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Monthly Archives: November 2010

the first half of our weekend was all about connections, old and new. there is this dutch couple, kim and gordon, who are living in our hotel with their 18 month old. they have just arrived from a stint in melbourne. brenda has been hanging out a lot with kim, and on friday we finally all had a chance to meet each other and hang out. we went to the markets by moonlight at the rocks which is a great thing to do if you’re in the area! its really relaxed with interesting stalls and places for kids to have a bit of a wander. kim and gordon are cool, and gordin is really into surfing so we had a lot to talk about. they are going to live in manly, which is a great surf spot, so that gives us another excuse to head out there on the weekends!

on saturday i got the honour of catching up with aba, who i have known since i was about thirteen years old. he is the father of my good friend noa, whom i have known since high school. through noa i met her parents and have also become really good friends with them too. we dispensed with names a long time ago and now i just call them aba and ima, which means father and mother in hebrew. aba and ima live in brisbane so coming to sydney brought us closer together but not quite. lucky for me, aba was in town this weekend on business and found some time to come and say hi. we hadn’t seen each other in over a decade and it was amazing to be in his company again. a lot has happened in the time we were apart – i grew up (kind of), became a dad and he beat cancer and found a new lease on life. still, it was like we never had those years apart and he is still just as awesome as i remembered him to be. brenda and i are going to see whether we can make it up to see them in brisbane over new years. fingers crossed our stars will align!

we had big plans to go to the blue mountains on sunday but were foiled by maintenance on the rail tracks and bad weather. sundays are a good day for exploring because for $2.50 each we can ride all day on the buses, ferries and trains. nayou has been dying to ride on one of the articulated buses that run in sydney so we went on a hunt for one in lieu of the blue mountains. unfortunately we were unsuccessful so we made do with an articulated tram and a monorail ride. nayou was none too happy about missing out on the articulated bus, but he came around eventually!

the weather got worse over the course of the day so the afternoon turned into craft time. nayou’s birthday is on thursday and brenda has been wanting to make some tie-dye t-shirts and party gifts for a shindig we are planning. so we busted out the pots, pans and paraphenalia and got busy! the fumes from the dye were a bit strong so we left the door open while we worked. the people walking by must have thought it was a meth lab or something. especially since our room looks like a bomb hit it…

for some reason the directions said to put salt in with the hot water and dye. nayou had a whale of a time playing with the salt and decided to give himself a facial with some of it.

this whole thing started off when brenda found a big basket of kids t-shirts at the salvation army for $1 a piece. they are good quality shirts and come in different sizes. they went in white and came out blue!

we tried a variety of ties using marbles, coins and rubber bands. i not-so secretly thought that the shirts would turn the wearers into crusty hippie kids, but they actually turned out pretty cool!

in addition to birthday planning we are also in the process of organising our move into our house. our move-in date is the 6th (next monday). i think i say this every time i mention the house, but we are very excited to be settling down. we’ve got our utilities all hooked up, internet on its way, and a fridge and temporary bed rented. bring on the good life!

i really, really wanted last weekend to be our one that we spent house hunting. it was getting a bit depressing looking at houses because none of the ones we’d seen so far had jumped at us and screamed “YES!”. we’ve been slowly raising our upper limit on what we wanted to spend in the hopes of getting something perfect, but there was always something crucial lacking from the places (storage space, proximity to trains/parks/shops, etc). brenda and i know that we want to stay in the area we were are now. its a beautiful area (minus the junkies and strip bars. ahem.) with lots of shops and parks and more importantly, friends. commuting is easy and getting around town is easy. so we’ve been praying for something to come through but everything so far had been too expensive or too small.

we had a pretty good lineup for saturday – four houses in total – with two of them looking very likely. there was one that looked gorgeous but we had flagged it as being too far away. but i noticed on saturday morning that we could fit it in between viewings so i suggested we go take a peek at it anyway. we walked over to the place from our hotel and were surprised to find that it was actually really close. then we saw the beautiful restored art deco building and tried not to get too excited. and when we walked into the apartment we looked at each other and said “WANT!”. we grabbed an application, filled it out and dropped it off at the real estate agent’s office the same day. we faxed over some extra paperwork yesterday and finally i got a call from the agent today saying they had accepted our application! so we’ve paid our deposit and unless the landlord decides to reject it (highly unlikely) we have found a place to live!

we won’t be moving in until december 6th, which is perfect because dr. d is paying for our hotel until the 5th. so we can roll right into our new place. if you want to see some photos, here is the link to the listing. it comes unfurnished, so nayou will have lots of space to play with while we figure out how to set things up. we’re so excited to be settling down – its been quite the battle since we arrived here to grow some roots but its finally happening!

ouple of months ago, before we even knew we were going to be in sydney, we had plans to go to my friend’s wedding in byron bay sometime around late november. while i was finalising my contract with dr. d i had told them that i would need a few days off around that time to attend it. days passed and the wedding got postponed, but we still had a pre-approved block of time off so we decided to take advantage of it and go up to byron anyway. as luck would have it, my friend justin from switzerland happened to be in sydney and happened to be going up to byron bay at the same time so it was a no-brainer! so last thursday we packed our bags and headed to the airport for five days of sun, surf and relaxing. nayou was already in seventh heaven from the moment we set foot in the airport.

