The Bra.
The Boys.
Rob’s E30.
Jamie’s hand made pressie to me, succulents! I’ve always wanted a succulent garden!
It even came with a spray bottle and this lovely card. She’s a talented cookie isn’t she?!
Richie the home brewer gave me this bottle and it’s delicious as expected (almost smashed it all last night!).
Mum gave me this little dude, and card. I was mad on robots as a kid. still remember the robot B’day cake mum made me, which looked a lot like this little fella!
My pressie to myself. Burton luggage complete with skate wheels. I did want Herschel luggage to go with the rest of my gear, but failed to find a plain black one in time for this weekend’s Byron trip so I settled for this instead.
Been so busy lately, and updating this blog less as less as I’ve been too lazy to take the GF1 out (and instead I’m relying on my iPhone + facebook + instagram). I’m off to Byron today for Caryn’s wedding. Pretty excited! I’ve packed the GF1, will be sure to take a few snaps! :)
The house was so pimp. SO PIMP!!!
Jess and Mei in the kitchen, in which Colin and Mei performed much magic in over the 3 nights.
Check the size of it. The house opens up on to a shaded outdoor BBQ area…
…which leads to a private jetty.
Aw yeah! Upstairs we found this theatre room with 8 reclining seats.
Cloud 9. Colin and Mei didn’t want the master bedroom (which took up half of the 2nd floor of the house) and suggested we had first dibs as we beat everyone else there so greedily, we took it!
The bedroom had a massive built in wardrobe, a balcony, a TV which popped up out of a low wall which separated the bedroom from an open bathroom. Our rule was simple. No #2’s allowed!
We woke up every morning to cafe sounds and great coffee. Despite having a Nespresso machine built into the kitchen, Zi and Colin brought their own gear and smashed out perfect coffee’s the whole trip.
We had too many people for the one boat, luckily the property came with another. Colin, Mei and I went out and killed it at sunset. The right time and place we picked up some decent sized brim.
I had a mad fight with this guy. This year I purposely went out and bought a tiny lightweight rod which made fishing so much more fun as every decent sized fish made for a rod bending experience.
That’s Jess on the other boat (who’s never fished before!) pulling up her 2nd fish of the day.
Stevey driving our boat (which had engine problems, and was leaking too, but hey we caught fish!).
Successful and happy we got in before it was too dark.
Sunset at the Jetty, so beautiful.
After a massive feast of fresh fish and the best beef rendang I’ve ever eaten we hit the movie room.
Epic fail though, we were all too smashed and tired to keep our eyes open (doesn’t help when the seats recline so much!).
Like last year, Cherry and Meatball made the trip but both were too scared to come out and play.
Eating so well. Fishing wasn’t really on the 2nd day. Not many bites but Zi managed to pull up a big flathead which we had tempura style.
Colin and Mei brought up a whole lot of brim too.
Colin and Mei also cooked up a massive lamb roast. Too good, so spoilt!
Feasting.
The 3rd day was grey and choppy. Colin, Mei and I set off again in our lucky sinking boat with temperamental engine, we spotted this massive flock of sea birds land and take off right next to us.
The water was choppy further out but we pulled up a couple of squid! We caught some Taylor too, which kept cutting Mei’s line, so we headed back to the comfortable still water of the lake (the trip back in our little dingy was intense due to the waves).
Once at our secret little spot we once again caught some big brim. One so big it ran off with Colins line and eventually broke his rod too (the tip snapped off!).
Back at the jetty after another successful outing.
The house viewed from the jetty.
Takoyaki! Mei put the freshly caught squid to great use.
SO delicious!
At sunset the crew went out again and Colin caught this monster Long Tom!
Gloria pointing at Zi’s massive flathead which we deep fried fish and chips style.
Mei and her bucket full of of brim.
Day 4; So sad. Willy and Zi cleaning the boat, getting ready to hit the road home.
Traffic was pretty bad initially but eventually it got moving. We had dinner together in Homebush at a restaurant which Collin’s family eats at. Someone ordered lobster, we were still ballin’ out of control!
Had an awesome 3 night stay with the “So How” fishing crew at Lake Macquarie this Easter break.
The weekend started with JDMyard’s Easter dinner at Lantern by Wagaya in the city. Sergio and Alain picked me up, next thing we were at Anton’s place and I was potentially up for one messy night! I held off from getting too wasted though, knowing I had to drive to Lake Macquarie the next morning.
I got up sans hang over and made my way to Jess’ place. We loaded up the car and stereo with an SD card of select tunes then we hit the road. We got caught up in some pretty bad traffic on the Pacific Highway, but we were moving once we hit the F3.
The house was pimp and blew everyone’s socks off. It didn’t at all feel like a rental as it had so many nice personal touches; Polished concrete floors, open plan kitchen with built in steamer and nespresso machine, a private jetty, a theatre room, kayaks, boats, a lap pool, bbq and lots of bathrooms (each room had an ensuite + there were 2 extra bathrooms), foxtel and wi-fi too.
The fishing over the past 3 days was epic in comparison to last years Lake Conjola trip. We brought up so much pan sized fish and ate so so well.
I’m definitely feeling a little PHD (Post Holiday Depression!). Had a mad weekend, can’t wait for next year’s trip!
Matt’s shots of Bree which were shot at my place a while back are finally live! Check out the full feature here: http://zengarage.com.au/2013/03/breanna-espina-by-matthew-mead-for-zen-garage/
3 new framed pieces on my other wall: a small Shohei Otomo, James Jean and a massive SIT.
Came back home to a clean house as I’d organised for the cleaners to come in whilst I was gone. Also, pressies on my kitchen table and an egg sandwich (thanks mum!) and cookies (thanks sis!).
Mia was very vocal, poor baby.
She was instantly up for some quality couch time :)
Flew in to a beautiful day in Sydney. Cab driver tried to rip me off by going the long way home, was a little annoying having to correct him a few times and the bill ended up being more than 10 times the cab fares we’ve been used to over the past week, but hey… I’m home!
House was sparkly clean as I’d organised for the cleaners to come in whilst I was away. What an awesome move that was! Mia was suuuper sooky, she still is today, so cute. I’ve not unpacked yet, need to do a food shop too and also catch up with everything Zen. It’s great to be back!
Bought it on Urban Outfitters (impulse buy!). It imprints a domo face on the toast, had a go this morning, smelt burning, turned around and saw my toast on fire! Unfortunately it’s American voltage (lucky I was i the same room!!!).