I wasn’t gonna blog about this because it’s our 7th time in Sydney since our move to Singapore 9 years ago. And every time we are here, we do nothing. Just eat, shop (for more food) and sleep. But I took a look at my recent blog posts and realised that I haven’t written much updates about us, although nobody really cares about such a post except maybe, me.

Anyhoo… this is what we’ve been up to in Sydney. We’ve been here for more than three weeks and counting…

The red eye flight to Sydney went rather swimmingly, considering it was Will’s first flight. Georgia refused to put on her seat belt despite being told repeatedly by the air stewardess. We kinda had to force her to stay put until the seatbelt sign turned off and by then she had used up all her energy in her cry and went zzzz immediately. Lauren pretty much knocked out the moment the plane took off and Will slept on the nursing pillow on my lap. I think I managed to have 2 short bursts of deep sleep too.

The first few days in Sydney was spent at home, just eating and sleeping. That is what everyone does on Christmas week, no? Is it just us?Anyway, the kids are excited about having a backyard to run in and here they are – running around.

I leave the running around to Nick and sit around with baby Will instead.

This summer is HOT, HOT, HOT in Sydney with the temperature reaching 40 degrees Celcius. Water play and bath time are the best way to keep the kids occupied and cooled down.

We also did a bit of baking…

Photo taking… and looking dead straight into the camera..

I found the perfect spot for a selfie on our backyard deck. The sun-roof lets in just enough natural lightand the white surface of the outdoor table makes a perfect reflector. Photo below as proof and more photos here.

Where we went

On days when we are feeling more energetic, we venture to the park at Longueville…

Or take a drive to Lynette’s (Nick’s sister) place at Freshwater..

And take a walk to North Curl Curl.

The view along the banks is absolutely amazing.

Lots of photo taking ensued with a massive photo fail. If you look closely, a HUGE fly landed on my eye. My signature smile was still intact though. Yay me!

After seeing many Instagram photos of The Grounds, we trekked our ways there on a Friday afternoon, although it is on the other side of Sydney from where we live. (The power of Instagram!) More photos on my Dayre account, which I’m making more effort to update these days. #plugplug

We also went to the city for some shopping. Every year, I go to Strand Arcade, one of the oldest malls in Sydney and feel compelled to take photos, although the mall remains the same every time. My photos don’t it justice though. It looks way more beautiful in real life with its old world charm and grandeur.

Also, every year we would go to our favourite Balmoral Beach. It is not as popular as Bondi but it is very family friendly and less touristy. You will find many families with young children around. So nobody will blink if you need to flash your boobs to feed the baby or your kids run around kicking sands onto someone else’s beach towels.

If you can, avoid going between Christmas and New Year. We did that last year and the beach was packed. This year we went on a day when everyone else was back at work, so we pretty much got the beach to ourselves 🙂

Will clearly inherites his dad’s ability to fall asleep anywhere anytime.

What we ate

After Balmoral, we went to Mosman for Ribs & Burgers…

To have ribs and burgers… with extra servings of chips. These were very gooood. Or maybe we were hungry. Either way, they were polished off within minutes.

We also went to Bondi Pizza because erm… pizzas – the easiest thing to feed the kids. Actually it requires no feeding. They stuff their own mouth, leaving us in peace to enjoy our food. Win-win.

Korean BBQ is another must-have every year.

The quality of the meat is superb in Australia. The wagyu beef isn’t marinated but tastes so good with just minutes on the charcoal.

Of course, the fresh produces are cheap and good too. We have plenty of nectarines, peaches, grapes, raspberries…

And cherries…

We also visited Hurricane’s Grill at Gateway after unsuccessfully trying to get into Cafe Sydney without reservations. I think my beef ribs were tender and flavourful but Nick wasn’t too happy with his steak.

We also attended a one-year-old birthday party and caught up with our friends.

And most importantly, the kids get to spend more time with their Ah Kong and Ah Ma.

That is pretty much it! Happy New Year from the Gans!