Ibyang
Ibyang

Travel

Mary Mackillop Church, Manly Beach, Westfield Parramatta

It was a rainy Tuesday yesterday but that didn’t stop us from going out and enjoying the day.

Here are some snippets of the places we went to:

Early morning mass at Mary Mackillop Chapel in North Sydney.

I love their altar. I’m so fond of seeing an “alive” Jesus in a church’s altar (such as Christ the King in Pasig). That’s also one of the reasons why the Husband and I got married in National Shrine of the Sacred Heart in San Antonio Village Makati—I really wanted to get married in a church where the Jesus in the altar is “alive” and not a cruxified one.

Since Mary Mackillop was near my cuzin Ayie’s workplace, she invited us to meet her and she treated us breakfast (thanks Ayie!) at Tropicana Cafe.

From there, we went to Circular Quay to take the ferry going to Manly Beach. Such bad weather yesterday but we still enjoyed taking photos and going in and out of the shops.

And we also enjoyed our lunch–steak!!!

Our last stop was at Westfield Parramatta for some shopping.

It was also yesterday that the Bakasyonistas got to ride the train and ferry. It’s nothing new with my mom and my Tita Cyn, but it was my Dad’s first time and I think he enjoyed it.

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Badminton Night

Yesterday, we just stayed home and rest.

At home, I cleaned house, did laundry, mopped floors and watched lots of Pinoy movies in Dibidi. 😉

After dinner, the Bakasyonistas, Balilos, Mendozas and Sanchezes trooped down to Bernie Mullane to play Badminton. After all the eating for the past days, it was good to sweat out and burn some calories.

Who do I love????

I’m making my I Boy Bawang shirt one of my official Badminton shirts hehe. It’s so cute! 🙂

A short nightcap at the Mendozas place where we had Ensaymada, biscuits, cheese and sausages with coffee and tea. Ngek! After playing Badminton, we ate din naman hehe.

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Dinner at Hi-Lights

After our Bondi Beach rendezvous yesterday, we just went home for a bit and dressed up for dinner. My Grandma invited all of us for dinner at Hi-Lights Restaurant, sort of her pre-birthday celebration.

Hi-Lights Restaurant is the only revolving restaurant in NSW outside Sydney CBD. It is located on the topmost floor of Blacktown Workers Club.

The steak here is yum!

More family photos….

It’s also Chris’ first time to eat here and his first time to be at Blacktown Workers Club.

This is a funny photo, look between me and Chris, my little cuzin Patrick accidentally peeked in time for the click of the camera hehe. Aliw!

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Bondi Beach

This is probably the most spontaneous travel reunions we had. Since my Mom and Tita Cyn’s been here several times, there is no urgency to explore places while they’re here. As for my Dad, no pressure as well, as my parents will be here til the end of May. We’re going places as leisurely as possible.

So every morning, what we do is just get ready…my Mom will call me (my parents are staying at my Tita Bess’ place so that my Aunties can spend a lot of time together) to tell me to get ready coz they will be picking me up in an hour.

This morning, when I jumped inside the car, I asked, “Where are we going today?”. They replied, “Bondi!!”. Yay!!! I have only been to Bondi once and I’ve been wanting to see it again since Chris arrived last year. Never mind that I didn’t bring enough photography gears with me (I almost didn’t bring my DSLR coz I thought we were just going to the mall today)–no polarizer, no flash, no diffuser–just my the DSLR with kit lens.

Good thing, the weather was so beautiful today…hence, a picturesque Bondi Beach welcomed us when we arrived.

Tita Cyn

Watching The Waves

My Parents in Bondi Beach

My Mom

Tita Bess and Tita Cyn

Naglaro ang mga bata hehe.

Sunny weather with a cool breeze…the sand felt warm on our feet…but the water was sooo cold.

All the Ladies in the House!

My Dad took this photo but he said something funny (as always hehe), hence the laughter.

Feeling Tourist in Bondi!!

This was only my second time in Bondi that’s why I asked Dad to take a photo of me–souvenir!!! 🙂

Any Bondi Beach experience won’t be complete without Fish & Chips, so we had lunch by the beach and savored the freshness of deep-fried Fish with crispy Chips dipped in Tartare Sauce.

The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging out at Bondi’s Westfield Mall.

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Day Out in the City

Of course, the first place we brought our bakasyonistas to was at the Circular Quay so they can pay homage to the Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. 🙂

Yesterday, we spent the day in the City so my Dad can finally see the two famous icons of Australia, and for my Mom and Tita Cyn to see it again (we always visit this place whenever they visit).

My Dad was in awe of the Harbour Bridge, he kept on taking photos of it via his mobile phone.

Resting under one of the Opera House’s roof…looked like an umbrella, aye?

We were blessed with a beautiful, sunny, blue-y weather…thank God! 🙂

Lunch was spent at Darling Harbour…

so we can they can have a taste of Hurricane’s delicious ribs.

We had three orders of these Full Rack Pork Ribs.

The food was a-plenty, good thing Chris joined us for lunch…his office being in the Darling Harbour.

My favorite photos of the day are the ones with my dad….

and photos of my Parents…cute!!! 🙂

After lunch, we walked towards Market City in Chinatown, had a look in the shops. Then walked back to QVB where we parked the car.

Hang out at the Balilos place til dinner time.

It’s my Dad’s first time to be here so it’s like seeing Sydney thru his eyes. It was somewhat the same feeling I had when Chris arrived here last year. It’s nice because I get to appreciate some things about Sydney that I sometimes take for granted.

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