A Day On The Green: Jordin Sparks and Alicia Keys perform in the Hunter Valley

Rob and I headed to the Hunter Valley (again) for a some wine tasting and a concert called A Day On The Green with Alicia Keys and Jordin Sparks. The concert was outdoors in the middle of a vineyard and the entire day was amazing! Perfect weather, good wine, and no wrecks in the rental car!




Irongate Winery. Our favorite from our last wine tour back in March so we had to revisit it.

"Tasting the grapes"

"Tasting the grapes"

Rob's company has connections at McWilliams and they set us up with a complimentary lunch and wine tasting. YUMMY! Rob wouldn't eat the eyeball even though I dared him to.

Ivanhoe Winery

Finally time for the concert!

Our spot "on the green"

Rob in his new "A Day On the Green" t-shirt

Alicia Keys


Jordin Sparks

Video of Jordin Sparks

Reed Exhibitions Company Christmas Party

On December 12th-the Friday before Christmas vacation-Reed Exhibitions held it's employee Christmas party at the old Quarantine Station in Manly. They had a buffet-style lunch, a DJ, and wine and champagne all day. Here are some pictures of a few of my colleagues and me:

Most of these girls on on the Gift Team with me. The girl in the red with the gold tinsel around her neck is Jaclyn and she's from Boston. My only American friend at work.

Mnisha, me, Tanya, and Justina. All "Gifties"

Tanya, Mnisha, Bodelle, and me

Camera-happy. Flyn, Mnisha, me, Bodelle, Tanya and Justina

Being silly

Bodelle and me

After the party was underway and we'd all eaten our delicious lunch, the Reed Exhibitions costume party began. This year, the 1st prize winner won a trip for 2 to Auckland, New Zealand including flight and accommodation. It was a tempting prize so lots of people dressed up and were in it to win it....including me. I dressed up as Santa Claus exhibiting at one of Reed's Gift Fairs. I had the stand, products for display, and costume and I REALLY went all out. Unfortunately, I came in 2nd place to the Gingerbread Girl who also made her costume from scratch. I still think I should have won.... Here are some pictures of the costumes:

Elf, Snowflake(??), not sure, and Mrs. Claus

From left to right: an Advent Calendar, Mary (she's really pregnant), a Christmas Issue of Milieu which is our Gift Team catalogue, and Elf, Christmas Turkey, and a Sexy Elf.

Nicole and Rebecca (my manager)

The first place winner and a bitter subject for me! Gingerbread Girl

And here was mine!

Me with the Snow Princess and my manager the Christmas Tree

Close up of Santa's products on display

Our speeches

Even second place can still have a good time.

Miss Bondi Beach 2008

The day after we went to Manly, the Beach Road Hotel on Bondi Beach was holding its 2008 Miss Bondi Swimsuit Competition. Rob and I met up with an American couple-Mike and Dawn-to watch the competition. There were some beautiful Australian girls!

Me, Mike and Dawn

Me and Rob

And...the winner

Manly Beach and Shelley Beach

Last weekend we went out to Manly Beach again which is one of the more popular beaches in Sydney. It was pretty packed even though the sun was kind of coming and going.








After we took in the Manly scene for a little while and did some shopping, we did a short coastal walk over to a place called Shelley Beach which we'd been told was a great snorkeling spot. We came prepared with our gear and swam around with a handful of other snorkelers out at Shelley.

On the walk over to Shelley Beach we came across these little guys:

They are called Eastern Water Dragons and we saw about 10 of them! We were feeding them potato chips
Watch this video. This one scared me to death!