60TH BIRTHDAY and SURPRISE DINNER

Continuing with our big celebrations of 2018, I turned 60 last Saturday, 22nd September, 2018.  Friday I caught the train to Narangba, my bestie, Vicki collected me from the train station and we went to North Lakes where Vicki took me to lunch to a great Thai place for a lunch and we also had a yummy cocktail, after lunch we shopped for a couple of hours.

                          Our lunch, we had already started when I remember a photo...…………..

Saturday, my Birthday, Vicki came over after lunch with this gorgeous cupcake tower, the cakes were carrot cake, so delicious and moist, they also had edible stickers of "60" and "made in 1958".

I have been on a health regime and lost 5 kgs, I still enjoyed a lovely cupcake "made in 1958" with a cup of tea, so delicious.

The week before Kate said she'd booked a restaurant for dinner for 8 which included the 6 of us and my friend Vicki and her husband.  However when we arrived there were 2 tables together with seats for 20 people with balloons and little stars on the table. It was such a great surprise when our family and friends started coming through the door.

                    Kate, Rebecca and me, Rebecca acting like she's pregnant after her big meal.

My 2 besties, Vicki on the left, we went to high school together and have been friends for a very long time. Casey on my right whom I've known for around 38 years, I met Casey at Shop 21where she worked as a shop assistant in George Street, Brisbane back in 1980, not long after we moved from Rockhampton to Strathpine. We have been great friends ever since...….

Me with my gorgeous Kate who is my first born and turned 30 in March and is now pregnant with her first child and our first grandchild, so exciting..... You wouldn't know it from this photo but Kate is now 28 weeks pregnant and due mid December.  Before my Birthday we saw her last on Father's Day and she didn't have a baby bump, 3 weeks later and when I saw her Friday 21st September, I was so excited to finally see a baby bump.  She has been very lucky and has been very well and not even missed a day of work since becoming pregnant.

Our niece Lisa with her gorgeous little man, Charlie who turned 2 in August, he is just so cute and gives me cuddles all the time.

My SIL, Josh acting the fool with his pregnant belly, hahahaha.  He's so tall, to be able to get him in the photo we don't get to see the pregnant belly of the actual person who is pregnant.

                                    My lovely Birthday cake made by my gorgeous Rebecca.

It was a great night and weekend with many surprises. The balloons have been in my craft room since we came home on Monday and they are still about 1/2 inflated, I've been looking at them all week.

                                                                         Cheers
                                                                         Kaylee

JAPAN 2018 - PART 10

Day 16 - Friday 13th April, 2018

We had a day trip to Kyoto, we arrived at Shin Osaka train station and caught the 9.42am train to Kyoto arriving at 10.10am.  We went straight to the information centre and purchased a bus day trip for Y600, to hop on and off buses all day.

Walking to and from the train station from our hotel we saw this daily, men and women with children on their bikes, sometimes 2 and 3 children.

                   After arriving at Kyoto our first stop was to Kennin-ji Temple Grounds

                                                      and the Kodai-ji Temple area

In the gardens area we came across a Maiko (a Geisha in training) having her photo taken, we stood watching her for about 15 minutes along with many other Japanese tourists.

We met this lovely group of ladies and 1 man, I was talking to the lady in the front wearing black and white, she asked where we were from and said she had been to Australia 2 years ago.  She spoke quite good English.

                                                               They took our photo

                       We then walked a short distance to Gion where there were many people

We saw lots of girls and ladies wearing Kimono's, in Spring they all head to Kyoto and wear Kimono's around, many of them are Chinese tourists.

                                                                Little alley's

       

                              Looking down this alley I saw a lady watering plants

           

We came to the Shoren-in Temple and saw a family wearing Kimono's, there were food stalls around this area.

                                               Chion in Temple

                                                                  Yasaka Shrine

                          Passing through these Torii gates we leave the Temple/Shrine area

                                                    We then came across Maruyama Park

We were a little exhausted so we sat for about 20 minutes and took in the surroundings

                                                       3 friends wearing Kimono's

                                                        A man feeding pidgeons

                                                       Crow in a tree

     
                                                      A Wedding

As we were walking out of the park we came across a man selling whole steamed potatoes, we were so excited as we hadn't had any potato for over 2 weeks, it was Y300 and we enjoyed it so much, of course he only had chop sticks but we managed...…...

                                  We caught another bus to Ponto-cho and the Kamo River

                At the entrance is this timber post/plaque explaining the history of Ponto-cho

                                     The next 9 photos are taken down ally's in Ponto-cho

        

              

We then made our way back to catch a bus to the Kyoto train station, can you see the little Koala on my backpack ?

                                             Kyoto train station is a very big building.

                                                  The escalators go up and up forever

We got back to the train station and had a coffee and charged my iPhone waiting for our train back to Osaka.

Another fully packed exhausting day, we arrived back to Osaka at 6.30pm

That concludes our week in Osaka, the next post will see us in Hiroshima.


                                                                Cheers
                                                                Kaylee