Travelog for: Barney

Another interesting thing about having a summery Christmas is that stone fruit is in season. Yummm - Cherries!

Its Christmas Eve!!

Time for presents to go under the tree, (just a little one this year - the big one & most of the decorations are trapped behind a half a house of furniture currently being stored in the garage!)




and to watch Carols By Candlelight




before getting an early night, ready for Santa to come!

Its Christmas Day!!
I must have been a good surfer dog this year - look what Santa bought me!


Every dog needs a ball, and I guess the cards are to keep from getting to bored while travelling from host to host.

Even the pets here got presents too.Tennis balls for the two dogs (see every dog gets a ball at Christmas!), tuna for the cat and a new seed bell for the bird.


Oh, I haven't introduced the other creatures living here, have I? They're new additions since the last time Bec played TV host.
This is Lady - would you believe she's a puppy??


and Puss-Cat


Angel (the little dog) was too busy keeping an eye on the cutting of the meat to pose for a photo, so Lady and I joined her. You just never know when a stray piece of meat may fall off the platter and straight into a waiting canine's mouth, do you?


I'll introduce you to Bub, the peachface, when the weather improves. Its RAINING today!

In between 'helping' to cut up the meat, I helped set the table.
Bonbons? Check!


Salads? Check!


and check!


Meat? Still coming...


Finally, the table was set, food was served...


Bon-bons were cracked...


Corny jokes were read....
"Why is 6 afraid of 7?"

"Because 7  8 (ate) 9"

and Christmas lunch was soon over again for another year.

Time to watch Christmas TV, catch up with the rellos (Aussie slang for 'relatives') and relax after a big meal.


But, tell me... what is a tiny TV to do with a nail brush?? (my bon-bon prize!) 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!



We decided not to brave the city craziness and enjoy the fireworks from home instead.

Its been pretty quiet around here and Bec is enjoying relaxing on her long holidays so I've been hanging out with Lady in the yard.



We've been trying to play ball (Lady's second favourite game - her other is laying on the driveway with her nose under the gate looking for people to 'talk' to) but the problem is that all of her balls are just too big!


And let's not even try with this one!


I also got to meet Bub, the cockatiel (who is not a peachface as I previously reported!!)


The yard is pretty big, with lots of places to hide and explore.




I could pretend to be a jungle dog...


and go cruising down the Amazon! Or seeing as I'm in Australia, maybe I should say look for crocodiles in Kakadu??


Time for a snack & a rest! I'm sure Lady won't mind... she hasn't even used her kennel since moving in 6 weeks ago.




Ooh - big storm clouds coming. A summer storm's on its way.


Maybe I should head back inside!


Will have lots more to report soon - we're going away for the weekend!


Flickr photo page

Hi
We flew down to Canberra to visit one of Bec's friends for her birthday. It was SOOO hot in Canberra while we were there (about 38deg celcius everyday), and the aircon in their car wasn't working, so we didn't get to a lot of sightseeing. 

Luckily, one day we did get out to go to the National Gallery of Australia to see the Masterpieces from Paris special exhibition.




We saw famous works by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin and other post impressionist painters.
Here was one of our favourites... Sailing Boats and Estuary by  Théo VAN RYSSELBERGHE


Later in the day we stopped by Questacon, a hands on science museum, which the kids we were travelling with really enjoy.


This is really quite cool. The people we were staying with have a tropical fish tank, filled with many native tropical fish found on the Great Barrier Reef. Maybe you'll recognise some of them from Finding Nemo?

Today we travelled into the city so that we could go across to Manly. The weather was far from great, but we were hopeful it would improve on the trip. On the way we passed the famous Harbour Bridge and Opera House.




Travel by ferry is the best way to get to Manly, an oceanside tourist destination. Travelling by ferry means half an hour on the harbour, and with the exception of the time crossing the 'heads' (where the harbour meets the ocean) is generally very calm.

Arriving in Manly we were initially a little concerned about the weather. Luckily by the time we had walked through The Corso to the beach it had stopped raining and was simply overcast.

The Corso is a shopping precinct, full of touristy shops and restaurants inside historical buildings.


It wasn't really beach going weather (despite all the tourists in swimming) so we decided to just take in the view.




We watched the Life Savers change the location of the safety flags (you must swim between the flags to be safe at the beach!)



