Food & Health
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tricking family to come to me
Goooddd Moorrniiinnngg 🙂This is where I was having my morning walk earlier today. Super tired when I woke up at 5:30 though. I always think after I drop Ambrose off, that I’m going to drive back home and go back to bed. But this is the road I pass so there is absolutely no way I am going to sleep after this view.
Left on my To Do List is:Find a workout/Yoga
Picking up Dry cleaning
Finding a place to fix the windshield on our car
Order contacts
Cancel Physio appointment
Finish “Evidence of Joint Travel”
Upload Evidence of contact during separation”
Ask Kelly, Nour and Kali for invitations for the Partner Visa
Clean the carIts more work to NOT have a job! Jeezzus.
Anyway, sitting now with our cousin group chat planing for 2 of my cousins to come and visit us in Australia. So happy! I wonder if I should book them on maybe AirBnb or if they should stay with us in the house. Its enough rooms at the house but if they are just here for 2-3 weeks it might be a bit far from the city? Not essentially the distance but more the crazy traffic Sydney has.Well back to our Visa. Leonards stat dec is done. I sent one this morning to the lovely Tim & Mia who said they would happily help us out. Think I’m going to finish the “Evidence of Joint Travel” today so better get to it…
Almost forgot! Today I am sitting at a place called: “Gnostic Mana Cafe”. We have been going here for years now because Gabe, Ambrose dad likes this place ( we think its because he is a regular here and they treat him like a celebrity here 🙂 )
What I would say about this place? Well on the plus side: Its cozy, they have free wifi, the staff are nice, they have a good variety of food and drinks on their menu, open for breakfast and lunch (no dinner) no extra charge for almond/soy milk or/and if you like to swap something on your dish. kids friendly, good outdoor seating and their bathrooms are clean. Also an open kitchen which I like and free books/magazines to read.
On the less positive side: can get quite busy and noisy. it has happened a few times that they have messed up my order, but overall for me its a 3* out of 5*
Have a nice day.
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Sunny Weekend
Finally a sunny weekend! Saturday was a full on day with the whole family at Daniel & Rachel’s house. We played some basketball, had pizza and took turns cuddling with Xavier.
Sunday was super hot. We met Bart & Kali at Bellifish in Terrigel. Nice place with good varieties on their menu with ocean view. And, great coffee witch always is a plus. Then we drove around to different beaches to swim and sunbath. Umina beach, Pearl beach and finally North Avoca beach which is where the last picture is taken from.
We tried finding some Blue Ringed octopus, just to see them. Apparently they have enough poison to kill 27 humans…… Oh Australia you crazy place haha___________________________________
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What to do when you have nothing to do
So I thought I would write down a few suggestions of places I come to love from living here in Australia. I have always appreciated diversity. A perfect day according to me will be a blend of nature, then a walk in a chaotic city, posh cocktail bar then walking down and eat somewhere the locals eat. Its hard to explain (especially with my English…) but maybe if I explain it like this: Having a drink, dinner and dessert at the same place is not optional I think. Love jumping in a cab after dinner, or walk friendly cities where you can just easily relocate, and have your desserts in a totally different area/restaurant.
There was alot of this diversity this last couple of days. Here are some of my recommendations for your Australia trip:
Walking along the cliffs to reach secret beaches at Killcare
The sandstone is millions of years old and with the waves crushing against the stone its absolutely stunning. One of my favorite beaches so far over here
Restaurant “Saigon Garden” in Ettalong. We ordered a lot of dishes to share and everything was delicious, so highly recommended if you are up the coast
Morning spa at “Five N 2” in Rhodes. I love mornings so I booked my appointment at 10am. Went with Ambrose to North Sydney for breakfast and then had a spa day here. This Salon plus the whole area of Rhodes was clean and really great. Alot of Asian grocery stores which I like to explore. Five N 2 does hair,Manni/Peddi,eyelashes/brows etc. The place is clean and the staff professional and frindly which is why I recommend them and made another appointment in 2 weeks
There is an IKEA in Rhodes. Don´t know why, maybe because I grew up in Sweden but I always find it somehow therapeutic to walk true IKEA. Even with a million other visitors in there. Did not know they have Swedish “Plockgodis” there though!?
Very nice for me…..
If you fall in love with an Australian Town Planner its apparently essential to walk around for hours to look and discuss the latest changes of the city….. luckily for me Sydney is pretty amazing to walk true.
Here we are in The Rocks
(picture is from Hotel Palisade´s website)Found this pub and rooftop bar/restaurant by accident because I had to pee urgently 🙂
We had a drink downstairs where they have a nice pub before heading upstairs to their “Private Parts” as they call it. This place is called “Hotel Palisade” Its in the Rocks, right by Millers Point and I fell in love right away. Going there after strolling around the beautiful Rocks is something I would happily suggest when in Sydney.
