July 2023 - Page 2 of 2 - PLAYWORKEATREPEAT

A Fun Time At Avoca Beach

Hi everyone, last week I spent two amazing days with my friend and her husband who live at Avoca Beach. They were seriously the kindest hosts ever and they spoiled me rotten with their incredible hospitality! It was such an amazing time and I loved that we got to spend so much time chatting, catching up and reminiscing about old times. Do you know what added a touch of nostalgia to my time in Avoca? It’s the fact that my mum and my friend’s mum were once inseparable best friends and they got up to all sorts of adventures. They really were so funny together and I always remember them laughing and talking non-stop about anything and everything. The two of them shared good times as well as incredibly tough times. And I have to say that their friendship taught me a wonderful example of what a true friendship looks like. But sadly they are no longer with us so it was such a big reminder of how life constantly changes and how different things are now. I think that it’s really special to know that even though they are no longer with us, their memories live in our hearts. Furthermore, the friendship they shared still inspires and influences us even to this day. Where Is Avoca Beach? Avoca Beach is an amazing place that you would absolutely love! It is located on the Central Coast of New South Wales and it is famous for its stunning sandy beaches. Interesting Facts About Avoca Beach It is well known for its great surfing conditions and it attracts surfers of all levels. Avoca Beach is part of the beautiful coastal walking trail called the Bouddi Coastal Walk. This picturesque trail spans over 8 kilometres and it has truly the most beautiful views of the coastline, cliffs and native bushland. There is a gorgeous rock pool at the Southern end of Avoca Beach. People love to fish there as it is a great spot for casting fishing lines and catching Bream, Whiting and Flathead. Avoca Beach is a vibrant food spot and you can find a range of cafes, restaurants and eateries serving delicious food and excellent coffee. Everywhere you turn Avoca Beach is just surrounded by stunning natural beauty. The beach is hugged by hills and lush greenery. It is so peaceful and picturesque, the views really are quite breathtaking! My Fun Time At Avoca Beach I had the absolute pleasure of staying at my friend’s house in Avoca Beach. My friend and her husband have been working hard to renovate their house. And they have done an amazing job transforming it into a cozy and stylish haven. They both have a great eye for decorating and design. And stepping into their home is like stepping into a design magazine! Beautiful Walks We started off each day with a nice long walk. My friend’s house is a short distance along some beautiful bushland and it only takes about 10 minutes to get to the beach. I kept sending my husband photos of the beautiful beach and he kept texting back teasing me asking me when I was going in for a swim. Because he knows that I’m not really a beach person and I don’t like wearing swimming costumes or going in the water. But I’m totally happy walking along the beach in the middle of winter wearing five layers of clothing. Yep, I can do that no problem. And you know what? I totally loved it! After our walks, we would stop off for coffee and pastries. There were some really cute shops and an old-fashioned movie theatre. An Amazing Lunch On Friday we had lunch at a beautiful restaurant called Bells. The food was delicious and I ordered the calamari pasta which we enjoyed with fresh focaccia made on the premises. The place itself was lovely and had a really warm and welcoming vibe. Cozy Evenings In the evenings we sat by the cozy fire enjoying wine and cheese. We ate dinner in front of the TV and watched ‘Silent Witness’. Although it was a good show I found that after a couple of glasses of wine, the warm fire and a full belly I could hardly keep my eyes open! Eventually, I dozed off a couple of times but I managed to keep up with the plot. I had such a wonderful time with my lovely friends at Avoca Beach. The sun and the sea breeze made me feel so relaxed and their hospitality was amazing. I’m really looking forward to going back again when the weather gets warmer. In fact, I may even take my shoes off when we go for a walk along the beach and dip my feet in the water next time!

