A little history, a little culture and lots of goodies...

Sorry for the radio silence - I headed up to Sydney on Thursday for our Christmas party (held at Banjo Paterson Cottage restaurant in Gladesville - there's some history already!), spent Friday in our Sydney office and ended up having a completely computer free weekend.

At lunchtime Friday I visited a newly discovered op shop (Salvos at Chatswood) and hit the jackpot at Vinnies Orchard Arcade when I found twelve 50g balls of black Nundle Collection 8 ply for 50 cents a ball.

Friday night Princess B and I exchanged presents (more on that soon) then Saturday she threw a traditional Christmas lunch for eight complete with turkey, baked vegetables, creme brulee and more champagne than was good for us all.
Saturday night five of us went to see the Australian Ballet perform Raymonda at The Sydney Opera House with drinks before hand at The Opera Bar overlooking the harbour bridge (and, of course, I left my camera at home. Bah!)
And today we went to IKEA (arrived 9am, were gone with goodies by 9:15am...), then had breakfast at Bondi beach before checking out the Bondi Markets and Bondi Junction Westfield. I even managed to fit in a "Boxing Day" nap before I headed to the airport and home to drinks with Mondo.

Here's a heads up if you're in (or passing through) Sydney and are after cheap designer stuff - Live to Play is moving from the domestic to the international terminal and is having a pretty serious sale before they go - I saw Tord Boontje Until Dawn curtains marked down from $169 to $75 and his puddles down to (I think) $25.

But I was strong and only ended up buying a set of French Bull Jackie Shapiro containers in the Vine pattern marked down from $49.95 to $34.95 and two Kikki K white perspex pencil holders down from $29.95 to $2 (!) each.

(Listening to: Jimmy Somerville, Manage the damage)