Have I told yall that Australia has GREAT wine!  One of the best things about living in Sydney is that it is 2 hours from Hunter Valley!  Of course I had to take my guests for a tour!  In the past we have gone for the weekend but this time we took a day tour that left from Sydney at 7:30 am and returned at 6pm…it was well worth the money!

Toya (pictured far right) used to work with me at the firm in Atlanta and is my gracious host when I come to Atlanta.  She is a great friend and I am so glad she came to spend some time with me in Sydney.  She brought her sister, Tiffany along for the ride (in the middle) and the three of us had a blast!

The Hunter showed up and showed out…we saw kangaroos!!  They were hanging out under a tree and one of the other tour drivers actually got in the field and encouraged them to get up so we could have all get some pics.  These are the best pics I have managed to get of kangaroos yet!  Unfortunately I only took the baby camera because I didn’t want to be liable for the big one while I was drinking .

The girls aren’t big drinkers but the Hunter has something for everyone so we all came back with bottles of wine.  It was such a relaxing day, being chauffeured around, trying new wines (there are over 150+ wineries so all the wineries were new to me too!), having girl talk and taking in the scenery.

The highlight of the day:  There was a large group of 50+ year olds who were old friends and came to Sydney to visit a friend for new years.  They were a lively bunch and we enjoyed chatting with them throughout the day.  During lunch one of the men did a beer tasting and climbed back into his seat a bit too quickly (picture a picnic bench) and somehow feel backwards.  Never in my life have I seen someone get up from a fall so quickly.  He was more concerned with his friends catching his embarrassing moment on camera.  They did not give him a break and joked about this the rest of the trip.  Of course it brought tears to my eyes trying to hold in the laughter…he was a good spirit (and of course he was ok!!).

We seem to have a new tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve…I wasn’t feeling this- I used to have to wait!  I think my little sis is wearing my parents down!

We somehow managed to sleep til 8 am before all running downstairs to open presents (this must be some sort of record).  See my brother Kenny pictured to the right.  Santa was good to all of us (especially me!).

And here’s the baby, Raechel and the puppy Petey.  Somehow Rae always looks like she is ready to go.  Apparently I have not acquired this skill yet.

There were plenty of presents to go around but I think my mother was just excited to have us all home for the holidays.

I should have taken pictures of ALL THE FOOD!  My parents even fried a turkey…I swear I ate so much that I couldn’t breathe and slept the rest of the day away.  It was well worth it though!  This just means I need to really get on the grind to shake these extra pounds when I get back to Sydney.

Now it wouldn’t be Christmas if my mom didn’t try to take some family pictures.  I must admit this was a little fun.

Aww, it’s my family!!

I’m on the way back to Sydney…hopefully I’ll report back with more adventures soon!

Last year, the first company event that Reggie attended with me was Melbourne Cup…and here we are a year later.  I must admit the firm knows how to through a good party!  We bought a table so that all our friends could enjoy the event together. 

With the crazy hours I have been working, I practically had to beg my client to let me and my team take the afternoon off!  Thankfully this paid off because I think I would have been disgruntled otherwise!

The event includes lunch, unlimited beer, wine and bubbly (champagne) and the opportunity to gamble (in true Aussie form).

There was also a small fashion show, with those identified as best dressed and best hat.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera and I am again relying on other’s pictures so I don’t have any pics to show you!  But remember this party and the horse head? 

Well it made a special appearance at the Melbourne Cup event and actually won a best hat award (ha!!).

Of course we placed a few bets, unfortunately we didn’t have a winning combination!  We had the winning horse on a few of our tickets but were unsuccessful guessing the second and third horse in the trifecta!  Oh well, maybe next year?

I was responsible and left right after the event versus going to the bar for the “after party”.  I had a 6am flight to Melbourne the next day and something tells me being hungover at that hour would have been miserable…I must be growing up.

We were worried the pot luck would be cancelled due to the torrential downfall all week, but luckily the weather cleared on Saturday and dried the grass so it was real nice! Tommy even had a massive tent that allowed us to eat (and dance) in a bit of shade.

There was SO MUCH FOOD! All this soul food took the edge off my homesickness. I think it allowed me to survive the final days in Australia before returning to the States for a much needed break! It was good to see so many of our friends and I enjoyed all the girl talk!

We had two dj’s in the house so after we shoved our faces we needed to dance off some of those calories. The dj’s made it hard to resist the beat. Of course when you get a bunch of black folks around we had to do the electric slide (a few times!).

Gotta love on the dj a little bit .

And run around the yard with one of my fav little people, Ms Talia! Isn’t she ADORABLE!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, YALL!

My friend Nicola threw a party at her house for Halloween, remember we were here a year ago to celebrate Reggie moving to Australia (boy how time flies!).  This year she went all out and got two frozen daiquiri machines, this girl really knows how to throw a party. 

This horse head (see right) really got around!  This is not the original owner but I think every one tried it on before the end of the night!

