Back to Sydney

Because my brother Chrish (Christian) lives in Sydney we try to go up at least once a year, whenever we can get cheap flights.  A few months ago some really cheap flights came up, so I booked some tickets so that we could have a weekend away, and could also go to a good AFL game while we were there.  I was hoping to go to a Hawks game, but the flights weren't cheap for that weekend.   

I was telling my EAL students at school that I was going back to Sydney for the weekend and one of them said 'lots of money for plane?'.  I told him it does cost a lot of money to go on the plane and then he said 'you have lots of money!?' which made me laugh. I told him I didn't have any money now, because I had been going to Sydney too much!

Unfortunately the weekend I planned in Sydney turned out that the weekend I planned away, fell the weekend after the national Mother of the Year announcement, so it meant we would be going to Sydney two weekends in a row.  Mum stayed the week in Sydney with Chrish after the Mother of the Year announcement.  I shouldn't complain because I know how lucky we are to go to Sydney so often, but we were still all feeling really tired from last weekend.

We headed back up to Sydney on Thursday night.  On Friday we caught the train into the city.  

 We always love going to Circular Quay to catch a ferry to Manly for lunch. 

We were excited to spot Kirribilli House from the water (the big yellow house on the right) and laughed again about the boys rolling down the hills in the front of the house.
It was a beautiful day, but just a little breezy.

 It was lovely to sit on the beach and have lunch.

That was until the ferocious seagulls starting stealing food right out of our hands!  I was screaming and Mum caught this hilarious (and very ugly!) photo of me after a seagull came and pinched some chicken straight out of my kebab!

I had to pay Mum back and captured this photo as she was trying to feed the seagulls a chip.  It cracks me up every time I look at it.

We caught the train back into the city and decided to go to Martin Place as I wanted to show the boys Channel 7 which is where Sunrise is filmed. 

We were excited to find King Street in the city!

 Outside Channel 7.

 We were excited to see that they were filming the 'Daily Edition' show in channel 7 at the time. 

Tom Williams and Monique Wright (who interviewed me on Sunrise) were hosting and gave us a little wave through the window.  Of course she would've had no idea that I was on the show just a few days before. 
The Lindt cafe is right across the road from channel 7 and Harri got very emotional as he thought about the seige and deaths that happened there last year.   He said he was feeling scared, and I didn't want him to walk away from there still feeling scared, so we decided to go inside to buy some chocolate.

He wasn't sure about going in, but I'm glad he was brave enough to.  He was very quiet while we were in there, but I'm glad he did because even though we kept thinking about what happened in there, it was nice to walk away not feeling scared about it anymore. 

 It was nice to see that people are supporting it more than ever, as it was packed out.

The next day we went to some outlet shops in the morning.  Because Mum was with us this time, we couldn't all fit in the car so Chrish rode his motorbike and I drove his car.  I was petrified about driving in the city with all the traffic and couldn't believe that Chrish made me go across the harbour bridge! It's easy for him when he drives trucks around the city every day.

One of my prizes for being the Tasmanian Mother of the Year was a $300 voucher from Simone Perele. We don't have any of their stores in Tassie, so I was glad I could go and choose some things myself, rather than just ordering them over the phone.  I felt very spoiled being able to spend up big without feeling guilty about it!

 On Saturday night we went to watch the Cats v Swans. 

 It's so weird when we go to a game that Hawthorn isn't playing at, and to see so many Sydney supporters everywhere.  We just had to get in on the action.

 Harri and Kobe trying to win $1000 during half time by showing their Citibank sign. 

Chrish has been doing some renovations on his house and it's looking really good.  He's now getting around to doing the backyard and my brother Jared recently put up a pergola for him.  The boys loved helping him paint it (notice they have Chrish's clothes on, tied up by a rope!).

 Kobe looks like he is about to go into surgery.

We always love visiting La Perouse and went there before we flew home.  When I looked back at my old blog posts I realised that we were in Sydney for the same weekend last year.

 My boys are all crazy!

Cue 'circle of life' music.

 Kobe dancing away.

We had a lovely weekend with Chrish and Mum, but were so glad to get home.

What happens at Kirribilli House (doesn't) stay at Kirribilli House

I think it's still sinking in that I had once in a lifetime experience last weekend.  We were just so spoiled and pampered all weekend, and to have celebrities and the Prime Minister and his wife there because of us, was such a surreal experience.  It's been fun to send messages and talk to the other Mums and nominators on Facebook and Instagram over the past week.  I'm sure we will be life long friends after going through such a special experience together.

