FInally...

Well since we're now on holidays I guess there's no excuse not to update the blog. Sorry to all those regular readers who've religously checked our blog, only to find the cupboard was still bare!

I won't bore you with the ins and outs of the past couple of months, perhaps just a brief overview of the highlights:

• Concerts galore - Kylie (twice), U2 (four metres from Bono!), Robbie (twice, and he smiled at me!), oh and not forgetting the Wiggles with my niece Sharda
• My other niece, Annika's first birthday - when I figure out how to post videos I'll load a really cute one of Annika eating cake (and smushing cake in her hair!)
• Welcoming Davo back from the UK, albeit only for a couple of months
• Countless nights out with friends...too many good times to mention!

Will post some European pics shortly...

Greetings from Paris

Just a short note to say that, yes, we are still alive!

Currently in Paris, after having been through London, Edinburgh, Ireland and Jersey. Too many highlights to mention! But I do promise to post all the details plus some pics when we get home.

Take care!

We're terrible bloggers

Oh dear...it's been another couple of busy weeks and as usual, we're chasing our tails!

Tony has been working his backside off and I have been madly trying to organise our trip.

Only one more sleep til we head off to the UK and Europe for seven weeks. We will try and post updates on the road!

Take care!

We're exhausted

Tony and I have both been working around the clock lately - weekend work, late-night work, work, work, work! We've been passing each other like ships in the night and we can't wait for the luxury of a long holiday together in Europe.

I apologise for the slack updates, but in the rare few hours of free time that I've had, the last thing I've wanted to look at has been a computer (unless it involves holiday planning!)

I'm off to Toowoomba for four days this week - one of our major stakeholder groups is holding their annual conference and my job is to "nework and build relationships". If you read between the lines, that means lots of chat and socialising at the Gala Dinners. I don't mind this kind of work, it's not too bad at all!

I get back on Thursday afternoon, right after Tony leaves for seven days in Melbourne. We've recently invested in a young fashion designer and this will be his first Australian Fashion Week. Tony's role is to manage any business affairs that may arise out of the trip.

So between all this work and these trips, maybe Tony and I can finally catch up on that loooong plane flight to London...

Hello Queenie!

Very exciting news - Tony and I have booked our return flights to London! Woohoo! We're going for seven weeks from September 15 - three weeks yesterday!

We haven't locked in our plans while we're there yet - we have a few countries on our list of must-sees and we're sorting that out in the next week or so.

In a lucky turn of events, Fi's lease is almost up and she's going to house-sit our place while she looks for a new townhouse for her and Chey. So little Zackie will have some fun company :-)

Shhh...mystery shopper on assignment

This past weekend I had the best mystery shopper assignment - a one night stay at a hotel, including breakfast!

So on Saturday afternoon we packed up our staff and took the loooong journey to Garden City Travelodge. We were so exhausted after almost 15 minutes in the car...

We checked in to the almost new hotel and since we were "tourists" we had a look at the gianormous Garden City Shopping Centre (we never get to this part of town, so it was quite exciting!).

To complete the "romantic getaway" we went for dinner that night in a local restaurant.

It's funny, even though we were just down the road, it really did feel like a weekend away.

Birthday girls

Two of my dearest friends are celebrating birthdays in August.

We started weekend before last with drinks at Merthyr Bowls to welcome in birthday week for Fi. It was a fun afternoon but after my Happy-ometer night I was feeling a bit tired and so we called it quits after dinner (so did the birthday girl!). It was a wise decision though, as the next morning Fi and I had a lovely leisurely brekkie at the Moray Cafe, then visited my folks, before hanging out at the Story Bridge Hotel later on Sunday afternoon.

The following Friday night was the surprise party for Cath. Make sure you check out her blog for details and pics.

Happy birthday girls.

The Happy-ometer

There's nothing quite like a bit of self-appreciation. That is why at work, the lovely work-Fiona and I have designed the Happy-ometer for the Marketing and Comms team. It's a thermometer drawing and when our clients thank us for the work we've done, or say we've done a great job, we add stars to our Happy-ometer and eventually reward our efforts with food and drinks. There's nothing like a fun social event to motivate the team! And it's so nice to actually stop and think, "hey, that person just thanked me! I'm doing a good job!"

