December 2010... only a third of 2011 gone!

Sorry sorry sorry! Life has been pretty busy recently and I have just realised that although I wrote this AGES ago, I hadn't added in all the picture and published it!
Here is how we ended 2010 - and I promise to write an update for 2011 very soon!

Happy reading

Kunj x

Decembers festivities started with my work Xmas party. The venue was a boat on the Harbour and the theme was 'Under the Sea'! Some people went ALL out on their outfits, but I was one of the lazier ones that didn't bother...
It was a fun night which must have cost the company a bob or two!






This picture is officially my favourite pic of the night - it makes me giggle EVERY time I see it!!



As we said goodbye to mum and dad, we thought our next set of visitors were going to be Shams brother and the boys... but then we had some surprise visitors!
Hanisha is my cousin's cousin, but as kids we spent a lot of time at my aunty's together so it was really nice to spend some real time with her and her husband Amit as adults (although the term 'adults' is questionable when you consider how much we laughed that week!)






It was the well rehearsed routine of evenings playing tour guides - we managed to convince them to stay an extra night so that they were here for Friday drinks...



the evening ended with us being locked out of the house and Sham having to climb up onto our upstairs balcony (for once, I wasn't in trouble for leaving the balcony door unlocked!)





The gang had our Pre-Christmas lunch in a pub in Surry Hills. It was Xmas day as it should be...




except it was SOOOOO hot that a roast was optimistic! The star of the show was Baby Fraser!



The next week saw the arrival of Sham's brother and his friends Ashif and Brij (and later Amit who spent Christmas in New Zealand, then came to Sydney for New Years).

We had a nice day at Centennial Park with a picnic, bbq, a cricket set and a frisbee that ended up in a tree!




The rest of December was various semi touristy things with the boys - we did the going to work and then meeting them in the evenings which although tiring, was great fun. They went to Melbourne for 5 days on a road trip and then flew back to Sydney.
We had a few days where it was actually too hot to go out - so we stayed at home with the fan on and entertained ourselves the old school way - with board games! check out Brij's sunburn!



Christmas morning started with everyone opening the presents that had piled up under the tree.





We then spent the day on the beach at Curl Curl followed by a pizza BBQ at our place:









Between Xmas and New Years, Sham, Sali and Helen had a surf lesson at Manly.





Unsurprisingly, Sham was better at surfing on dry land! Honestly though, it looked really hard!!


I love that the point and shoot camera Sham bought me for my birthday also does HD videos. It came in useful while the guys were having the surf lesson!
For the purpose of this video, its important to remember that Sham is on a pink board and Hels is on the green one!



The last thing to do in December was to see 2011 in with a bang!

We got to a view point called Barangaroo around 5pm - plenty of time to have a few beers and get ourselves into place for what was the BEST fireworks ever!






Check out the "photographers"



Joking aside though, they got some great shots!

The royal visit

November 2010 was a fun month!
after nearly two years here, we finally welcomed parents to Sydney.
Sham's parents arrived the morning of Saturday November 6th. I left about 30 minutes after they arrived! My friend Jason was getting married, so off I went with some friends from work to his wedding, not to return until the next day - giving Sham some quality time with his parents!

Here are some pics from Jason and Emma's beautiful wedding:




The first weekend was Diwali weekend - so we took the parents to Parramatta to a mela... We saw more Indian people there than we have seen in the ENTIRE time we have lived here!





That week, Sham did lots of the Sydney must do tourist things during the day, and I joined them after work!

Mum and dad at Bondi


Mum and Dad at Manly!


Sham, Mum and Dad at Sydney Sky Tower


The following weekend, the parents visited Perth where they spent time with Shams cousin Shilan and his family as well as seeing various business contacts.


For my birthday weekend, we all went to New Zealand for a few days. It was really nice to meet Sham's cousin Malik and his wife Makilah who live in Auckland with their kids Imran and Aisha and to see the Blackshah clan again.



We all holidayed in a place called Paihia which is a three hour drive from Auckland in some lovely waterfront apartments. Check out our views!



We had a lovely day out on a boat (despite my sea sickness) and the highlight of the day was without a doubt the dolphins and whales we got to see!





Sham and Ajay even managed some physical activity!


Back in Auckland, dad toured the Indian convenience stores and we all got to spend lots of time playing with the kids...





When we got back to Sydney, we had a few days left to show mum and dad the rest of the touristy things left to do.
We spent their last full day in the Blue Mountains before coming back into the city for dinner at Darling Harbour. We couldn't have planned it better as they were switching on the Christmas lights that evening, so we got to watch the fireworks! I am having a few issues with the video we took, so I will post that on a later blog entry.
We ended the evening with a rather profitable visit at the casino!

It was really sad to say goodbye to mum and dad - and I doubt the goodbyes will ever get easier so we have to not think about the goodbyes and just remember the fun we have when they are here!

Next official visitors are Shak and the boys, but we do have surprise visitors with us at the moment in the form of Rikki and Nikki's cousin Hanisha and her husband Amit.

Bye for now Kunj
x