Monday 25th February 2019 - Paddington & Beyond Exploring Sydney's Eastern Suburbs

I grew up, went to school and even worked in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney but have rarely ventured back to my old stomping ground since moving North.

Today I was in the area and stopped off along Oxford Street. I love this area and it is easily accessible  by the M40.

Today whilst waiting to inspect yet another rental property I joined Paddington library. Don't ask me why I'm already a member of Chatswood (North), Waverley (East) and Hurstville (South) libraries.

I then visited 2 shops which are must visit tourist destinations.

Sweet Williams Chocolates just off Oxford Street on no other then William Street Paddington. Smaller then Belle Fleur Chocolates it has also been around a very long time.

Next stop Opus which is proud to be 50 years old! It is a Paddington institution and I am sure you will love what's inside this store over 2 levels.

Saturday 23rd February 2019 - Balmain & Beyond Exploring Sydney's Inner Western Suburbs

I was in the neighbourhood of Balmain to inspect a rental property this morning around 11 am so decided to pop into see my work collegues and say hi before returning home.

The first bus that arrived travelling along the scenic route back to the city outside Gladstone Park was the 433 bus to Railway Square (Central). I usually catch the 442 or 441 bus back to the QVB which only taakes 15 minutes in good traffic but decided to take this bus instead and making a last minute decision  to get off on Darling Street ( which ia an extremely long street spanning through multiple suburbs) Rozelle. I get off in front of 2 old haunts I used to frequently visit as far back as the 1990s.

Belle Fleur Chocolates Darling Street Rozelle

A must visit tourist destination for lovers of fine Belgium chocolates that are made in Australia with some very unique flavours including an unlabelled mystery flavoured chocolate on display amongst countless other chocolates in their large glass display counter which I was later advised was vegemite however it was so subtle I could hardly taste the vegemite in the chocolate unlike that awful overpowering limited edition block of vegemite chocolate Cadbury bought out a while back - yes remember that horrendous marketing stunt? Yes it was definitely Vegemite chocolate but it was as if it was mixed in properly just dumped in resulting in blocks which were really salty in parts and others where there was no vegemite present at all.

Other flavours of Australiana included Lamington and Anzac. I didn't end up purchasing the Lamington or wattleseed as they were on my second choice list but did purchase the Anzac and that was very pretty with its poppy design and really did taste like an Anzac biscuit.

Other flavours I chose were
Yuzu in the shape of a cocao pod which was my favourite.

Gingerbread still to be tasted

Pear which had a jelly layer another one of my favourites

Saffron still to be tasted

Rose still to be tasted

Red Velvet still to be tasted

Black Sesame which I could not taste in the chocolate

Wasabi which I could also not taste in the chocolate

Jasmine another one of my favourites

Other flavours I am not tasting but have purchased for my work collegues because I know they like these flavours are expresso, popping candy and ravioli.

There are so many other flavours to chose from but I wanted to select the most weird.

The chocolate art displays on various shelves around the store which is climate controlled

Onto my next stop conveniently next door to Belle Fleur Chocolates below - Victoire. Another institution I used to frequent although they originally were based at the other end of Darling Street in Balmain - now they just have a van they sell out of there and their main bakery /store is where it is now in Darling Street Rozelle.  I used to always buy their flourless chocolate cake as it was a huge slice and I always wondered how they managed to get it to rise so high and its texture was so light and fluffy. The slices are a lot smaller now and I ended up not purchasing anything there.

On Saturdays Rozelle and its surrounding inner Western suburbs of Glebe Balmain and Birchgrove there are a variety of markets.

Orange Grove Public School Markets is one of the best organic markets to visit on a Saturday - they are situated in a public school so it is great for picnics asnd kids to play and run around it. Has quite a variety of non food and drink stalls too.

Balmain Markets are situated in the church grounds on Darling Street and is small but has a variety of food and other stalls.

Glebe Markets is also a great market to visit also situated in school grounds on the main road of Glebe.

Finally Rozelle Markets situated almost directly across the road from Belle Fleur Chocolates and Victoire Bakery is a different type of market - it sells brick and brack ie second hand vintage stuff ie a decent sized flea market.

I was going to go to Birkenhead Point as well which is easy to get to with a bus transfer Rozelle but decided to leave it for another day.

Back to Railway Square on the 433 and transfer onto another trasin to Town Hall to pick up some grtoceries before catching tge M40 back home as there is trackwork yet again over weekend on the Northern rail lines. Tgere seems to be trackwirk every second weekend on tge Northern lines. Thank goodness for the M40 bus from Townhall during the day! More hassel getting home after 7 pm at night.

Thursday 14th February 2019 - Happy Luna New Year Morphs Into Happy Valentines Day!

When I asked one of my bus buddies this morning at the station bus stop how her Valentine's Day was her response was similar to mine - a scotch and tv on her own. Yep for me Valentines Day is just another day and I am just getting over Luna New Year which in some Sydney suburbs isn't over yet with some celebrations on until 19th February when Luna New Year celebrations usually end on 10th February.

