South Coast NSW - Anniversary Getaway

48 hours on the South Coast of NSW - you may think - that’s a vast area to cover, where to even start?

It definitely is vast and diverse on the Southern Coast of NSW, from coastal towns to the sprawling hills and inland villages, but we discovered recently, that if you can stay centrally and make the most of each 1/4 turn of the 24 hour clock, a wonderful snap shot is possible that will leave you planning a couple of weeks next time, rather than just a long weekend.

We put together this little trip to celebrate our 10 year anniversary together. We knew that we wanted to eat well, go on adventures and ensure we had lots of time to relax. So here’s where we went.

Shoalhaven Itinerary:

Day 1 - Sydney to Kiama for lunch - Kiama to Shoalhaven Heads for accomodation at the designers dream boutique hotel Bangalay Villas.

Stay - Bangalay Villas Shoalhaven Heads

Day 2 - Breakfast Berry, Return to Bangalay Villas for R&R, Lunch in Gerringong, Return to Bangalay Villas, Drive to Hyams Beach Jervis Bay, Drive to Mollymook for dinner at Rick Stein’s Rooftop Bar and Grill.

Stay - Bangalay Villas Shoalhaven Heads

Day 3 - Breakfast in Berry, Return to Bangalay Villas for a morning dip before check out, Visit Woollongong or Thirroul for lunch, Return to Sydney.

Restaurants We’d Recommend:

Berry - The Hungry Monkey Berry, (there’s also one in Kiama!)

Shoalhaven Heads - Bangalay Dining

Woollongong - Diggies Cafe

Mollymook - Rick Stein’s Rooftop Bar and Grill

Japan Winter 2015

ONE WEEK in FURANO, HOKKAIDO 

Skiing in Japan is a well trodden path these days and for good reason. It's brilliant. The rhythm of excellent powder, uncrowded groomed runs, challenging back country for those who want to search, then evenings of onsen, sushi and saki all adds up to the perfect ski trip.

The Japanese love children. So travelling with our 16 month old Max in Japan was an absolute dream. There is accessibility on all the metro's, people were helpful, polite and even lots of fun to ask directions from.

Where: The New Prince Resort - Furano, Hokkaido

Why: Skiing with family and friends

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Furano The New Prince Resort - a winter paradise

 

ONE DAY in TOKYO - seven samurai top tips

1. Harajuku - check out all the side streets.

2. Yoyogi Park is at the top of Harajuku and is nice for a stroll.

3. Fav shops are UniQlo and Muji for good affordable basics.

4. We loved the Tokyo Toy Museum.

It's in a disused school down a side street. You'll know you are going to the right place as other Japanese mum's and bub's will be there, making the same pilgrimage.

http://www.gotokyo.org/en/kanko/shinjuku/spot/40343.html

Http://www.goodtoy.org

They have interactive displays of the most terrific educational toys that have won awards. They they have two specially designed play rooms for 0-2's and then a 2-4's. We really liked it as a treat for Max, to have a run around and play with other kids one morning after so much pram time for site seeing. 

5. Go to a cat cafe. If Cats aren't your thing, you can go to an iguana one or a dog one or a... You get my point!

6. For ATM's go to 7-11.

Also, you can buy nice fruit and yoghurt and snacks  for the day there too. But the food levels underneath large department stores also have the best fresh foods and takeaway sushi etc

For Nappies, you need a Drug Store. Not every supermarket or chemist has them. We mostly found pull ups style for 9 to 13kg but I have to say- they were very effective and super soft. I wish I could get them here. You really don't need to travel with your whole week's worth, as they are able to be found quite easily.

7. Airport in Sydney @ The lonely planet store, purchase their pocket Japanese language book. It's really useful especially for food and trying to talk about things you might need. We had apps on our phone but they weren't always useful. Lots of menu's with pictures and English menus are in many places. 

Vanuatu

Paradise So Close!

