“Does that mean we are never moving back to the UK?” some of you may ask. Well, the answer I’ll give is “Never say never” and “who knows what’s round the corner?” I moved out here for an intended duration of six months and here I am still, having had my four year anniversary of landing in Sydney just yesterday! One thing I have learnt is that the only constant in Life is change. Things rarely turn out the way we plan and my ultimate goal is to live with my feet planted firmly in the Present and embrace every moment.

Ok, so enough of the philosophy and on with the pictures.

Firstly we have a video that Mat took when we inspected the unit again before putting in an offer. As you can see, Mat is especially excited at having twin sinks in the bathroom!

The lounge/dining room

The lounge area facing the balcony

The lounge area and "study nook" ot the left of entrance door

Another angle of the dining area/lounge

The balcony - not massive but bigger than most we looked at.

The kitchen - tidy and 1.5 sinks (though a double may have to go on list of improvments)

The main bedroom - a very good size.

The second bedroom - perfect for a nipper or two when we get around to it but will do for guests until then.

The bathroom - probably the only room in need of a reno at some point but certainly not desparate.

The layout plan

So, it’s not a palace, not even a house in fact, but for a larger than average 2 bed unit (flat for those in the UK) on the Northern Beaches with internal laundry and double garage we got a pretty good deal and it’s certainly a good rung or so on the ladder!

It’s not in Avalon but just ten minutes down the road in Newport, before The Bends so you will no longer require a passport to visit It will take me half the time to get to work and at the west end of Queens Parade it’s within stumbling distance of The Newport Arms which will be nice now the Summer is here.

After a long wait I finally went on the course at the end of February. It was an all day event at their house where all the ingredients and tools were provided as well as a delicious lunch and refreshments. There were only four participants which meant it was nice and intimate and we got to ask loads of questions. We worked in pairs and made four different recipes with a total of twenty four soaps to take home each.

The method we learnt – cold-press soap making – was nowhere near as complicated as it had previously sounded and I shall definitely be trying it again at home soon. The soaps will take three to four weeks to cure and then the big test – will they be as good to use as they look and smell?

Here are my curing soaps. From left to right they are:

• Honey, almond meal and cinnamon soap
• Goats milk, lavender and patchouli soap
• Healing bentonite clay and lemon myrtle soap
• Orange, ginger and wattle seed soap

Well, after popping into the village to get extra ingredients I set to the task with surprising enthusiasm. Here is the recipe, taken from the little, and rather brilliant, book that came with our barbeque, “Australian Cooking with the Weber Big Family Q”:

Spanish chicken breasts marinaded in citrus and tarragon
Chicken breasts (obviously), then for the marinade:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh tarragon
2 tblsps white-wine vinegar
Zest and juice of 1 orange
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp salt
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Whisk all ingredients up (I stirred) and put into plastic bag with chicken breasts (rinsed under cold water). Press out air and seal, turn and squidge bag to distribute marinade evenly, then refridgerate for 3-4 hours.
When ready to cook throw breasts onto barbie for 5-6 minutes each side (until juices run clear) whilst boiling leftover marinade in pan for a minute. Then halfway through barbequeuing baste chicken with marinade.

Here is my finished marinade:

Mat generally is in charge of the BBQ and I’m not sure that he actually boiled the marinade (this is the first time I have read this bit, lol, as I only read the marinade bit before) as I don’t remember seeing a dirty saucepan when I was washing up. However it was finished it tasted, though I do say so myself, rather delicious and would highly recommend it.

Yesterday I had the idea that if I bought a great big bucket, a 42 litre flexi tub to be precise, I could fill it up with grey water every time I did a load of washing and then use it to water the garden – another tick on my list of green and eco habits! I did this yesterday and was so pleased with myself that I decided to do it again today (I have a few days off and am making the most of it by getting lots of washing done that I normally put off: bed sheets etc).

I started filling the tub on the first drain cycle but it was rather susdsy so decided to start again with the second draining. As I was also in the middle of checking emails etc I decided to leave the outflow hose in the tub and then get ready to swap it back to the sink when I heard the drain cycle start (the flexi tub, although large, is not large enough to contain the entire drainage from the washing machine). It wasn’t long before I came out of my internet cloud and realised that the washing had finished. Without thinking much I stepped into the kitchen and instantly fell flat on my arse in about two inches of water.

HINT: Don’t ever leave a washing machine unattended when all that is standing between a nice green project and a flooded kitchen is your ability to stay aware of the present situation.

In my case my complete inablility to stay aware should have been obvious when there can be chainsaws and chippers going full belt a few streets away on a quiet Sunday afternoon and I won’t notice until someone else points it out!

It doesn't look much but this was 1.5 mop buckets later!

It's all the flexi tub's fault!

The other “bright sides” to look at are:

• the kitchen was in serious need of mopping anyway
• I’ve never mopped the laundry since we moved in here
• the plants have all had a jolly good water
• I have discovered another use for the grey water – mopping the floors!

All in all it has been a learning experience. I need to listen to my little nagging thoughts at the back of my brain more and I also think I shall try and source an extension pipe so the outflow can stretch through the window to outside.

The one irony is it looks like it may rain!!!

After being shown demonstrations of motion and shape tweens using random coloured shapes we were let loose to have a practice ourselves. Most people continued with the random shapes theme but, surprisingly for me, after messing about with the text “funky” I was enspired to get a bit more creative

My head ran along the path of mushrooms… Alice in Wonderland… hookah smoking caterpillar… in case you’re wondering It’s only basic but I’m no graphic designer so I’m quite chuffed with my first practice.

The animation is by another French artist, Yannick Puig, and I think it is the combination of the music and the video that make this piece so stunning, compelling me to play it over and over again and write a random blog post on it.

