The Bell Family

Well, we have just got back from a lovely holiday in Sydney. I must admit that I enjoyed my time there a lot more than I had expected! There were so many things to do and so many sights to see.

The reason for travelling down to Sydney was to attend the Wedding of some friends, Justin and Sarah. But with the Grandparents looking after Laura, we thought we would make the most out of the trip and spend some quality time together. The flight down to Sydney was uneventful and included a quick change over flight in Brisbane. We arrived at Sydney late Thursday morning, located our bags and grabbed a shuttle bus to our Motel. We couldn’t check in until 2pm, so we left our bags there and headed towards Darling Harbour. It was raining so we decided to see some of the indoor sights!

First stop was the Aquarium… and I must say it was awesome! If you enjoy looking at platypuses, turtles, all types of fresh and salt water fish, seals, sea horses, sting rays and, of course, sharks, then it is definitely the place to be!

Next, we visited the Maritime Museum, which had various historical displays including artefacts from early Australian exploration and the old whaling days. It also had a fair few Navy relics and some old pieces from historical boats and war ships.

After a couple of hours walking, our feet were really feeling it, so we decided to head back to our Motel to check in and take it easy for a while. After a bit of a rest, we headed into The Rocks to catch up with the Bride and Groom and a few friends for dinner. We went to a nice Italian place where we shared a pizza. It was nice to catch up with some of Chrissy’s old school friends and after dinner we went to a pub for a few drinks and generally had a good time.

By Friday morning, it was time for more sight seeing, so after a great breakfast we headed towards some of the major shopping areas. We walked through the Queen Victoria Building which contains shops well out of reach of our price range, but it was interesting to look at! We also looked at Centrepoint Tower shopping centre, but decided to pass on the $200+ ‘tower walk’! After that, the weather started to fine up so we headed towards Circular Quay. We visited the Sydney Opera House and the Botanical Gardens and could see the Harbour Bridge and Luna Park. As the sun started to set, we headed back to the Motel to prepare for another night out on the town.

We decided to try the “Star City” Casino and had a great time. Best of all, we had some luck on both Blackjack and Roulette, which payed for dinner and a few drinks! We visited one of the restaurants and a few of the bars, as well as the night club where we went for a dance, getting back at around 3am in the morning!

After a bit of a sleep in (naturally) on Saturday morning, we had some breakfast and then headed to Paddy’s markets. We couldn’t help ourselves, so we bought Laura a few t-shirts including an ‘Aussie’ shirt, which looks like an Australian cricket shirt (poor girl)! If you like looking at knick-nacks, cheap clothes and various electric gadgets then this was a great place to visit. As you can imagine, this consumed a number of hours!

We then headed back to our Motel, which wasn’t that far away, where we grabbed a bite to eat and got ready for the Wedding. The ceremony was held at The Garrison Church which was built around the early 1800’s. After some photo’s, we then headed to the “Lord Nelson” pub for a few drinks and Chrissy got to catch up with all her old school friends which was great. The cricket was on the TV at the pub, however the funny thing was that no-one seemed interested in watching it, until I realised that the game was between Queensland and Tasmania and I was in New South Wales

After a couple of hours had passed we then headed to the reception which was held at the Waters Edge. Talk about location…. This place had an awesome view of the harbour, Luna Park, Harbour Bridge and the city. It was an awesome sight to simply see, let alone have dinner and attend a reception at a place like this, so we lapped up every minute! The only downer was that it was $8 for a bourbon and coke, but other than that, the meals were awesome and some of the best we’ve ever had! Even though there was around 170 guests at the Wedding, it was still really intimate and lots of fun, so we really enjoyed ourselves.

Sunday and it was my Birthday. After a bit of a sleep in (again, got to get our money’s worth), we headed down to Circular Quay again and jumped on the Manly Ferry. The ferry was pretty cool and arrived at Manly Beach around lunch time. We went for a walk and grabbed some fish and chips. We then went for a walk along the beach front, around to Shelly Beach. Talk about busy, there were people everywhere! Though the weather was perfect for the beach and I didn’t mind seeing lots of girls wearing bikini’s either

After the walk, it was time for us to head back to the mainland and then to our Motel. Again after a bit of a rest, we headed out to a very nice restaurant called “I’m Angus” where I had one of the best steaks I have ever had. The meal, though expensive, was awesome… We then went for a great walk and then headed to the Casino again where we were lucky enough to win some more money, which capped off my Birthday quite well!

On Monday, we headed to the Powerhouse Museum. There was everything from science and technology to space, to sustainable communities and computers! I must admit I enjoyed it a lot more than the Maritime Museum, but, if anything, there was almost too much to look at and it was quite easy to get lost, but definitely worth the trip.

We had some lunch and then checked out of the Motel and headed to the airport, which was where the real fun began. To cut a long story short, our flight from Sydney left around 5pm and it was one of the roughest flights I have ever been on and we landed in Brisbane around 20-30 minutes late. But that was nothing, we then sat at Brisbane airport for another 5 hours as our connecting flight had been delayed because of bad weather and storms… we were due back in Rocky at 8pm, however we didn’t arrive until 2am!!!
Oh well, we had a fantastic time anyway and we’re looking forward to another trip sometime soon which will take us into the Suburbs to catch up with friends and family!!!

Cheers,
Jason and Chrissy

Well Laura thought that she would help me with shovelling sand into the wheelbarrow by climbing the sand mountain and of course pushing it down to make it easily for me!!!

As you can see, she had a ball and she even climbed to the top of the sand all by herself… Giving that it was almost time for a bath for her anyway, we didn’t think that if would hurt for her to have some fun and that is exactly what she did.

Take it easy,
Jason.

Well the back yard blitz is still going strong and we now have a slab down for the shed and the edging down for the gardens.

Still got a lot more to do, but it is slowly getting there.

Will try and keep everything updated so you can see all is going on.

Takes it easy,
Jas.

Well the demolition has begun!!! I have taken this week off work to begin the renovation of the backyard.

This morning we had a bobcat come in and remove a lot of the grass, rocks and roots from around the fence line where we wish to install a new garden edge. We also got the bobcat to level the rest of the backyard and lay the foundation for a slab for the shed.

We’re also going to install a new in-ground sprinkler system, fill the gardens with new garden soil, plant some palms and then mulch the new gardens.

So over the coming weeks and following weekends we will be kept very busy.

Will endeavour to keep the Blog up to date to keep you informed on how it is all going.

Take it easy,
Jas.