One Week to Go!

Hello Everybody!

 

Crazy to think that this will be one of the last blog posts of our amazing trip down under! Time flies when you're having fun. Even though we haven't posted since our getaway to Whale Beach a the end of October, that's not to say there hasn't been a lot happening.

 

Leah is officially a Master of Speech Pathology! She finished her final placement at Bankstown Hospital on November 17th with flying colours! The next 4 days was spent piecing together her portfolio - all the printing and scanning and labeling one could possibly handle! She also had two oral exams - both of which she completed with high competency... as a master should! In order to get her hours up to Ontario standards, she volunteered for 4 days the following week at a school readiness program in Sydney's northern suburbs. It was the end of what was a very stressful, exhausting run of 2 years (with no breaks in the last 6 months). So the massage that I got for her after her final day was much needed!

 

For me - same old same old! Only 3 days of work left now... but it's been pretty breezy the last couple of weeks now that report cards are out of the way! Just keeping the kids happy with Christmas crafts and lots of games until the end of the year. I've been going to swim school with my grade 2 kids from 9-11 each morning... so it's been a lot of fun! We have 3 more days left of school, with swimming every day, a picnic, an assembly and some more Christmas crafts... I love my job!

 

While all of this was going on, we managed to move out of our place on William Street in the city and brought nearly everything we own with us to Luke and Tamara's! Of course we managed to sell quite a few things before coming here, but there was still a lot left! We donated some things and threw out some others, and now it's just a matter of packing things into our suitcases and getting ready to come home! Because we're living out here (about 15 minutes west of the city), I've been driving into work - something we both miss dearly! While public transport worked out pretty well for the two of us, there's nothing like having the luxurious independence of a car! Although all this driving on the left could cause some problems back on the homeland!

We have had a very busy week, and expect this coming week to be nothing less. Last weekend we enjoyed a BBQ out at Fran and Andy's place, to celebrate the girls making it to the finish line of their degrees! 

We Did It! 

On Thursday we treated ourselves and Luke and Tamara to dinner in the Sydney Centre Point Tower where we enjoyed 360 degree views of the city, and then headed over to the casino! 

Taking in the view

Yesterday we celebrated Tamara's 24th birthday and attended Zoe's 1st birthday party (Zoe is the niece of a friend of ours whom the girls babysit for quite often)! 

Leah with the Birthday Girls!

After enjoying the fairy bread and cupcakes in the morning, we headed to the Sydney Fish Market to pick up the ingredients for a great seafood barbeque! 

Then we headed back in to Darling Harbour and celebrated with our friend Hina who also had a recent birthday! 

While we're a a bit sad to be leaving our friends and this beautiful country and weather (29 and sunny today) behind, we're very much excited to be coming home to a white Christmas! Looking forward to seeing you all!

 

Jeff & Leah

xoxo

A Birthday Weekend at Whale Beach!

Hello Again!

Hopefully you've all had your Hallowe'en fix as another year of trick or treaters has come and gone. The candy-crazed holiday isn't quite as popular down under, but there were a few kids out and about in their costumes. We spent our Hallowe'en driving back from a glorious weekend away at Whale Beach; about one hour north of the city.

Before we headed up for the weekend, Leah and I welcomed a couple of visitors. Heather's friend Sherri and Leah's friend Kacey both arrived Tuesday morning to come and be a part of our experience in Sydney. We spent the week mostly just catching up and visiting, but the weekend had a plan - celebrate Leah's birthday so she'll never forget it; on the beach! We joined Luke & Tamara to pack up the cars and hit the road Friday afternoon. We arrived at our amazing beach house around 6:00pm. Friday night was all about dinner and drinks and of course a late night dance party! Despite most of us being exhausted from a busy week, we all managed to stay up past midnight to wish Leah a happy 24th!

One of the best parts of the whole weekend was waking up early enough to see the sun coming up over the ocean and witnessing this huge orange circle floating over the water. Of course after it was up, it was back to sleep for a couple of hours... we were on holidays! 

After breakfast, we packed up the cooler, picked up Molly from the bus stop and headed to the beach for the afternoon. The weather was absolutely perfect for the beach, although the waves were quite rough! We took a short walk down to the rocks and got a closer look at the bluebottle jellyfish that had washed up on the shore. The tide was coming in which made for some really nice views from where we were able to stand on the rocks. 

After a throw of the frisbee, we packed up and headed back to our house to make dinner, which was promptly followed by some birthday cake! To help burn off the sugar high, we all indulged in some Taboo... one of the favourites of the birthday girl!

