skagerlind.net Blog http://skagerlind.net/blog Our Vacation Down Under Thu, 28 Dec 2006 12:05:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Final Post! http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/28/final-post/ http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/28/final-post/#comments Thu, 28 Dec 2006 11:50:11 +0000 Administrator http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/28/final-post/ Kathryn and Mike here.  And so it draws to a close.  We’ve had a marvellous time and we wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of our friends and hosts in Sydney who have showered us with such generosity and kindness.  It has been so wonderful to catch up with you all again after so long – here’s hoping it won’t be another seven years before we meet again.

We also want to thank all the commenters and readers of our blog who have made Postcards from Sydney such fun and helped us stay in touch with those we miss in the US, UK and Sweden.  Finally, a big thank you to Shirley who held the fort back home and looked after house, home and cat.  Good on ya Shirl!

Happy New Year and see you soon!

MKGJL 

]]> http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/28/final-post/feed/ 2 More animals at Sydney Wildlife World! http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/28/more-animals-at-sydney-wildlife-world/ http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/28/more-animals-at-sydney-wildlife-world/#comments Thu, 28 Dec 2006 08:41:24 +0000 Administrator http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/28/more-animals-at-sydney-wildlife-world/

Martha and Greta at Sydney Wildlife World

Hi Greta here!

Today we went to Sydney Wildlife World.  We saw lots of animals.  There were kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, lizards, snakes, huge stick insects, butterflies, spiders and bull ants.  There was also a Hairy Nosed Wombat. My favorite animal there was the spotted tailed quoll. The quoll is a nocturnal marsupial. We also liked the short beaked echidna. He waddles like a penguin. I can safely say that the quoll and the echidna are my two of my favorite Aussie animals we saw today. The park has a special enclosure where you can get up CLOSE with the koalas. But to go in and get your picture taken with one costs $19.95! We got to the park by monorail. We also rode it back, after we had lunch at the cafeteria. We had a lot of fun at Wildlife World today!

Resting wallabies

Curious Koala
]]> http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/28/more-animals-at-sydney-wildlife-world/feed/ 2 Ku-ring-gai National Park http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/27/ku-ring-gai-national-park/ http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/27/ku-ring-gai-national-park/#comments Wed, 27 Dec 2006 07:17:06 +0000 Administrator http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/27/ku-ring-gai-national-park/

Today we went to Ku-ring-gai National Park in North Turramurra.  It is named for the Guringai tribe.  We went on a bushwalk and saw lots of animals and plants there.  The picture above is us with Martha standing near a really strange tree whose roots were growing on a rock.

This picture is of the mangrove swamp that was on the bushwalk.

This is an aboriginal carving in a rock on the bushwalk. They say it is from the Dreamtime.

This photo is of a crab in the mangrove swamp.

This is a little pied cormorant.

We saw a Goanna, a kind of lizard - it was over a foot long!

This is a lapwing guarding its eggs right near the kerb of the carpark!  Its partner was trying to scare off some boys playing cricket nearby.

 

]]> http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/27/ku-ring-gai-national-park/feed/ 4 Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, God Jul! http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/24/happy-holidays-merry-christmas-god-jul/ http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/24/happy-holidays-merry-christmas-god-jul/#comments Sun, 24 Dec 2006 11:25:57 +0000 Administrator http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/24/happy-holidays-merry-christmas-god-jul/

An Aussie Christmas light display

Happy Holidays everyone!

Greta, Jonas, Lena, Mike and Kathryn

]]> http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/24/happy-holidays-merry-christmas-god-jul/feed/ 11 Cricket! http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/24/cricket/ http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/24/cricket/#comments Sun, 24 Dec 2006 07:52:15 +0000 Administrator http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/24/cricket/ Hi Jonas here,

Today we went the small oval in Turramurra and we played cricket there.  We had a really fun time.  I scored a 50 run partnership with Martha.  You play cricket with a flat bat.  You have two runners (batsmen) and a bowler (pitcher) and a wicket keeper (catcher).  When someone hits the ball, the two batsmen run to each wicket until a fielder throws the ball back to the bowler or the wicket keeper.  Dad is not very good at cricket but Uncle Dai is.

