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!

Christmas Breakfast - Adelong NSW - Australia

We traveled to Grandmas and Pa's for Breakfast on Christmas Day - Ciarne, Tina, and Kent  travelled from Tumut.

I still believe! ( because he keeps bringing me cool presents)

Christmas 2011
I got a 3Ds from Santa and an IPad 2 from Mum and Dad - cool!

Grandma and Pa celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in December 2011

All my cousins ( except James who couldn't make it), Mum and Dad, and my Aunty and Uncles got together on December 17 to celebrate Grandma and Pa's 50th Wedding Anniversary. They were married on December 30, 1961.

HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark at Sculpture by the Sea

While we are in Sydney we went to Sculpture by The Sea at Bondi. It was the last day of the exhibition and the first day of HRH Crown Princess Mary and HRH Prince Frederick of Denmark's tour of Australia. We were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to watch the Danish royals present awards to the artists, and mum had her camera.

Seoul Palace Restaurant and Mind Games - Yes it's Canberra!

Here I am in Canberra at the Coffee Club in the Canberra Centre enjoying a Tropicana frappe before spending all day at Mind Games, my favourite shop.
The night before I took Mum and Dad to the Seoul Palace Korean restaurant in the Melbourne Building on Northbourne Avenue.
I came to the Seoul Palace restaurant on Tuesday October 25 on a school excursion. At my school we learn Korean and we were experiencing Korean food. I liked it so much I thought I should take Mum and Dad.
We ate KimChi pancake, Kun Man Do, Bibim Bap in a hot pot, Kim Chi Bibim Bap, LA Galbi and Bulgogi. It was so delicious. I ordered and said thank you in Korean too!
The owner was so happy that I brought my parents to the restaurant that she gave us free drinks.
Friday night is late night shopping night in Canberra, so after dinner we headed over to Kims Supermarket - an Asian market. Here we met Hee-Kyoung Lee, a teacher at Narrabundah College, who traveled to Korea with Mrs James from school. It really is a small world and I love travelling in it!