Around Sydney - Town Dec/Jan

Cam and I really enjoyed ourselves over the Holidays & thought I'd share some shots with you of the festivities. Some of these are from our weekend of Michelle's graduation. Here is Cam, me, MaryEd, & Michelle at the Oaks, a fantastic restaurant that lets you cook your own food to your liking.







Marg, Tony, and Ian all were in Sydney for Michelle's BBQ party at the Harnell's house overlooking the harbor.





Cam, Michelle and I all went on a great little walk around the outside of the zoo.


The zoo was like a zoo with lots of people who were in town for the fireworks. We caught amazing views of the harbor, noticed a guy with binoculars staring into the boats, and accidentally ran into two groups of wedding photos. This shot clearly indicates the great trail, well maintained. The only problem: you can't bring dogs. Still a great walk if you are ever in Sydney with little to do...

Christmas 2011 (mostly in New South Wales)

Before Cam & I left for Christmas, I went to my office party. I was trying to think of home, but was much too hot in my outfit of the warm scarf my brother gave me for Christmas a few years back. I played my first ever lawn-bowls game. It was more difficult than it looks, but I held my own. I think we bent the rules a bit, but the winning team you see below came out on top.


We gave very small gifts to the Harnell kids who live in Bowral, NSW. We bought a card game called "skip-bo" by the makers of Uno, but I found it kinda hard. I think it would be better with more players.


The best part about new games is playing with them! Here is Amelia with Olive the Octopus very good at being a "hot potato."





Christmas dinner was shrimp (prawns here is the land down under), oysters (that I don't particularly like and don't eat), deviled eggs (ewww) and more prawns! Those were yummy & non-meat just like home.





I was lucky enough to capture Marg's expression upon receiving her gift from her two kids: Scott & Michelle. Its a Michelle original, but just check out her face! S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E!

Cam & I were pretty good this year because we got some sweet presents. We opened more presents at home (seemed silly to fly them across the country just to fly them back). The scarf & necklace are from Cam's parents, as is Cam's "Obamao" t-shirt making Obama look like Mao.

Early December & Michelle's Graduation

We celebrated Michelle's graduation from the National Art School by having a whole group of us go to her school. It is located in a former prison & the award ceremony was in a former "cell block." They've taken out all the floors (can you see the staircase on the wall behind the people?) and have a raised stage at one end. Michelle won an award (that is her in black receiving it).


Michelle's Dad came from the US for the occasion as well as her Mom, Cam, me, and a bunch of friends & other family. Here is Michelle with her Dad (originally a Canadian, now in CA).




Tony bought one of Michelle's originals: "Herb & Dorothy". Named after a couple on TV, these two convex & concave pieces look really fantastic when hung right next to each other. They live down at the farm now.



Michelle was the star of the photos posing with everyone! This is her Mom who came down from Cains. The red painting behind her was sold to a hospital in Sydney & should be gracing a hallway there this year! Michelle sold almost all of her pieces (2 did not sell, but she had 10+).

The whole group got a quick shot, except for Shawn who was buying some of Michelle's boxes. I love this shot with Michelle and her entourage!



Some final images to show you the rest of her paintings. She used similar techniques on all of them, but this blue one was the earliest I think. There was black, red, purple, blue, and green large paintings. Congrats on your graduation Michelle & getting into honors!

In the papers...

I was in Adelaide's main paper! It was for the Unley Museum's most recent exhibition entitled Gorgeous Gardens. The photo was quite awkward to take, but the shot turned out OK.

Check it out (especially the pic).

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/mow-the-merrier-at-the-unley-museum/story-e6frea6u-1226216618544

If anyone reading this happens to be in Adelaide, swing by the Unley Museum, it's free!

September Flashback: Glenside Hospital

Cam & I went to Glenside Hospital, which has recently gone over to Arts SA and become this movie studio. It was unusual, but the culture of the hospital still peeped through, when allowed. Here are a few pics from our afternoon.



Glenside has an amazing array of buildings, most of which date from the nineteenth century. The stonework was really remarkable keeping inmates cool in the summer months.




The views from the windows must have been frustrating. You couldn't open more than one small window, only letting in a little fresh air.








The film studio had lots of rooms that had very special purposes. This one was for hair and makeup and I thought I'd take a moment to pretty myself up.






The best part of our visit were the cut-outs. I'm not sure if you've noticed my attraction to them, but, I really love cut outs. Aren't my legs skinny?

Toby & Cultural Cache on UTube

Hey all

Toby, Cam's brother, has recently posted a video on UTube. Toby and his wife Yalda started Cultural Cache as a tour guide business to the Middle East.

Their most recent adventure will take them to Armenia with another student from the University of Chicago.

Check out Elizabeth Fagan's video & on the right hand side is an even better one by Toby.
http://youtu.be/HrNgWYafhJ8

Their website if you'd like to join a tour (I've heard lots of positive things) is
http://www.culturalcache.com

THANKSGIVING 2011

Cam and I had 10 of our friends over for Thanksgiving. It was a splendid evening although a few small glitches. I'll retell the highlights.

We borrowed dishes and stemware from our neighbor and turned our living room into a dining hall.

We decided to buy a new carving knife for the turkey. Look how shinny. Funny enough, when we headed to Adelaide market to pick up the bird on Thursday AM there wasn't one! I ordered one a week ago and the man I talked to said it would be frozen. I thought that was fine and asked him to thaw it out for me on Monday so by Thursday it would be ready to cook. Well, he didn't have an explanation for it, but we showed up and didn't have a thawed turkey. So Cam saved the day and we just bought turkey pieces and cooked those. Too bad Cam's new knife didn't get to carve anything too big.

Since Thanksgiving is all about the food, check out the size of these sweet potatoes! We did a glazed sweet potato with marshmallow topping. It went down really well.

For the appetizer I made stuffed mushrooms. They were very tasty. Also, check out the pumpkin pie. Maryed gave me these pie crust decorators and they really dress up the deserts.

Most thanksgivings include successes and shortcomings. This one had two major shortcomings: the stuffing wasn't all that awesome (a bit dry and huge chunks) and the pumpkin roll shown above didn't "roll" as much as plop. I tried to have it look as good as Aunt Rita's but alas, it wasn't. Tasty but not pretty.

I loved having Oki over as well. He was outside most of the evening, but we brought him in once people had stopped eating. We even got creative with our napkins. This is me & Amer from Cam's work with Oki's red eyes.

Here is the group shot of everyone. Going around the table we have Jan, Hamish, Deb, Scott, Deb, Tony, Cam, Sean, Jo, Amer, and Gabriella. Thanks to everyone for coming over and we will have to do it again.