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Top 5 Favourite Family Activities

15 Comments / Family Life

Hi there friends I hope you all had an amazing weekend! Today we are back with Adrienne, Dara, Jen, Joanne, Lauren and Sarah for the July edition of ‘Not Just A Mom’. And this month we are sharing our Top 5 Favourite Family Activities. Life sure does move fast, doesn’t it? Our kids have grown up and are busy venturing into their own exciting chapters. Our oldest son Luke moved out about 5 years ago and lives with his fiancee. And then there’s our Sam who is 18 and living at home but embracing the whirlwind of uni life, going to the gym and enjoying a full social life. So having a favourite lineup of family activities is super important to ensure we keep making memories and stay connected. So here are our top 5 favourite family activities that keep the fun alive even though our kids have all grown up. Top 5 Favourite Family Activities Family Dinners Family dinners are the perfect opportunity to slow down, savour delicious meals and catch up with what has been going on in our everyday lives. We try really hard to get the family together as often as possible to have dinner. This has been no easy task. Because my husband works in hospitality and up until a few weeks ago he worked all weekend long. Thankfully his roster has changed and now it looks like he will be having Sundays off, at least for now. But once the warmer weather hits and the restaurant where he works gets busy. He may have to go back to working Sundays again. But being able to have regular family dinners has been wonderful! Monthly Cousin Connect We all have really strong bonds with our cousins. So to nurture these amazing relationships we organise monthly cousin connect get-togethers. Each family takes turns hosting and we always have a fantastic time. I never take these for granted and I am beyond grateful that we all love being together and get along so well. Movie Nights This is a favourite family activity for sure! I love a cozy movie night and to tell you the truth I don’t really mind what movie we watch (as long as it’s not horror). I’m just happy that it’s an activity that we enjoy doing together. Sometimes we watch comedies, action, classics or cute kid’s movies. A while ago we watched The Godfather trilogy and now we are thinking of watching the good old classic spaghetti western trilogy which includes ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’. Family Jackbox Game Night Luke introduced us to Jackbox Games. Which is made up of a whole lot of interactive games that you play on the TV and everyone uses their own phones or tablets. If you haven’t played this then you really should especially if you have teens. It is hilarious and I guarantee that you will all laugh until your stomach hurts! Family Visit To An Art Gallery Or Museum Most of our favourite family activities involve food and this activity is no exception. I love art galleries and museums but to be honest, the rest of my family are not huge fans. But if I organise somewhere nice to eat either before or after. Then they are all in! So every year I pick an exhibition at a gallery or museum. I also book a table at either a cafe or restaurant and we all go. The good thing is they all end up enjoying the exhibitions too. Well, that’s what they say to me but maybe they are just being kind! 😂 Life has a way of pulling us in different directions, with work and studies taking up so much of our time and energy. These 5 favourite family activities are lots of fun and perfect for keeping us connected!

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A Few Happy Snaps

6 Comments / Family Life

Hi friends it’s great to be back again for Friday Favourites with Andrea and Erika. Today I’m sharing a few happy snaps from my first week of term break. I’m actually away for a few days staying at my friend’s place in Avoca Beach. We have been enjoying some lovely walks, eating out at beautiful cafes and restaurants and spending cozy evenings in front of the fire having cheese and wine before dinner. It sure is a lovely part of the world here and I’m excited to share all my adventures with you next week. But for now, here are a few of my favourites from this past week. Camellia Gardens Tea House My friend and I enjoyed lots of delicious treats at the Camellia Gardens Tea House. It was wonderful to sit down and catch up over a fancy high tea. It felt like forever since I had seen my bestie and we had so much to chat about. It’s incredible how filling the high tea was. And I ate everything but had to leave half the scone because I was so full! Camellia Gardens After High tea we went for a stroll through the gardens. Even though it was a grey and very cloudy day, it was lovely to walk around looking at all the lovely plants and camellias. As we walked around there was a strange smell and we couldn’t work out what it was. It smelt like sheep or cows and was not very pleasant. My friend soon discovered the source! See this tree, it’s only one of many trees full of bats! That’s right all those hanging things are not fruit like I first thought when I looked up because I’m no good at seeing distance. They were full of hanging smelly bats!! Lunch Date In The City Steve and I went into the city and had a fantastic lunch at a cute French restaurant. It was such a warm winter’s day and the temps reached as high as 21°C. I sat by the window and the cozy sun was shining right on me and it felt so good! I had paté with bread and cornichons as an entree. Steve had the king prawns. Then we both ordered the most tender veal with a delicious sauce. Steve had the hazelnut and praline ice cream for dessert. And I ordered the créme caramel which is my favourite dessert. The three-course lunch was divine! Afterwards, we walked around looking at Darling Harbour. I haven’t been there in a while and it has changed a lot. There is a lot of construction going on and new buildings are going up. It will be great to see it all finished. Dinner At Home As much as I love going out, I always appreciate simple dinners at home with my family. Luke came over the other day and we had fish and salad. I love it when all four of us are home just like old times. Luke lives about 30 minutes drive away and with everyone’s work schedules, we don’t get many chances to be together very often. After dinner, we watched Paddington Bear 2. It was such a wholesome feel-good movie which we all really enjoyed. It was a welcome change from the zombie movies we have all been watching lately. It’s been a fantastic first week of the school holidays and now as I go into the second week I am really hoping that the days don’t fly by so fast! Thank you so much for being here today and letting me share a few happy snaps from my week. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to being back here on Monday. Happy Friday!

