let’s play catch up

i may not have blogged but the last 6 months have been busy! here’s a little snapshot...

travel

for christmas, piero, emily and i drove up to brisbane to spend it with our families. my brother and his family also headed to brisbane so the highlight was, as it seems to always be at family events these days, seeing my adorable ever-growing, nephew jack.

on the way back to sydney, we stayed at the gold coast and caught up with old friends jayde and peter and his wife thimitra – it felt like schoolies all over again (just no wheez this time!). 

paul visited from the uk and we headed to melbourne  to visit jayde, simon, pauline and kelly and check out the australian open. we returned to our fav madame sousou, lushed it up at the hellenic repulbic and gave birth to the famous-five-like-but-even-more-daring bfff-club.

a little bit of kareoke with paul, piero, kelly and jayde

rod laver arena

piero had always wanted to go to tassie so in feb we headed to the apple isle for a fantastic holiday. tasmania is gorgeous and has some of the best food and wine in australia. we flew in hobart,  checked out the salamanca markets and mona (eat your heart out europe, this is the most amazing gallery ever); drove to port arthur (the sheer beauty of this place slaps up against his horrific past); stayed overnight at freycinet national park (wineglass bay was well worth the hike!); guzzled it up in the wine region tamar valley (i think it was here i finally convinced piero that chardonnay was the new sauvignon blanc); and then ended it in launceston where we stayed in a converted hospital, visited cataract gorge and dreamed of mishail at black cowbistro. 

on route to mona

a bit of wineglass bay action

hanging with a naughty nun at the launceston wine festival

for easter, we joined good friends cynth & gez in the mclaren vale – a wine region outside of adelaide. my god, it was fabulous fun. we basically ate like pigs and drunk like drunks. highlights were the lloyds (the food was amazing) samuel’s gorge where we stumbled across a wine-season-launch and lunch at tapestry winery overlooking their vineyards.

we stayed at port nourlunga and this is what we woke up to every morning

is it ever 10am yet?

they were shooting some models outside samuel's gorge 

a fitting wine tour company

and most recently, we spent a night at the stunning blue mountains and checked out the three sisters, took the slightly-scary-totally-amazing-world’s-steepest funicular railway up the cliff and swung past the janolin caves. i hadn’t been to the blue mountains since i was a kid so it was a bit of a walk down memory lane.

visitors

we have a new place and have been dead keen to show it off to our friends. fortunately, we haven’t been short on people taking up the offer!

paul from the uk arrived first, he stayed with us twice on his oz trip – firstly at the roundabout and then at the new abode. paul was a fantastic guest who allowed me to show off our new city: bondi beach, darlinghurst and messina gelato.

jason, piero and paul at messina gelato

my brissie friend michael - our most frequent quest - swung by sydney for australia day. what should have been a few quiet drinks at the green park before coming home turned into one our most memorable nights. 

michael hiding behind from piero from this dude who kept following him at the bar

luciano arrived shortly after for a fantastic couple of weeks timed with the mardi gras. we threw a mardi gras party on our balcony, watched the parade, partied at the sweat-pit-of-an-after-party which featured kylie, and then recovered on bondi beach... bliss! luc stay ended with a booze-up-cum-dance-sesh in the rain at the beresford hotel – it truly was like old times in london.

the hen on a journey. first night at the st.george open air cinema 

balcony party with luc working in hard in the background over the bbq

a classy end to the post-parade party: one luc, two drag queens and three wheelie bins

taken outside our flat just after we'd scoffed our gelati

while luc was in town, steve came down from brissie with his fiancé vicky! it was great spending time with steve again – we met in grade 1- and getting to know his g/f. i’m already looking forward to their wedding up north!

luc, piero, cynth, vicky and steve at bondi italian

my brother, loan and jack then turned up next and stayed with us for a few days. it’s so good having my brother and his family stay with us as they l-o-v-e sydney and their passion is infectious. we headed to rushcutters bay yacht club for lunch, wandered around the streets and enjoyed a messina gelato (or two).

andy, jack and me on the balcony while piero cooks

preparing dinner in our kitchen 

jack playing with his present in his favourite corner

after my bro’s family, i then flew mum down for mother’s day. mum was born in sydney, lived here for a bit as a child and then again after marrying dad so we tracked down the hospital where she was born (now a hotel), drove to the house she rented with dad and then tracked down her childhood home using the few memories she had as a clue. it was a fantastic journey that delved into her past. we also headed to manly for mother’s day lunch, completed a barista training course, discovered a chinese tea house, lunched it up at seafood markets and, of course, i introduced mum to the delights of messina.

after our barista training 

at the victoria dining rooms

at the chinese tea house

although they didn’t stay with us, michelle, ben and ted joined me for afternoon tea on our balcony when they were in sydney. mish and i studied together and uni so it was great catching up with all the brissie goss!