Art and About in Unusual Places.

Sometimes it's nice to play tourist in your own city. A friend and I explored the city and looked at Art and About. Here are the photos of some of the things we saw.

Paired Gold. It has apparently been cancelled. It was just a square on the ground painted gold and some gold foil on the wall. It was meant to look like this.

Not part of Art and About but I thought the screen in front of Sydney Town Hall was cool.

How cute is this beagle puppy. The photograph is titled Long Cute Dog and was taken by a 6-year-old.

I don't know what kind of plant this is but I want it in my garden.

"Friendly Billboards"

The scientist in me finds lollies in flasks, test tubes, beakers and Petri dishes amusing. Happy Lab in Westfield. 

"Forbidden Songs" Angel Place. This has been there for a while. I took the photo with my phone and it doesn't do it justice. Check it out here.

"cBraille". 

Can't remember what this one was called but it's part of Sydney Life photographic exhibition in Hyde Park.

Paper flower installation at the Queen Victoria Building. I just love art installations.

This is also part of the Art and About which hubby and I drove past on the way to the Fish Market the following day. It's a giant crate made out of crates.

There were so many other things that I didn't get to see because they weren't in the CBD and the light installations were only on after dark. Such a shame. 

I love the old train station signs.

Got bored on the train ride home so took a photo of my nails. My favourite nail colour so far. It matches my coat perfectly too. 

I love this coat. I bought it from Sfera, a ubiquitous chain store in Spain. Hubby and I ducked into the Sfera store in Seville to take shelter from the rain and discovered their bargain basement (which is really the top level). I picked it up for a grand total of €3 which is like $6 at the time. I don't know why I didn't buy it in pastel yellow as well. Yellow isn't really my colour as being olive skinned it makes me look jaundiced but I could have worn it as a lab coat in winter, a very cute lab coat. It's the only item of clothing I owned that saw me through to the end of my pregnancy and I was still able to button it all up. The lining is cute as well. *Sigh* When you're on to a good thing buy it in every colour.

Hubby is Home!

I had a pretty busy day on Tuesday, running errands and doing the Art and About in the city as you do when you're on holidays. That night while Bubby and I were having dinner there was a knock on the door. I don't like answering the door (or the phone) and I seriously contemplated hiding but the TV was on and I already walked in front of the door so the person already saw me. I figured I could just talk through the glass door (we don't have a security door) when I realised the person at the door was wearing a suit and had a suitcase and was trying to hide! Who else would do that but hubby? I was so excited that I actually jumped on him. He didn't tell me he was coming home and I wasn't expecting him until the end of the week. Not only was he back home early he is also not going away again for a few weeks AND he has taken the next two days off! He's back at work tomorrow but the last two days has been so nice it's so weird that we are chillaxing in the middle of the work week.

Yesterday was spent shopping around for a new fridge, and a spur of the moment detour to The Fish Market for a seafood lunch after an earlier detour to our old neighbourhood for takeaway Chinese only to discover that the shop has closed down :(.

It was hubby's idea to go to the Fish Market since it was on our way home. That is why I love him.

The seafood festival didn't have to end after all!

We took a wrong turn on the way to the Fish Market and ended up on Anzac Bridge. It was a glorious day to be driving over bridges.

I drive over the Harbour Bridge everyday but this is my favourite part of the drive home from work. There's something about the ascent and driving in between buildings that seems so cool it's almost disappointing when I see the Bridge because I know the best part of the drive is over.

Today was spent doing the rounds at hubby's work introducing Bubby to hubby's colleagues. Afterwards we  spent the rest of the morning at the museum. We had lunch in the city where Bubby and I shared lamb shish kebab, tabouli, salad, pita bread, babaganoush, felafel and chips (very nice chips not the greasy soggy kind). The woman sitting at the next table kept looking at us. I don't know if she was amazed at Bubby's appetite or horrified at what I'm feeding him. Whatever, I thought I went for the healthy option considering the choices. Bubby also had his first gelato. I practically had to hold his arms down and force feed it to him. People probably thought we were the worst parents in the world. Bubby eventually realised that he loved it. The best thing about letting him eat gelato was that he learned to finally use a spoon properly!

The Garden.

I've been talking a lot about the garden lately but I've never had a proper one and God knows how long this one will live as I have a black thumb so I will indulge myself while it's still thriving (sort of).

Bubby pointing at the 'plower' (flower).

This one is for Faux Fuschia

The garden on the other side of the house.

Not looking so healthy from this view. I need to think of what to plant in that empty patch. There's no point having a veggie patch with all the bush turkeys around.

I could plant this gorgeous tree if I knew what it was. Before anyone can suggest taking a cutting to replant, it sounds too difficult and it requires skills I simply don't have. Actually, the place could do with a camellia.

How useful is Bubby? Now I just need to train him to do the weeding.

So adorable, and so obsessed with cars.

I was thinking that if I were to become a real gardener I will need to be properly attired and equipped first:

Gardeing apron.

Gardening gloves.

Wellingtons

Kneeling cushion

The Seafood Festival Continues. Outfit Post. The Perfect Shade of Red.

Hubby is coming back home tomorrow but the seafood festival continues tonight.

