My Birthday!!

Well, this post may be over 2 weeks late, but here's some pictures from my Birthday on January 7th!  I am officially 29 aaaah!  I woke up with a bad headache in the morning, so any plans for the early day were off, so I spent the morning recuperating and then went out in the afternoon to a place called Eagle Street Pier in the city.  I found out about it from a coworker who mentioned the area - it's an amazing spot with at least 20 restaurants overlooking the river.  We went to a place called the Bavarian Bier Cafe, which was quite enjoyable - I got a chicken schnitzel (I've never eaten schnitzel before) and I must say it was quite enjoyable, and james got the tasting platter complete with different German sausages, schnitzel and saurkraut! Delish! We watched the sun set on the Brisbane river, then headed home for some amazing chocolate cake from a bakery here called French Twist!  Yummy.

Mmmmm Schnitzel!

The Brisbane river and one of the many bridges - lit up at night!

The Cake!!!

The Brisbane Open 2012!

When James and I heard that the Brisbane International Tennis tournament was going to be in Brisbane in the beginning of January, we booked tickets for January 5th not knowing who would be playing.  So we were pretty excited when the top seeded player Andy Murray was scheduled to play.  It was our first time watching a live tennis match, so we made sure we brushed up on the rules of the game and watched a few matches from the tournament to get into the game.

I have to say, after watching a few games of tennis, I have a new respect for the the fitness level as well as the mental strength of the tennis players that play at the international level!  We had an awesome time, and I can't wait to see more!

A photographer from Sirromet Winery took pictures of us outside the arena!

Our tickets were for the night session, this was the order of play posted outside of the courts!

We got free hats with our Heineken beer!

 

We had great seats!!

Andy Murray Serving!

                                   Here's a link to the highlights of the game that we saw!

Andy Murray v Gilles Muller Highlights

I got to test out my camera's action mode!

The interview after Andy won the game

Christmas 2011

This year for Christmas James and I decided to join in with eight of his classmates (5 Canadians, 2 Americans and 1 Aussie) that were headed to the coast for Christmas - We stayed in Noosaville for two nights and three days.  The weather was calling for rain, but it only rained on our first night, and the rest of the time was warm and sunny!  It was great to join in celebrating Christmas with others who were in the same situation - away from family and wishing for traditions of home!!

It was cool to see how everyone wanted to "recreate" what they were missing at home.  Because of this, everyone was able to partake in homemade cookies, eggnog from scratch (which is sooo good!), watching "The Grinch" on christmas eve, of course exchanging gifts on Christmas day, and Christmas dinner.  We also went to the beach on Christmas day, which is a big tradition here in Australia.  Of course we missed our family terribly, but it was helpful to celebrate with others and finally get to see the Coral Sea!

So here are some pictures from our trip to the coast!  I apologize if its a bit repetitive - I could not stop taking pictures, it was so gorgeous on the beach!!

Happy New Years to everyone!  All the best for 2012!!!

This is the view from our room in Noosaville

Our Room - we got the queen size bed and private room!!

The Noosa River which feeds into the Coral sea

Christmas Day - all along the river people had tables and awnings set up with Christmas lunch + barbecue and presents ready to be unwrapped.  Another tradition in Australia!

The beach!!!  The waves were huge!!

So happy to finally be at the beach!!

On the rocky pier that jutted out into the water

Can you spot the surfers

Christmas Dinner!!  We had chicken, Steak, ham, veggies, green beans, and gravy, and we also had Christmas crackers imported from Canada!!

The crew!

Boxing day along the river - more people having dinner and celebrating!

On Boxing day we walked along a path went around the point of the main beach - all of those people are surfers!

About to jump in (no we did not go surfing, but we hope to soon!)

Along the path - I thought these trees were interesting.