As it wasn’t humid today, but still nice and warm we decided to get on the Long Island Railroad and head out to Long Beach, Long Island.

The LIRR leaves from Atlantic Terminal – just a 15 minute walk from our place so we got up, got ready and headed out early. It is such a bargain.. for $21 you get return train ticket and your beach access ticket. Yes, to access this beach you have to pay. BUT – it is worth it as it is not super packed and very clean with a well maintained boardwalk. Also, it is minus the the crazies from Coney Island. Bonus!

Here I am on the train… the LIRR trains are gorgeous. Perfect AC and nice and roomy!

We had to transfer at Jamaica station… a decent amount of people were on the way to the beach too!

Here is the Long Beach station. It is right on the main road and the beach is a short five minute walk from the station. Perfect location!

The streets reminded me of LA. They were tree lined with concrete roads and with the sea breeze it felt like a little bit of Cali in NY!

From the boardwalk it felt like I was sitting out the front of Kelly and Donna’s Beach house in 90210. People playing volleyball, playing frisbee, throwing the football and in the distance someone was flying a kite. A great idea that I saw was the lifesavers actually have markers for their ’emergency lane’. As the beach is so long, people are not allowed to set up their chairs and towels anywhere on this strip of sand. So when there is an emergency, they can get in their buggy and be clear of people. Clever! The emergency lane is in between those two sticks in the sand –

As you can see, the beach is niceeeee! We didn’t bring our bathers or anything today as we didn’t know what to expect. On the next warm weekend we are packing a picnic, getting an early train, hiring our chairs and umbrella and having a full day there. We cannot wait – the water was so inviting!!

Before we headed to the Sunburnt Calf for the Camille & Michael’s going away party, we dropped into B. Cafe West for some dinner.

It is just next to the Mermaid Inn and we intended to go there for dinner, but thought we’d give B Cafe a try – it wasn’t too bad!

We shared a starter of Belgian Mini Cheese Croquettes Рoh dear Рthese were delicious. It was basically deep fried Gruy̬re cheese.

Like my nail polish? So do I! It is Essie Hot Coco from the Winter 2010 collection.

For the main, I got the duck breast sandwich which included beautifully roasted duck breast, egg and bacon with more um… Gruyère. I loveeee Gruyère!!

Bill got their speciality Moules Frites which came out in a lovely little bucket that he was able to eat the mussels straight out of.

Service wise it was a bit underwhelming but it was nice to try a new place and anywhere that serves that much Gruyère in their dishes gets extra brownie points from me!

When you move overseas on your own, a strange thing happens when it seems your friends end up feeling like your family. One of the first friends I made when I moved here was Camille and it was super fun as we worked together. I’ll never forget my first day and I was waiting for the office to open. We had just been hit by a massive rainstorm and even though I had my umbrella, I still ended up soggy. James arrived, he had forgotten his keys so we had to wait for Camille to get there. She arrived – soaked through as she had no umbrella!

From that point on, we became great friends. She shared my love of chicken schnitzel (or chicken snitty as they call them on the South coast) and beetroot rolls and we’d all chat for ages about everything from celebrity gossip to our latest Sephora orders. I remember Camille coming into my office to tell me in the corner that she was expecting Eveleigh (I had got a hunch earlier on…!) and the girl can cook AND cross stitch! She makes the best lamingtons, pavlova and cakes around. Raising a newborn in the city is not an easy feat and yet she and Michael are absolute naturals when it comes to being parents – Camille is so relaxed and chill and it reflects in Eveleigh so much!

In our short time all together we have had galas, benefit dinners, Kylie concerts, baby showers, bridal showers and lived through all of our travel adventures. So, this chapter now closes as we just had Camille, Michael and Eveleigh’s going away party at the Sunburnt Calf on the Upper West Side. I still cannot believe they are going back to Sydney!

Here are some photos from the party –

Deb, Katie, Camille and I –

Dan, Eveleigh, Fran, Deb, Bill and I –

And some memories –

Baby shower time –

Gala time –

Kylie concert –

Bridal shower time –

We’re going to miss them so much…. but we cannot wait to hear about all of their adventures back in Oz!