There were four crabs and I ate them all. They were all female too and had roe. I couldn't have controlled myself even if I wanted to, and I didn't. Well, I didn't eat the claws. I'm saving them for tomorrow's seafood fix. Last night I had spaghetti marinara and will have the leftover for lunch tomorrow. I think I had seafood for dinner every night of this week.

However, seafood is not the only thing I've eaten. I have to cover other food groups like carbs, for example.

Baklava of the carbs and protein (from the pistachios) food groups and tea from the antioxidant group (ok I made that up). The place mat (part of a set) was a wedding gift from a dear friend. Lots of hilarious memories of our New Zealand trip come with that bird. In our native tongue, puke (poo-ke) means lady part that rhymes with angina and ko is a first person possessive singular noun. You do the math, er English.

Today, I wore one of my favourite dresses. It divides the masses. They either love it or hate it, they haven't said so but they say I look like a nurse/candy striper. 

One can never go wrong with a shirt dress. My shoes don't match the dress, I know but I like them so I wore them.

At least my nails matched. Excuse the ugly knuckles and bad nail painting job, my left nails were done better but the red pony is on the right sleeve. The nail polish is Pillar Box Red by Butter London. It glides on so nicely and one coat is enough but I put on two. It's a deeper shade of red than it appears in the photo. The perfect shade of red, really.

The nail polish comes free with this month's InStyle mag. For just under $9 you get a $24 nail polish plus a discount voucher for Butter polishes and a glossy mag. What are you waiting for?

What's For Dinner?

The only good thing about hubby being away is I don't have to think about dinner. Whatever I have for dinner this week will have once lived in the sea.

I exercised self-control and only bought 7 pieces. And before I can be accused of not being able to count I already ate one before I took the photo. And before anyone believes that I actually have self-control, that was just my entree. I also had vegan lasagne which was leftover from last Sunday's family shindig. My youngest brother is vegan, you see. I am, however, fond of food that used to have parents so I liberally sprinkled my vegan lasagne with mozzarella and added smoked salmon. I didn't take a photo because reheated lasagne never looks attractive. Yesterday I had a big sushi platter but today i walked past the sushi place without stopping. Now that's self-control. Bubby had leftover ground beef stew thing with vegies and cous cous, dolmades and cheddar cheese. Strange mix but the dolmades were actually mine, I gave him a bit to taste but he ended up eating all of them and he asked for cheese so he got it. The amount of food that he eats you wouldn't think he'd be so thin. Look who's talking.

By the way, I'm not the only one who can count. Bubby can count to two! He can't really count to one but he knows the number two when he sees it and if you hold up two fingers he'll say two. I like to think he's a genius but he also says two when you hold up three fingers. He's better with letters and can make the sound or name objects that start with A, B, C, D, J, L, M, P, S, T and U. He can also recognise and name a star (tar), oval (ov), and circle (urkel). He is quite the little chatterbox.

I Found My Sunglasses!

I mentioned in a previous post that I lost my favourite pair of sunglasses, well I found it! Not exactly the pair I actually lost but a pair that is close enough. I trawled the internet for weeks and went to the Coach stores in Sydney but I eventually found the closest one at Ozsale. Even better that they are heavily discounted! Score! Well, not really a score because I still prefer the one I lost which was a present from my mum and if I hadn't lost them I wouldn't have to fork out extra cash for a replacement. I really hope that my mum doesn't notice the difference, I didn't have the heart to tell her I lost the one she gave me. I think the face is pretty much the same but the arms are different. My old ones had thicker arms and the signature Cs are on the inside not the outside. I hope they are as comfortable and perfect as my old pair.

Nature and Spring

It's well and truly Spring. Now that we are surrounded by the Bush and Nature I realise that I don't really miss the tall concrete 'communist block' buildings that is city living. One might even go so far as to say that I have taken up gardening, at least I water the garden everyday. I'm trying to use it as a relaxation thing but I'm still having trouble letting go of the work I could be doing instead of gardening. Bubby makes it fun though as he loves getting wet under the garden hose and listening to his squeals is relaxing. I also generally don't like getting wet or dirty. I was thinking that the garden needs rose bushes and they simply won't plant themselves. There are also a lot of ferns surrounding the pool and I don't like them. I just don't like prehistoric plants with fronds. Plants should have proper flowers and leaves and branches.

Bubby vs giant fern

Bubby vs garden steps

Bubby vs succulent

Aren't the colours just pretty?

Daffodil

Don't know what plant this is but I can say that it's looking much healthier and bloomier since I bought a longer garden hose so I can actually water it. I just can't be bothered to take another photo.

Don't know what this is either but it lines the front of the garden and the side driveway (the other side driveway that I haven't photographed.) 

Don't know what plant this is either but it's pretty.

I also have a magnolia tree that was in full bloom but I didn't take a photo because I thought it will be flowering all spring but now there's only one flower left. Oh well.

View from the kitchen window. Spot the rainbow lorikeet.

Weekend visitor.

Spring blossoms look pretty and make the ground look like it's covered in snow but they're not so good for the pool. Look at that giant ugly frond, actually it's a stem but it has fronds and it freaks me out.

Still Life according to Bubby.

There's one thing I'll miss about winter:

It will be a cool day tomorrow maybe I can whip out my boots one last time this year.