A walk on the whale side...

It's whale season so I've been looking out for spashes and fins and tails, morning noon and night.

Keeping such a close eye on the ocean has made me appreciate again what an amazing place it is that I live.....

Beautiful, calm seas with almost cloudless skies (even in winter! the temperature topped 25 degrees today). This is the view from the balcony.

The sunrises are pretty amazing too and mornings have proved to be the best time to see the odd whale and dolphin. Unfortunately my camera broke last week so I haven't managed to take an actual photo of the passing sealife. So instead of leaving the blog without its weekly entry I have borrowed a couple of photos to give you the general idea.

After some false alarms (birds and boats can look surprisingly like whales), I've managed to see a few of them on their long journey up the east coast. See below for typical example of killer whale behaviour - the whales travelling up our coast are humpbacks but I liked this picture better...

Top Gear

Yesterday was a very exciting day for the residents of Oceanview Avenue. We made another trip to the country to pick up Clare's new, very sporty, red car - a Mazda RX8. After a lovely lunch with Clare's huge family (they had all come over to see the car), we set off back to Sydney to see how the car handled on the country roads and on the motorway.
I was only a passenger but it was very exciting never-the-less.

In my opinion the torque split, all-wheel drive system achieves a fine balance between sporty control that makes it particularly fun to drive with good handling stability on snowy or wet surfaces or under other challenging road conditions.
We didn't look quite so cool when we pulled in to the petrol station and couldn't work out how to open the petrol cap.

A little bit of extra exciting news is that I have applied for my moped test/licence which means that while Clare is sporting around in her new car, I'll be able to scoot around Sydney on her moped!!! It probably won't go as fast as the car though.....

The Sights of Goulbourn

As well as a pizza oven Clare's family have a spa in the garden. It was very, very cold so I thought my hat would keep my head warm while sitting in the 39 degree water. It did.

Revitalised by an hour or two in the spa we headed out to see the sights of Goulbourn. These include a big sheep.... (made me feel a bit uneasy)...
They hadn't taken any short cuts when making the sheep as life like as possible.... Then we headed up the hill to look at the war memorial and an amazing view over the town.

Thank you Clare for inviting us to stay - we had a lovely time!

Call Me Giuseppe...

Clare comes from a farm in the country. She invited us over for the weekend to cook pizzas in the brand new pizza oven. I didn't need to be asked twice! I thought I would definitely be able to add some skills considering my Italian roots.

BBQ Chicken and bacon, salami and fresh tomatoes with basil.....

How good do these look!!!?!

Next step, put pizza in to oven without burning hands, hair or faces... acheived....

Keep an eye on the pizza, turning if necessary to avoid burning....

Remove taking care of clothes and body parts as above. Repeat as required... I think I have discovered a new career...

Going, Going... Gone!

Weekend Activity: Auction to buy new bed for Clare. We got there very early to look at all of the things on offer. A big mistake - too much time to realise how many other things we "really needed."

After finding the perfect bed with a very cheap reserve price we sat tight and waited for the begninning of the auction. The bed was all the way down the list (Lot 76) so after about an hour of waiting for all the other things to be sold we managed to secure the purchase!

A quick measure up just to make sure it would fit (perhaps this should have been done before the bidding.) Luckily it was just the right size. Of course I am very happy that Clare now has a new bed but even happier that I get to have her old one. After 6 months of sleeping on the floor, I realise how nice a real bed can be!

School Trip!

On the fourth Friday of every month my students have the option of going on an excursion. Weirdly, none of them have wanted to go anywhere before and have preferred to stay at school to study?!? This week however the class voted to go to Watson's Bay. The sun was out (even though it was still very cold), so we took the ferry over to have a look.

I showed them the views of the city, the harbour bridge and most importantly, Gap Park which is apparently where around 50 people a year jump off in to the ocean to commit suicide. They found this most interesting.

I was a bit worried that one of them might fall off as they were getting so close to the edge to take photos.

Happily I returned to school with the same number of students that I started with, so I should have a job to go to next week.

Brrr - It's Cold In The Mountains

We had an extra day added to our weekend this week to celebrate The Queen's Birthday! Happy Birthday to you! To make the most of this special day, I caught the train up to the Blue Mountains. I knew it was going to be cold, but it was actually FREEZING - winter clothes required (shame I don't have any here).

I realised, about half way through my little trek, that no one actually knew where I was. What if I fell down in to the valley or slipped in to the waterfall - how long would it take to find me? I texted Clare to give her my exact location and to raise the alarm if I wasn't home by dinner.

The walk/trek was a little longer than I'd planned but luckily I was fully prepared with liquid and sugar supplies. I thought fizzy snakes would definitely save me if I was stuck in the wilderness.

I ate so many snakes that I started to feel a bit sick but I managed to get to the end of my walk before the sunset.

Katoomba to Leura - done and still alive!