Hunter Valley at Belleray (and our Australian Thanksgiving)

I know it's been ages since i've updated the blog, and I don't even know where to start! We've got so many exciting things going on right now! I may have to "back-post"... In the meantime, one of the best weekends we've had here was last weekend. It was a colleagues 30th birthday, so we rented a house up in the Hunter Valley. (Hunter Valley is basically Sydney's version of Napa or Sonoma). The weekend was an absolute blast, the company was good and the house was AMAZING!



The house was sitting on 160 acres of land. There were animals everywhere! When we first arrived, we were stepping over snails on the main walkway. We woke up the next morning, fed the horses some apples, saw some kangaroos bouncing around and then of course got to see the swans, the goose and the cattle all roaming around!

Can you see the kangaroo?



Here are the horses...





So, we woke up Saturday morning and a little bus picked us up to take us to some of the wineries. The 10 of us hopped in the bus and we were on our way... We went to some great wineries and had a wonderful "light" lunch and then headed back to the ranch!

Here's me and two of my (tall) colleagues at one of the wineries:



Saturday night, my friend Amy had some caterers come in to cook us a great dinner. We all got dressed up in our cocktail attire and had a delicious meal.






We then played some games - Smart Ass and Nancy and Marcus’ fun "charades" type game. It was a BLAST and there were LOTS of laughs! Oh... Socialism and Mr. T!



After a long night of games, we went to bed and woke up and made a big breakfast... Fry up! Here's us eating on the outside patio.



We then went for a little swim in our pool and relaxed in the sun. Then Chris - the romance that he is took me for a little ride in the row boat on our pond. We went to visit "Bruce the Goose" and got about 20ft away from the cows that roamed on the property...



At around 4pm, it was time to check out and head back to the real world. So, Team Belleray got together for a picture (and made a poor attempt at a pyramid). Here's Team Belleray!



If you'd like to see some more pics from the weekend, you can take a look at Gary's Blog by clicking here, or you can take a look at our slideshow below!

Whale of a time!

This weekend was a great one. Friday night Chris and I went swimming after work and then met up with some friends at a local bar. We woke up Saturday and met up with some of our friends and did a walk from Coogee to Bondi Beach. It's a gorgeous walk along the ocean and it typically takes about 2 hours. As you're walking along you literally come across about 3 or 4 different beaches that each have their own little charm. So basically, from Coogee you hit Tamarama, Bronte, Clovelly and then Bondi. It really is an amazing walk.

As we were going along, we got to Bronte beach and noticed out in the distance (about 150 meters off shore) a mother whale and her calf. There was a surfer nearby who must have been about 20 feet away from this whale. It was unreal! Before we thought it couldn't get any better, we spotted about 10 dolphins swimming around and jumping out of the water around the whales. I swear these animals KNEW there was a crowd watching them and they put on a serious show.

We watched for about 20 minutes and more and more surfers started surrounding the whales and dolphins. I couldn't believe how close they were! Luckily we got some video and a bunch of pictures which I have put together in one video below. (If you take a look as this picture, you can see a dolphin jumping out of the water!

The original reason why we did this walk was for an event called "Sculpture by the Sea" which basically consists of a bunch of artists who... create sculpture and put them along the coast by the sea! In the video, I also added a slideshow of some of the artwork we saw.

It's a little hard to really see the whales and the dolphins and this video is very amateur, but I do hope you enjoy. I've never seen anything like this in my life and I only wish we could have better captured the moment. The video just doesn't so it much justice... but have a look anyway!



After the walk in the beautiful sun, we decided to have a late lunch at a restaurant called Icebergs. It overlooks the famous Bondi Beach and has an amazing view.

Our friends Amy and Gary who we went with also have a blog, so check out their post too!

Click here for Amy and Gary's Blog!

Bird's the Word

G'day mates! I know it's been a while since we did our last blog posting. We've been really busy over the past month with Chris starting a new semester and Spring on its way. We'll be sure to update you as the Spring/Summer season passes as we have lots of exciting and fun adventures in the next few weeks and months.

In the meantime, Chris had a pretty exciting experience in the shower yesterday. Yes, that's what this blog has come to. But seriously - get your minds out of the gutter, this a PG rated video. Here goes!

