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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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!

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!!

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!

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!!

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!!

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)

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.

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

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.

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