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Two Years Of Blogging

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Hi everyone, guess what? This week marks the second anniversary of my blogging journey. Yep, it’s two years since I first plucked up the courage to jump in, go right out of my comfort zone, and have a crack at blogging. I had been thinking about starting a blog for years, but it took the lockdown to finally give me the time and courage to dive in. The first post that I published was about our cat because I was too shy to blog about myself. So I decided to blog about cats! Haha. Finding The Courage To Begin Because I’m actually a pretty shy person, putting myself out there through blogging is a big deal for me. But you know what? It’s been totally worth it. And one of the best parts of this blogging journey has been discovering the amazing blogging community and making connections with so many lovely people from all around the world. I also appreciate and love all the readers who take the time to comment on my blog. Your engagement and support mean the world to me. So I’m sending virtual high-fives and a big warm thank you for brightening up my day with your awesome comments! Embracing The Journey When I first started blogging I had to deal with a whole bunch of technical issues that just about did my head in! I chose to go with WordPress.org which was a challenge and it took me a while to work out and understand what on earth I was doing! But I’m kind of glad that I really didn’t know how tricky it was going to be otherwise I may have never given it a go. And I have to say that in this case ignorance really was bliss! Thankfully I pushed through and learnt as I went along. I didn’t hurl my computer out the window like I wanted to so many times. And I am so glad that I didn’t give up. So yeah I’m incredibly excited to be celebrating two years of blogging. It’s been a fantastic experience, and I’m so thankful for the courage I found during lockdown. And hey, if you’re thinking about starting a blog too. I say go for it! It might seem daunting at first, but it is so worth it. Here’s to many more years of blogging adventures!

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July Edition of Currently

12 Comments / Family Life

Hey, there friends it’s great to be back today on this very unusually warm winter’s day. I am excited to be joining Jennifer from Overflowing With Thankfulness for the July edition of Currently. This month we are looking at what we are Currently Loving, Savouring, Celebrating, Remembering and Trying. And I am so glad you are here! So let’s jump right in shall we? Loving It’s the winter holidays and I am off from work for two weeks. I always love the freedom of the holidays because I don’t have to stick to a timetable and I’m free to enjoy some downtime. I also love having the time to catch up and do some fun things with friends and family. On top of that, it’s also great not having to go to bed until very late and instead, I can stay up guilt-free and binge-watch some of my favourite shows. Savouring Food! Being on term break means that I have been going out to savour and enjoy some delicious meals. Monday I enjoyed high tea with my sweet friend. Today I really savoured a delicious French lunch when I went out on a lunch date in the city with Steve. Nom nom! I have also been savouring eating lunch at home on a real plate instead of eating in a cramped staff room out of a plastic lunch box. Celebrating Over the weekend we celebrated Christmas in July and you can read all about the fun time we had here. It was great getting together with the family and enjoying a winter-themed Christmas in the middle of the year. We all had an amazing time embracing the cozy traditions typically associated with the holiday season. Having a Christmas dinner in winter instead of the usually hot and sweaty Australian summer was a real novelty! Remembering Inspired by a post I wrote last week about why I thought that the 80s was the best decade. I have been right into listening to 80s music and watching some of my favourite ’80s movies. So I guess I have been reminiscing and remembering what it was like to be a teen during the mid to late 80s. Fun times for sure! Trying I go through spurts of really trying to remember to drink more water. Unfortunately, it usually takes a major headache for me to realise that I am dehydrated. I guess because I’m a bit out of routine now that I am on holiday from work. I have been a bit slack when it comes to staying on top of my water intake. The other day I felt really unwell with a horrible pain on the right side of my head. After a few glasses of water, I felt so much better. So now I am definitely trying to drink more water to avoid this from happening again! Well, folk that’s a wrap for the July edition of Currently. Can you believe how ridiculously fast these months have zoomed past? It’s mind-boggling! And now we are diving head first into the second half of the year. But hey, before you dash off, I want to say thank you for taking the time to swing by today. It means the world to me that I could share a glimpse of what we have been up to. Take care and I look forward to being back here tommorow! Happy Wednesday friends.

