Friday 10 December 2010

The royal visit

November 2010 was a fun month!
after nearly two years here, we finally welcomed parents to Sydney.
Sham's parents arrived the morning of Saturday November 6th. I left about 30 minutes after they arrived! My friend Jason was getting married, so off I went with some friends from work to his wedding, not to return until the next day - giving Sham some quality time with his parents!

Here are some pics from Jason and Emma's beautiful wedding:




The first weekend was Diwali weekend - so we took the parents to Parramatta to a mela... We saw more Indian people there than we have seen in the ENTIRE time we have lived here!





That week, Sham did lots of the Sydney must do tourist things during the day, and I joined them after work!

Mum and dad at Bondi


Mum and Dad at Manly!


Sham, Mum and Dad at Sydney Sky Tower


The following weekend, the parents visited Perth where they spent time with Shams cousin Shilan and his family as well as seeing various business contacts.


For my birthday weekend, we all went to New Zealand for a few days. It was really nice to meet Sham's cousin Malik and his wife Makilah who live in Auckland with their kids Imran and Aisha and to see the Blackshah clan again.



We all holidayed in a place called Paihia which is a three hour drive from Auckland in some lovely waterfront apartments. Check out our views!



We had a lovely day out on a boat (despite my sea sickness) and the highlight of the day was without a doubt the dolphins and whales we got to see!





Sham and Ajay even managed some physical activity!


Back in Auckland, dad toured the Indian convenience stores and we all got to spend lots of time playing with the kids...





When we got back to Sydney, we had a few days left to show mum and dad the rest of the touristy things left to do.
We spent their last full day in the Blue Mountains before coming back into the city for dinner at Darling Harbour. We couldn't have planned it better as they were switching on the Christmas lights that evening, so we got to watch the fireworks! I am having a few issues with the video we took, so I will post that on a later blog entry.
We ended the evening with a rather profitable visit at the casino!

It was really sad to say goodbye to mum and dad - and I doubt the goodbyes will ever get easier so we have to not think about the goodbyes and just remember the fun we have when they are here!

Next official visitors are Shak and the boys, but we do have surprise visitors with us at the moment in the form of Rikki and Nikki's cousin Hanisha and her husband Amit.

Bye for now Kunj
x

Sunday 24 October 2010

One I forgot a while ago!

Every weekend, you guys in the UK have various XFactor related status updates... the thing is, if I start to download them, Sham will most definitely KILL me! So I watch the odd clip on youtube so I know who you are talking about!
Anyway, we have an Australian version on at the moment too (but I can't watch it cos it is soooo bad!)... and a while ago, Neal got some tickets to go and watch some live auditions! It was a lot of waiting around, average singers and on-demand cheering and booing.... camera's weren't allowed, but here is a sneaky one from my phone!

Sunday 17 October 2010

October 2010 - so far, so busy!

We are only just over half way through the month and it feels like we have done lots and lots has happened!

The first weekend in October was a long weekend and as is the rule with long weekends, it rained NON STOP!
Unfortunately, this was particularly bad news because my colleague Tanya was hoping for an outdoor wedding..
Despite Plan B (an indoor wedding) having to be actioned, our first wedding in Sydney was lovely!




On following Friday, we woke up to a text from our friend Chris to tell us that while we were sleeping, Baby Roebuck had arrived!!
Baby Roebuck is actually called Fraser and he had arrived very early that morning!
Now anyone who knows me will know that teeny tiny babies terrify me... but there were two reasons that Fraser is a bit different... I have known about him for pretty much as long as his mummy and daddy have, I was his first visitor and I know that I will have a lot of baby sitting duties with this little man so there was no way Hels was going to let me get away with not holding him!


I am glad we visited them in the hospital as two days later, I was diagnosed with laryngitis... I was gutted to be missing out on cuddles, but pleased that Helen was sending me daily picture messages!

On Sunday 10/10/10, Sydney harbour bridge was closed so thousands of people could have a picnic breakfast on the real grass they had laid down.. we were lucky enough to have tickets to take part!



It was my friend Fiona's birthday, so we gave her a money-can't-buy birthday present... the only catch was, we all had to wake up VERY early (and I had lost my voice completely by now!)
It was a great experience (although, another weekend, more rain!) and if ever you are allowed to drink champagne at 7am, this is it!