Anyway, after about two months of studiously adding stars to our Happy-ometer, we finally reached our end goal on Friday 4 August - a night of Sizzlers (we love our food), Strike Bowling (we're just big kids!), and a quiet drink or two (yeah right!).

I was first up at bowling and I managed to get a strike! But it all went downhill from there... I think I finished fourth or fifth?

After bowling the stayers partied on at the Port Office (oh dear) and after Maccas and eight boxes of cookies (thanks Alex) we all stumbled home around 4am. It was a fun night, but I'm keeping Mum as what goes on tour stays on tour.

Weekends and a winter escape

Another busy weekend in the Tony and Jen household!

On Friday I had a work planning day in Kangaroo Point and afterwards a few of us went to the Story Bridge Hotel for "one or two". Oh how time flies when you're having fun. I dragged my sorry self home around 10.30 after drinking vodka for six hours and no dinner. Not a good combination. Needless to say I wasn't in a good state on Saturday, so it was a quiet day.

On Sunday morning we packed up the car (and the puppy!) for a family getaway in a country cottage near the base of the Border Ranges and Lamington National Park. We had a lovely drive out of Brisbane and enjoyed the picture-perfect scenery on a bright, clear winter's day. Our "getaway" was an old school that has been converted into a large Queenslander-style cottage, nestled amongst the foothills at the very end of the road.

We made the most of the sunny day and wandered across the fields and followed the fast-flowing stream, Chingee Creek, through the valley. Zack had a ball darting in and out of the knee-deep mini rapids and over the rocks. I had a ball laughing at Tony when he slipped into the water and got drenched up to his knees!

As the sun started to slip below the mountain range we started the fireplace. We then feasted on BBQ steaks, salad and potatos that I had wrapped in foil and cooked in the fire! Served with lashings of butter and sour cream of course! Divine!

After dinner, the three of us enjoyed a lovely night in front of the fire with no TV and no mobile phones! Tony taught me how to play chess and then we had a lively game of scrabble (with plenty of debate!) It was a close game, but I won in the end ;-)

This morning we feasted again - this time on bacon and eggs - and pitied the poor souls at work on a Monday!

Early afternoon we sadly said goodbye to our peaceful country cottage and made our way home.

Only a couple of Dong

Tony and I are spontaneous travellers. When I got an email during the week about super cheap flights to South-East Asia I gave Tony a call to see what he thought. Within an hour I'd booked return flights for us to Ho Chi Minh City. We're going to spend two weeks exploring Vietnam in late December/early January. We're very excited!

p.s. We're still going to UK/Europe before the end of the year - that'll be another last-minute decision on when and where :-)

A quick update

Well I haven't quite gotten around to loading my Extra story on our blog yet - I will try and do it some day soon! The story was not very glamorous - it was on the "gunk" in kettles!! You know, that build-up of scale that you get on an old kettle? And I'm afraid to say that our poor old kettle didn't look too good on telly!

Weekend before last I was busy training for SES stuff (to be precise I was learning how to run an emergency operations centre, the headquarters for a disaster/event management. I'm much more interested in this than slogging it out in the field!)

This past weekend was a reasonably quiet one (Tony has had the sniffles). We went for dinner with some friends on Saturday night to a tasty Japanese restaurant in the Valley. I tried Sake for the first time - it tastes like warm Listerine or watery cough mixture. Ugh!

I had dinner last night with my sister and her girls (Brad is working down the coast this week). Goodness me, little Annika has grown so much! She's not far off crawling! And Sharda is doing so well at Prep - she can read some small words already!

Today Tony and I made a bit of a spontaneous decision - Jet Star were doing really cheap flights to launch their international routes. On a whim we decided to go to Vietnam for two weeks over December/January. Goodness! When I woke up this morning I had no idea we would have booked flights to Ho Chi Minh City by lunchtime! But we're both really excited about it and have now got another new adventure to look forward too.

This coming weekend we have another little adventure - although slightly closer to home. The three of us (me, him & our fur kid) are staying in a cabin near the southern end of Lamington National Park (near the border). There's the rainforest, creek and rock pools on the property for us to explore, as well as a cosy log fire and beautiful views. Divine.

