Hi all and happy August!!  Here is what we have been up to.

I was off on a Monday and we went to Featherdale Wildlife Park, located about an hour west by train from the city.  They have all Australian animals including wallabies and kangaroos you can feed.  The day started out rainy, but turned nicer.  I loved the park so much.  I got my cute animal fix and it wasn’t crowded, so the wallabies were very willing to eat from your hand and cup.  They had one quokka and a bilby too.  So good for me and put me in a happy place.  We had lunch on the way back into town.

On the weekend, I worked Saturday and then had a lunch with some ladies from SLS Sunday.  It was a really neat restaurant and set up with the dining around the open kitchen.  Very cool place in Paddington.  Right after our long Sunday lunch, I went to a SLS Oysters night.  So good, even though I was really full on lamb.  I helped my friend make it from lunch to oysters on public transport and home.  She tapped her very first Opal card.  🙂 I am so happy to be able to see so much of the city and hang out with these amazing women.

I got my new phone all set up thanks to Brandon.  It is working well.  We have also been watching a few movies on the weekend; Deadpool 2, The Dictator, and Upgrade, all amusing in their own way.  I am rereading the Divergent series, so we will be watching those movies as I finish the books.  We had a self-help type book for book club this month that I found interesting.  Not really helpful in my case, but interestingly written.  We will see what the rest of the Book Club group thought of it next Tuesday.  I also got a stack of financing books from the library to help me understand the different options between the US and here.  It has been cooler at night and very windy.  Thankfully the sun is still out, so the days are nicer.  The plants and animals think it is spring with flowers blooming and the trees all leafing out, though it has been breezy.

This past weekend, we spent Saturday on the Northern beaches with Brandon’s friend and his wife.  They drove us up to Palm Beach where we did some hiking and then had lunch.  We were going to go up the trail to the lighthouse, but then the wind picked up and it started raining.  We elected to drive more of the coast and then hang out at their apartment in Curl Curl.  They are from Hungry and had us try Hungarian schnapps.  We stuck to the fruity ones and they were good.  It was a fun day and evening with them.

Sunday, we went to church, then stopped at a cafe to warm up with a coffee, before spending the day outside in the wind at the Italian Festival in Five Dock.  We hung out with one of my friends from the SLS who is Italian and she showed us the ropes.  🙂 We ate arancini, mozzarella sticks, fresh gnocchi, and a zippoli for dessert.  It was so delicious.  They had a bunch of Fiats and Ducatis on display, as well as other Italian vendors. We returned home full and happy.

Today I was off and we had a successful day.  We took the train to North Sydney and had a business meeting.  We stopped for lunch and got to spend the day together.  Pretty fun thing to do on a random Tuesday.  We have started putting plans together for our trip back to Wisconsin.  We have so many people to catch up with and my cousin’s wedding; this trip will be a whirlwind.  Enjoy the pictures!