Location: Erakor Island Resort, Erakor Island, off Efate Island (Capital Port Villa), Vanuatu.

Arriving on Erakor Island, a 10 min (car and boat) trip from the capital Port Villa, was nothing short of a revelation. How can paradise be, only a 3 hour flight from Sydney and I not know about this till now?

Toddler Travel:

Travel time - 3 hours in the sky. 

Childcare - A kids club on Erakor Island Resort that focussed on dinner time entertainment and catered to all ages was terrific. An inspired English and French speaking Vanuatuan local, Patrick keeps the kids super happy and is a wonderful guy.

General Facilities - A fun play fort and a sandy beach which our little guy could wade into the clear blue water and sit without the worry of waves was perfect. If you wanted to wheel a pram around the island, it could be easily done. 

Parent Perspective:

Location - I couldn't get the smile off my face for 3 days, simply because we were living the dream. We were walking around on sandy paths feeling integrated with the island, swimming on sandy bottom shorelines, living in a beautiful spa villa hut, eating delicious food. We could SUP or kayak around the island and see through clear water to the coral, home of starfish and small tropical fish. The food was excellent for Vanuatu standards, sometimes breakfast was delivered on 'island time' but worth the wait.

Day Trips:

Must see places to visit on Efate include The Blue Lagoon, Mele Falls and Eden Beach. 

Click on the image above to view photo gallery. 

 

Swim, Ski, Surf - Vanuatu, Japan, Hawaii

Swim, Ski, Surf - Vanuatu, Japan, Hawaii

Three destinations, three of us - Amy, Oli and little Max.

Firstly, back to gratitude... for everything, for family time, for our adventures, for love, for time, for time and time.

Yes, time is the very thing that I'm always chasing, especially now that I'm a parent. I want to slow it down and make each moment last forever and sometimes I want to speed it up. Like, I'm so tired, please can we all hurry up and go to sleep. Or, can we have more family time? Can we have more alone time? Far out, Max is growing so fast - where did all that time go? I need more time for meditation, he wants more time for exercise, he needs more time to finish off his dinner... 

This year without any mindful planning, except that 'it just so happens', we're travelling a bit. It's very lucky and I'm going to clock this as 'time'. Through sharing some thoughts about this, here in my blog, I'm going to really notice the time we have.

Our travels, will sometimes be just us three, sometimes with our family, sometimes missing the family who can only Skype in with us on these journey's but who are always with us when see and do stuff we wish we could share with them! Other times, it's going to be with wonderful friends.

And so, it begins... 

Vanuatu.

Amy, Oli and Max

How to find wabi-sabi and rustic on Etsy.

It could be that 'wabi-sabi', 'rustic' or 'understated charm' as Etsy recently referred to, is the next big aesthetic idea you'll want to know about.

Check out how Etsy and the craftspeople who sell their gorgeous wares online, have used the idea of wabi-sabi to inspire sales.

An Etsy search for wabi-sabi finds 1743 items.

And if you want to search Etsy for 'Rustic' there is a world of goodness in a bunch of categories.

That's over half a million items categorised as 'rustic'.

What is Wabi-Sabi? Where is Wabi-Sabi in Sydney?

Exploring Wabi-Sabi in Sydney

I've discovered a book written by Leonard Koren, describing the Japanese aesthetic concept of Wabi-Sabi.

http://www.leonardkoren.com/lkwa.html

I'm starting to understand that Wabi-Sabi is a sort of ancient manifesto of how to see and be in the world. It has influence from Zen Buddhism and loves the observation of the imperfection of nature, in it's wane or in it's growth. 

According to Leonard Koren here is a summary list that describes the Wabi-Sabi universe:

"Metaphysical Basis: Things are either devolving toward or evolving from, nothing.

Spiritual Values: Truth comes from the observation of nature. Greatness exists in the inconspicuous and overlooked details. Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness.

State of Mind: Acceptance of the inevitable. Appreciation of the cosmic order.

