Holidaze

Woops. Dropped off the blog a bit last week as the Pal and I ducked off to Hawaii - the Big Island, to be precise. Uh, it was incredible and these photos don't even do it justice. Was the perfect blend of resting and lying on a beach and a little bit of adventure. Back to normal programming tomorrow!

On holidays

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Hi friends, My family is in town (hooray!) and I'm going to take a little blogging break to spend time with them, eat fruitcake and just enjoy the Christmas spirit. I'll be back in the New Year - hope your days are bright and merry in the meantime!

L.A.

Over Easter I snuck over to L.A. with the Pal. It's a long story why, but in a nutshell, he's working in NYC for a bit, and we thought we'd catch up somewhere sunny and a direct plane flight away for both of us. (Not that long a story, as it turns out!).  We had an amazing time - and I wanted to share these lovely pics of the Viceroy Hotel. It was terribly pretty. 

Happy Australia Day!

Have a brilliant holiday today if you live in Australia like me. If you don't, have a lovely day anyway and I'll see you tomorrow! (And yes, these are lamington macaroons, discovered by the very excellent Lee Tran).

Summer love

December was a lacklustre summer here in Sydney. If only I had an indoor-outdoor pool like this to laze about in. I think I'd be much more upbeat about the whole thing!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you're having a great Christmas today. And if it's not your thing, I hope you're having a great day nonetheless! I'm taking next week off from blogging, but I'll see you in the New Year. xxx

Bali

These are two of my favourite pics from our trip to Bali. To quote Abbey Nova, this is your daily dose of green! These were taken by the Pal with a panorama app that stitches together your shots, and they were taken in The Maya - a magnificent hotel we stayed at in Ubud.

Seoul Photos I

Some vintage ceramics sold at markets in Insadong

I was lucky enough to head to Seoul for a week last month and am only finally getting around to posting some phone photos now. It was a wonderful trip: such a bustling and diverse city - I loved it even more than I thought I would. I'll post more as I cull through them all.

A nice looking door in Samcheongdong

A little boutique in Hongdae

A restaurant in InsadongAnother restaurant in Insadong

Oh for a boat on the sea!

This photo makes me yearn for holidays, warmth and boats. I must say, I'm not usually a nautical kinda gal, but I think the Maldives can make anyone dream.

Bacash's Emporium

I've been meaning to show these photos for ages. Over the New Year, I went to visit a good friend's house down in country Victoria, and visited her favourite local vintage shop, Bacash's Emporium. It used to be a haberdashery store, but upstairs is now a large selection of furniture, bric-a-brac and crockery -it's delicious.

I could have bought lots and lots in there: these bottles were amazing, and only a few dollars each.

What I did buy was the trunk below (apologies for the bad light: it's in an awkward-to-photograph spot.) I'm using it as a side table - you can see it's a sort of duck egg blue colour, with lots of scratches, which I like. Oh, and it is made of lead or steel: it is the heaviest piece I've ever lifted and the Pal cursed me as we lifted it up flights of stairs.

Now questions for you, dear Internet. What do you think it was used for? There are no holes inside and it has about three layers of insulation. It is steel (or whatever it's made from) on the inside, too. Any suggestions would be most welcome!

All photos by me

House out on the Sea

Oh my! What a great house for a Tuesday. When everything gets too much, imagine escaping home to this little beauty!

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The Art Project

Internet, have you seen what you can do, lately? Have a look at this incredible new project for art lovers (and tech geeks, too, I suppose). You can, from the luxury of your desktop, stroll through 17 of the major galleries of the world. And on some paintings, even zoom up close to see unbelieveable detail. Check it out here: be warned, it's a time sink!

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Snorkelling Photos from Fiji

When we were on our honeymoon, we met some lovely people who since shared their underwater photos with us. This is exactly what we saw in Fiji - isn't it just wonderful?

First Wedding Present

My lovely sister came over on the weekend to give the Pal and I our first wedding present. We had no idea what this might be, but the thought of taking a short break from doing seating arrangements (!!!) was so delightful that we welcomed her with open arms. Em has also been an incredible support in the lead up: she knows I'm working a lot and just manages to be helpful in a very seamless and non-pressure way.

And we were blown away. Em knows how much I love these old railway posters, and made one for us which chronicles some of our adventures from our first date to our wedding day. It's not only a stunning piece of art, but I catch myself looking at it with dreamy, faraway eyes, remembering how far we've come, and all the adventures to come.

Thank you Em - we couldn't love it, more.

Tiny Victorian House

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Did you see this cute little Victorian tiny house yet? So all the way from the red gumboots to the flowers in the window boxes, this is a house I could live in. Like, forever.

