Whilst I Have Been Away

Well it has been a full week since I was here last. And I have to admit I haven't done any cooking since 🙂 Today's post is all to explain my absence! The photos are all from this last week, if you follow me on Instagram you may have seen a few of them already, but trust me there are plenty of extra ones..... Are you sitting comfortably?

I have been spoilt rotten this week. On Monday morning Stew and I drove up to Perth for our pre-start meeting with the builders. Yes that is right!!! Nearly 7 months after the fire we are at pre-start stage. We still need to get planning permission, but I remain hopeful that we will be celebrating Christmas in our brand new Rickety Cottage. (Really need to come up with a new name!!!)

I will share the pre-start fun and kitchen planning stage with you in a separate post as I feel today's post will be long enough!

First a tiny bit of background....Stew did 18 months as a FIFO. A fly in fly out worker. We would drive him up to the airport early on a Tuesday morning (VERY early on a Tuesday morning) and he would work away for a week and fly home on a Tuesday afternoon ready for a week at home. Australians amongst you will know it is pretty common here. We were pretty lucky, a week on and a week off is a great FIFO balance. There are a lot of families who do 4 weeks on and then 1 week off. I take my hats off to them as I know we could never have lived like that. But we did 18 months of FIFO and then Stew's role changed and he was able to come back and work in Perth again. I have digressed slightly, but it is relevant.... I promise 😳

The 18 months of weekly flights meant the Qantus frequent flyer points built up AND he became a Gold Qantus flyer. (more on that later)

So whilst we were driving up to Perth on Monday I had a look at the points. Turns out we had more than enough for return flights to Sydney. We actually had enough points to go international but I am without a passport as mine was in the house and it took me 6 months to remember that!!!! So long conversation short, whilst driving to Perth on the Monday morning I booked us two flights to Sydney on the Monday night Red Eye.

And that is where we have been. We have been exploring. I first flew to Australia 4 years ago and other than a very, very long drive across the Nullarbor to visit friends in South Australia I have never left Western Australia. That has all changed! I have seen the Opera House, I have driven over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I have been to Bondi Beach, and I have driven across country to visit our Nation's Capital. We have packed a lot into our 5 days away and it has been wonderful!

We started the week in style with drinks and food in the Qantus club lounge, courtesy of Stew's Gold membership 🙂

I have to admit I have never been in a proper airport lounge before. I have always been a bit of a budget traveller, sitting on the metal bench seats in the main terminal. So the lounge was amazing!!! Free champagne (or whatever your tipple of choice is), unlimited food and plush comfortable seats! Oh yes, I was in posh heaven 😉

There was coffee and Jelly beans!!!! Yup I took a picture of my Jelly Beans!

The red-eye was exactly that! Not a bad flight at under 4 hours, but it wasn't a highlight. Do you remember that bit from the movie "The Holiday" where Cameron Diaz's character is heading to England. Oh how wonderful would it be to travel like that!

We landed in Sydney, hired a car and headed down the coast, past Gerringong (home to Fiona from Buena Vista Farm ), Jervis Bay, Mollymook, and Batemans Bay, before heading across to Canberra.

The beautiful beaches at Mollymook.

Our wonderful view as we relaxed on a bench in Batesman Bay.

I loved Canberra, it was beautiful, peaceful and yet full of restaurants and bars.

From there we journeyed to the Blue Mountains and enjoyed amazing views (See the title shot), before heading back to Sydney to hit the tourist points. Our few days in Sydney included a wonderful meal at Lucio's. I am not sharing anything about that yet, as I think the food deserves it's own post. I will just leave it with yum!

I hope these photos do Sydney justice as I snapped them all with my phone.

That's me there, the tiny wet person in front of the Opera house.

The amazing engineering of the Harbour Bridge.

Followed by a couple of moody night shots............

So there we go, a snapshot of my week away. Don't worry the food we ate will be here very soon 🙂

Currently I am sat in the Qantus first class lounge drinking a glass of champgane and using the complimentary iMacs. I feel very fancy!!!!! Only in first class as it is the Easter weekend and they have closed the business club lounge 😉 but hey I'll take it as a win!!!