Category: Caroline

Si forgot to mention a very important and significant event in his last blog – I met Hugh Jackman! Hugh Jackman, aka Wolverine. In. The. Flesh! Turns out even gorgeous celebrities have children who need to go to school. Of course, it was the posh private school I mentioned before and of course I love it even more now. Have decided to carry on working a little longer even though Si has finished (well, ok, yes it may have something to do with the desire to meet my friend Hugh again, I’m just hoping that next time I might even manage to talk to him rather than just grinning like an idiot!)
Other events sort of pale into insignificance but I’ll do my best to recount them nonetheless. Saturday we went to explore Parramatta, in the rain. It’s supposed to be one of the oldest settlements in Sydney with lots of old buildings but all I can really recall now is that it rained. All day. Apparently November had twice the amount of rain than normal here for this time of year (a third of that was in one night too!). Doh! But it’s ok, don’t feel too sorry for us cos on Sunday the sun came out in full force to bathe us in its glory once again. So we made the most of it. Headed down to Bronte for an early morning swim. Suppose it was more of a splash around in the waves really, seems a bit cheeky to call it a swim. Especially since we saw the final leg of the Bondi to Bronte ocean swim. Over 1800 competitors swam more than 2kms, in the sea. With a whale! (Forgot to mention that on Friday night we saw some beach surf life saving competition action, unfortunately, team GB didn’t too very well despite our cheers.) Witnessing all these fit people doing all their fit stuff inspired us a little. Si mentioned something about us now having 9 months in which we could hone our bodies into their peak physical fitness but I’m not sure I could hold him to that (or want to!) However we did say that we will put more effort into our swimming, just need to buy some goggles first – swimming in the sea isn’t easy! And maybe one of those nose plugs. Wonder if a wetsuit would be going a bit too far…
After our beach visit we headed into town to visit the Rocks market and walk across the Harbour bridge. I am working myself up to doing the bridge climb!

We have just had a glorious, unforgettable weekend in Katoomba, the heart of the Blue Mountains. After a bit of a chilly start (who knew it would be cooler up in the mountains!) and a brisk walk we arrived at Lillianfels, our fancy hotel (owned by the Orient Express company) for the next 2 nights. Our room was magnificent – certainly a far cry from the comparatively squalid flat we have been calling home recently and probably bigger too!
Saturday began with a very scrumptious 5 star breakfast after which we set off to see for ourselves if the famous mountains really are blue. It is certainly an impressive sight, comparable to the Grand Canyon, except more undulating. As for the blue, well the trees are green, and the rocks are red, but to be fair there is a blueish haze above the distant hills (due to the eucalyptus oil evaporating from the trees). Our hotel was right on the doorstep of the 3 sisters – an impressive bit of rock erosion that has resulted in 3 sticky up bits of rock close together. There is an interesting aboriginal dreamtime story to explain, something to do with caterpillars, witch doctors and 3 sisters (surprisingly enough!)
From there we walked along the cliff path to the Katoomba cascades, and down a lot of steps to the Katoomba falls. We then carried on descending further down into the valley until we got to the bottom of the ‘world’s steepest scenic railway’. Boy was it steep (45 degrees), with no safety belts either so you literally have to hold yourself from falling down the carriage! After a cliff top lunch we caught the skyway (cable car with glass bottom) across the valley back to where we started. Back at the hotel, we managed a quick swim in the hotel’s heated outdoor pool before catching the sunset.
In the evening we got dressed up and strolled (pretty quickly as it was freezing!) across to the hotel’s very fancy ‘Darleys’ restaurant. The food was amazing (I had oysters, snapper and chaflotis!) I could get used to this lifestyle!
On Sunday we were certainly feeling the effects of our wining and dining as well as all of the previous day’s walking (achy calf muscles!) so we had a more relaxed day. Beginning with a swim, sauna and steam, followed by another glorious breakfast (eggs Benedictine was delicious). Retracing our steps back across the valley to catch the scenic railway down (the rollercoaster effect makes going down more fun) we had a mini bushwalk, and wandered around the rainforest boardwalk for a bit before getting a different cable car back up (somebody somewhere is making a lot of money from all these different forms of transport!)
All in all it was an amazing weekend and an amazing way to celebrate turning 30. I didn’t want it to end and now I’ve got the Sunday night blues (which admittedly, I have not had for quite a while) at the thought of going back to our flat and getting up for work tomorrow (I’ve got a shift in the toddler room of a day care centre! Wish me luck!)

