves at Jenola on Sunday. Monday we left free as the weather is quite changable up there and we had to check out at about 11.30 anyway.

Driving to Blue Mountains from Sydney

Last time we headed up to Katoomba, we hired a car from Bayswater Car rentals (it cost about $35/day inc Sat Nav & Full Insurance) and we headed up early on the Saturday morning so basically missed all of the traffic. Friday night leaving Sydney is a bit different; we ended up sitting in a taxi for about 45 minutes going from our studio in Darlinghurst to Kirribilli where our friends live. On arrival it seemed evident that everyone had had a shite Friday and this was compounded by me leaving my phone in the taxi and losing the plot before we left! Not a great start to the Bank Holiday weekend.

Anyway – as I said the traffic is awful – here for live Sydney traffic reports.

When it is quiet, apparently the best way to get up there is the route that we went (and there are no road tolls) – the first time; Straight up the M4: Sydney To Leura (Blue mountains)

If you are travelling at peak time or during weekends when people are heading out of the city or if you are leaving from North Sydney, (the way we went this time) then take this route: Sydney to Leura via M7 There are a few tolls roads so it can rack up if you don’t watch out.

It has taken us about 2 hours to get to Katoomba & Leura everytime we have gone to and from Sydney – so expect it to take that long (traffic permitting)

WATCH OUT FOR THE NSW POLICE – They are bloody everywhere!

The coppers over here are buggers – every single time we have gone anywhere – they are either pulling someone or lying in wait. You basically can’t speed in NSW – stick to the limit and don’t drink and drive.

The main encouragement is as follows: Double Points Apply on Bank Holidays, Christmas, and almost every major event that is held – you speed – you will lose your licence.

from the NSW RTA website: On declared public holiday long weekend periods in NSW the demerit points for all speeding, seat belt, child restraint and helmet offences are doubled.

The Rented Cottage In Leura

The cottage that our friend had rented was a beautiful wooden cottage called Harmony Cottage about 5 minutes walk from the centre of Leura and 10 minutes drive from Katoomba.

We had a great first night, sat up drinking wine, chatting until the really late hours of Saturday morning, and generally wound down after what had been a pretty rough week for everyone.

So anyway, you can read about the day we spent in Katoomba at Scenic World and Echo Point here

Much Love,

Himself!

Tags: ANZAC, Blue Mountains, Katoomba, Leura, NSW, Sydney