Vikki's Grand Tour

2009-01-12T20:36:00.002+11:00

Surely my last entry was later than the 4th Dec...oops....I'm really slacking!

As most of you know (as I probably saw most of my loyal readers), Jason and I were in the UK over Christmas and Ireland for the New Year. Had an absolute blast, the whole 3 weeks were such good fun...first spending Christmas with Mum, Unky P and Penny, catching up with a couple of friends, and then spending the week in Ireland with my brother, Martina and of course little Hugo, and then the big wedding of Andy and Nicola which also meant catching up with good friends from the old Munich days...it couldn't have been any better, was so great to see all you guys, just like old times!!

I really struggled to leave this time....sometimes I feel like my whole life is one big series of goodbyes, so I'm on a bit of a downer at the moment. I'm sure things will pick up again once I've settled back in, but it is so hard. I guess having jetlag doesn't help, we only got back Saturday morning, so we've really only had one day where we can lie in before heading off back to work (I woke up at 4am today and couldn't get back to sleep!) Oh well, that's the way it goes!! So, talking of sleep, I think it's time for me to head to bed!!

2008-12-04T21:24:00.000+11:00

Well I managed to find a lovely new dress for the Christmas party last week, well I actually bought it for Andy and Nicola's wedding in January, but you have to get your moneys worth! Had a great time at the Christmas party, we had a pretty late night, I was staying at my friend Liz's and bless her, she wanted to go home about 1am, but I managed to persuade her to stay out for a couple more hours...I tell you, once I start partying, it's very hard to make me go home if I'm having a good time! Needless to say, the next day I wasn't feeling too hot and when I got home Jason was a bit worse for wear too!!

We got through to the netball grand final, which we played today, unfortunately we lost 15-12. It was a really good game though, very close the whole way through, I was knackered after, it was the hardest I'd played a game.

I'm still not feeling very festive I must say, we've just put up the decorations at work, and it's helped a little bit. I'm sure that when we get back to the UK it'll be so much more Christmassy as they do tend to go over the top over there (which I love!) bring it on!!

2008-11-19T20:35:00.000+11:00

Shock, horror!

I had quite a shock today whilst checking the exchange rates from the Aussie dollar to the Euro and pound...and I must say, it wasn't a good shock. And yes, I know I work for a Financial Services company, and I'm hearing every minute of the day here and on the news about the fall in the stock market and the dollar going down and the global crisis, but to be honest, I didn't really have time to put 2 and 2 together and think how this would affect our trip to Europe. Luckily we'd paid a bit of a deposit for the hotel in Ireland where the wedding is, otherwise it would have cost us $800 for 2 nights!!! I felt quite nauseous for a while! Looking back, I should have bought lots of travellers cheques or exchanged some dollars when the dollar was at it's highest....but hindsight is such a wonderful thing!!

Apart from that, I'm really looking forward to getting back home, it's 4 weeks on Friday, so not long at all now. I've been busy reading my new Fearless Flyers book, which on the whole was good, if a bit dated, but the trouble is it mentioned a few things that I hadn't even known about before...wind shear and micro bursts which can be dangerous when you take off and land, I'd rather they hadn't have told me about those, it gives me even more things to worry about! At least our flight is halved on the way there as we have a stop over in Korea, I'd rather have a bit of a break and then get back on the plane, I think it's a 5 star hotel which will be nice, although I'm sure we won't see too much of it. Have to remember to get some Korean money before so we can at least have a meal.

I can't believe it's only 5 weeks til Christmas, it'll be so nice to spend my first Christmas in 4 years in the cold where it should be spent, I'm looking forward to feeling really Christmassy which I haven't done since I've been over here. We've got our Christmas party next Saturday night, it's at the same location where Jason and I got engaged. It's supposed to be cocktail dress and everything..god knows what I'm going to wear!. It should be good fun as we always have a laugh with work, although it's the first year as BUPA we are allowed to bring partners, so it might be an interesting mix. I'm not taking Jason though as he has his works Christmas party on the same day, so our table is the singles table, so no doubt it will be the rowdiest there!! I was quite relieved to have the last weekend at home, it was the first time in a month that I hadn't gone out in the city. I've had Linn's birthday, Nicola's hen party (brilliant...went pole dancing...what fun!) and Ryan's birthday with about 10 gay men (and me) in a gay bar (that was an eye opener!) This weekend I have leaving drinks for someone at work, and then another leaving party for a couple we met when we did the outdoors training.

Well, that's about it for now, will try not to leave is so long until the next update.

2008-10-30T16:51:00.000+11:00

It's been a while since I've sent an update...to be honest, I keep forgetting!

Things as always have been busy, so hardly get any time to do anything. I've now joined the gym so I've been going there a fair bit...getting into the pilates...which is very hard!

Getting very excited about going back to the UK....it's only 7 weeks now, I can't believe it's coming around that quickly. I remember in February thinking that it'll be ages before I see everyone again...but now it's nearly here!!

I'm in the netball team at work which is going well, we are currently joint 2nd in the league, and I got voted player of the match for the last 2 weeks...how good is that!! Although I did get quite angry in the last game as the goal keeper was a big woman, and she was in my face the whole game, I didn't stand much of a chance getting past her...but I did try my best!

I'm going to stay over at Sue's tonight, we're just going to have a catch up at home..I'm getting old, I'd much rather stay in than go to the pub! We're also booked to see Kylie in December, although I'm a bit annoyed now, I've found out that Pink concert tickets will be on sale this week and I think I would have preferred to see her this time...oh well!

2008-09-29T20:31:00.002+10:00

I've been meaning to update my blog to let you know that I got my job yaay!! I signed my contract last week (with a bit more of a pay rise too) so I've now got my first permanent job since I left England about 9 years ago, wohooo!! Very happy, things feel a lot more secure now and I can relax a bit more, well not really relax as work as always is a bit full on...but you know what I mean ;o)

2008-09-21T20:20:00.002+10:00

here are some pics of our new place.

our new table

Jase in the kitchen

2008-09-15T20:52:00.003+10:00

It's been a busy few weeks that's for sure, I don't feel like I've had that much down time lately. We've been busy going to the shops, spending lots of money, catching up with friends, getting the place ship shape, plus I've had to prepare for my interview at work...yes, that's right, I had to have an interview in the end! It turns out that last thing on the closing day for applications, some bloomin woman in Brisbane decided to apply for my job, not happy I tell you. So anyway, after looking at her CV, my boss and HR decide that she had no experience, and that she wouldn't be a good candidate...which you'd think would be a good thing...but it meant I still had to have an interview, so that it wasn't seen as favouritism, so I had that last Tuesday. I must say I was a bit panicky as there was an external company there as well as my boss, but he prepared me pretty well, so the interview went as well as can be expected. I'm supposed to find out this week the outcome, there would have to be something extremely wrong for me to miss out on this one!! Watch this space!

The weather is warming up nicely now, it's funny that it goes straight from winter to 28 degrees, no in between. I went shopping on Saturday and bought some new summer clothes for work.

On Thursday night, we had our staff social club dinner at the Bavarian Bier Cafe, was great fun, I think I probably bored everyone with my reminiscing about Munich tho!! It was the type of do where you ask for a white wine and they end up giving you a bottle, so Crystal and I got through a fair few drinks. We wanted to go somewhere after, but all the other guys wanted to go home, and I was staying at one of their places, so I had to go back with Lizzie...I was grateful for that the next day tho, I felt bad enough without going out partying til all hours!

Saturday night Jase and went to a friends 30th birthday party, it had a 1920s theme, so we all dressed up, we looked pretty good, I'll put up some pics soon. We stayed over at Rach and Stu's so Jason didn't have to drive back, so the next day he hung around with them, and I went off to an underwear/clothes party back at Lizzie's. Sue came with me too, so we had a nice catch up...and a giggle about the clothes...they were a bit old fashioned to say the least, not our cup of tea! Got home about 7pm last night, and before we knew it, it was time for bed again.

Tomorrow night we are off to a media party for the Macdonald bros. I've never heard of them, but I've been told they were on the X Factor in the UK and they have supported Westlife. Apparently they are trying to make it big out here. Our friend that runs the Scottish newspaper got us invites, so it'll be interesting to see if there is anyone well known there!

Anyway, I'm just downloading some vids of my little nephew...who's getting bigger by the minute...so I'm off now.

2008-08-31T11:01:00.002+10:00

Jason and I are almost settled in our new place, with the exception of a few boxes still needing to be unpacked...I didn't realise we had so much stuff!
Our move went pretty smoothly. We were up early to pick up the van, poor Jason having to learn to drive it with me in there, not an easy job....we only nearly applied for a divorce a couple of times ...well I do get a bit stressed! When we got back, our lovely friends were there waiting to help us move all our stuff, with their help, we were done loading the van in a couple hours!
We grabbed a quick coffee and a cake and then Jason, Mark and I said goodbye to everyone and set off on our way. It was a bit of a journey as we were in a big van piled up with our stuff, but we eventually got there. It was about 3pm when we finally had unloaded the van, then Mark had to shoot off, so Jase and I were just left with the horrible task of unpacking everything. We got a fair bit done on Saturday evening, then we just had to sit down and chill as we were so tired.
The next day it was a 6.30am start to drop off the van back and clean our old flat. Now, in hindsight, I would have hired someone to do this, I did think about it, but I wanted to save the money, so decided against it. It ended up taking us 6 hours!!! We were exhausted, my poor back and shoulders were killing me. I said to Jason that I didn't think it would have taken that long, but he said he knew it would cos he knows how fussy I am about cleaning...cheeky! He seems to think I enjoy it...well I guess I do, as long as it's my own place and it's just maintenance cleaning...I find it really rewarding to sit back afterwards and see how lovely it looks!
We got back to our new home in time for dinner which consisted of the left-over pizza from the previous night. I must say, I love our new place, it's sooo nice, I don't miss our old flat one bit, this is in a different league, we have so much more space, and of course it's newly renovated which is lovely. I love having a shower there, for a start the bathroom is huge, but the best thing is we have a really big water heater here, so no more 3 minute showers trying to rush washng the conditioner out of your hair before the water turns cold! Plus no more fighting with the shower curtain which had a habit of sticking to your body, we have a proper cubicle...big enough for about 10 people!! probably not so great when it comes to cleaning, but I haven't crossed that bridge just yet.
I had the day off last Monday, so it gave me a chance to get things more sorted. I had a bit of a walk around our new neighbourhood to find some food, and I got such a nice feeling about the place, it's actually a fair bit bigger than I originally thought, and everyone seems so friendly, which is good.

So getting to work takes a fair bit longer, but with a newspaper or book, it does fly by, it just means getting up a bit earlier and getting home a bit later, but it's not so bad. Talking of work, can't remember if I mentioned before that I've got to apply for my own job, because of the Bupa takeover, there is a whole new restructure, so because I'm a contractor, I have to apply which is a pain. I put my application in on Friday, and if I'm the only applicant, then my boss has said I don't need to interview for it, which is great, because they've an external consulting company doing the interviews, so fingers crossed!

So back to our new place, we had a busy day yesterday buying lots of things. We bought a couple of bar stools for our breakfast bar, so we've got somewhere to sit while we eat. We want to get a couple of bedside tables too, but then we thought we may as well wait and buy a bedroom set, inc bed so it all matches. We have also seen a dining table which we just need to measure our room to see if it will fit, it's great, we've got that much room to have a dining room table!

Last night, Jason and I went out for our first meal out in the area, we went to a small Thai restaurant, was funny, there was only 3 other groups of people in there! After that we thought we'd check out our new local pub. There was a live band on, who were actually quite good, all the locals were dancing and having fun, it was very different to your city bars, was very funny to watch! I said to Jason I keep getting paranoid when I walk around here, I think everyone is looking at me and saying, "she's new to the area!" as it is such a small community. I was half expecting for the music to stop when we walked into the pub last night and everyone stop what they were doing and start staring! But of course they didn't.

Anyway, must get on, we've got some more domestic stuff to do today.

2008-08-19T17:24:00.002+10:00

Well, it turns out I was disqualified from the City to Surf!! I can't believe it! I wondered why my result wasn't in the newspaper with everyone elses, so I phoned up the organisers, just to check that my timing chip hadn't got mislaid (as you get charged $50 for it), anyway, she tells me that I was disqualified because I started in the wrong colour section...oops! For some reason my work had organised me a different colour bib to everyone else (there are 4 different colour start sections) the one I was given was at the back of the pack, so I thought it wouldn't be noticed if I snuck in with everyone else....little did I know that it would mean that I didn't get an official time! Everyone at work thought it was highly amusing, and they were all calling me a cheat, and I'd be relegated to right to the back next year, while Jason would be in the front section! I mean, it's ridiculous, it's supposed to be a fun run!

Really getting into the Olympics at the moment, I'm happy to say that at the time of writing, Great Britain are in 3rd place in the medals table (above Australia..hehe!). I know anything can happen, but we seem to be doing much better than anyone had thought...go GBR!!

Just had a call from Jason, he's just been to pick up the keys to our new flat. I had to ask him lots of questions about the flat as I'd only seen it once and that was a few weeks ago and I've forgotten what it looked like. I had a horrible dream last night that it was really tiny and we'd made a big mistake..but Jason has confirmed it's bigger than where we are now, so that's great!

I'm really over packing now, our flat is a mess, it looks like a bomb has hit it, I didn't realise we had so much stuff! I hope it doesn't take long to settle into our new place!

2008-08-12T20:40:00.001+10:00

I am getting very slack at my updates now. I just don't seem to get a minute to log on! We've a bit of news, Jason and I are moving house. We've sort of been checking out an area a bit further south and away from the city, thinking that if we do want to buy a place, that would be the only place we could afford to as the prices are ridiculously high where we currently are. Also, we just received notice that the landlords are putting up our rent.

So we drove down a couple of weekends ago just to get an idea, and while we were there, we found a place available to rent. We had a look, and the flat was lovely, all new paint, new carpets, new kitchen, bathroom and doors, a far cry from where we currently live, so we made a spot decision to put in an application. Found out last Tuesday that it was accepted, and it's been all go since! I must say, I'm feeling a little dubious, it's just under an hours train ride from the city, which means that we will be further away from all our friends, and planning a night out will prove a little more difficult, but if we want to buy there, we must live there first to see if we like it, plus I think it will do us good not being in close radius to all the pubs etc....after all we are getting on a bit!!
The area we are moving to is very nice, it's close to the train station, it's a very family orientated community, we are still within 30 mins drive of the sea, plus there is the second oldest national park (1st being Yellowstone in the US) closeby, and it is massive, it's 132sq km, so there will be lots of nice walks there (oh my, I can't believe what I'm saying!) But really, I am looking forward to it, especially to living in a nice clean place where everything (hopefully) works. Just out of interest, I checked the internet to see the advert for our current flat, thinking they'd have put the rent up a bit more...couldn't believe to find out that they've bumped it up $70 a week more!! what a joke, but that's how it is at the moment, any rental properties just get snapped up there is so little around.

So, what else have we been up to...well I went to see Mamma Mia again with the guys from work, then I managed to persuade Jason to come with me to see the Rocky Horror show at the theatre, which I have to say was brilliant!
On Sunday, we did the City to Surf (14km walk/run) I wasn't going to run it as I hadn't trained and didn't want to further injure my knee, but of course as soon as I was there I got swept away with the crowds (70.000 plus) and my competitive streak came in, so I ran most of it, apart from the big hill half way through! A bit silly of me, but I couldn't help myself. Jason did extremely well, his time was 72 mins, mine was a more modest 1hr 40mins, not bad considering I walked some and also didn't train!

Well, I've gone on enough now! Until next time

2008-07-17T19:35:00.003+10:00

Pope-tastic!

It's been 3 weeks since my last blog....sorry I couldn't resist... It's all the catholic fever getting to me! As you've probably heard, the Pope is in town for World Youth day. Things have been a bit mad in the city, with thousands of pilgrims from all over the world hanging out in the city. The Pope finally came into the city today, so there were lots of barricades on the streets. He came in by boatacade from Rose Bay, did a circuit of Circular Quay (where we all watched him from our window at work...see pic) then off to Darling Harbour where he addressed 150,000 pilgrims. After that there was a motorcade through the city passing half a million spectators, by which point I'd already left work and gone home cos I didn't want to get stuck amongst all the people and traffic. At midnight tonight, the main road from our flat to the city will be closed down for the weekend, so getting to and from work should be interesting tomorrow. On Saturday the Pope is leading the pilgrims through the city and to Randwick Race course (which is 5 minutes up the road from us). They have set up a huge stage and lots of tents which you can see as you drive by. So if you see him on the news on Saturday, just think, I live very close by! It's funny, we've been hearing all these stories on the news that some of the pilgrims have been getting a bit carried away with all the partying and drinking, and even going to massage parlours! But on the whole, I think the most of them are just your normal happy clappers!

Apart from all that excitement, there isn't too much to tell. We caught up with Andy and Nicola again last Friday night, which was nice, and then Saturday, we went to a friends birthday party. It was quite good, cos we only really knew a couple of people there, we ended up meeting some nice people. We went to see Mamma Mia on the Sunday...loved it, such a feel good movie and amazing scenery, definitely recommend it.

Not sure if I mentioned before, we finally got our sofa yaay! And I tell you, it's the most comfortable sofa in the world...well worth the wait, we love it. We've also been buying some other nice things for the flat seeing as there have been some sales on. We bought some lovely bedsheets and a new bedspread and some lovely lights and vases, the flat really is starting to look a lot better, it could really do with a lick of paint and a change of carpet though, but hey, it'll do for now.

I've also been very spoilt lately, Jason's been trying out some new recipes, so I've been trying lots of yummy food. S0, I'm off now, going to try another new recipe...cheesy polenta with mushroom sauce...mmmm.

Here are a couple of pics of the boat the Pope arrived on taken from my window at work (I know, you're really jealous of the view I see every day!)

2008-06-29T17:29:00.003+10:00

Been feeling a bit depressed, it's my 34th birthday tomorrow and I'm absolutely dreading it. I can't believe I'm that old, I'm worrying that I'm running out of time to do stuff, there's still so much I want to do and I don't think a lot of it is possible now :-(

Anyway, I finally arranged something for last night, I kept putting it off, but thought I should really do something. It was a fun night, just a small gathering, Andy and Nicola came over, it was great to see them as we hadn't met up for ages. I got lots of nice pressies and cards and even a little birthday cake. Rach and Stu were dressed up, they had a fancy dress party to go to, Rach looked great, really funny! We went to a couple of different bars, so it was quite a late night. I've actually lost my voice today, I was cleaning the mould off our windows yesterday with this special spray, and I think I've inhaled some of it, my throat is quite sore.

So tomorrow night Jason has booked a nice restaurant for us, and then we're going to go to a comedy night. He already took me to see Phantom of the Opera as a surprise treat, I'm very lucky!

On Friday night we went out for a friends birthday, there were about 40 of us at a restaurant, and most of them were Irish, so you can imagine there was lots of drinks being had! Was really good fun. We were up early on Saturday morning, we went to see Kung Fu Panda, it was my work social club thing, so it was all free, we were eating ice cream and pop corn at 10 in the morning!! After that we went down to the garden centre and bought ourselves a little herb garden, Jason planted it all yesterday, it looks lovely. We also got an indoors plant and a couple of cactus, trying to make our flat look more homely. Talking of that, we're finally getting our settee next weekend...yaaay! It only took them 2.5 months! Luckily we didn't lose our deposit as the company was bought out and they have promised to deliver all outstanding orders.

That's about it for now. I'm just going to post a few random pics, I've finally figured out how to get photos from my phone onto my computer!

Our herb garden

Our friends cat (she just had a shave!)

Jason and Willy

and one from after our half marathon

2008-06-21T10:49:00.004+10:00

I just wanted to post a blog about our half marathon and the fundraising we all accomplished. We raised $100,000 in total and it's still going up. Please read the touching story below from Sophie (mum of the triplet baby boys).

First, here are a couple of piccies I stole from the website, not very good, but you get the idea! I'm still waiting to get the team pic.

My Half Marathon team for the ‘Henry, Jasper & Evan Smith Trust Fund’, Royal Hospital for Women

When I set out to look for people to join my second annual team to run the half marathon and ‘help save tiny babies’, in memory of my triplet sons, the response I received was incredible. After months of hard training and fundraising, 130 people lined up at the start line on 18 May in our red team shirts to run the 21.1km Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon for the ‘Henry, Jasper and Evan Smith Trust Fund’ at the Royal Hospital for
Women. The expected heavy rain and strong winds never materialised on race day. As my team gathered bright and early in Hyde Park for some frosty team photos, I couldn’t help but think that the sunshine was my Henry,Jasper and Evan smiling down on us. Our winning runners, Matilda & Kelly, racing each other to the finish line!

The team made their way to the start line and quickly dispersed amongst the 6000 other participants. The gun sounded and they were off up College St, and soon all 6000 runners had disappeared into the city. I took my place with other spectators along Art Gallery Rd, and in a ridiculously short space of time the winning runner was flying past, having completed his first lap of the City! A few minutes later and the front running pack was there, our first team runner not far behind.

From then on my eight-month-baby-bump and I jumped and cheered and waved as each of our runners came past – from the fittest and fastest to those for whom the course was a huge personal challenge. The determination and dedication shown by so many was truly inspiring, and humbling. So many told me afterwards that it was their thoughts of Henry, Jasper & Evan, and their brave struggle to live, that kept them going. Many told me that the tiny handprints on their backs literally pushed them up the hills and over the finish line. A highlight for me was seeing my husband, Ash, sprinting the final stretch to come in seconds under his goal time of 100 minutes. For some, it was not just Henry, Jasper and Evan who helped them, but the memories of their own precious babies lost due to prematurity or stillbirth. Baby Isabella helped her dad to push on despite a badly injured calf muscle, and baby Lucy inspired her uncle to run a fantastic time. And of course a huge inspiration was the generous amounts of money pledged to each runner by hundreds of sponsors– we were afterall ‘running for a humidicrib’ to save the lives of other precious premature and critically ill babies in Intensive Care at the Royal Hospital for Women.

I continue to be overwhelmed by the generosity of people in helping us raise these much needed funds for lifesaving equipment for the hospital’s Newborn Intensive Care Centre, in memory of Henry, Jasper & Evan. A complete stranger in the crowd at the finish line handed me $50. Con and his staff at the Coogee Café donated all their tips from the race weekend. An anonymous donor sponsored one runner $10,000!