Once Upon a Time...

... I gave this tile by Rob Ryan to the Pal. At the time, it seemed to sum up so many changes in our lives and the excitement of moving forward. It has moved from his house, to our house and (unbeknownst to me) became inspiration for a very sneaky plan.

Last Friday morning, I awoke to a cryptic phone text message from a 'Wise Old Owl' which set me off on hours of treasure hunting. First, I found some balloons with a key attached at my front door and these led me to lots more puzzles in our apartment. Find-a-words and a CD where I had to use the titles and artists to break a code (I love a good puzzle!) had me searching high and low for more clues throughout our apartment (one was even in the freezer!). The last clue told me to pack a bag for somewhere cold - this becomes important later - to leave it in the apartment and to catch the 9:22am ferry into the city.

What greeted me on the walk to the ferry were countless signs, chalk arrows and red helium balloons tied to fence posts from my house all the way down to the wharf - it was like I was in a dream. I kept searching around to see if any friends were hidden around, but it was just me.

I was crying as I took these photos - and people walking up from the ferry kept saying, "Who's Kate? What adventure?!" When I finally got down to the wharf, the outside and inside were covered with pages spelling out quotes from my favourite books. By now, I was really, really crying...

When I got inside the ferry, I received another message from the Wise Old Owl, telling me that there was another clue attached to a helium balloon inside. Inside this clue were more polaroids of city landmarks - places I had to search for further! Here are the photos:

Just as I was beginning to doubt my directional capabilities, I got off the ferry and to my astonishment saw more green signs - they were everywhere!! Happily guided along by my green friends, I wandered through the city, utterly speechless (although still crying at this stage).

The arrows led me to The Vault, a fancy safety deposit box facility where I thought the Pal might meet me... Instead, I used my key which was delivered to my door that morning to open a box to uncover an ipod shuffle loaded with some songs by one of my favourite artists, and a boarding pass to Hobart. Alongside these was the instruction to walk to the InterContinental Hotel and pick up my bag in order to go to the airport!

I walked to the hotel, (wondering how my bag had even got there in the first place!) crying even more, if possible, and asked for my bag, which emerged attached to more helium balloons and another envelope clue. It said to tear up my previous boarding pass, and use another one to fly to Hamilton Island!

By this stage, I was certain that the adventure would end there. But when I arrived at Hamilton Island, I saw a woman holding a green Kate's Adventure sign, and the Pal wasn't in sight! She took me on a bus to a helipad where, no joke, I got on a helicopter, despite the pilot giving me no clues as to our destination. (That's me in the attractive life jacket below in the top left). We left Hamilton Island and flew low over the Whitsundays, pulling in at a tiny beach with huts, and (you can see it in the middle below) a MASSIVE sign in the sand reading 'Adventure' with a huge arrow.

As I got off the helicopter (felt a little like I was in Tropic Thunder for a minute, then remembered I was in a tropical version of Amelie), the lovely staff buzzed around me, grabbed my luggage, gave me another envelope with a clue and told me to keep following the signs. I went down to the beach where I saw a boat come towards me. Just as I thought that this couldn't possibly be real, the captain said, 'Hi Kate!' and told me to get on board.

We zoomed out away from the resort, and even though we were in pristine bushland, large 'Kate's Adventure' signs were roped around rocks and trees all along the way! We pulled into a small beach, and the captain of the boat told me to stand up at the bow as we pulled into the beach.

The Pal was waiting there with champagne on ice, a cheese plate and, on the beach in the middle of nowhere, asked me to marry him.

And I said yes!

One of our dearest friends who was integral to the whole plan stuck this on our door for our arrival home, and planted chocolates and champagne in our apartment, too.

Thank you to everyone who helped in this intricate Amelie-style proposal - it was so incredibly extraordinary - and I am so excited!

-FIN- (or 'beginning'?)

Lorne Times

We had a great weekend down in Lorne - what a special place! Wonderful company, amazing food, perfect wanderings and fours-seasons-in-one-day weather. Spectacular!

Happily, I found this beautiful mural by Ghost Patrol (eee!) and lots of cool ninja stencils everywhere - impressive, my Lorne friends!

The first panorama by The Pal and the rest by me.

Oman

Sunset, looking over the hotel's private beach.

Well, I'm home after a few weeks of different adventures, and despite the heat, it's so nice to be back!

Oman was a crazy and very surreal trip: I was only away for a week and so only got a small taste of the country, but it was just long enough for my head to believe I was away from my thesis. Hurrah! Spent some glorious time pool-side, which felt like a dream. For some more of my photos, have a look at my Flickr stream.

Will post some more photos of my last week in the Hunter Valley over the next few days!