Christmas 2015

And here we are at the time of the year when family, love & friends all get rolled up into one big happy (or disastrous for some) day of feasting, laughing, being silly and over indulging in all things.  Twenty fifteen certainly had a lot of challenges for me and I could probably sum it up in two words...OVER IT... I can say I've never really had a year where I thought it was a disaster but this year topped it.  Bring on twenty sixteen!!!

With the passing of my dad in mid January my year was never going to be a great one...looking up at the sky that night the stars seemed to have multiplied and filled up the night sky...he was now one of them watching over us, a child's ideology yes, but seemed so fitting at a time of grief...

It was also one nutter of a year with international issues at the back of everyone's minds and the humans of the world showing their bit of humanity in little ways to show support for each other, the terrorist attack in Paris on Friday 13th November, was one poignant reminder of how precious and delicate each one of us are, how easily one could just cease to exist in a split second because of the actions of another....Sydney showed it's small bit of support by colouring the Opera House and the cathedral in the French flag colours...

Onto something a little less melodramatic...the annual St Mary's Cathedral Light Show was a beautiful delight like all it's predecessors...to be honest I've been on a downer and never really wanted to go  but the husband suggested to go and I went along with it but usually in these cases once I get there I'm the one enjoying it most and taking load of pics, which I did.  So here is the result, the show that you shouldn't miss if you are in the area during the leadup to Christmas, but if you missed going this year here it is...Enjoy!

St Mary's Cathedral Light Show 2015 from Jessica Sue on Vimeo.

Whether your year was a great one or not so great one, tomorrow you can party the year away then recover for the next few days after that. When the clock turns over the midnight gong on the 31st the slate will be wiped clean and we can start it all over again and hopefully 2016 will bring everyone joy, good health and love but most of PEACE and definitely no war!!!!

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Watsons Bay Walk

If you enjoy a hike but really don't want to work up a sweat doing it then I highly recommend this walk, only 2.8km long, the easiest hike you could do to get the best views in town. To avoid crowds it's definitely worth going on a weekday in the morning to avoid the heat, if you have to go on a weekend then do a morning walk may help avoid the crowds but no guarantee since it is one of the top tourists spots and very popular with the locals too.

Entering via Cliff Street we pass Watson's Bay and Camp Cove...passing glorious views the beaches, city skyline and South Head harbour, also by passing Lady Bay Beach (no photos please) along the way...

Cannon facing our city skyline...protecting our harbour in war days

Beautiful views of the city skyline

...lots of seaplanes passed overhead, flying tourists to their lunches on the north shore I assume...

Hornby Lighthouse Cottage

As always the harbour is a hive of activity with pleasure boats

and ferries taking passengers between the city to places north of the city

One of the prettier and well kept lighthouses...

Hornby Lighthouse built in 1858

One of the many bunkers in the area

Pidgeons eager to get away from the mad photogs

It was a nice Spring walk with spectacular views.

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Spring Twenty Fifteen

Spring is...

the season after winter and before summer

in which vegetation begins to appear

in the northern hemisphere from March to May and 

in the southern hemisphere from September to November...

...and is an explosion of colours all round us, from pastel hues to strong contrast purples and reds.

Someone who's very happy Spring has come round

Every Spring we look forward to the tulips festival "The Floriade" held in Canberra and it didn't disappoint...tulips of all shades and shapes were blooming at their best when we visited accompanied by a few other florals but the tulips were definitely the star...by the end of my visit I had seen enough tulips to last me till next year or beyond.

The Floriade without the ferris wheel wouldn't be The Floriade

From pastels to burgundy... 

And as always I always love to process some to outside of it's natural state...

...to end Spring with some abstracts that I just love...

...hope you are unlike me and can breeze through Spring without a sneeze or itchy eye.

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Bridge Walk with my No. 2

22nd September 2015

Harbour Bridge view from Kirribilli.

Okay so the Spring term break is upon us once again, I hadn't even gotten back into the routine of the kids being back to school after their Winter break and here we are, the holiday cycle is in motion again.

This holiday No. 2 asked if we could walk across the bridge this holidays and I was more than happy to oblige {more photo ops for moi}, as long as we did the flat one and not the arched one.  The weather is always a little unforgiving when it comes to holidays especially the two mid year breaks, we got lucky this time, we went the first Monday and the weather turned on a great show for us {the rest of the week was a little wet, cold and windy...to say the least}.  This was my second time on the bridge walk it's easy enough, we went at a slow {and constantly stopping for pics} pace taking twenty minutes to the reach the suburb of Kirribilli on the other side.  Easy enough for us to think "oh maybe we can walk the return trip as well"... but we chose the other scenic mode of transport, the ferry ... which took all of five minutes to cross the harbour.

