Liza & Dan's Bloggings: March 2013

26 Mar 2013

23 Mar 2013

Tourisy Wanderings

Tourisy Wanderings by liza-aldridge featuring maine new england

19 Mar 2013

Oamaru

High up on the hill looking back towards the town.

On the road again!

After a lovely quiet week at the Keanes, mostly eating, drinking and crafting (bliss!!) we've set off on our travels again. This time in our little green hire car...one of these...

Heading to see the pengies down in Oamaru - so it's 2:40pm now in Timaru (Limelite cafe) where we've stopped for a cuppa, and a bite to eat. Hopefully we'll be there before tea time!!!

16 Mar 2013

What I'm wearing in Christchurch #2

What I'm wearing #2 by liza-aldridge featuring a sarong cover up

Another 'what I'm wearing' post - it's been cool in Chch (as the locals call it!!) but with blasts of sun, so it's been long trousers and factor 50 for me!

My 2 Rohan trousers have been well utilised these last few days, as well as another sarong which I have as a scarf around the handle of my bag.

13 Mar 2013

What I'm wearing in Christchurch

Christchurch by liza-aldridge

Back into my Rohan jeans for the flight from Sydney - I couldn't face putting the trainers on so I wore a little pair of blue Clarks pumps which are much lighter!

Today in Christchurch it was a little bit cooler, so I'm in the Rohan linen pants, with a grey T (which is really a pyjama top from Sainsbury's!!) and a lovely dark coral cardie from Rocha.John.Rocha @ Debenhams. Accessorised with a coral button necklace from Evans (I love evans jewellery) and my orange sarong/scarf.

Intercontinental

Checked in to the hotel – it was a very nice welcome, but we didn't get an upgrade this time (however we did get a bridge view, which was nice!!!)

The rest of us waited in the bar for Dan to have a shower, and we had 2 rounds of beers (for the 5 of us).

Checking out the bar bill later on, we realised that it cost us $98 AUD - that's £67 for 10, 330ml bottles of beer.

I was overall, a bit dischuffed with the IC...it was a little bit too posh, and seemed much less friendly than the fantastic service we'd had in the Holiday Inn, Singapore.

There was NO FREE WIFI!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!! Hence the blogging gap. How bizarre. She said 'I know you're used to that in Europe, but we don't do that here' Terrible.

Travel to Sydney

Got to the airport and after a brief explore, we went off in search of noodles!

On our way we saw the 'honeymoon dessert' stand - very apt!

The flight to Sydney from Singapore was very pleasant and uneventful. 7.5 hours of relative peace, overnight.

Sydney is another 3 hours ahead so, with the 8 from Singapore, that put us 11 hours ahead of the UK.

The last few times I've flown long haul, I've taken the opportunity to watch a classic movie that I've not seen before. So, last time I went to NY for work, I watched 'Some like it hot' and this time on the Sydney flight, I watched 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' – spectacular acting from Maggie Smith – I think she got an Oscar for it.

We arrived in Sydney and got through customs in record time – under an hour from landing to being in the car with Sarah and Steve.

Where did we go to first – Vic's meats – a wholesale meat seller who sells to the retail trade on a Saturday morning. They sell the most AMAZING steak, and at about 60% of the retail price.

So then it was back home to Mosman– where we met up with Alan – Steve's dad who we met on holiday in Vass last year. Then, on to one of the local cafes for a fantastic Sydney breakfast.

Next was back in to town on the ferry, one of my really fave things!!

You can see our hotel, the Intercontinental, to the left and below the AMP building.

It's a lovely day in Christchurch today

It's just about the right temp for me!!!! Dan's a bit cold though - especially after the fairly hot temps we've had in Singapore and Sydney!

Just popped into the local shops...

...and had my nails done! A bit different this time. Navy blue, with one turquoise and one orange finger nail, matching my 2 colour holiday plan!

Do you like?

12 Mar 2013

What I'm wearing - 2 days in Sydney

2 days in Sydney by liza-aldridge

It was pretty blumming hot in Sydney over the weekend. 28/30 degrees, so there was scope for a lot of beachy type wear - although it's not quite the thing to wear a bikini in town, many people were in shorts, flip flops (eeek!) and nice t-shirts.

I chose my Ben de Lisi stripy tunic for the 1st day - it's a multi purpose top - can be worn as a beach cover up, a tunic over trousers, or as I wore it this weekend, as a top (with a belt) over shorts. V smart, I think.

For our Monday wanderings, I have broken into my other 'signature' colour for this holiday which is the sunset orange (or a deep coral) with my M&S orange shorts, my lovely long coral beaded necklace and although this looks like I'm wearing a sarong, I'm not, I have this sarong folded as a scarf around the handle of my bag.

As for the flip flops, the less said the better, they're my real pool side ones. But, my feet were rubbing a bit from the other sandals I'd been wearing, and therefore needs must!

Singapore sightseeing

We've been slightly out of wifi access and fairly busy the last few days, so it's been difficult to blog. So the next few posts are a bit of a catch-up!

