We're heading back to Canada soon for Reena's Wedding and Christmas.
What are we most looking forward to?
Jaime:
Cuddling my momma and dadoo
Sitting around the table chatting with family
Sleeping in my bed
Pri:
Hovering around the kitchen chatting with Reena/Dad while Mom cooks and I half-help
Driving a car with steering on the left-hand side
Drinks with the boys
We're also pumped to go on the A380 again... lets hope the self-serve snack bar is stocked up!
What are we not looking forward to?
Airport transfer via the states (Pri: cue customs officer asking a dozen questions even though we're only there on a 2 hour layover, massive disorganization at the airport and having to re-check baggage half way through the trip)
Picked up a $10 boogie board during one of our shopping runs, some people call it an impulse buy I call it necessity. We made the decision to give it a run before heading back to Canada. Took the ferry to Manly Beach and lucked out because there were some awesome waves today.
We decided it was time to celebrate the beginning of christmas in a country where december is marked by 40 degree weekends instead of snow, "thongs" also know as flip flops instead of snow boots and outdoor patio's with a local brew instead of your favourite hot drink by the fireplace.
Sydney was showcasing their christmas spirit with their annual lighting of their christmas tree.
We headed out after dinner, taking our usual 30 min walk across the harbour bridge and into the CBD. We got to Martin Place and saw a sea of children in Christmas hats singing Christmas carols to an outdoor concert.
I think I experienced my first tinge of racism out here. I was in the suburbs with my nephew waiting to cross the street when some guy and woman in a car flipped the bird while holding down the horn as they drove by us. I was fuming, but my nephew says it happens every now and then. Sorta glad we're living in the city as its a bit more mixed and you get a bit less of this sort of thing.
The guy could have been doing it to another driver for cutting him off for all I know, no point dwelling on it I guess.
email forwards with pictures of divo's from various family members - check
brightly coloured cards in the mail - check
oily foods that you probably shouldn't be eating but taste soo good - check
home made pendas - check
bottle of hennessy - check
fresh fish loaded with masalo - check
phone calls back home with repeated salmubaraks with every permutation of family member on both sides of the telephone line - check
Our Aussie twist:
We started the day with Bootcamp at 6am, followed by an early morning visit to the Sydney Fish Market. We picked up trout, calamari and a white fish fillet. Upon our return we had a package waiting for us from Mom and Dad who had sent us homemade chevro/gathya and chuckri!
Finish work, catch a 2 1/2 flight to New Zealand, spend a weekend there and back in time for work on Monday
We flew Air New Zealand for about $275 return. Not bad considering its an entirely different country and back in Canada you could spend $500+ for a flight from Toronto to Montreal which is totally drivable
A tip for traveling on a cheap flight:
Pack
a sandwich (it's healthier and convenient), load up your tablet with
your favorite show and travel light. Why such a cheap arse, well food
is an extra $10-15, checked baggage is $25-50, inflight movies are $10.
So if you do all that you end up turning a good flight deal into a not
so good deal pretty quickly. Might as well have booked a regular flight. Or put the money you could be saving towards a bottle of Hennesey in Duty Free :)
On another note you know the safety video you're forced to watch on the plane before you take off. Air New Zealand has to have one of the more interesting ones out there. A lot better than the usual 1980's cheap budget over acted stuff you usually see.
On to the actual trip. Our visit to Masa and Masi's was great, it was lovely to have some home cooked meals, especially the Diwali snacks. Masi made a lot of my favourites, I speculate there was some conferring with my mum.
What did we get up to during our short 2 day visit?.... we took a tour of the Auckland downtown area, fish market, Auckland War Memorial Museum where we watch a traditional Maori cultural performance, checked out the nearby botanical gardens and tried unsuccessfully to take pictures with skittish sheep near One Tree Hill. The next day we visited the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves and dipped further into Masa's awesome stash of fine wines. Before we knew it we were on a plane back home.Time flies when you're having fun. On to the pictures:
helicopter on the back of a war ship... now thats cool
we didn't eat here but took this pic for my dad
Thanks Masa, Masi and Aarti for a fantastic weekend!
This is our first year making Diwali food Together
After some passionate discussion about our favorite items we landed on Chevro, Suka para and nankathai
I really wanted mutha but apparently that's even more of a pain to make than Chevro
We were missing our Kari and karao so had to improvise a bit
It's interesting when you get married because both moms have their own taste and set of recipes and as offspring you want to match what you grew up eating but balance that with what your partner is used to. If you're both cooking then you end up with some sort of fusion between the two. If its just one of you cooking then you can usually just do it your way
We checked out the Sculpture by the Sea exhibit this weekend at Bondi Beach. Glad we went early, its was insanely busy by the time we left. http://www.sculpturebythesea.com
