I cannot believe the weekend is already over!  I’m ready to start the week at school, but how could it already be Sunday night?  Does time go by faster in the Southern Hemisphere?  It sure feels like it…or it may be because I’m just having so much fun!

On Saturday, I slept in a little bit and decided on an English muffin with margarine and vegemite for brekky.  After lounging around for a bit, Domenic and I headed into town to get a few things at the supermarket and to have a walk around.

After picking up some bread for lunch and the papers at Woolworths, we headed across the street to check out the new store called BCF (Boating Camping and Fishing).  Sounds like my kind of store, huh?  It wasn’t as big as Bass Pro and certainly didn’t have the broad selection of gear, but it sure was nice!  I found a fishing shirt that I really liked that had a few logos on it that would remind me of Australia when I go fishing at home.

After walking around for a bit more, we crossed the street once again to check out the ceiling of St. Mary’s, the Catholic Church in town.  The steeple of St. Mary’s can be seen kilometers from town and seems to be one of the few local landmarks in town.  We walked inside and were greeted by Jesus, who was kind enough to provide us with a few brochures about the church and their distribution of largesse to the people of Bairnsdale and the surrounding community.  We walked deeper into the church to find the ceilings completely painted with vivid Christian themes, and all of the windows covered with stained glass.  It was pretty and I’m glad I went!

After eating lunch at home, Domenic and I headed back out to watch the East Gippsland United Football Club under-16s play a match against Warragul.  The young gentleman and lady defeated the team from the east 21-1 in a blowout.  The game reminded me of my time playing soccer a few years back!  I’ll never forget traveling to various international schools in Europe, including Budapest and Warsaw.

We then came home to catch the last half of a few footy matches.  Luckily, there were a few more on later in the day!  After a bike ride along the Mitchell, I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing, watching the footy matches on TV. 

Today, I also slept in a bit to catch up on some sleep, and again had some vegemite on toast for breakfast; I can’t get enough of this stuff!  We were invited to go to Linda and Ernie’s place for lunch at noon and we were to bring the dessert.  Last night, Sheryl and I had started making a Pavlova, and this morning, she had finished it up to bring with us. 

I am always jealous when I go to Linda and Ernie’s home because it is so beautiful and they have some of the best views in all of town.  They purchased their home a few years ago and since then had worked on building up the area around the home.  I’ve seen photos of when they bought it, and it is so hard to believe that the two of them only took 4 years to surround their home with lush gardens of tens of different kinds of trees and various vegetables and herbs.  They also built a pizza “shack” in their back yard where they have a pizza oven, and a view over the paddocks to the south and the bay in the distance; truly amazing!

Today, we were having pizza for lunch at their home.  When we arrived, we were instructed to make our own pizzas from a variety of fresh ingredients.  We each started with some tomato sauce on hand made dough followed by a combination of ingredients including: various kinds of cheeses, meats, and herbs, anchovies, salmon, tomatoes, olives, chilies, capsicums, capers, pesto, and probably a ton of other stuff that I forgot, or just couldn’t see among the piles of fresh toppings.  Once our pizzas were constructed in the kitchen, we took them down to Ernie, who had the oven ready to start.

The pizzas were amazing and the beers were cold!  It was another great ending to another great weekend in Oz!  I could have easily spent the whole day eating pizza overlooking the beautiful views from Windy Waters (Linda and Ernie’s house’s name).

Since I’ve been home from lunch, I finished up my laundry and started this post.  I’m excited to start my final week student teaching at BSC and plan to get to bed early tonight!  

What a busy day!  I cannot believe we only have one more full day in Sydney; I really don’t want to pack up and leave!  Today, we headed north to a few of the beaches along the Pacific coast.

We first stopped back in Manly to make it out to North Head Sanctuary so we could make it out to the end of the peninsula (we never made it out the whole way when we were there last).  It was certainly worth the trip back to Manly!  W arrived at the car park at the end of the sanctuary and followed the walking path out to the end of the peninsula.  We found ourselves standing at the north side of the entrance to the harbor 25 meters above the water on a cliff looking southwest toward the city.  It was by far the best views of the Sydney skyline!

After taking in the views of the city, we decided to leave and head farther north.  After half an hour of driving, we ended up in Palm Beach, at the end of the northern beaches peninsula, looking out north towards Broken Bay.  With the light drizzle, cool breeze, and overcast sky, we felt like we were in the Pacific Northwest.  We stopped in town, across from the beach, at a coffee shop for a cuppa and a sausage roll.  We sat outside and enjoyed morning tea watching the waves crash on the surfers and orange colored beach.  When we finished, and made our way back to the car, I stopped when I heard the familiar laughing coming from a kookaburra.  I was really keen to show my parents one and have them listen to the contagious laughing calls.  If you have never heard a kookaburra laughing, please a video below.  It is by far one of the best bird noises that I have ever heard, and it will surely get you to start laughing along!  What a beautiful bird!

We headed back down the coast to get home.  As we got closer to home, the weather started clearing more and more; the sun finally decided to show and the rest of the day turned out quite well.  Back in Kirribilli, we decided to have lunch just up the street from the apartment at the Fish and Chip shop and deli. 

Dad and I both had the special- grilled John Dory with chips, and a small salad.  My mom was keen on the lamb roast sandwich.  I had never tried John Dory, an extremely ugly fish if you ask me, but my dad said it was good.  It was cooked perfectly and was tender with the perfect consistency; I was surprised how light the flavor was!

After lunch, we headed over the harbor to Circular Quay via the train.  When we arrived, we ran into, of all people, Linda and Ernie!  We couldn’t believe it!  We knew that they were in Sydney and would be here for a couple days overlapping our stay but what are the chances of running into them? 

We walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens looking at species of different fauna from around the world.  Each specimen was labeled with its species name and family.  I was really impressed with the layout of the park and the information provided to its patrons.  After making it out to MacQuaries Point, just across Farm Cove from the Sydney Opera House, we headed back into Circular Quay where we stopped at the bar/restaurant where we ate on the first night to have a beer with Linda and Ernie.  We really enjoyed their company and had a nice conversation looking over the water at the Harbour Bridge and the ferries coming in and going out of the Quay.

After parting with Linda and Ernie, we headed back to Kirribilli to have some dinner.  We decided on the Pizza place just up the street.  My mom and I both had pizza and my dad had pasta.  Why is it that everything here is so delicious?  It is so obvious that Australians take food seriously.  They really seem to care what goes out on the plate to customers.  You rarely get this kind of delicious consistency at home, unless you are eating at the same restaurants as Michelle Obama. 

Tomorrow, we are going to hang around the city on the last day.  I’m looking forward to heading back to the fish market one last time to eat some oysters!