Kerry-Lea & Shawn's Visit

I first met Kerry-Lea online in the SA2Oz and SAAustralia forums when we were going through the whole visa application process. Kerry and her kids (daughter Megan & son Shawn) arrived in Sydney on 1 December 2008. Kerry's hubby, Mac, was working on the cruise ship Volendam and they were going to join him for a cruise to NZ and then finish up back in Oz to settle on the Gold Coast. Well, as it turns out, this is a very small world..... Remember our fabulous NYE on the James Craig ship in Sydney Harbour.....?

Well, this photo was taken as we arrived for our cruise on NYE. In the foreground is the James Craig and in the background...... the Volendam - with Kerry & family onboard! Yip, they were also in Sydney harbour for NYE.

Anyway, after Kerry had moved to the Gold Coast & was online, we started communicating again on the forums - marvelling at what a small world it was. And then we moved to Brisbane - staying at Geoff & Pearl's in Robina for the first few weeks - yes, that's on the Gold Coast too. The day before we were due to move up to our new house in Moggill, I found out that Kerry was living about 150 metres away from Geoff & Pearl! And we STILL hadn't met face to face yet! LOL! And I just realised another time where we just missed each other - at the Sharks vs Reds Super 14 game at Suncorp Stadium!

So when we were organising our housewarming bbq, we invited them along. And a great friendship began!

Mac is away on another 3 month stint onboard another cruise ship at the moment and Megs is over in NZ visiting a friend for the school holidays. So Kerry brought Shawn through on Friday afternoon for some dinner & then a day in the city on Saturday.

Shawn made a fabulous fruit salad for dessert & one of the strawberrys ended up being a complete mutant!

Shawn with his mutant strawberry

Dinner was Mexican so we had to have frozen margaritas. Duh! This was Kerry's first into to a frozen moggie..... I think she's hooked!

Shawn got his own version (before the tequila was added of course) - I forgot his straw so he sipped from the glass & copped a mouthful of salt from the rim of the glass. Great expression!

Okay, so we were really bad with the camera during dinner. Way too much talking going on... Once the moggies (only cos I ran out of ice!) were finished, Scott & Kerry hit the Amarula while I went onto the white wine..... once the Amarula was finished too, they also joined me with white wine..... LOL! A FABULOUS evening chatting away about ALL sorts of things..... some interesting.... some bizarre.... some we just won't mention again..... :-)

On Saturday morning we headed off to the city after fruit salad for breakfast (we'd forgotten about it as dessert!). First stop was the Da Vinci Machines exhibition which was in my previous post. After this, we walked all over South Bank as the following pics will show....

Greek dancers on one of the grassy areas

More Greek dancing

Ta-da! They were advertising the Paniyiri Greek Festival which was happening up the road.

Hercules - also from the Greek Festival

Shawn being all camera-shy - he just refused point blank to have his picture taken with Hercules!

Lunch was fish & chips for Kerry, chicken nuggets for Shawn, fish burger for Scott (which was ULTRA delish!) and calamari for me. YUMMY!

Shawn went off to watch the buskers next to the "beach" and we stopped at a cafe for a cuppa..... This is the view from the cafe.

Now this is something that Kerry introduced me too and is THE most incredible alternative to coffee EVER! I really mean E.V.E.R.!!! Chai Latte..... It's black tea spiced with vanilla & cinnamon with steamed frothy milk. It is absolutely TOOOOO DIVINE!!!

It started out as just the instant Lipton Chai Latte from Woolies...... But the cafe had it on their menu so we had some.....

I was too busy smelling, sipping & just generally ADORING my latte that I completely forgot about taking a photo of it. But this should give you an idea. HEAVENLY!!!

A close up of the tight-rope unicyclist

The Twine - a FABULOUS drumming band busking at South Bank Market

The Twine again
(click anywhere on the underlined parts to go to check out their website & hear some of their studio recordings)

One of the many street performers at South Bank

Shawn pretending to jump in - he was all big mouth about going for a swim until he felt the water.... More about this later...

Next to the beach (which they're doing major renovations to at the moment) is a kiddies water park. I can't think of any other way to describe it. This is a beautiful water feature which randomly drops water.

Shawn dodging water features

A water curtain, fountains and rivers

Love this one!

Kerry & Shawn at South Bank

After wandering around South Bank for a few hours taking in the, exhibition, street theatre, live music, markets, walking along the river, yummy lunch and plenty hustle, bustle & people watching; it was time to head for the hills.....

Mount Coot-tha to be exact. It's on our way home so we thought we'd treat our visitors to a lovely view of the whole of Brissie.

Kerry & I nattering away

Turn around for a photo girls!

Now on the way home, Scott & Shawn had hatched this "deal" whereby Shawn was going to go for a swim in exchange for a foot rub from Scott. There were all sort of conditions attached (which Scott kept adding to!) and when we finally got home, Shawn went off to get his trunks on & then the procrastinating started..... I think I mentioned how he was a big mouth until he felt the water......

First we gotta check the temperature.... a chilly 14 degrees!

Then a pose with the new spray-on tattoo he got at South Bank

Then he had to debate whether to use the snorkel or not (he was supposed to stay underwater for 1 minute to get the foot rub)

Then he decided to dive in from the deep end..... which he decided wouldn't be the best way to get in after all....

Eventually Kerry couldn't take it anymore!!! And in he went!!!

Yikes! That looks cold!

Brrrrrrrr!

The lips are starting to turn blue & you can almost hear his teeth chattering! There was a bit of a 'moment' when Scott refused to honour the 'deal' on a technicality because he was pushed in. LOL!

So Scott tied him to the dining room table instead....

Not sure why..... but Shawn seemed to enjoy it - so did Scott by the looks of things!

Kerry & Shawn left shortly after this to go back to the Gold Coast. They were both getting up early on Sunday morning to run in the Gold Coast Marathon. Kerry finished the 5km & Shawn did the 4km kid's dash. Congrats to both of you!!! And thank you for coming to visit - we loved having you here!