I say good riddance to 2009. Stuffed up my shoulder in Oct ..and still having pain with it. Screwd up my holidays plans. I was prescribed lots of pain killers though I found vodka with a little orange juice worked wonders. Cheers.

Today the medication decided to work, so it was off outside to mow the front and back yards, getting ready for 2010.

I hope to head down to Sydney tomorrow to soak up the atmosphere of the arrival of the New Year, not going to wait for the fireworks on Sydney Harbour

 (a Million + people all trying to get home afterwards)

 so hope to be home to watch them on TV.

Mangrove Tree

outside Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney

My December 23 trip into Sydney to view the Christmas decorations and Macquarie Street Light projections.

 I arrived in the city at 3.45pm and needed to fill in time until dark so I wandered haphazardly around into stores and down arcades passing some building I would photograph later in the evening. Basically I was soaking up the atmosphere of a city before Christmas.

DAY

Pitt Street Mall Buskers

One of the Projection boxes for the 
Macquarie Street Lights display

Hyde Park Barracks - Day

St Marys Cathedral, Sydney - Day

St Marys Steps looking towards Hyde Park

Nativity Diorama - St Marys

Darling Harbour looking towards the city with an old Sydney Manly Ferry berthed beside the Pyrmont Bridge.

Darling Harbour with Imax Theatre in background.

Largest Imax Theatre in the World - Darling Harbour

The Imax's yellow/black checkered wall
 is the size of the screen.

Circus Oz - Darling Harbour

Circus Oz with Ferris Wheel - Darling Harbour

Convention Centre Tree

Maccas

Playbills outside the Sydney Entertainment Centre

NIGHT

Hyde Park (North) Christmas Tree

St Marys Cathedral- Night

NSW Parliament House, Sydney

Hyde Park Barracks - Night

Mitchell Library

Mitchell Library 2

The Mint

Martin Place Christmas Tree

Martin Place Centapah 
with Christmas Tree in background.

Sydney Town Hall

 opposite the entrance to Town  Hall rail station

Waiting for the train home at Central Station.

Early Rail Bus

The train left Central at 10.17pm amd I eventually arrived home just as Christmas Eve arrived. Exhausted after enjoying the sights the journey was enlivened by the spectators from a Mariners (soccer)Game  at SFG returning home, many vacationing children were amongst the chatty group on the crowded train. Their team's loss was now replaced by excited discussions of Santa's arrival.

Trivia: I did not use the flash on my camera at night as I noticed the light from surrounding building was enough and I am amazed by how clear the photos are.

After physio today, I will be heading into Sydney to do the City Christmas Walk 09 except instead of the whole loop I will start at Sydney Town Hall

down George Street passing by the

Queen Victoria Building (QVB)
(with the statue of Queen Victoria)

right into Martin Place then up to Macquarie Street where I will turn right again and wander down to NSW Parliament House and The Mint continuing to

St Marys Cathedral via Hyde Park.

I hope to drop into Myers and David Jones department stores to view their Christmas window displays and maybe a little shopping :) and waiting till it starts to get dark head home via Town Hall which by this time has started their Light Projections on its facade. Then back up to Macquarie Street for more Projections and hop on the train at Martin Place to head home.

I will be going over my tracks a little but I love wandering around Sydney during Christmas time, the streets are very festive and everyone is happily window shopping and buying gifts. There is always buskers in Pitt Street Mall (site of the original Free Hugs- youtube) and is always crowded with tourists watching the free shows.

(Another day I will do The Rocks, Overseas Cruise Ship Terminal, Sydney Opera House and Royal Botanical Gardens loop).

Photos Courtesy of Julie of http://sydney-eye.blogspot.com/

Martin Place Mall, Sydney

Photo courtesy of Julie of
http://sydney-eye.blogspot.com/
Brilliant photos of everyday Sydney.
I absolutely love this photo blog.

Sydney City Christmas Walk 2009

"Guide yourself through Our Christmas - City of Sydney. This map will guide you through the City of Sydney’s free Christmas events and includes the locations of Christmas trees, decorations, concerts, floral displays, evening projections, carol singing, and more."

Sounds like a great walk, I have treked the streets of Sydney many times. Sydney is very tourist friendly as most of the city's icons are a short walk away from each other.

I hope to head into the city Tuesday or Wednesday to meet up with my daughter who works in Sydney. We'll probably do our Christmas shop for each other and find a nice restaurant to rest our weary feet. Fun.

http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/christmas/Default.asp

Six White Boomers
http://tww.id.au/c/sixwhite.html
Words and music by Rolf Harris.

