Another month goes by and I haven't blogged in ages!Highlights of September for me was my trip to Albury to visit Jon, followed by the APEC weekend trip to Port Stephens with some mates from church!
Visited Jon in the first week of September when he was studying for his paeds and O&G exam. Flew down on a Monday and got picked up by Jon at the airport. Spent much of that day resting whilst Jon attended a tute as I was still recovering from my week of night shifts! The following 2 days, we studied together, saw some kids together at hospital, and played tennis for free! And all too soon Thursday came about and it was time to head home!
That Thursday, I travelled from Albury all the way to Mt Kurringgai by plane, car, bus and train! After returning to Sydney, I had a quick stopover to check out our new townhouse cos we finally got the keys! Then headed by bus and train up north to visit Di who was in hermit mode studying for her CA exam at her parents' place. The next day, a bunch of mates from church picked me up from Mt Kurringgai and we were off to Port Stephens for the APEC weekend!
Chris and Pete drove and immediately we got lost, joining the freeway in the direction headed back to Sydney! Half an hour later we were back on track on the F3 towards Newcastle! The drive was nice and we reached Port Stephens around 1:30pm or so! The sun was shining as we headed to Nelson's Bay to grab some lunch - fish and chips of course!After lunch we picked up the keys to the house we were renting and went to check it out! It was located not too far from Nelson's Bay in Salamander Bay and near by the water! We unpacked our gear only to find the real estate agent had given us the wrong keys! Half an hour later, we had collected the right keys and we entered to find ourselves in a huge 5 bedroom place with pool, fireplace, and all the amenities necessary for a great weekend!
We spent the arvo going for a walk along the bay and enjoyed watching the sunset near a Peppers Retreat resort! Then we returned to the house and cooked up a storm! The next day we got up around 10am and headed to the sand dunes! The weather wasn't great but the sun came out! Initially we were going to sand board but the sand was still wet from rain the night before so we came up with our own entertainment instead! This consisted of rolling ourselves down the sand dunes in all manner of combinations including a 4 person sideways roll down a steep sand dune!
A highlight of the day was one friend jumping off a small dune, landing on her feet halfway down the dune and then being carried forward by her momentum to end up with her face planted in the sand! Unfortunately didn't get this on video but there were 9 witnesses!
After being worn out at the dunes, we headed home and got changed for the Snow Patrol concert! 4 of us headed to Newcastle for the concert at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre! After a 45 min drive, we found the place and had a dinner of kebabs nearby! The concert started at 7:30pm and we got in early to get near the front! The support acts were pretty good but Snow Patrol were awesome! They played most of their songs from the Eyes Open CD as well as a few from the Final Straw album. A highlight was Yoke catching the pick from the bassist who she insists was aiming his throw at her! Sunday came around too quickly and we checked out in the morning and headed to Newcastle for lunch. We went for a stroll along a pier/wavebreaker type thing and enjoyed making silly videos along the way! For lunch we found a cafe nearby and then headed back to Sydney and church!
What an awesome trip! Can't wait till the next one!