5.45am – Awake.
6.10am – Say goodbye to Bill as he left for DC.
6.20am – Shower.
6.40am – Breakfast.
7.05am – Out the door.
7.07am – Hey there, hello and good morning to someone from Queen of All Saints that I saw on the way to the bus.
7.15am – On the bus.
7.26am – Board the train and read my kindle.
7.33am – Off the train.
7.35am – Call mum and dad while I walk to work.
7.46am – Enter the building.
7.52am – Say goodbye to mum and dad.
7.56am – Log on.
12.30pm – Lunch and Cross stich.
1.30pm – Back to my desk.
4.00pm – Out the door.
4.12pm – Board the train and read my kindle.
4.26pm – Board the bus.
4.34pm – Chat to two ladies from the 6th floor in the elevator about our lack of umbrellas.
4.36pm – HOME!
4.50pm – Speak to Bill.
5.20pm – Two loads of washing on! Met a neighbour at the dryers who is from New Zealand, has lived in NY for ten years and also won a green card.
5.30pm – Rang mum and dad for our morning chat.
5.50pm – Speak to Bill again.
6.00pm- Take the garbage and paper recycling downstairs.
6.05pm – Clean the bathroom, shower and toilet.
6.30pm – Spent 10 minutes talking to another neighbour who has lived in the building for 33 years. He was giving me the low down on the history of the building. Yeah!
7.00pm – Cook some pork chops for dinner. This is very late – we normally have dinner at 6pm sharp!
7.30pm – Try to Facetime with Bill on Amtrak Wi-Fi. Doesn’t work.
7.40pm – Dishes, mop the floor and clean the kitchen and watch Family Ties.
8.45pm – Fold all the washing while watching another episode of Family Ties and then The Wonder Years and draft this post.
10.00pm – Shower.
10.15pm – In bed watching a documentary on families that live in the Appalachian region.
10.30pm – Bill is HOME! 🙂

Forget about Sex and the City – no matter where you live in the world toilets always need to be cleaned, dinner always needs to be cooked and kitchen floors always need to be mopped. I am trying to start to do more housework on weeknights to free up time on weekends.

Also – today is Flag Day! On this day in 1777 the United States adopted the beautiful stars and stripes as its flag.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Summer in Upstate New York is just beautiful.

Everything is so green and lush and at night cool breezes blow… unlike here in the city. While it still gets humid and warm up there… it is bearable because it is so relaxing.

Back in the summer of 2009, we spent time visiting Dan and Paula and I had my first ever swim in a lake. They live right on Crystal Lake and we went out in their boat one afternoon. The whole time I kept saying “Oh no.. I’m not going in!” then when we were actually out on the water, I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t have my bathers on, so I told Bill to take off his swimming shorts so I could chuck them on and jump in in my clothes. It was so refreshing on what was a terribly humid and sultry day.

Now, I can handle surf – no worries. Sand, sunscreen, swimming between the flags. It is all good. But a lake… it is just weird. The water was so warm and so still. It was just perfect. I remember being so scared of strange lake creatures that always fascinated me in books I’d read when I was younger where some lake monster eats half a boat and that kind of thing… but when you are in the actual water it is peaceful and serene. It is actually hard work because with no waves it meant that I was treading like crazy.

First ever lake swim… so beautiful!

Then, I sent mum and dad this video because with it being winter in Melbourne, I had to rub it in!

You can see how unsettled the sky looks here. It was SO hot and the storm came not long after. How beautiful does Crystal Lake look? This is a backyard for those people!

I also found some photos that I took at Golden Harvest Farms from that weekend.. little did I know that two years later we’d be getting our wedding photos taken there! Can you see why I just love it here?!

Last weekend, Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral in Brooklyn Heights held the Lebanese Food Festival again. Remember last year? Well this year was sooo much better because the humidity wasn’t 1000%! It was still warm but not too uncomfortable so we were able to walk the 30 minutes to Remsen Street.

This year we went on Sunday which was a bad idea because they had run out of vine leaves. We still had some other delicious food which is a good treat when someone else is making home style Lebanese food for you to save cooking it yourself!

Brooklyn Borough Hall looking nice and patriotic –

The Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral. It is gorgeous and they have this food festival every year to raise funds for the church restoration.

Menu!

It really was a production line of amazing volunteers with catchy community spirit.

Mmmmm!

This year, we sat inside the church hall to do some family style dining.

Our meals… absolutely delicious!

The sweetest dessert I have ever eaten in my entire life. I could only manage one bite!

A huge Lebanese genealogy project is in full swing… so this naturally caught my eye!