A funny thing happened on the way to the Thai place.....

The other night I ordered Thai food from a restaurant a few blocks from our apartment (the place's name is literally "In the Mood for Thai"). I started walking down the street to go pick it up and I heard a whistiling sound.

Now we live in the heart of the Parramatta CBD (Central Business District), so it's a normal downtown with high rises and skyscrapers. There are a lot of people walking along the sidewalks and the streets are usually full of cars at all times of the day. My first thought was that some one from a car was signaling to a person walking. You never know, these Aussies are a strange lot, and one can never be sure of the social norms or behaviors.

But I didn't see any of that. Then a thought occured to me that maybe it was a bird. There are all sorts of crazy birds flying around and they probably have very distinctive calls.

But then the whistle turned into more of a shriek as I got closer. I looked up and saw them. Three of them soaring not 30 feet (not sure what that is in meters, again Aussies and their crazy metric system) above me.....

Yep, Australian fruit bats.

Gotta love this country!

Christmas cards

Today we got our first Christmas card here in Australia! I was so excited to receive the card from Stephanie and Chris Berry and Mr. Gus!

It also reminded me that our Christmas cards are still not here. :( I tried really hard to order early to allow extra shipping time. I guess starting November 15th wasn't early enough. So there may be no Christmas cards this year. If we do ever get them, they are still going out late.

It's about the thought right???!?

Merry Christmas!

Christmas shopping

It's that time of year again where we all embark on an adventure to find the perfect gifts for family and friends.

Jeff and I have decided to do our Christmas shopping for each other together so we headed downtown to the Town Hall area of Sydney to check out the Galleries.

Here is another quick look into the Queen Victoria Building. It is beautiful during Christmas! Check out how big the tree is - all 4 levels!

Here is a better look at the top of it. The tree is decorated with over 40,000 Swarovski crystals! It is stunning!

Here is one of the elaborate buildings full of small shopping boutiques. It is called The Strand and is just across the way from the Queen Victoria Building.

I love how all the old buildings sit right up next to the new modern buildings.

After shopping a bit we decided to take a peek into a chocolate shop! It was all decked out for Christmas too!

We decided to get a few pieces as our afternoon snack - Jeff had Santa and I had the dark chocolate Koala! What better way to celebrate our Christmas in Australia!

Dinner in Darling Harbour

Friday night we decided to do date night in Darling Harbour. We went to a place called Hurricanes and I definitely recommend it if you make it down here.

It overlooks the water and has great views but has even better people watching!

They are known for their ribs so Jeff couldn't resist. He even got a bib to go with them so he wouldn't get too messy!

The dinner was great and apparently so were the ribs!

Comedy Club

On Wednesday night, we fought the rain and headed out to the Laughing Garage for a good night of comedy. We went with several people from Jeff's work and we all had a blast.

One thing to point out here is that there are several more comedians that perform. In the states, we typically have 1-2 openers and then the headliner. Here we had about 5 before the main guy came on - and they were all really good! Not always true in the states!

Speaking of the States, one of the comedians asked if there were any foreigners in the audience. I yelled out, but as he looked our direction I sunk in my seat and pointed to Jeff, who then took the abuse. What are hubs for?

The headliner was Wil Anderson and he was fantastic. He has a TV show here in Australia and it typically makes fun of advertisements and products. Here is his site.

He did not talk as much about that stuff as we thought but he definitely kept us rolling in the aisles! Not for the easily offended!

Of course he had been there earlier listening to the other comedians, and knowing that Americans (he kept looking in Jeff's direction but was not sure who he was at that point) were in the audience, he was able to work in a rousing chorus of "Yes We Can!" into his bit.

He also quoted: "Clear Eyes, Full Hearts. Can't Lose." Carol Harrell knows all about that one.

It was a great night!

Beach Bums

Saturday morning we got up early to make the trek out to Manly Beach, one of Sydney's Northern beaches. We took the first ferry out of Parramatta into Sydney Harbor, and hopped on the next ferry out to Manly. It was a chilly morning but we were too excited to care!

It was officially the first weekend of summer so we had to be at the beach!

We made it to Manly!

After grabbing some food we walked right to the beach - absolutely beautiful! I was so excited to be on a beach I almost ran like a little kid.

Only a few people and a few birds were on the beach when we got there. There were also the early morning surfers waiting on a good wave.

The beach!

The funniest thing of the day was that it's December! They had Christmas decorations up all over town and you can even see the Seasons Greetings banners lining the boardwalk! It was a bit odd but we loved it.

After a few hours of laying around reading and people watching, we decided to walk the beach. In the distant you can see the tip of the cape and Shelly beach - we were on our way!

We made it - Shelly Beach. It's a very small beach with lots of snorkelers and scuba folks. There was even a wedding happening on the beach!

On the walk over we even saw a local water dragon - looks like a creepy lizard but he was kind of cool to be so close!

We had a blast at the beach and cannot wait to go back soon!

My big Fat Greek Dinner

Since we have been here, we have visited several fun and interesting restaurants of all types. There is only one so far that we have loved so much we had to visit again.

Friday night we re-visited Kouzina Greco - the local Greek restaurant. It is a small and quaint little restaurant with only 8 - 10 tables.

We decided to start with a Greek wine and decided on this one. It is a red blend and was a great pairing for our dinner.

For our appetizer, we had Dolmades and Keftedes, or rolled grape leaves and beef things (We asked what they were but didn't understand her. After two times of hearing it in her Greek accent, we just nodded and said sure!)

I was so excited to eat them that I forgot to take a picture until there was only one left. They were fantastic and they were even placed on top of taztiki.

From there, was the main course. I had the Kelftikos - slow roasted lamb with lemon, herbs and roasted potatoes. It was fantastic and the meat fell off the bone.

Jeff went with a Greek classic of Lamb Souvlaki. Basically this is lamb kebabs with pita, tatziki, a Greek tomatoes. A great choice!

It was a wonderful dinner and a great way to celebrate being here over a month! Opa!