S.

What do you do when you have a week-end or a long week-end in Sydney?

You go outdoors!

Some images from our (me, Jem, Su) spontaneous sunday picnic to Ku-Ring-Gai national park, right within Sydney borders - so amazing that there are places so close to the city that are so nature-filled! That park was like a piece of a wild forest, with creeks and bays - you forget that you are in Sydney...





Was so great to spend the day outdoors, in a such a great place - and it's so easy!! (well, if you have a car - but then so many people have cars in Australia..)

Another week-end was a long week-end because of English Queen's birthday (and as it is in The Netherlands, she doesn't actually have birthday on that day, but that doesn't influence the fact of the long holiday :))

It was raining very heavily (which even caused floods and storms in the north of the state), however I finally made it to the Fish Market!
Considered to be one of main Sydney's attractions, it is kind of a small dock with lots of shops that sell many-many-many different kinds of fish. The main idea is that you come there, buy the fish/prawns/whatever other sea creatures and have them cooked there for you, and have them fresh!..





Fish Markets - tick :)

The event that actually made up my long week-end was Sydney Jazz festival on a sunny Monday - it was an open for public event in Darling Harbour.




It saw many bands playing at several stages, and that was such a great day to relax in the sun, lie on the green grass, drink coffee in the morning, and watch good bands playing one of my favourite types of music in one of coolest places in Sydney!..


I love long week-ends :)

Labels: jazz festival, national park, nature, sydney

I was fortunate enough to experience a few cultural Sydney events recently.

Ying Tong performance of Sydney Theatre Company - very well played play about UK radio show quartet. It was my first event where I could meet the cast of the play at drinks afterwards!! very interesting, the leading actor reminded me of Dostoevsky heroes :)

Taming of the Shrew - classics by Shakespeare, however I left a bit confused by the adaptation.

Sydney Writers Festival - as my company sponsored the event, we got to attend an event - on stage interview in Sydney Opera house, of Richard E. Grant. To be frank, I haven't heard of him before, but he seems to be quite known, with interviews run on TV, appeared in a couple of movies I remember.
He is a UK actor, was born in Swaziland; check this

He wrote an autobiography book, Wah-Wah Diaries, and directed a movie afterwards, that seems to be quite a success (however it's more like "wide known in small circles" type). The event was great, Richard E. Grant is a very interesting person! I really enjoyed the way the evening was organized (and so did other more than 2000 people who were there).


Me and my work mates (yes, I get used to the slang here :)


This is the image of Sydney Opera House big hall from inside - that was my first exposure to the 'sails' hall :)


And more to that, we had a special small event prior to the main show - we had cocktail that Richard has attended, and talking to him in real life conversation is not less interesting than his stage conversation :)

This last week there was another event - as my company sponsors Sydney Theatre Company, we were invited to meet the cast of one of their biggest productions of the year Spelling Bee musical. And guess what, in that room of 20 people I saw Cate Blanchett at the event!.. Yes, that same Cate Blanchett :) She is taking on the role of the art director of STC, and well, that was my first big celebrity spotting :)

Not bad of a list huh?
I think I'll continue with Sydney Jazz Festival that is in the city for today-tomorrow; more reports are to follow!..

Labels: celebrity, culture, sydney

So that was how the trip started - one week-end several weeks ago me, Gabi and Mandi set our feet to Australian capital city - Canberra.
The trip is quite short, it's just about 3 hours drive, so we just rented a car and went on one saturday sunny morning! Girls' Power trip - and what a match we got with the car, girly enough color :)


The first stop was in Goulburn, a small town which is said to be the first inland city. It's famous with a gian statue of a sheep, Big Merino - which I thought how people told me, was a ship, marina... Imagine my surprise when instead of a boat we got to a sheep :)


The city is actually very nice, it has its charm of a small town - cool for a break, but not the one where I see myself staying for long...




The road itself was great - it was actually the first time I went out of Sydney and saw something more of Australia than the city. I loved the vastness of the landscape, reminded me somewhat of Russia or Kazakhstan - the power of huge plains and mountains... And the road, it equals freedom! Just you, blue sky, and your land around you.



I liked Canberra a lot, and even though many people say it's nothing there and it's boring, I disagree. It's all about people and outdoors in Canberra :)
The most amazing part for me was the fact that the city is so different!..

