About 6 week ago I started noticing round yellow flowers blooming on mid-size bush trees in Fred Caterson Reserve (we do jogging there every morning). Every other day more and more of them appeared and finally the whole track was surrounded by beautiful yellow sea of fluffy flower-balls.I had no idea what’s the name of the tree, but already filed it as one of my favorites.
Now, luckily, I know it’s a “Golden Wattle” – the official Australian floral emblem, which you can see at the Coat of Arms.
Australian Coat of Arms
I made a few photos of Golden Wattle and I hope you’d share my excitement – it’s really one of the prettiest plants:
Toyota sponsors a so-called “National Tree Day” in Australia, and we were lucky to have one of the sites just nearby – in Fred Caterson Reserve. People just gather to plant trees. Council staff provide trees, packs, sticks and tools. On top of that you get a nice snack, drinks, a certificate and finally, a small tree to plant at home.
First, I think it’s just a wonderful idea – we actually had a chance to show Matthew how to plant a tree and explain him the whole process. He actively participated and we planted about 25 trees together.
Second, it was a great workout with a “meaning”. I was literally smiling for a few hours for no reason, just smiling.
Third, it was a perfect quality-time for a family after the big party .
Here go a few photos:
p.s. This is by far the first and only “sponsorship” that actaully has effect on me as a customer.
…was yesterday.
OK, we had a party yesterday – mostly with “Russian Sydneyors” and the whole thing was terrific! We REALLY enjoyed making new friends, and somehow absolutely everyone who popped-in happen to be wonderful people.
So, we had talks, talks, talks, beer, beer, wine, port, beer, beer and finally even went on to singing songs together (mostly russian songs, but “Yesterday” was there anyway). Sitting together in a light of candles and singing with a guitar… it’s just… like magic, it makes you happy.
Thank you guys! Thanks for coming to our big house, which now makes so much more sense, since we can actually invite so many friends all at once. And we hope to see you again (including those who didn’t make it this time).
And a few shots:
download Hard Dance The Best Of – Cd 2 album by Dance – Various Artists
We did it. The romantic and exciting trip to Sydney Opera House succeeded! So how’s it been…
Parking.
SOH has it’s own underground parking – it was almost empty and only $15/day flat.
The Opera.
It was both great and surprising. As much as I can judge voices were superb and performance captured us for the entire 3 hours. Surtitles were clearly visible and we could even understand some words in Italian. Costumes are not what you would expect… not classic at all. It feels like a modern/simple clothing and spartan decoration actually accentuated the main subject – voices and characters. So, we went out with a decision to be back again.
The date.
Yeah, we had a date. Me and Julia. Right before the performance and afterward. I’m not getting too much in details here, but in short – Julia was beautiful and Sydney embraced us with a spirit of love.
Julia was just taking my mind away. The most beautiful woman ever.
Continuing the “favorite shots” series…
A few months ago we’ve spent a weekend at Katoomba (Blue Mountains) and the trip on a historic bus was the one to remember. For some reason this photo makes me feel happy.
Watched WALL-E yeasteday. Out of ten, it’s… well, at least ten. Great, great, great, great family movie – funny, emotional and what’s most important it gives that “right-way” inspiration to kids. Say, Kungfu-panda was fun, but it didn’t bring much but kicking’n'punching action. Wall-e, on the contrary, succeeds at being both visually thrilling and educational.
Speaking of Panda vs Wall-e… Pixar made it a lot better than Dreamworks actually. Panda is just way too obvious and straightforward – it’s your Pooh 2.0, if you will – nice buddy, but not the way to go (too fat, too lazy). Panda would joke, fall, bounce, fall again, etc. Wall-e, on the contrary, is a little creature that doesn’t speak much and expresses emotions with body language, he’s hard-working, romantic, determined and caring. Wall-e is a story about love and faith.
In short – stays with 5 stars in our family video-library.
In every life there should be a moment of complete satisfaction. Here’s a piece of inspiration…
Disclaimer: he didn’t really eat all that, but boy was he happy!
We’ve been using iPhones for quite a while now and Julia upgraded hers to a new model today. The mighty iPhone 3G. Her old iPhone came from France and was the first officially unlocked iPhone in Australia. Now, it’s retired.
The new one (on the right) feels just as nice as the old one, if not better. It looks almost the same, but there’s much more to it than just the looks…
1. we got MobileMe account, so we can push-sync (goodie);
2. with GPS we can finally travel farther into our reserve (TomTom is useless off-the-road and old iPhone couldn’t pinpoint us well enough)
3. Internet on 3G is way better, so we can actually browse websites now.
4. Apps will finally bring long-awaited To-Do, PayPal, Remote and so much more.
I didn’t upgrade my iPhone though (albeit it’s broken glass), will play with Julia’s for now.
Will post more about it later.
One of my favorite shots. This fella really doesn’t care much about the view, but he’s definitely interested in my camera 
.
I can’t remember myself in a theater for years! Now, it’s official – we’ve got tickets, arranged our friends to look after Matty and this Saturday we’re going to Sydney Opera House for Don Giovanni live in europe.mp3 download hills have eyes the online depakote .
The performace is said to be in Italian with surtitles. 3 hours. Contains nudity. What else would you ask for a perfect date? Ah, yeah, a perfect woman… got one, ready to go.
