We cancelled our plans to camp for at least 12 hours under the hot sun at a vantage point in the city to await the much anticipated NYE fireworks for a road trip to the Blue Mountains instead. When we got back to Sydney in the evening, Becky informed us of a great place to catch the fireworks without having to fight the crowds. In between the family fireworks at 9pm and the main fireworks at the stroke of midnight, we had nothing much to do so we thought up a million and one ways of self entertainment.
The old granny and lunatic series: Sunshine23 and I tried to disguise ourselves as toothless old women with bits of Lindt chocolate. I also tried to dress up as a lunatic prancing around in my living room and ended up looking like a scary ghost floating across the room.
The corpse series: Sunshine23 pretended to be a corpse... except this corpse actually changes positions. Cause of death was probably alcohol intoxication or excessive laughter leading to heart failure.
The sea anemone series: I was a sea anemone. One that changes colour too.
The jumping series: we did heaps and heaps of jumps. Sunshine23 ended up looking like a butterfly.
The hair series: shooting some shampoo ad.
The pout series: where are all the fireworks????????
The crazy dancing series: the corpse resurrected and started dancing crazily, yelling the whole time.
The cheezels series: did some balancing acts with the cheese rings.
And the finale, the cockroach series: self explanatory.
There are more madness not for public viewing such as the bottle cap nipple series, the 'zao geng' series, the pregnancy series and the screaming series. If you are my friend on Facebook, you may be able to view a few more other photos than what I've posted above.
As you have probably noticed, we ended up not having a single decent shot of the fireworks. But we had lots of fun, which was what mattered really. For those I have not sent my wishes to (probably due to my not-too-sober brains at the time), here's wishing everyone a great 2009 ahead.
madness on NYE 2008
danks street depot
Sunshine23 and I went to Danks Street Depot twice for meals in her two weeks stay here, once for breakfast and once for lunch. For the second trip to Danks Street, I had wanted to bring her to Wah Wah Lounge or Sopra Cafe but they were both closed for the X'mas and NY holidays.
For breakfast, I chose to try the creamed eggs with roasted mushroom and truffle oil that was highly recommended by Mr SJ. The eggs were soooooo good. I was disappointed there was only one mushroom. Perhaps I should ask if I could swap the grilled tomato (it was a little too sour for my liking) for another mushroom the next time round.
Sunshine23 had the poached eggs with bacon. I liked her chunky bacon so much I practically finished half of them for her.
The yolk was pure heaven for Sunshine23.
For lunch, Becky joined us and between the three of us, we shared the grilled ocean trout that was so-so (we had better grilled Salmon for a much cheaper price at Doyles Watsons Bay just a day before)...
...and the grilled asparagus with poached eggs. I let Becky and Sunshine23 have the poached eggs as it was Becky's first visit to this place and Sunshine23's last day in Sydney. I could always go back for more another time. I had a lot of the asparagus though which was very good.
Below you see us with our food. I realised we didn't take a shot of Becky with the food. Oops. Maybe next time.
blue mountains & leura
We brought forward our planned road trip to the Blue Mountains by a day as the weather forecast promised sunny weather on New Year's Eve. We reckoned the time will be better spent exploring the Blue Mountains given such good weather than to waste it camping at some corner in the city for 12 hours to catch the fireworks no matter how spectacular they may be.
Yes I think we made the right decision. Check out how clear and blue the sky was. The blue haze, unique to the Blue Mountains, is of a different hue deeper than anywhere in the world and was clearly visible on the day. It is caused primarily by eucalyptus trees emitting oil vapour into the atmosphere which along with fine dust particles and droplets of water vapour, scatter the blue light (blue light is short wave-length) more than any other colour in the spectrum. (Extracted from the Blue Mountains Explorer Bus guide book courtesy of Becky.)
Can you tell that we had colour coordinated our outfits for the day?
Sunshine23 risked her life by getting close to the edge for this shot. Right after our trip, a man was reported dead after falling 100m down the cliffs at the Blue Mountains. Tsk tsk *wags finger disapprovingly at Sunshine23*.
The Three Sisters is a famous rock formation in the Blue Mountains. The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and 'Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle. As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come. (Extracted from the the Blue Mountains website.)
The scientific explanation for the formation of the Three Sisters according to Wiki goes like this: The Sisters were formed by erosion. The soft sandstone of the Blue Mountains is easily eroded over time by wind, rain and rivers, and the cliffs surrounding the Jamison Valley are being slowly broken up. Formations like the Three Sisters are created when water seeps into small cracks in the rock, gradually enlarging them over time to form large indentations. Eventually, the Sisters will be eroded away completely.
We tried to take a self shot with the Three Sisters at Echo Point but only managed to capture two of them.
We did the Giant Stairway walk and almost died of leg and butt cramps and exhaustion from the steep steps on the return trip. It was only after the trip when we were looking through the photos that we realised it was stated clearly at the entrance to the Giant Stairway that it's 'very steep - for strong walkers only'. That's what you get for not reading signages and guide books properly beforehand.
The is the beginning of the Giant Stairway. Going downwards was manageable.
We still could afford the energy to make funny faces for funny shots on our way down.
No photos were taken on the entire journey back up the Giant Stairway. All efforts were concentrated on just getting back to the car before the parking ticket expired.
This pic was taken at another location, either at Gordon Falls or Sublime Point, I can't really remember. This walk definitely ranks between low and medium on the difficulty level as you see me skipping quite effortlessly across the bridge. During Sunshine23's short two-week stay in Sydney, I have developed a characteristic 'Dragonfly tiptoes on water' (translate to Chinese martial arts terms) skipping style which you will see repeated in several photos on different days.
When we got enough of walking and skipping, we went for a short break in Leura (also known as "The Garden Village"), a quaint little township.
The moment we saw this sign on the gate that said "Flower Pot Scones - served all day", we dashed into Wayzgoose Cafe without hesitation. Having previously missed out on the lavender scones we drove 3 hours for, this must be god's way of consoling us.
This is me enjoying a cappuccino and scone - they are called Flower Pot Scones because they come served in mini flower pots! Cute. They tasted soooooooo good I really want to go back for more more more!
See how Sunshine23 is savouring her scone?
There was also a market just round the corner and we got some real bargains.
Showcasing my bargains from the market: a bucket of about 20 apricots for $3 and another bucket of about 15 nectarines for $3.
And two books at $1 each - Why I Live at the P.O. by Eudora Welty and Australian Short Stories No. 8 by various Australian writers. (This reminds me, I've been stuck at the same page of Neil Gaiman's American Gods for ages... note to self - have got to start my reading again soon.)
OMG. We couldn't believe how blue the sky was. We love this beautiful building but we're not sure if it's a Post Office or a restaurant or both? It didn't look open so we didn't venture an investigation to find out.
Here's Sunshine23 posing in front of the Leura Post Office Restaurant and the Christmas Cottage. She so wanted to get those cute yo-yos but eventually decided not to as they were rather expensive.
There are some really interesting shops in Leura.
This is of a mesmerised me watching the soap bubbles floating in the air outside a toy shop.
And finally, the last photo is a very well taken photo of me looking up at the blue sky thanks to Sunshine23. I enjoyed our day trip to the Blue Mountains very very much but I will definitely train myself up physically beforehand if I plan to do all the walks and trails there the next time.
For more photos, click here.
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