That afternoon we had a team after-party at the Beach Palace Hotel in Coogee, for runners and their sponsors. Among the guests was Tracey Spicer who spoke in her role as Ambassador to the hospital’s Newborn Intensive Care Centre and presented our team’s prizes. It was wonderful to see so many exhausted, yet exhilarated and proud runners celebrating their great achievement.
The success of this team would not have been possible without the kind support of local businesses in Coogee and Randwick, who helped in so many ways. Many cafes, including the Coogee Café, helped in recruiting runners through distributing flyers and displaying posters. ‘Salt and Lemon’ in Randwick encouraged people to join with the promise of free fish and chips! The Beast magazine kindly publicised the event. Chris Warhurst, of the Beach Palace Hotel, and Patrick Byrne, of the Coogee Dolphins, generously sponsored our team’s running singlets. Alex Porter offered her services as team photographer.

Amazingly, our team this year raised just over $100,000, which will be used to buy four much needed state-of the-art humidicribs for the smallest and sickest babies in Intensive Care. Thank you to all our generous sponsors, supporters and, of course, runners. It has been extremely uplifting to see the local community come together to support the Royal Hospital for Women, and in memory of my three very special little boys.
Sophie
www.henry-jasper-evan.memory-of.com

MY BEAUTIFUL, BRAVE LITTLE BOYS WHO INSPIRED SO MANY TO RUN
Henry Tim Smith Jasper Cotton Smith Evan Cotton Smith
Lived 31 July 06 20 August – 16 October 06 20 August – 29 August 06

THEY ARE GONE
You can shed tears because they are gone
Or you can smile because they have lived.
You can close your eyes and pray they’ll come back
Or you can open your eyes and see all they’ve left.
Your heart can be empty because you can’t see them
Or it can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember them and only that they’ve gone
Or you can cherish their memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
Or you can do what they’d want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.
(author unknown)

Henry Jasper Evan

2008-06-10T20:40:00.002+10:00

I'm just finally getting over my cold I've had for over a week. It started off a week last Thursday, so I didn't go out at all last weekend. This weekend I managed to venture out again, plus we had a long weekend as it was the Queen's birthday. On Saturday, Jason and I went to the Doggie rescue place and took a dog (Willy) for a walk, he was an old dog and had a bad back leg, so he couldn't really walk very far, so we sat at a cafe and he sat on our knees. He was very well behaved! I'm not quite sure whether I could have a dog at home though, I hate to say it, but he smelt a bit and I could smell dog for the rest of the day! I am a bit anal when it comes to smells though! But it was nice to do something for the little doggies, it's really sad that 60,000 dogs get euthanised per year in NSW alone, very sad :-(
I went to see the Sex and the City movie with a girl from training on Saturday which was really good. After that I met Jason and we had a nice meal and a couple of drinks, which we haven't done for ages.
Sunday, we just went to the mall and bought a couple of things for the house. But then we bumped into our friend and she asked if we wanted to meet her and her friend for a quick drink, so we met her for an hour, then went home and watched a dvd.
Yesterday had a bit of a lie in and bummed around at home as the weather was pretty bad. We dragged ourselves out though in the evening, we went to see the U2 3D film at the IMAX, it was amazing. I didn't think that it would be that good. You could almost touch Bono, he was right in front of our faces. We felt like we were actually at the concert, but with a much better view, I had goosebumps at some points. You could see the audience clapping and waving their hands in front of you, I kept thinking it was the people in the cinema that were waving it was that real. Anyway, I'll stop raving about it, but if you ever get the chance, go see it!

2008-05-25T19:51:00.002+10:00

Happy 1st Birthday Hugo!

So, it's one year on and my little nephew is celebrating his 1st birthday today. Jase and I just got to say happy birthday over Skype, we sang to him and watched him open the presents we sent. He had a lovely grin when he heard my voice, it means so much to see that, just shows that he's not forgotten me! I just wish I could get my webcam working so he can see me too. Anyway, he liked the birthday card a lot more than his presents as it had a big bear on the front! Chris was telling me that Hugo was pretty sick last night with a high temperature, luckily he's feeling much better today, but still a bit sniffly. He was still on top form though, little monkey!

2008-05-19T21:02:00.003+10:00

I did it!!

I ran the half marathon yesterday, absolutely estatic!! As you know I was worried about my ankles, but they actually held out for the whole run, unfortunately in the end it was my knee that went. I got to about 16km and that was it, but I managed to run through the pain and I got to the water stand and gulped down a painkiller, there was nothing going to stop me from completing this run! It must have been adrenaline that got me through the last 5kms, and it was such a buzz, I was very emotional when I ran through the finish line, this was one goal I didn't think I had it in me to ever achieve. My time was 2hr 5mins, which was so much better than I'd ever expected, especially after all my injuries! Jason did really well too, his time was 1hr 47mins. It's funny, I really hate the feeling before any runs as I get really nervous, but while I'm doing it, I'm really loving it, it's such a good feeling running the streets of Sydney with thousands of other people and the weather was perfect, although a bit chilly to begin with. On one of the streets, there was a nightclub blaring out the music at about 8am, a few of the clubbers were standing outside cheering us on. Also, you get the young kids who stand by the sides of the road holding out their hands so you run by and high 5 them...really cool!

It wasn't really until I stopped running that I realised how much pain I was in from my knee. I've been pretty much hobbling ever since, and it's such an effort to stand up or sit down, I sound (and feel) like an old lady, I've never ached so much in my life. I went back to the physio this morning and she taped my knee up and gave me some exercises to do, apparently my knee cap is moving around too much...yuk...it's a real sick making feeling, not nice. I think I'm going to work from home tomorrow, it's such hard work to get to work and limp around all day.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the after party for the charity we ran for. I don't think I really said much about our fund raising before....I found the leaflet at my gym, it was the story of a lady and her husband who in 2005, gave birth prematurely to triplet boys. Unfortunately, they died after 1 hour, 10 days and 2 months respectively. Of course Sophie and her husband were devastated. One of the things that helped them with their loss was to start training for half marathons, so this was how their fund raising started.

Last year's half marathon they raised $80,000 for the Royal Womens hospital to help buy new humidicribs for the premature babies, this year with 130 runners raising funds, we're hoping to beat that amount. They really are such an amazing couple, to go through all that and then selflessy go to all this effort to help the hospital and other parents and their tiny babies, and it's so lovely that Sophie is pregnant again, and is due in only 5 weeks and everything is going really well. The after party was quite emotional as there was a few speeches and presentations, I feel so privileged to have helped them in their special cause, Jason and I raised almost $1,200 which is so much more that I'd ever expected, we have lots of generous friends and colleagues. Doing the run was great as Sophie and Ash had running singlets made up with the Henry, Jasper and Evan fund and the hospital name, they even had the tiny lifesize little handprints of Sophie and Ash's triplets on the back, Sophie's motivational message to us was that if we found the run really hard, to just think about her little boys' hands pushing us towards and over the finish line (it makes me teary just thinking about it) well, if that doesn't help you get over the finish line, then nothing will! It was great seeing all the runners throughout the run that were wearing the same t-shirts. Another bonus was, we met a lot of lovely people over the last couple of months, I hope to do it again next year if my body ever recovers!!

2008-05-15T20:39:00.002+10:00

I'm getting very, very nervous now about the big run on Sunday. My ankles are still not great, I went for another short run last night and they are still sore, it was such an effort to do 5km, let alone doing 21km!! bit worried really. I went to the physio today and she told me that after the run I should do no more running for 6 weeks...what am I going to do, I've been running now almost every other day for the last year or so, I'm really going to find it hard not to do it, but of course I need to repair my legs, so whatever it takes. I'm going to take some strong painkillers before the run to see if they will help. It's really important to me that I complete this run and I'll do almost anything to make sure I do....watch this space!
Things are changing here at work, we're 'merging' with the British company, BUPA. The vote went ahead this week, and it was pretty much a landslide in favour. Unfortunately for me, it means that it's proving to be a real struggle getting my permanent contract, I really hope I'll get it sorted out by the end of June.
Last weekend I got to catch up with my great aunty Betty who was over from New Zealand visiting her son and family (Grant and Sue). We had a nice evening, playing cards and catching up. We don't see that much of each other these days, I guess we all just lead busy lives.

We had our first flat inspection today. She was very impressed with our clean and tidy flat (thanks to me being so anal!). I envisage a rent rise coming up now though, the renting situation is really bad here at the moment, there is just not enough property around, plus the interest rates are so high, it's making landlords put up the rent by miles. I guess we'll hear something soon, bummer!
Can't really think of anything else to update, so I'll sign off now.

2008-05-07T19:31:00.003+10:00

I finally had my hair chopped at the weekend! It's been coming for a long time, but obviously I wanted to wait until after our wedding. I felt pretty sick when she started cutting, but it actually looks ok, I had some more highlights too. I'm just getting used to styling it now, when I first washed it, it felt so healthy and it was easy to get a brush through it for a change. I think I had about 4 or 5 inches cut off!

I just paid a visit to the physio today. I've been suffering with pains in my ankles when I'm running and it's got really bad over the last week. There's been lots of coming and going with new shoes etc, long story, but it finally got so bad I needed to do something about it. Basically the way I've been running has been putting pressure on my bones and muscles and one of the bones is out of place, I also have fluid on my lower legs, amongst other things! She taped my feet up, gave me a really painful massage, and told me not to run until I see her again on Friday, so I'm just hoping that all is ok on Friday, otherwise I'll be buggered for the run which is only in 10 days! yikes! Good news is, Jason and I have raised $680 (and still counting) for our charity, I'm very pleased, but I have a lot to recover for now!

Oh and more bad news, last week I phoned up to find out where our sofa was (it's 3 weeks late) turns out the company are going into liquidation and our sofa is still in China! I've tried to phone up the liquidators, but noone is returning my calls, we just want to know what's going on. I hope we don't lose our deposit...I'm gutted!

2008-04-27T14:45:00.002+10:00

We had a really great weekend. It started on Thursday after work where I just went for a couple of drinks for Svet's leaving do. Then Friday, we drove over to Andy and Nicola's place. We left for the pub about 3pm, it was absolutely heaving as it was Anzac day. We managed to get a good spot outside and stayed there for a few drinks. When it got a bit later, we wanted to get to the RSL to play a bit of 2 up and to see the band. The 2up was set up on the lawns outside, it was packed. We managed to get there in time for the last of the games, I lost 2 and won 1. Nicola won all 3 (beginners luck!) Then we had a quick feed, then it was time to go and see the ACDC band. It was such good fun, the band were brilliant, you wouldn't have guessed that they weren't the real thing, Jason loved it!

The next day, we just went to the mall on the way home, we both got measured up for a new pair of runners at the Athletes foot. We thought it would be a good idea to get the best for our feet since we're doing so much running. We took them out for a test run this morning, and they were great.

Training is going really well, I ran 17.5km on Tuesday night, I don't think I'll run more than that in training again, otherwise I won't have a goal to complete the half on the actual day. It's only 3 weeks to go now. I had a bit of a panic last week, but after I acheived that distance, it made me feel a bit better. Although it did almost kill me! We've bought a supplement to help prevent muscle fatigue and we've got some sports drinks, so hopefully they'll help. Only trouble is at the moment I've got a black big toenail, I'm thinking it came from last week when we were doing sit ups at training, your partner stands on your feet, but I had a really big girl, and it really hurt. I'll have to be careful in future! I just hope it doesn't fall off or anything, I'd be gutted if I couldn't run for any reason.

So, today, I've got a bit of time to myself, Jason has gone to meet his cousin, so I decided to have a bit of time out. Not that I've done anything constructive, just ironing and stuff.

2008-04-20T17:33:00.002+10:00

Not too much to report this week. We had a pretty quiet weekend after all, which was nice. We were supposed to do a couple of things, but they never came to light. We've pretty much spent all weekend watching dvd's....but that's ok as the weather hasn't been very good. We were hoping our new settee would arrive this weekend, but we've been told it's not in the country yet, so could be as much as 2 weeks away.

I bought myself an Ipod shuffle for my running. I did buy the super duper Ipod classic a few months ago, but it's far too big to have on my arm while I run, it bounces up all over the place..plus I have at least 1,000 songs on it, and I can never find anything I want to listen to....too much choice! So the shuffle is perfect, I've just put my favourite 200 songs on there which will do fine.

It's going to be a nice short week this week, we've got Anzac day on Friday, which means a day off. I persuaded Andy and Nicola to stay around for it so we can go to an RSL and play 2 up, which is the tradition for this day. It's really good fun. The club we are going to also has a tribute ACDC band on in the evening so that will be a laugh.

Actually, I've remembered, we did do something yesterday, we went to the cinema to see Horton hears a Who...I had free tickets and there wasn't much on...but it was a great film, Dr Seuss, very sweet.

That's about it for now...!

2008-04-07T20:20:00.003+10:00

Well, they said that I'd have all in the time in the world after the wedding, how wrong can they be, I tell you I haven't stopped. I really don't know how I coped before with the preparations, and my college when I'm not really coping now! We've taken up the challenge of running the half marathon (21kms) in 5 weeks, so every spare minute seems to be used up bloomin exercising! Before the wedding, Jason and I said we were going to stop being so obsessed with exercise when we got back...but it's gone the other way! My training is going quite well, I managed to run 15km last week, but I tried again on Saturday and only managed 10km. I've also joined a group and we are raising funds for the womens hospital for the humidicribs for the intensive care baby unit, not doing too well on the sponsors though :-(

I'll be suprised if anyone reads my blog anymore, they probably have thought I"ve stopped updating so might not bother checking anymore, I can't blame them!

So what else....I'm still waiting for my permanent contract, there is quite a lot going on at work at the moment, so they've had to push back on that for the moment unfortunately. Work is so busy at the moment, it's been very stressful.

We bought a new settee for our flat which should arrive in a couple of weeks, very excited, it's really comfy and it'll make our flat look much nicer. We also booked our flights to go home for Christmas...wohhoo!! I'm sooo excited, it'll be my first Christmas back home in 4 years. We also have our good friends, Andy and Nicola's wedding in Ireland in Jan, so that's something we're really looking forward to. Chris, Martina and Hugo will be going too, will be really great to spend a few days with them. I"m sure Hugo will be really big by then! I hope he'll still remember my voice, we've been on skype a few times and he seems to recognise my voice as he smiles when I first start talking....I'll have to get my webcam up too soon so he can see me, then he'll definitely recognise me when I see him.

Ok, so I'm going to go now...Desperate Housewives is on...plus I wouldn't want to suprise anyone by writing too much in my first post in ages!!

2008-03-16T14:33:00.003+11:00

3 years in Australia!

as you've probably guessed from the title, I am now celebrating my 3 year anniversary of arriving down under. It's hard to believe how much has happened in this time. Since I've been here I've met so many great people, I've become a permanent resident, and an auntie! And even more amazing, I've married a wonderful man. Sometimes life has a knack of throwing some fantastic things at you when it was the last thing you expected...I never imagined I'd end up living here when just over 3 years ago I packed up my life and went travelling for a year...you just never know! Of course I miss my family and friends, but I really do have such a great life over here, sometimes it's hard to imagine being anywhere else. But nothing is set in stone, and we will just have to see where in the world we will end up settling down!

Here are a couple of extracts from my blog when I arrived here:

I'm finally here in Sydney after a couple of pretty scary flights. The first one from Bangkok to Singapore was awful, it was so bumpy, I was almost in tears (I'm really not a good flyer at the best of times) The second flight was a lot smoother, but still really bumpy in parts, apparently it's like that a lot when you fly in the tropics, at least now I haven't got to fly again for a while!!The landing was quite spectacular, about 30 mins before we touched down just above the dark clouds we could see strips of orange, yellows and blues, and then we saw the sun coming up whilst flying past the Harbour bridge and the Opera house, that was quite an experience, it made the flight all worthwhile. So I was picked up at the airport by Grant, the flight came through a bit early so he wasn't at the gate right away, I did panic a bit cos I wasn't 100% sure what he looked like! Anyway, we found each other in the end. I've met his son and daughter now, it's funny meeting family that I've never seen before! They are all really nice and friendly and have made me feel really welcome. I had a sleep for a couple of hours, then we went to a shopping mall for some groceries, I'm looking forward to going back there and spending a bit more time (and money!) We're going out for dinner tonight, we're eating Italian which I haven't had for over a month so I'm looking forward to that.

The next day Grant took me on the bus into the city center, it only takes half an hour to get there which isn't too bad, he says they hardly ever venture into the city. We saw quite a lot there, I got a really good first impression of Sydney. Lots of cool shops, I saw the Harbour bridge, the Opera House, and lots of other parts of the city, we were walking around for over 3 hours, trouble was it was raining all day, so we both got a bit wet!! We saw lots of people spilling out of the pubs celebrating St Paddys day. It hasn't really sunk in that I'm here yet, obviously seeing the harbour helped a bit, but it all seems a bit surreal somehow.

2008-02-25T14:49:00.004+11:00

Mr and Mrs Mcintyre's Big day!

So, I'm now officially a married woman ;o) Jason and I were married on the 6th February 2008 in Thailand with most of our closest family and friends. We had the most amazing wedding you could imagine, nothing went wrong, the whole day just ran smoothly, and I can remember every single second! The location was just perfect, we couldn't have picked better. The people who worked at the hotel were also very good, and my wedding coordinator was fantastic, she took a lot of the worry away. The only stressful time for me was leading up to the day, and also getting ready on the day, which I think is pretty normal. But it just was so right, as soon as I walked into the chapel and saw Jason, I knew everything would be great.

Being in Thailand, there were lots of extra special touches, for instance, when I came out of my room with my brother, Chris and my bridesmaid, Sue, we were accompanied to the boat by a Thai long drum procession, which was pretty cool, everyone in the resort was staring, which was a bit weird! We arrived at the chapel jetty shortly after, which was when I started to get a bit tearful. Walking into the chapel with my brother by my side, listening to the song I'd chosen, and seeing Jason, and everyone watching was very emotional, plus I almost ran down the aisle, Chris had to hold me back! The chapel looked beautiful, the blue orchids in the white setting with all the rose petals on the floor looked stunning.

The service went really well, I managed to say my vows and my words to Jason without too many nerves, we had a few laughs as well. After the ceremony, Jason and I went outside to hammer our wedding plaque into the wooden stand, then it was picture time. We also had a baby elephant to have our pictures taken with which was very amusing, she was trying to eat my bouquet, and then she sneaked her trunk around Jason's neck and popped his corsage into her mouth...very funny!

After all the photos were done, it was back onto the boats towards the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel jetty, again, we had a drum procession to accompany us. As all the guests hadn't seen them before, so they were all really excited at the sight of them. They took us all to the gardens, where Jason and I planted our very own love tree..ahhh! More pictures were taken, then we walked slowly back to the beach where everyone was supping on their pina coladas while the sun was setting, what a perfect location. Jason and I were called away for yet more picture taking, it's hard work all this smiling for the camera!!

When we had finished, it was time for us all to go into the Casurina restaurant for our reception dinner. The table settings really looked beautiful, and the food buffet was out of this world, everyone commented on how good the food was, and I must say, Jason and I were really impressed. After the food it was speech time, Jason's brother Eddie did a really clever rhyming speech, very good! Then it was time for my brothers, and I must say, it was an amazing speech, he really put his all into it, and I know it was hard for him giving me away, what with our Dad not being there. It was all very emotional, I don't think there was a dry eye, I will never forget that moment. Jason's speech was also very lovely, I really enjoyed listening to him, I know he was very nervous!! I was very touched by some of the things he said, plus it was funny and lighthearted too.

Time for the cake cutting, which was very amusing, they'd given us, not a knife, but a large sword to cut the cake!! we had a good laugh at that! Then a champagne toast.

We'd organised for our guests to light Northern lanterns from the beach when it got dark, Jason and I went first, followed by our families and friends, it was lovely seeing them all set off one after the other.

Then it was time for our first dance to James Taylor's 'How sweet it is to be loved by you'. We'd actually had a few lessons before we went away, which suprised a few people, but I think we were so nervous, our legs didn't go exactly where we wanted them too, oh well...we looked on the dvd and it's not as bad as I thought it would look, it's a shame, as we had a really good routine, I guess we just didn't practise enough, haha!

So, that was the end of the formalities, now it was time to let our hair down and have a real dance. It was such a good laugh, I think most people enjoyed themselves, even Chris and Andy had a 'dance off' which had us all in hysterics, unfortunately though, it's not on our dvd! Even the Thai waitresses were looking in and laughing, and one of them was so funny, she had Unky P on the dance floor dancing away like maniacs!

At about 1am, it was time for us to pack up and leave, I must say I had mixed emotions, I'd had such a fantastic day, I didn't want it to end, but on the other hand, I was looking forward to being with Jason on our own. Of course, Jason carried me over the threshold to our hotel room, and we had a lovely suprise, the staff had put red rose petals on the bed cover for us, very romantic! And the next day, we had a champagne breakfast in our room. They also brought us the rest of the wedding cake to our room, which was huge, no way we were going to be able to eat all that!

Now for the soppy bit...I had the most amazing day of my life, and I'm so happy to have married Jason and am really looking forward to our future together. He really is the most special man, and I'm lucky I get to be with him for always ;o) It was also so great to see all our families and friends again and for us all to be together for this day, thanks to everyone for travelling such a long way and making it a day that we will remember forever.

So, I won't write anymore, I'll update some more on our honeymoon in a few days. Here's some pictures from our special day.

2008-01-21T20:57:00.000+11:00

The clock is ticking......

Only 16 days to go to the big day!!! The weeks are just flying by, and I'm absolutely rushed off my feet, so much so, I can't even remember what I've done in the last week! My weekend consisted of haircuts, facials, shopping for the trip, and a 40th birthday party slotted in between. I've got another full on week this week, something to do every night, but it's my last full week of work so I'm not too worried.
The weekend coming up will be very nice, Jason and I are staying in a hotel in the city for a couple of nights... a nice Christmas pressie from Mum, bless! It'll give us time to relax before the big day. Plus it's a public holiday on Monday, which so happens to be Jason's birthday too. Saturday should be good as it's Australia day, we are staying on Darling Harbour, so there will be lots going on there, probably fireworks too, that's if the rain holds out!
I'm hoping to go kickboxing tonight, but again that depends on the weather. We couldn't go Saturday either cos it was pouring down! The weight-loss is going good though, I actually had to wear a safety pin to keep my trousers up today! I couldn't wear a skirt cos of the weather, and these were the smallest pair of trousers I have. I daren't buy anymore, cos no doubt all the weight will come piling back on over the holiday! It's all fun and games here!!

2008-01-14T20:06:00.000+11:00

Hentastic!!

