The Married Life Archives | Page 15 of 50

The Wonderful Things That Make Up A Weekend

23 July 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 1 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, The Married Life

Weekends always seem to be short especially when we’re having fun. This precious break from work life is a time when we always squeeze in everything we want to do and spend quality time with loved ones. I always face my Mondays with a more inspired heart knowing that the weekend that passed was well-spent.

Coffee Date with Mari at Charlie Lovett where we got to catch up and enjoy a good cup of coffee (for me) and chocolate (for her). After which we had a walk along George Street from Cental to Townhall.

Hang out at our favourite bookstore, Kinokuniya. This is where I sometimes meet up with the Husband after work. I find it very productive to wait for each other at a bookstore because we get to read books. One of the areas I frequent is the Branding/Marketing & Sales area. While the Husband would always drop by the Manga section. Below is a Manga entitled, GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) which we’re currently watching the TV series of.

Friday night = date night! In celebration of our 66th month, the Husband bought me Red Velvet Cupcakes (my current food obsession). We sat ourselves at Chatime and bought some Pork Floss Buns too for an eat-anything-you-want afternoon tea.

Ended the night by watching “The Amazing Spiderman” (He was indeed amazing! Loved this Spiderman film). While everyone lined up for the new Batman movie, we enjoyed the Spiderman movie with a not-so-full cinema. We’re always late when it came to movies because we wait two to three weeks for the crowd to subside. And since the theatre wasn’t full, we scored a loveseat!

Finding a most coveted item on sale. This happened on Friday night too while window shopping at the mall. I’ve always wanted to own this DVD but always found it priced at AUD$25.99, but when I looked on Friday, it was on the specials list, on sale at AUD$9.99.

Finding a place that serves good coffee and good food by just following our senses. We were on our way to lunch with relatives when we decided to have coffee first and found this unassuming, almost hidden cafe and restaurant in our suburb’s mall. Saw the coffee brand they use and it wasn’t familiar. We got interested and decided to try it. The coffee was well-made and tasted great as we partnered it with fruit toast. I commended the staff before we left. The Husband agreed that we will come back soon. I will share more about this cafe in a later post.

Lunch with relatives. Our rendezvous with family is always celebrated with a lot of catching up and sumptuous, abundant food. Right after lunch, a cup peppermint tea gave me some time to sit, be grateful and soothe the fullness of my tummy.

Celebrating Christmas in July. It’s winter time in Sydney and I’ve made it a tradition at home to celebrate Christmas in July with delicious (and sometimes sinful) food. This year, I roasted a rolled pork belly. It was my first time to roast pork and I’m glad it turned out okay.

Winter Hibernation. I felt that the past weekend was coldest so far. It could just be me though as I’m getting tired of winter by now. After the excitement from all our weekend meet-ups with loved ones and our Christmas in July brouhaha, I bundled myself up in the warmest sweat clothes I own, wore my home boots and did nothing but sleep for the rest of weekend. The whole day of Sunday was spent in bed too. It’s as if this cold is consuming so much of me. Thank God for the Husband who did all of the housework, he gave me a whole day break.

How was your weekend?

Vivid Sydney 2012

28 June 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 6 Comments Category: Aussie Life, Charmed Life of a Mrs, Photography, The Married Life, Travel

Hooray! This is my 1,000th post in this blog! I just have to acknowledge that because I never thought I’d keep up with this blog for a long time. Just a quick thank you to readers and people who pass by AWCL. I sometimes wonder why I still do this but knowing that there are people who read and learn from things I share is something that inspires me to continue and soldier on. So thank you. Thank you for spending a few minutes of your day browsing thru my articles, appreciating my photographs and joining me in my travel and food adventures.

Since this is my 1,000th post, I would like to share one of my favourite events, the Vivid Sydney.

Vivid Sydney is Sydney’s 3-week celebration of light, music and ideas. It is a way to promote art and encourage people to come out and enjoy the sights and sounds of Sydney during winter time. Every year, more and more people come to see Vivid Sydney. Even tourists visit the city just to see this.

Vivid Sydney has become a tradition for us. Since 2009, we’ve been coming to see this event so we can enjoy the city at night and revel in art. This year, we went twice. We had a bit of disappointment with the Lighting of the Sails (Sydney Opera House) because we found it a bit “un-vivid” and boring. However, the light projections on Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Customs House and Argyle Street Tunnel were stunning. There were over 50 interactive and immersive light art sculptures all around Circular Quay and The Rocks area which we enjoyed too.

The light projections on Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA).

The light projections on Customs House.

Light installations in Circular Quay and The Rocks.

This light installation lights up in some areas when you place your hands on a platform.

This reminds me of an onion.

This one’s a friend from the sea.

A giant Tic Tac Toe.

Hop Skotch, anyone?

The Colour Cubed which the kids loved because they can rotate it by hand.

I’m fascinated with lights. I remember when I travelled to Dubai and arrived at one o’clock in the morning, I looked out the window and saw sooooo many lights from above (Me: OMG! Ang daming ilaw!!! I want to live here!). I thought it was such a great welcome. That’s why I love Vivid Sydney–it’s about lights! I’m grateful that the Husband took photos of how much I enjoyed this show.

