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!

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving was pretty non-traditional this year. We actually thought we were going to skip it all together since we didn't have anyone to celebrate it with and Rob had a work Christmas party on Thursday, but at the last minute we gathered together a group of Americans in Sydney and had a little Turkey Day feast and celebration!

One of the girls that I work with is from Boston and her mom sends her Thanksgiving decorations every year so she loaned me some paper plates and napkins for our dinner party. I had to be creative. This is our Thanksgiving wreath.

The rain held off just long enough for us to be able to enjoy Thanksgiving up on our rooftop by the pool. I made turkey with cranberry stuffing, corn casserole, green bean casserole and mashed potatoes and the others brought homemade biscuits (delicious...it's been so long since I'd had a REAL biscuit!), garlic bread, apple pie and an almond pastry dessert. We had PLENTY of wine and champagne too!

From back to front: Matt from Pittsburgh (friend of friend), Mike from North Carolina, Dallas from Alabama (I used to work with him), Jeff from Charleston (friend of friend), Rob, Dawn from North Carolina.

The corn casserole BEFORE I spilled the lavender soy candle wax all over it. Oops

All done!

The set up

Dawn, Rob and Dallas

Mike and Matt

Rob and Jeff

Hailey and Dawn

Keep it flowing!

The guys with their matching cell phones

Self Timer action

After dinner drinks in The Rocks at Fortunes of War

At Glenmore Hotel


Overall, it was a successful and eventful Thanksgiving in Sydney!