So, I had my hens night on Saturday night and what a riot that was! I hadn't really sunk in until Saturday afternoon that this was my hen night and yes, I'm soon to be married. The day was a really busy one, training in the morning, then make up lesson, then to the hairdressers...well a girls gotta treat herself! We started off quite early, the girls came over to mine for a glass of champagne to start, I'd bought everyone tiaras to wear which they all loved. We had a dinner to start in Darling Harbour, the food was yummy. I was really happy, the girls went to so much effort for me, they bought me all these funny gifts, most of them being quite rude, but very funny! And yes, I had to do the veil thing and wear the sash around my shoulders...then I got given some fairy wings, I had all sorts of stuff to carry, but I loved it as I love really cheesy stuff!

After dinner, we went to the Kings St Wharf for the cruise. The boat was gorgeous, and there weren't too many people on it which was good. We took over the dance floor. A lot of people were on the deck outside though as of course it's a beautiful view, but I was only interested in having a boogie! The cruise flew by, after that we went to Retro which is the cheesiest club around. After a few minor hiccups (some of us didn't have ID, well, do we really look under 18??!! I think not!) we go in and had a good time in there. I comandeered Rach's blonde wig, I thought I was the bees knees....not!

Then it was finally time to go home, we all jumped in the taxi and headed off for Rach and Stu's. The lads happened to be back there too, and oh my Jason was very very drunk! Bless him, he was lying on the couch and couldn't move. Apparently all the lads bought him a shot glass which he had to wear around his neck, and they were filling it up all the time! We all had a bit of a giggle there, then it was time go home. I had to leave Jason there, he was in not state to walk anywhere.

The next day Jason came home, still not looking too hot, anyway, he went to the mirror and said sh!t someone's shaved my eyebrows!! I hadn't even noticed... of course I panicked loads, but I took a look, and it's not too bad, just looks like his face is a bit lopsided. I hope it grows back, but in 3 weeks, I don't think there's much chance of that.

So here's some pics

2008-01-10T17:56:00.000+11:00

It's been an exciting start to the year, first Monday I got my contract extended at work (it was due to run out at the end of the month) and then yesterday, Jason and I got our Australian permanent residency visas approved ;o) I was pretty stunned to be honest, as we only lodged the application at the beginning of December. It must have only taken 2 weeks to process, because our case officer was on holiday for 2 weeks out of that time. I said to Jason that I must have done a really thorough job of putting the application together!! Anyway, we're both really happy and it's great timing so we can enjoy our wedding and honeymoon without worrying about visas and my work situation.

I'm pretty much on a real high at the moment, it suddenly hit me on Monday night that the wedding was not long away now, I'm a little bit stressed cos I've got so many appointments to keep, but not too bad. I'm sure closer to the time I'll be manically panicking about getting everything ready, but so far so good!!

Well, I'm off to training now, gotta finish the final preparations in style!

2008-01-03T20:53:00.000+11:00

Happy New Year to everyone!

We had a great New years eve on our harbour cruise. We were really lucky and got put on the top deck of the boat which was great. The boat set off about 6.30pm and we just sailed around the harbour taking in the scenery and looking at the million or so people that were already lining the harbour for the fireworks. We met some really nice people on our table, they were around our age, which was good, cos there were a lot of families and older people also. There was only 40 or so people on the top deck, so it wasn't crowded at all. When the sun went down, all the boats switched on their lights for the light parade, which they do every year. This years theme was 'the time of our lives' so all the boats had a different year lit up, depending on which year had meant the most to them...our boat was 2007 as that was when the captain bought the boat. There were about 15 or 20 boats in the parade, and they all cruise around and do a lap of the harbourside so that all the people watching can see them, it really was cool to be part of that, we were waving at all the people on the shore, I bet they were really jealous! After dinner, it was time for the 9pm fireworks for the families, of course they were great, but everyone was waiting for the main event later on. When that packed up, people started to get a bit well oiled, and the tables were moved over for the dancing to start. I loved it as the music they were playing was cheese tastic, and there was a lot of 80s music...poor Jason!

For the 12 o'clock fireworks, Jason and I actually sneaked down to the bottom deck as there was a great space at the front of the boat for unobstructed views. I was chatting to a English woman from Liverpool who had 23 of her family here visiting her, and they were all on the bottom deck of the boat!

The fireworks were absolutely stunning, every year it gets better. They had spent 15 months planning them, so I guess they have to be good! At one point, we couldn't see the bridge as there were that many fireworks going off all around, it looked like it was on fire, and there was a barge just in front of the city skyscrapers which was going off, there was fireworks coming out of the building and all sorts! You really can't explain how good they are, it's really something you have to see for yourself if you are lucky enough!

New Years day Jason and I just took a walk down to the beach as it was a lovely day. Coogee was rammed, I'm glad we didn't go down there to sunbathe. It was back to work yesterday, it's been quite busy, but it's been nice as there aren't many people in, so I've been able to catch up on a lot of work. I've even been working late, which is silly cos my boss isn't even there to see it!

I went to the gym this morning and I thought I'd weigh myself to see how badly I'd done over Christmas, but it turns out I was pleasantly suprised, I'd managed to lose almost another kilo! Very chuffed I tell you, mind you I have been running loads just to make sure I didn't put too much weight on! I must admit I'm looking forward to Thailand and being able to eat loads of food....I'm sure Jason will want a refund after we get married and I get really fat...haha! Mind you, I think he's planning on letting loose there too!

It's now 5 weeks yesterday till the big day, and I must say, most things are organised pretty well now, it's just my beauty stuff I need to concentrate on. We did try and practice for our dance last night, but it was a disaster, I just kept giggling...I'm really dreading dancing in front of everyone now! oh well, I'm sure I won't care on the day!

I wanted to post some pictures from NYE, but it turns out I can't bloomin find the cable to connect to the computer, so watch this space!

2007-12-27T19:34:00.000+11:00

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas! We had a really good one. I must say, I was a bit dubious about spending it with friends, it just seems a bit unusual to do that as I've always been used to spending it with family. Anyway, we got around to Rach and Stu's and they'd made such an effort with everything, they had decorated the garden and had all sorts of nibbles and champagne for us. So we pretty much chilled out the whole day, eating and talking. The lunch was very nice, Rach had cooked a special veggie lasagne for me which was yummy. After lunch, it was present time, Jason got dressed up as Santa (we had a couple of kids there). Actually he was more like bad Santa! It was so funny, he pulled everyone's pressies out and we all had to go up and sit on his knee (I got a special pinch on the bum!) Not sure what the kids thought about it all, they seemed a bit scared at first! He did do such a great job though. After the presents, he sat on the blanket with a beer and a cheesecake..not really good for Santa's image! Got some very funny photos. It all went a bit downhill from there, everyone was well on their way and very happy. We ended up in their lounge dancing to Curly's Ipod, I think Jason and I finally got to bed 5am after listening to my new Kylie CD! Woke up at midday yesterday with a really bad hangover, so yesterday we just went to the cinema and had a nice Thai meal.
This morning I went for a run to try and run off all that alcohol. I've actually been very good this Christmas, I've hardly had any bad stuff, just the odd bite of chocolate, I can't afford to put on any weight. Apart from the alcohol, we've been very healthy.
Today we went to the shops and I got my trainers with money that Jason gave me for Christmas, I was desperate for some new ones. We just got back and we used the rice cooker Jason bought me, I was a bit dubious I must say (would have liked something nice and shiny!) but it's a really good pressie and the rice tasted yummy!

Our Christmas tree

me and my Santa hat (stuck on the washing line)

in Santa's grotto

The gang

Here comes bad Santa!

Check out Santa's flip flops!

Giving out the pressies

Santa and Holly

Very Bad Santa

Things start going downhill

2007-12-19T21:10:00.001+11:00

So I finally got my assignment finished last week, which was a real relief I tell you. I can't believe that's a year of the course gone already. Still been extremely busy though, even with that out of the way.

I picked up our travel tickets last week, very exciting, it makes it seem all the more real to have them in my hand. The lady who I dealt with was so sweet, she gave me and Jason a little box of chocolates for our honeymoon, I definitely have to buy her something for being so great, the amount of time I changed things, she must have thought I was a nightmare!

I went back for another dress fitting on Monday, it looks great, but they'd taken up the hem too much, so that needs to be sorted and she's taking a bit more in at the back. I go back in a month for the final try on, so hopefully all will be good. I'm actually quite pleased, I had my weigh in at Curves the other week and I'd lost quite a lot. Since I've been going there I've lost 28cm's all over and 3kilos. But I think a lot of that has been from the last few months with all the running and cardio we've been doing.

Work is manic at the moment, we're having to re-do a lot of our documentation, which means a lot of proof reading and dealing with the printers, it's a really long process and there's still a long long way to go. I'm trying to get tidied up for when I go away and Roxanne comes back (she is the person who I took over from) but at the moment, it's not looking likely that I'll have everything sorted...I don't want her to think I'm really unorganised! We are also having loads of people leaving, so that is a headache too, I'll be really glad for a week off next week. Talking of which, I really can't believe it's Christmas day next Tuesday, I haven't bought one Christmas present yet. Luckily I don't have many people here to buy for. We are all having an orphans Christmas around Rach and Stu's, so we are just doing a Secret Santa.

I have another works Christmas party tomorrow night...let's hope it's not a repeat of the last one!!

2007-12-07T20:33:00.000+11:00

What a week this has been! Since last Friday, my head has been in a haze! It started off with my work's Christmas party, which was a really good night, but unfortunately, not enough food and too much alcohol has made me forget most of it!! I ended up meeting Jason and his cousin and his cousins mate, who are over from Scotland for some travelling. They decided to play a trick on me and tell me that his cousins mate was his cousin....so there I was saying how lovely it was to meet him and how glad I was that he's coming to our wedding, and it wasn't even him!! They definitely had a laugh at my expense! It was funny though.

The next day I woke up (still a bit drunk), and found that I was missing my phone and my nice new lipstick, not very happy about that, it was that silly little handbag that I took out (that's my excuse anyway). We had to get up and get ready straight away to go to the races for Jason's old works Christmas party. We had a nice table in the restaurant, and a free buffet and drinks, I just had a glass of wine and I was on my way again! We took a bit of time out from the party and found Nicola and Andy who were also there with friends. We had a great laugh, bet a few races, and had some drinks. I also met a girl that goes to our training there...but I didn't recognise her at first cos she looked so glamorous....we're used to seeing each other with red sweaty faces!! After that we went to the Coogee bay hotel to meet my friend from work, Sandra, who's birthday it was. I wasn't sure if I'd see her though as the pub was so big, and I didn't have my phone, but we saw her practically straight away which was lucky. We had a few drinks with then, then I really had to get home, I think I just collapsed into bed at about 9.30pm. Sunday was a real right off, I had a facial, but that was about it for me.

Monday wasn't a good day, I was finishing off my assignment for college, which was due on the Wednesday, and I went to save it and it sent me an error message, so I tried again..but this time all my work disappeared. I tried to find the file, but no luck...all my hard work, gone! I was in a state for a couple of hours after that, absolutely gutted, I'm still feeling it now, I've been in a right bad mood all week. I've got so much on, and I'm so tired and with that to top it off, it just did me in....not good. I just have to face that I have to do it all over again!

Apart from that I'm very excited...only 8 weeks to our impending nuptials..I can't believe how quickly it's coming around! I went to try on my wedding dress which arrived a few weeks ago. Nicola came with me as Sue couldn't make it, so I was happy I had someone there...I've sworn her to secrecy though! I was very pleased with the dress, they just have to take it in and then I pick it up in a couple of weeks. But what that means is that I can't change my weight either way...I'll have to be very careful not to change any of my habits for 8 weeks which'll be very hard.

I'm really looking forward to a holiday too, and of course to seeing my family and friends, and meeting more of Jason's family, it'll be great. I've just been on full throttle for the last year, and the next weeks coming up aren't getting any quieter, I think I deserve a lovely break! Well, onto the weekend again now ;o) I've got a nights reprieve from Christmas parties, so I'm going to get a start on my assignment....again!

Here are some pics from the races...

2007-11-28T14:48:00.000+11:00

I'd almost forgotten to update my blog again this week!
I had a nice quiet night in on my own on Friday...it was well-needed!
Saturday we were up early for a training session, I got home and got some of my assignment done, then we both had a lovely massage. This woman came over to our flat, and we can claim some back from our health fund, so it's great. Then we went to the supermarket, then I had my haircut, so I got loads done. I must get up early more often!
In the evening we went over to Sue and Grant's for a election party (as you probably know, we had a federal election last weekend). It was nice to catch up with them as it had been a while. We drove home to the results of John Howard conceding the election!
Sunday I went to a Tahitian Noni party! My friend Nicola is starting up a small business and she is doing these parties to sell the products. It's a bit like a tupperware party, but the items being sold are beauty products and the like. It was very informative and I really enjoyed it, we all got to use the products on our faces, so it was like having a mini facial. Then I was home just in time for the Australian idol final!
This week everyone has gone David Beckham mad, it's amazing, he's everywhere and everyone loves him! All the celebs have been out to meet him. His team played Sydney FC at the stadium last night, they sold 83,000 tickets, not bad for a country that isn't really into football. We watched the game on TV, and actually it was a good game, we didn't expect much that's why we didn't try to get tickets, but it was good. Wasn't very friendly, but that's another matter! He played the whole 90 mins too, which noone was expecting...good on him!
Today he was at Myer promoting his new aftershave, we did go down, but the queues were horrendous, and we only had our lunch breaks, so we didn't hang around....shame.
But really exciting stuff, I got a free ticket to see Elton John tonight!! Our marketing dept had some to give away, so Ryan and I got one each...I'm so excited, it should be great!

2007-11-20T20:19:00.000+11:00

It was a nice weekend, although not as quiet as I’d have liked! Friday after work Jason and I met up with Andy, Nicola and Andy’s mate Adrian who he knew from Germany. We started off at the Customs House on Circular Quay where they had put a fake vinyard outside, so it was like a bit of countryside in the city. We tasted a few wines, then had a couple of proper ones after. We then went to the Rocks to have a look at the midnight markets and we were lucky enough to see the fireworks show too. We had a bite to eat and a couple more drinks, then departed for home.
The next day, Jason got up early to do a fitness test with our training group. Unfortunately I couldn’t go as I’d buggered my knee from sprinting on Thursday night, but it was nice cos I got a lie-in! We did a bit of shopping, then Jason took me out for dinner. I really am the luckiest girl, I’d had a bit of a low week, and on Wednesday when I was at college, Jason researched the internet to find a really nice restaurant to take me to. So we went to Newtown, which is somewhere we never really go, and he took me to a Bollywood themed Indian restaurant. It was really cool actually, the guy doing the dancing was really funny, I think Jason was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t any women dancing!
Sunday, we just did some more wedding stuff and got our final immigration stuff ready to send. We’ve just got to wait for Jason’s work application to be acknowledged, then we can send ours in…so could be anytime soon.
That’s about it for now, I have to run to get my assignment finished for college tomorrow!

2007-11-12T21:37:00.000+11:00

What a fun weekend. It started off pretty quietly, I had a night in all on my own on Friday, which is quite a rare occurrence. Jason went to a gig so I got out a dvd and had a quiet night in. Saturday it was my friend from work, Ryan's 'fluro' birthday party. It was an early start, I met Linn and Sue at the pub at 12.30, the pub was at Woolloomoolloo and it was very nice, we had a balcony for our group and the sun was out, so it was really lovely. As Ryan is gay, the party was pretty much full of gay men, it was such good fun, we had a ball. Everyone went to a really good effort to dress up in fluro colours, there were some funny sights! I felt my pink fluro hair band didn't really make much of an impact compared to these guys! Everyone was very merry after a few hours...I had everyone drinking Pimms, they all loved it.
We stayed there until about 7ish, then Jason came and picked us up. Just to go back, Ryan went out on Thursday night and met Carson from the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy TV show...he'd got tickets for a posh party where he met him, and they ended up going out partying together afterwards! Anyway, Carson had asked Ryan if he wanted to go to Icebergs (very posh restaurant/bar in Bondi) on Saturday night as it was his birthday too...but Ryan didn't hear from him so he didn't end up going. This is where Linn and I step in! We were determined to see Carson, so we got Jason to take us to Icebergs, just for a look. We had a drink there, then we thought we'd go and have a quick look in the restaurant to see if he was there. We walked through to the end and nothing, but on our way back there were loads of really gorgeous people heading our way (the men were absolutely knee tremblingly handsome!) and then, lo and behold Carson is walking behind them...so me being me went up to him and said 'hello...you snogged my friend Ryan on Thursday night!' (I hope he didn't have a boyfriend in earshot!) and to his credit, he was really polite to us and asked where Ryan was, to which I said 'you should phone him up' anyway, I then touched him a couple of times and babbled some other stuff, then left them to it...how funny. Linn and I collapsed in hysterics in the toilets after...it's a wonder we didn't get thrown out! So it was quite an eventful evening. After that, we went to an italian restaurant and finally had something to eat.
As for yesterday, I didn't do too much in the day, Jason went out after lunch for Rachel's birthday (I hardly saw him at the weekend) and I just chilled out until the afternoon, then I had to get ready for Pam's engagement party. It was a 5.30 start and all the way out west, so I had to leave quite early to get there. It was a very formal occasion, I felt a bit silly getting on the bus with my lovely black dress (and wearing my flip flops for comfort!). I wore a dress that I bought about 3 years ago, but hadn't had the occasion to wear it until now, luckily it's very classical, so hasn't gone out of fashion! I got the bus to Ryan's, then his friend gave us a lift to the place. Unfortunately none of us knew how to get there, and we weren't very organised, so we did get quite lost, then he got pulled over by the police, honestly, I really didn't think we were going to get there. We finally arrived about 6pm, and after nearly walking into an Indian reception (oops) we found the right room. It's a really ethnic area, Luke said that they stopped and asked for directions, but noone could speak English.
The reception hall was huge, and it looked just like a wedding reception, they had 180 guests there (Pam is Italian and her fiancé is Macedonian) so they have the hugest families. The whole thing was very cultural and it was good fun, but it was really OTT, they had speeches, exchanging rings, first dance, video cameras, cake cutting all the usual wedding stuff. Pam really had put everything into this. Her and her fiancé are both only young, just turned 21 so they are both really excited about getting married, but not for a couple more years. There was lots of dancing, and lots of Macedonian music which is very arabic, and starts to do your head in after a while. I really felt like I was on holiday! I love the traditions though, it's a shame that us English/Aussies, really don't have much culture or traditions about us.
So that's about it, had to get the train home which took forever, but finally got to bed about midnight.

Will upload some pics soon...

2007-11-09T19:17:00.000+11:00

It's been quite an interesting week so far. I received a letter yesterday from the New Zealand immigration telling me that my application for permanent residency was approved! I'd almost forgotten about it, as it was over a year ago since I applied and since we are now in the process of applying for our Australian residency it's not really relevant anymore. Just shows you how much can change in a year! I'm feeling a bit weird about it though, it seems such a waste to not use it, and after spending all that time...and money! Oh well, I still have to send them a couple of documents and a payment by May next year, so if our Australian residency doesn't get approved, then we can always think about going there then....we'll see.
Apart from that, I got my college assignments back on Wednesday, and I was very pleased with the results...I got 83%...very shocked I can tell you, I didn't expect to do that well. Considering I almost gave up the course because I was struggling to complete them, I'm now very pleased I didn't. I'm still not sure whether to continue the course into next year though as I've decided counselling is not what I want to do...I don't think I'm emotionally stable enough to deal with listening to other people's problems! We had to do a session on Wednesday where we talked with a partner for 15 mins about all the grief we'd had in our lives, and it was really emotional, especially listening to someone else's story. I'm sure you get attuned to it with practice, but I don't think it's something I want to pursue...but who knows!

2007-11-05T19:59:00.000+11:00

I think it's 2 weeks since I last updated my blog....oops, I keep forgetting about it and the weeks go by so quickly it's easy to forget.
I've been busy doing the seating plan for the wedding...not an easy task! Also we have ordered our wedding cake, the one that came with our package was a bit bizarre to say the least, so we decided to order a different one. I had a hair trial on Friday night and I was really pleased with it. I wanted to get it done before we go so I could show the hairdresser in Thailand how I wanted it. God knows if it will look the same, I hope so! The hairdresser was really nice...when she found out that I trained as a hairdresser she said she's always looking for assistants if I was interested to do some work for her, so I may have a think about that. She does purely weddings, so it could be interesting. After the hair, Sue and I went to the pub and sunk a bottle of wine (or 2!) and had a good old catch up.
Saturday I went into the city to look for a bag for the wedding, but didn't come up with anything, not really sure what I'm going to do about that. My dress has arrived, I've just booked in my fitting for the end of Nov. I'm madly trying to lose a bit of weight for this...only 24 days to go!
I have finally found my wedding perfume after a long process of every time I went to the shops...spraying 2 different ones on my wrists and then coming home to see if Jason liked any of them! at the weekend, we got it down to a short list of 2, then made the decision yesterday, so that's another thing to cross off my list! Jeez, there are so many perfumes to chose from, it's very hard.
I finally got to see some photos of Hugo on my brothers blog. They have been away for a month in England and I didn't have any updates at all. I can't say he's grown though because the pictures are from the beginning of their holiday, hopefully I'll get to see some more pics again soon.

2007-10-15T17:44:00.000+10:00

Another weekend, another update!
I played netball for our works team on Friday, I was just filling in as they didn't have all their regular players. I did enjoy it, but our team are so competitive, it really makes you feel under pressure, I prefer to just have fun while playing! Anyway, we won 10-9 (which was a bit close for comfort for my team) but I got voted the player of the match by the opposition! I thought that was very amusing, funniest think I'd heard in ages! But I'm very pleased and have no qualms about telling everyone! The next day I was so sore, especially as we'd been doing lots of sprints the night before, I was aching all over. Luckily I had a facial booked in in the afternoon, so I had 45 mins of total relaxation which definitely helped.
Saturday night, Jason and I just popped down into Coogee and met a couple of friends. We only stayed a couple of hours as we had another run early Sunday morning.
The run was ok, I must admit I didn't enjoy it as much as the previous ones, there was a 4km run and a 8km run, and the 8k'ers had to run the route twice...I prefer to not know what is coming up, so the 2nd lap was hardest. Plus Maroubra is a little bit hilly, so that made it tougher. It's funny, it was 1km less than the run I did the other week, but I found it so much harder. So yesterday, Jason and I were quite exhausted, we did manage to go down to Coogee though for well deserved ice-cream!
I'm a bit jealous today, Jason had the day off. I just called him and he's been swimming in the pool! Luckily, my boss said that I could take a day off as I had so much on, so I think I'll take off next Monday...I do really need it!