The Enough Ropelight (by Brian Thomson) installation above me.

This was my favourite. I liked it so much, I wanted one at home haha. Sooooo pretty. I forgot the name though.

Gelato on a winter’s night, anyone? Australia is ice cream country. Other than our passion for coffee and good food, we love our ice cream so much, the city is surrounded by ice cream shops. People wait patiently just to grab a cone or two of ice cream even on a cold night.

I had to get on this platform (which I think was for kids) so I could get the attention of the staff. That’s what you call determination.

The last leg of our Vivid Sydney adventure was at Argyle Street. This one’s called Light Breezers, a playful light show of colour and fabric.

It changed colours every few minutes.

The prettiest light installation was at the tunnel in Argyle Street. This one’s called Argyle in Bloom. I call this my Spring in Winter.

Related Posts:
Vivid Sydney 2009 – Sydney Opera House in a Spectacle of Colours
Vivid Sydney 2010 – Lighting of the Sails of the Opera House, Macquarie Visions
Vivid Sydney 2011 – Lights Up, Sydney!

An Almost Midnight Trip to the Beach

26 June 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 3 Comments Category: Aussie Life, Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories, Couples Reflections, The Married Life

An unexpected trip to the beach with friends on a Friday night led us to capturing this photo of us, freezing in the cold. It was dark and windy when we got there but our loud laughter brought sunshine to the place.

Its moments like these when no matter how cold it gets, you emanate warmth from the inside because you are holding hands and hugging tight with the one who truly makes you happy. <3

Love is…

15 June 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 2 Comments Category: The Married Life

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Fri-date: Korean Movie, Coffee & Food Tripping, Vivid Sydney 2012

28 May 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 2 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Food, The Married Life, Travel

The last time we had a Fri-date was in Summer. We enjoyed our Fri-date so much, we decided that once in a while, we will in sync our day-offs together so we’ll have one whole day just for us. Three months ago, I was in a shirt-shorts-sandals ensemble but the weather has grown so much colder since then. We still have a few days of Autumn left but the temps are definitely Winter-ish. Our agenda for the Friday will extend up to night time so we left home all bundled up.

“As One Korea“, a Korean film. We discovered that a few selected theatres in Sydney feature Korean films and we were lucky to find that there’s a film being shown in Broadway Shopping Centre until 30th May. The film is based on a true story of the first unified Korean team who competed in the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba, Japan. It’s a story of teamwork and friendship that blossomed between the North and South Korean teams. The film was so heartwarming it brought tears to the women watching in the cinema (including me!). The cast was lead by Ha Ji-won from the famous KDrama, “Secret Garden” and “The King 2 Hearts“.

After the movie, we trooped down to Glebe and had coffee and pastries at La Banette, a rustic French patisserie.

As mentioned in my instagram, La Banette Patisserie was my beautiful find that day. I love cafes with eccentric interiors and small spaces that doesn’t intrude on my personal space. Even if there were people seated near us, there was a sense of privacy and we felt comfortable. We enjoyed their pastries which were freshly-baked. I will write a separate entry about their food soon.

Visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art Store. From Glebe, we took the bus to Circular Quay and spent the rest of the evening at The Rocks. We visited the newly-renovated Museum of Contemporary Art and had a look at a few items at their store. The store sells books, bags, jewellery, lomo cameras etc. I saw Pochi purses which I find very cute. Maybe one day I’ll buy one for myself.

Early Dinner of Kebabs at The Rocks Market. I waited two weeks just to get a hold of these yummy kebabs at The Rocks! When I saw that Shawarma scene in “The Avengers” movie, I just knew it was time to have that kebab date with the Husband. We were there early so we had the kebab stall all to ourselves.

We enjoyed their Meatball Kebab and Grilled Chicken Tikka Kebab as we roamed around The Rocks Market.

Vivid Sydney 2012. Twenty minutes before the stroke of 6PM, we’re all setted up (camera gears and all) at the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay waiting for the Lighting of the Sails of Sydney Opera House. Naging panata na namin ang Vivid Sydney (We have a devotion to witnessing Vivid Sydney). This is the only evening event during Autumn/Winter that we go to because it’s (1) about art and technology; (2) a family event; and (3) we like taking photographs of light shows.

The Lighting of the Sails of Sydney Opera House was a miss. This was so far the worst Lighting of the Sails and we were very disappointed.

We tried to enjoy it but the truth was there was nothing enjoyable about it. We appreciate the art and light show but overall, we didn’t like it.

The only saving grace was the light show on the Museum of Contemporary Art and Customs House and few light installations around Circular Quay.

After exploring the light shows of Vivid Sydney, we went back to The Rocks Market to eat again. Taking photographs and walking in the cold left us famished so we had pork buns and bean buns before finally going home.

A separate feature on Vivid Sydney 2012 and The Rocks Market will be shared soon!