Winter’s Day at the Beach

As life is starting to feel more normal (even though winter is approaching and it is June tomorrow) we have tried to be better at exploring Sydney. Living in a great neighborhood filled with plenty to discover (great cafés, small bars, boutique shopping, etc), it's easy getting stuck spending the weekend too close to home. So this past weekend we decided to take a little adventure, about 30 minutes north to Dee Why to explore one of Sydney’s northern beaches and more importantly have some lunch.

It's only about 18 Kilometers (11 miles) from where we live but somehow it feels like you have stepped into an alternate universe. The air was crisp (a bit nippy), we strolled along the promenade, grabbed some fish and chips (apparently award winning) and settled by the waterfront. Besides being swarmed by a flock of at least 30 seagulls (who were seriously stressing me out) staring at us with anger, squealing, wanting us to surrender our chips (french fries), I can't really think of a better way of spending a lazy two hours.

Surviving lunch, we walked along the beach and cliffs. Even with the chill in the air people were in the water and the public ocean pool, built into the sandstone bedrock (it's really breathtaking).

Despite being a cold and windy day, it was a perfect outing at the beach, an ideal two hour excursion. Definitely an "I like Sydney" moment...

Reflections

Evening walk along Sydney Harbour. Not bad...

Barefoot

Photo not taken near a beach

Why do Australians think it is OK to walk around the streets barefoot? I see it all of the time. From the sidewalk (or should I say footpath?) to the supermarket (which must be cold). All I can really think about is how unhygienic it is. Is it just me?

Planking?

Image From Brisbane Times

I can’t help but write about it. It has been in the news consistently for the past few weeks but is a bit of a controversial subject. “Planking”, the action of lying face down with arms to the sides of the body, in unusual public spaces and photographing it, has become a phenomenon in Australia. As Wikipedia informs, Australian National Rugby League player David Williams planked after a game on March 27^th, 2011 and went on to talk about it, describing it as "pretty much, active lying down.” Since, this silly stunt has attracted national attention, causing both injuries and deaths, yet continuing to spread globally.

From left: Image from triplem.com and mix.com

In case you are interested in participating in this fad here are some helpful tips from a Newcomer's Guide to Planking, written in a Brisbane Times article:

-Be creative. ''It's not creative to plank on a sign”.
-Do it overseas. ''People are doing it on monuments and landmarks”.

-Don't plank on private property or somewhere unsafe.

-Give it a name - office plank, group plank, international plank.

-Be a proper plank. ''You've got to be a good straight plank, head straight, arms straight, legs down.''

Image from the dailytelegraph.com

Image from Australia's Today Show

But even with all of the hype apparently “planking is so last week.” An even newer internet craze is “Teapotting.” Teapotting is similar to planking, but instead of lying face down in interesting places, the subject holds a teapot pose. The Facebook page (currently with 4,655 likes, as opposed to the 155,773 likes that the Planking Facebook page has) is apparently “run by teachers so it's safe, it's fun and it's ethically and digitally responsible.” Who would have thought? Worth sharing…

Teapotting demonstrated on Sunrise

Din Tai Fung

Having a good dumpling house (here it’s called yum cha as opposed to dim sum) in your city of residence is a must. There's nothing better than sitting down at the table and immediately being confronted with food speeding past, carts crashing into your seats and, every once in a while, the charm of being purposely ignored. This was our typical experience when visiting our favorite NYC spots.

Since living in Sydney, I had visited a few yum cha restaurants but had yet to find a favorite until last week when Josh and Russell introduced us to Din Tai Fung, an offshoot of a "legendary Taiwanese chain" (which apparently has several locations throughout the world, including LA). Since, a new relationship has flourished. 

While they are lacking the carts, the personality, charm and flavor are there in full force. You can watch an almost factory like group of workers in their white hats and their surgical masks prepare your food through a large glass window as you wait for your table number to be called. This definitely spurs the appetite. 

"This is state-of-the-art dumpling production. The skill in creating firm, elastic, transparent dough skins of the exact same size and thickness, which don't tear or unravel, requires discipline and extreme quality control." You can almost taste the steam that muddles the kitchen space as you mark your order on the menu (which gets served almost immediately after being seated = love that).

I can't stop thinking about the pork soup dumplings, the garlic string beans and the sesame and red bean ice cream. I will definitely be paying many more visits. It is a high recommendation for those Sydney yum cha lovers...

New York State of Mind

Photo by Kipp Wettstein with Emily Wettstein

In addition to missing friends and family, I cannot help but daydream about the view out of our NYC apartment’s window. For those of you that visited the apartment we spent our last year in NYC in, you know what I am talking about. Because we lived on Tenth Avenue and most of the buildings between Eighth and Tenth are low rise tenement buildings, we basically looked at New York’s skyline in elevation. It was spectacular.  Even though we were only twelve floors above the street, it felt like we were floating above the city. I took hundreds of photos of the view. It never really got old.

I had a very hard time emotionally separating myself from the window. Before leaving I would spend hours staring out the window, with Jay Z and Alicia Keys’ Empire State of Mind blasting in the background. I knew that some way, somehow I had to capture this snapshot and take it with me to the other side of the planet. So last summer, only days before our furniture was to be picked up to head Down Under, one of my extremely talented former students (who has a background in photography) and her cousin, who is a professional photographer, came over to capture the moment.

Almost six months later the view has returned, only this time virtually, a printed canvas 50 inches wide by 40 inches tall on our wall just opposite our Sydney view. The crazy thing about it is that the image resolution is so high that you can actually see things that you could not see with the naked eye.

We can come home from a hard day’s work, sit on the same couch we sat on in NYC and look out the same window to the glittering city. It keeps NYC on our minds…