2007-10-09T22:19:00.000+10:00

We had a pretty busy weekend. It was Andy's 30th birthday on Thursday, so as an old tradition for his birthday, we took him to celebrate at the Oktoberfest at the Lowenbrau in the Rocks. It was a really good night, it was a bit of a dejavu from last year though....again I got dragged up on the stage with some other girls and played Edelweiss on the cow bells...followed by a swift rendition of the chicken song (how very un-German!). Andy came 2nd in the beer drinking competition. Nicola has organised a scrummy cake too....so I think Andy had a very good birthday.
On Friday, our friends Gemma and Garry came over for dinner, I was pretty knackered after Thursday, but it was nice to catch up and have a quiet night in.
Saturday I had to pop out for an appointment in the morning, then Jason and I headed over the bridge to Brookvale where Nicola's cousin was having a bbq for Andy's and her husband kids birthday. The weather had turned really bad, but luckily they had a lot of shelter in the back garden. There were loads of people there, lots of friends of her cousins, and lots of kids too. We had another cake for Andy, I think Nicola had ordered 3 over the 3 days, bless! After we'd eaten and had lots of drinks, we settled down to watch the rugby. And what a result that was....we were all jumping around the lounge celebrating, noone expected Aussie to be knocked out yet, and especially by the 'Poms'! Unfortunately for Jason, later on the All blacks got beaten too, so he was very depressed! I've been rubbing our win in to my Aussie friends (well, they always do it to me) but I shouldn't get too excited, we still have to beat France at the weekend. Trouble is the game is on at 5am I think, and we are doing another run on Sunday, so I may have to give it a miss.
I'm extremely tired at the moment, there has been so much going on for so long and I'm feeling quite overwhelmed. I'm really looking forward to our holiday now, I haven't had any time off since March...only another 116 days to go!!

2007-10-03T20:18:00.000+10:00

We had a nice long 3 day weekend last week. Friday night we went for dinner with a few friends. Saturday I tried my wedding dress try on, which didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I guess I wasn't really in a 'I look ok mood' I was feeling a little flat, then I worried that I'd chosen the wrong dress and that I looked old...not good really. I guess it didn't help that I'd had my hair done and she'd curled it, but the fringe was still straight, so I couldn't really do much about it....also I was looking tired from the previous night! Anyway, the jewellery I'd chosen suited the dress perfectly, so I should be happy about that! After that, Sue and I spent the rest of the afternoon looking in the shops, I bought some new training gear seeing as I've been spending so much time working out (not that you'd know :-( ) When I got home, it was nice to just chill out and not have to go out anywhere, I needed to catch up with some sleep!
Sunday we got up and went for a run in the morning, then we headed over to Manly with Linn to meet up with Sue, Nicola and Andy. We thought we'd go over to their neck of the woods for a change! There was a jazz fest on, so it was really busy, plus Manly were playing in the rugby league final in the evening, so there was quite a festive atmosphere. We headed to the rooftop bar and had a few drinks there, and then we stopped to listen to some of the music, then it was time for dinner. After dinner we went to the pub to get a spot to watch the game (much to my dislike!) During the first part of the game, I managed to sort all the old receipts out of my purse, but after I did that I was a bit stumped as to what to do! Trouble is when people watch sport, they don't tend to talk much, even Nicola was really into it and by this time Linn and Sue had left, so all I had left to do was to actually watch the game, which I did, and I must say, although I was really adamant not to get into it...I did at the end! Manly ended up losing. Anyway, we left for home soon after that, after a quick stop at the Bavarian bier cafe!
Had a nice lie in on Monday, I love these public holidays! Jason and I cleaned the flat and then we went to the shopping mall to get a few bits. Jason wanted to get some new t-shirts...and I ended up buying 4 new dresses!! That wasn't the idea, but once I got started. I must say I've been really bad with my money lately...what with wedding bills and beauty treatments (for the wedding) and general bills, my poor savings account hasn't had much new green stuff to go into it :-(
Back to work now and it feels like I've had no time off. The weather is pretty hot...today it was 34 degrees (and this is only spring!). We've just got back from training at the park, blimey, it was like being in a sauna, still must have been 30 degrees at 7pm.

Linn and I went to see Hairspray last night, it was sooo funny, we really enjoyed it. John Travolta was so good as the Mum, he had the part down to a tee. Well worth watching, but you have to see it at the cinema so you get the full effects of the music.

2007-09-27T20:48:00.000+10:00

I've been meaning to put this up for a couple of days!

Had a pretty quiet weekend as we were in preparation for our run. Saturday night we just popped out for a couple of hours to meet up with some friends who we hadn't seen for a while.
The run on Sunday was great, I really enjoyed it. The day started off a bit chilly, but as soon as the sun came out and our bodies warmed up it was beautiful. The run was really nice as we saw some great views. It was good to as it wasn't as busy at the last one we did, you got to have a bit of breathing space. I was very happy with my time...I did 9km in 55.23 mins, I must say the last 2km I really put my all into it, I had loads of energy still left and I wanted to complete the race in under 1 hour...so I reached my goal. It's funny, I seem to get competitive towards the end of these events.
Been feeling pretty tired since...we did go to kickboxing on Monday night too...I don't know where we get the energy from. I'm actually trying my dress on again on Saturday and I'm worried that I haven't lost any weight since last time...time will tell!! I would hope so after all this exercise!

2007-09-22T10:06:00.000+10:00

I didn't get a chance to update my blog yet this week. I've always got so much on my plate, it's terrible how quickly the days and weeks go by.
Last Friday night I finally met up with Sue for a couple of drinks, it'd been so long since we saw each other. After an hour or so, I managed to persuade her to come to the football with us...I was meeting Jason, Nicola and Andy at the ground. Was a good night, although I didn't really watch much of the game as I was talking. Sydney FC were playing Wellington, Wellington won. It was very different from the big games I'm used to seeing, the stadium didn't seem packed at all, and the atmosphere wasn't quite there. Soccer, as they call it here, isn't really one of the big sports here. After the game we had a couple more drinks, then headed home.
Saturday we just went down to the beach for a lie in the sun, then we stayed in in the evening. And Sunday we met a couple of friends for lunch which was nice, the weather was beautiful.
This week has been full of training and homework for me. We have the Bridge run tomorrow, it's a 9km run, so I'm not dreading it as much as the one the other month. We start by running over the Harbour bridge, which I'm looking forward to as I've never walked over it (I've walked on it, but not over it, if that makes sense!). Then we go around the botanical gardens, and back to the Opera House, should be a good morning.

Last night we went to see Ratatouille at the cinema, was very funny about a rat that can cook...I love the Pixar animated films.

2007-09-11T21:08:00.000+10:00

I'm sat here, and I should be doing my assignments right now, but I really can't get my motivation going, so I thought I'd do a quick blog.

It was a short week at work last week as we had a public holiday on Friday due to the APEC conference. I actually had an exciting moment on Thursday morning, from my works window I saw George Bush and his 30 or so vehicle motorcade leave the hotel car park, I had a prime view. Not that I could see him..only his car... but at least I saw a bit of the action! Actually we were watching the news over the weekend, and for the last evening of the conference the government put on fireworks on the harbour for all the leaders and their wives....and I have to say I was very disappointed about that, it's pretty disgraceful, what a waste of money, and when I say fireworks, they don't scrimp one bit, it's a full on spectacular show. I could think of many more things that money would have been better used for, but anyway!

So Friday afternoon, Jason and I drove up to the Hunter Valley for the weekend...and I must say it was just what the doctor ordered. We've been saving so hard for so long, we've hardly done anything else for ourselves, so we thought it was about time. We stayed just outside the Valley in a town called Maitland in a lovely 4 star serviced apartment. It was like a ghost town there, we went out on the Friday night with plans for a lovely meal, but we couldn't find hardly anywhere to eat, and the whole place was like a ghost town, we didn't see one person! In the end we found a pub with a bistro, but it was more like an RSL club, not very romantic...and luckily for Jason (not for me) he did get his wish to see the rugby game on the TV (while eating dinner!)

Saturday, our bus for the wine tour was late, eventually, it turned up an hour and a half late. We were a bit annoyed, but didn't want to let it ruin our day. We had a great day, we went to lots of wineries we hadn't been before, a lot of the boutique ones which was great. We didn't really have a proper chocolate or cheese tasting though, but we were going to go back the next day anyway, so that didn't matter. When we got on the bus back to the hotel, we all had a gift pack with 2 bottles of wine each on our seats...the company had given them to us as an apology for being late which was very nice...we added it to our growing collection of wine that we had already bought! Had a snooze on the way back as you know drinking lots of alcohol in the day makes you sleepy. We had a low key evening and just ordered a pizza and watched a dvd.

Sunday we checked out and drove back to do a bit of cheese and chocolate tasting... I didn't feel like any more wine though (well that's until 11am when we go to the Arrowfield Estate!!) We had another great day, after some cheese tasting we went to Palmers Lane where they were having a Spring festival. We stopped off at one winery, (actually it was a shed) but anyway, we had sample of the chardonnay, then were treated to a show of a couple of Latin dancers....then it was our turn to join in, except that I wasn't dancing with Jason, but the guy who owned the winery (shed). They showed us some moves, but at one point it got a bit embarassing cos I had to move up and down him quite closely.. bless him, he asked if my boyfriend minded!! After that, he said we could have a complimentary ride on his bus, you should have seen it, it was an archaic double decker bus. Luckily we were only going up the road to a couple more vinyards, so we thought we would go. On the bus were some kids that were playing at being the bus conductor, one of them must be a local cos he was very knowledgable about the area, we were quite amused. At one of the vinyards we entered the race of the rubber ducks, but unfortunately did not win anything. So we did get to taste some more cheese and had some chocolate dipped marshmallows which were yummy. We've brought back heaps of wine and some cheese too, but we have to be good now as we have our Bridge run next weekend, 9km, and I've hardly done any training..oops!

here are some pics from the weekend

having a dance

the little kids on the bus

and the big kid..

the duck race

musicians at one of the vinyards

and the happy ending

yummy

2007-09-05T18:44:00.000+10:00

Bush arrives....

It was very exciting coming to work today, George Bush arrived in Sydney last night and the Harbour part of the city is in total lockdown. I must admit it's been a right pain in the bum since Monday, there are fences and road closures everywhere and getting the bus to work has been awful. Today it's even worse. there are police absolutely everywhere and 3 or 4 helicopters flying over the building... you see Bush is staying in the building over the road from where I work, just across a little road. We can see everything from our window, there are snipers on the hotel roof (better be a bit careful with that one) and our building had armed guards all around it this morning, it's very surreal being within a few metres of one of the worlds most powerful men, I've never seen anything like it. Apart from a couple of fighter jets and helicopters hovering overhead, nothing really eventful happened during the day....we missed it when he drove to meet John Howard.

When I came out from work there were even more police and a huge police truck and loads of motorbikes parked out the front. I think another leader arrived too as they blocked off another road when I was walking to the bus and there was a motorcade driving past. Tomorrow will be the most interesting day, Bush is apparently driving through the city in the morning rush hour,..lets see how that goes!

I spoke to my brother last night and saw little Hugo on the webcam...well I say little, he's grown so much, sometimes you dont' realise when you're just looking at pictures. He's still as cute as a button! Here are some pics

my favourite

2007-09-02T19:44:00.000+10:00

It's been an eventful week at work, we had a safe shelter alarm the other day, which meant we all had to move to the 'safe' side of the building. This happened because we are located next door to the hotel where a lot of the world leaders are staying next week. We also had an F16 jet going past our window the other day, it was quite surreal! I'm wondering what next week is going to be like. Better be prepared for lots of security searches.
I went out with my work colleagues on Friday night, one of the Systems guys was leaving, so they put on drinks and food in our coffee lounge. We had a few there, then it was off to the Opera bar and then the Rocks for a couple. By the time I got home it was 1.30...don't know where the time went! I didn't get up til late yesterday, we just cleaned the flat (well Jason did most of it as I was a bit worse for wear) and then we went to see the Simpsons movie. In the evening Nicola and Andy came over for drinks and nibbles. It's so great to be able to hang around with those guys again, I've especially missed Andy since I left Munich, it's weird to be living in the same city with them again.

They left quite early this morning as Andy was having some surf ski lessons or something. So Jason and I just went to pick up some shoes for him for the wedding. I think his outfit is all sorted now.

We decided to get out of the city next weekend, we have a bank holiday on Friday because of the APEC, so we've booked in at Hunter Valley for a couple of nights. I can't wait, I love going there. We got a really good deal which includes a full days wine tour, starting at 9am at the Champagne winery...then following off at the chocolate shop where they sell the best chocolate dipped strawberries and marshmallows...hows that for breakfast!!

2007-08-27T19:17:00.000+10:00

I'm suffering a bit today, Jason and I went to a party at a friends up on the northern beaches on Saturday night. It was good fun, it was a bit different as they were people we don't normally hang out with. It turned into a big night and I drunk a lot of wine and we didn't get to bed til 4am, the latest I've been out in a long time. Luckily we could stay over so we got a bit of a lie-in. The view from their balcony was amazing, you could see the beach and the skies were really blue, it was just like being on holidays. I had a bit of a flashback in the morning though, I remembered that we'd been singing karaoke on the playstation...yikes! So needless to say, yesterday was a bit of a right-off. I think the hangover affected us more cos we aren't used to drinking a lot, my boss said I told you not drinking isn't good for you!
Apart from that, been doing weddingy type things. I found out that to get my hair and make-up done at the hotel for our wedding would cost $500, and that doesn't even include a trial! so when I had my make up done the other week, she suggested that I get make-up lessons so I can learn how to do it properly myself, so I had my first one on Saturday. It was quite good really, she did a bit on one side of my face, then I had to copy on the other side. I learnt lots of really neat tricks, and she said I taught her a couple of things too....she even said she like the way I did my eyes better than hers! I learnt how to make my lips look a bit pouty too which I'm really chuffed about...I bought that piece of make-up straight away! I must admit, I would like to be pampered on my wedding day, but I'm not paying $500, plus it's not a good idea to have it done without a trial. Now I just need to find someone to do my hair!

Things are hotting up here for the APEC conferences next week, it's going to be a total nightmare...I work right where the conferences are taking place, so we are going to be under extremely tight security. We have been seeing police helicoptors outside our windows flying in between the buildings. Luckily they have declared the Friday a public holiday, but we still have to attempt to get to work for the rest of the week. Apparently it's costing us taxpayers over $200 million...ridiculous! they are taking some of the animals from Taronga zoo to another island so the wives of the politicians can see them without all the crowds!

I think I forgot to say also that my work has extended my contract until the end of Jan next year, which is perfect as I can work right up until we leave for Thailand, so I don't have the extra stress of looking for work before. Mind you, I'll have to search when I get back, but I'm not going to worry about that until it happens. Roxanne may not even be back by then, so we'll see. She decided she wanted to spend more time at home with her daughter.

2007-08-20T22:02:00.000+10:00

Jason's parents went home today, I can't believe the 10 days went so quickly. We had a really nice time with them, it was nice to have them around. They pretty much looked after themselves during the week and we just cooked some nice dinners in the evening. They brought us a great toasted sandwich maker for letting them stay which I can't wait to use!

On Friday night, Jason and I met up with my really good friends Andy and Nicola, who I know from Munich. They finally arrived in Sydney in the week. It was really great to catch up with them as it'd been such a long time, they were telling us all their travelling adventures, was a lovely evening. When they get themselves sorted with work etc, we'll be able to catch up a bit more. Hopefully we'll do the Oktoberfest at the Lowenbrau like last year.

On Saturday Jason's Mum just wanted to have a look in the shopping mall, so we had a quick look around there. In the evening we went for a nice Mexican dinner and a few drinks.

Yesterday the weather was pretty appalling, we had planned to go to the Blue Mountains, but of course because it was raining we had to give it a miss. We went to Paddys markets first, then we saw the Flying Scotsman at the cinema, which was a really good film about a Scottish cyclist.

I made a horrible discovery over this last week, I noticed there were a couple of maggoty type bugs on our kitchen ceiling...naturally I freaked out and Jason came and got them. Anyway, the next day there were a couple more appeared, so I phoned up the rental agent (who said it wasn't an emergency) so again, Jason moved them into a plastic pot so when the pest controller hopefully came we could show him. Anyway, half an hour later there were some more. At this point Jason's mum and dad said they may be weevils (what in the hell are weevils was my response!) apparently they grow in pasta and rice and flour. So we started searching through all the packets of stuff, and sure enough in the packet of rice there were all these disgusting creatures (Jason didn't show it to me though because I would have gone mental) and they had spread to the other packets of stuff so we ended up throwing practically everything out. I can't believe these things exist, I"ve never heard of them and I told Mum off for never telling me about them! I didn't realise you have to keep an eye on these foods and make sure they are sealed away and to use them before they get too old. They turn into moths too, now I know why we were having a problem with the moths!! So now, I'm a bit stuck cos I can't face eating anything like pasta or rice (I hope I haven't put anyone off) what the heck am I going to eat now!! the thought of it makes me feel ill!

Anyway, I'd better sign off on a nice note. Here is a few pictures of my speedily growing nephew Hugo with the teddy bear I sent over, he's grabbing stuff and as you can see picking things up now...he's so cute.

2007-08-13T18:21:00.000+10:00

What a great day yesterday was! I'm pleased to say I completed the City to Surf 14km run in just under 2 hours. I ran most of the way (just walking up the really steep hill) I really didn't think I'd be able to do it...just shows you what you can do if you put your mind to it. I started off the first half with Jason's Mum, Claire, when we got to the top of Heartbreak hill (the really steep hill) we couldn't believe we'd already ran 7km. So after that my competitive nature kicked in and I wanted to try and get a good time, so I ran off ahead of her. After the hill it was pretty much downhill which was good, I was flying past lots of people, I had so much motivation in me, god knows where it came from, but I wasn't puffed out one bit during the run, I hate to say it, but it was almost easy...nothing like I expected. I think it helps when there are loads of people running with you, if I was on my own, I'm sure I wouldn't have done half as well. There was 65,000 people competing on the day, so you were never alone!

When we first got to the city at 7.30am it was pretty quiet, we met up with my work colleagues to have a team picture taken, then after a half hour queue for the loo, we got ready for the start. You can't run for ages at the beginning though cos there are so many people walking and with pushchairs, it's a bit of an obstacle course, in fact for most of the race it's like that! We left approx 9.15am and it was getting quite warm even then..I think the temperature was 22 degrees yesterday. Luckily there were lots of drinks stops, and some people in their gardens with hoses spraying water over everyone which was a nice cool down. There were some people dressed up in outrageous costumes, there were a couple of Borat's in that fetching green swimming costume...I bet they got a lot of chafing!! I was quite emotional when I crossed the finish line, it was such a big achievement for me, I'm not a runner and I never dreamed I could run it all, trouble is there was noone there to give me a congratulatory hug at the end as Jason had gone on ahead :-( We will find out our exact times tomorrow in the newspaper, Jason did approx 1hr 45mins. So yesterday evening to celebrate, we went for a few drinks down the pub, I had my first glass of wine since 5 weeks and a huge pizza which was very nice! Feeling a bit exhausted today and I'm aching more as the day goes on!

So that's about it really. Jason's Mum and Dad arrived with us on Friday evening so we've been entertaining them since. It's been really nice to see them again.

Here are some pics from yesterday

Jason, me, Bruce and Claire

Me with my work colleagues

start of the race

Jase and me with our medals

Bondi

2007-08-05T21:44:00.000+10:00

It's been another busy weekend. Friday after work we had a mid-year soiree, I didn't stay long though because I wanted to get back home pretty early as I still had my college assignment to complete...I've really been putting it off. It was supposed to be in a couple of weeks ago, but I got an extension until this Wednesday. Anyway, of course I didn't get it done on Friday, by the time I got home I was tired and it was gone 9pm. So I ended up getting up early on Saturday morning to get a good start on it, which I did, it was a lot of work though. Had to leave at 11 for our appointment with the accountant...had some good news there, I got some tax back which will go nicely towards our wedding. Then it was back home again for lunch, then Di picked me up, she wanted me to help her out with her portfolio (she's in advertising) I had to have my photos taken with one side of my hair straight and one side curly. It was for a hot chocolate advert, so the idea was that I stopped halfway through doing my hair because I couldn't wait for my hot chocolate. I felt like a right berk, I had to act like I was really enjoying the drink and say mmmm loads and smile while I was having my pics taken by her photographer mates, very embarrassing! Anyway, it took about 2 hours to get done, but we got there in the end. Then I had to rush back and get the groceries, then I got back and nearly finished off my assignment. We ended up staying in again last night.

Today we were up early again and we went for a run at Centennial Park. I was so pleased with myself, I ran 7km, which is the most I've ever done, it took me 45 minutes. I have to say I was absolutely done in after, I don't think I can run the whole 14km, and the run is next Sunday, so it doesn't give me much time, I'll just see what I can do.

So after recovering from that, I met up with Sue at the mall. We wanted to have a last look at some more bridesmaid dresses, but because of the season, there aren't really any summery dresses about yet. I had a make up trial so I could get some ideas for the wedding. It was really good and very imformative, I learnt some new tricks. I also spent a fair bit of money! It was funny because she did one eye one colour, and the other eye another colour...it reminded me of yesterday with two different hairstyles! It was good that she did that though so I could have two different looks to decide from. I think I've decided on the colours I like now. That took about 2 hours, so we both went home after that. Jason went to a concert tonight, so I've just been watching my Sunday night TV, my favourite night, but all the final parts have been on, so I don't know what I'm going to do next Sunday! Right, I'm off to bed now.

2007-07-30T20:47:00.000+10:00

The past week has been quite busy, what with all the exercising I've been doing. I started full on back with my training last Monday, had a really good week of exercise. I did a catch up class with the outdoors training I do last Thursday, it was a cardio class and it was a killer. Trust me to pick that night to start it! We had to do hill runs, which didn't mean just going up the hill once or twice..it meant going up and down god knows how many times. I really did think I was going to be sick! Then after what 30 mins or more of that, we went back to the park for some sprinting. I do really enjoy the classes even though they are really tough, it's good to have someone pushing you all the time. Actually, we've just got back from kickboxing. I got paired up with this lovely Irish girl, at the end we had to lie down facing each other and lift up onto our feet and elbows, then we had to high 5 each other...every time we high 5'd we cracked up laughing, and then I smacked her glasses off by accident which made us laugh even more, I don't know where we got the energy from to stop collapsing!

The weekend was quite nice, quiet again. We met up with Linn and Martin and Sean on Friday night, we hadn't seen them for a while, so was nice to catch up. Then on Saturday we went to a Sexpo for a laugh. It was very amusing, there was lots of naked people walking around (as you'd expect) and some of the stuff they had at the stalls were very outrageous (to put it nicely). We saw a man painting pictures of people with his you know what...the paintings were suprisingly good! There was pole dancing and male strippers and lots of show bags with weird and wonderful things inside. After a while though it all gets too much!

