Where in the world is Gary Matthews?: January 2012

Saturday 21 January 2012

Twilight BBQ at "Truro" via Cootamundra

Went to a twilight BBQ at Richard Hick's farm, "Truro", just 15km from Cootamundra on the Old Cootamundra Road.

Magic views, great food and the biggest Moreton Bay fig tree this side of the range!

This photo only shows part of the big tree.

Sydney, sweet Sydney

In Sydney for a couple of days. Had dinner with Uncle Bill in Manly.

One of the best things you can do when visiting Sydney, from anywhere in the world, is get the ferry from Circular Quay to Manly.

The next day we viewed the Harry Potter exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum. An excellent exhibition of film props, costumes and memorabilia. If you go remember to book a ticket in advance and I'd recommend the audio guide for an additional$7.50.
We also caught Journey 2: mysterious island featuring the unforgettable " pec pop" performed by Dwayne Johnston.
Had a fantastic dinner at Chef Gallery, just off Bathurst Street, Sydney. Contemporary Chinese food - excellent Tataki Waygu!

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Playing portal

Post Christmas sales and I got Portal for $15

Friday 6 January 2012

Summer Holidays - Canberra for the first week in January

We spent from December 31 to January 6 in Canberra- Australia's bush capital.

New Years Eve was spent in the city watching Fireworks while eating gelato from the Mill Cafe in Garema Place.

We spent the next week looking at exhibitions - including "Handwritten" at the National Library ( it was cool to see Galileo's handwritten multiplication table), and Contemporary Chinese Art at the National Museum of Australia. We saw the movies Happy Feet 2 and Sherlock Holmes- a game of shadows, and I saw the The Chipmunks- Chipwrecked. We shoppped at Costco - including getting new tyres for Mum's car, and one night we had pizza down by the lake. I caught up with my friend Alicia - she's doing really well at Uni and has been offered honours from all her course lecturers, she gave me a Harry Potter chocolate frog as well as some great Top Gear DVDs for Christmas. I was going to take her to Seoul Palace for dinner, but it's closed until January 17 - so we went to Taj Mahal for Indian instead. Alicia is hoping to get a US Internship in 2012 - she has to apply by August 5 - we wish her lots of luck with her application because we think she will love Washinton DC as much as we do.

And I signed up for CanCon at MindGames - Dad and I are going January 27-29- YAY :)

Behind Mum and me is the tinsel truck - everywhere we went in Canberra we saw the tinsel truck - it was spooky when it was even in the carpark at Telstra Tower when we went there for Mum's birthday!

Lake Burley Griffin

Canberra.

Mum's Birthday - ( don't tell anyone she's 48!) - dinner at Alto, Canberra.

January 4 is Mum's birthday. We took her to Alto restaurant, at the top of Telstra Tower in Canberra, for dinner. It is a revolving restaurant which takes 85 minutes to complete a revolution. We opted to have three courses for $75 which was a good choice. The food was delicious - I had Duck and potato terrine, Crisp Pork Belly with handcut chips with aioli, and carrots, blue cheese and walnuts as sides and then chocolate delice for dessert - YUM!

I also had a mocktail - a sweet & sour apple.
Dad had twice cooked gruyere souffle, Angus steak with Brandade potato and burnt honey pannacotta with pear
Mum had Crab Fettucine, Veal with mushrooms ( they weren't Death Cap mushrooms - two people died in Canberra from eating those on New Years Eve) and Strawberry Bavarois. We all shared the sides - although Mum only got 4 small chips ( Dad and I scoffed those)
All in all a good night - great views, great service, big serves!

Where in the world is Gary Matthews?