We had a lovely long day out around Singapore – walking from the hotel, towards Bencoolen Street – where the apartments are that we stayed in with Ralphie on our last visit back in 2005. (Pictures of that to come when we upload them from the camera). So many things have changed in the city. Massive building work – including digging up the whole of Bencoolen Street to put in a new train station.

We tried to retrace some steps from that first visit – looking for the food halls and temples we saw last time. We did manage to find the food market on Robinson Road "Telok Ayer Market" or Lau Pa Sat Market which is an old Victorian fish market (made in Glasgow and shipped over) which is now set up as a food centre.

Isn't it fab???

– loads of different food sellers flogging every type of food you can imagine. Pig organ soup, anyone?

We indulged our desire for noodles and dumplings in one of the stalls...

This is my favorite kind of food in the world. A big old soup made from stuff & noodles!

I think I have a photo of this from last time!

After lunch we wandered through the financial district...

and then we wandered a bit further down town.

We sat and had a nice beer in another familiar location – a bar alongside the river, where I'm pretty sure we'd been last time. This time we had the additional view of the Marina Bay Sands hotel, towering up behind the buildings opposite us on the river. You may recognise it from the F1 coverage...

Although I'd seen it on the TV during the F1 coverage, I didn't actually realise it was a ship, on top of the 3 columns. It's so beautiful!!!

There are a few more pics from this lovely day out on the camera still (these are just off my phone) so I'll publish them when we get the pics off the camera!

11 Mar 2013

On the move again!

So good bye Sydney, it's been brief but brill!

En route now to Christchurch.

Hello Kiwis.

Haven't disappeared!

Blogging will recommence when we get back online.

The Intercontinental @ Sydney doesn't do free wifi!

6 Mar 2013

Solid goodness

I've been using Lush's solid shampoo for quite a few years...it's really easy to use, and takes up a lot less room in my wash bag than a normal bottle of shampoo, oh and it weighs less too. So when planning for this holiday, I've gone to Lush for quite a few of my cosmetic products as they do quite a good range of "should be liquid but we've made them solid" items.

I've added the items to a list on Pinterest - click on any of them above and you'll be taken through to the lush website for more info on the item.

Toothy Tabs - small pellets of tooth cleaning paste which you chew to turn in to toothpaste for brushing. Now, I've not actually used this yet so watch this space for updates. I bought the Sparkle one...vanilla and pepper flavour!!! I'll let you know what it's like once I try them.

Number 1 on my list is the shampoo - I've used quite a few of the different bars. I think they must have a dozen or so different types for all your hair washing requirements. I keep going back to 'Ultimate Shine' as it just seems to work for me! Pros: Small, light, lasts for ages. Cons: If you leave it in water it'll melt and go soggy. If you go to the lush website people have all sorts of ingenious ideas for drying it off before putting it away, but I actually keep mine (and use it) in one of those little mesh bags which were popular a few years ago for putting your washing tablets in the washing machine. This means that I can hang it up to dry in the shower, AND, when the soap bar is too small to use, I pop the next one in the bag and the small one gets used up alongside it

Metal tins - originally designed by lush to keep the round solid shampoo bars in, and then they expanded to square ones for things like the conditioner and the deodorant bars, and oval ones for the massage bars. They're little stainless steel tins which can be used for everything. Not cheap, but I got mine free when I bought 3 shampoos! They work for loads of things. On this trip I have the conditioner in one, and I'm now going to keep the shampoo just in its net bag, so I can use the shampoo tin for my hand cream bar! Pros: light, reusable, protects the bars from the other contents of your wash bag. Cons: can be difficult to open with went hands!!! (Solution to that is to take the shampoo/conditioner out BEFORE getting into the shower.)

Next on the list is the solid conditioner block. This is their 2nd solid conditioner. The first was 'Jungle' which I didn't really get on with. There's a bit of a learning curve for some of these products, and Jungle and I just couldn't get along. Now they've brought out 'Big Solid' conditioner, and I'm sold! It's a cream bar which you rub in your hands a bit until there's a creamy residue on your hands, just like a conditioner, which you then rub into your hair. Done! Pros: Smells lovely, leaves my hair very soft. Cons: when you rub it in to your hair, unlike liquid conditioners, you don't get the slippy, detangling feeling you're used to, so initially it can be easy to apply too much. You get the hang of it quite quickly though.

Finally there's the 'tiny hands' hand cream / moisture cream - a small bar the shape of a tiny hand - which you hold between your palms until a bit melts. It's a satisfying experience. Takes about 10 seconds. You then rub this into your hands, legs and whatever you think needs some moisture. Pros: Lasts for ages, smells nice, disappears into your skin very quickly Cons: The bar is often a little too greasy to go immediately back in your handbag. So at the moment I'm keeping it in the lush paper bag, but I have just read on the website that people often keep it in one of the shampoo tins, so I'll try that next.

Let me know if you try any of these products. I'm a convert. What do you think?