Seafood Delights

MDR went spearfishing yesterday and bought back a haul of Leatherjackets, Cuttlefish and Kingfish. The object of this fishing expedition was to catch Dolphin Fish (Mahi Mahi) but apparently the only ones they could find were too small.
MDR cooked the Cuttlefish & Kingfish last night, sauteed it with a bit of chemoula seasoning. MB made a Tahitian style poisson cru with one of the Kingfish fillets, simply marinated strips of the raw fillet with lime then mixed it with coconut, capsicum, tomato and coriander, it was all so fresh and tasty..... Hope that gets your mouth watering!

Book Fossicking

MB needed some "alternate" retail therapy today so MDR dropped MB at Goulds Bookshop in King St, Newtown and then drove further out to Auburn to check out some woodworking tools.
MB was delighted to find this fantastic shopping precinct, just outside the Sydney CBD (inner west). It features quite a few second hand bookshops, lots of diverse restaurants and loads of other funky shops. It's very much like Richmond/Prahran in Melbourne.
Goulds is a huge barn like shop with books stacked up to the rafters. The guy at the counter looked like Jabba the Hutt, sitting up behind his high counter. The sales assistants on the floor were even more entrancing, with one sales assistant, complete with unlit cigarette hanging out of his mouth, offering assistance, then lighting up. To MB's surprise he was smoking a joint! Amazingly liberal down here in NSW....
After quite a bit of fossicking MB bought a bunch of books and proceeded to check out the other shops in the area. When MDR got back lunch was had at a Vietnamese restaurant, great cold spring rolls there.
Just got back to the "Forest" with 30mins to spare for a shower then off to Dee Why for a super pasta dinner at Livotti's Deli with Marcie, Nes & Dan. Missed the chef abusing some other diners... Nes told us about it as were leaving, damn!

Free Oysters & Boxing Day on the Harbour

Boxing Day in Sydney - We watched the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race yesterday, caught a special ferry from Manly. It was pandemonium on the water, boats of all sizes jockeying for position, quite a spectacle, MDR was in his element of course. Our ferry stoppped just short of the heads so we got an excellent view of the yachts coming up the harbour and turning to go through the heads and south to Hobart.

Today it was time for a hike to burn up some of that excess festive food. MB dusted off her Leki and MDR & MB drove down to Forestville (less than 10 mins from Frenchs Forest) for a bit of walk in the Garigal National Park. After a gruelling 3.5hours in the 30c heat we made it back to the car. We ended up doing a circuit via a very nice park under the bridge at Middle Harbour. Luckily there was running water in the park as we only took one water bottle, we were pretty unprepared!

Apart from the heat the walk was very scenic, the park surrounds Middle Harbour, and our walk started at Carroll Creek which runs into Middle Harbour. The first leg to the hike was very easy, mostly along the edge of the creek and then Middle Harbour to the park. Marc was very interested in the free oysters on the harbour bank (pictured above) Returning back, we took a higher trail to complete the circuit, it was the hottest time of the day and most of the trail was in full sun. Eventually we reached a grotto which had water dripping down from what was perhaps a spring. This was a life saver, we were both so hot and bothered and down to our last few sips of water in the communal water bottle. We refilled the bottle a couple of times and cooled off under the water, after that we only had about 20 minutes of walking to get back to the car.

The dip in the pool at our house sit in Frenchs Forest never felt so good!

Christmas in Balgowlah

We had the most wonderful Christmas Day with Aunty, Uncle & Cousins in Balgowlah. Sydney turned on a beautiful summer's day, 29c and clear skies. Aunty had a very busy program for the day with a boules challenge in the backyard first up. After lots of games consisting of various teams, and many convivial drinks plus snacks, no clear winner emerged.

Christmas lunch was outstanding, Aunty created a feast of roast pork, turkey and ham with the most beautiful trimmings. Dessert was a sensation too, brandy snap baskets with fudge ice-cream and berries. Amazingly enough after stuffing ourselves full of food and drink we were still able to play a game of poker on the new poker table (someone's christmas gift, not sure who's though....) Cousin Nick was given a fantastic set of World Series Poker Casino chips which we used in the game. We played Texas Hold 'em Poker and were given a bunch of $1 chips, luckily Cousin Dan had a copy of the rules, this prevented what could have been some heated agument! After at least 3 hours of play Cousins Nick and Dan were left, lots of banter and mind games ensued between the rival brothers, but Dan emerged as the victor with all the chips.

The final event in the schedule was viewing an hilarious episode of One Foot in the Grave on the super giant TV. We were all pretty fatigued by then so we trundled back to base at Frenchs Forest.

On the Road

Left Cairns 11:30am Monday, arrived in Buderim 18:30pm Tuesday. Very hot weather all the way down, but beautiful and green after Mackay. Overnighted at a value motel in Mackay which was surprisingly nice and comfortable. The Passat loves the long drives and is really very comfortable, MDR pretty happy as he could listen to the cricket for hours on end. He didn't really like my Michael Palin talking CD of the "Sahara" series...

The towns and cities are all very interesting in their own way, lots to explore for later when we have more time. We stopped at Gladstone for lunch yesterday, had the most fantastic 500gm steak & salad for $12 each (beef cattle country). I loved the main street of Childers, lined with beautiful Leopard trees which are all in flower. Rockhampton is a lovely city too, tourism hasn't blighted it yet.

We were hoping to be Bohdanised when we got to MDR's brother's house in Buderim, but the little one was over on his weekly sleepover at the grandparents. Leaving today for Sydney, via Armidale.

Photo of Hinchinbrook Island, 2 hours south of Cairns. Tried to take a photo of a bull in Rocky, but we were driving too fast!