The Monday Blues

Don't you just hate it when the weekend is over? Especially after having a particularly phenomenal weekend. Maybe it's because Luke and I work on Saturdays so when a Sunday evening comes it sort of feel like the weekend shouldn't be allowed to be over yet! This weekend in particular I felt like I was really not ready for Monday morning to roll around. 

Saturday night we had a quiet night in because after I got home from work I was feeling a little bit run down. Luke slaved away all evening making a stew, and then turning into a DELICIOUS beef and red wine pie:

After a good 12 hour sleep we woke up and had a nice lazy Sunday morning with homemade eggs benedict (ok pre-made Hollandaise sauce).

 After filling up on eggs we headed out into one of the most beautiful winter days we've had in a while. It was so warm! We walked all around the harbor and into the Botanic Gardens before hopping on a bus to a new beach.

 

I think the newest plan is to see all of the beaches in Sydney during the winter so that by the time the summer rolls around we will know which ones are our favorites. Sunday's beach of choice was Balmoral Beach. It's the first northern beach besides Manly that we have been to so it was a whole new adventure!

The beach was full of families and coffee drinkers. We walked along the sand and then enjoyed the sunset over coffee and cake :) I think its my favorite beach so far. It's tucked away in a little cove so there aren't the big waves that are at Manly and Bondi. This is hopefully good news for the summer because it means no big surfing crowds! I'll let you know in a few months time.

Is it Sunday yet?

Burlesque

A couple of weeks ago Alex found a really cool Groupon for a $19 Burlesque night in Surry Hills. We jumped at the idea and so did a bunch of others! So Friday night finally came around and we couldn't wait to get over to the Dome bar where the show was going to be going on. OK, so I've never been to a burlesque show. I've never even seen the movie. Lets just say I was mildly horrified when I found out that this room full of mostly middle-aged women were here for pretty much a glorified striptease.  As the anticipation grew and the canapes, pizzas and most importantly, the drinks flowed, we got more and more excited for the show to start.

Unfortunately, and for obvious reasons, you weren't allowed to take any pictures during the performances. But it was incredible. We were clapping and whistling louder than any man in the room. The dancing was fantastic and the girls were so funny. It was a hilarious night and something totally different than I would ever have done. If you haven't seen a burlesque show, get over to the Dome asap.

Although you couldn't take any photos during the show, that didn't stop us from having personal photo shoots with the wallpaper all night...

 Is there anything better than a sweaty dance photo?

 Only a sweaty dance photo where you're also singing...

Long Weekend and an Interesting Lamp

This weekend was a nice long one thanks to Australia still being part of the Commonwealth and celebrating the Queen's Birthday on Monday. Luke and I took hold of this rare occurrence by planning absolutely nothing and staying inside all day Sunday. I didn't change out of my pajamas, brush my teeth, or move from the couch until 7pm when we got hungry and made the trek to the next block over to grab some food from the Chinese grocer. This weekend it has done nothing but rain which is the perfect excuse to do absolutely nothing.

On Monday we woke up with a new resolve. We were going to brush our teeth before the sunset, and we were going to get out of the house. It's only a little bit of rain right? So we started the day with a session at the gym to wake us up. Then we had some food and tried to waterproof ourselves as best we could before braving the great outdoors. We have been talking about going to the Maritime Museum for a while now and figured a rainy day is a good a time as any to be indoors!

Mostly I wanted to go because I'd heard there is this really rare and beautiful lamp

But there were also some other cool things like Naval Helicopters, rowing boats, things from the Olympics, and a USA gallery which mostly had photos of Canadian ships....

It was a pretty cool museum and much bigger on the inside than it looks! It took us almost three hours to go through the whole museum. You also have the option of paying a bit more and going out onto some of the boats and a submarine. But it was raining remember? Also another downer: we thought it was free! and it was $7. I asked the guy if it used to be free because I read in last years Lonely Planet that it was. He said yes, but not anymore, that will be $14 thanks.

Vivid Sydney

Last weekend after we left Maroubra, we headed into the city and down to the waterfront at Circular Quay. Sydney has a festival on at the moment called Vivid Sydney. There are all of these really cool light installations along the harbor as well as these amazing projections on some of the big buildings - the Opera House, Customs House and the Contemporary Art Museum. We spent quite a while down there and I kept wishing I had an SLR so that I could do some justice to these lights. I hope you can get an idea of how cool it was anyway!

 I had to slip a photo of the bridge in there somewhere didn't I?!!