To give you a little perspective, the cockatoo was literally 2 feet away from the shower and had absolutely NO fear of humans. I guess Chris is pretty engaging... even to a cock-a-too!

Quick Trip

Hello to all of our loyal readers! For those of you I haven't spoken to, I will be traveling back to the U.S. of A. for two weeks. Unfortunately Chris will not be joining me as he has Career Week for school and can't miss that! However, I will be leaving tomorrow and heading to Boston for about a week and also going to CT for a friends wedding. I will then be heading to San Francisco on September 10th and flying out on a red eye the next night!

I'm organizing drinks for the night of the 10th in SF and will be in touch to update a time! Can't wait to see everyone!

Taking the Plunge!

So after a suspenseful five or so years, I finally popped the question to Marcy, taking her up to the cliffs of Manly Beach in North Sydney, and with a small bottle of champagne in tow, told her how much I loved her, got down on one knee, and asked for her hand in marriage (fortunately she said yes!)

The popping of the question didn't completely take Marcy by surprise as I had previously asked for her father's permission when her parents were in Australia in June (fortunately he said yes, too!) but we've been waiting for the ring to be designed and shipped to us, which took longer than expected as the details around shipping it internationally became overly complicated, so we decided Marcy would pick up the actual ring when she goes home in September.

Therefore, I was left in a quandary of needing to propose sans actual engagement ring. So I did the next best thing and got her the finest 4 carat glass engagement ring the costume jewellery shop had to offer and place it in a ring box to make it official!

Afterwards, Marcy and I went to Otto Ristorante courtesy of Lois and Lee, who secretly hid a gift certificate in our apartment during their trip. The food, the company and the view were unbeatable. It was a great end to a perfect day!

Click here for a slideshow of pics from the proposal and dinner, or take a look at the slideshow below.

City 2 Surf

This weekend was the big City 2 Surf event in Sydney, Australia. It's fairly similar to San Francisco's Bay to breakers (minus the naked people and the bar floats). It's basically a 14k run/walk through the city which raises money for a number of charities. This year there were nearly 70,000 people who participated and Chris and I were two of those people. Chris has been training a little for the event and ran most of the way finishing the 14k in about 96 minutes! Yay Chris! Here's a quick map that shows the route. Click here.

I on the other hand didn't train at all, and walked the 14k, took pictures along the way and finished in 136 minutes. Always room to improve... Maybe next year i'll run it?



Anyways, here are a couple of pictures from the day, and of course a pic of me crossing the finish line above. That was a pic courtesy of Chris - who made me run the last part which he joined me in!

There's also a pic of team AGSM!

Congrats again to Kerri, Ann, Pedro, Lee, Gabriel and Colin!

Three Miller's and a Kiely... Down Under!

I know it's been ages since I last updated the blog. My only excuse is that we've had visitors here in the Land Down Under for the past 4 weeks. My parents came down to visit Chris and I and we did lots of exploring in the land of Kangaroos and Koalas! It was such a wonderful trip and it was so great to have them here to visit. Even the wildlife enjoyed their visit!



Below is a brief itinerary of their trip, and of course I will be posting more pictures. Please be patient though - for those of you who know my father - there are more pictures of the past 4 weeks than Chris and I have of the past 6 months. I will do my best to filter. 

Itinerary: 

Mom and Dad arrive in Sydney on June 14th. We spent about 5 days in Sydney where we went to the Taronga Zoo, saw the Opera House, explored different neighborhoods, ate great food and of course relaxed!

On the 19th, the 4 of us flew up to Cairnes (where the Great Barrier Reef is). From Cairnes, we drove upto Port Douglas where we rented a fabulous 3 bedroom house. It had a beautiful kitchen, washer/dryer and was in a great location. If anyone needs a good recommendation or place to stay... Let me know! Here's a quick look at the house...

We absolutely loved Port Douglas. It's a great little town with lots of shops and great restaurants. We of course spent a day out on the Great Barrier Reef and snorkeled. Chris SCUBA dived for part of the day and snorkeled with us for the rest. (We have some great underwater shots for you!)

Here's a fun one with us under water!



And of course one with mom!

