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.