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High Tea: Sip Savour and Smile!

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Hey, tea enthusiasts and foodies! Today we are looking at the wonderful world of high tea! Take a seat and get comfy as we explore the wonders of this tradition. A cherished custom that brings together friends and loved ones to indulge in delectable treats and savour aromatic teas in a cozy, elegant setting. High Tea The Origins Of High Tea High tea originates in 19th-century England, where it had very humble beginnings. Initially, it was a working-class meal that was served in the early evenings to refuel tired hungry workers. Back then high tea was a substantial and hearty meal that bridged the gap between lunch and dinner. Workers would enjoy their meals accompanied by a strong pot of tea. And the meal was called high tea because it was eaten at a high dining table. But over time, it evolved into an elegant and social event enjoyed by the upper classes and usually served between 4-6 pm. While high tea is traditionally associated with British culture. Nowadays it is enjoyed in many settings around the world. You will find that many luxury hotels, tea rooms and restaurants serve their own unique versions. Mixing traditional elements with a touch of modern flavour. The Art Of High Tea Etiquette High tea etiquette has evolved over time, and today it is much more relaxed than in days gone past. Of course, it’s still nice to observe some traditional etiquette practices. But the emphasis now is more on enjoying the experience in a beautiful and relaxed environment. Dress Up High tea is a fancy affair so it’s a perfect opportunity to dress up and make the event feel even more special. As it is not an everyday event, dressing up can make the occasion feel even more unique and memorable. You can go classic chic in a knee-length dress or skirt paired with classic pumps or dressy flats. If vintage glam is more your style. Then why not wear a retro-inspired flared skirt with sling-back heels and a small cute clutch? If you prefer contemporary elegance then you could wear tailored pants in a neutral colour. Then pair this with ankle boots and a stylish elegant top. Wearing a floral or pastel-coloured sundress will give the experience a garden party vibe. And would also be a perfect outfit for high tea in Spring. Teapot Handling When pouring, hold the teapot handle with one hand and support the bottom with the other. Stirring your teacup with a teaspoon is perfectly ok these days. And no longer frowned upon as it was in the past, just try to avoid too much clinking. But don’t stress if you do clink, clinking is perfectly fine too! Sipping In Style Keep it classy by taking small sips-no need for slurping or blowing on your tea! Taking small dainty sips is also a perfect way to make sure that you are enjoying the flavours. you don’t need to have your pinky up in the air as you sip but just remember to place your teacup back in the saucer to avoid any spills. Cutlery Use No need to panic about what cutlery to use and in which order as Julia Roberts did in ‘Pretty Woman’. But if you really want to stick to tradition then you can start with the outermost cutlery and work your way in. Otherwise, just focus on using utensils in a way that allows you to enjoy your food while still maintaining good table manners. And remember to pop your napkin on your lap. Delectable Treats And Tea Selection Now, the highlight and the most delicious part: the treats! Here are some traditional delicacies that you will often find served at a high tea. Scones: Delicious fluffy scones served warm with clotted cream and jam. Finger sandwiches: High tea is all about the dainty crustless sandwiches full of mouthwatering fillings. Such as smoked salmon, egg and cress, cucumber and cream cheese or chicken and tarragon. Pastries and cakes: Prepare to indulge in mini delights such as petits fours, macarons, sponge cupcakes, eclairs and tarts. Variety of tea: You can choose from a variety of traditional tea flavours like English Breakfast, Earl Grey and Darjeeling. Or if herbal options are more appealing then you will also find that you can choose from many different aromatic herbal and fragrant green teas. Alcohol-infused indulgences: Some high tea experiences may even offer tea-infused cocktails, champagne or sparkling wine to add a touch of celebration to the special occasion. In a world that moves at a frantic pace, indulging in a high tea experience will give you a welcome respite. It’s a chance to stop and enjoy the simple pleasures. Such as indulging in delectable treats, aromatic teas and the joy of conversation in good company. So why not go ahead and make a date to dress up and embrace the elegance and charm of this delightful tradition? High tea is a perfect opportunity to treat yourself to delicate sandwiches, sweet treats and fragrant teas. And maybe a glass of bubbly too!