We were all a bit tired the next day after two nights of partying and a day in the sun, so after starting the day with some mimosas on the deck, we were all quite happy to just enjoy the view, relax and play some cards before hitting the road back to Sydney and back to reality. We all agreed that it would be nice to do something like that again... not sure if it will happen, but either way, this will go down as one of the best weekends of our time here Australia.

As far as "real life" stuff goes, Leah is getting closer and closer to completing her Masters Degree. She has just 7 days left of her placement out at Bankstown Hospital... it's been a very busy placement for her, but she's doing very well and I can say with certainty that she is looking forward to the end! Me, it's more of the same old. Report cards are due to my supervisor next Friday... shouldn't be a problem! Seems like yesterday when I got offered this position, and now it's all starting to come to an end.

This week, Heather and Sherri went up to the Gold Coast for a short getaway, and Kacey visited another friend she has here in the city. Leah and I will be packing some bags with our stuff to send home with our friends! Crazy how quickly it's all coming!

We trust you are all well and if we don't talk to you soon, we'll see you soon!

Jeff & Leah

xoxo

Darwin & Kakadu National Park

Hi Everyone!

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving! We trust that you’re all full of turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie! Unfortunately for the three of us, we spent our Thanksgiving Days working/at placement. But the good news is, we had a nice little getaway over the weekend. 

Since Leah doesn’t always have to go to placement on Thursdays, and since I was still on holidays, the three of us were able to have a little getaway up to the Northern Territory. We flew up Wednesday night and arrived in Darwin at around 11:00pm. We could feel the heat and humidity the second we walked out of the airport as it rarely drops below 25 overnight up there. 

We spent our first day in the city of Darwin – it’s a very small city so we were able to see most of it in just the one day. We had breakfast at an outdoor cafe before heading down to the harbour where there was a little beach and a wave pool to cool off in. After we walked around the harbour, we walked along The Esplanade, through the park, checking out the views of the ocean and mountains in the background, and of course catching some shade when we could!

We wandered through Smith Street Mall, and then grabbed a quick lunch. Following a quick stop at the pub, we headed to Doctor Gully’s Road for the Fish Feeding Frenzy at high tide. The fish know that when the tide comes in, the tourists come out. People of all ages get some pieces of bread to see hundreds of fish (five or six different species) rise to the surface looking for anything to chew on! 

Once those guys were fed, we headed to Mindil Beach Markets to take a walk through the vendors and of course get some food of our own! A short trip back to our hotel ended with a dip in the pool – so refreshing! And of course, what better way to finish off the day than ice cream?!

The next morning was the beginning of our 2 day tour of Kakadu National Park; a very popular spot in the Northern Territory. Our guide, Darren (a member of a local Aboriginal tribe), picked us up around 7am and we were on our way. Our first stop was at the Adelaide River to witness crocodiles in their natural habitat; something new to all of us! But first, Heather was feeling a bit brave and decided to have a go at holding a snake – when in Rome! 

After all that craziness, we hopped aboard our boat and headed out into the croc-infested waters. The brave cruise director’s assistant put some raw meat on a string at the end of a stick and lured the crocs over to the boat – once these ferocious animals pick up on it and position themselves, they make a jump for the meat – literally! 

The entire top halves of their body come right out of the water... very cool! One little guy at the end even got his back legs out – just a sign of how strong their tails are.

After that, we drove to have lunch next to a billabong, before moving on to an Aboriginal Cultural centre to learn about Aboriginal lifestyle, values and beliefs – and get cooled off by the A/C! After this, we experienced a bit more culture as we wandered around an enormous rock covered in Aboriginal rock paintings; a way of communicating and keeping records in Aboriginal tribes. Most of these paintings were over 100 years old according to Darren, who was able to interpret the meaning behind some of these paintings as well. After that, it was just a short drive to our camp site where we had dinner (stir-fried kangaroo and veggies on the fire) and spent the night.



While we were driving to our campsite, Darren suddenly turned the truck around and hopped out to go looking for something in the bush along the side of the road. Within a minute he called for us to come towards him, and he was holding a frilled lizard! None of us could figure out how he could have possibly seen it from just driving past, especially since we weren't travelling slowly! These little guys move extremely quickly, and are believed to be the only living descendent of dinosaurs in Australia.


Saturday morning, we woke up and headed to Twin Falls via a very bumpy road; truly an outback experience. A short walk, a cruise and another short walk lead us to the site of where Twin Falls trickles over the rocks; it was a very secluded, quiet sight with some of the clearest water you could imagine. 

