Babycino

Last weekend for the Queens Birthday we went to Brisvegas and the Gold Coast for Cooper’s 2nd Birthday. We visited Burleigh Heads and stayed at Amy’s parents beach unit there. The sea was very calm but the coastal erosion from the week before was very bad, with the giant rocks on the beach that you get in Manly when the similar sort of thing happens. We also visited some new Burleigh apartments called “Ambience” but the first floor apartment was on the market for $1.7 million. As house prices are falling faster than they did in the 1930s “Great Depression”, I was thinking of putting in an offer of $0.3 mill.

Erosion on Burleigh Beach

Taryn and Wade came down with Zara for luncheon, which was on the ground floor of the 1.7 mil apartment block and was very nice, here’s a picture of me with baby Zara –

Baby Zara and Me

We headed back to Brisbane for a party at Simone’s parent’s house. Simone lived around the corner from Amy when they were grewing up and they were there at the same time as us. We even ended up getting the same flight out of Sydney and sat a couple of rows apart from each other! I recorded a short video clip of Stu standing outside the toilets on the plane which I’ve uploaded to youtube. That was good fun and we ended up (well I started off) drinking Simones dad’s homebrew beer which was very good.

The next day we were up early and over to Cooper’s parents house for the birthday party with lots of kids running around –

Amy and Cooper in the Garden

It wasn’t just a trip for Cooper’s Birthday, we had not seen the new baby Sister Ali –

Amy and Baby Ali

It was a fantastic trip and a very nice weekend. This weekend, after discussions with Justin about coffee makers and getting recommended one that was far from my price range and tasting the delights of Elliots lattes in Brisbane we have purchased an expresso maker in the Myer end of year stock take sale (just one of the sales that Myer has than seems to span the entire year). It is a entry level device as I’m not sure if I’m cut out for the mean machines with 400 bar pressure yet.

Cappucino Supremo

I’ve watched the DVD that came with the machine, practiced ‘Tamping‘ and have bought all the accessories I’ll ever need. I can’t tell now though if the coffee is any good because I’ve made about 30 cups and drank about one mouthful from each but feel like I’ve drunk way too much milk. The device is really a cost saver as it costs about 55c to make a cappucino and shops normally charge around $3 for a regular, then add another 80c if you want decaf or soy milk.

I want to give a shout out to Marcy’s blog (Marcy and Chris’ Blogaroo) who are some friends from San Francisco who are enjoying the Sydney life (check the blog to see what they’ve been doing).