Do you want my autograph?

Just another regular day in the Tony and Jen household with Channel 9's Extra crew coming over this morning to film a story...

Be sure to watch Extra this Friday night to find out more (I'll post details after my "Extra debut" for our interstate and overseas readers!)

A weekend and Puppy update...

You all be pleased to hear that Zack's little scratch has just about fully healed and so he's no longer wearing his doggie-collar.

The three of us (me, him and puppy) had a great weekend visiting Tony's Dad, Martin, in Burnett Heads, just north of Bundy on the coast. I had a half day on Friday (because our office was relocated over the weekend) and we left Bris Vegas about 2.30pm, arriving by 7 in time for a yummy dinner of homemade chicken noodle soup and apple strudel. Saturday was a lazy day - Tony and I played with Zack, then we went into to Bundy and wandered around the mall for a little while before heading home for a yummy roast beef lunch with creamy mash, Slavic-style coleslaw and salad, followed by more strudel! We then washed Zack and wiled the afternoon away before enjoying paprika chicken stew for dinner (did I mention Martin is a fabulous cook?!?)

Saturday night after our early dinner we visited our friends Scott and Marscha and their two adorable children Chloe and Thomas. I fell in love with their beautiful country Queenslander and it's wide decks, high ceilings and divine fireplace (which we put to good use!).

Sunday morning we read the paper in the sun and then had another roast for lunch with crispy potatoes!!!! HEAVEN!!!! And Zackie got to enjoy the bones!

We came home on Sunday afternoon via a beach just near Elliot Heads and the lagoon in Gympie.

A very relaxing and gastronomically satisfying weekend.

Poor puppy

Zack has a little cut under his ear that has gotten infected (no doubt an accident caused by rough play in the doggie off-leash area). Tony took him to the vet for some antibiotics, and we were also advised to get a collar to stop him scratching it. These photos were so cute that I just had to share...

Cheese and wine

Silly me! I forgot to write an entry for my little driving tour last Saturday. Two girls from work, Danielle and Fiona, and I headed up towards the Sunshine Coast Hinterland and the Mary Valley to explore the wineries and cheese places. Heaven. My favourite place was Blind Man's Bluff winery just north of Kenilworth - we sat out on a grassy knoll in the sun, enjoying the views and feasting on the wine samples and a lovely platter of warm home-made bread and dips. Here's a happy snap taken at the first winery, Settler's Rise, in Montville. We just wanted to take off our shoes and run through the grapevines singing Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run, Run, Run...

Disney on Ice

On Sunday afternoon I took my cute little niece Sharda to see Disney on Ice - an exciting first for both of us! We had a ball clapping along to the music and marching with Mickey. I'm very much looking forward to our next outing in December to see the Wiggles!

Happy Birthday!

It was Tony's birthday on Wednesday so we've had a busy week of celebrations. Wednesday night a few of us went "up the road to the Piney" for his favourite meal - a tasty T-bone, followed by dessert at home.

Tony caught up with a mate for lunch at the Norman on Friday - and by all reports it was another sensational steak!

Friday night we met up with Mickie and Nell at Earth'n'Sea at Bulimba for yummy pizza before catching the new Adam Sandler flick Click.

Saturday evening a group of us went to the International Hotel in Spring Hill for a really yummy dinner and some live music. The boys then went out while I collapsed in bed after a huge week at work (11 hour days!!)

Happy birthday my sweet boy!

Fun at BarSoma

Last Saturday night I joined the girls from work at Mint Indian Gourmet to celebrate Work-Fi's birthday. We then met up with the "boys" at BarSoma for a quiet drinkie or two...yeah right!Let me see, the latest injury count was a sprained ankle and unexplained bruises (Fi), a lovable crash tackle and one too many Chris Martins (Alex), a missing mobile and blackberry (Alex and Linda), crook for two days (yours truly). At least we scrubbed up all right at the beginning of the night (if you don't count the gold star on my forehead!)

World's worst pizza...if that's possible?!

We had dinner with my work gang...check out Work-Fi's write-up here (not to be confused with my other Fi!)