The animation represents so much that I love about art. This guy has awesome talent and has joined my list of artists that ignite passion. He has a very interesting web page on the making of this video; an explanation of the story, how he and Kwoon shared common points that made for a perfect match and his love for insects, plants and the mineral kingdom that feed his well of inspiration.

I was interested to find out what music genre Kwoon fell into as I am not very learned in these things and after googling it was surprised to discover a knew one: Post-rock! That’s one I never would have guessed.

I never feel I am very articulate when it comes to expressing how I feel about something but after reading some of the comments from YouTube I think enli85 says it all:
“Whats better … Song or video – i realy cant decide – but both of them are piece’s of art, and mixed together ? …Good Lord. Oscar.”

The weather really has warmed up since the arrival of Spring and so we left our shoes in the car and went for our first paddle of the season. The sea really wasn’t too cold at all and I think I could have gone in for a swim quite comfortably. There were in fact a couple of people that had gone for a dip with no wetsuits.

As it was our first, I got out my camera to snap a picture of us both. The first one resulted in a rather wonky horizon and serious expression on my face due to concentration.

I took another one (above right) but wasn’t sure if I had pressed the button properly so got Mat to stay where he was while I tried again. Woops! As we had our back to the waves so they would appear in the picture we failed to see the big wave coming up behind us until it was too late. We both got rather drenched but the picture I had taken just as the wave hit enabled us to see the funny side

I can’t remember if this is a quote and if it is I don’t know it word for word so I’m going to make up my own:

“People come and go but the ripples they leave behind last a lifetime”.

What made me think about this and want to write a post on it? I’ll explain:

Mat was singing this morning as he was putting on his work boots and I didn’t recognise the song so asked him what it was. He replied, in a jokingly indignant sort of way, that it was Stereophonics and had I not heard of them? “Of course I’ve heard of them” I said, but to be fair if I had to name a song the only one I can remember is ‘Have a Nice Day’.

As I belted out the title line it reminded me of Jamie Garner, a dude that I met in my bar/waitressing days at The Beehive in Cheltenham. He worked as a chef there for a bit and whenever he was in the kitchen you knew it was going to be a good night. The reason the Stereophonics song always reminds me of Jamie is because of the time I came down to the kitchen to find it playing full blast with him singing along at the top of his voice.

Anyway, my point is that it was one tiny little incident in my life but for me has forever tied that memory to the song so that whenever I hear it or just think about it, I remember Jamie and it brings a smile to my face.

Many of us would wish to make great splashes in this life (myself included) and think of ripples as being less important, but on reflection I don’t think they are. Ok, so ripples may only touch someone gently, but if that person recalls the feel of that touch and it brings a smile to their face then it’s a wonderful thing that can carry on giving for years to come, even when you have been physically gone from their lives for a long time. I’m thinking about another friend now, as they brought up the splash comment on their Facebook status a week or two ago; the ripples you created in my life were hugely positive and I would not be the person I am now without them

I still wish to do something wonderful some day that will have positive effects for a greater part of humanity. However, if my ripples are remembered by random folk that I have met somewhere along my path and they bring a smile to their face as others have done for me then I am doing good!

This was yesterday’s new headlines in the local Manly Daily yesterday after the terrible event on Monday. It seems that the Northern Beaches is fast becoming as unsafe a place to live as the rest of the world.

Dee Why is very local to us and we have a fair few friends living there so we were all a bit shocked to hear the news. Fortunately no innocent parties lost their lives.

The armed robber was shot dead by a guard when he tried to rob an armoured van outside Dee Why RSL. He has not yet been identified. There was one innocent bystander injured by a shot in the foot but luckily no one else was injured.

For the full story go here.

She chose the 4 Pines in Manly for a relaxing Sunday afternoon lunch and sample of the beer; the 4 Pines is also a brewery and have a fine selection of their own beers. Mat and I had given Ruth, Henry and Cam a lift so they could drink and we met up with Wayland & Kirstie and Phil & Teri there. It worked out quite well as Manly is a good middle point for all of us and I had assumed this was the reason behind the choice in venue, though apparently it wasn’t; Ruth wasn’t as thoughtful as she appeared and had picked it simply because she had gone there the week before and liked it (I mean to say, how selfish lol)!

It was a beautifully sunny day but not quite warm enough to sit outside. The inside of the place was very nice though and they sold the beer in pints which made a refreshing change from the usual Aussie scooners. The beer wasn’t particularly cheap at around $9 a pint but the general consensus was that it was very good beer and worth the extra money for something a bit different and a pleasant atmosphere.

The food was exceedingly good and very reasonable averaging at $20 for a main course. There was a good selection ranging from the enormous mega burger, to fish & chips and Mushroom risotto. I chose the chicken pie and was not disappointed. In fact everyone reckoned mine was the best. There was heaps of chunky moist breast and pieces of bacon accompanying the vegetables topped with a lovely puff pastry lid. It was a good size and if I’d wondered whether I should have ordered chips to go with it I was very glad I hadn’t afterwards.

Henry surprised us all (apart from Ruth who has to cater for his bottomless pit on a daily basis) by ordering a mega burger and a main course dish of mussels and managing to eat them both but this was by no means a sign that the dishes were on the small size; they weren’t. Mat had the mussels as well and found them to be most satisfying, though I think he did pinch a few of Ruth’s chips!

Going round the table from the left: Phil, Teri, Ruth, Henry, Cam, Kirstie, Wayland, Mat and me.

After food we all went for a wander in the sun and I made myself incredibly sick by having an ice cream and large coffee. All in all it was a lovely day and great to catch up with everyone; Phil and Teri had just come back from two weeks home in the UK and we just don’t see Wayland and Kirstie as often as we would like because they live all the way out in the city (yes, we are very lazy – they don’t call Avalon the Insular Peninsular for nothing)!