Sydney with Bryan's cousin Nigel

  Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Saturday, December 20, 2014

We hadn't originally planned to come back to Australia but as we were in Malaysia so close to Christmas, and as Bryan's cousin Nigel and his wife Cath had offered to let us stay with them, and as we could get a really cheap flight, there didn't seem like any reason not to go! Nigel & Cath met us at the airport and we all seemed to get along straight away.  Bryan and Nigel hadn't really spent much time together since they were all kids and Jody and Cath had only met each other once briefly before under much sadder circumstances. But the vibes were good for us having a lovely couple of weeks together. We arrived on the 19th December and spent the first day just catching up and getting settled in then on the 21st - Jody's birthday - they took us to The Rocks to look around the open air market there (quite similar to Covent Garden but with sun shine if you have ever been there) Then they took us to a lovely italian restaurant for lunch which was lovely. That evening we were introduced to lots of Cath's family who have been here (in varying degrees) for 40 years or more as her cousin Bill was hosting a barbecue that night. All her family were lovely and made us feel very welcome. The next day we were invited to join them all again as cousin Bill has a speed boat and they were planning another day together.  You can read all about the fabulous boat trip on a separate entry. We had quite a busy schedule those first few days and one of the highlights was meeting up with old pals Lila & Simon. We had stayed with them the first time we were in Sydney 3 years ago and so we were really looking forward to seeing them again. So all 6 of us met up in the city centre & played the Escape Hunt Experience. This entailed us being locked in a room (boys in one and girls in the other) and playing against the clock we had to solve the puzzles to escape from the room. We were given an hour but gosh did that hour go by quickly. We were all doing really well but not well enough. Our hours were up and we were still stuck in the rooms. The boys did make it out first but only just! The girls planned it that way actually so the boys had a chance to get a cup of tea for them when they got out! Later the same day Sam - Nigel & Cath's son, arrived from England so they went to pick him up from the airport and it was nice to meet him later that evening and get to know him a bit. Christmas Day was soon upon us and we spent the morning unwrapping our gifts from each other. We had some lovely gifts but I think the highlight was definitely the pee pee boy we had bought for Nigel. The pee pee boy is something the Chinese invented to tell if your water was the correct temperature to make tea with. If you look at the photos, Nigel's face is a picture when we demonstrated how it worked to him! We had a good giggle over that one. We were all going over to Cath's other cousin John's for the day. Apparently it was his and his wife and family's turn to cater for everyone this year. All the family there as well as us and Nigel & Cath and Sam, there was Cath's Aunty Pat and Uncle Bill, her cousins Bill & John, John's wife Mary-Ann and their children, Mary Ann's mother & father, and Laura & Morgan whose house we had been to for the barbecue and cousin Bill's daughter Bethany. Quite a house full. The food was delicious and being all ex-pats they went the whole turkey kaboodle and didn't go for the barbie on the beach as you might have expected. It has been 6 months since we had roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding so we were definitely pleased. They had even made a sherry trifle which pleased Bryan no end! Boxing day was race day. Cath & Nigel often go but they had us and Sam along for the ride this time. Cath & Jody got straight onto the bubbly whilst the men set up the chairs! The only one to leave the track with any real winnings was Sam but once again we had had a really lovely day so it didn't matter about the winnings. We had a couple of days doing absolutely nothing but on the 28th The Robbins all left for Bali which left us home alone with Fraggle the cat. We were going to house and cat sit whilst they were away and they had very kindly let us have use of Cath's car too so it meant we could get out and about a bit. Our first trip out was to Manly beach but you can read about that separately. We took a couple of other trips out - for Bryan swimming mainly - and to the pictures. We saw a weird film called Interstellar. We won't say what happens in case you haven't seen it. New Years Eve finally arrived and this was our Bucket List event! But as always with the special things we do, you can read about it separately :-) Just to say it was brilliant and we can now cross that off our list. You can also read about our trip to Luna Park separately too. Now there was another fabulous day out. The Robbins all came home on Monday 5th and they had a lovely time. Fraggle was really pleased to see Cath again for sure. We managed to get to see the Hobbit at the cinema too as it was the last of the trilogy and it would have been terrible to miss it.  (Well Jody thought so but Bryan hadn't really followed the story) For our last day in Sydney we decided to go to Bondi Beach as we hadn't been there on this trip at all.  It was a scorcher of a day and with a few picnic provisions we drove down there. Right up by the water line it was pretty busy but the beach itself still had plenty of space to spread out. We only spent a couple of hours there but it was enough for us all to catch a bit of sun and for Nigel & Bryan to have a bit of a muck about in the water. Last time we were here the water was much too cold to swim in as it was coming into their winter down here. Bryan got to swim in the Iceberg Swimming Club again and we followed it up with some yummy chips! Our last evening here and we met up with Lila & Simon again. We went to her new house this time as her dad has rebuilt his house so he can have both his daughters living either side of him. We met with him briefly when we arrived and he seemed like a really lovely man. Lila was telling us how much he liked his Christmas present we had sent him - a catapult, and how he was reminiscing about when he had one as a young boy. It put a big smile on his face which was great. Lila and Simon's house is great but come on Lila - sort your "stuff" out :-) We went for a really delicious meal. They had said they wanted to take us out for Jody's birthday and this was our first opportunity to do that. We went to Bodhi - a vegetarian restaurant in the city centre. The food was beautiful. We ordered a collection of dishes and all tucked in. Wonderful. Then they took us on a magical mystery tour and we ended up at Messina - an icecream parlour. But at 10pm at night, there were queues all down the street and the shop was managing crowd control. Amazing! Jody had apple pie and Bryan had Banana Split and Pear and Rhubarb. Delicious. We had a really lovely evening with then and returned home at about 11:30 and arrived to a houseful! All the family were there and a couple of new faces too as they had been having a barbecue. We were pleased that we had the chance to say goodbye to everyone before we left (except John - bye bye John). Although we are not sure anyone will remember us being there judging by the number of empty bottles. Seems like everyone had a great night tonight! We truly have had a lovely time in Sydney. It was great seeing Lila & Simon again and getting the chance to spend some time with Nigel & Cath and getting to know all the family there. We are sure we will be back sometime :-) Next stop - New Zealand - yes we are going to find the Hobbits! [gallery columns="4" ids="9538,9542,9556,9565,9576,9584,9600,9618,9626,9635,9647,9657,9671,9683,9692,9703,9714,9720,9731,9740,9749,9761,9770,9783,9794,9805,9814,9821,9836,9849,9854,9864,9869,9877,9887,9891,9898,9905,9910,9913,9921,9929,9933,9935"]