Spring cleaning...in winter

Over the past few weeks, Tony and I have been spending up the business $$$ in the pre-tax time sales. So far we've bought a new office desk, 19inch flat screen monitor, linen cupboard and new wardrobe (all for business purposes of course!) Riveting stuff, I know...but hey it's pretty exciting when you finally get a linen cupboard!

It's been a LONG time!

Crikey...it's been a while since I've updated our blog! The more busy we are and more exciting our lives are - the less time we've got to talk about it (and wait for our painfully slow "broadband")

Rather than me bore you with all the details of the past two (!!) months, here's quick run down on major events (sorry, no pics - this takes too long!):

April

• My niece, Sharda, turned five and I had the pleasure of keeping half a dozen of her little school friends entertained at her "Pretty Princesses in Pink Party". And yes - all of us were in pink - Tony included!
• Fun in New Farm Park with the work gang as Alex (winner of the Bray Park High Basketball Participation Award) took on fellow colleague Brian Kerle (Olympian, former NBL champion and Bullets coach) in a rowdy game of one-on-one basketball. Can you believe it, but Alex actually won?!?!!? Mind you, Brian is now 60!
• Tony and I went down the coast for school friend Em's wedding. We stayed there the night before and had our fave Thai for dinner.
• Michelle's hens night.
• To Mooloolaba with Jaimee and Michelle.
• Zack turned one!

May

• Michelle and Ben's wedding
• BBQ at Jaimee's to say "see you soon"
• To Melbourne with my sister Ronda and girlfriend Fiona - we saw the Lion King and did lots of shopping! I also introduced my sister to Jam Donut Shots!
• Tony took me to High Tea at Joseph Alexanders (a swish restaurant on the river)
• Paul, Mikey and Laurentio's birthday at the Shadow Lounge
• Tony took me on a date to the Customs House Brasserie restaurant and then we saw MI:3
• Barefoot bowls with SES crowd, then to Norman Hotel with a couple of them

June

• Off to Sydney to see my Grandma. Also went to cousin's engagement party.
• Got tickets to see Robbie Williams with eight fabulous friends.
• Went to Stradbroke Cup at Eagle Farm with Carli. Way too many drinks.

A beautiful day filled with love

Congratulations Michelle and Ben!

p.s. Ha! Cath, I beat you to it!!! I won blog wars today!

One other thing

A post script from Friday night - apparently I saw The Veronicas at Uber. But I don't remember this bit...

Bowl me over

Oh dear...

Last night I celebrated my birthday with a few quiet drinks with some friends. Well, that was the plan anyway - but it didn't quite turn out that way! My work buddies and I kick-started the evening with a bottle of bubbly in the office to celebrate the end of a long project, before we caught the CityCat round to the Merthyr Bowls Club. We were later joined by Tony and some of our friends and we enjoyed the cheap bar prices into the night - and a bit of star spotting as Bernard Fanning was only two tables away! Later in the night a few of us moved on to Uber in West End for a dance.

Thanks for coming guys and for plying me with all those drinks - what kind of friends are you?!?! I hope I didn't embarrass myself TOO much?

Here's some happy snaps:

Carli, Alex and Fiona

Danielle and Carli

Fi and me

Phillipa and Vince

Tony and me

Easter bunnies and birthday girls

Tony and I had such a great Easter break!

On Thursday night we met some friends for dinner at Ahmets, this tasty little Turkish restuarant in Balmoral. Yummo!

On Friday Tony got stuck into the second coat of paint round the bottom level of our house, while I got organised for dinner with my family that night. Mum, Dad, Ronda, Brad, Sharda and Annika came over late afternoon for a scrumptious dinner - even if I do say so myself! We feasted on lamb racks with pine nut crust (since we're not a very religious family the no-fish Good Friday wasn't a problem!), served with home made mint and parmesan pesto, potato bake and vegies. Dessert was my specialty flour-less chocolate cakes served with a caramel-filled Easter Egg and vanilla ice-cream. Yummo!

Sharda stayed with us on Friday night, so Saturday I was up nice and early! We took Zack for a walk to the park and Sharda and I played on the swings and slides. I then made the mistake of saying we could help Tony paint coat number three, so she nagged and nagged until he got the paints out! She was bored with it after about five minutes!