Hi everyone, first of all I’m sorry that we have lapsed dreadfully in our blog keeping, would love to say it’s because we have been living the high life and partying til all hours but its not! Mostly we have just been working which seems a little too boring to write about. There have been some highlights from the last couple of weeks though so I will try to describe them now without rambling on too much.
Firstly, one of us marked the end of another decade of one’s life by turning the big 3 0! I had sort of prepared myself for quite a low key affair since we were on the other side of the world from all the people we know. I was therefore thrilled and very pleasantly surprised by all the cards, presents and birthday messages that I received. Thank you all so much for thinking of me way down here – I was definitely spoiled. I had to work on the day of my birthday but that was ok, the children I was working made it fun, especially when they presented me with a yummy chocolate cake at the end of the day! Then in the evening their parents, Denise and Brandon, took us both out for a lovely meal in a very posh Italian restaurant in the Leichhart area. It was a lovely evening, which included lots of good food (the nutella pizza being the best bit!), good wine, a very talented opera style singer and a red rose. Altogether, with the possible exception of the pink & green teddy pig, it was a very sophisticated evening. If this is what being old is all about I can definitely handle it! AND the best bit is yet to come, for my birthday present Si is taking me to very posh 5 star hotel in the blue mountains for the weekend – woohoo I can’t wait.
As for the weekend, our day of fun was spent in the Sydney Aquarium, full of all sorts of ugly fish, scary non-man eating sharks, and this odd duck-beaver thing called a platypus ;-). Seems to be we are making a habit of spending Sunday with aquatic animals! (Maybe it’s so when we leave I can say so long, and thanks for all the fish!)
We are settling in quite nicely to the living in Sydney lark, even getting into a sort of routine of meeting up after work (sort of a requirement as there’s only one set of keys! And the flat is so horrible that it is best to spend as little time there as possible!), and eating out a lot too – even getting favourite restaurants (kebab shop actually!). Well, we are on holiday really!

Well today I decided to venture out to Si’s work to meet him for lunch. It meant that I got to sample his daily commute to work – its far!! 2 hours after setting out from the hostel I eventually arrived at the Koala park (10mins away from his office), I don’t know how he can do that twice a day (but then the DS doesn’t have the same appeal to me). After a brief lunch Si left me to the Koalas. Soooo cute. I did see some koalas last time I was in Oz but my memories of them were of cute cuddly things way up high in the trees where you couldn’t really see them. Today was completely different, as you can see from the photo, today I was up close and personal! They were all a lot lower down in the trees and there were even some awake. There were also some very cute young koalas in the nursery. At feeding time the park attendant managed to pry the sleeping Kody off the tree and we all lined up for our cuddle and obligatory photo. They are fascinating to watch and seem completely focused on food or sleeping. I was lucky enough to catch a few glimpses of a baby’s foot peeking out from its mummy’s pouch. Despite staring at the poor mummy for a long time, a foot was all I was allowed to see.
Other wildlife I saw at the park included, kangeroos (obviously!), a joey!!!, wombats, echidnas, sheep(!), fairy penguins (sooo cute!), wallaroos (I thought they were making it up, but apparently not!), flying foxes, lots of birds and an odd turkey type bird who followed me around for a while.
It was a lovely day out and made a change from the beach!