Chorus:
Six white boomers, snow white boomers,

Racing Santa Claus through the blazing sun.

Six white boomers, snow white boomers,

On his Australian run

Today I start two weeks annual leave and so tired from what has been happening these last two months
-injured shoulder, physio, work-
will just spend the first couple of days vegeing ....

Well! That was the Plan but as I am typing this I realise today I had planned to go into Sydney to see the 27th annual Woolworths Carols in the Domain  held in
The Domain, Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney
or I could stay home and in the comfort of my lounge chair
I can watch it live on television.

 The 2009 Cast of the concert include - The Wiggles,

Adam Brand, Kasey Chambers, Kate Ceberano and more
plus for the Irish/UK backpackers
- Leo Sayers, Katherine Jenkins and Ronan Keating. LOL.

Its cricket time in Australia and over the summer season many UK/US celebrities will leave their cold/frost/snow laden homeland and make the trek Down Under.

Another Christmas Wallpaper

Courtesy of http://thevalentinecat.blogspot.com/

I love this wallpaper.

Yesterday, the Central Coast (NSW) American Cycle Club had their annual Christmas Toy Run at The Entrance, these toys are donated to the Salvation Army to give to needy families for Christmas.

Bailey and Kahlua

trying on their party gear.

My 2009 Chrismas Tree

Its starting to look a lot like Chrstmas.

Last weekend I caught up with my daughter,

Natalie and her husband, Daniel
they are having their first child in May next year.
We had a lovely lunch down at The Rocks, Sydney
and then Natalie and I spent the afternoon
shopping for shoes.

Over the Christmas break, I will be visiting each of my sisters and brother during my annual leave going on a loop car trip of north-west to Maitland, then north-east to Emerald Beach and then following the motorway down the East Coast of NSW to visit another sister and finally home.

I am looking forward to catching up with them all. Mary in Maitland became a first time Grand-mother yesterday and

I hope to see baby Olivia when I drop by.

My son Michael dropped over in the afternoon and is returning on Monday to dismantle the shed for me. LOL. Naturally with my sore shoulder I couldn't possibly do it myself and considering I have been trying to catch up with him for the past couple of weeks ... it was meant to be.

In the morning I had been going through my linen closet getting rid of all the extra sheets, blankets etc that accumulate over the years and of which you never use. Michael left last night with a big bag of 'stuff' and if he can't use than will hand over to his friends ; ).

I find that more and more I am handing over my extra things to people I know that need/want them because I found the charity stores (that are manned by volunteer staff) are sometimes selling clothes/linen for nearly as much as you would pay in a store.eg St Vinnes. You can still get a bargain at the Salvos stores =:-).

I was hanging washing on the line when I looked over towards my garden shed where I keep my lawn mower and saw that a piece of roof panelling had caved in, dropping dirt, dead leaves and assorted debris onto the mower and floor of the shed.

Not happy.

Its  hot outside...

and I don't want to deal with this mess right now especially after a large brunch and maybe a slight touch of  hangover/heat...maybe :)

Its funny I was only thinking yesterday afternoon, whilst wandering around the garden assessing what garden jobs need to be done, that it would be nice to get a new shed to get some of the clutter out of the garage but then again maybe I should just de-clutter the garage. 

Oh Dear! I think I will need to at least move mower to the garage just in case in rains tonight. Today was supposed to be my quiet day.

Its HOT

The last 3 days the temp has been around the 38-41Celcius. Too hot in the house for the dogs to get some relief,  at least, outside there is a breeze coming off the ocean on the other side of the hill.

Today, I drove up the F3 Freeway to attend my niece's baby shower,

Rachel and Colin 
where my sisters and other female relatives were going to enjoy a lovely girls afternoon. Rachel is due in 3 weeks and is feeling the heat. Her husband, dad, brothers and male relatives decided to stay and enjoy the cool air-conditioning.  It was rather :-) to watch them holding up and commenting on the tiny, tiny little clothes and a lot of (My Goodness!) so much stuff needed for such a tiny newborn.

 
Some relos.

Tomorrow and the rest of the week, the low 20Cs are predicted until the weekend when its back to the 30Cs.

Thank goodness, I like the heat and the hottest day can find me ironing, cleaning out cupboards and other energetic activities around the house.