fuchsia fragments

Another weekend, another wedding. Good thing I've tried to lay low the weekend before otherwise it is just exhausting (and was still exhausted by the end). Think it was the right decision to drive up the day before and spend the night at a rental (it had a real fireplace, so exciting...) and a nice little dinner with Joyce and John at the Leura Garage.

The day itself was a bit chilly but it was a beautiful day regardless. We got to sit in the gallery at the church since Jen and Joyce were playing some music and it made us feel so special / important. Haha. The reception was so pretty too with native flowers, candles, photo booth handmade napkins. I kept mine. It was all very Anna.

It was a small contingent of ex St Georgians in comparison to Cat's Kitchen tea. I'm pretty sure the Kitchen tea was the first time I've been in a room with so many girls from HS again. A little bit... strange - it's like do I say hi? Because I didn't really talk to them in HS. Oh well, that didn't say hi to me so no point in wasting time with them... not like I'll see them again after the wedding...

Very glad that we got to squeeze in a short bushwalk despite the muddy weather and that I had flats (not even walking shoes) down to Fletcher's Lookout. Nice little views of the valley and Wentworth Falls. Makes me wish I could spend more time out there.

We also visited a couple of coffee plantations and did a coffee tour. Very educational and I now appreciate coffee even more than I did before. Even if I disagree with the way coffee is brewed in Hawaii. Plunger vs machine?

I love how non-busy Fridays before a long weekend  have an assumed finish time of 4 or thereabouts. I absolutely made use of it this weekend and so did not rush to get everything in order for our weekend in Berry. So much FUN. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt. Or drank so much cider. Or saw a humongous junk food stockpile. Or played poker with a buy in. And trash talked so much. Wow, these guys have no boundaries.

Friday evening started with a liquor stop and snacks. Me being the "accountant" (so I was told many times this weekend) said it was cheaper to get a case of cider rather than 2 packs. We ended up spending $55 for 5 packs of 6. Score... that's over 33% off compared to a 6-pack! Got chips, raspberries, pretzels, bananas and pineapple M&Ms (they're ok, and ok to give it a miss too) and on our way. Huge advantage for me in terms of travel time as we were already on the south side of Sydney. And this is another reason why I prefer to go down to the south coast rather than the central or north coast. I don't have to add an additional hour in traffic to get out of Sydney.

So we made it in roughly 90-100 minutes. It was a really easy and smooth drive. No much traffic at all and it was just on nightfall as we got there. Perfect. And the place was so gorgeous. Just the right size. Nothing like huge parcels of land. Large property, 3 bedroom house, vegie patches, apple tree, bee hive (for honey) and yabbie dams. And yes, we laid yabbie traps and caught about 20 for dinner. YUMMMMM.

 

The back garden of our home away from more. So relaxing.

I'm pretty fortunate to have such an awesome family and to be able to spend time with them. Sit with them in a car ride for 8 hours and come out at the end alive!!

We took a few days over Easter this year to go to South Australia and wine country. Two wine regions: the Barossa Valley and Coonawarra.

So worth it.

We took the first flight out of Sydney and my goodness, I have never seen the domestic airport so packed and buzzing so early in the morning in my life. So lucky to have a very nice Jetstar lady help us with our tickets and pretty much get them straight away. And luckily, the line through security moved fast. Although, we were still pretty much the last ones to board the plane... AGAIN!

We got to Adelaide just after 8 and picked up our car. It was a Kia Cerato. Can't say I liked it much.

Drove to Hanhdorf and Beerengburg farm for freshly picked strawberries, jam, the best smoked salmon and German food!!!