So this is the arched way of walking across the bridge.

No. 2 enjoying the view from up high

The scenic route via the harbour ferry

Lots of activity happening on the harbour with
Fort Denison in the background

Food is the first thing in our minds when we stepped of the north side of the bridge... it was closing in on lunch time, we walked around the two streets bordering the Milsons Point train station {which was also one of our options for getting back to the other side}...we settled into a quaint little place set back in a quiet street called "Cool Mac", a Japanese fusion cafe, quickly being asked by the owner "oh so where are you from?"...a common question that gets asked of us Aussie Chinese in which we reply with a quick "oh we're just {boringly} from Sydney".  The food was a fusion of Japanese sauces and dressings with your normal cafe food, no. 2 went with mushroom "oh I love mushrooms" on sour dough and I went with a light Chicken and Salad...happily watered down with no.2's vanilla malt shake and my skim latte.

Mushroom with poached egg on Sour Dough and Chicken Salad
BTW if I could I would've taken this table home with me.

Can't do without one of these most days

I may have said this before but I really do think Sydney Harbour is one of the most beautiful harbours in the world...it is easy to forget but when you get a chance to get out there and enjoy it on a beautiful sunny day...it is a sight to behold when you are looking over the emerald seas from above...it is really quite the gem.

Unsure of what to do when we got off the ferry and not really wanting to end the day we walked over to the big sails of the Opera House and sat on the front steps enjoying her Choc Mint and my Burnt Caramel ice creams from Gelatissimo...giggling at all the tourists with their selfie sticks and checking out the locals like us out with their holidaying children.

With the Botanical Gardens near by we decided to walk through it and catch the bus on the other side of it home...being in the midst of Spring fever there was obviously an ulterior motive on my part to choose this route home...and I wasn't disappointed...

Honey bees are always in abundance when the sweet lavenders are blooming

Poppies never fail to make me smile everytime they bloom...
just love their random pops of colour

No idea what this bloom is but have never seen one before, they seem to have weeds
growing out of the middle of the flower itself

This one of growing out through the iron fence

It's nice to get out with my no. 2, haven't done this in a long while and we both enjoyed it.  As they both grow older it gets harder and harder to find things that they are interested in doing with you...as you noticed it was only no. 2 in this post so you probably guessed my no. 1 is definitely no longer finding this something he would like to do with me anymore...much to my disappointment but we have to accept the changes that happen along the way and to cherish and treasure the little moments that were shared before the changes happened.

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Loss & Life

We were prepared...we knew it was close but when the process began to happen, we realised that you can never be prepared for the loss of a loved one, the one that headed our family of forty six, no matter the circumstances.  On that Thursday I got the call from the hospice bringing the news that they thought we should gather the family, that my dad's health was rapidly declining...we had no idea at that moment how much time we had left with him, deep down I was hoping that it was just a bad call on the hospice's behalf, that he still had more time with us.  But they had experience on their side, as it turned out he had less than two days with us. That was five months ago.

Each one of us have different ways to cope with death, some keep it close to their hearts others will deal with it openly.  Life on the surface has returned to business as usual but for me a tiny little part of my heart has been closed, not to be opened again.  Though the universe is a wondrous thing, many things have happened since that makes me question a lot of things.  Even as I write this blog a programme called "Being Mortal" is playing on tv, a documentary delving into when doctors should broach the subject of mortality with a patient...totally has nothing to do with this blog, my dad or me but it was a subject that had crossed my mind many times since my father's emphysema continued to worsen.  It's these little things, I guess it's my way of dealing with his death, in that I will connect anything that comes my way to him so that I can keep a little bit of him alive in my heart.

This coming week will be a nostalgic one...On this long weekend Monday our family will be  marking our 41st anniversary of our arrival in Australia, we will be spending our 42nd Queen's birthday here and Wednesday 10th June would've been my dad's 95th birthday.

Another day Another dawn May your day be peaceful

A photo posted by Jessica (@jessyysue) on Jan 15, 2015 at 1:11pm PST

Different day different dawn May you travel safe Love you forever

A photo posted by Jessica (@jessyysue) on Jan 16, 2015 at 11:11am PST

Taken only twenty four hours apart but life couldn't have been more different when I took the second one.

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