To Newcastle We Go!

I'm back!

I'm not sure if you noticed the lack of blog posts but this past week has been incredibly busy, not to mention exhausting.

Monday and Tuesday I was in Sydney, fare welling my brother who has gone away for 6 months and then Thursday, Friday and Saturday I was in Newcastle on our annual work conference!

After the debacle that was caused at work last year after my blog post detailing our conference, I will only show photos of Kitty, food, scenery and myself! 

We stayed at the Sebel (which was re-branded as the Novotel during our stay) which was a lovely modern hotel, approximately half an hour from the airport ($60 cab ride) and close to the water. 

Look, I am obsessed with these shoes.

They cost me a pretty penny though, $8 from Target - boom. 

We were told to take shoes suitable for the sand, water and general elements and these did the trick perfectly.

Kitty needs to work on her photography skills. Blurry is not my best look.

For our day out in Newcastle, jam packed with adventuring I am wearing my:

Zara Jeans

Emerson for Big W Top

Target Shoes

Hermes Clic Clac

Victoria's Secret Oakland Raiders Puffy Vest (not shown here)

Our first adventure of the day was heading to Anna Bay for some Sand Dune exploring, which was far more awesome than I expected!!

I suffer motion sickness to the point where it is beyond a joke, I get carsick in the front passenger seat on the way to Geelong for crying out loud!

Being car sick always reminds me of being car sick when I was younger and had drank orange juice from McDonalds. Gross.

Anyway, I took some natural Ginger Tablets early on in the day, and wasn't sick! Hurrah!

I did sit right up the front next to the driver which may have helped though.

Our driver was hilarious and an excellent tour guide!

Kitty was sick from food had at Iso Bar (more about that at the end of the post..) and opted to miss out on the 4WD'ing... She was left behind like a shag on a rock.

It was so cold out on the Sand Dunes and my Raiders puffy vest made an appearance and kept me rather snug. No complaints here.

Eskimo style.

There is a place in the Sand Dunes named Tin City which was just amazing!!

The people that live here, and there are not many left, have inhabited this area for over 50 years as after 3 years of residing in one place, a squatter is entitled to that land apparently, but the council hates it so there is no running water, electricity (despite having Foxtel...), council rates, post services etc.

The sand advances on the shacks at a rapid rate and if the shacks crumble, they cannot rebuild them.

Really fascinating and I had no idea it even existed!

We stopped off at some of the bigger dunes for some sand dune surfing!!

I opted to sit it out and be the photographer instead but it looked fantastic!

After the tour had finished and we were frozen to our bones, we headed to a marina and were on to the next leg, dolphin watching!

Apparently we were an hour late for our booking and we were only taken 10 minutes off shore and then had a BBQ lunch (good if you like your chicken pink on the inside) and that was basically it.

Oh wait, I lie.

One of our partners spotted a dolphin just in the nick of time and most of us got to see it flip out of the water, prompting lots of disappointment from those down below who did not see it!

After the boat trip (still no motion sickness - win!) we headed to Murrays Brewery but most of us were exhausted.

So exhausted that our head count when back on the bus came up with two more people than we had on the trip, despite the fact that we had actually left someone behind!!! Terrible.

We headed back to the Sebel for a nap, shower and then headed to Scratchleys on The Wharf which was beyond delicious.

For entree I had 6 scallops with truffle oil, which I had never had before, and my oh my were they good? I'm salivating just thinking about them!!

For dinner I moved on to King Prawns in Garlic Sauce but struggled to finish my plate, I guess there is a first for everything.

I also had Apple and Blackberry Crumble for dessert.

Kitty struggling through the night.

Luckily we were seated on the same table, nobody would dare separate this troublesome twosome!

King single beds. It has been a very, very long time since I slept in one of these!

Our room overlooked a car park and was freaking loud. I don't know if our windows did not close properly or something but it was so loud that neither of us slept through the night.

Not to mention that Kitty probably stayed awake listening to my pig snoring.

We headed down to Darby Street and stopped off at a quaint little cafe named Frankies Place.

Very cute and an instagrammers dream. Ha. 

Who doesn't love hot chocolate served on a Sesame Street book, with self pouring chocolate, AND a tiny teddy.

I didn't drink the coffee but some of the girls said it was far better than any of the other coffee had in Newcastle so far.

Backtracking here, but on Thursday night Kitty and I had a little surprise planned for two colleagues who are both walking down the aisle in October!

We threw a girls only hens night and decked out the Brides to Be in veils, badges and the rest of the party with Penis Straws, of course.

We headed to Iso Bar on Honeysuckle and had a booking for 8:30 for 15 people and were told in advance we would need to order straight away as the kitchen closed at 9:30, no worries!

As soon as we got there, we were informed by very rude staff that we HAD to order now (yes, we know) and then the staff member stalked away.

Whenever we would buy drinks at the bar the barstaff would snatch the money from us, give us the evil eye and then throw the change back.

I don't know if they are normally like this but I would hope not. I have not had such terrible service in a very long time.  If you are from Newcastle, is this the norm?

Kitty had a prawn pizza, which left her very ill the next day unfortunately. Glad I only had half a slice!

Anyway, we had a great weekend and Newcastle was a lovely city! The taxi drivers are slightly odd but aren't they everywhere?

Look, I got a new signature - thoughts?