Over the Easter long weekend, I had the pleasure of joining 11 of the BLIAYAD Sydney committee and members on a 4 day weekend away to the Blue Mountains. We started out from Parramatta Vihara and formed a four car convoy toward the western plains of the Blue Mountains. The trip was taken at a very leisurely pace which was much welcomed by all. A very different pace to the usual non-stop pace of everyday working life.

We spent most of the Saturday daytime exploring the natural beauty of the Blue Mountains, going on various bush walking tracks to see the Three Sisters, Leura Falls and Wentworth Falls. On the Sunday, we visited the world famous Jenolan Caves with some other committee members that drove up from Sydney on the day to meet up with us, as well as a total stranger from the UK whom we met during one of the bush walks on Saturday.

The aim of the trip was for the committee and members, to get to know each other better through a very relaxing and fun-filled weekend. It was great to see that there were a good mixture of people and we certainly all had a lot of fun! There were lots of laughters around the dinner table, as well as during the multiple board and card games that we played. The favourite board games of the group must be Pictionary where the drawing and creative talents of each members were displayed. Plenty of music as well as VCDs kept us entertained throughout the night. Even the cooking was a lot of fun. We made home-made pizza dough one night and the pizzas made that night you certainly won’t find anywhere else! There were Australia, heart as well as star-shaped pizzas. People were certainly very creative!

I had a great time during the trip and I must thank all of the participants for their contribution to the trip. Special thanks to Parramatta Vihara for providing all those last minute things we forgot to bring, as well as Joey for doing most of the cooking during the trip. We definitely should do this again!