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Sunday, 26.10.2008 We have been whale watching!! Awesome!!! It was a four hour trip on a fairly big boat in fine weather. Still, the sea was quite rough. But the humpback whales (Buckelwal) seemed to like it and showed us lots of acrobatics. It was just amazing!!! We saw dolphins, too. Sarah got seasick, but luckily it was only on the way back to Sydney harbour. Smelly as we all were after this, we decided to go straight home after the trip rather than buying souvenirs at Darling Harbour... Sorry, no pressies for you guys ;-)
Thursday, 23.10.2008 Sarah is enjoying the swimming lessons more and more. She even likes wearing daddy's goggles. Not too sure about her cycling helmet, though...
Monday, 20.10.2008 Like every Saturday morning we went to the swimming pool. After a second breakfast at home, we went to Mt. Annan Botanical Garden. We have been there before, but we didn't climb Mt. Annan last time. So this time we went up the 'mountain', just to discover that ants had built their home on the top of the hill and Sarah ended up having ants in her pants... We had lunch at the garden cafe and Sarah played in the playground. What a botanical weekend: On Sunday we went to Sydney to the botanical garden. From most places in the garden you can see the opera house and the harbour bridge. Sarah loved to run around on the lawns. We had a picnic under a shady tree with a perfect view of the opera house. The botanical garden is full with trees which are full with flying foxes. Most of the times when you think a bird is flying over your head, it is one of these huge bats. Afterwards we went up the Sydney Tower for some great views of the city. With 304 m / 1000 ft it is a bit shorter than the Sky Tower in Auckland or the Eiffel tower, but it still has fantastic views. When we got home Sarah had suddenly over 39°C fever. She didn't eat much of our BBQ dinner, had a quick bath and went to bed in our bedroom (aircon). Next morning the fever had gone. Sarah and I are still suffering from the cold that we had all week. It doesn't seem to clear up.
Friday, 17.10.2008 I just had a look at the weather forecast for the coming 2 weeks. It is almost identical to what we had in many other weeks including last week. Generally we have maximum temperatures around or just below 20°C during the week, then it warms up on Friday and Saturday and temperatures peak just below 30°C on Sunday. On Monday they suddenly drop back to below 20°C. This is really a pattern - cold week, hot weekend, sudden drop. And it is almost spooky that the forecast looks the same for the next 2 weeks:
So this is spring in the Sydney region! If this was a summer in Europe - excellent!! It's usually the opposite in Europe - good weather during the week and rain at the weekend, isn't it? With this weather and now that we had a pest spray carried out against webbing spider, I could even almost imagine us living here permanently ;-). Aldi is even selling some of my Christmas favourites here, including ginger breads and Stollen, but in this weather I can't really see myself drinking tea and eating Christmas treats. Maybe while sitting in the paddling pool? I bought an advent chocolate calendar for me and Sarah to share anyway... We are going to ignore Christmas here as much as possible and celebrate in January when we are back in cold Holland. Sarah started to really enjoy the swimming. The lessons have started again this week and she was quite happy to join in this time, holding on to the edge of the pool, climbing out, sliding back in, going under water with her head and so on. When we are leaving the pool she always shouts bye-bye as loud as she can and waves in all directions of the (rather large) pool building, much to the amusement of all the people in the pool ;-) Sarah also seems to learn one new word per day. I have to add to the list: turtle, potty, crème, click, komm her, come on, monkey. And the last item for today (but certainly not the least!) - my little brother is getting married today! It is sad that we can't be there but at least we won't miss the party as that will be next year. HERZLICHEN GLUECKWUNSCH, BRUDERHERZ UND SCHWAEGERIN !!!
Sunday, 12.10.2008 This weekend we turned Sarah's cottage into a car, which she
seems to like even better. Nick found another redback spider in the garden,
right next to the patio where Sarah is often playing. He killed it with a poison
spray and keeps it in a film canister like a hunter's trophy (see photo below)!
As this little creature is potentially death on 8 legs, we booked a professional
pest controller to spray garden and house against webbing spiders. Otherwise we
can't really enjoy being outdoors, which would be a shame, because we just
bought a nice big paddling pool for the three of us (it's no longer in the front
room but on the patio filled with water)!
Sunday, 05.10.2008 We had a quite rainy weekend, so we had to find some indoor
activities.
Sarah in her card board cottage
Sarah riding a wombat Butterfly!
Friday, 03.10.2008 We have been busy booking
holidays this week. We are going to go to Adelaide with the Indian Pacific train
in November. The Indian Pacific goes from Sydney all the way across Australia to
Perth in 3 days (4352 km). We just do the first third of the whole trip. The
trip takes about 24h, including a short stopover in the outback town Broken
Hill. We are going to stay in a 'gold' class cabin with 2 berths and ensuite
toilet/shower and Sarah will get a little cot. That's going to be good fun we
hope! We are going to stay in Adelaide for a couple of days an then fly back to
Sydney. Indian Pacific train ê
Thursday, 02.10.2008 Unbelievable, it's already October! We have spring school holidays for two weeks, so Sarah doesn't have swimming lessons. I took her to the pool anyway, and she was really enjoying it this time, no crying! |
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© Katja & Nick, last updated January 2012 |
ïñ Baby humpback whale
ïñ Mother humpback whale
Dolphins
Picnic view
Flying foxes
Coogee Beach
Nelson Bay picnic
View back to Nelson Bay
Bondi Beach
Taking all her friends to bed - 'night night'
Sydney Wildlife World
'Koala!'