Halloween is picking up in popularity in Australia, on the way to the party we saw alot more people out in costumes and there were several more temporary costume shops that popped up around the city.  I don’t think trick or treating has caught on just yet (maybe on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis).  The Aussies love a good fancy dress, I”m not sure what they are waiting on to make this a real holiday!

Of course Reggie was asked to DJ and he did a great job!  He got his first paid gig after this party too (woo hoo!!). 

I should have gotten a picture with his mask on, he was the joker…it got in the way of him dj’ing….

And here’s the host with her daiquiri machines!

It was a great night!  I love a good house party!

This weekend was an all around girl’s weekend and it was much needed! An old work colleague (and soror), Nina was visiting Melbourne on the back end of an audit in Singapore so I decided to fly up to spend some time with her! It turns out a few of the girls from Sydney were also going to Melbourne the same weekend! I flew to Melbourne on Saturday afternoon just in time to get settled and catch up with the girls for dinner. We were determined to try a Mexican restaurant, Mamasitas that was said to be the best in Melbourne. The restaurant didn’t take reservations and the line to even get your name on the list was outrageous! We arrived around 730 and our estimated time to receive a table was 1130 :-O. Again, we were persistent and went to a bar around the corner for drinks and appetizers while keeping our fingers crossed for an earlier call back.

. Thankfully we did get an early call back and the food was good. Better than most Mexican food I’ve had in Australia button where near tex-mex or what we’re used to. The monitors were fantastic though (well worth $20 per drink). Now going out in Melbourne on Friday night was a bust. We tried 2 places with no success finding R&b. We ended the night at the casino but only after we weren’t allowed in the club because they thought I wobbled while in line waiting to get to the bouncer!! True story folks! I was on my best behavior and let it go but i was far from drunk!

Saturday I got up early to meet Nina and her friend for a wine tour of Yarra Valley. We rode a bus with 9 other people for an hour to the wine region. Just my luck a Sydney work colleague was on the tour with his fiancé, nothing like running into work folks when you are trying to relax and chill out!

The first stop was Chandon and they are known for their bubbles! Apparently champagne the wine region in France own the rights to the word champagne so if it’s not made in that region it’s just bubbles or bubbly. It’s good we stopped here first for a bit of a tour and some bubbly because it was only 1030 in the morning!

We toured a total of 4 vineyards and had lunch at one called train trak.  While we were having our tasting someone actually landed a helicopter amongst the grape vines for lunch!!  WHO DOES THAT!!  It was a tiny helicopter so there wasn’t much wine but we were all side tracked and wanted to take a break to see it land.

Overall, the wines were ok overall.   I only bought one bottle of bubbly and some jams.  Typically when we go to Hunter Valley (another wine region) I have to exercise great restraint not to leave with more than one case of wine!  There were a variety of white wines (e.g. Savignon Blanc/Semillion, Voigner, Chardonnay) but nothing really left me feeling like I can have this all week with dinner.

We also had lunch at Train Trak and while the wines were mediocre the food was AMAZING!!  It was an Italian place and the food was sooo good and just kept coming and coming!  This anti pasta plate may have been the best I have had in life!  The bread was to die for and the pizza had fresh ingredients (e.g. garlic, spinach, tomato, etc).

There were amazing views, the grape vines went on for days!  I was really hoping a kangaroo would come hopping by so that Nina would get the true Aussie experience (didn’t happen though).

The weather in Melbourne is known to be terrible (cold and rainy) but on Sunday it was PERFECT. 

One of the wineries had a live band and an art display, we stopped for a few pictures.  People were laying out on the lawn having picnics and sipping wine (now that’s how you live!)

All in all we had am amazing day.  It was so nice to catch up with Nina.  We figured out we see each other on average once a year since we met.  It blows my mind that we met on an audit in Florida and we are still friends!  See the firm is good for something after all (never mind me, I’m over worked and exhausted these days!)

After a full day of drinking Nina and I both needed a nap when we got back to the hotel.  We did manage to get up and venture out for dinner and…MAX BRENNER’S!!

I owe a special thanks to Nina for taking GREAT pictures with her camera and making sure I had the pictures with me when I returned to Sydney!  Girl, I need one of those cameras!!

We woke up on Sunday to monsoon like rain but there were no complaints!  There is nothing like rain to bring on some of the best sleep.  Amazingly the whole house slept in and we lounged all morning watching all three of the Back to the Future movies (ha, no joke!). 

We finally made it out the house and down to the marina for a late lunch before heading to the brewery for a beer tasting.  And while I do enjoy a good drink, I do not touch beer so I was the designated driver.  There was a small bar with a wine tasting but none of the wines looked appealing . Oh, and I was the DD!

What can I say?  We had a great time!

Reggie has a thing for souvenirs so we pickd up a few to remember Port Stephens.

We made reservations to go bowling Sunday evening and apparently everyone else in town had the same idea because it was late before we could get a reservation!

Based on the crowd in the crowd in the bowling alley it felt like we were in Knoxville, TN ( or some equivalent)…yall get the picture.

There were a few bonuses:  a juke box with a wide variety of hip hop and R&B (surprise!!!) that also played the videos on the big screen and the bar allowed us to pre order drinks so we continued to be served after last call!