We then went upto the Daintree Rainforest, Cape Tribulation and did a great hike at the Mossman Gorge. We saw crocodiles in the wild, met a man who I think was Crocodile Dundee's twin brother and kept on running into people from our snorkeling trip the day prior. It was kind of nice having the "small town" environment! It was obvious we weren't in Sydney anymore. The question is, do you think people could tell we were tourists?



Here's a pic from our hike after Chris and I took a swim in beautiful fresh (freezing) water among the rainforest.



On all of our hikes, we were always on the lookout for wildlife... Some animals were easier to spot than others...

Chris and I flew back to Sydney and my parents proceeded to head to Adelaide (which is in Southern Australia). From Adelaide, my parents went to a little island just off the Australian coast called Kangaroo Island for 2 days. As you can imagine, they saw some kangaroos, penguins, koalas and lots of other wildlife. 



From Kangaroo Island, my parents drove along the coast from Adelaide to Melbourne and along the Great Ocean Road. For those of you who have a week to spare, I think this was one of the highlights of their trip. The Great Ocean Road is along the coast just outside of Melbourne and stretches along the oceans edge. 

Here's another snapshot along the Great Ocean Road.

The scenery was amazing, the wildlife was abundant and this is definitely a trip Chris and I are planning to do in the very near future!  Below is a video that my father captured of my mom and some kangaroos. There's a golf course along the Great Ocean Road that has thousands of Kangaroos hopping around. These kangaroos have been there for ages!



Here's how close they were able to get to a koala! (We've got another video of a Koala eating if anyone is interested). It was actually pretty rare for my parents to see/video a koala eating as they sleep about 20 hours a day. (Not my parents - the koalas).



After the drive along the coast, my parents met Chris and I in Melbourne. Unfortunately Chris had a huge exam on Monday, so he spent a lot of time studying while the Miller's explored Melbourne. We absolutely loved this city. The food was amazing, the people were down to earth and we loved the different characteristics of the neighborhoods. Melbourne - we will be back!!!



The four of us flew back to Sydney after a wonderful weekend in Melbourne and we spent the rest of my parents visit touring around. We did long walks from Bondi to Coogee, ate at phenomenal restaurants, cooked, went to the cinema, visited Manly and played lots of cards. 

Here's a couple pics from our Manly walk:



Right near Shelley Beach in Manly:



Our Bondi to Coogee walk:



We also did a little shopping at the markets. My mother and I are the IDEAL consumers incase you can't tell!

The very last weekend, my parents and I headed upto the Blue Mountains for the day. (This is where Chris and I went for Easter Weekend - there is another posting on that weekend). The Blue Mountains is kind of a mix between a small Yosemite or a tiny Grand Canyon. Below is a pic of us in front of the Three Sisters which is a famous landmark in the Blue Mountains. We had a quick trip up there, did a hike, had some lunch, my parents bought a beautiful piece of art and we headed back to Sydney!

It was truly an amazing trip and it was such a great experience for my parents. I don't think this is a trip they ever would have taken if we didn't live here. We may have even instilled the travel bug in them... They didn't even mind the 20 hour flight back!!! Who knows, maybe they'll be back visiting in a couple months ;)



I will upload the pics as soon as possible and will be sure to divide them up by location. Check back for updates soon!!!

Mom and Dad - we miss you already. Thank you again for a wonderful trip. It was so great spending time with you and I can't wait to see you again in September (and then maybe next year in Thailand?)

A Big Thanks to Chris and a Big 30th!

I know that I am long overdue for postings. June has been a very busy and exciting month for us. However, last night was one of the best birthday celebrations i've ever had and I wanted to share it with everyone!

A very special big thanks goes out to Chris. He put together a surprise 30th B-day party for me that went above and beyond! He put so much planning, time and effort into the event and simply put... It was FABULOUS!

Apparently Chris has been planning this for weeks now and everyone (except for me) knew about the celebration. Chris got all of my friends and co-workers involved and the turnout was fantastic! Chris hired a 76 foot schooner to go out onto Sydney Harbour where 35 of our friends joined us ready to celebrate.

People brought music, cake, wine, champagne, martini's (equipped with plastic martini glasses, olives and shakers) and the boat was even decorated with balloons and Birthday signs (thanks Lucy and Laura)! Chris had the event catered with delicious food and the weather was perfection!

