Harry’s Cafe de Wheels, Sydney, Australia

alright. before I explain the ‘tubby-ness’…I just wanted to let you know the great lengths in which ben and I have gone through in order to get this internet access. We are currently staked out in front of some stranger’s home…’borrowing’ their wireless access (whatever. you say ’stealing’…we say ‘borrowing’). This was after we drove up and down the street for 15 minutes with our laptop out, trying to get a connection. Now… if me driving on the right hand side AND on the opposide of the road wasn’t hilarious enough…might I mention that ben and I initially tried walking to find a connection and found ourselves squatting on the front lawn of some house looking like two ridiculous refugees. BUT, not like staking out in a dark minivan is any better…….the creepy looks we’ve gotten from people walking by…….but it could be cuz it’s almost midnight here anyhow, so I’m blogging now with the laptop literally hanging out the driver side window because both ben and I figured we received the strongest signal this way. yes…we are GEEKS…there’s no denying it now…

Alright…backing up now. Tubby. It is now somewhat near the end of our Syndey leg…and I am officially at the heaviest I’ve EVER been in my ENTIRE existance. Funny thing is right before we left for Oz, ben and I moved…and instead of moving our scale to our new place…I just found the original box and put the thing back in the box and am determined to RETURN the bloody thing back to store. You know…I’ll be coming home just days shy of my 26th birthday…and for me, well…I don’t make new years resolutions…I just wait until my birthday hits…and instead of being all depressed about my age…I simply freak out about my weight and make all sorts of commitments I’ll NEVER keep…about getting back in shape. right. So this trip isn’t helping whatsoever. Not only are we eating atleast 2 3-course meals a day…aussie’s know how to eat…and their food is nothing short of pure cream, pure lard, pure badness.

Anyhow, on the upside…the food IS awesome. I definately am much like my dad…can’t say no to anything edible. a cheung-weakness. we had the world’s most expensive dim-sum the otherday in chinatown. mind you, we should’ve seen it coming when the restaurant somewhat resembled Sun Sui Wah…but noooo…we couldn’t wait another week for HK, we gave it in and devoured all the ‘loh bak goh’s, ham sui gok’s and other dim sum goodness. Another thing, they call it ‘Yum-cha’ here…don’t you agree it makes much more sense than ‘Dim-sum’?

Today, we spent the day checking out the Sydney Opera House, Circular Quay and The Rocks. Another beautiful day…late twenties with a few clouds in the sky. No complaints…when the sky is clear, the heat is pretty unbearable. We’re having a great time so far…but we’re all in agreement that living here would pose a few problems. First of all…everything is pretty expensive. From staples like food…to cost of living. But my dream of raising my kids here hasn’t been entirely crushed…yet

Alright…this has been long, some of our sydney pics are up…you can check em’ out here. We miss you lots! ……..but not enough to come home yet. we still find ourselves saying daily…."hmm, I could get used to this…” l8rs!

Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia

hey everyone! it’s australia day today and we are joining all the aussie’s to celebrate! It’s cool becuase Aussie’s are die hard fans of their own country…I’ve never seen anyone so passionate about their country…it’s cool to be in the middle of it. ‘Right now we’re at Cockle Bay/Darling Harbour…and it’s been an absolutely beautiful day! The sun’s out…and there are thousands upon thousands of people here. We spent the morning roaming around downtown…checked out Hyde Park and the St. Mary’s Cathedral…which is much like St. Andrew’s Wesley (in downtown)…but even more beautiful…even has it’s own crypt (creepy, huh?) The cathedral is a bride’s dream come true! Beck and I figured you could walk down to a full 7-minute song. it’s AWESOME! We managed to catch up with Fred (whom we met the last time we were here) It’s neat because our mom’s were best friends from kindergarten and still keep in touch…I guess that makes us 2nd generation friends…

Yesterday we visited Taronga Zoo…the weather was crazy…we had a downpour that lasted for 2 mins in the morning, the crazier thing was that I walked in it for 5 seconds and was absolutely soaking wet. After that…the sky cleared up and the sun popped out and stayed out for the rest of the day

On a even happier note, guess what I had today?? A Starbucks “Neopolitan” Frapp! It was SOOooo good…a blend of strawberries, vanilla and chocolate downside…it cost me $6.95 (?!) …upside, I was able to use my Starbucks card (even tho I only had$2 left on it…)

We’ve been watching lots of TV in the evenings…the australian open (I’ve learned the entire game of tennis in just 3 nights!) …all our shows are just premiering now (The O.C…Lost etc) We saw a funny commercial the other night for the Toyota Camry…the sales pitch went like this: “Rated Australia’s Best Luxury Car at $57,000″ We were laughing…first of all…can a Camry really be classified as a luxury car? (no offense to owners out there) And…$57,000 for WHAT!?! so you can just imagine how much cars cost here…

We haven’t had time to post the pics yet…will do soon (hopefully before we leave on Monday…) Hope you’re all doing well, thanks for all your updates! Miss you all…chat soon!

Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia

Have I ever mentioned how much I love sydney?!? We touched down Friday morning and stepped outside to insanely clear blue skies. Temperature…29 degrees. The car rental place didn’t have a van ready for us due to a golfball hailstorm the night before (?!) so they paid for us to have coffee while we waited. Meanwhile, my luggage skipped town and decided to stay on board for a ride to Brisbane…so Virgin Airlines paid us to have lunch. Sweet. It was the perfect start to this leg of our vacation.