This weekend has been spent at a first birthday party and helping Neal with his exciting new purchase... a flat... but more about that later!

We hope you are all well and have had updates from quite a few of you recently - those that haven't, please tell us what you are up to - we miss you!!
xxx

Sunday 3 October 2010

Ladies Day at the races!


We booked tickets for a girls day out at the races a while ago in the hope that Hels' baby held on in there and she got to have one last day out... and he held on in there!
It was another great day out and it was fun getting dressed up again (although I HATE clothes shopping in Sydney and it was a struggle to find something I liked (so look forward to seeing this dress often for dress up events!!)


I didn't do as well this year as l did last year-this year, Fiona cleaned up - turning a $3 bet on the last race into $245!!

Sunday 19 September 2010

Our youngest visitor yet!


It was lovely to meet little Aaron Blackshah!
At 2 months old, the little man is already a jetsetter - his trip to Sydney got him on planes, trains, buses and trams!
We got to have a few dinners and drinks with his mummy and daddy cos he was very well behaved all week and was happy sleeping or talking to himself in his buggy.
So now he knows his aunty Kunj and uncle Sham, we are looking forward to getting to se him again in November on home turf - and I am sure it won't be too long before Kay and Ajay will be sending him over on his own to visit us!

Girls day out (Hels' non baby shower)


Last Sunday, we had a girly High Tea at a posh hotel in town. I was a lovely afternoon of little cakes and sandwiches, giggles, and pink champagne!






Although it was a girl's afternoon, we had some male company in the form of gorgeous Matthias - our friend Krystyna's little boy.

Saturday 28 August 2010

Locking down

I will be locking the blog so that only people who subscribe to it can see it. I won't do it for a few weeks to give people a chance to subscribe! So if you know anyone who does read it but don't subscribe, or if you are one of the people that check in every now and then, please subscribe by entering your email on the side of this post!
If you are already subscribed, don't worry - I will add the email address you are subscribed with so you will still get access.

In the meantime hope you are all well!!
xxx

Sunday 15 August 2010

5 years as Mrs Shah-Shah!


Sham and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary last week. Firstly, I can't believe its been FIVE years, and secondly, wow so much has happened in 5 years!!
To celebrate we went to a place a few hours drive south of Sydney call Kiama. We drove through the Royal National Park (which is the second oldest national park in the world..). Unfortunately, I was sick with a sinking cold, so I slept through some of the drive. But that gave Sham the chance to stop and take some pictures without me moaning about it being boring!






Kiama is a pretty coastal town which is famous for its blow hole.




On our way back to Sydney, we went on a bit of a pilgrimage - stopping at a Buddhist temple, a Hindu temple and a home show!!

If you, like us, can't believe its been 5 years, here is a little reminder...
Look how young we look!!




Love you Sham - here's to many more anniversaries!

Monday 9 August 2010

Things I have recently learnt/realised...

1) I need to wear glasses again and
2) My eyes still don't like contacts!
3) I should've seen a Chiro about my back years ago
4) H&M might be coming to Australia!
5) Sham's mum and dad are going to finally visit us!!
6) I am pretty good at playing craps at the casino... :-)
7) I am rubbish without my diary (sorry Panna!)
8) People surprise you - the ones you least expect to keep in touch are the ones that do!
9) Sham is really good at looking after me when I am sick
10) ok guys - one from you for number 10... come on tell us what's been happening with you!

Merry Christmas!


Legend has it, Christmas in July started here because a bunch of Irish people were sat in a pub in the Blue Mountains reminiscing about what Christmas at home is like - crisp and cold - perfect weather for mulled wine, LOTS of stodgey food and being huddled around a fire... the landlord of the pub heard them and had a great idea - and so Christmas in July was invented! So this year, a few of us went to the Blue Mountains for Christmas as it should be! We hired a cute little house with lovely views!
It also had a fire - perfect for how cold it was up there!
Of course a real fire meant that the real men had to chop wood!!
Christmas Day was on the Saturday for us - the girls cooked,

the boys drank and played with fire and then we feasted!

A LOT of mulled wine and silliness...


It was a really nice chilled weekend of doing not a lot - just what we needed!

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