Moral Precepts: Get rid of all that is unnecessary. Focus on the intrinsic and ignore the material hierarchy.

Material Qualities: The suggestion of natural process. Irregular. Intimate. Unpretentious. Murky. Simple."

A concise and inadequate English translation of the concept without going into the depth of the whole area is the word 'Rustic' according to Koren.

As an exploration of these ideas, I'm going to find examples of Wabi-Sabi in Sydney, where I live and document them here.

There will be a lot of irony here - I'm not taking this too seriously, but I do think that this imperfect position is probably 'Wabi-Sabi'. 

Grass Obscura - Not the Grassy Knoll Bondi, but a patch beside the North Bondi Surf Club. 

Is 'Grass Obscura' Wabi-Sabi?

I had the concept in mind when I took this photo. What I was trying to capture was the movement of two little ants carrying food and crawling around in this patch of grass. We were sitting at Bondi on a Sunday during the 'Festival of the Winds' and the beach and surrounds were packed with people. But, in this little moment, on the grass, were these two ants going about their life. It reminded me about how we must keep life and this moment in perspective. But then, the iPhone5 camera has only managed to keep some of the image in focus. 

It's possible there is a statement in this 'rustic' image, about how it's not quite what was intended, but the spirit of Wabi-Sabi was present in the process of documentation.

I always think the best moments in life are undocumented.

As a professional documentary filmmaker, I've been able to film some extraordinary, serendipitous moments, but in my own life - the truly profound moments are always undocumented. 

I look forward to your comments BTW. Here's another example, I wonder if you agree?

Feature Wall at Bills (Bondi Beach) Sept 14 2014

Is Feature Wall at Bills Wabi-Sabi?

Excusing the artefacts on the lens, again - damn this iphone5, but 6 is on it's way this week.

Anyway, is this wall an example of wabi-sabi aesthetic? It's kind of western mid century folk. I'd nearly say it was rustic, but for me, this might not be in keeping with wabi-sabi, in that it's placement in context is too contrived. But, it's reaching for a kind of modernist rustic. It definitely wants to be warm and sort of personal, it favours wood, there is a depiction of nature and it's sort of ugly, although the colours and overall effect is idiosyncratic. I'm borderline about this. 

What is Wabi-Sabi - a video summary by Amy Frasca!

What is wabi-sabi? 

Here's a quick review of Leonard Koren's book Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers. In this video I suggest an example in Sydney and ask you to upload your own examples of #wabisabi .

Gratitude

Gratitude

Recently I've been enjoying how people are doing the 5 days of gratitude on FB. 

I like that friends are having fun in the positive activity of writing about things they appreciate.

Beyond the 'my dear family, friends, place I live etc' I love it when they go deeper and more abstract, however it's rare. Mostly people want to write about the big obvious stuff. 

Yesterday, instead of the big important stuff that I'm always waxing on about how lucky I am to have, I instead found myself imagining a super banal list of gratitudes:

1. The coffee pot that sits on a kettle element which is so smart it switches itself off after making just the right amount of coffee.

2. That I like...

You know what, the list I was amusing myself with in my head while I put a load of washing on, was so boring that I can't even remember it now. But it served it's purpose, I was grinning at my own little 'in joke' and feeling, well, gratitude.

That's the thing about gratitude, if we can be thankful for the little stuff- that the sun is shining, or that the rain is pretty, that the green leaves blowing in this crazy southerly look lovely,  or a plastic bag blowing on a drive way ala American Beauty is poetic, quietly in it's own way - then the act of contemplating gratitude has worked it's magic.

It's a happier state of mind to be in, rather than dwelling on whatever else was whooshing through ya mind. As I've heard it said 'administration, ills and lows'. (Ten points for who can identify that bit of pop music) There is all the rest of the time to get stuck on that stuff, so for even the small moment when I was being ironically grateful, laughing away to myself, I was totally in this lovely positive space anyway.

So, I'm grateful for that too.