australia

We did it!

We've completed our 365 project! You can view

the full set here

(and if you're really nosey, see the 365 project I completed 4 years ago

here

).

There were 2 bumps (who are now Lydia and Ivy), 5 Johns (or Jons), 14 photos were in wales, 18 were at weddings, 37 were about food (10%!), 43 were in Australia, 58 are of Birmingham (including 28 of where we live- Erdington) and 123 were individual or group portraits (just over a third). There was also a parrot, a seagull, two clown fish, a goat, a rabbit, a dog, two gerbils and a pelican!

We'd like to thank: Leython, Jack, Ben, Matthew, Becky, Auntie Cathie, Bomber, Sarah, Matthew, Izzy, Anton, Albena and Elizabeth, Kelvin, Santa, Nathan, Sunny, Terry, Nai, Sutton Arts Theatre, Hilary, Volker, Atif, Sunny, Hilary, Graham & Caroline, Nanny, Sam, Emirates, Jack & Jill, Corinne, Laura, Alecia, Bethany, Elen, Stu, Sara, Marley, Fiona, Chris, Kelly, Margaret, Helvetica, Carolyn, TOAST, Phil, Manda, Cnob, Rebecca, Clare, Jon, Catherine , Jon, Malachi, Judy, Grandad, Vanessa, Tom & Anna, Viv & Dave, Mum, John, Vaughany, Jo, Girl's Group, Sam, Martin, Sean, Mimi, Ali, Clair, Charlie and Ella, Jeff, Alix and El, Pheonix, Rhodri and Fernandes, Gav & Alli, Peter, Max, Grandmold, Seth, Purple Moose Brewery, Josh, Andy, Ben, Fran & Matt, Gareth, Jess, Mr. Motivator, Uncle Peter, Smithy, John, John, Paul, Charlie & Joe, Michael, Hana, Bekah, Steve, Kenny,  Jason, Aunty Sue, Jason, Ed, Geoffrey, Ostinato Chamber Choir, Charlie-Bob, Rachel & Bump (Ivy!), Jess and Becca, Chewy, Lydia, Davida, Emma, Matt, Nathan, Sarah and Lea, Emily, Josh, Jim & Fiona, Baljeet, The 2012 Paralympics, Rob & Shamima, Scarlet, The Youth, Nay, The Tech Team, Marsh Lane Day Centre, Liz & Paul, Rosemary, Sarah & Joe, Community Group and Ollie.

Perth

We had a relaxing time in Perth, which was great, but probably means we're not qualified to give a thorough list of "Things to do and see". Here are some of the things we enjoyed doing incase you might like them too. We've mingled in some tunes from our holiday experience as well.


In Perth
Kings Park is pretty cool- its full of native plants and when you get bored of looking at them it has great views across the centre of the city from its high vantage point. During the summer months it also is the host of Mooonlight Cinema: a temporary outdoor cinema showing a variety of movies (including exciting advanced releases). You can buy popcorn and rent a chaise lounge shaped bean bag to recline on.



For other greenish, outdoor activities you could take the free CAT hop off by Mt hospital and cross the road to John Oldham Park. Its a nice spot of shady green in an unexpected spot surrounded by major roads and there were plenty of birds to wonder at. Or you could go down to Point Walter and walk out along the sandbank into the middle of the river.

Perth is a city that feels small an manageable rather than huge and cosmopolitan, but it still has its hidden gems and its big city lights. The best place to see those lights is from the South Perth foreshore. And the best place to enjoy its small, friendliness... at someones house in their pool.


Around Perth
Hop on a ferry down the river to Fremantle. Consume so much chocolate you feel like you're about to go into a coma in Chocolateria San Churro at Hillary's boat harbour. Watch the sunset and eat fish and chips from the jetty at Cottesloe. Take a road trip to south for the beaches, beer sampling at Eagle's Bar Brewery and walk the jetty at Busselton (there's an underwater observatory at the far end and a little train to bring you back again). Its 3km long- take a look at it on google maps! (While you're there have a look at the swan river around the city of Perth to see some crazy boat trails).


Breakfast in Perth

(Nom and Malc would like to thank Breakfast in Perth for the inspiration behind this post and the recommendation of some of the great eateries we visited in Aus.)

Today we thought we'd share some of our favourite places we ate at while we were in Perth. You may have noticed we love our food, and whilst we are not fussy we are also not easily impressed. So the following are our recommendations should you ever find your self in WA with a rumbly tummy.



Breakfast
Toast in East Perth was our favourite place for a hot drink. The best chai latte I ever tasted by a mile, with an almost custardy texture and none of that grit you sometimes get with a ground cinnamon topping. The cafe is filled with an eclectic mix of nic nacs and tinkers and the outside tables are right by the river. The breakfasts we had were inspiring- we've tried (with partial success) to recreate their scrambled egg on polenta toast, which was delightful.

Cioccolato: Their menus are disguised in children's books, so once you've chosen you can had a little read. The food was yummy- we sampled quite a variety (breakfast muffin through to an exciting roast veg salad) and check out the chocolate sprinkles on my iced coffee. Fliori Coffee served us another great chai, but I was more taken by the coffee paraphernalia decorating the service counter.




Lunch
We wound up in Bivouac for Malc's birthday, and were not disappointed by some really tasty food. Blue cheese arancini with pesto were new to us and fantastic (the above picture is a chicken schnitzel with avocado mayo). Straight across the street is Jusbuger, which has an interesting aversion to freezers: they never use one, so everything they're selling is made fresh. The vegetarian options were refreshingly thought out- not just a generic veggie burger. Malc had a lamb burger and Nom had a pumpkin goats cheese with goat's cheese and pesto.



Drinks
The Old Swan Brewery is now mostly swanky riverside apartments and two nice restaurants, but does still have its own microbrewery. Malc had one of their Kangaroo Paw's.

For a small bar tucked away down an alley in in centre of the city Helvetica has a pleasantly surprising number of scottish whiskey's. Also pleasantly surprising was their free antipasti buffet table, which seemed to be provided just for the birthday boy.

C+K


The snow's made it to the UK and parts of Europe are struggling with the freezing cold, so here's a sunny Aussie wedding to warm your toes.

Chris and Kelly's Wedding has now been uploaded to our portfolio here.

This was the hottest wedding we've been to so far and we had a great time getting to know loads of the guests. Check out all the sweet details that Kelly and her Mum arranged, and the amazing venue over looking the city of Perth.

We're also really excited to share our first stop-motion wedding video.



It was so much fun to be part of an Australian wedding- so thanks again chaps for having us!