4
November
2009
We’re still slightly in shock, but Jacks and I have some really exciting news!
Today we bought an apartment!
It’s a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with a nice big balcony. It’s on the 6th floor and has an underground parking place.
It’s just by St Leonards train station, and a short stroll up to Crows Nest shops.
View Larger Map
We don’t move in until Australia day (26 January 2010) because there is currently a tenant, but we’ll definitely have a house warming after that!
Bonnie and Lou – We’re looking forward to your visit 
I’ll need lots of help doing up the place!
Hope to see you all soon
Ben and Jacks
Posted: General
12
October
2009
I know you’ve probably only just finished ready Jacs’ post about our wonderful trip to Adelaide, but I want to take this opportunity to give you more of an update on what we’ve been up to.
A couple of weeks ago we had Nadia (an old friend of Jacks’) and her boyfriend Jay come and stay with us on their way to Auckland. We had a wonderful time ‘being tourists’ in Sydney, and hopefully we’ll get a chance to visit them in Auckland. We visited Blu Horizons, the cocktail bar at the top of the Shangri-La hotel with views over the city, and had dinner in the Rocks. We spent a few days at the beach – Bondi, Manly and Maroubra (which happens to be an iconic place for Jay who is an avid surfer) – and did some surfing in the sun, which kindly came out and shone down on us! Unfortunately however, I snapped my board, although it was a great opportunity to go shopping (Or is that me being optimistic – my new board is very cool!). One of the highlights of the visit was our big day out on Saturday. We met Millie and James (other friends of ours) in the park outside our apartment in Milsons Point at lunchtime and had some champagne while we waited for a table at Ripples, which is a great cafe on the water! The 6 of us spent a few hours there, before heading across to the cross for some drinks at the Gazebo Wine Garden, and dinner at Tomatillo. We all had heaps of fun together, and had a great day and night!!
On September 26th, TK turned 18, and had a big party at Mum and Dad’s house. It was Rubiks Cube themed – everyone comes in multi coloured clothes and is meant to end up in 1 colour by the end of the night. We had a great night looking absolutely ridiculous, and mum did a beautiful ceremony!
The other very exciting piece of news from us (well Jacks really), is that Jacks started her new job today at CSC, which is a global consulting, systems integration and outsourcing company where she will be Corporate Affairs Executive! Very impressive 
She will be responsible for government relations, analyst relations and media relations for CSC Australia.
In between Howorth and CSC, Jacks had last week off and spent a few days of it relaxing and getting healthy in the Hunter Valley. She headed up to the Golden Door Spa with Lucie, a friend of hers, abandoning me to look after myself 
It sounds like she had an amazing time though – meditating, hiking, exercising, relaxing and eating delicious but very healthy food. She even brought me back the cook book so I can try some of it at home!
Well I think that about covers our news (for a little while at least). I’m sure we’ll write again soon.
Check out all the photos!
Look forward to hearing from all of you
Ben and Jacks
xx
Posted: General
10
October
2009
Over the long weekend, we ticked off yet another Australian state with a visit to South Australia’s capital of Adelaide. We barely made it to the airport in time Saturday morning due to an alarm clock mishap, but luckily Ben saved the day and woke up just in time!
Saturday we walked around the entire city, headed down to the beach at Glenelg for lunch and explored that area for the afternoon. That evening we dressed up for a night on the town with our first stop at Mesa Lunga – a trendy wine and tapas bar. We had a few glasses of Adelaide Hills/Barossa Valley wines and a bit of banter before dinner at Adelaide’s infamous Ying Chow (a cheap Chinese joint that is legendary with the locals) We then made our way to The Bar and finished the evening at Lotus Bar.
Sunday morning we picked up our rental car and made our way to the hills for a day exploring the famous wine region. We had a delicious breakfast at a tiny little providore cafe (the kind I dream about opening one day!) A couple of ks down the road was our first winery – Petaluma. The cellar door and fine dining restaurant are inside what’s known as the old Bridgewater Mill which is actually still in operation. Their extensive wine selection took nearly an hour to go through before we headed downstairs to check out their champagne room. Some of the bottles had been then for nearly 15 years (with the dust to prove it) and would be there for another twenty! The old German town of Hahndorf was our next stop. We strolled along the main street, had lunch and made our way to the next winery on our list – Shaw and Smith. Michael Hill-Smith is actually a friend of Ian and Siena’s and he’d helped with our initial planning of the trip and set up the special tour at Petaluma.
He met us at his winery to guide us through our tasting which as you can imagine added so much to the experience. Ben and I channelled our inner John Allen while he explained the intricacies of the wine, the history of the winery, his personal journey as a wine maker/businessman. After nearly two hours there Ben and I headed back to Adelaide with our 6 bottles from Shaw and Smith.
Monday was reserved for the Barossa Valley which is famous for its Shiraz so as you can imagine I’ve been dreaming about since we’d booked our vacay! The drive in itself was a treat. Our first stop was Yalumba which is actually owned by Michael’s cousin. They had a huge cellar door with a gorgeous fire place. We’d decided to take advantage of the sunlight and make ourselves a picnic for lunch so our next stop was the Barossa Valley Cheese Shop to pick up some freshly made Goat’s Brie before heading down the road to Penfolds. We purchased a delicious bottle of Bin 28 to add to our ‘cellar’.
Maggie Beer’s Farm was next on the list to pick up some more essential ingredients for our picnic before heading to the charming boutique winery – Hentley Farms. We’d tasted their Zinfindel at Mesa Lunga the first night and I fell in love with it. So we tracked it down and to our delight it was the perfect setting for our picnic. We purchased a bottle of the Zin and enjoyed a lunch of fresh cheese, wholegrain bread and vegetable pate overlooking the picturesque vineyards.
Our last stop was Jacob’s Creek which was a bit of a disappointment after our special experience at Hentley Farms. The cellar door was actually referred to as the ‘Visitors Centre’ which I’m sure paints the picture perfectly for you.
We flew back the next morning bright and early. Ben rushed straight back to work and I was off to my health retreat in the Hunter.
It was a fabulous trip and we had such a great time. Let us know if you want some tips for wine tasting in Adelaide!
There is much more to report on…but in the interest of keeping these as short as possible we’ll hold off on that…
Lots of love,
Jac and Ben
Posted: General, Travel
13
September
2009
Update: Here are some more photos of how busy it was at Bondi yesterday, as well as all the kites for the Festival of the Wind.
Spending a beautiful Sunday at Bondi beach!
Posted: General, Jacqueline's Mobile Posts
9
September
2009
Update: I finished the 9k Bridge Run with an official time of 38.38 which puts me in 275th place out of 13,068 finishers!
Thanks again to those who donated!
Well, it hasn’t been long since we last posted about fundraising, but here it goes again!
On September 20th, I am doing a 9k run across the Harbour Bridge as part of the Sydney Running Festival. Once again, I’m going to raise funds for Bear Cottage, so if you didn’t donate for the City2Surf, or are feeling generous again, please donate by clicking on this link:
Donate to me
Thanks so much
Ben
xx
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And here is some information about Bear Cottage, our nominated charity:
An initiative of The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Bear Cottage has made a significant difference to the lives of many families since opening it’s doors in March 2001. Be it respite care for a much needed break for families, end of life care or bereavement support after a child has died. Emphasis in hospice care provision is placed on family focused care and the provision of respite. Bear Cottage provides a place of rest where daily tasks such as administering medication, cooking and cleaning are done by staff and volunteers so that families may spend quality time together. Families do not pay for any Bear Cottage services and without government funding, all costs of operating are raised entirely through community donations.
Posted: General
