Happy New Year

We wish everybody a very happy 2008.

We started the new year on the beach. It was such a warm day, we and many other people went swimming in the sea at eleven at night. And even after midnight there was no need for a t-shirt.

The last day of 2007 was so hot, we spent most of it inside or in the neighbour's swimming pool. The temperature was around 40° C. And 2008 starts similarly hot: we woke up from the heat.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Here's the pie we made for Christmas day and for a family birthday party on the 29th:

Have the baker who makes mince pies to make a bit more short crust pastry, preferably with a bit of grated lemon and orange rind.
Refrigerate, then bake blindly in a round cake tin at about 180 C degrees until brown (10-15min).
Go - that's my favourite bit - into the garden and pick two nice and ripe lemons from the lemon tree.
Grate about two teaspoons of lemon rind off, keep it out of the uncle's sight (apparently he doesn't like the rind), and squeeze the juice (about 3/4 cup).
Put six tablespoons of cornflour (because we didn't have the plain flour as suggested in the recipe), one cup of sugar, the lemon rind and the lemon juice into a saucepan, add 1 1/4 cups of water and bring to the boil.
Get someone in the room to stir it continuously.
Once boiling, turn the heat down, and continue for another two minutes.
Separate four fresh eggs and lightly beat the yolk.
Take lemon filling off the heat, stir in almost 90g of butter and the egg yolks.
Let it cool down.
For the meringue, add two tablespoons of water and a pinch of salt to the egg whites and beat them at a high speed until stiff.
Keep on beating and gradually add 3/4 cup of caster sugar into it.

Spread lemon filling into the pastry base, and heap the meringue on top of it.
Bake the cake for 10-15mins at 180C until lightly brown.

Make sure you don't miss when the cake is served: it vanishes quickly..

Sweating down under

It's hot. The sun has come out with scorching fervour. The wind is warm and dry. This is a picture of our balcony - but at the moment it is too hot to sit even in the shade. We are sat in the dark, keeping cool and taking it easy.

Yesterday was equally hot so we travelled around in air conditioned vehicles... we went on an adventure to the Yarra valley (wine making region near melbourne). We enjoyed the wines of one vineyard and then had to shelter from the heat in a nearby brewery cafe...such is the life of a holiday maker. We visited ancient rainforests and enjoyed the stream of ice cold water running through it, taking a paddle to cool the feet. We were also lucky enough to have the company of wild parrots, which were happy to sit on our hands, arms or head- where ever bird feed was available- and nibble on a few grains and pulses.

Read it all again

With a bit of time on our hands, we managed to upload some pictures. Enjoy the view.

Happy Christmas.

The Christmas warm up?

A 7 hour car journey brings us to Melbourne. Typical of the weather here, we are enduring rain and wind for the festive season. At least Santa will not get too hot. We are told, however, that the sun is set to shine and warmth will come.

We also find ourselves in the luxury of the melbourne suburbs, in the comfort of a family home. This means we have been busying ourselves with pre-xmas activities such as shopping, cooking and drinking cocktails. Hot Indian veggie curries for our christmas eve celebrations. Perfect for this weather and the festive season...The real excitement will kick off tomorrow when christmas day brings enornmous amounts of food, beer, and lots of family members together.

The italian connection

After a 9 hour train and bus journey, we find ourselves amongst the italian community of griffith. The sun is shining, the wine is flowing and everyone is a cousin to us. We are reunited with the bird family and look forward to a day sampling the fine wines of this area. We have already experienced the hospitality and generousity of the local italian friends and their love of food and drink. Some of the group are feeling a little worse for wear as a result.

We look forward to a big villiage party tonight- where all the friends and family come together for a little pre-chrissy (christmas in australian language) celebration.

The sun is shining and we are expecting up to 32C so we may be taking a dip in the motel swimming pool or hiding out in our air conditioned room.

It's wimmling (buzzing) of Swiss

We have never met so many swiss people out of switzerland than we have in Australia. They are everywhere- in Bundeena, Sydney (in the sauna, on the computer, at the campervan rental), blue mountains...

