Honkers part II

Yum Cha

Honkers

I am just at the airport waiting to take off for the fair city of Dublin. Honkers has gone by in a blur or colour, lights, people, expensive food and blistered feet. Only two and a half days, but this strange and surreal city has exhausted me. As someone who treasures and guards their personal space it was a struggle to remain sane within the city centre (the stifling humidity doing nothing to help that closed in feeling) however I am very grateful to Anna who recommended a wonderful hostel up on Mt Davis far away from the crowds, noise and frantic pace of life in Hong Kong. A half hour bus ride out to Stanley also provided a restful beach and room to relax. Having never made the stopover in Honkers before I was a bit unsure about what to expect and to be honest I'm still a bit unsure. It seems a really strange mix (if not violent collision) of cultures, ideas and people. One moment I was lost in a maze of small street stalls, the cornocopia of smells fusing together - fish markets, noodle stalls, vegetable boxes, with not an english word or product in sight; the next minute I'm standing in front of Marks and Spencers tossing up whether it really would be extremely poor form to eat something from Pret-a-Manger when I will actually be in London very soon - however much I miss it.....After a while these beacons of Englishness began to disconcert me and became like teasing mirages of something close but not here at all, for while there is so much of London here, London it is not....not of course that I wanted it to be, but the juxtaposition of the two cultures is somewhat jarring on my nerves at this point. I found myself retreating more to the absolute unknowns of chinese characters and strange looking dishes, finding comfort instead in being lost, rather than in being halfway found.

tigger at Stanley Beach


view from my hostel

aaargh!

this time in 3 days I will be on a plane to Hong Kong...............this of course is great, but I can't believe how much I still have to do - including a 70% Mechanical Services exam the day I leave!!!!
HELP!

Congratulations Greg & Kristen!!

The lovely Greg and Kristen got engaged recently in Thailand and Saturday night we all got to help them celebrate! Yipee
Congratulations guys - you rock!

Spanish Festival 18-19 Nov

ah the sights, the smells, the tastes......if I wasn't going to be in Spain soon I'd be homesick :)

Yarra Valley

Thursday night I had to pack up my little life all over again and move it out into storage (yet again) at Michael's dad's place. Since we were already out in the area along with the fact that it was Mum's last full day in Victoria, we decided after our hard (?!) moving work to take advantage of the beautiful day and drive around the Yarra Valley all afternoon. It was a gorgeous meandering trip through St Andrews, Kinglake National Park and a few wineries back in Yarra Glen. I picked up a lovely Pinot in the ridiculously named 'Lovegrove' along with a great Cab Sav at Domaine Chandon (the home of sparkling wines yes - but sparklings are not my bag) We also managed to treat ourselves to high tea and pastries at Chateau Yering, which is part of the Yering Station complex. It was all very posh and english and refined I felt a little out of place for a while, but it's amazing how quickly you settle in to luxury. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera that day, so instead am putting in some photos from last time I was at Yering Station with my buddy Shane and his friend Tim. (the photos are in the new part, not the Chateau - obviously)

nice things from nice people

(yes, at this point I really am just procrastinating from doing my exam study.......but taking photos is so much more fun!.................maybe I'm in the wrong game)

Spoilt rotten!

As if I hadn't had enough treats, a few of us traipsed off to the lovely Bistro Vue on the big day, to enjoy some fabulous french food and atmosphere. (for the foodie obsessed like me I have gone into much more detail on my new food blog here soon) Apart from a delicious meal with great company I also got to meet chef Shannon Bennett and check out the kitchen - cool!

Maybe getting older isn't so bad after all. I've been dreading this birthday all year and in the end I had a fabulous day and felt totally spoilt. It was great to hear from everyone all over the world and it has just made me extra excited to see everyone in Ireland/ UK/ Spain and Canada very, very soon. Just over a week till lift off - can't wait!!

Tiffanys

I never thought I'd ever have the opportunity to open up one of these beautiful blue boxes.......but my 30th brought many lovely surprises.....especially this one.

Even someone who's not a 'girlie' girl cannot fail to be impressed by Tiffanys. The packaging alone is stunning. (as you can see)
Thank you very much for such an unexpected and gorgeous gift Mr Fish!

Finally to food

after a hard day sailing (or really just sitting around talking and drinking) one works up a certain hunger, so we stepped straight from the boat into the warm comforting middle eastern surrounds of Mecca Bah at the Docklands. (check out the link - delicious!) Between our laziness and their 'laid back' service we managed to stick around for almost another 5 hours enjoying warm turkish bread, chicken bastillas, lamb boureks, spicy pumpkin pizzas, lamb tagines etc and many a glass of wine. All in all a very enjoyable way to top off a fabulous day!

but wait there's more

girlies

more sailing

"Mr" Captain Ammon

cousins

Sailing into my 30s

Yes, yes - usually I am one to let my birthday pass without any fuss or fanfare - but a girl only turns 30 once - so I finally gave in to the pressure and decided to celebrate in (somewhat relaxed) style.

On Saturday the wonderful Fishy (Michael) organised an afternoon of sailing around the bay on a lovely little yacht with what I thought was going to be 8 others.
On the day of course I discovered that this was actually 10 others as my beautiful friends Emma and Aidan made a surprise trip down to Melbourne from Bris-Vegas to share in the 30th celebrations. It was a lovely and touching surpise and I felt pretty special to be sharing my day with so many lovely people.

We ended up being pretty lucky with the weather - what seemed like weeks of rain and cold started to clear up on Friday and the sunshine managed to hold up until late Saturday afternoon - quite enough to ensure we enjoyed some good sailing in the spring sun. Maybe even Mother Nature respects when another woman is getting older and tries to make it easier ;)

Obviously a huge thank you goes out to Michael for putting the day together and keeping me (miss control freak) out of the way and not suspecting a thing. Also thanks to my mum and to Em and Aidan for coming all the way down - but I did want to thank everyone who made the effort to come and enjoy a bit of the water and sunshine with me! (especially since there were a few hangovers and sick tummies in the group even before hitting the waves - you're all troupers!)

















Thankyou darlings! love you heaps xxx