We continued our drinking. Japanese beer and crispy cold desert wine at the “O Bar” on the 47th floor-Australia Square. The view is of course amazing, the staff and the cocktails are great but I’m not sure how much I like sitting here for more than just one quick drink. I just find it a bit tacky just because there are so many people sitting there and instead of having one picture and enjoying, all they do for one hour is to take pictures of themselves with the view. Other then that, great place
Diversity at its best! After a chic cocktail bar, a not so chic Chinese noodle place. The place is always packed. It looks like you gonna catch a disease just entering the damn place. But their Special Braised Eggplant dish……mama mia
Its in China Town, I have no address, they are in a corner with a couple of Asian restaurants next to each other. Its the one to the far right. Worst explanation I know, but its soooo worth to find this place!There we have it. A couple of suggestions from me on what to do when you have absolutely nothing to do.
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Late last night
Picked up my happy a slightly tipsy partner and went straight to find some takeaway dinner in the area. Ambrose had just finished his first week at his new job and the team had take him out for work drinks. He promised me this tacky looking decorated place served delicious Indian food and he was so right! We over-ordered though but worth it.
Today we tried out the new Breakfast place everyone recommends. The boys dishes looked and tasted great, mine was unfortunately not good at all so I left most of it. Now I’m in bed having a Masterchef maraton. Only the Australian though, the rest is not as good if you ask me. Little bambi is sick so he has been sleeping on and of most day. Ive made honey, ginger,lemon tea for him though, so he will be good in the morning 🙂____________________________
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Seafood Pasta
After a long day we went to the shops, got beautiful seafood, argued because this day is as it is…. and I made seafood pasta that came out really nice. Even Papa loved it!
Now lying in bed watching Masterchef Austalia 2016 which is about all energy l have left for today._______________________________
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Gold Coast 2016
Byron Bay. I preferred Noosa though. Noosa was exactly like a small, exclusive southern France village. Love places like that. We had such a good time so not much pictures. Here below is a restaurant we can recommend in Noosa –
Noosa Beach House
Drove to Brisbane to have brunch with Mia at there new house. Unfortunately we missed Tim as he is in Papua New Guinea where he works.
On my to do list has always been to swim in waterfalls and like always Ambrose takes me to the most amazing places! If you are ever in Queensland, visit Currumbin Creek!
Our Hotel- Meriton. We usually try and book apartment hotels when we travel. Ambrose likes to have several rooms and I really like the idea of just staying in and relaxing in your own spacious living room some night during a vacation. Gold Coast can be quite intense so pizza and movie night such as are the best.
We rented a boat to go fishing and lay around sand bars.
Watching sunset at Q1. I was not really interested to go up there to be honest. But if you are going out with a Town Planner I guess you just have to go along these things. Was really cool though. If you are at the Gold Coast, its worth a visit.
Longboards Laidback Eatery & Bar – If you are after hamburgers, this is where you go.
There was actually a Persian restaurant called Rumi. Of course we had dinner here one night. The atmosphere is lovely, nice music, staff and great food. On Monday and Tuesdays they have a kind of tasting nights. Great if you are not familiar with Persian cuisine and can try out different dishes.
Not our absolute favorite but still a good place for cocktails and Mexican food is Miss Margarita in Byron Bay. We had lunch nr. 1 at place called The Dip, but we were disappointed so we continued to lunch nr.2 at Miss Margarita hahaha 
Ramen and Jasmin green tea in China Town. We went here alot, you can more or less pick any place down here and have a great meal.
We can really recommend ELK. Seriously one of my best breakfast experiences in Australia.
There is so much to do in Gold Coast, whale watching, paddle boarding, jet ski, special effects cinemas, Sea World, theme parks etc. Here are just some of the things we did; Bowling Bar. Gambling at the Casino. Paddle Boarding at this amazing place!
Hi! It feels like its been forever.
We drove back for over 8 hours and came back home around 1am. The plan was to keep updates here from our trip but then you keep doing things all the time so in reality there actually is no time for uploading pictures and writing. And also, we did go on a vacation so relaxing by the hotel pool and do absolutely noting surely is a vacation activity.
I though I will put some of my pictures from our trip up, and then comment just below. This way if anyone is going to any of these places, can get some tips on my favorite places and those less nice. (well, according to my taste anyway haha)Now we are off to Anastasia´s graduation brunch at The Secret Cafe!
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1st day back home
So much to tell about being back but we are about to go to dinner and the movies with Leonard soon so..here are at least some pictures from my fist day back. BEST breakfast just around the corner from the house and after we of course (!) went to see Xavier 🙂 He walked straight to me when he saw me which made me love him even more hahah.
Okey now off to see “Pets”
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lunch in the forest
Dear Diary,
after dealing with the last bank details and paper work I went to have lunch at a Swedish tavern. They served typical Swedish home cooked dishes and we got really lucky with the weather. But the best part was that my family (except Jasmin 🙁 ) was there and that this place was right in the middle of the forest!_____________________________________________________________________________________________