The highlight of the weekend was definitely our morning at Kirribilli House, as we had our stories shared and got to meet the Prime Minister and his wife, and the Barnados ambassadors.

We were lucky that we had a professional photographer taking photos most of the weekend, so I didn't have to worry about pulling out my camera a lot.  Thanks to Magdalena Photography for capturing so many special moments for us (Magdelena is in the green on the right).

I'm not into politics at all and I have no doubt that no matter who the Prime Minister is, there will always be people who either love them or hate them.  Last weekend that didn't matter though as the Prime Minister, Mr Abbott and his wife so selflessly opened up 'their' home to allow Barnados to promote the amazing work that they do in protecting children from child abuse, and he had no political agenda except to talk about the importance that a mother plays in a child's life. 

We often have a laugh about Mr Abbott wearing his 'budgie smugglers' and while we were in Hobart for the state Mother of the Year announcement, we walked past this shop and couldn't stop laughing, so we had to get a photo. 

Little did I know what would happen at Kirribilli House a month or so later!   I was one of the first to arrive at Kirribilli House with the other three Mums who went on Sunrise (and of course we had to get a selfie!)

Everyone in Australia knows that Mr Abbott is very fit - the media often shows him jogging, swimming (in his budgie smugglers!) or cycling. Because I was so nervous about the whole day, I needed to go to the toilet all morning, so I checked my coat and bag in and then asked to use the toilet.  The ladies from Barnados showed me where it was, and as I was coming out I met Mr Abbott as he was coming down the stairs - in his lycra bike shorts! He had a food tray in his hand and was bringing it downstairs and obviously didn't expect anyone to already be there! 

He was obviously shocked to see four of us there and he wandered past us in his bike shorts and said 'some people are punctual but I'm obviously not! I'd better get ready!'.  We all held it together until he got back up the stairs and then had a great laugh because we did not expect to see the Prime Minister in his lycra!  Everyone keeps joking that I should just consider myself lucky that he hadn't just been for a swim, as then he would've been in his budgie smugglers!  He looked much better when he was dressed up ready for the announcement! :)

After the announcement the photographer took the Prime  Minister and his wife around the side of the house to get some more photos.

Dreena (one of the other Mums) and her family were also around there and were getting some photos when her Mum tripped over, right in front of the Prime Minister and got a huge knock on her head.   Even though it was awful for her them, it's been so lovely to hear how lovely the Prime Minister and his wife were in helping them.

Mr Abbott got a bottle of water and some ice, and Mrs Abbott actually asked someone to get 'the territory' and drove the whole family to the medical centre herself! Dreena and I keep saying what an amazing story it is that they can say that they were in the car with the Prime Ministers wife.  I'm sure she would've had a lot of people who work for them who could've taken them, so it's so lovely that she did it herself. 

The next day Dreena got a text message from the Prime Minister's office to see how she was and to pass on regards from the Prime Minister and Mrs Abbott.  Just a couple of nights ago Dreena and her Mum were at a function which the Prime Minister was going to be at.  One of the Prime Minister's staff came over to them before it started and reminded them that they met at Kirribilli House and said that Mr Abbott wanted to say hi when he got there.  As soon as he walked in he went straight over to them with his arms out, and called them by name and gave them a big hug.  It's so lovely to hear that is so down to earth and lovely and genuinely cares.

After the announcement I was busy talking to people, so I wasn't with the boys or Reeve when the Prime Minister drove off (he was back to Canberra to deliver the dreaded budget).  They couldn't believe when he wound down his window and called out 'see ya boys! Good one Reeve!' as he drove away.   We couldn't believe that he actually remembered our names. 

We were told that it was time to head to the bus so we could get to the airport, and I needed to use the toilet again, but both of the toilets were occupied. I was getting anxious as I knew they were in a hurry to move the bus as security were trying to get all the gates shut.  Mrs Abbott came past and told me there was another toilet I could use. I thought she was talking about the toilet I used first which was kind of hidden away in a wall, because the whole wall had a massive mural on it, and the toilet door was part of the mural.  

I told her it was busy, but she said 'oh no we have lots of toilets - there's another one back here' as she unclipped the rope that blocked off the public from their private area of the house, and she took me back to one of their private toilets!    Mum then used the same toilet after I did and said she heard Mrs Abbott calling out to the Prime Minister 'I'm just taking the lady to the medical centre sweetheart! See you later!'.  

I still can't believe that we were in the home of the Prime Minister and had such a lovely day there.   It's lovely to see that they are just 'normal' people.