We have finished our campervan experience and are now back in Sydney for a good nights sleep in our own (stationary) room, with its own bathroom (so we don't have to fight with mosquitos or trek across forests in the middle of the night to visit the loo). We concluded our campervan adventure at the blue mountains where the sun did shine for us in the end. we did a 3 hour trek through the bush, ending up on one of the three sisters (rock formations). There were magnificent views and about a million flies (and other tourists) to share the experience with. We also completed the trek in our flip flops so we feel like proper aussies (or stupid english tourists walking through mountains with inappropriate footwear).

We then went to the royal national park just outside of sydney (1 hour). We ended up sleeping in a parking space on the main street of the very small village due to closure of the camping site. The locals gave us a few strange looks as we were brushing our teeth in the morning but otherwise all was fine. The sun was shining this morning so in our rise and shine early morning style, we jumped up and out of our van to stroll along the beach. We wanted to make the most of the beach as we are now heading into the country so expect even more flies, very hot weather and dust. And a few trips to the wineries of griffith. Alas, we have a 9 hour train journey (and a good night's sleep) between us and such adventures so we will say good night and head off for our peppermint tea...

raining in the mountains

We went to sleep in an isolated spot, situated on a beach north of sydney. We woke up surrounded by middle aged surfers at 6 oclock in the morning (we like to get up early these days). We then went for a little stroll, enjoyed the surf by playing around in the waves for a bit then jumped in the campervan for a five hour drive to the mountains. And more rain. In fact, it is sooo rainy, we are stuck in the clouds. Bearly able to see a few metres in front of us. But spirits are high, as always (apart from some stressful situations in the 5 hour drive) especially as we have just had an amazing italian meal (who would have thought we would find such a nice pizza place up high in the mountains).

Tomorrow we are hoping the rain has cleared up (after 7 weeks of rain up here apparently the locals tell us) so that we can see the wonders of the blue mountains. We have also heard that the flies like to come out in these parts of the world. We are a bit scared because the mosquitos in australia seem to enjoy feasting on swiss and english blood.

(...And the clouds cleared up..)

Bootiful booti booti

...Just a quick note from between rainforests and miles of beaches.
We left Booti Booti National Park and are now in Port Macquarie. We had the fortune to be sleeping near some wild koala bears which were fascinating for us as they jumped around the trees!

We're now heading back south to the Blue Mountains.

Bulahdelah

Yes - this is where we are writing. A little town with a strange name in the middle of the northern coast of new south wales. It is beautiful - not necessarily the town, but the lakes and lush green forests and mountains that surround it. We are now travelling around in our little campervan, finding nice little spots to camp as we go along.

Last night we have been camping near a beach and a fresh water lake. We have become masters of cooking on the camping stove and look forward to our pasta and sauce dinner later tonight. Luckily enough we have some lovely local wine to accompany the meal. We are also sure to have stunning views over a lake too...



Our time in this little internet cafe come court house is coming to an end so we must be off and will write soon...

sunshine, showers and very few people

Yippeee- here we are in sunny sydney. Dazed and confused after an amazing coastal walk along the beaches of Sydney, we wanted to update the world on our antipodean adventures.

Global warming has reached Australia as we are enduring hot, humid and sunny weather together with freak downpours. Our visit to the opera house on our first afternoon was interrupted by sheets of water pouring from the sky. We momentarily lost the harbour bridge as we could only see a few metres in front of our eyes.


We have been enjoying the delights of sydney's coastal walks by foot. Our feet are very pleased to be out in the warm open air but suffering from the blisters of new flip flops and many many kilometers of walking through beaches and amazing forests (with beautiful flowers and unusual plants). If only we had a cord to connect our camera, we would be able to share some of these wonders. Alas- you will have to wait to see australia's flora and fauna (unless you are actually in australia in which case you can go outside and have a look yourself).


We are slowly recovering from jetlag but feel that tiredness is now driven by our over exposure to the sun. So we are now going to go home and have a quick nap before heading out to the bright lights of sydney by night.

p.s there aren't many people in australia.

On your marks, get ready...

LadyBird and Mr G are gearing up for some more travels. This time a bit further afield. The sunshine is calling and the bags are packed (almost). And the excitement is reaching boiling point...yippeee. Australia here we come...