It was nice to just sit back and relax and take in the sounds of nature. After this, we headed back to the truck and drove to Jim Jim Falls – no cruise this time, but there was a much longer hike over the rocks to get to our destination! But at least this time after trekking through the heat, there was a little natural fresh water pool for us to cool off in. Very refreshing. This was the last item on our itinerary before heading back to Darwin.

On our way back to the city we stopped at one of the very large termite mounds along the side of the road. Lots of termite mounds are found throughout Kakadu National Park and surrounding areas but this was one of the largest ones we saw. We stopped for a quick chat and Darren told us about how these act as a 'recycling plant' for the environment ... must have been a while as Heather was there in the light and Leah and I were there after sunset! 

We finished the night off with some dinner with our fellow travellers before boarding the plane back to Sydney, or “The Big Smoke” as Darren would say.

Now, we’re back in the swing of things. Leah has just 5 weeks to go at Bankstown Hospital before she has her Master’s Degree! Heather has just another 10 days or so before her last day of work and she starts to see this glorious country Leah and I have seen so much of. As for me, I have just 8.5 weeks left with my kids at Coogee Public School. But we’re still taking it in, in fact we just got back from the Sydney International Food Festival to taste the multicultural cuisine available in this city. But mostly, it was great to get out and enjoy the nice weather we’re finally getting!

Trust you are all well... stay tuned as we’ve got a few more exciting things coming up in the near future!

Jeff, Leah & Heather

xoxoxo

Weekend in Melbourne

Hey Everyone!

Things have finally slowed down for a few minutes around here so we thought we'd fill you in on our adventures!

The weekend before Heather's birthday, she and I headed down to Melbourne for a quick getaway! We flew out at ... no - before the crack of dawn on Friday morning and landed in Melbourne in time for breakfast! We wandered the city Friday morning while the weather went back and forth between the sun trying to peek through and light showers. We hopped on the city circle bus and toured the city learning about the history of both the buildings and the city's development and attractions.

After a quick lunch at the pub, we headed to the Melbourne Aquarium. We visited the penguins in their antarctic habitat, pet the starfish and watched a shark feeding.

The final stop in the aquarium was the underwater tunnels and observation windows, where we watched sharks, stingrays and other fish circle about! 

Since we had such an early start to the day, we decided to sneak in a quick nap before heading to the theatre to see 'Mary Poppins'! On our way, we found a lovely little restaurant, 'Spaghetti Tree', which oddly resembled 'The Old Spaghetti Factory'! Very fitting for our pre-theatre meal, as we would always eat at 'The Old Spaghetti Factory' before seeing shows in Toronto as kids! The show was spectacular, and left us humming 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' the rest of the weekend.

Dinner at 'Spaghetti Tree'

Saturday morning, we hit the Queen Victoria Markets and shopped till we dropped! The sun was shining and we thoroughly enjoyed moseying along through the different vendors. When we found ourselves at the end of the rows and rows at the market, we headed into town and continued our spree at the Bourke Street Mall! Saturday night, we met up with Heather's friend, Giovanni, who she worked with last summer in Italy. We went to a well known restaurant and bar, Cookie, sat out on the rooftop patio with a view of the city, and then headed to Brunswick Street.

Sunday morning, we hopped on the tram and headed to St. Kilda to walk out on the pier. It was incredibly windy, but the sun was shining and we even saw some penguins in their nests! We hit up the Melbourne Museum Sunday afternoon for an Imax movie about the Titanic and then it was time for the adventure to end! We gathered our things from the hostel and headed back to the airport. Jeff had cake ready for us upon our arrival back in Sydney, and I quickly prepared my session plans for the following day of clinical placement!

Ready for the Imax Movie

It was a great weekend away and we're both looking forward to our next adventure - which is not so far away!! The three of us are heading to Darwin and Kakadu National Park next weekend, so watch for more posts to come!

Heather & Leah

xoxo

Happy Birthday Heather!

Tuesday marked Heather's 22nd birthday and we celebrated in style! Heather and I spent the weekend in Melbourne (more to come on that later), and then on Tuesday night we all headed down to the Sydney Opera House to see Josh Thomas, an Australian comedian, with Luke and Tamara! It was a great show, and despite a bit of rain, a fantastic evening!

Celebrations were held tonight at Olympic Park, as today is the 10 year anniversary of the start to the Sydney Olympics! The torch has been re-lit and many athletes and volunteers were there to participate in the festivities. Hard to believe it has already been 10 years!