Sunday morning we went for a run, and then I had a pedicure, which was lovely...that's about it really.

2007-07-23T20:51:00.000+10:00

I had some sad news last week that my Grandad had passed away on. He had been poorly for some time, and he'd been in a home for a couple of months so at least he isn't suffering now. I hadn't seen him for nearly 6 years, the last time was at my Dad's funeral, so it brought back a lot of feelings about that too. I'm sure he's in a better place now.

Was feeling sad over the weekend because of that, so had another quiet one. I went back to the doctors on Saturday as I was still coughing, he gave me a puffer which has really helped and I am no longer coughing my guts up! Jason and I are also on a no-alcohol regime until the fun run, we are into our 3rd week now and it's going well (probably cos we haven't been out tho!) We are going to do 5 weeks, so we're halfway there.

We've just got back from kickboxing, and I'm struggling to type cos my arms are shaking so much! It was good fun again, I'm glad to be back exercising. I even went to the gym this morning too.

2007-07-17T19:31:00.000+10:00

So, not much to tell since my last entry. I'm still not feeling 100%, I've got this horrible cough still, but I'm a lot better. Hence we had a pretty quiet weekend. We didn't do hardly anything, just watched dvd's and went to the cinema on Sunday. I didn't make it to my kick boxing yesterday as whenever I exert myself I start coughing...plus it's been really cold here, so that made up my mind! Only 4 weeks to go till the City to Surf, and my hopes of running it are slowly lowering, at this rate I'll be walking the whole way!!

I'm hoping to do a web link with my brother tonight so I can see little Hugo again. Chris has sent me lots of videos, and Hugo is all laughs and smiles...so cute!

2007-07-11T18:19:00.000+10:00

I'm suprised if anyone is still checking my blog as I've been so slack in updating it, but here's another update just in case!

Well, the end of financial year at work finally came to a close, thank goodness, that was pretty full on, we had some drinks on the Friday to celebrate. Saturday was my Birthday (2 weeks ago) I had an ok day, I must admit I was a bit down and not in the party mood which I normally enjoy on my birthday, I was missing my family as they were all together in Slovakia, and I guess I panicked at turning 33! aargh! But I did get some lovely pressies, my cool sunglasses from Jason, and my brother went out of his way and sent some really cool animations of us all on his blog. This was my 3rd birthday here in Oz, who knows where we will be on the next one!

I had my annual review at work the other day, it went really well and my boss was really positive and gave me some excellent feedback, my bonus looks good too....fingers crossed it all works out ;o) He is trying to keep me on until February, but it all depends on the lady who is on on maternity leave and what she decides to do, hopefully I'll find out soon.

Last weekend Sue came out with us for a friend's birthday, hadn't really seen her socially for ages, so it was great to catch up. It wasn't really a big night, but I woke up on Sunday with an awful cough and then it developed into achey muscles and shivers and feeling basically awful. I had to go to work on Monday morning as there was some stuff that needed doing, but I ended up going home at lunchtime, and I've been off since. I'm feeling better today, still not 100%, but I'm going back to work tomorrow, apart from anything, I'm bored stiff.

Jason and I went to a kick boxing class last Monday, it's outdoors training in the park just up the road, I've been wanting to go for ages, but it's been raining all the time. It was a really great class, bloomin hard work tho, I was stiff till the Thursday. We ended up signing up for 12 weeks, we need to do all we can to stay in shape. Unfortunately though because of my flu, I couldn't go on Monday, hopefully I'll be fully recovered next week. I was doing so well last week with my running and training and lunchtime training sessions at work.

2007-06-25T19:30:00.000+10:00

I've just been reading my brothers blog, it's so funny, there are entries from Hugo and it's so sweet and amusing. I finally have seen some more updated photos and he has really grown lots, I look forward to checking Chris's blog everyday for some new ones! Hugo was 4 weeks old last Friday, bless him! Chris and Martina had their first wedding anniversary yesterday, congratulations guys. It's hard to believe that it was a year ago we were over there, it'll be going on 2 years the next time I see them :-( I've put some more photos below this.

We finally got our wedding invitations sent out last week and we've had some lovely comments from people that have received them already, they can't believe that we made them ourselves which is very flattering.

On Saturday, Jason took me birthday present shopping, he wanted to buy me some sunglasses as my cheap $10 ones were annoying him as I was always squinting. It took me about an hour to decide which pair to get, in the end I settled for a funky pair of Gucci's! Yes, I know I have expensive taste! I can't wear them until Saturday though, mind you not as if it's sunny enough for them!

After that he took me to a bridal shop over the water, I'd seen the exact earrings in a magazine I want to wear for our wedding, and luckily it mentioned that they sold them locally. So I was really pleased when I got there and found them...plus a matching bracelet, so of course I bought them! Can't get them for another month though as they have to order them in. Then we went to the mall to pick up a heater for our lounge. We didn't get one though, they had all sold out. But I did get some lovely shoes...also for the wedding, I found a great pair and they were half the price of the ones I saw at the wedding shop, plus they weren't bridal shoes which I didn't really want to get cos I wouldn't be able to wear them again, so I've got an appointment on Thursday to try on my dress once more to see if the shoes match.

Sunday we went to another mall, and this time we did pick up a heater, and a couple of dressing gowns, and some pjs! so we're all rugged up for the winter now. Can't remember if I said we'd bought an electric blanket a couple of weeks ago...I love it!

That's about it really, work is still busy, I'm looking forward to the finish of the end of financial year!

Here are some more pics I pinched from my brothers blog!

How strong is Hugo...he can already hold his head up which is pretty amazing for a 4 week old baby...how clever!

aaahhh!

2007-06-17T10:58:00.001+10:00

Well, it's 11am on Sunday morning and I thought it was about time that I made a bit of an effort to write a proper update!

I've been pretty sick for the last week, cos winter is here, there are lots of bugs going around, loads of people have been off sick. I had a day off on Tuesday, but I had to go back on Wednesday as we've got so much work on (that's the trouble with my job, I just can't have the time off). It's the end of financial year June 30th, so as we're in Financial Services it's the busiest time of year. We are just rolling out a new PDS for our Superannuation product as there have been lots of government changes. This has been a nightmare, cos the graphics guys are making mistakes, then the printers are behind because they've had to sort out the artwork, so we're a couple of days behind production which isn't good. Anyway, that's boring!

I'm feeling a bit lost this week, my brother has been in Munich, so I've had no updates on Hugo and no pictures either, I bet he'll have changed loads when I see some updated ones. Chris has been really good, he realises that Mum and I really want to see pics, so he's been putting them on his blog regularly. Hopefully when he gets back home we'll see some more!

Not sure if you'd have seen it on the news, but we've had the most awful weather here. It's better now, but last week it was horrendous, John Howard declared it a natural disaster. The worst hit was Hunter Valley where all the wineries are and Newcastle which is an hour or so up the coast. There were really bad floodings causing the river banks to burst, the places were evacuated and I know there were some deaths too. It was awful in Sydney, I tell you, the drainage here is really bad, I've probably mentioned this before, but the roads just get totally flooded, and this time cos the weather was so bad it was even worse. Up in Newcastle, a huge petrol tanker got grounded on the beach there, I'm not sure if they've managed to move it yet, but there were worries that it was starting to break up, and obviously that would be another disaster. We've pretty much had rain since that, but we've also had a few sunny days. It's getting colder now, Jason and I bought a nice electric blanket last weekend, it's absolute bliss...we love it!!

We have had a pretty quiet weekend so far, we had a friend around for dinner on Friday. We had leek and potato soup, Jason has been making lots of soup lately since I've been sick...bless! Neale had just got back from 3 months in Brazil to visit his girlfriend, so we checked out all his pics.

Yesterday, we went to see Shrek 3 in the morning. I got some free tickets from work. It was really good, the film flew by though. After that we went home and got on with making our wedding invitations, I must say they look really great, I'm really pleased with them, and we haven't made any major mistakes yet! We have still to carry on today, but we're over half way there, hopefully we'll get them sent out early this week.

Well, I'd better go so we can get started again!

2007-06-12T11:08:00.000+10:00

As promised, here are some more pics of Hugo

These are the most recent ones

2007-06-05T20:03:00.000+10:00

Haven't really had much chance to write...again! I can't even remember what I've done over the last week, so I'll start off with little Hugo. I finally mananged to see him over the webcam last week, it took me and Chris all night last Sunday to try and get connected, so in the end we postponed it to the next day and it was worth the wait. We had about 30 mins on the camera and Hugo was so well-behaved, I was really impressed, he didn't cry once...Chris had just fed him so he had the cutest hiccups. Sorry for being boring, but he really is the most adorable baby, it's so sad that I can't be closer to him...he's just so cute and tiny, it's making me very broody looking at him I tell you! Chris is so happy, it was really lovely seeing them together.

I'm in the process of trying to upload some more pics..but I'm having trouble, so I'll try again in the week.

2007-05-27T19:51:00.000+10:00

It's a boy!!

What an amazing day Friday was. My little nephew Hugo Lewis Plant was born into the world at 00.26 on 25th May weighing 6lbs 7ozs and 48cm long. He's the most beautiful little baby, and I'm so proud.

Chris phoned me on Friday morning just before my college course was about to start and told me the happy news. Of course I just started blubbing on the phone and couldn't find myself to ask any questions! I went back in the room crying and everyone was worried... then I announced I had just become an aunty and everyone congratulated me..funny! Anyway, I couldn't really concentrate for the rest of the day, my mind really was distracted. I finally got home in the evening and Chris sent me a lovely email with some pictures and we spoke on Skype for a bit. He was frantically running around trying to sort out Huey's birth certificate and passport, so they can leave Vienna and go back home....sounds like a nightmare. Anyway, I think he got most of it done, so they should hopefully be home early next week, then I can see him on the webcam, I can't wait! It's been so difficult being all the way over here, and knowing that I won't see him for months :-(

So, here are so photos of gorgeous little Huey with Mum and Dad

2007-05-23T20:30:00.000+10:00

So, I finally get around to adding another entry! I've just been speaking with my brother and also had a nice chat with Martina....they are awaiting the imminent arrival of their little baby. Chotcho is due tomorrow, but they did think that the little'un would arrive early, so the last few days I've been glued to my phone waiting on any news! Anyway, Martina has an appointment at the doctors tomorrow, she is getting some natural medicine to hopefully bring on the birth, so it could be any day now...it's all very exciting. Martina sounded really well and relaxed which is good, I'm sure I'd be panicking like mad, so I was very impressed! So watch this space!
My weekend was nice and relaxing, I tell you I needed it after the busy last 2 days at work, Friday was a nightmare, everyone wanted everything doing plus I had to leave at 4pm to get the train to make sure we were at the retreat on time. By the time I sat on the train, I was shattered and stressed, so was really looking forward to getting away! We got there about 7pm on Friday night, so we didn't see much of the place as it was pitch black...it was also absolutely freezing and there was a bitter wind, Sue and I couldn't believe the change just from travelling 2 hours! Our accommodation was really great I was very impressed, it was quite new and had an en suite bathroom and electric blankets which were a lifesaver!. After we'd unpacked we went to the meditation hall for a 30 mins meditation, then it was time for dinner. After that we had a welcome talk with our group for the weekend, then it was time for bed. We didn't get so much sleep that night, me because I was sleeping somewhere new, and Sue because the wind outside was so loud (luckily I had my earplugs, so didn't hear it!). So by the time we had to get up at 7am the next morning we were still pretty tired. Again we had another meditation and then did some tai chi, after which was breakfast, then a talk. And that was pretty much how the whole weekend panned out, we did have a really good time, the place was great and the setting was beautiful, the views were pretty amazing, the people who worked there were lovely...they give up their precious time just to come and look after their guests (they all volunteer) they really looked after us well. Saying that, by the time Saturday lunchtime came, I'd pretty much had enough, it was so full on with the meditating and the talks, I didn't feel so relaxed anymore. Our group was 50 people, so you're constantly making small talk with everyone and it got pretty tiring, so on Sunday after morning tea, Sue and I decided to leave early and get back home...what a good decision that was, it meant I got home at a reasonable time and I could relax a bit before my course on Monday.
As for this week, I started my communications course on Monday, and I'm having the best time, it's the best (and most challenging) course I've ever done, the people are so great, we all really connected pretty much straight away and there has been a lot of learning and sharing about ourselves. Even in 3 days I've learnt more about myself than I ever have before, it's really hard to explain, but it's just a great journey to be on (that makes me sound all counsellorish!) but it's true. I took a weeks annual leave to do this, but I don't begrudge using my precious holiday, it doesn't even feel like I'm doing a training course....we've still got another 2 days to do and I'm really looking forward to them. It is pretty intensive too, we've had assessments and lots of readings to do, I even had to do a presentation to the group on Tuesday (we only had notice on Monday) so there wasn't much time to prepare. I was absolutely scared stiff about this, I've never done a presentation before, but I did it, and passed the assessment which I was really pleased about, it was quite a buzz, but I was so glad when it was over. This course is really taking me out of my comfort zone which is a good thing, I'm gaining so much more confidence, I'm even enjoying the role plays and speaking in front of the group now...who'd have thought!!
So here, are some photos from the weekend
This is where we stayed

The view from our room

The Stone Cottage at the bottom of the hill

The gardens of the Stone Cottage

2007-05-15T20:36:00.000+10:00

We had a nice weekend, Jason's friends were down from Brisbane, they weren't staying with us, but we did catch up with them on Friday and Saturday night, so I was feeling pretty tired yesterday. We were also really busy doing wedding stuff. On Saturday we went to a wedding stationery shop, we had an appointment with the woman who owned it, she hand makes all the invitations etc, the stationery was beautiful, there were so many to choose from. So we told her what we were looking for and she drew up a couple of designs and gave us a quote. Obviously we wanted to shop around a bit, so after we went to another place where my friend from work got hers. The invitations weren't quite as nice, but we started to look around the shop and saw that you can actually make your own, which intrigued us. We had a lot of ideas and the lady in the shop helped us find all the stuff we needed, so we bought a couple of blank cards etc for a test run before we made up our minds. So, on Sunday we got out the craft glue, the glue gun and all our other bits and bobs and got to work. I was quite happy cos Jason and I really wanted the same style, so there were no arguments about that ;o) We made two cards, the second much better than the first, but we were really impressed with how they turned out, so I think we will probably go with making them. I'm really pleased we are making them, I think it adds a personal touch (but don't worry, they don't look like 5 year olds made them!!) This was the first wedding thing Jason and I have really done together, apart from looking at hotel websites, so it was really nice to do this with him, I'm sure sometimes Jason feels like I'm taking over...he's probably right though, I'm a bit of a control freak, but I'm trying to keep him involved!

So that's about it from me. I've got a pretty quiet week this week, no college which is nice. We're playing tennis tomorrow night, and then I'm off to the Blue Mountains on Friday after work for the weekend with Sue. We are going to a retreat I found out about through the meditation school I sometimes go to. It looks really beautiful on the website, it'll be a nice break away with no TV, or alcohol! I just hope it's not one of those retreats where you can't talk all weekend....I definitely think we would struggle with that one!!

2007-05-10T19:08:00.000+10:00

Everything has been happening this last week. Our travel for the wedding is now confirmed, I put the deposit down on Tuesday...exciting! We have to pay for our flights in the next week too. Also, I've found my wedding dress ;o) I went back to the shop where the 2 I liked were from and I saw another one, so I tried it on and both Sue and I knew it was 'the one'. I'm so relieved as I was beginning to think that I wouldn't get that feeling of buying the perfect dress, I even tried on one of the other ones I liked before, but I tell you it looked noway near as nice,how lucky that I saw this one. So I put my deposit on that too (that's how much I loved it!) The reason I was worried about finding something was that they take 6 months to make the dresses, so I had to get it sorted pretty quick, so that's another thing I don't have to worry about...well, it's to the wedding dress diet now!! We also had a look at bridesmaids dresses for Sue, but it was only a quick look as I'd already spent most of the afternoon posing in the mirrors in my dress!Saturday night Jason took me out to dinner as a thank you for getting all the travel arrangements sorted, which was sweet, we went to the Italian up the road. Sunday we went to see Spiderman, really enjoyed it, great special effects. This week I haven't had a chance to speak to anyone, I've been really busy studying up on my college notes, we had an assessment last night, have been very nervous about it as the mock one we did last week didn't go too well. I wasn't prepared for it at all, plus I'd had my flu vaccination and I think my head was a bit spaced out! Anyway, it wasn't as bad as I thought, I think I did ok, I'm trying to be positive! I must say, I've forgotten what it's like to write, my hand was really aching after the test! We have now got a two week break between terms, but I have signed up for the Communications course on one of those weeks, I've had to take a week off work to do it, but I need to as part of my course, bit of a waste of holiday, but never mind, the course is supposed to be really good.

So now I can relax a bit over the next week which is good. Well apart from going to wedding invitation shops at the weekend...it never ends!!

2007-04-30T19:47:00.000+10:00

I'm really excited today, our wedding arrangements are nearly confirmed...we've signed the contract with the hotel, and nearly got the final travel details through, so it's all happening ;o) I'm off wedding dress shopping next weekend too, (Saturday and Sunday) my friend at work recommended a good shop, so I'm going to check it out on Sunday. I did go looking quickly on Saturday down Parramatta Road, but there was nothing much there I liked (as usual) so watch this space!

Last week was a bit strange, we had the Wednesday off work for Anzac day, (not that I'm complaining!) we met up down the pub for the traditional game of 2 up and we also watched the crab racing...which lasted all of 2 seconds! Friday night Jason and I went out for dinner, which we don't do that often, it was a spontaneous decision, which is always good. I was feeling a bit tired after our netball game in the day, we won our firstgame ;o) It started off a bit of a disaster though, most of our players dropped out, which meant there were only 5 of us, then on the walk to the sports hall, we lost a player, which meant we were forfeited a point every minute we were late (you can't play with less than 5 players) so eventually when she turned up we started at 7-0 down! Anyway, cos I'd managed to poach a player from our other (good) netball team, she scored loads of goals and we ended up winning 12-11, which was a much needed motivator I tell you!unfortunately I can't play next week as I have another training course, this time it's Word. So that's about it, Saturday we were supposed to go for a birthday drink with a friend, but it didn't happen, so we just stayed in, then last night Rachel came around for dinner.

2007-04-23T19:45:00.000+10:00

I've had quite a nice weekend, Jason has been away in New Zealand, so I've been enjoying living on my own for a bit, I've forgotten what it's like to be on my own, but now I'm feeling a lonely and I'm glad he's coming back tomorrow!

I met up with Sue in the city on Saturday night, we don't often meet up at the weekend so it was nice not to have to worry about getting up for work the next day. We attempted to go to some different bars, but we found out a lot of them are shut in the CBD at the weekend, so we ended up having to walk to the other end of the city. We did go to one cool bar near Circular Quay, on the 47th floor which revolved, but after a while it made me feel a bit queezy! Yesterday I just tidied the flat and chilled out a bit which is always nice. I actually started to read back on my blog from when I was in Thailand and when I first arrived here. It's amazing how different my life is now to when I first got here, I feel like a boring old woman, although I'm always busy, my life isn't nearly as social as it used to be...I don't know how I did it. But I guess when you are single, you do go out more. Maybe I should start making more of an effort. It was quite funny looking back though, you do forget a lot and it's great to be able to check back on the past.

We've got a really nice week this week, Wednesday is Anzac day, so we all have the day off, I think we will go and play 2 up at the pub (it's an Anzac day tradition).

The weather has been shocking today, I got absolutely soaked on the way home, there were torrents of water running down the road and the pavements, my feet were soaking. But it is a good job that it's raining as they were saying in the news if it doesn't rain in the next 6 weeks, the price of all fruit veg etc would go up 5 times because there would be no water for the crops, it's quite frightening, you don't realise how bad it actually is here for lack of water.

2007-04-16T19:48:00.000+10:00

Oops, it's been 2 weeks since my last update (that sounds like I'm in confession!). As usual, things have been very busy what with trying to organise the wedding and work etc etc. The wedding plans are coming along nicely now after a bit of a stuggle with communications. We nearly changed the wedding location to a different area it was so hard to get a response, but they came through in the end, luckily as we had our hearts set on this place. So, we've nearly booked it all up, just waiting for the flight quote which we should get tomorrow, then we can get it all sorted and start telling people where we are having it. It's all really exciting, it's going to be a lovely wedding, I can feel it, and not just because it's ours, but there are lots of nice little suprises and it's going to be totally different from a normal church wedding. I've also got an appointment at another bridal shop on Thursday just to have one last look to see if there is any other dresses that jumps out at me.

Work has been a bit quieter this last week as my boss has been away, it gives me the time to catch up on my work. I had a really nice suprise from him the other day, he'd written me an email and said how much he appreciates my work and he'd like Jason and I to go out for dinner on the company...cool. We're going to save it for our anniversary which is coming up soon. Jason is actually off to New Zealand on Wednesday, we thought it would be nice for him to see his family while we are still here as it's been ages since he's seen them. Unfortunately I can't go as I have no holidays, and we really should be saving as much money as we can. So I have a girls night out next Saturday!

Had a really lovely weekend, firstly I'm really happy as my friend Sue has agreed to be my bridesmaid. She's been a good friend for me over here, and she's been such a great help coming shopping with me and and I think it'll be even more fun if we are both looking at dresses together and doing all the girly stuff. I would have loved to have asked Martina too, but unfortunately it's not really practical when it comes to choosing dresses, plus I can only afford one bridesmaid!!

On Saturday it was Martins 30th birthday, he had chartered a catamaran for a cruise around the harbour in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day we were really lucky with the weather, and we had the best time, it really was a fun way to spend the day. We went out after to a couple of bars, and you can imagine everyone was a bit worse for wear, I didn't get home until 2am...not good, I'm still recovering today! I was a bit sad as I couldn't get the chance to speak to Chris as it was his birthday too, I did try to phone from a friends phone, but we couldn't get through (mind you it was probably a good job as I probably wouldnt' have made any sense!) I did manage to get to speak to him on yesterday tho, so we had a nice chat. He had a great day with Martina, sounded like he got some nice pressies too. He's really excited about their imminent arrival, it's really not long now, just next month, I can't believe where the time has gone. I'm so excited for them, don't know how I will cope with not being there when chotcho comes along tho, I think it will be very hard, I just expect lots of photos!

