mom in oz...sunday brunch, derby market, didgeridoo music, and brownies!

after a restful friday (full of cooking, baking, reading, napping, and resting) we had an insanely busy saturday. up early for garage sales (where we got our first jaffle iron!), sunday brunch with friends, sampling my prune brownies, then to the derby markets for fun, food, crafts, and (lucky us!) didgeridoo playing. the guy playing the didgeridoo was incredible. my favorite so far.  then we took photos outside derby or bust, a tradition now with visitors.  walked home and rested before heading off to the derby rodeo!  see photos here in the Mom's visit in derby 2011 album

holy sh-t i'm 30!

so it finally happened. this thing i've been dreading. i've closed out my 3rd decade...and had an awesome time of it! started with a picnic at dinner tree the sunday before with some good friends.  had great food, great company, champagne and other spirits.  when the tourists came and clogged the site up we moved to the marsh by my house and watched the sunset with another bottle of wine. on my oz birthday i got some nice surprises in the morning, watched an incredible sunrise with claire and miski and then claire made this incredible lunch and brought it to work.  i pigged out!  after work a bunch of us went to the jetty to watch the sunset and eat some more.  we also had more champagne.  went home after and played with sparklers and ate cake.  talk about overindulgence.  today was really my us birthday and i watched the sunrise again with miski and claire.  it was breathtaking.  what a lovely way to welcome myself to my 30's.  all the photos are posted here

ubud and southern bali

ubud was another major highlight of the trip for me. i could live there without a problem. the food, fruit, vistas, people, culture, events, and shopping were the best.  we stayed at honeymoon guesthouse which was incredibly luxurious and decadent. we explored rice terraces outside the city, saw museums, visited galleries, went shopping, tried new and unusual fruit, visited the monkey forest, had incredible meals, met up with mj, bob, caitlin, and joey, visited some temples around the area, oh yeah did i mention we went shopping?  the market was fascinating and the whole culture around bartering is pretty fun.  we went to a fire dance (kecak) and cuban dinner with the whole crew too! i can't wait to go back someday!  we also visited a few nice sites (rocky temple, batuan temple, and the epic tanah lot) on our way to seminyak to meet mj, bob, and caitlin at their incredible villa.  went out to another fabulous dinner with them at naughty nuri's and then explored southern bali a bit. can't say i really enjoyed myself. we got something for miski and then decided to head back to ubud for the few days we had left in bali. such a good decision.  relaxed at our favorite hotel before heading back to darwin and back to reality!  more photos in this album