Hope all is well with everyone! More updates later in the week!

Leah
xo

City 2 Surf 2010

Good morning Everyone!

Today was the annual City 2 Surf race in Sydney! People start at Hyde Park in the centre of Sydney, and run to Bondi Beach, which is about 14 kms. My friend Molly ran both last year and this year, and since the building we live on is right along the race route, Jeff and I decided to head down to the street and be part of the excitement!

The 2nd heat of people heading towards us from
Hyde Park - the first one was just as big! 

It was incredible to see so many people all out to a charity event, and even within the masses we managed to catch a glimpse of Molly running past us!

I caught her just in time! I was positive there was no way we would find her in that many people, so she caught me very off guard when I heard my name!

Last year there were about 75 000 people that ran, and for this morning's race there were 85 000 participants! So glad that we were able to catch Mol in the masses!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Jeff & Leah
xoxo

Jobs, Placement & School - Oh My!

Hello everyone!!

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last 6 weeks. July was a very busy month down here! Heather has found a job at Bondi Pizza; a gourmet pizza restaurant in the very busy Bondi Junction. She's been putting in a lot of hours to save up as much money as she can before she starts to travel and see the sights of Australia.

Showing our team spirit at ANZ Stadium

Leah has ticked off another box on her Master's "to-do" list. July 30th was her final day of placement at St. Joseph's hospital in Auburn and she's already started the new one. At the hospital she was working with adult clients who have had a stroke or have degenerative diseases, and are experiencing speech/language difficulties. Her new placement is at The Sheperd Centre in Roseville which is in the Northern part of Sydney. She is working with hearing impaired children who have hearing aids or cochlear implants. On her first day she observed and participated in therapy sessions, and the rest of her week has been clinical meetings with all staff members of the various centres in New South Wales and Canberra. The meetings have been a great way to learn a lot of background information about the field of Auditory Verbal Therapy, and the various factors that contribute to cases of individuals with hearing impairment. She was nervous heading into it since it is so different than most speech pathology practices, but she seems to be excited about what she will learn this placement.


I have almost three weeks in the books as a full time teacher with my year 1/2 split class at Coogee Public School. The weeks are already flying by! There have been a lot of things going on at the school so far this term. There has been at least one day every week where something is going on that eats up a whole day. Whether it's the Athletics Carnival, NAIDOC Day (celebrating Aboriginal Heritage) or Sustainability Day where the kids learn about the 3 R's, it's been fun for the kids (and for me!). It has made it a bit tricky to establish a routine with the kids, but it's coming. I'm really enjoying the kids and the life of a teacher; the days are pretty busy, it all seems hectic while it's happening, but all of a sudden the bell goes and another day has gone. I put in some pretty long days the first couple of weeks, but now that I'm organized I feel like I can sit back and enjoy my evenings.


Even with all of this going on, the three of us are still managing to get out once in a while. We met up with Luke, Tamara, Tamara's sister Claire, and their friend (also Claire) for a BBQ on Saturday followed by our last visit to ANZ Stadium to watch the Sydney Swans. They got slaughtered by the defending champions, but it's always a fun time. And just in case that wasn't enough fun, we're planning a big night out Friday in the Rocks... we're all very excited!

Heather taking in the view of Bondi Beach

The weather here has been up and down lately; there's been a lot of rain, but also some pretty warm and sunny afternoons - today especially! It felt a lot like spring, which is appropriate since spring kicks in September 1st here. I think we're all about ready for the warm weather to return, especially since we've been hearing about the wonderful weather back home.

I guess that's all for now - we'll try and post more frequently as we're coming down the home stretch down under - CHEERS!

Jeff, Leah & Heather
xoxoxo

ht has arrived! :)

Hello all!

  Leah and Jeff decided that it would be my task to update the blog, since I’ve now been their new roomie for over a week!  Just to clarify, it’s Heather (Leah’s sister) writing.  I’m not a frequent blogger, nor am I a stellar journalist, so bare with me. 

  Now, where to begin…

  Well, I left home 2 weeks ago on the 15^th of June.  I extended my layover until Wednesday night, so I got to spend one night with my best friend Sherri and her fiancé Wayne out in Vancouver.  After a fantastic visit with them, it was time to leave trusty ole Canada and head down unda.  By the time I finally got to Sydney it was about 8am on Friday the 18^th, local time.  Leah and her friend Tamara were at the airport to greet me, and let me tell you, after that hefty flight, I sure was happy to see them. 

