Ibyang
Ibyang

Travel

Jeanny in Sydney

I met Jeanny online. A casual encounter via Litratong Pinoy (LP) where Filipinos share photographs weekly based on a theme. From LP, we transcended to being plurk friends and it’s at plurk that I learned that she will be visiting Sydney for three months for work reasons.

On the first week she arrived here, we immediately met up. On our first rendezvous, My Husband and I took her to a quick visit to QVB (Queen Victoria Building), dinner at Pepper Lunch, dessert at Lindt Cafe and a walk thru Darling Harbour before we went home.


She’s a coffeeholic and so I made a point to bring her to some cozy cafes I know. One of which is The Chocolate Room. One Thursday afternoon, we hung out here after work.


This was where she celebrated her birthday and since she likes Korean cuisine, my Husband and I treated her to Korean BBQ!


The place where she stayed had a mini-gym, pool and sauna. Some nights we’d hung out at her apartment, have a good hour at the gym and a few minutes at the sauna. Before I go home, Jeanny and I would eat her delicious pasta dishes. 

Being a photo-enthusiast like me, I invited her to come with us to the Sydney Camera Market one Sunday of March. 

This was held in the morning so for the rest of the afternoon, we took her to the Fish Market for lunch…

let her experience riding a Metro Light Rail…
and have a quick tour of Star City, the casino place in Sydney.

The days passed by fairly quickly as we both became busy for the past few weeks. Before we knew it, we had our last dinner date and coffee klatch.

Friday night (23 March 2010), My Husband and I took her to dinner by the bay, with the view of the Harbour Bridge. As a parting gift, we gave her a Starbucks Sydney Tumbler.

After dinner, we hung out by the harbour. Such a beautiful night. My Husband and I would sometimes just hang out by the bay and just appreciate the beauty of Sydney at night. We wanted to share that with Jeanny before she left.

Two nights before departure for Manila, we had coffee at a cozy cafe I found in QVB called Old Vienna Coffee House (more on that later). 

We gave her one last parting gift–guess what this is????
…..it’s a USB! 🙂


We ended our night on a quick walk thru George Street (main street in the city–it’s like the equivalent of Ayala Avenue in Manila).
 
Saying goodbye isn’t always easy. I know we’ve only really met three months ago but with all the great times and company we have shared, I have found a friend in her. We look forward to seeing each other again–in Sydney or Manila–it doesn’t matter.

Thanks Jeanny…for your great company, for the friendship and for being the true person that you are. We miss you already.

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Holy Week and Easter Spent with Family

There are some occasions that I exclusively spend with family and relatives, one of those are Holy Week and Easter, for the simple reason that my clan usually have some activities planned during this time and it is tradition that we celebrate the Easter festivities together.

It is of normal occurrence that my Grandma’s birthday falls on the week of Holy Week. On Holy Monday, we celebrated her 81st birthday . 

On the morning of Good Friday, we were at the airport to pick up my uncle who vacationed in the Phils for a few days.

From the airport, we drove back to their place where my Husband and I spent the whole day catching up with our relatives as we enjoyed eating Baked Salmon, Ginataang Hipon with Kalabasa for lunch and dinner and homemade Turon for afternoon snack.

Black Saturday, since our goal is to have a more relaxing weekend with less household and cooking chores, we decided to have breakfast at one of our favorite cafes. We arrived at the cafe early to avoid the morning crowd and to have a more peaceful breakfast. We just shared a slice of toasted banana bread as we sipped our cups of Choffee.

Back at home for lunch, I cooked half a kilo of Green King Prawns in butter and garlic, dipped in Calamansi sauce. It was fresh and delicious, with a taste of sweetness.
For dinner, we had Blue Swimmer Crabs, again dipped in Calamansi sauce. Another winner. It’s so fat, we were so full after devouring them.

On Easter Sunday, we all trooped down to church to attend mass, then went straight to Prospect Reservoir for our Easter Lunch party.
Every year, someone wears the Easter bunny costume and we have our photos taken with the “bunny”. 

Other than chit chat, laugh and eat, we also played Bingo!

We went home happy and well-spent with lots of chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies in tow.
 

Photos by Chris and Ivy Sanchez, Copyright 2010
Canon 7D with 17-85mm lens and Canon 400D with Fujinon 55mm lens.

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Our 3rd Anniversary

20 January 2010. 🙂

For this year, we chose a more relaxed and spontaneous anniversary getaway.  

