We celebrated my niece’s birthday with a wonderful cruise on Berowra Creek, which is about one hour drive from Sydney. The cruise took us from the marina at Berowra Waters, along Berowra Creek to the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. We passed by such places as Calabash Bay, Neverfail Bay Cobar Point, Bar Island and Peats Bight. The vessel we travelled on was the Macquarie Princess, which had an interesting history. Built in 1915, it started life transporting milk on the Nambucca River in northern New South Wales. In the mid 1920’s to mid 1930’s it was used to transport a naval personnel from Balmain to Garden Island on Sydney harbour. From about the mid 1930’s to 1969 she was used as a Sydney harbour ferry and was able to carry 197 passengers. From then she ... read more

There is nothing like playing tourist in your own city. We have had this pleasure a number of times in Sydney and always enjoy the experience of seeing it through the eyes of a visitor. Sure, we live about 90kms north-west of the city these days, but we did spend many years living in and around the city prior to this. Our excuse to play tourist this time came courtesy of my distant cousins from France, Jean and Beatrice (plus their two German friends, Karl-Heinz and Lurshen … sorry no idea how to spell that one … I am open to corrections). They only had two days in Sydney so we did our best to give them a good impression of the city. The weather was a bit cool and at times overcast, but I think ... read more

This weekend we took off west over the mountains, to Forbes. The purpose of our journey was to attend a friends birthday celebrations. We have not driven out that west for sometime and it was good to get away and see how the countryside is looking. Our last visit to the town of Forbes was 10 years ago for the same person’s 40th birthday celebrations. From our place Forbes is about 310kms, from Sydney you have to add about another 80kms. The temperature on the way gradually dropped from about 12 at our place down to about 4 degrees at Orange. The clouds on the horizon looked suspiciously like snow clouds. At the party we caught up with some folks from our motorcycle riding days with an organisation called the MRA (the Motorcycle Riders Association). All ... read more

I attended the inaugural "Collective Ceremony of Monks Ordination and Novices Novitiation" at the Panditarama Meditation Centre at Smithfield. My friends Sandar and Ohnmar (otherwise known as "The Boss"), sent me an invitation to the event and it sounded very interesting. This afternoon the potential novices and monks moved about the grounds of the centre in procession. This was followed by head shaving and then a ceremony where the potential novices and monks asked permission of Sayadaw to wear the saffron robes. The monks then assisted the potential novices and monks to dress themselves correctly in the robes. Also, Sayadaw explained the 10 precepts that novices and monks must adhere to. The ten precepts are: 1. Refrain from taking lives. 2. Refrain from taking what is not given. 3. Refrain from un-chastity. 4. Refrain from false ... read more

Our friend Hang hit the nail on the head when she said that generally when you go travelling the first thing you do is see the sights, second you normally try the food (then you meet the people). If you have not noticed we love food! On the top of the list of our favorite cuisine is definitely Vietnamese food. It is generally made from the freshest ingredients, and is full of flavour and life. A fellow member of Travelblog, theRedRiver, used the following quote in a blog which she wrote titled “My favorite food in Hanoi” …. "I loved a lot of things about Vietnam and the Vietnamese people, but what struck me most was their obsession with food, cooking and eating. I was reminded over and over again of Italy, where the same obsession ... read more