2007-04-03T18:37:00.000+10:00

Last Friday I played netball again, I enjoyed it much more, probably because they didn't stick me in defence this time. I scored a goal!! We still got thrashed though....11-1 haha! The other teams defence were really good,we didn't stand a hope in hell of getting the ball and they were really competitive too...I mean we're just there for a laugh and some exercise, but some of the teams are so serious. I was still knackered after, most of us played the 2 halves, we only had one substitute (but at least we had a whole team this time). After work we all went to the Social club Trivia night. It was good fun, and we didn't have to pay for anything which is always good. I got quite a few answers right too!Saturday I went to Parammatta again with Sue this time to try on my 2 favourite wedding dresses. I thought I would come back with an answer to which one I wanted, but I'm more confused than ever now! Sue is very patient with me! In the evening I was so tired that we decided to have a night in. We walked to get a dvd at 7.30pm as it was Earth Hour, not sure if you'd heard of it, the whole of Sydney were supposed to switch off their lights for an hour as a campaign for global warming, so we switched off all our electrics and went out to see how dark it was. I must be very naive, I thought that everyone would make an effort, but I was so disappointed, we were walking down the road and couldn't believe how many didn't even bother, what a let-down. Some people just don't seem to care at all.

Sunday we didn't do much, we met the guys for a couple of hours in the evening.

There has been a big hoo ha in the news about the way the Tsunami warning was handled here for the recent earthquake in the Solomon Islands. They evacuated parts of the Queensland coast and they closed the beaches and the Sydney harbour ferries here in case anything happened, I guess they can't take things too lightly after the one in Asia, but some of the politicians have been accused of scare-mongering, or not informing the public what was going on.

2007-03-29T21:38:00.000+10:00

So as promised, I've finally got around to uploading some pics.....

This is Hyams Beach at Jervis Bay...in the Guiness Book of World records for having the whitest sand in the world

and this is Murrays beach, just up the road from Hyams

A wild kangaroo we spotted at the Botanical Gardens in Jervis Bay

At our friends wedding on Saturday

Gemma and Garry during the ceremony

Some pics of the Take That show at Martin Place I went to see the other day

with the Sunrise show presenters

A shot of Mum at the Harbour

Imagine our shock when we returned from the supermarket and saw this hulking great spider on our wall! The picture frame on the wall in the pic is 42cm in length, so you can sort of get the idea of how big the spider is....

we thought about putting our hands in the picture so you could get more of an idea of the size, but thought better of it!! I was only saying to someone the day before I saw this that I'd been here for 2 years and only saw one big spider, that'll teach me! I'm not sure if it's bigger than the one I saw last year, but it's big all the same, I'm so glad Jason was here to dispose of it!!
Which reminds me, it was my 2 year anniversary here a couple of weeks ago!

2007-03-27T19:31:00.000+10:00

Thought I'd better catch up on my blog again, I think it's been nearly 2weeks! So, Mum went home a week last Saturday, was very sad to say goodbye,it's always hard. She got back home ok, and I think she now feels like she never had a holiday!!

So, what's been happening....we went to our Irish friends wedding on Saturday, it was at Bilgola beach which is on the Northern Beaches. It was our first beach wedding, so we were really looking forward to it, and to picking up some tips for ours! The ceremony didn't start until 5pm, which was lucky as it was such a stinking hot day, but it actually started to throw it down just after they'd finished taking the photos which was very lucky. It was a great day, I really liked the informalness of the occasion, we really enjoyed it, we went to a house after for a bit of an after party, and then went back to the hotel, very tired at about 3.30am! Luckily Sunday the clocks went back, so we had an extra hour to sleep! We got back home before lunchtime, went to the supermarket and then chilled out for the rest of the day which was really nice.

Oh, I played netball last Friday, our first game of the tournament. It didn't start off very well, half of our team didn't turn up, so there was only 5 of us, but luckily, we managed to poach 2 players from another team, so we didn't get disqualified. Anyway to cut a long story short, we got thrashed (well actually it was 6-3, but it felt like more!) I've never been so knackered in my life, we had to play 2 x 13 minute halves and it was sooo hard, I thought I was going to throw up at one point, then I thought I was going to faint, it was awful, I didn't feel right until the next day, but then I could hardly move I was so stiff. I laugh about it now, but it wasn't that funny then!! So we have another game on Friday, but it should be better as we have recruited more players, so we will only have to play one half each, which suits me!

That's about it really, well the interesting stuff anyway, I won't bore you with the usual day to day stuff.

2007-03-16T20:04:00.000+11:00

I've really been neglecting my blog of late, just been very busy!

Had a great week off work last week. We were supposed to be going to the Blue Mountains last Monday, Jason even took the day off work, but the weather was miserable so we decided not to risk it, seeing as we've been there before when the weather wasn't so good. So, instead Jason kindly took us to Parramatta so Mum and I could go wedding dress shopping! We parked at the shopping mall, and when we walked through Myer (a department store) we were stopped and asked if we wanted a free make-over....of course we said yes. Anyway, turns out, my girl was new (I was her first customer!) so I wasn't so pleased when I looked in the mirror afterwards...I had about a ton of bronzing make up on my face, and my eyes looked awful. Mum's wasn't so bad, but it was still far too much make-up...she hated it. So we dashed to the loos to try and scrub it off!! Anyway, after that, we went to a couple of bridal shops...I found 2 more lovely gowns, and now I'm even more confused than ever. I'm going to take Sue with me in a couple of weeks to see what she thinks, but I won't go into details for obvious reasons!

So that was Monday, Tuesday the weather wasn't so good again so I think we went to the pictures. We did the beach walk on one of the days, from Coogee to Maroubra. We also went to the shopping mall and I spent lots of money!! Friday night we took Mum to the Rugby club to watch Linn and Martin do their jazz set which was really good.

Saturday we were up early to set off for Jervis Bay. We had a lovely weekend, it was about a 3 hour drive down, so we got there about lunchtime. We stayed in Huskisson which is a really tiny town, it was absolutely beautiful down there, Jervis Bay is renowned for their white sandy beaches. We took a long walk to check out the area, had a lie down on one of the beaches for a while, then headed back to get ready for dinner. We went to a nearby town and had a lovely Mexican feast (even Mum ate it which was great!). Next day we were up early, Mum treated us to a Dolphin cruise (Jervis Bay has lots of dolphins that live there). It was quite slow to start with, but we did see quite a few dolphins in the end, although they were pretty far away, we definitely would love to go back again. After that we grabbed some lunch from the bakery, then drove back through the National Park. First stop was the Botanical gardens to see the wild kangaroos, we were really lucky and saw 4 of them, we got really close up, Jason took a really good video of them. Then we went to the famous Hyams beach, which is in the Guiness book of records for having the whitest sand beach in the world. It was a lovely beach, but I was looking forward to Murrays beach, which the lovely lady at the motel said was even nicer than Hyams. Hyams was nice, but very crowded. Murrays beach was our last stop and it was worth the wait, it was a stunning beach, and hardly a soul there, the water was turquoise blue and the sand bright white, gorgeous! You can go snorkelling there too, so Jason went off and took some pics of the fish. After that we drove back home, I was a bit depressed cos I had to go back to work the next day :-(

Work was pretty busy as I expected, was quite hard to go back! So, as for this week, on Tuesday evening, Mum and I did the Harbour Bridge climb! I wasn't really that excited about it, I was really nervous and scared, I hate heights! But as everyone told me, the first bit is the worst, you have to walk along some really narrow walkways until you get to the actual bridge, and you can see right down below you, it was very scary, and really high too, I was shaking like a leaf. But I got through that and some more hairy moments, but once we got onto the archways of the bridge it was much better as you can't see right down below you as they are quite wide and it was much more sturdy. Another bad bit was crossing from one archway to the other to get back down. It was an amazing experience tho and we were really lucky that the weather was great, the views were cool. The group we went up with were really nice, mostly English tourists! I can't remember facts and figures as to the height etc, but we learnt some interesting things (that we were very high up among one of them!) We got a couple of pictures taken which Mum bought at the end. The whole thing took about 4 hours, including getting geared up with all the equipment, so we were pretty exhausted by the end. Overall it was a fantastic experience, definitely worth the money and I'm really glad I did it with Mum.

I actually asked my boss on Weds if I could take the day off on Friday as it would be Mum's last day here before she flies home, he said it was cool, and he even told me to take yesterday off too, but I said I had some stuff I urgently needed to do, so he told me to leave at lunchtime, which was really nice, so I got to spend some more time with Mum. So after a nice afternoon (and a bit of a heart attack....I couldn't get hold of Mum on the phone and I thought she'd had an accident...turned out she'd knocked the plug for the phone out of the wall!) we met up with Sue and Grant for dinner. It was really nice to catch up with them again.

Today we took it easy, then went for a bit of a walk and did some shopping, we've just eaten dinner and are now settling down to watch a dvd. It's still really hot though, today has been a killer, and it hasn't cooled down still.

Mum is leaving about lunchtime tomorrow, I'm trying not to think about it as I get upset, and I know that I won't see her now until our wedding next Feb :-( It has been really nice seeing her again.

Oooh, I've just remembered something else, I saw Take That on Thursday morning! I got into work and Ryan said "Take that are playing at Martin Place in 10 mins for the Sunrise TV program, do you want to go??" so naturally I said yes! We ran up and got there just in time, they sung Back for Good twice, I guess one was a rehearsal for the TV program. They are really good live, I must say I didnt' recognise a couple of them to start with as they look a lot older. There were quite a few people there, lots of screaming girls, well I say girls, they were probably my age!! but they are older now, and so are we, so I guess that's their fanbase now. Anyway, it was good, and I got some good pics and videos too. I've got lots to put onto my blog, I just haven't had a chance yet. I do really love Sydney, I've got to do so many cool things here.

2007-03-04T09:36:00.000+11:00

Finally got our computer back!! It's all good, apart from us losing our documents on the hard drive, that'll teach me not to do a back-up! oh well.

It's been an exciting couple of weeks, so much has happened. We went to see the Queen Mary 2 when it was docked here, you probably saw it on the news. It was a huge ship, quite amazing, it was packed with people trying to get a good look. The QE2 came in that evening too, I couldn't hang around to see it though as I had to get home. I did however see it the next day as it was docked in Circular Quay.

Mum arrrived last Saturday, it's great to see her again. Although I had to work last week (which was very stressful and busy) she managed ok on her own, she even has been going to my gym! We went wedding dress shopping on Thursday night, tried on a few more dresses, but I still think that the one I tried on before is my favourite. I did try on another one which was lovely too, so that confused me a bit, I don't think I should try on too many more otherwise it might be a difficult decision. We're going again next week, so I'll see what else it about.

Friday we went to see Priscilla (Queen of the desert) at the theatre. It was really good, the costumes were amazing. The theatre was full of gay men, and they loved the show!

Yesterday afternoon, Mum, Sue and I went to watch the Mardi Gras parade(yes, we've had a gaytastic weekend!). Had a great time, the parade was amazing. Apparently there was about 350,000 people on the streets. I actually sat down, then looked to my side and a guy I work with was sat there with his mates. It was great fun, Mum kept asking him all these questions about being gay...typical Mum! Ryan, another colleague came over too, but he didn't stay as he'd paid for a ticket for a rooftop view. We had such a laugh, some of the floats were very good, Rupert Everett was there also, he followed the Dykes on Bikes, I got a great video of him going by in the car, I'm really chuffed with it. We had loads of people coming up and kissing and hugging us....well I say us, mostly they were kissing Mum, they loved her!!

I have the week off now....yay! Hopefully we'll get to do some nice things, but I think the weather is forecast not so good (it wasn't so good last week either) I feel a bit bad for Mum that it's not been great. Anyway, that's about it for now, will post some photos soon.

2007-02-17T12:59:00.000+11:00

hi all, sorry I haven't been updating my blog...our laptop caught a virus and died last weekend :-( not good at all. I'm worried as I have quite a few docs on there, especially photos and wedding stuff. We're going to try and get it fixed this weekend hopefully. So I'm just at the internet cafe now (didn't miss coming here!)

My bike is finally fixed, Jason has just gone to pick it up....6 weeks later!

Been a busy few weeks as usual, I can't even remember what we did last weekend! I started a college course on Wednesday (unfortunately we had to miss celebrating Valentines day) I'm doing a Counselling course one day a week. It's something I've been thinking of for some time, and it was a hard decision to make, as I'm supposed to be saving for our wedding, and it's not cheap, plus I'll probably only be able to do a year of the 2 year course as our visas run out next May. But in the end I thought what the hell, just give it a go, I may not even enjoy it. There are 15 of us in the class, and it's a very diverse group...I think I'm actually one of the youngest, which makes a change! There are a few men, but mostly older women. Everyone seems very nice, which is good, but I am really dreading doing the role plays etc, the course involves a lot of practical stuff, so maybe it will make me face my demons and get over my fear of talking in front of lots of people..scary!!

Last night we had a few drinks at the Social club at work, it was good fun, I really like the people I work with, it's nice to have made some more friends here. Then Jason and I had our belated Valentines day meal.

Just spoke to Mum, she's over here next Saturday, I can't believe how quickly that's come around. I'm really looking forward to seeing her, it'll be really nice to have her here. I've only got one week off work unfortunately, but there is plenty of stuff here for her to do, so I'm sure she'll love it.

Anyway, better run, I'm having my haircut in a minute and my credit is just about to run out!!

Until next time!

2007-02-08T19:38:00.000+11:00

For Chris and Martina,
just wanted to show you a picture of me wearing one of the dresses that you bought me for Christmas ;o)
Vx

2007-02-05T22:00:00.000+11:00

Last week I got a lot done. The meditation course was very good, although I kept falling asleep during the meditations! The talk was great though, very interesting. Thursday I tried on the wedding dress they’d ordered me in that I’d tried on before….while I was there I tried on some more, 6 in all! A couple of them were really lovely, but the one I went for really was the best. I’m just worried that it’s too soon to buy a dress. The assistant is going to order it in again for me for when Mum gets here so she can see it, and also we are going to go to some other shops to get more of an idea.
Friday night I went out with some girls from work. We just went to an outdoors bar up the road from work. It wasn’t a late one which was good, most of us were pretty tired. And I had to get up for the wedding expo on Saturday so wanted to get an earlyish night.
The expo was great, even though there wasn’t a lot of stuff there that’s relevant for us…it was the things like the invitations and dresses and hens parties that we were looking at. I was glad I didn’t take Jason though, he probably would have been bored out of his mind…Sue was great company instead. We saw the fashion show, but to be honest there wasn’t much there that we liked….all a bit tacky really…it makes me realise the dress I liked could really be the one!!
After that we had a drink, then I went home where Jason and I had a quiet night in (I needed it) Yesterday we went for a walk to Maroubra beach, the beach cricket was on so we went for a look. It was the tri-nations, England, West Indies and Australia. Graham Gooch was there amongst others, it was quite cool. We didn’t stay that long tho as it was really hot. Just watched a dvd in the evening after I’d made dinner (for a change!) I made spaghetti Bolognese with Tempeh (which is like a soya mince, I’d never heard of it before but found it in my recipe book) and it was lovely, really tasty, even Jason enjoyed it. We just finished the rest tonight. Off now to watch Desperate Housewives!

2007-01-30T20:55:00.000+11:00

I've just upgraded my blogsite, let's hope I can still use it and I don't accidently delete this!

Had a great weekend, we had the day off on Friday for Australia day so we had a long one. On Friday I had to give Jason his birthday suprise...tickets to the Killers concert that night. It was so funny, he was so shocked, but really pleased and happy, I'm so glad I bought them for us. I've had them for months and had been dying to tell him about them! We had a great time at the concert, the band were great. We met up with a colleague of Jason's and his wife, they were really nice and we all had a good laugh. After that we met up with a few of the gang in Coogee for a drink (my first glass of wine in a month!) It was so nice to have some wine, I really missed it! Saturday we didn't do too much, but in the evening we went to the city for some dinner. We went to a lovely Italian restaurant, and then to a dodgy 80s club called Retro. It was great to listen to all the music from my teens again..I love it.

Sunday was Jason's birthday so I made him breakfast in bed, then he opened his presents. I bought him a nice shirt, a book about wine and some boardies. In the afternoon, he went for his Swedish god massage with the voucher I'd bought him for Christmas, so he had a pretty good day! At about 4pm we walked down to Coogee to meet everyone, we had a nice evening. I love Sunday nights as they are a lot less full on, everyone's more chilled out.

Back to the gym yesterday morning, and then work which is really busy again, getting a bit stressed again, too much to do! We've just had a game of badminton with Linn and Martin. I really enjoyed it, it's much better playing doubles, and we are all the same level which is good. We won 2 games each. I think we will make it a regular occurance!

Have a really busy week again, tomorrow I have a meditation course, then Thursday I'm trying on a wedding dress (one that I'd tried on before and they have ordered in for me to try again as I really liked it) Sue is coming with me, then we will meet her friend for a drink. Then Friday I've got no choice but to go out with my colleagues at work, they have kept asking me over the last few weeks, but cos I've been on a detox I've made excuses not to go... I have no excuses now! it'll be fun though, they are really nice. Then Saturday, Sue and I are going to a wedding expo. I'm not going to see Jason much over the next few days am I!!

2007-01-23T20:10:00.000+11:00

Had a dramatic afternoon at work today....one of our colleagues came around to all the teams and told us that we'd received a bomb threat for level 3 (the level I work on!). It was pretty much a balls up how they handled it from the start. First they said that we should look around our desks to see if we could see anything unusual lying around, imagine that....then we weren't even evacuated. Previously to us being told, the loud speaker kept coming on asking for all the fire wardens to meet at a particular spot, noone really took much notice tho as it didn't sound very urgent. Anyway, noone really knew what was going on, most people stopped working and some went home. I couldn't believe that they didn't evacuate us, it was ridiculous, I was pretty much going out of my mind, well I am a bit more of a drama queen than most, but I'm sure a lot of people were scared... my legs were all wobbly and I was a bit shaky too! Eventually we heard that they had found 2 bags that didn't seem to belong to anyone, so they were taken away somewhere to be checked out. My boss told us that it we didn't get evacuated as it was deemed a low risk threat, apparently there are a lot that happen that we don't even hear about...scary stuff. I guess as we are right by Circular Quay where the Opera House and the Bridge are, that we may be in a bit of a risky area with regards to terrorist threats. I don't know what else happened as I decided to leave early, just had to get out of there! Should be interesting to find out the goings on tomorrow!

2007-01-22T19:18:00.000+11:00

I've completed my 3rd detox weekend now, I'm so chuffed I did really well and I feel really great. It's amazing how much better I feel, although I still miss having a glass of wine with dinner. I'm just going to take it easy in future (famous last words!).

On Friday night we went to the rugby club where Linn and Martin have secured a gig there every week. They play in a jazz/blues band. I was very impressed, I haven't heard them play before.

On Saturday we went to a friends flatwarming party. It was quite interesting, I only knew 2 people, one of them being Jason! Everyone was quite drunk and I couldn't into it as much as them, but I met some nice people and had some nice food.

Yesterday, it was boiling....39 degrees! We went to the supermarket in the morning, then Jason went to the cricket. I just locked myself in the flat and shut all the windows..best place to be. I'm really pleased as our flat is a lot cooler than I thought it would be. I couldn't believe there were people sunbathing by the pool, they must be mad! I did go down for a swim, but not till a bit later. The water was pretty warm (normally it's freezing) but it was nice and refreshing still. That was about it really for my weekend. I'm looking forward to this week, we have Australia Day on Friday, which means a day off ;o) we have a few things planned, and then it's Jason's birthday on Sunday, which reminds me I must get him a couple more pressies!!

I'm just off to make some Rocky Road chocolates.....it's my turn to bring in cakes for the staff team meeting on Wednesday and I decided to try and make something....watch this space!!

2007-01-15T19:46:00.000+11:00

Another quiet week last week, we had Sean around for dinner last Tuesday, he brought around his dvd of the Catherine Tate show. We've never heard of it before, but Sean keeps raving about it. It's actually really funny it's a bit like Little Britain except it's just one woman, (you probably have seen it) she's really talented, and does the best regional accents, we love it, we've got series 2 to watch now!! Thursday we went our for dinner with Rach, Stu and Sean, which was nice.

Saturday I met up with Sue to go wedding dress shopping...unfortunately I didn't realise you have to book an appointment if you want to try anything on, so we didn't have much luck. I mean, it is ok as there is no hurry, I just wanted to get some ideas, but still I was really looking forward to it! Never mind, I'll probably book some appointments for when Mum is over (in 7 weeks!) it'll be the only chance we get to go together, so it'll be nice to wait until then...mind you, I'll probably drive Mum crazy dragging her to all the different shops! After a bit of shopping and a drink (non alcoholic!) we went and met our friends for Jazz in the Domain. It was absolutely heaving, I didn't realise how busy it would get. Apparently there was 100,000 people there! Luckily Linn etc managed to find something for us. We had a nice picnic there whilst chilling out and listening to the music it was really nice. Jason had cooked up some nice treats too....I tell you, he's getting great in the kitchen, I really do get spoilt! It was a really nice evening, we left about 11 and were home for midnight. It was my second alcohol free weekend and I feel great for it. Sunday I was up at 9.30 (which is early for me!) and I went for a run, and then a swim to cool down as it was quite hot already. Then in the afternoon, Jason and I drove down to Coogee, parked the car and did the Coogee to Maroubra coastal walk. It was a really nice walk, there are loads of amazing houses to look at on the way, those people must have so much money. It took us about an hour each way, by the time we'd finished walking up the steep hill on the way back, we were shattered and very hot. But the day was really nice, I'm really into the healthy way of life at the moment, I went to the gym this morning too! hopefully I can lose my Christmas weight, not that there's that much, but I have to get my wedding body together!!

2007-01-08T19:45:00.000+11:00

I spoke with my brother last week and he told me the sex of their baby, Martina had just had her scan and they managed to find out. Unfortunately I can't say what sex it is, as Mum decided she doesn't want to know, so sorry! It's all very exciting!!

Had a pretty quiet weekend which was nice...and needed! I've been on a detox since New years eve, trying to get rid of those nasty toxins in my body. I'm aiming for at least another week, maybe 2. We went to see James Bond on Friday night, we really enjoyed it, I don't normally like James Bond films as they are sexist garbage, but Chris assured me that it wasn't like that, so I thought I'd give it a go. And it turns out it was very good.

Saturday was just a shopping day, and Sunday we went for a walk from Clovelly beach to Bronte, but we had to make our way back earlier than planned as it started to rain, which is quite a common event lately!