Well we’re here in Bondi now and back in the land of civilisation (which basically means internet access!). Thank you to everyone who posted a comment in response to our news, it was really great to hear from you all. Thank you Debbie for spreading the word at school – I won’t let you all forget about me just yet!
We have been living in Bondi for a week now and during that week Si has been very busy working and I have been very busy sitting on a beach and chilling out ( I mean looking for a job, obviously!) Bondi is just as you might expect – lots of surfer dudes and lifeguards running baywatch style in their red swimming costumes (with Bondi written on their bottoms (hee hee)). It is technically winter here which just means its like a Scottish summer (ie. perfect beach weather for me!). We were a little distressed when we first got off the plane and were greeted by rain – that was not what we signed up to! But luckily that is not common around here, I think there is some statistic which goes along the lines of Sydney having the most days with sunshine in them per year – I can certainly live with that! I have managed to get a little beach action in most days, although I haven’t actually ventured more than a toe or two into the water (my scottish hardiness has
been softened by living in the south of England for 7 years! Or maybe just by enjoying the warmer waters of Rarotonga and Fiji for the last couple of weeks!) I particularly enjoyed watching the surf school, watching people wipe out and get soaked is always good for a laugh! We have talked about trying it for ourselves (that really would be good for a laugh!) but Si wants to wait til it gets a bit warmer. Jessie! I have also been enjoying running along the coast path (are you impressed Emily?) – there are just so many lovely beaches to admire on the way. Australia also seems really set up for fitness, you meet so many people out jogging at all times of the day and there are even exercise stations along the path should you feel the need to stop and do some bench presses (maybe work up to that one!)
It might not sound like it but I have honestly tried to sort out some work. I have! However, unfortunately I didn’t realise that I would need my birth certificate and a transcript of my grades from Uni in order to be approved by the NSW authority, so, alas, the whole process has been delayed while I try to get hold of them. What’s a girl to do?
P.S Thank you Jackie for your comment – really no targets for improvement? How will I ever pass the very important performance management process? Maybe I will just have to set myself some targets, lets see; try to see some Australian wildlife, see the sights of Sydney, check out some of Sydney’s other beaches, that ought to do for starters. Enjoy school everyone 😉

For the last 5 days we have been in Paradise. Otherwise known as the Pacific island of Rarotonga. It’s got everything you would expect of a tropical paradise island; lush sandy beaches, turquoise sea (perfect for snorkeling), palm trees, happy, smiley islanders (wouldn’t you be happy if you lived here?), pina coladas. Everything! We are staying in a lovely ‘hideaway cottage’ otherwise known as the “luv nest’ which is lovely except for all the wildlife – we are being eaten alive by a whole manner of insects in the evenings and very rudely awoken by a mexican chorus of cockerels who can’t tell the time in the mornings.
Anyway it has been a perfect beach holiday, we have made good use of the accomodation’s kayaks to sail / paddle to little islands, we have had bikes to explore other beaches (and then concluded that ours was the best!), we have been snorkelling and generally just doing the things you do on a tropical beach island (sunbathing, reading, swimming, drinking cocktails, going to nice restuarants). Sorry to all those people who are at work!
It has definetly been a very memorable holiday, made even more so by a little surprise that Si had planned. On our second day here we took the kayaks out to a deserted little island called Onorua, I had just sprawled out on the sand when Si surprised me with a ring and proposed!! Of course I said yes so we are now engaged!!! Yay! It was the perfect proposal in a perfect setting and the perfect way to make this stage of our trip perfect (have I used the word perfect too much?) Fiji has a lot to live up to.

