EVENT-FULL DAYS ... AND GASTRO NIGHTS

Battling my shy and retiring nature, which usually means hiding hermit-like in a small dark room in a very large mansion - can you believe that the owner has an issue with me doing this? Imagine! - I got out and about quite a lot this year, and these events were the highlights:

(1) Sydney Festival

January is an insanely full-on month in Sydney, making Christmas look like a lazy stroll on a Summer afternoon in a very small backwater village in France where nothing much happens, and the cows are chewing grass, and the air is shimmery and hazy, and no one moves, and everyone is....OK you get the idea..... and naturally, driven by an extrovert imperative that enough is never enough (don't be ridiculous!!), I organised outings to Jazz and Symphony in the Domain, three visits to the Open Air cinema, all the while hosting my wonderful Sean from Canada, with whom my friends Peter and Warren spent a lovely night on NYE sitting on the harbour, eating too much and watching fireworks.

Photos below:

1. Andrew enjoys the vino @ Jazz in the Domain

2. Sean gets all Aussie with his stubbie of beer @ NYE, Mrs Macquarie's Point

3. Andrew & Sean in the luxurious blue plastic seating at OpenAirCinema

(2) 75th Anniversary Harbour Bridge Walk - March 18, 2007

They don't close down Sydney's iconic bridge to traffic all that often, much less let you walk across it, and so I organised a group of 10 friends to walk the bridge for posterity's sake, followed by a great lunch in The Rocks afterwards.

Photos:

1. Warren, Andrew, Toby, Ian and Tuan at the starting point

2. Ellen, Warren, Andrew, Sue, Tracy, Tuan, Ian & Luke pose with the Bridge

(3) South Korea, Hong Kong and Vietnam with the family - June 2007

I honestly don't think I have been on a full family vacation in something like 20 + years, which is astonishing when you consider I am just 21, but for the first time in a long time, all my immediate family gathered together at the one airport departure gate in Brisbane, and took off for the sky blue yonder. On our three week odyssey, we went to Seoul, South Korea (to see my sister Rachel's birth country - modern friendly city with lovely people, lots of history and great food), Hong Kong (lots to see and do and shop!! So we did....lol), and Vietnam (to see my brother Steve's birth country), starting at Hanoi, working our way down through HaLong Bay, Hue, Hoi An (oh the tailored clothes we had made, and cooking classes we went to!) we before, and finishing up in Saigon (with a brief trip to the Mekong Delta). The only sour note, on what was a wonderful time of family togetherness? My brother Stephen, sister Rachel, Mum and I got a fabulous bout of flu/gastro (not from the food but the plane trip we think) which in my case lasted three weeks, resulted in much weight loss, and cut the trip short by three days. But what's a trip without something going a little off kilter? All in all, we had fun!!

Photos:

1. Andrew sitting on the junk boat with HaLong Bay in the background

2. My sisters Helen, & Rachel, brother-in-law Michael, brother Stephen, Mum & Dad at the orphanage in Korea which was Rachel's first home.