My first day in orange

I had an exciting day today - my first SES callout. Pics are below. I'm too tired to write much now, so please check again later for a full report on my Gold Coast flood adventure!

Nightie night!

Although I'm tired with wet feet, I'm still having fun!

My "this woman is paid to shop" pose.

Happy Birthday Tony!

Today was Tony's 38th Birthday! We celebrated by going for dinner to the new Gallery Restaurant upstairs at the renovated GPO Hotel. We shared a lovely candlelit dinner - entree of bread with pesto and goats cheese and mains were a steak for Tony and salmon for Jen (with mint sorbet between courses to cleanse the palate!).

For dessert, I had arranged for some light sorbet (because we were so full) and some birthday candles. But we were both very surprised and delighted when the wonderful waiters brought over a massive birthday dessert platter, compliments of the staff! I think Tony's eyes just about popped out of his head! He didn't know where to start - the caramel apple tart, poached pear, frozen berry fromage, guava sorbet, or the layered chocoate and raspberry "lasagne". The chocolate won and after much oohing and aahing he completely polished it off!

We had a lovely time and the staff were excellent. We will definitely be going back!

Tony's "birthday month" isn't over yet - we still have dinner on Friday night with a few close friends and then our holiday in Malaysia.

Happy birthday, sweetheart! I love you :-)

A star is born - Part II

The woman who is paid to shop - me! This story on page 18 (!!!) of today's Sunday Mail is mostly fictional. I told the reporter I only did about one of these Mystery Shopper gigs every month but it ended up being "once a week" in the story. The journo must have gone to QUT too!!!

The photo reminds me of those "this man is a dentist so we can't show you his face" ads. Must protect the identity of Mystery Shoppers - that's why we print her full name, age and profession!!!

Well anyway, that's twice this week I've been in a photo shoot. I need an agent.

Lunch with the folks

Saturday was another excuse to overindulge. Family friends Paul and Jillian were up from Melbourne for the weekend, so we gathered the troops for lunch at Mum and Dad's.

It was a loud and rowdy affair with 11 adults and four kiddies. As usual, Mum excelled herself in the kitchen and I don't think I did too badly with my warm flourless chocolate cake served with homemade raspberry coulis.

Don't be a pork chop

On Friday night the folks from work (+ partners, most of whom were called Tony) all gathered at Carli's house to farewell Hayley and wish her well on her 12 month jaunt to London.

Much food and wine was consumed and a few games of pool were played. The night ended with Carli doing her best "cold cuts" impersonations. I only wish I had a camera to capture her "roast chook" move. You had to see it to believe it. I just about fell off my chair from laughing so hard!

All the best, Hayley!

A star is born

I rocked up to SES training on Monday night (yes, more training!!!) to be told that the eight new recruits in my Eastern Group were needed in a photo shoot that night. No time to re-do the hair, put on a bit of lip gloss - nothing. The state training manual for first aid was going to print the next morning and they urgently needed to take a couple of pics for it. So your's truly is the victim/damsel in distress being carried to safety by two blokes using various methods of patient transport.

Sugar Plum Fairy

On the Saturday evening during SES training, I made a quick trip to The Gap State High School in time to see my gorgeous little niece in her stage debut. Sharda was the perfect little ballerina and practically my entire family was there to watch her skip across the stage (and I'm pretty sure the cameras out-numbered the people!). I think Sharda has found her niche - she loves the stage and the limelight just as much as her auntie. She is a born performer!

SES training weekend

As I wrote in a blog entry a few weeks ago, I have decided to join my local State Emergency Service group. But before I can become a fully-fledged member I have to do a fair bit of training, so for the weekend of the 17th/18th/19th June I went to the "Stage One Recruitment Training" at the Kedron Emergency Services complex.

Now while some of you may have visions of me ploughing through swollen creeks in a vain attempt to practice my "rescue" techniques, let me assure you that it was not at all like this!! Most of the weekend was spent in a lecture-type environment with some practical demonstrations outside.

We covered a vast array of material, including:

• observation
• food and water survival skills
• improvised shelters
• general rescue
• ropes, knots, chains and slings
• casualty handling
• generators and lighting
• ladders, roofs and storm damage
• map reading and topography
• radio communications and operations

It was a very long and tiring weekend - late Friday night, all day Saturday until after 10pm, then all day Sunday. But I had a ball - the people were fun, interesting and entertaining. I'm really looking forward to the rest of my training.

Tony & Jen get spicy!

This one's for you, Davo!

Tony's porn star character, Misty Neville (going by the first pet/street name rule)

May the force be with you!

We finally saw Star Wars tonight - woohoo!!! It was fantastic, I just loved every minute of it!

Stradbroke Cup 2005

On Saturday a few of us went out to Eagle Farm for the Stradbroke Cup (apparently there were horses?!). The was a big crowd and the sunny weather held up. We had a couple of drinks before we called it a day and headed home for pizza.


Here we are enjoying the sights on the track - you see all sorts at the races!

My champagne buddy Vince and the lovely Lisa.

Vince and Lisa's pal Jodie

The boys - Vince, Paul, Tony and Tero

Vince and Shannon

Shannon, Tony and Jayne

Penang, anyone?

Tony and I have been hanging to go on a holiday for some time - and since he's so busy with work and can't take the time for our Europe trip just yet - we've decided to just go somewhere for a quick getaway. So on Friday afternoon we marched into the travel agents and booked a 12-day trip to Malaysia next month.

We will be travelling via a one-night stopover in Brunei, then on to Kuala Lumpur for a few days bargain shopping. We're then looking to go up into the highlands, before heading out to the beautiful islands of Langkawi. We'll then train it back down the coast to Singapore and then home.

As yet we've only booked the flights and so we are still completely open to suggestions! If anyone has heard about any good spots, please leave us a comment! Thanks :-)

Orange looks great on you...

The week before last I went to an information session on joining the State Emergency Service. You often see them on TV, helping out during some kind of crisis and I've always thought it would be really interesting to do something like that. It's all completely voluntary and I will receive lots of training in all sorts of things - from GPS navigation to chainsaw training! And we get all our equipment supplied, including those lovely fluoro orange outfits! Stunning!

My local unit is based at Morningside, so it's not too far to go for training each Monday night. Next weekend I'm going to the Emergency Services complex at Kedron for more intensive-style training. Everyone I've met so far has been really lovely - and the other "new recruits" all seem to be fun people.

Anyway, I'm still taking it all in. I'll see how I go!

Wagga Wagga what?!

Although it looks like this photo was taken at a wild party, it was just a dodgy camera setting!

Ahhh, that's much better. A more sedate looking Mattie and Jen enjoying coffee at the Mecca Bah after a scrumptious dinner at Wagamama's.

Not much to report

Yes, we are still alive! Our apologies for being a bit quiet on the blog - we've both been busy working the past couple of weekends. Tony did his final trip up to Cairns (YIPPEE!) and I've had a few events on through work.