Hi all and Happy August!!  Happy Birthday to my Mom and Lindsay a few days ago!! Hope your day was amazing just like you are!!

It has been lovely and sunny as we enter the last month of winter here in Sydney.  Apparently August is the most windy month of winter. The wind has been picking up, but I can’t say if I have noticed it more than other months.  We shall see, I suppose.  Last weekend I took the train to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains (about 2 hours outside of Sydney) for a girls weekend.  13 of us from the Sydney Ladies Social FB group had organized to rent an amazing Airbnb for Christmas in July.  We stayed at Dantosa Retreat House which had a main house and guest cottage on beautiful grounds with a lake, tennis court, wine cellar, two BBQ areas, and two outside hang out areas.  It was amazing and we all had our own beds.  The kitchen was all fitted out and we had a lovely relaxing time.  We all brought different food and drinks and a few of the girls were in charge of an amazing Christmas Lunch complete with mulled wine on Saturday.  We watched Christmas movies and hung out by the fire.  Three of us went to the Japanese Spa House, about 40 min away.  They had different mineral water pools at varying degrees of hot, a cold pool, a nap room, and a herbal steam room.  It was heavenly relaxing and we tried them all out, though not much time in the cold pool.  We then has tea in the zen tea room and I had an onsen egg too.  All the girls were great, most I had met at other SLS events and were friends with, some were new to me.  It was a great relaxing and recharging weekend.  On the way back, four of us piled in a car to see the Three Sisters (a rock formation in the Blue Mountains) and take a mini hike around them.  We got back to Sydney around lunch time on Sunday and Brandon and I took our own walk around the park.  They were playing soccer in ball suits again (so amusing!!) and it was such a nice day.

Sunday night we went to church at night and dinner in Balmain.  St. Augustine’s (our church) is going to try to do youth led masses on some Sunday nights, so they had a band playing.  It was a nice change to the traditional organ that they usually have.  Maybe they will get drums in the future and Brandon can join in. 🙂   I have gone the last two weeks on Wednesday nights to the ladies choir at our church called Bel Canto.  It seems like a fun group of women and it is good to sing again.  After practice, we go down the street to the pub for a glass of wine.  It is a win win really. 🙂  The women are a bit fascinated with me and my story of moving here.  Most have traveled the US extensively and some even lived there for a while.  It is fun to compare Australia and the US with so many different perspectives.  It will be good to get to know them better and learn from them; and of course sing. 🙂

Thursday night some of us from the SLS went to dinner at a restaurant called the Greens in North Sydney.  They have a really cool atmosphere with bowling greens and a nice patio.  They had a smores special for winter so we got to roast marshmallows over a fire to make them.  Apparently smores are not that big of a thing here, and I was the most experienced one by a long shot.  The marshmallows were more melty when burned and they had cookies instead of graham crackers, but it was still tasty.   Only a few marshmallows got burnt, but they were still happily eaten.  It was a lovely night.

Friday, I had some of my coworkers over for supper and a mini games night.  Yay taco salads and vegan ice cream!!  Saturday, we went to one of my friends from SLS’s housewarming up on the northern beaches in Narrabeen.  Their place is right on the ocean and amazing.  They had great food, drinks, and company and it was a nice day there.  Their cats were also gorgeous; Ragdolls!  We came home full, happy, and tired.  Today, we went to church, then out for drinks at a cafe in Balmain.  I tried Turkish coffee and Brandon got a homemade juice.  I liked mine, stronger and more bitter than I am used to.  It tasted like what my old espresso machine used to make that I got from a rummage sale.  We then checked out the growers market at the Tramsheds.  It was like a ritzy farmers’ market, but more bread and foods verses produce.  Now we are working on things at home, hanging out with the cats.

Have a great rest of your weekend and enjoy the pictures.  It may still be winter here, but the dandelions, trees, and daffodils aren’t being shy. So pretty!!