Spring has sprung

I've now lived through all four seasons in Sydney, and I've decided that Spring is definitely my favourite. The weather is perfect these days. Gorgeous blue skies and not too hot, with temperatures around 20-24C most every day.

Last weekend, we went to the Festival of the Winds (a kite flying festival) at Bondi beach. Bondi is by far the most famous of all Sydney's 100+ beaches. It's a beautiful beach, but man - it is crowded, and parking at Bondi - well the parking situation is exactly what keeps us from going to Bondi more often (that and the fact that we live just down the street from a great beach).

Vic dropped Gus and I off at Speedos (our breakfast destination and also a famed haunt of Hugh Jackman's), and proceeded to spend an ungodly amount of time circling around to find a spot. After finally finding parking, he joined us for breakfast. And although visibly shaking with the traumatic experience of trying to find parking at Bondi beach and pining for a beer to settle his nerves, he decided on a mango smoothie instead. Disappointingly, we did not spot Hugh and after paying a stupidly expensive bill (have I mentioned Sydney is pricey?), we walked down to the beach feeling a little defeated by the whole experience. Thankfully, our time at the festival completely erased the earlier parking, non-Hugh Jackman-spotting and breakfast-paying stress.

Gus made a kite at a kite-making workshop, then spent a good amount of time flying his homemade kite at the beach. Kite-flying is one of those things that I don't think about doing very often, then when I do it, I wonder why I don't fly kites every day. The colourful kites looked amazing against the backdrop of the perfectly blue skies. Afterwards, on our ride back, seeing all the little shops and cafes spilling over with people enjoying the day, Vic said to me (Mom: don't read this next part), it's days like this that make me want to stay in Australia (Mom: if you did read that - don't worry, we're still planning to move back after I'm done my PhD).

thanks to Fl Girl for the beautiful pic (Gus' kite is the green and orange one):