Today’s mission was to get as much of LA in as possible in only 6hours. Think we did pretty well considering how long it took to drive from one bit to another. After a random drive to get to the Holywood sign, we eventually found the park with a good view, but again running dangerously low on fuel but easier to find a petrol station this time. On the way to the beach, we stumbled upon Hollywood Boulevard, site of the handprints and stars of stars in the pavement, along with Johnny Depp (see pic!).
Then, the final few hours in the US were spent wandering along Santa Monica beach, with Dolphins surfing in the waves! (yes Mum/Helen, I know you’ve swum with them before! 🙂 )
This update is being written from a Burger King in LA airport, one I think I’ve been to before with Rich, our total fast food meals probably account for half the meals we’ve eaten, when in the US… 🙂

We decided to splash out this morning and book a helicopter ride to see the Grand Canyon. Thinking that we are only here for a very very short time and because we had been saving for over a year for this trip that we deserved the really expensive long flight (might as well go the whole hog! – you only do it once in a life time right? (ok 2nd time for Si))
Anyway it was amazing and worth every penny/cent! Our flight took us in a huge circle over a very vast area of the Canyon which isn’t even a fraction of the whole thing (Canyon trivia for you; the half owned by the National Park is about the size of Switzerland! Pretty big, huh!) It is so big that even when you are going at 150 miles an hour it doesn’t feel like your moving! We dipped down into the Canyon and caught some fantastic views of the Colarado river, then travelled along the dragon corridor and had some tummy flipping moments as we soared up and over the rim again. Anyway, as I said, it was worth every penny – there is no other way we could have seen as much of the Canyon, even if we had a week! Definitely something everyone should experience at least once in a lifetime. We are already planning our trip back!
Although it’s not even been a full day since we arrived in the Grand Canyon, it’s time to leave, as there is a very long road trip back to LA ahead. Lake Havasu was as far as we could make, new site of the old London Bridge, yes the world famous transaction in 1976 when America thought they were buying Tower Bridge (funnily, they didn’t mention that), at a cost of 2.5 million to buy, and 4.5 million to shift the thing. It is a bit surreal seeing a piece of London in the US, especially in 111F heat – yes, that’s hotter than Death Valley was…
Wildlife update for Helen: Turkey Vulture (it’s almost a condor :-)), and a skunk – luckily with no smell!

After an early (ish) swim we set off on the long long long road to the Grand Canyon (it’s almost 300 miles!) That’s ok though as Si is happy driving his automatic (it’s not really driving is it, just holding the wheel straight?!) and thanks to the wonders of Walmart (it really is a great place!) we can now listen to my ipod rather than the yee haw American country radio. We stopped at the Hoover Dam which didn’t have a lot of water in it (Nevada is in droubt conditions – probably in some part due to their water spraying out of every building cooling method!)
Shortly after that we had a worrying 23 miles or so where the car was so empty it was running on fumes. The A/C was off, and speed dropped to conserve fuel! (Thanks to Dad for years of fuel saving tips 🙂 – Si) Luckily we made it to the petrol station – a bit sweaty but still intact! It’s hard to believe in a country as dependant on fuel as the US you can go for 60 miles without a fuel pump and then you hit 10 within a mile! Anyway enough ranting, air con was then back on for the rest of the journey!
Fortuitously, we arrived at Grand Canyon just before sunset, the red and brown colours created by the setting sun were amazing, even more so as we will be gone before the next sunset, makes you realise what a whistlestop tour this is!

We’re all Vegased out! Seems like we’ve spent all day walking, feet are so tired! And that’s mostly just walking around huge maze like hotels trying to navigate our way around! To get to the monorail they direct you all the way around the casino, past the restaurants and shops, hoping that you might part with some more of your hard earned cash.
On that score we definitely left Vegas up- thanks in part to Si and his lucky cows but mostly as a result of a near escape with a time share salesman (the less said about that the better!) Our brief (I wish) daliance with said man gifted us with $50 and tickets for Mama Mia, which even Si enjoyed!
Excited to be leaving Vegas tomorrow and heading for the Grand Canyon.
P.S We stopped at a Walmart today and Si blew some of the cobwebs out of his wallet to buy a DS (as a result of such an extravagant expense his credit card was suspended! Hee hee)
P.P.S I wanted to joke that we had gotten drunk and ended up getting hitched in the hotel wedding chapel but for some reason Si didn’t think that was funny!