A day full of adventures

We had a magical day with Bernice at the Rocks, a street market in the city (close to the Harbour Bridge). With a map from the hotel, we began our adventure. After a short while of walking, we decided that we should take a bus to the Rocks, which was at the end of George Street. We thus had our first experience of taking a public bus in Sydney with Bernice. It was her first experience too!


Our first stop after we alighted the bus. Much to our delight, we were welcomed by the ice-cream stand! Bernice had a peppermint ice cream and we had a lemon sorbet. We had a great time walking down Circular Quay with our ice cream.


Bernice was really easy to hang out with. She was especially mature, sensible and well-behaved. On top of that, she was very cooperative whenever I fussed over her to keep herself clean. She was puzzled why I brought her to the toilet so many times to wash her hands. Nevertheless, she was always ready to oblige. I caught her puzzled look once and broke into a giggling fit that I could not stop. She laughed along with me in the toilet!


Our second stop was at the Rocks. It was a street market full of interesting items. We had fun browsing and snacking on roasted, caramelised almond nuts.




The rest of the pictures were taken by the great photographer - Bernice Tang! We discovered another hidden talent of this bright, beautiful young girl. When she was taking these pictures, she had the stance of a professional photographer and the passerbys were all quite amused and impressed by this little girl.

Morning mole conversation

Ethan showing off his only mole.

Ethan: See, I've got a mole here.
Me: Is that the only mole?
Ethan: Yes. But yeye has lots of moles.
Bernice: Plenty.

Day with Bernice

Bernice pictured with a McDonald's frozen cola at the street side bar.

"Why gu jie doesn't want to ask? It's better to ask then we can find out. It's better to find out than to be caught by the police."

- Bernice, at the street side bar that Sharon and I were having a drink at. She'd wanted me to check with the bar if it was alright for her to have her McDonald's frozen cola there.

"Can we ask God to help us protect the things?"

- Bernice, in the car when we had to return to the Hilton Hotel toilet to retrieve the bag we'd left there.

Glorious day at The Entrance beach

It's always easy to catch a great picture of this looker.


and erm...this catcher.


Needless to say, us of course.


Daddy Tang and tiniest Tang.


Mummy and Ethan look for catch.


Manny follows tracks in the sand.


Bernice with her sand portrait of Sharon.


The united wait for waves.


Then the runaways.


Meanwhile, Manny yells into a crab hole, "CRAB! CRAB!"


"Look, this crab is almost dead."


Manny basks in the sun.


"Bernice and Sharon are here."


"This is Bernice's foot print." (Note arrows)


Cookie break.


Crowd behind us awaits a country music concert by the beach (note cowboy hats).


Day ended with a hearty Mexican fare, that is, until dessert, when coffee arrived accompanied by a cockroach.


He's been my regular dining partner.

Motivational hula hoop trainer

"You just have to think in your head, 'I can do it! I can do it!' then you'll be able to do it."
- Bernice Tang, 6 years old, Motivational Hula Hoop trainer

Motivational hula hooper demonstrates her mastery which includes posing for a picture, walking, sliding across the room - all with the pink hula hoop around some part of her body (neck, waist, hip etc etc). You'll have to see to believe.

See how she simulates for Sharon. ("Bend your knees and go round and round.")


And how she is so positive and patient.


Through an intensive 9-day training, finally one disciple gets it (the master was clapping wildly behind the scene).

Happily, we pose for a picture.

Hunter Valley

Hunter Valley is 2-hour drive from Castle Hill. We spent two days on our own in Hunter Valley, which was a charming, romantic and secluded wine-growing region. It was tucked away in the western part of Sydney, which made us feel like no one could find us.



This was our room at Thistle Hill cottage, where we stayed for a night. The interior decoration of the room was elegant yet cosy.



Behind me was the swimming pool and dining area at Thistle Hill cottage.



This kangaroo is a pet of Thistle Hill cottage owners. It has been a domestic animal since birth and when the owners walk their dogs, it will follow them for the walk.



We spent the two days exploring vineyards and wineries and tasting wine. This picture was taken at Keith Tulloch vineyard, where we bought a bottle of Chardonnay.



My favourite fruit is grape, so you can imagine how excited and overwhelmed I was when I saw the bunches of grapes at the vineyards. It was a dream come true. Walking in the vineyard and reaching out to pluck a grape to eat was simply pure indulgence. I was so excited that I had to sms my mother immediately.







Much to our delight, we found a little museum that showcased many interesting antiques which related the history of the Australians who stayed in Hunter Valley.



Food at Hunter Valley was simply fantastic. We had dinner at Amanda's. The food and ambience of the restaurant was simply unforgettable.




View from breakfast table.

Breakfast at Thistle Hill was a very pleasant experience too. The view of the mountains and vineyards was such a luxury.

We left Hunter Valley with a sublime feeling of happiness.

Blue Mountains Day

The day started out lazy enough with both of us lounging at the Fusion cafe near Castle Tower (Ling's favourite mall in Sydney, a 15-minute walk from Castle Tang). For breakfast, we had raisin toasts, two lattes and chicken and mushroom filo (we call these Aussie curry puffs minus the curry, but we brought chilli packets to accompany filo, thanks to mum's good thinking. She had packed us handy chilli packs for the trip). As I poured over the Aussie papers, Ling was diligently studying. She's taking up a specialised diploma program in teaching. It was a good morning - even for her - as she loves studying. (Aside: under hobbies section as a child, Ling would fill in 'studying' which often makes me wonder if she used to have friends).

After breakfast, we decided to optimise the use of the rented car we'd gotten two days earlier and drove about an hour to Blue Mountains. We didn't go all the way up but stopped midway at Wentworth Waterfalls. We could have gone further up to see the Three Sisters but figured we'll save that adventure for our next visit. Secretly I think we both wanted to rush home to spend time with the kids.

The following pictures don't do justice to the breathtaking views of Blue Mountains. I told Ling it's almost impossible to get a picture that depicts what it was actually like for us: no photo can capture the beauty of what we experienced. But for a taste, this is us at Wentworth Waterfalls.





We tracked down this way to get an excellent view of the waterfalls.





It was a twenty-minute walk down (which also means a twenty-minute walk up later) to get this view.



Then feeling like we should reward ourselves for the walk-up after (during which there was very little conversation: we were trying to catch our breaths), we headed to a lovely cafe called the Conservatory Hut for tea.



We had a good view of the mountains from the cafe.



And loved how our latte looked.



Then recharged on caffeine, we drove to a nearby town that was very quaint and charming. We were happy to find a bookstore selling old books. Ling found a collector's copy of Little Women (that was at least 40 years old) and got it for a steal. She also bought me a book that she'd discovered through scrutinising the shelves. That, for us nerds, surely sealed our evening.