Fireworks in my Bedroom

Clearly tonight's Australian Idol Finale was a knock-off of last year's epic Adam vs. Chris- American-Idol-Grand-Finale-Palooza. We were laying in bed watching it live from the The Sydney Opera House. The most painfully boring season ev-ah (I turn all Aussie on y'all just like that, yo) finally ending-- hooray (I'm only speaking for myself on that, I know people who were into it, I just wasn't one of them).

And through our thin crank-out windows there's a thunderous grumbling coming from outside. And like so many other times in the last 2.5 years we've been in Sydney, it took about sixty seconds to recognize the sound of muffled fireworks from a couple kilometers (that's about a mile the way the crow flies) away.

We don't call my husband Big Daddy for nothing, he's the only one (well it was just me and him, but whatever) who realizes we're watching the fireworks live on tv as we sit wondering what "that noise" is outside.

We run up to the third story, from which we watch the fireworks spectacular above the treetops. And through the crevice of two trees we can see the The Sydney Harbour Bridge, we're far back from the scenery is still amazing. And once again I remember-- I live here, I live here and it's still so surreal sometimes.

With views like this from our playroom the reality of our adventure here, our life changing experience, hits us like a ton of bricks-- like in a good way.

Incredibly, only an hour later someone's put it all up on youtube-- what a world, man, what a world.

Sculpture by the Sea 2009

So there's this Caveman who lives at Bondi Beach, his home nestled into the cliff is complete with dominoes on a table ready to be played and Winnie the Pooh perched atop a pedestal admiring the views.

Last week my new Southern Belle American friend wanted to possibly meet him, see his digs, ya know-- get the lowdown. A few days after her failed attempt to check him out (he wasn't home), her and I, and my lover Gus went to Sculpture by the Sea 2009. During our walk from Bondi Beach to Tamarama we passed by his place.


The Caveman's home as seen from the cliffs above.

Yesterday The Caveman was all over the Sydney news, he's been charged with the sexual assault of a woman he "invited back to his place" after meeting her at Sculpture by the Seas.

And though I'll assume he's innocent until proven guilty, I'm incredibly glad he wasn't home when my girl Southern Belle was being all adventurous and whatnot.

Here's the rest of what we saw at Sculpture by the Seas 2009:




















I believe this is a beach house owner's backyard artistic expression.

Here's a look at my trip to Sculpture by the Sea 2008 if you just can't get enough.

Oh Yes I Did!

I never let my children paint in the house, in fact they're lucky they get to use textas (that's Australian for markers). I know it's wrong and all un-motherly and whatnot, but we do what we can, right?

But this past week the artist within me was unleashed at the home of The Cupcake Fairy. My journey began with Cupcake Basics 1, in which I made these...


Hell yes that's the Very Hungry Caterpillar sista.

Two days later I went back for Cupcake Basics 2, and I made these...


Oh yeah baby, that sure is a hand-moulded fondant castle.

I'm still not sure how you eat something like this-- or if you'd even want to, but I can say this, they look gorgeous and after two days of cupcake making mania I feel competent enough to make them at home without supervision.

Deanne, you Cupcake Fairy Goddess, it's all about you, you and your awesome kitchen complete with macdaddy island for group fondant rolling,

Needless to say I'm totally looking forward to my next class, though totally not looking forward to my husband's face when he eventually finds the massive box of cupcake making supplies I'll be hiding in the kitchen cabinets.

Sydney Night Noodle Markets and The Blue Mountains Without Hitler

Our four and five year old boys use chopsticks pretty proficiently and are pros at the yum cha (dim sum) scene, needless to say, we are basically Asian food fanatics.

Going to the Night Noodle Markets in Hyde Park, part of the annual Sydney International Food Festival was high on our list of priorities for this week, and I'm proud to say, mission accomplished!

Dumplings, noodles, and various other delicious edibles were aplenty. We sampled our usual dim sum favorites and closed the night out at the Serendipity Ice Cream stall. It was all good.


The Night Noodle Markets in Sydney's Hyde Park 2009.


My boys with some of their usual yum cha favorites.





Serendipity Ice Cream at the Sydney Noodle Night Markets 2009. The four year old had chocolate, I had Chili Passionfruit sorbet.


