Antipodal Adventures
The 39(000000000000) Steps
Sunday 18th May 2014
Last weekend we had another lovely trip to the Blue Mountains - this time with friends! Our friend Sophie was visiting from Perth, so Jan, Kym, Michael, Gina, Sophie and I monopolised a room at a lovely youth hostel (hah, can you believe they let ME into a "uh" hostel?!) for a night, and spent the Saturday and Sunday out in the great fresh mountain air. Once again the weather came up trumps (I still have my pessimistic British mindset when it comes to weather - someone said it would be chillier in the Blue Mountains than in Sydney so I went armed with mittens, hats, winter coats and scarves, only to end up walking around in my vest top).
So Kym, Michael, Jan and I set off early on Saturday morning (Sophie and Gina were to join us later) and drove the couple of hours to a small village called Leura. Here it was gorgeously sunny, with that autumnal nip in the air that is just perfect. We parked up and went for a large breakfast in a little cafe, then wandered around the artisan street market they had on. It is one of the cutest country towns we have seen so far - so of course we took no photos whatsoever. Never mind, when you all come and visit, we will definitely be taking you there to coo over all the cutesy shops - including an AWESOME chocolate shop. So you can see it then, okay?
After all the breakfast and market samples and chocolate, it was time to burn some calories, so we went to Katoomba falls and had a wander around all the lovely waterfalls. This was the beginning of the weekend's large amount of steps, the nature of waterfalls being that there is a top and a bottom and it is the duty of the tourist to see both. So down we would go and up we would come, and beautiful it was, and yet we still have no pictures of it. Blame Jan. I do.
An exciting(ly quiet) Easter
Friday 2nd May 2014
After the last few exciting weekends we've had (when I nearly re-named the blog "Altitudinal Adventures because we were off the damn ground so much, or "Alcoholic Adventures", because...well, you know) I am happy to report we had a much more down to earth Easter weekend. It wasn't without its own excitement, though - when I woke up on Easter Sunday, the "Easter bunny" had visited and left the obligatory chocolate eggs around the house for me to find. I suspect I had WAY more fun than is healthy for a 35-year-old adult in trying to find these, especially when I discovered the most valuable, majestic and pleasing of all eggs - A KINDER SURPRISE! I am sure, as a grown-up, I should be expected to say a Faberge egg or something of its ilk, but frankly they don't have toys in, so what's the point of that?!
I was working over most of the weekend, but I had Easter Monday off so we trotted out to the shops again. (On a side note, did anyone else realise Westfield was in fact an international brand of shopping malls?! I got confused when they opened a second in London, but they are all over the place here like a capitalist rash).
The first thing on our list was something we have wanted to buy for, oh, at least three months now and also concerns that good news I've been blathering on about. *Cue drum roll for the announcement of good tidings. Feet thumping or banging the table is acceptable - but don't spill your tea!*. WE ARE UNCLE AND AUNTY!! Hurray! Due to our little nephew Emil coming much earlier than expected and interrupting his parents' house move, we have waited until everyone was safe and settled in their new house before we sent anything. The new family are all doing well, so it's happy days! Well, happy until Jan rejected out of hand my idea to send Emil a kangaroo costume and make Jan's sister dress him up and send us photos. I mean, come on, that's what babies are there for! So we settled for trying to find a suit with a kangaroo on it instead. And guess what, people?!?! THERE WERE NONE. WE ARE IN AUSTRALIA AND THEY HAVE NO NATIVE ANIMAL-RELATED BABYWEAR. What in the heck is that about? I doggedly dragged Jan around all the baby shops and it was all fluffy bunnies this and giraffes that and toy planes the other. I was singularly unimpressed. I mean just because kangaroos are a pest and given half a chance they will kick you in the chest and claw your face off, is that any reason to omit them from children's clothing? I think not. And double guess what?! NO KOALAS EITHER!!! I just don't know what's wrong with these people. We eventually found a stuffed toy kangaroo, but even that was on the lower shelves of the toy store, tucked away in shame. TUT. Finally we found a souvenir shop full of mainly tacky things, but guess what they also had?!