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Published: January 19th 2009
Indulgence began early this year because it was Uncle Mike's birthday on 23rd December. To celebrate we took him out to a local Irish themed pub for lunch. It was a delicious meal, but I think the rich chocolate dessert was a mistake - Mike and I both suffered later!
Christmas in Dungog
We drove up to Dungog, Uncle Mike's place in the country on Christmas Eve and arrived around lunchtime to meet Helen. The afternoon was spent putting up decorations and preparing for the festivities. The booze was not opened until the evening - it was good restraint on Mike's part!
Christmas morning began cloudy - not what we were expecting at all. However it was warm and the sun broke through in the afternoon so we spent the majority of the day on the veranda, chatting and drinking wine. It felt very strange not being at home, but Uncle Mike and Helen made us feel at home. Helen had filled a stocking for us which was a great surprise and she cooked a hot and cold buffet style lunch complete with turkey, ham and prawns that was scrumptious.
On Boxing Day we spent the
Christmas Day
Oops we should have taken a photo before we ate!majority of the day outdoors, admiring the gorgeous views whilst sipping wine including some that we had bought in the Barossa Valley. Helen prepared what felt like an endless supply of food throughout the day and we sat, ate and drank...
During our stay in Dungog we became very fond of the neighbour's pet goat called Buster. He behaved just like a dog - answering to his name (bleating and wagging his tail) and jumping up when you went to pet him. We also had the opportunity to feed the other neighbour's horses - just some of the perks of rural life!
Mike and I returned to Newcastle on Saturday 27th to spend the last few days of 2008 at the beach. Our plan was to do lots of swimming to shed some of the calories consumed over Christmas.
New Year on the Harbour
We caught a train to Sydney on New Year's Eve and arrived at our pre-booked hotel near Paramatta (about 40 minutes outside of the city centre) at 2pm. We then had a couple of hours to get ready before we caught a train into the city to arrive by 5pm. It
was a short walk to Kings Street Wharf in Darling Harbour where we were to board The Vagabond Star at 7pm. In the meantime we enjoyed a couple of drinks in the James Squire Bar overlooking the harbour.
Once on board we were shown to our allocated seats and met an Australian couple and Dutch father and daughter on our table. We all got on well and got stuck into the sparkling wine from the free bar. As a starter, waiters passed around sliced vegetables, tortilla chips, meatballs and dips. Whilst we ate we watched a beautiful sunset and contemplated 2008.
At 9pm we climbed to the upper deck to watch the first firework show aimed at the kids. It was spectacular - there were 3 sets of fireworks going off simultaneously and it was a great warm up to the main event. We then had a buffet of prawns, rock oysters, beef and salmon accompanied by lots of salads. I braved the oysters which were surprisingly quite meaty and rather nice. For dessert we ate fruit, profiteroles and cheese.
We went back up to the top deck for the midnight show. The theme was creation and
the fireworks simulated the weather. There was lot of 'oohs' and 'arhhs' as a rainbow of colours in the sky dazzled us. The $5 million display was all over so quickly and before we knew it, it was 1pm and we were back where we started. We both agreed it had been our best New Year's Eve yet.
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