Arts & Culture weekend in Sydney

This weekend was Arts & Culture weekend in Sydney. Lane and I started it off by going to see Idina Menzel sing with the Symphony Orchestra. Idina is a big Broadway star in NY who Lane (and everyone else in the Opera House) seemed to know very well. She opened Wicked as Elphaba, and also played Rachel's mother on Glee. It was a super fun show - she was very funny and sang a mix of pop songs and musical hits. After the show we met KM and KM2 for some drinks in the hotel bar, as they were in town for our Values Day on Friday.

Arts & Culture continued on Saturday with a team visit to Blak, an Aboriginal-inspired dance also at the Opera House. This was not quite my cup of tea, although the male dancers were nice to look at! I felt fully steeped in culture after this and decided that I did not need to see any museums to round out the weekend! The team had a few drinks at the Opera House Bar after the show to round out a lovely evening.

Today (Sunday) has been recovery day. We got pedicures and I got a massage and caught up on sleep. Ready to start the week (sort of.....) !!!!

More from Hunter Valley

Here are some more pictures from our trip to the Hunter Valley. These are from the vineyard Allandale. We saw some kangaroos near the vines, tried 5 or 6 wines, and bought a bottle of red (which was fully consumed over the scrabble game). Lovely spot, and not at all commercial compared to the Napa wineries.

Hunter Valley

This weekend Lane and I rented a car and headed to the Hunter Valley, about 2.5 hours from Sydney. We freestyled it - I looked up a place to stay while we were driving out - and found a super charming cottage in a vineyard. It's been a super relaxing weekend, filled with a ton of wine (my highlight was the sparkling Shiraz at dinner last night), great views, good food, and a scrabble match in front of our fireplace.

Here are the views from our deck, taken over breakfast this morning and some pictures of the living room. Stay tuned for more pictures this week!

Friday night fun

Well, it is 10:36pm on a Friday night and the team and I are in the McKinsey office. We have a very big week coming up next week and need to get a bunch of documents out tonight. It's been a long week but we are actually pretty excited about the fantastic work we're doing. That said, we are looking forward to getting out of here soon - especially because the building has turned the air circulation off for the weekend!! Almost there, just waiting for the team to make a couple finishing tweaks.

It hasn't been all bad though - here are some live-action photos. First is Manuela pouring us champagne. That came out around 6pm but we have displayed great moderation. Second are Manuela and Lane hard at work, possibly wishing I would contribute a bit more. Haha.

Cross your fingers we are out of here in 20 minutes!

Noosa

When I was visiting Amanda in Brisbane we drove to Noosa which is on the Sunshine Coast about 2 hours away. We were lucky that it stopped raining when we arrived for a nice beach walk. It's a very cute town, a bit hoity-toity, but nice! Mostly a vacation spot for Australians. Here are some pictures!

(Also something funny happened there. The parking was unlimited after 5pm but only 1 or 2 hours before that. After our walk it was 4:45 and we wanted to kill some time and stay near the car to make sure it didn't get a ticket. So we went into a bathing suit store right beside Amanda's rental car. We ended up in there for like an hour, but Amanda kept sticking her head out to check on the car. Finally we were finished and we left the store and the car was gone!! Amanda was freaking out. The picture below is of her pointing to a big white truck that was in her car's spot! And there was no sign or anything about what do to if you get towed. Anyways she starts running up the street, and then realises she was parked a block away and the car she was watching all that time wasn't even her car. Luckily her actual car didn't have a ticket either!)

A normal moment

Amongst all the work and sight-seeing it was nice to do some normal things while visiting my friend Amanda in Brisbane. We made a lovely steak lunch / dinner. Although we couldn't get the bbq to work so had to resort to the oven .... it was still delish! And a feast!

Ocean pools?

All along the coast there seem to be these amazing pools that are filled with ocean water....and lots of people are swimming laps in them! It looks very difficult with the ocean pouring in making huge waves all the time! I don't think I will be trying it - it seems like it would also be quite cool....

Bondi Bodies

While pausing on some of the beaches between Bondi and Coogee Lane and I had the chance to witness some Bondi Bodies in action. These two guys seem to be starting a fashion revolution. We're not fans. Work is busy. But at least these pictures make me smile!!

Busy weekend!!

It's been a very busy weekend! But now I have lots to tell you about. Lane and I took advantage of (unseasonably?) good Sydney weather to explore all of the beaches. On Saturday we took a bus out to Bondi and then did the Bondi - Coogee beach walk, which was a beautiful 6 km path along cliffs and the beaches between Bondi and Coogee. Then we did some shopping, went to the gym, went for dinner at a Japanese noodle restaurant near the hotel, and then to the Opera House bar. A full day! Today we took the ferry to Manly beach, walked along the beach, had lunch, drank a bottle of prosecco (or similar?) on the beach, and finished the day with canapes in the lounge and a hot tub. Fun fun! I will share the best of the pictures with you over the next few days!

Here are some sights from Saturday - it was a bit overcast!

Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach is one of the famous beaches in Sydney. I went there my first weekend here (20 minute busride from right outside my hotel), and was going to do a coastal walk for about 6km along several beaches....but the weather was so nice I decided to buy a towel (rip-off) and stay put with my book. It was LOVELY. I almost got a sunburn. It was also likely the last weekend warm enough to sit on the beach .... winter is coming! It's like fall here - I feel like we should be carving pumpkins! At least it's not going to snow. (It better not!) I do need to buy a coat though.

Here are some pictures from the beach!

Koalas!

Okay I'm guessing you're getting sick of cute animal pictures by now, but if it wasn't clear before....there isn't a whole lot of interesting stuff happening for me during the week, so my weekend activities must suffice for blog fodder! We got a new team member from the US today, let's call him LS, who I had worked with previously in Canada. Very excited for him to be here and I have a feeling we will have fun weekend adventures together in the future!!

Until then.....

....Here are some more mighty cute pictures of the koalas. I couldn't believe how many there were at the sanctuary or how active they were. They usually sleep all day! We were very lucky!

Kangaroos!

You can also feed kangaroos at the koala sanctuary! I was a bit nervous, but Amanda is a veteran (she has a season's pass!!) so after watching her feed one I took my chances. I kept thinking "grandpa wouldn't approve of this - this is the most dangerous seeming thing I have done in the last 5 months of travelling" .... but there were 2 year olds poking at the kangaroos and no supervisors around so I guess they are pretty tame!

Here are some of the best pictures. We took a ton! All for 50 cents worth of Roo Food! 

 (I realised I didn't need to bend over for this big guy above me! And then got nervous!)