Since it was only 1pm when we finally left the airport…we quickly dropped off our bags at our ‘home’ for the next 10 days (a beautiful 4-bedroom home), threw on our bathing suits and went straight to Bondi Beach. There are no words to describe Bondi on a clear & hot day but…faboooolous! The beach was totally packed! The temperature was just perfect with the ocean breeze…all we did for the rest of the day was lay out in the sun. I am convinced nowthat I belong here (… ben’s getting there)

Yesterday we spent the day at Manly Beach, another one of our favorites. We managed to hit one of the busiest weekends on that beach with lifeguard competitions going on Manly is awesome…reminds me a lot of Santa Barbara. We ended up visiting two more beaches later that afternoon and finished our day at the fish market where we stocked up on fresh oysters, snapper and huge prawns!

This morning we went to Hillsongs. It was amazing to see their new facility. The place is huge, yet built in such a way where it still feels homey. Worship was awesome…led by Reuban Morgan and Marty Sampson. We’re here right before their annual live album recording, so Sunday morning becomes a time where they do a ton of new songs to get the congregation familiarized with them in time for the recording. There were 2 songs in particular which were really good (1 by Marty and 1 by Reuban)…now I’m looking forward to their new live album…should be great! Both Brian Houston and Darlene were away this particular Sunday so another pastor gave the message. It was really good…and convicting, it was on ‘mixtures’…which I’m sure makes absolutely no sense to you at the moment…but I’ll have it to share when I get home. *PS. Their CD’s cost $30 at their store(!?) ri-ight…think I’ll just wait to go home and pick them up…

Alright, now more on a personal note…

…the SHOPPING! I love how everyone is so casual and laidback here…and it definately shows in their style!! Everything is super casual, yet when pulled together properly, looks amazing! Think…abercrombie-surfer…chic? Hard to explain…we weren’t planning on buying much, but we’re already having trouble squeezing everything into our luggage. Does HK finally have some competition?

Another thing to add…some examples of outrageous pricing in oz:
a) 1 small bag of KERNELS popcorn = $7.95 !?!? I kid you not. and the embarassing thing is…I bought two…AND even worse, it tastes NOTHING like what it does at home.
b) Roxy & Billabong…(in my opinion) is typically worn by more board-chick-skater-surfer chick-like girls…and cost about $30 a tee or so. I don’t typically buy much of it BUT…the clothes here are nice! Totally different designs than what you’d find at home. What’s crazy is that these brands all originated in Australia…so you would think it’d be cheaper here…? omg, you’re looking at $50 for a girls tee…$80 for a bag or skirt…
c) Rock & Republic jeans….get this…$400 (!?!) diesel runs upwards to $500…I should’ve known when I found a store with Mavi’s yesterday and they were $140!? I should really start a jean-hussle here…

alright, times up! will post more later…thanks to all of you who have emailed to let us know how you’re doing! miss you lots! will post our latest sydney pics in the next few days.

Bramston Beach, south of Cairns, Australia

After surviving four screaming babies (all at once), three terrible movies (‘The Forgotten’ is two hours of your life you’ll never get back…), two dudes hurling (both conveniently located on either side of us)…and one lovely stop-over in Hong Kong…we made it safely into Cairns, Australia after a mere 24 hours of traveling time

Upon arriving, we discovered our accommodations were gorgeous! A three bedroom, 1500+ sq ft condo in the heart of Cairns (and directly across the street from the mall…much to Ruth’s delight!). Cairns is the home of one of the Seven Wonders of the World, ‘The Great Barrier Reef’. It’s also a tropical city, extremely hot and humid (bad for hair, great for skin!)…tropical being the out-of-nowhere, 10-minute torrential downpours (speaking of which…how’s Vancouver holding up? ) We visited the Great Barrier Reef on Monday and it is absolutely stunning! Colin, Ben and dad went scuba diving while Beck and Ruth joined their mom in her crusade to “find Nemo” (we kid you not.) The reef is huge and picturesque…full of vibrant colors and all sorts of marine life. A reminder of how awesome our creator is.…you see a reflection of him everywhere.

These past few days, we rented a minivan and have been giving ourselves a tour of the surrounding cities, visiting rainforests, fresh-water swimming holes, waterfalls and miles of beaches…and speaking of which, our wonderful driver (name withheld for protection of innocent…ahem. cough. colin. cough.) convinced us that driving on the beach would be a great idea and said it’d be much like driving on the road. WELL…a bit over an hour and two wonderful ozzies later…our minivan was finally towed out of the sand

We’ve been really enjoying our time here so far…and especially appreciate the family time. And for Chris’ reading pleasure, we’ve had tons of home-cooked lamb, chicken, steak, fresh veggies and even fresher tropical fruits! Tree-ripened mangoes, lychees, passionfruit, starfruit, jackfruit…! But food talk aside…we really do miss you all very much! We hear that in the next few days, you’ll likely to be ‘swimming’ to work Don’t hesitate to email us to fill us in on what’s been happening at home. We’re armed with two laptops complete with wi-fi and a VoIP phone that works. We’ll be leaving for Sydney on Friday (your Thursday) and will write to you again soon and post more pics!