Sunset at icebergs in bondi beach

Return to the Blogosphere & Sydney Getaway

2017 In a Nutshell

Somehow I’ve avoided blogging throughout this whole festive season. Actually, I can’t remember the last time I blogged! Last year was a bit of a blur. Work and life just got on top of me and I wasn’t left with much energy for the blogosphere. It’s February already and if I don’t start blogging now, time is just going to get away from me.

2017 had it’s moments. Some were good and some were testing. To be honest, it was really challenging. Raising a teenage daughter is not an easy thing! We’re working through the road humps and trying to figure the best plan of attack for the last year of high school. The VCE year has already begun and it’s a little daunting to someone who hasn’t really put in as much effort as she should have leading up to now. To survive it, there’s got to be some planning and sacrifices. The biggest sacrifice is that I will not be joining the boys on our yearly trip to Europe this year. VCE requires 100% attendance so there’s no chance of taking an extra week or two out the school term for a holiday. When we travel so far, it only makes sense to go for at least 3-4 weeks.

bondi beach cool street art

Last year was a great year as well. There was plenty of excitement, the highlight being when my friend Holly won the Victorian title of Fashions on the Field at the Melbourne Cup Carnival wearing a headpiece designed and made by me! This monuments win has inspired me to create my own millinery line which I had hoped to have available by now – but things don’t always go as planned. Hopefully it will be out there soon!

sydney harbour bridge

Photography work kept us busy throughout the year. Winters are normally spent somewhere warm for a few weeks to give us a break from the cold. We didn’t travel anywhere last winter and were too busy to complain about it. We also gained a contract to photograph at the Australian Open Tennis! We had to cover the entertainment side of the event and hubby had it all under control. With my parents being away, I was left with the job of entertaining the kids while my business partner ran around and snapped up a storm.

selfie at the rocks

Sydney Getaway

Because of the Australian Open Tennis commitment, we were unable to travel this summer break. We did manage to head off for a few days, in different directions. My teen and I headed up to Sydney (as she had never been before) and the boys took off on a hiking adventure down to Wilson’s Promontory.

storm over sydney

We stayed in Bondi Beach as I love it so much there and I knew my teen would too. Our short stay in Sydney was lovely, aside from our slightly seedy Airbnb host who I was forever trying to inch away from! He was harmless but didn’t know when his conversations were not appropriate! Our host had this knack of being very helpful and just polite enough for me to hold my tongue. Normally, I would have told such a person that they were crossing the line. I’ve got thick skin and figured that we were only there for a few days so I let it go. The only times I saw him was when I went up to get my caffeine fix from the kitchen.

sydney fun trip

The weather could have been better though. On our first day there, it was lovely until we caught up with some friends, Brodie and James, for a picnic at Bronte Beach that evening. The skies opened up and bucketed down on us! It was a warm downpour, so we found shelter and continued with our picnic. Bronte Beach (neighbouring Bondi Beach) is fabulous, with a free sea water pool! It’s quite a bit smaller than the famous Icebergs at Bondi, but it’s free!

sydney opera house

On the second day, I caught up with Brodie again for a drink at a Bondi pub. This time, a freaky black storm covered Bondi Beach at such an alarming rate that it looked like a tornado! Beachgoers were running from the beach as fast as they could! We were watching it all unfold from the safety of the pub’s balcony. Again, a little bit of rain didn’t dampen our night of fun.

We spent our time there visiting the usual Sydney attractions and eating out. I’ll never tire of Sydney’s harbour and the Sydney Opera House. We took a trip to the north side of Sydney and walked from Lavender Bay to Kirribilli, visiting Wendy’s lovely Secret Garden and taking a stroll through Lunar Park. The Harbour Bridge, Opera House and Sydney’s CBD look amazing from the other side!

It wasn’t until the last day that we had the time or the weather to lie on Bondi Beach. No-one was getting a tan that day as it was overcast. It was just barely warm enough to be lying there in a bikini but we weren’t returning to Melbourne without having spent some hours relaxing on Bondi Beach before heading to the airport for our flight back to Melbourne.

bondi beach cloudy

Moving Forward

We’re hoping this year is going to be kind on us and keeps throwing us great things. There’s already some major life changes planned. The biggest change this year is that I’m giving up my 19 year career as a Myotherapist to concentrate on my photography. That milestone is only months away. I’ve loved my career as a Myotherapist for a long time and have reached my career goals with it, but it’s time to move onto the next phase of life. It’s definitely going to mean that I have a lot more time to work on my other creative projects as well.

Ok, so enough rambling on for now. It’s enough of a start to get my mind and my fingers writing again. This blog was started and will always remain a diary of my fabulous life.

Along the way, I hope to inspire some of you to live your lives the way it should be lived – to the fullest. 

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