It should come as no surprise that we quickly took over the bowling alley and were the happening group!  There was plenty of drinking and dancing involved!  No one could get a song in on the juke box because we came equipped with coins to keep it going all night!

I really have some great friends in Oz, it is so much fun to take group trips and we ALL get along so well!  The late nights playing drinking games like Cheers,

Governor, discussing a range of topics and just unwinding and enjoying something other than WORKING ALL THE TIME!

Per the closing manager at the bowling alley we will be remembered for three things:  1.  The largest bar tab incurred by one group, 2. Keeping the bowling alley open the latest it has been in over 5 years, 3.  Getting the locals to dance!

That’s a win in my book!

A group of 9 of us headed 2.5 hours north of Sydney to Port Stephens, it’s a quiet beach town that happens to have the largest sand dunes in the southern hemisphere and WE SLED DOWN THEM! 

As we were parking the car to meet our tour we spotted CAMEL RIDES!!  How random is this?!?

I wish I had a picture of the vehicle that took us to the sand dune, it was the front of an 18 wheeler with a bus cab or shuttle bus attached to the back.  Due to the amount of rain we drove through large puddles of water and through some rocky terrain to get to the dunes.

We should have known something was up when the tour operator told us we could stay at the dunes as long as we wanted and go up and down as many times as we desired.  All I had in my mind was skiing, and how you can spend the full day going down the slopes.  One critical aspect of skiing was missing…THE LIFTS!

It was HELL getting up this hill!  I thought I had suffered from a heart attack by the time I made it to the top and needed a few minutes to gather myself before actually going down.  I somehow managed to climb this hill THREE TIMES (exceeding my goal by one) and it was so much fun!

And as a bonus, here is some footage of Reggie surfing down the sand dune. 

And one of my less graceful rides down.

Renay hosted lunch at her house which was gorgeous and also on the north shore so it wasn’t that far from my house.  She had a great outdoor space that we could all gather, drink and catch up while snacking on appetizers. 

Renay did her thang in the kitchen!  We had salmon, mac and cheese, salad and GREENS!!!  Apparently here they are called chinese broccoli and they don’t look anything like greens but the taste is what counts, and these WERE THE REAL DEAL!

Aside from Tommy, I don’t hang out with this group of women often but I can see that changing in the future.  We come from all over the US and its interesting how we all found our way to Australia.  There are some hot topics that never fail to come up…men, food we miss from home and HAIR.  This was my debut of my natural hair…meaning my first wash and go.

I am still very self-conscious about my natural hair, I’m not sure how long it is going to take me to get over this.  I have some breakage at the crown of my head, this grade of hair still puzzles me, it is nothing like that on the rest of my hair.  I’ll refrain from calling it what I really want to, let’s just say things get rough in that area.  The curls make my hair appear alot shorter than what it typically is and shorter than what I’m accustomed to.  I think I am just learning to adjust my self-image to the curly hair.

I’m so glad I took a break from the computer and spent the afternoon with the ladies.  Afterall, no one ever looks back on life and says I wish I had of worked more!

Saturday evening (after meeting the team at the finish line!) we headed for a night on the town to see Big Boi in concert.  A local group opened up the show, I wasn’t interested but Reggie seemed to enjoy them.  It was two white guys rapping with a 50 cent and reggae influence with accents I couldn’t quit place.  Next, Theopilius London performed.  I had no idea who this man was!  He is apparently an up and coming artist from New York (and a Big Boi groupie, HA!).  I was impressed that he had a female dj (although Reggie said she wasn’t that great).  But I was NOT impressed that this man was sporting a sequin blouse.  It was certainly one of the more ecclectic performances I have seen, but he was right in line with what folks in Sydney love though.  Reggie swears he is the next big thing and even bought one of his promotional shirts.

I couldn’t tell you if I have been away from the States for too long or if I’m just deprived of hearing rap music in the club and on the radio but every concert I have been to in Sydney has been AMAZING!  I honestly feel like the artists give more because they have come such a long way to perform, or maybe they are grateful for the blessing of having fans across the world.  Any way you look at it Big Boi was no different.  He performed some of the Outkast classics like Elevators, Southernplayalistcadillacmuzik, So Fresh So Clean, etc.  I honestly am likely a bigger Outkast fan than Big Boi and didn’t know much of his own songs but that was cool because we had a PARTY. 

Due to the low ticket sales, the balcony seated area was closed and there were approx 25-30 seats added to the bottom of the theatre.  The rest was standing room or what turned into a dance floor. 

The highlight for me was when they played Kryptonite, reminded me just how much I miss Atlanta!

Hopefully in some of these pics you can see that Big Boi had a live band!!  Including two trumpet players…not sure why I didn’t see that coming!  But they were GREAT!!!

When Big Boi and his crew started to round up girls to dance on stage my mouth hit the floor!  These girls were eager and a HOT MESS!  There was attempted booty shaking, girl on girl dancing and dresses far too short to be dancing in.  It was honestly like watching a train wreck.

There was no fight but there was plenty of weed smoke, I guess that feels enough like home .