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Christmas in July

9 Comments / Christmas

Hey there friends! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and are feeling ready for a new week. I’m thrilled that you have stopped by today because I’m really excited to share the wonderful moments from our weekend and our Christmas in July celebrations with my family! Why Christmas In July? I’m not really sure if Christmas in July is popular in other parts of the world. So you might be wondering why we decided to celebrate Christmas in the middle of the year. As you know here in the Southern Hemisphere, our seasons are opposite to those in the Northern Hemisphere. So while our friends in the North enjoy a cozy wintry Christmas in December, we always have a sweaty hot Christmas bang in the middle of summer! It’s not uncommon over here to celebrate Christmas with a pool party eating seafood and salads. We don’t have a pool but we do have air conditioning which is usually cranked up really high to keep us cool! Celebrating Christmas in July means that we get to experience a touch of winter nostalgia and enjoy all the festive cheer without sweltering in the summer heat. It also gives us a chance to wear ugly Christmas jumpers (or sweaters) and pretend that we are in a Hallmark Christmas movie. Hehe. Monthly Family Gathering On Saturday we got together for our monthly Cousin Connect. And it was my cousin Jessie and her family’s turn to host. She was the one who came up with the brilliant idea to make it a Christmas in July celebration. They did an amazing job hosting and we had such a fun night eating, laughing and catching up. There was even a Christmas tree! Jessie’s sweet daughter (our youngest cousin who is 11) decorated the tree with dog balloons that she taught herself to make. Haha, red and green dog balloons! Look at these incredible rose ice decorations made with cranberry juice. These beautiful ice roses made the Prosecco taste even better. Yum! Delicious appetizers! For dinner, we feasted on delicious turkey with gravy as well as ham, potatoes, corn and beans. Everybody wore Christmas colours with headbands or hats. I was really excited that I managed to find a Christmas jumper for only $20 at Big W. Amelia, my cousin’s beautiful Golden Retriever even wore a Christmas headband. We finished with strawberry cheesecake and gingerbread cookies for dessert. As well as hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. It was such a fun family night and it was the first time that we celebrated Christmas in July together as a big family. Back in 2021 during lockdown, we had a very small Christmas in July with just us at home. But we have decided that from now on Christmas in July is going to be an annual Cousin Connect tradition. I love our monthly family gatherings and look forward to them so much. Having a set first Saturday of the month when we all get together has been such a wonderful way of making sure that we stay in contact regularly. Today is the first day of the school holidays and we have two weeks off which I am very happy about! Even though I have already been off for two weeks, I haven’t really been out very much. But I’m feeling well and so I’m ready and keen to get out and about during the winter break. Already the holidays are off to a great start as I got together with my lovely friend today and we had high tea. I’ll be sure to tell you all about it later this week. Thank you so much for joining me and I hope to see you back here on Wednesday! Happy Monday!

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