I forgot to say before, I'm quite pleased with myself this new year, it's been 5 years since I quite smoking ;o)

2007-01-02T19:56:00.000+11:00

Happy New Year!!
Wishing you all a very Happy 2007, hope you had a great NYE!
I had the best time, we went to Bondi to see the Basement Jax and Bob Sinclair, it was really great, I wasn't really looking forward to it that much, normally I get too excited about new years eve and it's an anti-climax, but it was actually really good. The beach was absolutely heaving, I did feel pretty old tho, everyone was in their early 20s, apart from all us lot. I didn't spend too much either which was great, we'd been to a friends flat earlier so had a few drinks there, then at the party they were serving big buckets of wine so I didn't need much! The party finished about 3am, but it was a nightmare getting out of Bondi so we went back to our friends' flat up the road. I was really chuffed too as Chris and Martina phoned me up to say Happy New year, it was lovely to speak to them, but I was a little drunk so I probably didn't make any sense! At one point I thought they were having a party, I could hear people saying Happy New Year, turned out it was cos cos there was such a delay on the phone, it was actually me saying it...durrr!! I was forgetting it was only 5pm for them over there!!
After about another hour we attempted to get a bus again (no chance for a taxi) and we managed to get one straight away. We finally got home about 5am, so was very tired on New Years Day. Didn't do much the whole day until the late afternoon when we dragged ourselves down to the beach for some fresh air, we definitely needed that. We watched the Sydney Harbour fireworks that I'd taped the previous night, they were really cool, it was the 75th anniversary of the bridge. They even had fireworks set off from the roofs of the buildings around the harbour...my work was one of them which was cool to see. I'm hoping to go and see them again in real life next year as it will probably be our last NYE here.
Was really hard going back to work, I had a real fuzzy head and there was alot to do which didn't help, but I got through it, at least it's only a 4 day week. The weather has turned bad again, it hasn't stopped raining...I never thought I'd say this here, but Where is the summer??!!

Wednesday

Not very happy today, I went down to ride my bike to the gym this morning, I unlocked it and the wheel spinned away from the handlebars, wondered what was going on, then the handlebars came away from the bike! I realised that someone had tried to steal my bike..my brand new bike :-( I had to try and wheel it around to the front door which wasn't easy, the wheel was all over the place, then carry it upstairs which took a lot of effort. I can't believe it, it's only been there a week, luckily I'd locked it really well and they hadn't been able to steal it. Jason has just had a look at it and he thinks that maybe it was someone trying to steal the wheel and some parts as one of the brakes is missing and the cable and the gear shifter is broken. We'll have to go to the bike shop at the weekend to see what we can do, I'm not leaving it outside again, will have to keep it on our balcony which is a pain.

2006-12-31T13:35:00.000+11:00

Finally, here are some pics from Christmas

The guys at our Christmas drinkies

Jason doing his pose by the Christmas tree!

Opening up the pressies

Jason with his undies

and our new camera

me and my new bike (and groovy helmet!)

and again

at Bondi beach on Christmas day

having our seafood buffet

2006-12-28T12:42:00.000+11:00

We had a really lovely Christmas, I was a bit sad that I didn’t get to spend it with my family, but Jason really made it lovely. We went to the midnight mass on Christmas eve, got to sing a few carols which was nice.
Christmas Day we got up and ate breakfast, then unwrapped our presents. I was really spoilt this year, not only did I get a bike and lots of books and things…Jason bought us a really cool camera. It’s an Olympus one, shock and waterproof, just getting the hang of how to use it now!! We tried it out a bit, but we need to get a memory card to be able to save more pics. Jason got the usual underwear for Christmas (I get carried away and buy him loads!) and a shirt and a Swedish god massage voucher. After a nice relaxing day, we went to Bondi for our meal. The beach was absolutely heaving, you wouldn’t know it was Christmas day, apart from everyone wearing Santa hats…it was a bit strange, I don’t think I would have liked to celebrate my day there. I don’t think it was as busy as usual tho as they had banned alcohol on the beach. We had a really nice buffet meal at a hotel there, was absolutely stuffed by the time we’d finished and we both rolled home to relax for a bit! I got to speak to Mum for about an hour which was nice, I felt a bit sorry for her as she still had her stinking cold, she didn’t sound too well.
Next day we went to the zoo, which was a pretty bad idea, we’d forgotten that the Sydney to Hobart race was on and that the whole of Australia goes to the Heads to watch the race start (unfortunately the zoo is right near the Heads) so it took us ages to get there, then we couldn’t park. We found somewhere in the end, and then thought we’d go and take a look at the race, but unfortunately we’d missed the start by 15 mins, typical! The zoo was packed, we looked around for a while and saw the seal and bird shows, then we called it a day, it was doing my head in. We met up with Linn and Martin later for a few drinks, they left quite early as they had work the next day, but Jason and I stayed out a bit longer, I got pretty drunk which I was surprised about as I’d had so much alcohol lately, I thought I was immune!
Thursday I went shopping to buy a dress for NYE (thanks Chris and Martina). Went out on our bikes in the afternoon yesterday, it was a lovely day, great to get out on a bike again. We rode to Centennial Park where they have some cycle tracks....there were a few hills though, to I'm aching today. In the evening we went to see Happy Feet at the cinema...definitely recommend it, very good, the baby penguins were so cute. Then we had thai dinner and a bottle of wine. Today, just shopping again, found a bag and accessories for my dress, only thing is it's forecase to rain now until Tuesday, so New years eve could be bad, so I may not even wear my dress!

I've been trying to upload some photos from Christmas, but the server seems to be down on the website I use, will try again over the weekend.

2006-12-24T16:39:00.000+11:00

Happy Christmas everybody!!

I finally finished work for Christmas....wow, what another busy week, what with going out and working it's all been very tiring. Tuesday night I met up with Sue for Christmas drinks which was fun. Wednesday we had our work Christmas lunch, we left work at 1pm and didn't go back!

Thursday I went to see a physiotherapist my boss recommended to me, I wanted to get a second opinion about my back. It turns out the problem isn't with my back at all, it's my pelvis. My left side had dropped which is what is causing my problems. He looked at my x-rays and said that my spine looked pretty normal..most people have curved spines. He really doesn't like chiropractors, he thinks they are just in it for the money and that they are scaremongerers, which I can agree with now. He did a full check on me and I did some exercises and he did deep tissue massage which absolutely killed me. He actually pushed my pelvis up somehow, it was very strange experience, but when I got up I could feel my left side was higher, it was weird how he did it. I only have to go back in a couple of days for a follow up appointment, and then again in a few weeks, also I have to keep doing some exercises to strengthen my muscles. So it just shows you, I thought going to physio I'd have to go back loads, but that's not the case...it really made me believe in what the physio said about chiropractors though as the chiro told me I'd have to go in 3 times a week for the next few months...hmmmm!! Anyway, I feel better now, and I can even see that my shoulders have evened out a bit too.

So that was Thursday....Friday was an eventful day, I think all my going out and hecticness had finally got the best of me. First off in the morning I found a package on my desk with Leo written on it, I just assumed that it had come in the post so I put it on Leo's desk. Anyway later on there was a mad panic cos my colleague Vlad hadn't put his present in for the Secret Santa and everyone was looking for him, Luigi phoned him to ask where it was and he said 'I gave it to Vikki' when Luigi asked me, I was like, no definitely not...but then Luigi said, yes, he put it on your desk.....ooops. So we tried to salvage the present (which I have to add, wasn't wrapped in Christmas paper) from Leo's desk, but unfortunately he had already opened it. Everyone was in fits of laughter when we told them what happened....I felt a bit silly....that was an amusing start to my day. So later on at the end of the day, everyone was starting to pack up, I was sat at my desk and thought I'd put some handcream on, normally I take off my engagement ring when I do this. So I put my handcream on, then looked down and had a heart attack cos I couldn't find my ring. I searched around for it, but nothing....then my colleagues all came along to help me. There were about seven people on their hands and knees under the desks, and searching all around. People kept asking me questions like what were you doing when you lost it etc etc, and when at first I was so sure I took the ring off, now I had started to doubt myself, and everything was very vague and blurry. After searching for about an hour, we were at a loss, but I was thinking, what if I hadn't put my ring back on this morning after I'd put my cream on at home...I was so sure that I'd have noticed if I hadn't put it on so I didn't believe it was there. I went home anyway, my boss dropped me off...I was getting quite emotional by this time, very worried about what I'd done. So I came upstairs, and there is was on the shelf in the bedroom!!!! I felt like such an idiot....I phoned my boss to tell him and he was laughing at me (luckily!) he said I just did it so my desk would get a good tidy (cos everyone was rearranging my desk). I feel like a prize plonker....I'm going to be really embarrassed going back to work!! but I'm sooo happy I hadn't lost it ;o)

So after that palaver, I didn't really feel like doing much, but we'd promised Rach and Stu we would meet them for a drink as they were going away the next day so I couldn't not. We went to a really nice English pub in Paddington, I really liked it there, even though they didn't play any Christmas music!

Next day Jason and I went shopping for food for our evening drinks party. We thought it would be nice to get some friends around before Christmas. It turned out to be a successful evening...we'd even bought some Pimms so everyone could try it....it went down really well. I'd made the flat look and feel as Christmassy as possible, we had candles, lights, Christmas music, eveyone was saying that they hadn't felt Christmassy until they came to our flat, which was nice ;o). The last people left about 2am, so we had a really nice sleep after that.

Today we went shopping again, last minute stuff to buy, and I wanted to get a bike helmet and lock for my bike which I'll finally be able to ride tomorrow!! The shops were pretty busy, not as bad as I thought though. I've just phoned my Grandad in the States to send my greetings, he sounded quite well which is good. Jason and I are going to go to midnight mass tonight...no pubs for us as there is noone around tonight, I'm quite relieved actually. So we're going to sing some carols instead. Trying to make it really nice this year as I'm not spending Christmas with my family, Jason is doing a great job to get my by though. It's going to be weird not seeing Mum, bless her, but at least she'll be coming out here in a couple of months.

So, I've just seen that I've gone on a bit, so I'd better get on. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year, take care!! until next time x

2006-12-18T20:51:00.000+11:00

Jason and I went out on Friday night, we had a really yummy feed at a Thai restaurant we hadn't tried before, I had Massaman curry, which was great. Jason had the 'Prick King'...haha! We then went to the cinema to see the Holiday which I really enjoyed, it was just the sort of film you want to see at Christmas to get you in the spirit. The next day we went out and bought a Christmas CD! they don't play any Christmas songs on the radio here, it's quite depressing.

After we went shopping on Saturday morning, I went for a facial. It was the best facial ever, I had my eyebrows shaped, my shoulders massaged, my feet, hands and arms massaged, it was lovely...and all for an hour and a half...bliss! It wasn't cheap though, but it was a nice treat. Saturday night we went around to Di's for a bbq it was nice to see everyone again as I hadn't seen a few of them for a while. After the bbq we went down to the Coogee bay hotel for a bit of a dance, it was pretty late though so we didn't stay long. Jason and I popped into Mcdonalds on the way home... as you do. We met one of the All Blacks there, of course I had no idea who he was, but Jason was estactic, especially as the guy plays for the Hurricanes too (Jasons fav NZ team) He was called Ma Nonu (I kept calling him Nanu Nanu...Mork and Mindy style as I couldn't remember his name!) I got my photo taken with him, but I don't know how to upload the pics from my phone onto the computer so I can't show you...I'll have to figure it out. Anyway, it made Jason's night, except he was gutted he didn't get a photo with him!

Yesterday we had a lie in and relaxed a bit, then in the evening we went down to the beach for Carols in Coogee. It was really nice, they had a big stage with an orchestra... the place was packed with families. We stayed for a couple of hours to get into the festive spirit, then came home and watched a dvd.

I'm so relieved I've only got 4 more days left at work, I can't wait to have a week off, work is madly busy. I'm looking forward to Christmas day, Jason and I have booked a hotel for dinner, it's a seafood buffet and the food sounds yummy, the bonus is they've got a huge selection of desserts, we'll have to starve ourselves beforehand!!

2006-12-11T20:08:00.000+11:00

Had the most amazing time at Robbie last night, he was really on top form. I think it was probably the best time I've seen him (I've seen him 5 times) even Jason loved it, and he really doesn't like Robbie at all!! I saw him bopping around and singing along, it was really funny...I keep taking the mickey now!! The set was really good, loads of fireworks and flames and lights. We were quite far back though, so I did struggle to see a lot, even the screens were quite hard to see at some points...but I didn't let it stop me going mad...I was screaming and allsorts...haha!

This is my first night in in 4 nights, last week was really busy. Thursday night I went to a customer of ours Christmas party, it was at a lovely location with a great view of the harbour. Friday it was Jason's works do which was ok, but it was mostly men. Saturday we went to the chiropractors to look at our x-rays. I couldn't believe mine, my spine really does curve to the left it was quite freaky looking at it. The chiro said it was pretty bad and it would take a few months to fix it. Anyway, Jason needed a bit of treatment too because of his back accident the other week, so he decided to start straight away, I stayed in the room to see what it was all about....but not for long, I started to feel really queezy when he was cracking Jasons neck so I had to leave the room! I've been speaking to some people and I think I will get a second opinion, and maybe not a chiropractor...I'm such a wuss, I don't think I could do it!

So after that we picked up my Christmas present from Jason (not telling you what it is yet!!) Then we went to Sue and Rogers for a dinner party in the evening. Yesterday it was shopping and then to see Robbie ;o)

Here are some pics...

2006-12-10T16:44:00.000+11:00

here are some pics from my works Christmas party:

on my way to the party

with a couple of the girls

these 2 are for Jane....showing off my fascinator

and here is our Christmas tree

2006-12-03T18:32:00.000+11:00

I'm just trying to remember what I've done over the past week!

Oh yes, on Wednesday evening I went to a meditation class which was really very interesting, although I haven't practised what I learnt, I must get around to finding time every day.

I've been going to the gym in the mornings, and I must say it's really making a difference, I'm starting to get lines on my abs where I'm getting more toned, it's quite motivating! I'll have to keep it up. Plus I tried on my first wedding dress last week, so I just keep picturing myself in my dress and how I want to look. Trying on my first dress was a weird experience I must say. I felt a bit like I was dressing up in my Mums clothes like I wasn't old enough to be wearing a wedding dress! I know I am, but in my head I'm still 18!! The dresses were gorgeous, the first one was lovely, but not really 'the one'....the second one I fell in love with, but I'm not sure it's appropriate for a beachy wedding, but the lady did say, it shouldn't matter, it's what you want thats the most important thing, so we'll see. I've been dying to tell Jason about it, but obviously I can't! I'm getting quite excited about it. It was improptu, I wasn't planning on trying on a dress yet, but I was waiting to meet a friend so thought I'd pop in and get prices, but ended up trying a couple on! I told my Mum about it the other day, and we're both looking forward to when she comes over so we can go looking together. Jason and I actually bought our wedding rings last weekend too. Again, it wasn't planned, we just went to get an idea for prices, but we saw a couple of really nice rings at a great price so thought sod it, we've got to get them at some point!

What else....Friday night we had our works Christmas party, I had Sue's lovely dress to wear, and one of my colleagues brought in a fascinator (head piece) that his wife had made, it was beautiful, the colour was really lovely, it had a deep red rose and deep red feathers and some black beading, I'm going to put a photo on my blog soon. It was quite funny as soon as I walked in Luigi grabbed me and said to me and Katherine that we'd make his Christmas if he could have his picture taken with us, so we did that, and then I was just about to walk off, when the big boss asked Luigi to get me back cos he wanted his photo taken with us too!! I've never met the CEO before, so it was a bit scary trying to keep a nice smile without twitching too much! We had a really good night, the party was at the NSW Art Gallery, but it did finish really early, so after a few of us went to Oxford St for a few drinks. Me and my boss were the last ones out, he made sure I got in the taxi ok, I just hope I didn't say anything stupid...I can't really remember!!

Yesterday, we had to get up early for our X-rays for our backs. I wasn't in the best of form! We'd also planned to go to the races with Gemma and Garry, so I had to get dressed up again. I felt a bit weird tho as I wore the same as I'd had on the previous night, but you have to wear a fascinator at the races!! About 5pm I started to feel a bit dodgy so Jason and I went home. It was absoulutely throwing it down with rain, I tell you, the weather has been really rubbish here lately, and it was supposed to be the first day of summer on Friday!

Today we've just been shopping and we bought our first Christmas tree, I'm really pleased, and we got some nice decs too, not sure when we should put them up, asap I think...I'm not in the Christmas spirit again this year, it's definitely not as commercialised over here.

2006-11-27T21:54:00.000+11:00

I met Sue from work last Thursday night, I had arranged to go around to her flat for the night to raid her wardrobe for my works Christmas party next Friday which has a Chicago gangster Club theme, I have absolutely nothing glam to wear so Sue said she'd help me out. We had a nice meal at hers and I tried on a few dresses and found the perfect one, it's a bit clingy, but as long as I don't eat much for the rest of the week I should be ok!!

Friday after work I went to the gym, I have actually been going in the mornings lately, but because I stayed at Sue's I hadn't made it 3 times that week. I much prefer going in the mornings, once I'm out of bed I'm ok, it's just getting out of bed at 6am thats a killer! I've even noticed a difference in the shape of my body which is great. Anyway, back to Friday, I was the only one there for a while, so Michelle worked me out really hard, I had to do the circuit whilst she counted the reps I did on every machine, and on the 2nd time around I had to go even harder. I tell you, I thought I was going to be sick I was exhausted! It was good tho, it's not often you get one on one time.

Saturday, Jason and I went to our follow up appointments at the Chiropractors. He took a look at my back and my posture and he told me I had a sway back, which means a very acute curve in my lower spine, and then at the top, my neck goes forward, what with my wonky shoulders and waist, it seems I have to have a lot of work done to get my posture corrected. We are both having our x-rays next week and then we will go back for a further consultation...what a nightmare!

I didn't go out on Saturday night, I've really needed these last 2 chilled out weekends, they have been great. Last night I went to see Kylie. It was a really great concert, no U2, but still good fun. It would have been more fun if I wasn't on my own, but never mind. She put on a really good show, I was quite suprised at how raunchy it was, no wonder all the gay men love her shows, she has loads of hunky men galavanting on the stage in skimpy costumes. I did wonder as there were lots of children there, if it was my kids, I probably would have covered their eyes...but as it was, I really enjoyed it ;o)

I had asked Jason to tape the final of Aus Idol for me in the hope that I could just watch the announcement when I got home (I knew that I would find out the next day before I could watch it myself) but I didn't bargain on some loudmouth girls on the way to the train shouting out that Damien had won....I tell you I nearly turned around and shouted at them, bloody idiots. So they ruined it for me :-( Oh well, I will still watch it sometime this week.

2006-11-22T21:29:00.000+11:00

It's been a really hot day today....38 degrees and very windy. When I came out of work I could smell the smoke from the bush fires out west, there was even the embers from the fires floating around the sky, it was quite eerie. There are real problems at this time of year with the fires, even some houses have been burnt down.
When I got off the bus near home it had cooled down considerably. What a relief!!

2006-11-18T19:50:00.000+11:00

Went back to see U2 again last Monday night. It was really good again, maybe not as good as Saturday as we were right up in the heavens as only seated tickets were left, so the atmosphere wasn't as good. Also I stood up and the woman behind me told me to sit down, which I found really bizarre as we were at a rock concert!! Anyway, we found another couple of seats where people were being a bit more enthusiastic, so I managed to stand up there.
Tuesday I finally was able to meet my friend from Munich, Nicola who was visiting her sister. We had a nice lunch and a bit of a catch up. It's so funny how many people I know from overseas that have come over here.
Apart from that it's been a pretty quiet week, which I needed after the last few weeks. I went out with Sue after work on Thursday, was great to see her again, I haven't been able to for a while. As usual we had a laugh, it's great to have a chat with a girlfriend like Sue.
On Friday at work I got roped into playing netball! Bernard (they play mixed teams here) has asked me before, but I've always said no, I mean, it's been over 15 years since I've played and I didn't want to make a fool of myself! Anyway, he asked me again on Friday and I said no again, but after I felt really guilty, so I said, ok, if you can't find anyone else than I guess I can do it. So, of course, he couldn't find anyone else so I had to do it. For some silly reason they put me on as Goal Keeper which I found hard to understand considering my lack of height! Anyway, I coped, but it was pretty hard, I managed a few blocks, but couldn't stop any of the goals, I was pretty knackered afterwards, I didn't expect the GK to have to work so hard!! We did actually win tho 12-10 which I was pleased about, I didn't want them to lose because of me!!
I didn't finish work until a bit later on Friday, we had a few drinks courtesy of work and I did have a lot of work to do. I came home to a lovely home cooked meal, lentil burgers with a cheese, onion and spinach relish...it was absolutely yummy, I'm such a lucky girl! I was so looking forward to the weekend and doing nothing, we've been out so much lately and we've hardly done anything on our own, but this weekend we didn't have so much on.
Saturday morning we went to the Body, Mind and Spirit exhibition, we spent lots of money on books, spine alignments (my shoulders are very wonky!) hand cream etc etc. It was a very interesting day. In the evening, Jason went to see Pearl Jam again, I had a nice night in on my own...I don't often get any 'me' time so I was looking forward to it. I actually ended up on the phone all night tho, first to Mum, then on Skype to Chris. We did have a good long chat as it had been a while. I did manage to fit in watching my dvd, Mrs Henderson Presents, which was very good.

Sunday Jason and I went around to Grant and Sue's for Grant's birthday. We had a really nice evening, Grant's sister Helen was there visiting from New Zealand with her husband John, Mum and I met them when we were there last year. Had lots of yummy food and wine, then came home to relax a bit before going to bed.

I was up early on yesterday to go to the gym, I must say that I do feel much better going in the morning, it's just so hard to get out of bed! I had an induction course at work all day, it wasn't as bad as I thought, but it's annoying cos I've got so much work to do I would rather be doing that.

2006-11-18T19:06:00.000+11:00

Happy News!!

I can finally tell you the great news that I'm going to be an Aunty!! My brother and his wife are 3 months pregnant! They told me a few weeks ago whilst Mum was on holiday over there, I was talking to them on Skype with the webcam and Chris showed a picture of the scan. I couldn't work out what it was for ages, thought it was a picture of the galaxy....then I realised what it was. Obviously the first thing I did was burst into tears!! It is such amazing news, they were all laughing at me, I actually didn't stop crying for the next couple of days. I'm really happy, but I'm also very sad that I'm so far away, I didn't realise it would affect me this much, I didn't think I would feel this way, I don't mean to sound selfish, but I am a bit cos I want to be a part of my neice of nephews life (see I'm starting myself off again getting all emotional!!) I guess I will just have to deal with it and I'm sure they will always be sending pics and stuff. Chris is amazing, he knows just how I feel, so he really understands what I'm going through so I don't have to explain anything to him, and I know he'll always make sure I'm a part of their lives.