Red and gold are the traditional colours so where I work Luna New Year decorations morph seamlessly annually into Valentines Day decorations minus the Chinese characters and some of the golf substituted with a few hearts!

Onto Easter- the hot cross buns were already out straight after new year and we still have over a month to go before Easter !

TBC with my next adventures!

Saturday 16th February 2019 - The Luna New Year Celebrations Continue!

Write a wish for the new year on a little tag and pop it into a slotted box to be included with everyone elses' wishes hung across above the wishing tree on level 2 of the QVB. From a distance the tree looks like a large pink cherry blossom tree but look closer and the blossoms on the tree are actually little stuffed pink piglets - hundreds of them! Rating 9/10 cute & clever art installation a must see.

Postscript : It is usually bad luck to reveal what you wished for and if you do your wishes may not come true. Now that Chinese New Year is well and truely over it is probably safe to reveal what I wished for.

It wasn't world peace as it is probably too late for that. On my tag I wished for the following

A new life

A new place to live

A new family

New friends

and

A new job.

Well almost a month later my life is beginning to change although very slowly.

I am working on a new place to live, I have made new friends, I am trying to find new family members but as for a new job have been unsucessful so far. My work hours have been cut yet again and the only job I have got is on polling day at the next state elections.

Meanwhile back at Chatswood I got caught up in the Luna New Year Twilight Parade which I thought was Chinese just propaganda - I just wanted to get on a bus and go home but there were no buses so I walked with I estimated was 20 kg of groceries all the way home from Chatswood Station - also there were no trains this weekend due to trackwork again so I took a bus from the city to Chatswood Station.

Photos attached ( apologies for the blurry photos I had to be quick in snapping away - too many people around and camera was slow to focus)

Traditional costumes

The mayor of Chatswoid was out and about mingling with the community

Characters from Monkey Magic 

The twilight parade along Victoria Ave Chatswood 

Sunday 17th Februry 2019 - Tomato Festival Sydney @ Royal Botanic Gardens 

I got up earlier this morning to attend the Tomato Festival but still managed to miss ( by half an hour)  the free hour long guided tour of the gardens from 10.30 am - 11.30 am.

It is a stinking hot day again with temperatures forecasted to reach upto 30  degrees again today therefore I made sure I packed a picnic lunch and plenty of cold water. Hat sunglasses sunscreen lip balm with spf and a cooling towel and umbrella a must to protect you from the harsh sunshine.

Arrived at the Tomato Festival around 11 am - I stopped off at woolworths for some bits and pieces to make up my picnic lunch a cherry ripe chocolate bar some sapphire grapes some champagne ham a small block of pickled onion cheese some lime and chilli humous and crackers some baby cucumbers and some rocket leaves. I was going to add some figs as well but I have been eating them all week so left them out. At the festival the firt thing I did was took some photos of this year's  tomato Mandala then wlk around and taking photos of the tomato festival stalls. 

I found a few chairs and decided to sit down and have my picnic. After the picnic it was time to head to the tomato tasting tent to taste upto 10 varieties of tomatos. My favourites this year Lemon Drop (yellow vriety) followed by Cupid(red variety). 

Onto sampling some bread and bush tomato relish followed by a purchase of an olive roll ( very popular but heaps for everyone - baguettes sold out) and a sour lemon cane juice. 

Sat in the Cooking and Learning Hub tent and wsited for the next cooking demonstration Sweet & Savoury Incorporating Native Australian Ingredients with Aunty Beryl Van- Oploo - Yaama Catering - she cooked up a stir fry marinated kangaroo dish using a bush tomato relish. We were invited to samples at the end of her demonstration along with an information sheet on native Australian food. I hestitated before eating the kangaroo - poor Skippy, It's just not right eating one of your national emblems! In my head I was saying sorry Skippy before putting the smallest sample of the kangaroo sample I could find into my mouth. It was so tasty - just like a well done piece of beef ( and I no longer eat beef). - so masny flies we needed some venus fly traps in the Cooking and Learning Hub tent!

Costa!

More photos of the festival and of the Longest Tomato Lunch between 12.30 pm and 2.30 pm (which I opted not to buy tickets to attend) before walking to The Calyx to see the free Plants With Bite display. My favourite venue in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Nice and cool I have decided to stay inside the Calyx until a little later in the afternoon when it is not so hot. Here there is not only the Plants With Bite display but seats snacks to purchase and toliets. It really is nice to hang out here and learn something or just catch up on my blogging . Great family hang out - poor little boy watching the videos became distressed started crying and had to be comforted by his mum when several insects in the video were swallowed up in the venus fly traps.

Photos of Plants With Bite @ The Calyx below Rating 8/10 enjoyable 2 day event although I spent more time indoors at The Calyx as it was so hot!

Very cute!

Tuesday 19th February 2019 - Which Chinese Zodiac sign are you?

Hopefully today is the last day of Luna New Year celebrations in Chatswood. The lanterns are still hanging from the ceilings of shopping centres and Westfield has a display of Zodiac signs featuring famous personalities of each Zodiac.

Photos below of the 12 Zodiac signs. Which one is yours?