You drive just for 3 hours from Sydney with it's ocean and summer forever, palm and forever green tress - and Canberra welcomes you with so much a European landscape!
It looked so much like some Germany or Switzerland or something like that - trees are golden and red, the sky is blue or gloomy sometimes, mountains around, and even same style of buildings!..So different from Sydney - if I flew from another country to Canberra, I wouldn't tell I'm in Australia, it's great!




(I think Geneva has similar fountain on the lake?..)


The city is very young - it was build to be the capital city (like Astana, or Brasilia), which it became in 1927. Therefore it's quite well-planned, with the type of architecture that was modern at those times. Interestingly enough, on Sunday afternoon when Mils was walking me around the city, I've realized that some city center parts remind me Rotterdam so much! Wide enough streets, boulevard shopping streets, not too tall buildings, golden leaves, cafes outdoors, and not too many people. Felt like home at times :)

Canberra has a few of attractions (meaning not a lot), and we managed to visit some main of them. And a good part that almost everything is free :)
Parliament House (open for public, some pics above - the distinctive fetaure is that everyone was so friendly in there - I wonder how it'd look like if they opened Russian parliament for public visits:) Or may be it's already open?),

War Memorial (dedicated to all the wars Australia participated in).


It's a great museum, interactive etc, and was good to see another perspective on events that meant so much for my countries' history. However I couldn't spend too much time in there, we have so much already of history and reminders of it (WWII)since childhood, that it's enough - and more, every time I'm in a war museum, I just think how wrong is that to fight other people, and in case of Australia in WWI - for some idea that didn't actually affect your country much, but country men died for that...


Great to see though that people do commemorate and respect their history - I think actually even more than people in countries with older history do, Russia for example... May be there were too many wars in our history that we loose the hard feelings about them...


(this an eternal flame, as we call it in post-USSR countries - it commemorates the lives people gave in wars, and an eternal flame symbolizes an eternal memory we should have for soldiers)


Well, on a light note - Canberra is so great on a sunny morning!.. We had our lunch in a smaal park near the Art Gallery, on the side of the lake, it was soo peaceful and relaxing, perfect mood for sunday morning!..


Canberra is also famous for Questacon - an interactive science museum, mostly kids' paradise - where you can do whole lots of stuff, measure your balance, check the gravitation, see the sound etc etc. It's all really visual and you can experience everything!! Me and Gabi were some of very few adults there, enjoying all those cool things surrounded by crowds of children :) Was great though to feel yourself a 5-year old!.. hehe


(this is my after the free-fall experience - when you fall with 0 gravitation)

However the place I liked the most was the National Art Gallery, especially the exhibitions of Asian art and modern Australian art, i think it's great!!! There were also original works of Picasso, Monet, Andy Warhol, Kandinsky, which was great to see.
The entry to the gallery - how awesome is that???


I definitely liked Canberra - however I wouldn't like to live there. The city is great for a week-end/short visit or so, but Sydney is the best anyways :)))

Labels: australia, canberra, trip

A couple of weeks ago I've hosted a Belarusian dinner for my fellow work mates from Adshel. And that was a great evening! My marketing team is a great bunch of people, however my effort to cook food for 10 people counts as well :)))

For all those that still don't believe I can cook - voila!
I had dumplings (pelmeni, Russian cousin), potato pancakes (draniki, Belarusian speciality), and crab salad which is the one that every Russian/Belarusian/Ukrainian family has on their tables when hosting a dinner.

Here are some pictures of the process:

Me and pelmeni (dumplings) - was interesting to cook them from asian pre-made dumplings-base - I didn't know such a thing exists, would have make lives of so many housewives in Russia easier :)))


Famous crab salad: chop crab meat, lettuce, boiled eggs, a bit of onion, put in corn, add salt and sauce it with half of sour cream, half mayonnaise. Done! and very yummy :)


Here we go with draniki (potato pancakes): you just grade potato, add an egg, a bit of flour, salt, a spoon of sour cream, and fry, forming thin rounds:



Confirmed by my guests, the quality of the food was very good!

For all my friends - I promise to do some good cooking for you, if you ever make it to my house :)))

Labels: cooking, dinner