two sisters and a sock in the city

My trip to Sydney began with weather like this:

Drought breaking rain, just not convenient timing for me

A 2.5 hour trip turned into 4 hours of fairly miserable and lonely driving. I'm not adverse to driving that distance by myself. I'd just like to not hit Sydney at peak hour after three hours in the rain alongside massive trucks and general Friday afternoon tiredness.

The evening improved after some quality bath time fun with Will.

Trying to get him to smile at the camera without dropping it into the bath was challenging

Shortly this was followed by an evening of excellent Indian takeaway and red wine with my sister and a couple of girlfriends.

The next day, not too groggy from overeating and the red wine, we headed into the city nice and early.

The other big bridge in Sydney

This is Sean's second sock going over the Anzac Bridge.

We had tickets to this


This is our annual day out. It started for us the year Will was born and Adele got her first day out as a new mum. We pretty much go nuts on samples and goodies and of course, celebrity chefs. More on that soon.

Here we are, all excited before the show, at around 9:30am. We like to get there before the crowds arrive.


Pretty soon, it was on for young and old.

We sampled cheese, chocolate, olive oil, nougat, fudge and nuts. All good, except for two really disgusting things we tried. One was a supposedly Swiss Hot Chocolate, brand name of which escapes me. We decided it was so thick it was like drinking hot cake mix!! Also, some puffed wheat snacks dubiously flavoured with Indian spices that tasted like rust to me - or what I imagine what rust might taste like. The complete shit some people try to pass off as food astounds me.

Here is Adele by the Rocky Road Pyramid.

Rocky road cruelly kept behind plastic walls.

The biggest part of the day was attending the 'performance' by Aussie culinary icon Donna Hay. She's only been on the scene a few years but she's pretty huge here. I'm a relatively recent convert, thanks to Adele's evangelism. So we got to see her throw together a dinner party in 30 minutes. I tell you what, my life would be a lot easier if I could do that, but would I have as much fun? The amount of wine Ms Hay consumed on stage suggests she's my kind of cook although I don't know if I'd be mixing it with Sudafed the way she kept saying she was doing....


We really enjoyed seeing Donna Hay. Part of why we went was because we didn't really have a sense of who she was. We have her books and magazines, but hadn't ever seen her on TV. We'd heard she was a bit of a bitch, actually. I think we both concluded there was a definite snarky side to her coming through not-so-subtly on stage. So maybe the stories are true. Or perhaps it was just the wine and sudafed making her a tad touchy?

Oh, and unforgivably, between handling the chicken breasts and cooking the souffle (yes, in 30 minutes!) she didn't wash her hands. The food was all whisked off stage to feed her staff, presumably. Ewww!! You've gotta wash your hands after handling chicken. Yuck.

At around 4pm, I headed home. Another unbearably long 2.5 hour journey that turned into four. The rain was much heavier. And it was very, very dark. I stopped numerous times waiting for the rain to ease. Eventually it did. I was very relieved to make it home and Sean was very relieved to see me make it safely. Probably, I should have stayed in Sydney and driven home this morning after a good night's sleep.

Off to SnB this afternoon, I hope. I need some knitting time.

Bells