We sailed through the Harbour for about 4 hours and everyone had a wonderful time. I'm still in a little bit of shock! Chris truly did an amazing job pulling this together and I am so lucky to have him in my life and so grateful for all of our friends that came to celebrate with me! (We even had a special guest from Hong Kong - so glad you could make it Rachel).

Anyways, just wanted to send out a big thanks again to Chris for making this birthday a special one! Feel free to take a look at pics from the night...




Thank you also for all the birthday wishes from my friends and family everywhere!

I have a bunch of other pics and stories to tell of our wonderful travels with my parents! (I will most likely back date those postings, but expect them very soon).

Sex and The City

Sex and the City opened in Sydney about a week or so after it opened in NY. A colleague of mine decided to rent out a movie theatre, invite about 50 girls (and one man), hire a bartender, pop open some champagne and watch the movie that every girl has been waiting 4 years for! For those of you who watched the series, the last episode was epic. It may have been the best "finale" of a series i've ever seen. Well, this left the writers and the 4 ladies a lot to live upto...

I won't ruin anything for those of you who haven't seen the movie, but I must say that it certainly lived up to my expectations. The movie was emotional, funny, sad and true to life! After the movie, a group of us went out and continued to drink champagne, cosmopolitans and of course a bottle of wine I found called "Bitch"! (Very appropriate!)

I will give the movie 5 stars... Now I want to hear from you!!! You can vote on how many stars you think the movie deserved! (See left and top side of blog to vote).

P.S. The one man who attended the show with us was genius. He was straight, single and in a room with 50 emotional women! GENIUS!

Meet Jimmy the Jeep

Chris and I decided that it was time for us to get a car to allow us to get around more freely in Sydney. We have a parking spot in our building and our friends literally live all over the city. (Not to mention, public transportation costs about as much as owning a car!) Go figure.

This all came about because my manager's brother is moving to Zurich, so he was looking to sell his car. Chris and I went to test drive it on Saturday and we are now the proud owners of "Jimmy the Jeep". (The previous owners son who is 10 named it.) It had a ring to it and the name just stuck!



We officially own a car with the steering wheel on the RIGHT side of the car. How weird!!!

Luckily, the car is here just in time for my parents to arrive on Saturday, so Chris and I will be picking them up at the airport. Can't wait to see you Mom and Dad!!!

Bali, Bargains and Buddhas

Chris and I got back from Bali a few days ago (actually about a week, but things have been crazy back in Sydney). What an amazing trip and cultural experience we had there. Before we left, we met a bunch of people who had been to Bali year after year, and we just couldn't understand the hype. Well, after spending nearly a week there, we now understand. Not only is Bali a beautiful island, it's also cultural, has fabulous (and cheap) shopping and you get treated like a King! The Balinese people are incredibly helpful, friendly and ready to bargain with you!



We arrived in Bali last Friday night where our Balinese butler picked up Chris and I and another couple (Michelle and Will) at the airport to take us back to our villa in a little town called Seminyak. Bali, as you may or may not know is in a very poor country whose economy is totally dependent on tourists. What this means for us is that the food, shopping and activities are all extremely cheap and the accommodations are top notch and priced to perfection!



We arrived at our villa which was amazing. The villa was almost completely outdoors (except for the bedroom) and we had our own pool, jacuzzi, indoor and outdoor shower and a kitchen. The most interesting part of these gorgeous villas is that just outside the villas, we were surrounded by rice fields and fields where cows were grazing about. (Always interesting to be showering in the morning and hear the lovely sounds of cows mooing).




Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and had our own private chef come in and cook us a traditional Balinese breakfast. This basically consisted of rice, veggies an egg and shrimp chips. It was served with flowers on the table and our napkins and silverware beautifully wrapped. After breakfast, we went for a quick swim and proceeded to head into downtown Seminyak.



We decided to immerse ourselves into the culture by renting (or hiring as they would say) a motorbike. We got some petrol (which was stored in Absolut Vodka bottles) and we were on our way!



