A return to reality...

With some sadness we have returned home after the festival of The Wedding (The Wedding and Honeymoons versions 1 and 2).

Our 2 weeks in Hawai'i were fantastic. A big thumbs up to The Peanut Gallery for her advice on where to go and what to eat. The Hawaiians are such friendly people and the food.... my tummy will never be the same again.

When we arrived the weather was a little on the dodgy side with some heavy rain (which we got caught in on the first night) but the locals assured us that it was out of the ordinary and should improve. They weren't fibbing. We still had occasional showers but the sun quickly came out again.

We did as much sight seeing as we possibly could without hiring a car (I was not really interested in trying to  learn how to drive all over again) and the two stand out experiences were The Volcano Trip to "The Big Island" and the "Hawaii Food Tour of Honolulu".

I will be putting up the posts about some of our travel and dining experiences soon so stay tuned.

For now though it is back to reality and the Never Ending Laundry! (sung to the tune of The Never Ending Story)

Myola Village, Jervis Bay

What a wonderful place to relax after the wedding.

The caravan park that we are staying in is in the sleepy village of Myola, just south of Nowra and just north of Huskisson on Jervis Bay. It is a sleepy little place, although we just can't seem to escape the gentle hum of leaf blowers....

The weather has been a little uncooperative as has the water temperature so we have only been swimming at the beach twice. We have also done a little bit of last minute Christmas shopping at Huskisson and there have also been some long walks along the beach so our shell collection is growing rapidly.

Of an evening we have been making friends with the local wildlife. The caravan park backs on to a forest so there is plenty to meet. We have been eating outside of an evening and on one occasion we were swarmed with Rainbow Lorakeets who all decided to join us for dinner.

Tonight I had a close encounter of the Kangaroo kind. I was sitting outside waiting to feed the birds when up hops a Roo who had decided to eat the bread that I had thrown on to the pathway for the birds. I was all in favour of this and proceeded to toss the rest of the bread to Mr Roo. Here I am 2 feet from a Roo without my camera....bugger. This photo was taken a little earlier...before my close encounter.

We went for a walk after dinner and there were about 12 Roos hopping around the park, including one curious little guy who thought I had something good to eat and hopped right up to me to see.

To keep up my status as a food blogger here is a picture of yesterdays breakfast.

 

It is the joy of a home cooked breakfast. Bacon, eggs, mushrooms and toast. I used the KR Castlemaine thin and crispy bacon which is awesome. Mel's food envy was uncontrollable and some of the bacon went missing in action.

Honeymoon 1.0

So it is the day after the big event.....

The wedding day was a big success and my lovely bride looked amazing.

The High Tea at The Victoria Room in Darlinghurst was a stroke of genius for a wedding reception and all the guests agreed that it was a memorable day.

Unfortunately my Nan has been unwell and was not able to attend so we headed over to visit her in Carlingford before we set off to sunny Jervis Bay for Honeymoon 1.0. This is part one of the three part Wedding Festival, that is made up of  firstly The Wedding (inc. 2 nights in Darlinghurst), then Honeymoon 1.0 and finally Honeymoon 2.0 (10 sun soaked days in Hawaii) with Christmas thrown in between for good measure.

We arrived at the Myola Tourist park at about 6pm, which is an hour after closing time for the office, however the friendly staff have come back to let us in. Maybe they should have mentioned the office hours before the 4:58pm phone call.....

Once we settled in we head back up the road to Callala Beach to get the lay of the land and suss out the restaurant situation. There is a pizza restaurant that is closed Monday and Tuesday - bummer - and a little take away that is than fully open. We pick up a couple of burgers and a small chips and head back to the park.

Once dinner is out of the way we head off to investigate the beach. After a quick walk through the forest we come out on to a lovely stretch of white sand and deep blue water.

I have a new project

With the upcoming wedding of Mel and I this Sunday, we have been given a bookshop gift voucher from her work mates.

She chose to purchase some books for us. First was a novel to help her unwind after the wedding - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and secondly a copy of The AWW Cooking School Cookbook.

The cookbook, she informed me was so that I could fix her something yummy while she relaxed with her book.......

I have decided that I should use my new cookery guide to learn the basics of cooking.  Once the Christmas season is over and we get back from the honeymoon in Hawaii (jealous??) I will begin working my way through this tome.

Now I realise that some of you out there can already see the inevitable comparison to the movie Julia & Julia but I assure you that I will probably not be trying every recipe in the book and I definitely won't be cooking everyday.