Saturday night Fi came over for dinner with us - I made Teriyaki beef stirfry (the sauce was made from scratch too, no packet mixes or bottled sauces here!). After trying on every outfit in my wardrobe the two of us managed to get out for a drink or two.

Sunday morning Tony and I enjoyed a huge home-cooked brekkie before a "quick" trip to the local hardware store to get some more paint. Unfortunately though we got a flat tyre! That last tin of paint was an expensive one!

That afternoon I visited my folks so Mum could help me start my re-decorating/cushion cover making.

Sunday night we went out on the town with Fiona, Mike and Scottie - consequently, Monday was nice and quiet. We enjoyed naps on the deck and did absolutely nothing! The perfect way to spend my last day as a 26-year-old.

Tuesday morning I woke up to fresh juice beside our bed and Tony singing me Happy Birthday. Zackie was allowed in our room to bring in his pressie for me - a new Pilates DVD! He's such a clever puppy to go out and buy that!

For a surprise lunch, Tony picked me up from work and took me to the beautiful Garden's Cafe and spoilt me with lots of nice presents, including a beautiful necklace. After work we had a quick bite to eat (and a cocktail for me!) at Ahmets on Oxford Street before we saw Ice Age 2 at the Balmoral cinemas.

My birthday was perfect, I couldn't have asked for a better day. Thank you to everyone for your kind calls, emails and messages. It was very nice of you to think about me.

And a big Happy Birthday on Wednesday to my niece Sharda - she turned five! Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!

A busy weekend

This past weekend was a tad busy in our house. Here's a quick run-down:

Friday night - My SES group does some fundraising at the local PCYC Bluelight Discos (remember those?!). Basically the police let us sell the kids chocolates and soft drinks from the canteen and we get to keep the profits. This is awfully nice of them considering they could easily use the funds for the youth activities they run. It was a bit of a laugh seeing the 14-year-olds dressed up and trying to dance in their little girls-only or boys-only groups. It brought back way too many memories! Things haven't changed at all - kids still go ballistic over classics like Grease, Nutbush and The Macarena. Yes, the kids wore dreadful clothes...but so did we! Remember the "bomber" look when we were in high school!!! Oh dear...

Friday night (part 2) - Later that evening Fi and I joined Tony and some of his mates to celebrate Sean's 30th at uber in West End. We only went for a little while... but five hours and one-too-many drinks later we finally managed to stumble home...It was a fun night and reminded me that I'm still a cadbury - a glass and a half is all I need!

Saturday - My sister Ronda and I had a lovely day out at the Body and Soul show and the Travel show at the Convention Centre. We tried and tested a few different products, bought some goodies, giggled while we tried on wigs, and stocked up on lots of holiday brochures. We followed this up with a late lunch on Little Stanley Street and a wander through the markets.

Saturday night - Dinner and drinkies for Em's Hens Night (I went to high school with Emma). See Cath's blog for more piccies and details. It wasn't a late night though, as I was still getting over the three drinks I had the night before (I think I'm getting old!).

Sunday - The divine Miss Fi and I met for breakfast in the Pylon Bar area of the Story Bridge Hotel. YUM!!! Sunday arvo I caught up with Mum and Dad before heading to the gym for a class (by the way...did I mention I've now got a gym membership?)

Sunday night - Tony and I caught up with some more friends for dinner at the restaurant Ahmets before moving next door to Oxford 152 (the trendy pub on Oxford St). We finally called the weekend quits and drove home to collapse. It was nice to go to work on Monday to relax...well, almost!

I love my nieces to pieces

Two of the greatest things in my life are my sister's gorgeous girls - Sharda and Annika. I'm so lucky to be blessed with such lovely nieces and I would do just about anything for them. This includes attending a wide variety of important events in a little girl's life, such as ballet concerts, birthday parties and of course Easter Bonnet Parades. I think I've only ever missed one of Sharda's Easter Bonnet Parades - and there's been quite a few! Here's a few pics from when I visited her Prep class last week for the Easter Bonnet Parade...

Sharda in her classroom

Sharda, Annika and Ronda

This is the first time Annika held her own bottle...

Annika loved the flash from the camera - I think she's a poser like the rest of my family!