So Martina had the 3 month scan on Monday, and all is well, he/she looks more like a baby now in the picture, it's very exciting!!

2006-11-12T19:10:00.000+11:00

Went to see U2 last night and they were amazing....I'm still buzzing!! Luckily Jason's back was so much better that he felt up to going to the concert, which was great news...those painkillers were really doing their job! We got to the Olympic park pretty early for a few drinks before going into the stadium. When we got in there, we were really close to the front, plus the stage was elevated so it was a bit easier to see than normal. I actually ended up missing Kanye West, but I wasn't that bothered, we were getting drinks and t-shirts at the time (got a really cool t-shirt!). He only was on for half an hour.

When U2 came on, we all went mad...the atmosphere was electric. I actually had a bit of a cry (I know I'm really sad, but it was really overwhelming, plus I had drunk a couple of buckets of wine!!) had the best night ever, they played for over 2 hours, it was amazing, best concert I've been to. I had another couple of cries throughout the night (a couple of the songs remind me of going to Wales when I was little with my Dad), everyone was laughing at me, I was singing through my tears. I'm a bit stiff today from all that jumping up and down! It's so great that I finally got chance to see them live, I've loved them for years and they didn't disappoint....in fact we had such a good time that Jason and I have bought some more tickets for the extra show tomorrow night!! I'm really excited ;o) The visual show was amazing, a great sight to see.

some pics

It was a pretty late night last night so we had a bit of a lie-in today. We went to the Newtown festival this afternoon for Rach's birthday celebration. It was a boiling day and absolutely packed, we had some nice food and listened to some bands then I came home and Jason and Reece have gone to the pub for a bit. I'm just getting ready for Australian Idol, it's the final 3, all very exciting. I'm a bit gutted tho as I've just found out that the final is on the same night as the Kylie Minogue concert I'm going to, plus Linn is probably getting more tickets for the final, so I guess I will just have to tape it, it's a real shame as I've watched the whole series...oh well, you can't have it all!

2006-11-10T13:17:00.000+11:00

It's been a bit of an eventful week. Last night I had to call an ambulance for Jason, he had injured his back playing touch rugby. He came home in pain, but could walk, so he took some painkillers and had a rest, then went to bed. But about 2am he woke up in agony, I didn't really know what to do, I didn't even know the phone number for the ambulance so I had to look on the internet. It was pretty scary cos he was so bad, it took all my control to stop my voice wobbling when I was speaking to the hospital! We got to the hospital about 3am where Jason had some x-rays and more painkillers. Luckily there were no abnormalities on the x-ray. At about 4am he had some more painkillers, the doctor came back 2 hours later to see if he could get out of bed, but he was in too much pain to stand up, so she gave him some more to see how he was in a couple of hours. I thought I'd better go home for an hour to try and get some sleep, I was supposed to be working, I also had to organise someone to pick up Jason's friend Reece, who'd come over from New Zealand for the weekend, such bad timing I tell you, luckily Rachel had the day off so she did if for us. So anyway, I had an hours sleep, then spoke to my boss who said to take the day off to look after Jason. Then I went back to the hospital to pick him up. I got him home ok, he's still in a lot of pain and can hardly walk, he's really drugged up on painkillers, poor thing. I don't know if he'll be able to go to the U2 concert tomorrow, we'll have to see how he feels...fingers crossed.

As for the rest of the week, Monday, not only did Linn, Martin and I get tickets for Idol, but we got VIP tickets!! It was great fun, I regressed to being a teenager, I loved it. Got the butterflies before going on air, Linn was laughing at me cos I was all hyped up. After the show, the presenter Andrew G who knew the guy who had got our tickets asked us if we all wanted to go to the green room after. Of course we did go, Anthony Callea (former Oz idol winner) was there, then we met the presenters. I talked to the remaining singers, there are only 3 left now. Jess who I want to win was so sweet, she gave me a hug when I told her I thought she should win! So that was a great night. When I got back I watched it on video, and we were on TV loads, when I went to work the next day, one of the guys said that the cameraman much have fancied me as we were on so much, haha! they were all really jealous.

Tuesday it was Melbourne Cup day, I went to the pub with my boss and the guys (I was ordered to!) I came 2nd on the sweepstake and won $16. In the evening we went to the Pearl Jam concert. It was really good, although I only knew about 3 of the songs.

Wednesday night we went to dinner with Sean, Tommo and Rach, had a lovely Italian meal..yum.

Last night I had my weigh in at the gym. I lost nearly 6cm all over...2 from my belly, 1 from my waist and a bit from my thighs, but I had managed to put on a bit of weight. The trainer said that was normal tho, as muscle weighs heavier than fat...so I'm on track.

2006-11-05T21:44:00.000+11:00

Well, I was really sick last Sunday night, I had to take the day off work on Monday I was so bad, so I didn't get a chance to see my boss from Munich on Monday night. Luckily I was feeling better on Tuesday so I managed to meet up with him then. It was nice to catch up him and his daughter, she is over here for a while to improve her English. They took us to a really expensive seafood restaurant at Darling Harbour. It was very nice, but the portions were very small..so small in fact that I was still hungry after!! I'll stick to cheap and cheerful next time!

I haven't got to catch up with Nicola yet, I didn't hear from her all week, but she called me at the weekend, and we hope to meet up when she comes back from up the coast.

We had a really nice weekend at Hunter Valley, we went up straight from work on Friday. Linn had hired a really nice house for all of us, it was so peaceful, right in the middle of nowhere. Friday night we just had a few drinks in the house, then Saturday we went out for the wine tour. It was a great laugh, we all dressed up, Linn asked us to wear some sort of headwear and footwear for it...she was dressed up as a ballerina! There were some funny costumes, imagine the looks we got, there was about 15 dressed up! We visited some really nice wineries, one winery they had a huge St Bernard, he was so cute.

We had quite a big party when we got back,but I was so tired I had to go to bed about 11pm. You should have seen the state of the place in the morning, it took a lot of cleaning up.

Today we left at midday and took a drive to a couple more wineries and did some tasting in some cheese and chocolate shops. We bought some yummy cheese and tried some chocolate dipped strawberries and marshmallows...heaven! I really love Hunter Valley, it's so peaceful, and of course drinking wine, eating cheese and chocolate helps!

Tomorrow night Linn and Martin have got me a ticket to see Australian Idol at the TV studio, unfortunately it's not the show when they sing, but the elimination night, but it should still be good fun, wonder if I'll get on TV?!!

This week's gonna be so busy again, Tuesday night we're going to see Pearl Jam, Weds we're going to Seans for dinner, then Friday Jasons' friend is arriving from New Zealand for the U2 concert on Saturday...it's all go!!!

here are some pics

Our house for the weekend

The gang

me and Jase

the St Bernard

2006-10-29T13:56:00.000+11:00

It's been quite a busy week, I've been to the gym lots, I'm really enjoying it, although I'm not looking forward to my weigh-in next week! On Wednesday night, we went out to meet Martin's parents who are over from Sweden, we went to the Cushion Bar, they had a couple of guys playing guitars and singing, they were really good. Martin's parents were lovely, they kept inviting us to stay with them if ever we were in Sweden.

Friday at work we had a picnic in the Botanical Gardens, it was a really nice couple of hours, I don't really make much of an effort to go out at lunch, which I should as I'm only a 2 minute walk from Circular Quay where the Opera House is (you can see the Harbour Bridge from my office window, how lucky am I!!). I met Jason after work at Darling Harbour, we had free tickets for the Imax, a film called Extreme, it was really good, lots of rock climbing and snowboarding, cool! After we went to dinner and to a couple of bars. We also popped into the casino at Star City, it was heaving, lots of Asians gambling away their money!

Yesterday I went to the gym in the morning, then cleaned the apartment, then Jason and I went for a game of tennis. We played a proper game this time, and it was much more interesting than just volleying. I was actually quite ok at it, Jason was suprised, I managed to serve pretty well. I won a few sets, but I think Jason was being nice to me! We are playing badminton on Wednesday.

I met up with Sue in the evening to go to my friend Gemma's flat. She had organised a 'girls night in' in aid of the Breast cancer charity. She went to a real effort, we had a really nice evening, she'd made all the dips and breads and lots of other tasty nibbles. I was quite chuffed too, I won the main prize in the raffle (I've been quite lucky lately) one of the girls who works at a day spa got them to donate a spa treatment for the cause, so for $10, I won a $100 Full body exfoliation with mineral salts, followed by a Vichy shower water treatment (sounds intriguing!) everyone was really jealous!! We raised over $400 for the night which we were really pleased about, all in all, a great night....but it wasn't over, I had arranged to meet up with Linn and the guys in the city afterwards to celebrate her 30th birthday, so I had a fun night with them too, didn't get home until about 4am, plus daylight savings started today, so we've lost another hour. It's 2pm, and I've only just got up and showered!!

I've got a busy week ahead. My ex-boss from HP, Munich is in town to visit his daughter, so he is taking Jason and I out for dinner tomorrow night, I'm trying to think of a nice place to take him. Then Nicola, a friend I know from Munich also is out her to visit her sister, so I'm sure we'll meet up a couple of times. And next Friday night, we are off for a weekend at Hunter Valley (wine region). Linn organised it as part of her 30th birthday celebrations, I think there are quite a few of us going, so it should be good fun. We have a wine tour booked for the Saturday which I'm really looking forward to!

2006-10-23T20:49:00.000+10:00

We had Rach and Stu around for dinner on Friday night, Jason cooked a nice curry and some mushroom chips. Next day I went to get my eyes tested.... now I've got my health insurance I thought I'd make the most of it. Apparently my right eye has got a bit better and my current glasses are too strong so I have to get new lenses. I was going to keep my frames and just change the lenses, but I started looking at the frames in the shop and mine looked really old fashioned compared to them (seeing as they are about 8 years old, I guess that makes sense!). So I found a really nice pair, I just have to wait over a week while they get made.

Saturday night we went to Curly's for his girlfriend Sabrina's birthday. She is Brazillian, so there was lots of dancing and food and strong cocktails. We ended up getting home about 2.30.

Yesterday we had a lie-in, then we went to the cinema to see a new Australian film, Boytown, it's a mickey take of a group of middle aged guys that were in a boyband in the 80s, they got back together for a comeback. It was very funny, some of the songs they sang were hilarious, instead of aiming for the younger audience, they were dedicating their music to all the older woman that used to be their fans (there was Pussy whipped, Love Handles, Special time of the month) very amusing. After that we took a walk down to the beach as it was a lovely day and sat down with the papers, it was nice to get some sunshine, the weather has been up and down for about a month, you don't know what it's going to be like from one day to the next!

I've just been listening to the news, they are saying that the price of bread and milk is going to increase because of the drought. It's been raining lots, but the dams are still only 40% full. There is a joke that people should go on holiday to the catchment areas cos it never rains there!!

2006-10-18T21:06:00.000+10:00

I've made myself a vow, I'm not going swimming in the sea again in Australia. There has been quite a few shark sightings in recent weeks, there was a tiger shark at Bondi, it was sighted 50 metres from the shore. Then our friend Sean, who lives right near Coogee beach here said there were a couple of warnings there, apparently the sirens went off and everything.....never again I say.... I'm sticking to our swimming pool!!

I've been really good with my exercising this week, I've been to the gym twice and Jason and I played tennis tonight. I really enjoyed it actually...I haven't played tennis for about 15 years, and I'm still rubbish at it! Poor Jason was probably really bored, it's not as if I couldn't hit the ball at all, but I did miss a lot!! We've decided to try badminton next week as I told him I'm a bit better at that...we'll see! The last time I played that was in Germany with my brother, he was really cruel to me and made me run all over the court trying to hit the shuttlecock...I was knackered after!

2006-10-14T19:05:00.000+10:00

I joined a gym this week. Well it's not really a proper gym, it's called Curves and it's just for women. It's a circuit of strength training machines. I really like it there, they measure and weigh you every month to keep track of how you're getting on, and it's really personalised, normally at a gym you're just another face, but here they really speak to you to see how you're getting on. They promise you that you only need to go for 30 mins, 3 times a week, which sounds good to me! One of the staff promised me lots of toned, lean muscles, which is great! I'm trying to persuade my Mum to join the one up the road from her in England, hopefully she'll give it a try.

I met Sue after work last night, we went to some new bars in the city which were really good. Whilst we were walking to a different bar, I bumped into Satomi (the Japanese girl that I lived with when I first moved to the city...remember she speaks Engrish!!) we were both really shocked to see each other after so long. She was telling me that the house where we lived had been set on fire. One of the girls that lived there left a candle on when she went out...she also left the window open so the wind blew the flame and the place caught fire! This was back in April and Michael, the landlord still can't live there as it's still being renovated, so it must have been really bad. Satomi said he was even thinking of sueing the girl (who is now back in UK) I'm so lucky I wasn't still living there...Satomi said a lot of her stuff was ruined. So that was a bit of gossip. It was funny, I had walked nearby to the house a few months ago and I thought that it looked like it'd been in an explosion!

Anyway, after that we had a few more drinks, but unfortunately Sue had had a really busy week, so she went home at about 11.30...I was a bit disappointed as I was in the mood for a boogie, but it was probably a good thing, I managed to be in bed at a reasonable hour, which meant I could get up early this morning and go to the gym. It was quite tough finding the energy to exercise, as it was really hot (today and yesterday there was a high of 37 degrees!) ...but I did manage some and felt really good after. I was quite flattered...one of the women there was saying how slim I looked, but that was probably because I was so young...she then asked me how old I was and I said 32, she couldnt' believe it, she thought I was about 22!! I just thought to myself, she must be a bit blind, hahaa!!

So after that I got home and we went for a dip in the pool (my first one) it was absolutely freezing, but so refreshing after being in the heat. We stayed there for about an hour, then had some lunch. This afternoon we've just been to the shops to buy some cds and our weekly shopping. Just tried to phone my brother, but I guess he's gone out. Maybe will try again tomorrow. Not sure what we're doing tonight...we're both pretty hot sat at home...the good thing about living in Australia is you can always go to a bar or to the cinema to find some relief from the heat with the aircon, so maybe we'll do that!

2006-10-09T20:07:00.000+10:00

I'm just trying to remember what we did last week! I can remember the weekend, so I'll start there. Friday night we went to Bondi to meet up with Mike who was back from the mines for a few days, we also caught up with Gemma and Garry, our Irish friends who we always have trouble meeting up with. It was a pretty quiet night tho, we were home about midnight.

Saturday night we entertained Linn and Martin, they came around for one of Jason's specialities, tuna and tomato risotto. Linn had already drunk a bottle of champagne before she came around, so she was very amusing! I'd been speaking to my brother on Skype just before they came around and was telling them about it, they'd never used it before, so I decided to show them how it worked. We phoned Chris up and Linn was just amazed, then I put the webcam up so she could see him and she went mental, it was so funny...she was right up against the camera waving at him..no wonder he couldn't see us! It was so weird to be able to introduce my friends to my brother over the internet! After dinner I had a singing lesson, Linn is a trained singer, so she was giving me some tips, it was really funny, she showed me how to breathe correctly and then we sang. She said I have a really good ear for music and that my pitch is really good, I was quite chuffed. I'm going to try and have another lesson soon.

Sunday we all went around to Curly's girlfriends friends house, for a bbq. The house was huge and really beautiful, they had a swimming pool too, but unfortunately as soon as we got there the weather turned rubbish. It was a good day though, lots of nice food.

We've got our tickets for New Years Eve now, we are going to see the Basement Jaxx on Bondi Beach, so it should be great fun ;o)

2006-10-02T16:34:00.000+10:00

It's been a pretty busy week and weekend. On Wednesday night, Jason and I went back to the Lowenbrau for the Oktoberfest. There was a big table of us, it was quite good fun. The entertainment was fun, but it wasn't very authentic German, more like Swiss or Austrian. The band were playing tunes on the cowbells, then Sue and I and 8 other girls got dragged up to play them...when the guy pointed his microphone at us, we had to ring them....we played Edelweiss very well!! Then they had beer drinking competitions. The food wasn't the best though, I don't think we'll be going back again anytime soon, and it's really expensive too!

here are some pics.....(sorry, I'm having trouble resizing them)

Playing the cowbells

Sue and I with our cowbells

Having a beer

Friday, I won the raffle 1st prize at work ($80) I was well chuffed, so I took Jason for a night out in the city. We went to a few bars along Oxford Street, it was good fun. We didn't get home til really late so we had a lie in on Saturday. We had to go to the supermarket as we were entertaining in the evening, so we bought lots of yummy dips and nibbles. We had a really nice evening, Rach, Stu, Curly, Sue and Roger all came around, they really liked our new home, Rach says it's really welcoming which is nice. We've got even more photos up now, we've ran out of shelf space!

Sunday we went down to the pub in the afternoon to meet Jason's cousin who was over with the navy, we also met up with Sean and his friends. It was a really good afternoon....even better was that there was a public holiday the next day. We stayed there until about 12.30 when it closed, I didn't want to leave as we were having fun :-( it's probably a good job that we did though, otherwise today I would have been even more knackered. We haven't done much today, just lazed around watching tv...I love days like that!

2006-09-25T21:30:00.000+10:00

These weeks go by so quickly, it's Monday before I know it, and again it's been a week since updated my blog! I can't even remember what I did last week. I think it was Thursday we had Rod around for dinner as a thank you for helping us move flat. I bought a new cookery book, so Jason cooked us a nice meal from that...I'm really getting too used to being cooked for all the time, I really can't be bothered to cook anymore. Friday after work I went for a couple of drinks with the guys from work (me and 6 men!). We went to the Customs House which is a really popular bar in the summer, it was packed outside cos the evening was so warm. After that I met up with Jason. I had booked a table for the Oktoberfest at the Lowenbrau bier keller in town, but when we got there we got shoved into the back room of the place and not in the hall where all the entertainment was. I wasn't very happy as I'd booked the table weeks ago! In the end we just decided to have a drink there and then go back on Wednesday night as Sue's friend had booked a table for a big group of us, so we went for a curry instead.

Saturday I went shopping for some new work clothes. I had quite a successful day, I bought some nice new things, I still need some more work shoes though. I really do struggle with the shoes over here, I've bought that many pairs, and I can't think of one pair that don't hurt when I wear them...even the bloomin flip flops hurt! Jason picked me up when I'd finished (5 hours later!) and we briefly went to the pub to say goodbye to Linn and Martin who are off to New Zealand for their holiday. Then we went home and Jason cooked for me again, we had chick pea salsa in tortillas with sour cream and avocado amongst other lovely things. After that, we decided to pop down the road to Coogee for a few drinks as it was such a nice evening, it's the first time since we've moved that we've been out on a Saturday night!

Sunday it was boiling, 33 degrees with a really hot wind. We had to shut the windows to keep the hot air out. We decided to go to the cinema to keep cool, we saw An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary about global warming by Al Gore. It was really interesting, but also frustrating at the same time....why can't these polititians do more to acknowledge what is going on in our world and do something about it, things would be so different if Al Gore had been voted President and not George Bush...at least he cares about what is going on! It showed that America really is the worst offender. Anyway, that was about it for Sunday, we just watched a dvd in the evening (after Australian Idol). We were watching the news and there were lots of bush fires yesterday, I can't believe it's only just spring and they are having these problems already. It was a very oppressive day.

I'm feeling very tired and sleepy today, even though it's a lot cooler, I think yesterday took it's toll on everyone. I managed to go for a run after work, don't know where I got the energy!! I also finally got my New Zealand residency application ready to send off this week... that's been a long time coming, so much info to get together, all those police checks and medicals...cost me a fortune!

2006-09-18T20:03:00.000+10:00

The weather here was beautiful over the weekend, considering last weekend was wet, cold and windy, it goes from one extreme to the other!

Didn't do so much, on Friday night we went around to Rach and Stu's as they had just got back from their 3 week trip to UK, we had a few drinks there. Then Saturday day we spent a fortune on getting my pictures developed and photo frames to put them in. I spent the afternoon putting them up around the house, and I must say, I'm so pleased with them. There are a lot of landscape pictures from my trip, lots of sunsets and beaches....they really look quite professional, I can't stop looking at them I'm that pleased!!

In the evening we just watched a dvd (it was the 3rd Saturday night we've stayed in!!). Sunday we went to Newtown, there was an Earth festival on which involved lots of djs and loads of hippies on drugs! It wasn't my thing really, but it was nice to catch up with our friends. I didn't stay that late, I got home about 6pm and watched Australian Idol, I've never really got into it before, but it's easy to get hooked.

That's about it really, back to work today and busy as ever!

2006-09-11T20:24:00.000+10:00

Well, considering we've got the internet at home, I've been neglecting my blog a bit! I managed to get on Skype to speak to my brother which is great, it's actually very clear, even better than on the phone...I also got a webcam, so we've been chatting and it's great that we can see each other too.

We had our friend Sean around for dinner on Thursday night as a thank you for letting us stay at his. Jason cooked some sweetcorn and tuna balls and then we had cannelloni....really yummy. He's actually been great with the cooking, most nights my dinner has been ready for me when I get home from work as I don't finish til after him. Last night we had tuna and tomato risotto and garlic bread, I could really get used to this ;o)

So, what else have I been up to...well, work is great, still really busy, learning lots everyday. I met up with Sue on Friday after work, I also invited a friend of Alex's (who I know from Munich) Dan has just arrived here on a 4 year work contract and doesn't know anyone, so Alex gave him my email address. We had a few drinks with him, then he left us to it. We ended up having a really fun night, not that I can remember much! we hadn't been out like that for a long time and it was great....so great, I didn't get home till 4am!!

Saturday I wasn't feeling the best, we popped to the shopping centre and then we had to come back home...I needed to lie down! We had a lazy afternoon and got out a dvd in the evening. Then yesterday we went shopping for a coffee table and some cushions....very domesticated!! The weather has been so bad that we haven't wanted to go out anyway, winter has come back and it's been really wet and windy.

2006-09-06T21:02:00.000+10:00

I'm sat here writing this in the luxury of my own home...yes, we finally got broadband!!! We got the modem in the post today, and we set it up straight away...easy peasy!

It's been a really busy day at work, I'm trying to suss out paying the invoices, it's really complicated cos they get split between about a million cost centres, and I have to work out all the amounts...it's a real stresser, but I'm slowly getting there, I'm lucky in that I can still contact Roxanne (my predecessor) and she can help me out.

I went for some more acupuncture tonight, it was ok, apart from there was a woman in the next bed moaning and shouting to see a doctor, in all the fuss they forgot about me and I had the needles in too long (not sure if that matters, but it made me feel a bit queezy!) anyway, no harm done.

I'm now going to try and log onto Skype in the hope of chatting to my brother. We hardly ever speak cos the phone costs are so astronomical....so fingers crossed!