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i’ve been hearing about byron bay since i was in high school. people talk about it with a dreamy look in their eyes, and many of them mention that they want to live there. the town is located on the eastern most point of australia, close to the border of new south wales and queensland. it started out as a community of hippies in the 70s and has grown into quite a tourist destination since. the town itself is still quite small, and boasts large stretches of gorgeous beaches. most of the beaches also have surf breaks, which made brenda and i very excited.

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we struggled with finding affordable accommodation but found a great company that rents camper vans so we decided to go with that. which was the right choice because not only did we end up with a bed to sleep in, we also got a set of wheels as well! brenda found a camp site about twenty meters from the beach so it was easy to wander back and forth as we liked.

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nayou wasted no time befriending the two girls that were staying in the site next door. he was a bit starved for some hardcore playtime with kids so i was happy to see him get some.

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at the campground there were these freaky looking wild turkeys with weird dangly bits on their necks. they were not afraid to come right up to you and scratch at your bags in search of some food. nayou and i tried to catch them for dinner, but unsuccessfully.

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we were blessed with amazing weather for the whole five days that we were there. it felt so nice to be soaking up some rays and being a beach bum again. it reminded me of what our life was like in mexico and how relaxed and easy that was… which was good for me because this whole move to sydney has been stressful! so it was nice to get some perspective.

we didn’t do a whole lot except for surf, play at the beach and master the art of hanging out. we did a lot of this:

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and this:

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and this:

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and this:

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we arrived back in sydney a few shades darker and very happy! this weekend its back to house hunting. we’ve got some great places to look at so let’s hope we find a place to settle down!

aya certainly has been keeping herself busy these days. she’s just finished up an ad for pepsi as part ofthe doritos/pepsi crash the superbowl competition. this one is for big money – $25,000 for making it to the top ten, and getting the ad screened during the superbowl if you make the top three. plus more ways to win up to $1 million! i wish it was an open vote because we’ve proven that we can mobilise the hordes for that kind of thing, but this time the entries are going to be judged by a panel. i think aya’s got a really good chance with this ad – it hits all the sweet spots for a soft drink ad aimed at a very very large audience. and shot beautifully, as always!

i couldn’t find a way to embed it directly in the post, so click here to check it out!

we’re off to byron bay tomorrow for five days to enjoy some sun, surf and sand! its going to be a very nice break from all the hustle and bustle that we’ve been living since we got to sydney. i thought i would post this video for those of you who would have gone through serious nayou withdrawal without an update over the weekend. enjoy!

well, not exactly. but kind of. we’ve been trimming nayou’s bangs when it started to hang over his eyes, but all of his hair in the back was untouched from the day he was born. we made noises about cutting his hair many times but it never came to anything until today. actually, nayou was booked in for a haircut about two weeks ago but we chickened out after a friend of ours (who has a crazy curly afro) psyched us out of it by telling us how cute he looked. but sydney has turned out to be a much windier city than we expected and watching nayou having to push his hair out of the way spurred us into action. so this morning we took him into kidz lidz for his first ever proper official haircut! i realised that i had become quite attached to his long locks, but after taking these photos of his rats nest i was able to take some deep breaths and let it go.

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the salon was awesome. all the seats are cars or planes, they have tvs with cartoons, and the hairdresser cape they put on nayou had thomas the tank engine printed all over it. even the tissue boxes had dora on them. nayou was hesitant to get his hair cut, but once he saw walked into the place he was more than willing. the lady who cut his hair didn’t waste any time geting into it and gave him a really nice trim very quickly. then she gave him a certificate and a balloon and we were on our way. these people have their process down pat!

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in the end his cut didn’t end up being a drastic departure from what he had before. he basically got the back part trimmed and layered. but damn if he doesn’t look super cute now. brenda and i couldn’t stop fawning on the bus ride home. these photos don’t really do it justice, and i didn’t have a chance to take more as my camera is out of juice (i need to find the charger amidst the mess that is our hotel room). but you’ll have a chance to check him out soon, i promise!

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