So, as much as I hate motorbikes, there's so many people in Bali with bikes that everyone's totally aware of other bikers. I did however find it amazing that you would see entire families on one motorbike. (In a link below, you can see all of our pictures and you'll see one of a family on a bike). Here's a pic of us fitting right in with the local Balinese bikers...



Another benefit to the bike was window shopping. We'd be driving along the streets of Legian, Kuta and Seminyak and I would spot a cute dress or houseware and scream for Chris to pull over. We'd hop off the bike (I'd usually forget to take my helmet off) and run into the store, try on the dress, grab a new piece of jewelry, buy a dvd (or 100) and be on our way...



What I didn't like (and Chris loved) was our 45 minute bike ride down to Ulu Watu where one of the sea temples is. Ulu Watu is in the southern tip of Bali near an area called Nusa Dua. The sea temple there was called the Pura Luhur and had the most amazing view of the Indian Ocean. It's perched on a peninsula above cliffs that drop straight into the ocean where you can surfers just waiting for the perfect wave.

This area also has little monkeys prancing around all over. When you walk in, local Balinese will sell you bananas and peanuts to feed the monkeys. They do however encourage you to take off any jewelry or sunglasses because the monkeys won't hesitate to grab them from you. Take a look at Chris making best friends with a local monkey...



There was a traditional Kecak Dance that was supposed to be wonderful to watch during sunset, but me being nervous about the bike, we headed back through to our little villa in Seminyak.



Now for one of my favorite parts of Bali. The massages! We got a massage literally everyday. Not knowing that $25 was way too much to spend on a massage, we went the first day to a spa and had massages in our own private outdoor, Balinese style spa. Below are pics and Chris will probably kill me for posting them. (sorry Chris). The next few days we got a few recommendations for places to get massages. One was in our very own villa ($15) and another was just down the street ($7). We were really spoiled rotten! I loved it as you can imagine!



I think we're at about Monday where we decided to head up to Ubud which is about an hour drive from Seminyak. We hired a driver for the day to take us around from 9am-9pm. For those of you who have read Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth lived in Ubud. We got to see a couple of places she mentioned (Cafe Wayan) and really got to experience what she wrote about in her memoir. If you haven't read the book and plan to go to Bali, I highly suggest reading it before you hop on a plane.



So, Ubud is up in the mountains and again it's got adorable little shops, a beautiful road of art galleries on the way into Ubud (sort of like Santa Fe style) and a real laid back relaxing feel to the town. There are tons of cafes where people just relax, eat and enjoy a drink (avocado fruit juice, coffee or a long island iced tea). We ended up eating at a little restaurant called Nomad which was recommended to us by a couple from the US who had been in Ubud for about a month. When we go back to Bali, we will certainly stay in Ubud for a few nights!




In Ubud, we went to a Cak Rina Dance. This type of performance is on every Full Moon and New Moon, so we were lucky to catch it. It wasn't like anything i've seen before but basically there were about 50 men on this open stage dancing and chanting. They make a "cak-cak-cak-cak" sound in many different rhythmical combinations. While they were chanting, they also played with A LOT of fire! They had big balls of fire that they were literally throwing and kicking around on stage.



The next couple of days we spent relaxing and exploring around the little towns near our villa. We ate lots of delicious food, met lots of locals, got Chris' haircut and of course hung out with our Australian friends Will and Michelle.

Not sure if you've noticed the different haircuts Chris had on our 6 day trip - but just to recap for you:



We also went for a great dinner with Michelle and Will in Kuta. Their local friend Harry recommended this restaurant and the ambience was certainly what made it so fantastic. Check out the little huts that we ate in. They were covered in pillows, so it was incredibly casual and comfortable to eat at.



And of course, here's the big debut of Michelle and Will to the Blogaroo!



We also have to bring in a pic of our celebrity siting in Bali. We went out for drinks after dinner and got to meet the trainers from "The Biggest Loser, Australia" (Shannon Ponton and Michelle Bridges). We are so hip - we go where the Biggest Losers go!!! Check out this pic below. And, if you want to see more of Shannon and Michelle, click here.



To view the rest of our pictures from the trip, see below:



And stay tuned for the next posting of Shig's (Chris Sheehy's) visit to Sydney and Cairnes and Chris' amazing SCUBA trip to the Great Barrier Reef. The blogaroo is going under water!!!