This was the walk back to the car-- right after my four year old nailed my husband in the balls. If you look closely you can see his hand strategically placed in the post-balls-injury-position. And yes, those are bottles of water hanging out of my husband's ass pockets.

If you're still reading after all that testicle drama, here are some outtakes from our weekend in the Blue Mountains with our friends, including My Favorite Australian.

We locked the kids in there and went for lunch. Just kidding people.


Love on the ZigZag Railway.


Anytime is the right time for bubbles yo.


A big ass green-eyed fly sitting on my leg, not fun.


We went on the Cableway at Scenic World, where you can get your jollies standing on a glass-bottom floor while crossing the valley.


The Three Sisters as seen from the Cableway.

I used to marvel at how we could live in such a beautiful city and have these gorgeous mountains only ninety minutes away. But after the spew-fest clinic my carsick five year old put on during our return car ride home, I realize now-- it's about seventy five minutes further than we're comfortable with.

The good news is, we totally avoided the Blue Mountains Nazi Shrine, cause that's was a real buzz kill on our last trip there.

A new calendar of annual events in Sydney should be up on my sidebar soon-- if you have blog posts about past festivals or events in Sydney that you've written about and/or photographed and want me to link to please let me know. Cheers y'all.

Festival of Dangerous Ideas

Warning: If you are easily offended by controversial topics and/or worried that you may burn in hell if you don't love Jesus, you may want to stop reading and check out something a little lighter, like this.

For the rest of you...

The Sydney Opera held its inaugural Festival of Dangerous Ideas this past weekend. The two-day festival of provocative speakers and controversial topics was kicked off Saturday with the Soapbox Public Speaking Competition, a free event in the Opera House Forecourt (the outdoor area below The Opera House steps).

Any person who wished to was given two minutes on an actual soapbox to say whatever they like. Ten ranters went to a final round, and a winner was chosen.

Later that evening the official "Opening Session" began with the CEO of The Opera House Richard Evans, introducing the festival as the inaugural of a new annual event. His introduction concluded with welcoming the winner of the Soapbox Competition to the stage. A thin, older woman dressed in jeans entered the stage and stepped up upon the soapbox. She began with the declaration, "I want the right to die." And though she was not dying, and had no desire to die today, her poignant and eloquent rant made it clear why she had won the competition; it also made me wish I had gone to hear the others earlier that afternoon.

The speaker for this evening's session was Christopher Hitchens, the program titled Religion Poisons Everything.

Often, I refer to myself as a "bad Jew". Jewish law dictates that if you're mother is Jewish you are too-- automatically. But for me, for years, I've believed that organized religion could, and should, be compared to a cult, a cult that got out of control.

If there is a God, would he or she really want you to pray to him every day? Would he or she really send you to the "fiery gates of hell" for sinning? Would a great, mighty God want people to be scared of him or her? Does baptizing children really "save" anyone? Save us from what? And as Hitchens said during his session, if a man on public transport was proclaiming himself as a prophet, would you choose to sit closer to him... or further away?

One thing was certain, Christopher Hitchens was "preaching to the choir". He is an incredible speaker and it was very validating for someone who's always felt like I "didn't believe".

On Sunday, the second day of the festival, Cardinal George Pell presented a session called Without God We Are Nothing. I consider organized religion safe, so I'm not sure how that fit into The Opera House's program besides allowing religious zealots to defend their stance. It seems the only dangerous part of a Without-God-We-Are-Nothing attitude, would be breaking away from it.

A few of the other topics at The Festival of Dangerous Minds included:

• Freedom: The Most Dangerous Idea of All with Germaine Greer
• People With Flat Screen TVs Should Stop Whinging About Capitalism
• Make All Drug Use Legal
• Does Online Networking Harm Children's Brains?
• By 2075 The Aboriginal Genocide Will Be Complete
• Australian Stereotypes Betray Our Cultural Identity
• The Old Should Pay For Themselves
• Polygamy and Other Islamic Values Are Good for Australia
• No Human Cure Justifies Animal Experimentation
• Yes to Child Labor, No to The Minimum Wage
• Policing Our Minds is the Future

As you can see, the topics alone could make almost anyone start feeling a little uncomfortable and anxious. Needless to say, I will be looking forward to see what they line up in 2010.

You can click here for a link to ABC's clips from the festival.