  After spending a nice low-key day settling in after my early-morning arrival on Friday, the next day Lee, Jeff and I walked down to Circular Quay, where I got some gorgeous views (and pics, as you’ll see below) of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.  We grabbed some lunch on a rooftop nearby, walked through some markets, and made our way through the Botanical Gardens and Hyde Park.  The day was topped off with an evening over at Luke and Tamara’s place for dinner and Wii Bowling (at which I was an all-star, thank you very much! Haha). 

  I am currently still on the hunt for a job, but hopefully I’ll be a workin’ girl in no time.  Until then, I’m enjoying my days wandering throughout the city, getting to know my new home.  Since Leah’s placement only has her in Wednesday through Friday, we were able to get out today to Bondi Beach.  Although 15 degrees doesn’t sound too warm, it was a lovely (and sunny!) winter day down at the beach.  We got some gorgeous photos and took a nice stroll down the beach. 

  All in all, I’m having a splendid time here.  It’s so great to see these two again, and I can’t wait to see all the trouble we get in to in the coming months.

  Hope all is well!!

Love and Smiles,

   -ht-  xox

East Coast Excursions: Part 2

We spent Friday morning on the beach and wandering through town. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and we clearly weren't the only people who thought so! It seemed there were twice as many people in the town as there had been the day before. 

at the beach in Byron Bay

After heading back into town for a quick lunch, it was time for our surfing lesson! Our instructor picked us up at our hostel and we headed to the beach. After suiting up in some very fashionable wetsuits, we spent about 30 minutes learning the techniques, physical aspects of waves and how to use rips to our advantage. Luckily there weren't any rips too close to us so we didn't have to test that one out! Then it was into the water! Our timing was impecable, as the tide was coming in, creating some fairly large waves for us. While that makes for good surfing, it also makes it super tricky to get back out to where you started especially when you're travelling with a gigantic surfboard for the first time! ...I think I'll let the following photos speak for themselves! 

my first ride                                                                    Jeff's first ride

It was certainly a lot of work but so much fun! Since it is winter time here it gets dark quite early, so following our lesson, our drive down to Coffs Harbour was in the dark. 

Saturday morning it was pouring rain in Coffs Harbour so we ventured out to the Clog Barn for some lovely Dutch pancakes and a quick wander around the little Dutch village. 

Then it was back to the highway to visit the Big Banana! We were able to get up close and personal with the banana, and wandered through the small complex that housed an ice skating rink (which we haven't come across too often in our travels here), and small shops. Across the way we visited Coffs Candy Kitchens, where we watched a demonstration of custom made candy while surrounded by candy! That day they were making candy for the Ronald MacDonald House, so we watched as they combined the thick slabs of coloured sugar to create each layer of the personalized candies. It was incredible to see how quickly a gigantic tube of candy could be stretched out to make tiny little sticks while still maintaining the text within.

Once we reached Port Macquarie, we headed to the Koala Hospital. The hospital admits between 200-300 koalas each year for various reasons including illness, disease and injuries. The koalas are treated in the clinic area, and as they recuperate they are moved to the outdoor yards until they are ready to be reintroduced into the wild (if this is possible). We went on a walking tour of the facilities during their feeding times, and were able to meet what they believe is the oldest koala in captivity, Birthday Girl (the oldest koala in the Guiness Book of World Records is 23, and Birthday Girl is 24) [photo on the right]. We met many others including this little cutie - it is rare to see floppy ears like this on a koala [photo on the left]. 

Sunday morning it was time to start making our way back to Sydney but not without a quick camel ride along the beaches just south of Port Macquarie! They were Dromedary camels (one hump), which are extremely common in Australia, with over 1.2 million estimated to be wild in the outback. 

It was a rough take off and landing, as you can imagine it's not easy for a 500Kg animal to stand up and lay down!  Once we were going we took in the breathtaking landscapes, ocean, sands, trees, mountains, and enjoyed our stroll down the beach. 

The drive back to Sydney was a sunny 4 hours and we were able to take in some of the beautiful countryside in New South Wales!

We stopped into have a quick visit with Luke, Tamara and Hina at Hina's new place! Then it was back to reality. We had a lovely little surprise waiting in our mailbox when we got in, and promptly opened the package from Kim and Erik to look at all the photos and videos of our little nephew that they had sent to us!


This week has been a quiet one, but we have started getting things ready for Heather's arrival - which is only two weeks away!


Hope all is well at home.


Jeff & Leah
xoxo