Eventually we'd had enough of sightseeing and decided it was time for lunch. You can't go to the beach without having fish and chips, so that's what we had - and apparently they're the "Best Fish and Chips in Sydney" (according to the Sydney Morning Herald, Frommers, AA and AAA)


Soon it was time to head back to the pier and get the ferry back to Sydney. We had a little bit of time to check out the harbourside beach (Manly is actually on a peninsular between the Harbour and the Tasman Sea) which is a lot calmer and has mesh to form a safe swimming area for families. Did you know that there are sharks in Sydney Harbour??


The strange building across the beach is Manly Oceanworld, an aquarium where you can pay to go swimming with the sharks! (if you choose)

Here comes the ferry! And because the weather was so much better, we decided to try our hardest to get an outside seat at the front... all the better to enjoy the view from.

The trip back into Circular Quay was brilliant, despite the darkening clouds. We managed to get a seat upstairs right at the front so that we could see EVERYTHING.


Here we are at "The Heads". It can get very choppy passing over it. Luckily we had great weather. On Boxing Day this is a very popular place to be to see the yachts competing in the Sydney To Hobart Yacht race leave the harbour and enter open water.


Here comes the next Manly ferry - they come and go every 30minutes.


Woo-hoo!! I saw a sailing boat! Another mission complete!!


Hmmm - have you noticed that the weather started to get worse the closer we got to the city again? Maybe we should have stayed by the seaside!!




There are always so many ferries out on the harbour. They travel all over the place. If you ever come to Sydney, I highly recommend them as a way to travel from place to place.


It looks a lot later than it actually was. Can you believe that it was only 2:30pm?
Harbour Bridge fun fact: Sydney Harbour Bridge is the world's largest (but not longest as thats the New River Gorge in the USA) steel arch bridge. Its total length including approach spans is 1149 metres and its arch span is 503 metres. The top of the arch is 134 metres above sea level and the clearance for shipping under the deck is a spacious 49 metres. The total steelwork weighs 52,800 tonnes, including 39,000 tonnes in the arch. The 49 metre wide deck makes Sydney Harbour Bridge the widest Longspan Bridge in the world.


The house there to my right is Kirribilli House, where the Australian Prime Minister lives while in Sydney.


More harbouredge views - this time the Sydney Opera House and Botanical Gardens.


I'm told that the view from those windows at the front of the Opera House are spectacular!
Opera House Fun Facts: It has 1000 rooms, is 185 metres long and 120 metres wide, has 2194 pre-cast concrete sections as its roof which weigh up to 15 tons and are held together by 350 km of tensioned steel cable.


This is Sydney's Rocks District, which is the birthplace of modern-day Australia, Captain Arthur Phillip having settled here in 1788. What was once 19th Century warehouses are now expensive restaurants with stunning harbour views!


Sydney's Circular Quay - where every ferry either starts or ends its journey around the Harbour.


Would you believe that the shortest of the two AMP buildings (to the left of the photo) was once the tallest building in not just Australia, but the Southern Hemisphere?

Adventures over for another day, it was time to catch our train home.

Be in touch soon!
Barney

Today is Australia Day, marking the 222nd anniversary of British settlement / colonisation / invasion depending on your point of view.

The weather was way too hot and sticky to make the thought of battling the crowds in the city bearable, so we stayed at home in the air conditioning and partook in a different Aussie experience - watching the cricket.

I'm not going to go into the rules here (they're a little too confusing!). All you really need to know is that Australia was playing Pakistan in a one day match at Adelaide Oval (some cricket matches go for a week and are called a "Test") and that Australia won by 40 runs.

(If you really would like to know more, see Kari's page on the day she actually went to a cricket match!)

Barney's time in Sydney is over & he's headed off to his next host in the USA.

Mommy,
I arrived safely in Okinawa, Japan! I got here just as Jayme's parents did so I got to go to some pretty neat places. My first day we headed off to a place called Okinawa World. Here I am at the entrance.

Once inside, we got to go through this neat cave. It took about an hour to walk through, it was lots of fun!



More soon,
Barney

Dear Mommy,
Today we went to a placed call the Pineapple Park. While there we got to rid around in a cart to see all the various plants like palm trees, pineapples, and flowers. Here are some pcitures of our ride.




We also got to stop by the seashell museum there.


I'm sorry for any bluriness, I couldn't use the flash, but I know some came out blurry.
More soon,
Barney

We also took Jayme's parents on a nature walk. There wasn't too much to see on the walk, but here's a view.

And the beach at the end was beautiful!

More soon,
Barney

We also went down to Kokusai Street, which is the shopping street here on Japan. Many of the little shops here looked like this.

Lots of them sold these shisas, which are the guardians of Okinawa and found in many homes.


We went down one of the side streets that happened to be covered, here's what it looked like.

More soon,
Barney