On the morning of our anniversary, we started a 3-day road trip to experience the Grand Pacific Drive, a drive from Sydney’s Royal National Park to the south coast area of New South Wales. I will tell you more about it soon (with more photos!! hehe). For now, let me share with you snippets of the things we saw and enjoyed on the day we celebrated our 3rd year together.

Not-so-early in the morning, we drove down to Royal National Park to see Garie Beach. 

Then we headed down to Bald Hill and had lunch inside the car. Had an ice cream for dessert as we are mesmerized by all the beautiful scenery below us. It was beautiful. 

Next stop was Sea Cliff Bridge, spend a few minutes there to take photographs. 

Then off we went to Wollongong, our home base for two nights.

After we checked-in at the hotel, we just rested a bit then went out to have afternoon tea. We walked along the streets of the CBD and found this pretty boutique cafe called Lee and Me. We had a cake and coffee. There was a kebab place beside it and since I was pretty hungry from the traveling and heat (one of those hottest days in NSW that time) I bought a chicken kebab (a.k.a Shawarma)

After our yummy afternoon tea, we walked around some more looking for a resto to have dinner at later. We didn’t have any reservations anywhere–no idea whatsoever on where to eat. We wanted to play it by ear and just follow our senses (the way we mostly did when we went to Melbourne for last year’s celebration). After an hour and a half of walking, we found nothing–nothing that we liked. We went to the hotel and decided it was time to look online.

We decided to have dinner at Harbourfront Restaurant. We came in with no reservations but thank God, we were accommodated and even got a table with a great view of the small lighthouse and sailboats. We loved it! 🙂 And the food was delicious. I would go back here just for their rib eye steak (will share in a separate post).

After dinner, we sat by the harbour and enjoyed the serenity around us and the cool breeze that night.  We went back to the hotel and since it was still pretty early, we sat by the bar and had wine and talked some more.

It was a great day for an anniversary celebration: the roadtrip, the sunny weather, the amazing sceneries we saw, the fun drive, the restaurants we discovered, the delicious food we ate and the time spent together. We are grateful not just on “our day” but everyday that we are experiencing this wonderful journey called Marriage. 🙂

For more photos of our 3rd anniversary celebration, please check them all here: Our 3rd Anniversary

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Sculpture by the Sea 2009

A once in a year spectacle in Sydney as the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk transforms into a giant sculpture park with more than a hundred sculptures from artists in Australia and around the world. It runs for three weeks during Spring.

Husband and I explored the shores of Bondi Beach one Sunday afternoon and took some photos (we never made it to Tamarama due to another appointment in the afternoon).

“sanctuary”
“chaos and order”
“eye sea you”
“the shoppers”
“what the wind said II”
“face finger folds”
“pattern III”
My Husband appreciated the sculptures more than me, basically because he’s the artist between the two of us–he gets it more than I do hehe. But I do find some of it fascinating. Next year, I hope we’d have enough time to see all the sculptures (and maybe a better weather?).
For more photos, please check them out here: Sculptures by the Sea 2009 Collection.
Some other photos that day as the Husband and I had our weekend date by the beach.
Gloomy, drizzling day that day. We didn’t mind getting soaked by rain but the concern was always for our cameras getting wet. We were only there for two hours and it rained thrice.
It was my Husband’s first time to be in Bondi. Took him almost two years of living here to visit Sydney’s most popular beach. Next time, we will visit an earlier time so we can hang out for longer.
My Bondi visit will never be complete without Fish & Chips. I know it’s so Aussie but I really don’t know why I always crave for Fish & Chips whenever I’m here.

Had fun posing for the Husband. I finally noticed the graffitis here in Bondi. I know there’s graffitis in this city everywhere but I never seem to notice.

A souvenir shot.

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Floriade 2009 Experience

This year’s Floriade’s theme was Mind, Body and Soul which aimed to rejuvenate visitors to Canberra’s flower festival. Some of the featured flower beds were Clouds, Water Drop, Music for the Soul, Family and Friends, Love, Yin and Yang and Sunlight.

Our experience this year was quite different compared to last year’s. This year, we had moments of hits and misses.

The Flower Beds…most of it a miss, some of it a hit.