Toby, Martha, Dai, Greta and Jonas playing cricket

Toby and Jonas with cricket ball and bat
]]> http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/24/cricket/feed/ 3 Emus! Get your hot emus here! http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/23/the-eat-emus-dont-they/ http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/23/the-eat-emus-dont-they/#comments Sat, 23 Dec 2006 06:37:07 +0000 Administrator http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/23/the-eat-emus-dont-they/ Hi Greta here,

When we were driving home from Jervis Bay we saw a really funny sign that said Hot Emu Pies.  We didn’t try one!  Would you?! 

The sign!
]]> http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/23/the-eat-emus-dont-they/feed/ 2 Botanical Gardens http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/21/23/ http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/21/23/#comments Thu, 21 Dec 2006 21:39:02 +0000 Administrator http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/21/23/ Hi Greta here,

Today we took a ferry to the Botanical Gardens. They are very near the Opera House. There are a lot of cool trees and ponds. We went to a cafe and the Ibis’ just walked in liked nobody cared. We saw fruit bats (also called Flying Foxes) in the trees as we ate our lunch. After the Botanical Gardens we went to Balmoral Beach for Mia’s birthday. We ate chocolate cake and cup cakes. They were good!

Ferry Ride

Jonas, Daniel, Lena, Greta and Issy on the Sydney Harbor Ferry

Ferry Ride

Flying Fox in the Botanical Gardens
]]> http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/21/23/feed/ 2 Our Aussie Pals http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/20/our-aussie-pals/ http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/20/our-aussie-pals/#comments Thu, 21 Dec 2006 00:11:04 +0000 Administrator http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/20/our-aussie-pals/ Hi Jonas here,

Today I’m going to tell you about our Aussie friends.

So far we have stayed or played with Joseph, Sofia, Christopher, Elliott, Mia, Aaron, Daniel, Issy, Alice, Camilla, Zoe, Cara and Jessica. Here are some pictures of them.

Joseph and Sofia in school uniforms

Back: Elliott, Jonas, Greta, Alice, Zoe, Camilla. Middle: Lena, Cara, Aaron. Front (sitting): Mia, Jessica

Sofia, Christopher and Joseph with their Mom and Dad

Tomorrow, we are staying with Martha and Toby. I’ll post some more pics later.

]]> http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/20/our-aussie-pals/feed/ 3 Jervis Bay, NSW http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/17/jervis-bay-nsw/ http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/17/jervis-bay-nsw/#comments Mon, 18 Dec 2006 02:51:39 +0000 Administrator http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/17/jervis-bay-nsw/ Hi everyone,

Greta, Jonas & Lena here,

On Friday we went to Jervis Bay which is three hours South of Sydney. Our house was 30 seconds from the beach. We could go down there by ourselves. We swam in the Tasman Sea and the water was mostly warm.

We went to the beach with the whitest sand in the world – Hyams Beach. On the bushwalk back, we saw two kookaburras and an echidna (in the wild). The echidna didn’t show us his beak because he was too scared.

For lunch yesterday we had fish and chips. It was a long time since we have had fish and chips!

A Scribbly Gum tree

White Sands

Lena on Hyams Beach, Jervis Bay

Jervis Bay

Jervis Bay
]]> http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/17/jervis-bay-nsw/feed/ 5 Sydney FC 1 – Perth Glory 0 http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/14/sydney-fc-1-perth-glory-0/ http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/14/sydney-fc-1-perth-glory-0/#comments Thu, 14 Dec 2006 23:21:15 +0000 Administrator http://skagerlind.net/blog/2006/12/14/sydney-fc-1-perth-glory-0/ Hi Jonas here,

Yesterday we went to Sydney FCs game at Aussie Stadium.  Sydney FC was facing Perth Glory.  Perth is a city on the west side of Australia.  Sydney FC is a soccer club.  In the first half a lot of exciting things happened.  There was a professional foul and the captain – Mark Rudan – got sent off – he got a red card!  That meant Sydney only had ten men.  They took the free kick right outside of the penalty box.  It was almost a goal but the Sydney keeper saved it.  Perth must have gotten really angry because they fouled a Sydney guy and got a yellow card which means a warning.

In the second half, Perth was getting tired so Sydney broke free to Perth’s side of the field and they shot a lot but the keeper always blocked the goals.  Ten minutes from the end Steve Corica crossed it to Alex Brosque and he headed it in for a goal.  The crowd was screaming!

I thought the game was pretty good but a lot of players got injured and they had a lot of stoppage time.

[Dadministrator here: We are going to be away from a computer for the next few days so we'll post again and add pictures on Monday 18th.]

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