March 1, 2026

Once we had our dates secured for Sydney, a bunch of residents scanned the offering at the Opera House to find what might be available to us. We lucked out that they had brought back their sellout show from last year of the Gatsby at The Green Light. Kind of a Cirque du Soleil meets sexy nightclub with Gatsby characters. Over 80 of us bought tickets to Gatsy, with another 30 buying tickets to Hansel & Gretal. A big night out for us Ship Folks!

A lot of us dressed up, as they encouraged you to come and be part of the night club fun! Our VIP tickets on the floor, included a signature cocktail and canapes. I tried to organize a quick photo after the show, but sadly the above is the best snap we got! 

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Before the show we had dinner at MIDDEN by Mark Olive, in the west lobby of the Opera House, it's outdoors under the canopy of the arch and serves authentic native dishes. We started with an Indigenous grazing plate - regional cheeses, wild thyme hummus, smoked kangaroo, emu, tandoori crocodile, olives, pickled veggies, roasted macadamia nuts, quandong paste all served wit Tasmanian mountain pepper leaf flat bread. For mains we had crispy skin humpty doo barramundi and kangaroo steak. All very tasty and unique!

Below are some scenes from the show and a fun video put together by fellow resident Lyla.

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KOH SAMUI, THAILAND - Final Day

By Pat Patrick • July 14, 2026
I really enjoyed my first trip to Thailand! On our final morning here we went to try breakfast at this spot, down the road, we had been hearing rave reviews on, King Of Bread . The hype was correct, the breakfast was delicious and they had some unique choices. I had eggs benedict on a croissant, in lieu of the standard english muffin and Bosco had it on Milk Bread, which was equally tasty.

KOH SAMUI, THAILAND - Cooking Class

By Pat Patrick • July 14, 2026
We love having authentic experiences with locals to really get a chance to see how they live and thrive in the Ports we visit. So when I found a cooking class, by a local woman offered in her home, we were excited to book. Um ( our teacher) picked us and brought us back to our hotel along with the family of 4 from Sydney, Australia, that had also signed up for this afternoon class. Um's house, which has a lovely open air kitchen, garden and dining area, was about a 30 minute drive and turned out to be on the beach, right next to the Grandparent Rocks.

KOH SAMUI, THAILAND - NIGHTLIFE

By Pat Patrick • July 14, 2026
The nightlife scene doesn't really get going till after 11pm and goes till 5 am in the Chaweng section of Koh Samui . We made our way over to the club district, and one of the hot spots called the ArkBar a little past 10pm to have some dinner, while watching the beach fire shows.