One Sunday morning this summer, joined by the Bell family, we were lucky enough to experience a king tide at Clovelly.

Clovelly has an unusual layout for a beach. The beach shore is quite narrow and there are rocks and cliffs that extend for a few hundred metres out to sea. In the 30s, as a depression era project, they covered the rocks with a concrete promenade. This is where we, and the sophisticated set, usually sit. The beach is generally crawling with toddlers and covered with family sized tents. The promenade has the added bonus of no sand. I'm not a fan of sand.

On the morning of the king tide, the water was high enough to be washing over the concrete promenade. It was lovely to splash along in the impromptu wading pool. Oscar and Leo (and all the kids at Clovelly) had a fabulous time jumping off the walls of the promenade into the ocean.

The snorkelling was great too. Mum and Dad have started taking jatz crackers to feed the fishies at Clovelly. I always put a few in the pocket of my boardies. The fish follow you around even when you have run out of crackers. On the morning of the king tide even Oscar had a go at feeding the fishies. We had our underwater camera out that day and were able to snap a few photos.



I'm hoping we can fit a few more mornings in at Clovelly before autumn, and cooler weather, actually arrives. Fingers crossed for good weather this weekend...

More photos on Flickr.

The Brisvegas Wilsons came down in November for Ivan's 80th birthday. It was great to catch up with Ben, Janet and Isaac who we haven't seen for a year. Poor Isaac doesn't get much fushmush space because they live so far away. So here are some photos to make up for it a little bit. We spent a morning playing in the front garden in the sunshine.

Little EddyG turned one on Wednesday. Happy Birthday Eddy!

We were lucky enough to spend the day with the birthday boy. We snorkelled at Gordons Bay (we saw a couple of rays!). We followed that little bit of exercise with grilled fish and chips at Coogee. It was a great 1st birthday celebration. It was also a 29th birthday celebration as Eddy shares his birthday with his Dad, Goldy. Poor Goldy. Nobody is ever going to make a big deal out of your birthday again. We promise we'll make a big deal out of your 30th birthday. Well, we'll call you old at least.

For Eddy's 1st birthday I made him a lambykins. Like the one below except from different material.

Usually, I have to explain what the present is after it is opened. It's a soft toy but it also doubles as a pillow. We didn't have to explain it to Eddy though. We put lambykins in front of him and he put his head straight down and gave it a hug. Everyone there went "awwwwwwwwwww". It was very cute. It's nice to see your presents in action and being appreciated.
Thanks to Nina for the photo. I stupidly forgot to take my camera on the day.

This year, to celebrate Andrew's birthday we went to see Avatar 3D at IMAX. Here we are in our 3D glasses. Don't we look sexy! The movie was pretty good. The story wasn't anything new (um... pocahontas anyone?) but it was well-paced and there were enough action sequences to keep me amused. The 3D technology was impressive. Andrew gives it 4.5 stars out of 5 (which is a big recommendation from him).

After the movie we headed to dinner at Wagaya in Haymarket. We'd picked this dinner spot for one reason... sushi roulette. How does it work? Well you order a plate of 6 salmon nigiri except there is a catch. One of the nigiris has double the amount of wasabi than normal. So, one lucky diner cops a fiery mouthful of sushi.

The participants in our round of sushi roulette were Sue, Andrew, Simon, Clare, Brendan and Adam.

Who was the lucky winner? You'll have to watch the video to find out.




Thanks to GrabYourFork for the restaurant recommendation.

We had a great view for the fireworks on New Years Eve. We spent the evening in a city apartment with a fantastic view over the domain to the harbour bridge. It's not our apartment but Paddy and Kat's digs. Paddy and Kat headed to Western Australia over the Christmas break to hang out with Kat's family so, we volunteered to road test their apartment. Just to make sure it was really good venue for NYE. It was. Paddy and Kat, it's all set and ready to go for NYE 2010.

The Sydney fireworks are so impressive, especially with the bridge as a centre piece. Sydney has a reputation as the best NYE fireworks in the world. I think it's a reputation that Sydney is always trying to retain. This year the city spent 50% more on fireworks than they did last year. Last year they spent more than they ever had before. The fireworks certainly went off with a big bang. We hung off Paddy's balcony and oohed and aahed. I even applauded at the end. I'm not sure that they are worth all that money but they are certainly very pretty.



So all in all in it was a good last night of 2009... good company, good music, good fireworks, good fun. We're looking forward to 2010.

More photos on Flickr.