The flower beds weren’t as spectacular compared to last year although for first timers, they would find the festival amazing nevertheless. For my friends and us (Husband and I) who had seen last year’s, we were quite disappointed that the flower beds weren’t as rich as before. One thing we noticed was that there weren’t that much tulips and most of the garden fillers were just green plants instead of small flowers.

However, there were some flower beds which were still abundant in flowers such as the Sunlight flower bed (see photo above) and they were still beautiful backdrops for photo ops.

Individual Flowers…a hit and a miss.

Due to the dust storm and heavy rains that’s been happening in NSW and Canberra, it damaged most of the flowers. Almost all the flowers had red stains due to the dust storm. Photographing individual flowers took a little more patience in finding the not-so-damaged ones.

The Canberra weather…a hit and a miss.

If you would notice, we were in jackets that day (we were in winter clothes!). Simply because it was between 5-10 degrees and really, really windy. It was rain and shine that day, meaning, one minute it would be raining and then it would be sunny the next. Para kaming nakikipag-hide and seek kay Haring Araw.

The Food…a hit!

The foodie that I am, trust me to find the yummiest food in any event and I will surely find it. Upon entrance to the Floriade, I smelled the fragrance of sweet donuts so I followed my senses and found this little amazing and cute Honey Donut Puffs.

I loved it! It was easy to eat and the sweetness was just right. Later in the morning, there was a horde of people waiting in line just to have a taste of these donuts. Good thing, we were there early.

The rides…a hit!

One of the things we weren’t able to do last year was to get on a ride. Since my godson Caleb is toddler now, Jackie and I bought tickets to the Tea Cup Ride so Caleb can experience it. The funny thing was Jackie was more scared of it than Caleb while I laughed all throughout the ride, just enjoying and having fun. In fairness to Jackie, the ride was kinda dizzy hehe.

The Lotus Lounge…a hit!

This place was our respite from all the wintry weather we experienced at the Floriade. The Lotus Lounge had this cozy ambience and thanks to the heaters they provided, this place turned out to be the best place to rest from all the walking we did in the morning. This was where we had hot chocolates while we gave our legs a rest.

Shopping…a hit!

A hit because I found this cool, innovative bags made by a Japanese designer based in Hobart. The brand is called Sashiko Design. I will share with you the designer’s details in another entry.

Lunch at the Park-ing Lot (hehe)…a hit!

We could have had lunch at the festival. We could have had lunch at the Canberra’s City Centre. But despite the crazy weather that day (we knew beforehand that we will be experiencing rains), we insisted on bring pot luck and eat at the park…in our case, at the parking lot hehe. We all shared a very yummy menu: Bopis, Menudo, Adobo and Itlog na Maalat (Salted Egg). And because it was raining during lunchtime, we had to improvise. Ginawa naming Jolly-jeep ang sasakyan nila Jackie hehe. It was one funny and memorable lunch.

Stopover at Bakery of Goulburn on the way home…a hit!

Our Floriade trip won’t be complete if we don’t have a taste of The Bakery of Goulburn’s delicious meat pies. This also became our stopover on our way back, but a long stopver as we took our time savoring our meat pies and coffees and talked some more.

This year’s Floriade may have had a couple of misses but we are grateful that we had the company of our friends who made our trip to Canberra worthwhile, memorable and enjoyable. And even if the festival wasn’t as spectacular as last year, this gave us the chance to enjoy other stuff at the festival other than just the flowers and flower beds. Yes, the flowers may be the main event of the festival, but there is more to the festival than that.

For more photographs, please check these links:

26 September 2009 – Floriade 2009

Floriade 2009 Collection

Some Tips:

1. Floriade is an event in Canberra, Australia every Spring that runs for 5 weekends (usually starts on the 2nd week of September). To know more about the Floriade before going there, check out its website: http://www.floriadeaustralia.com

2. Wear sunblock even if it’s cold and cloudy. Even if the sun isn’t shining, you must protect yourself from UV rays. And don’t forget to bring your sunglasses too!

3. Bring a jacket. Whenever you are going to Canberra, always bring a jacket with you. Weather can be unpredictable and when it’s cold in Canberra, it can really be cold.

4. Bring an umbrella. You’ll never know when it’s going to rain.

5. Be early so (1) you can get a parking spot and (2) you can enjoy the festival more when there’s not much people yet.

6. Check out Canberra’s weather forcast via http://www.weather.com.au/act/canberra

7. Check out the stalls that sell local produce–they sell at a lower price during the festival.

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