Friends & family

Last Saturday night (the 25th) my friend Mattie and I enjoyed some very tasty Indonesian food at a little restaurant in New Farm called Jakarta. It was great to catch up with Mattie - we hadn't really seen each other since earlier in the year and, as usual, you couldn't get a word in edgeways!

On Monday night Tony's Aunt Agnes and her sister Kathleen arrived for the week. Agnes and Uncle Willy live in Melbourne but they were originally from Ireland. Kathleen is still living in Ireland but has been in Australia for about two months to visit with family. It was such a delight to have "the girls" stay with us. They are typically Irish - very appreciative of good food and drink and have a wicked sense of humour!

During the day Agnes and Kathleen would go sightseeing with a friend of theirs while a night we feasted on some dishes I made...including roasted lamb racks crusted with pine nuts served with home made mint pesto and the following night we enjoyed mustard, lemon and rosemary chicken. Mmm-mmmm.

On Saturday we went for a drive up to Monteville, stopping for lunch and a browse around the shops, before dropping Agnes and Kathleen off at the airport.

Kathleen, Tony and Auntie Agnes enjoying the stunning view from the Sunshine Coast Hinterland

On Sunday Tony, Zack and I joined some friends for a picnic in New Farm Park - Fiona and her daughter Chey, and Mickie with his girls Brooke and Romy.

Cheyenne (5), Romy (4) and Brooke in front (12)

When you're on a picnic remember to keep your drink out of the puppy's reach! Zack, we caught you on camera!

After the picnic we all went to the Hawthorne Cinemas where we met up with Mickie's girlfriend Nell and watched the Tim Allen comedy, The Shaggy Dog. It was a kiddie movie and the theatre was packed full of kids who thoroughly enjoyed it. I know Zack would have loved to see it too!

A false alarm...

Tonight was the second time I was put on standby to head north with the SES to help the folks in Innisfail...but alas, the trip was cancelled again! Apparently they don't need us? That's not quite what I've been seeing in the news! Maybe I'll get my chance next week?

To be sure, to be sure!

We celebrated St Pat's day in the office last Friday in the usual fashion - by going completely overboard! My Marketing buddies don't need much encouragement for a party and we certainly don't do things by halves!
















We were feeling a little green after all this food...

The good and the very bad

This week started out on a health-kick high when Tony and I went back to Pilates on Tuesday night. It was tough going as we hadn't been since before Christmas, and there were a few aching muscles on Wednesday!

The health-kick died a nasty death on Thursday as it was Carli's last day at SRQ - after gobbling down a super-sized farewell morning tea the Comms team headed out for lunch - and a couple glasses of my fave plonk, NZ Sauv Blanc - before heading back to the office to try and wile away the hours with a light head.

After work we headed over to the Chill Bar and continued to enjoy a drink or two, or three, or four, etc, etc, etc... and it got ugly from there. I never want to see vodka again, at least not on a school night!!! I had a great night with Carli and Alex (what goes on tour stays on tour guys, so I promise I won't blab any stories here!). Poor Alex had to back up again on Friday for a Bucks Weekend (he looked like death on Monday!!)

On Saturday arvo-evening I was involved in a floodboat photo shoot for the SES - just call me the SES covergirl ;-) It was sooooo much fun and I promise to post pics here as soon as I get them.

Puppy update

Here are a few recent pics of our boy Zack. He's now 10 months old and he's cracked the 25 kilo mark. Zack is one big, lovable puppy!!!

February at a glance

Since Melbourne we've been quite busy:

• We had Fi and Chey over for dinner
• I started back at SES - and for the next little while I'm the New Member Liaison Officer - basically the first point of contact for our new intake of members, plus I organise their training and report on their progress back to the Group Executive and Management. It's a fair bit of work, but very enjoyable.
• Lots of family visits, dinners and lunches
• A couple of big nights out on the town, plus a few Sunday arvo drinkies at Oxford 152 and the odd after-work Friday arvo drinks.
• A weekend down the Gold Coast at the Magic Mountain resort (remember the old theme park?!)
• Seeing TransAmerica at the Dendy - I give it 7.5 out of 10
• Seeing Dirty Dancing, the musical with the lovely Fi
• Booking a holiday package to Melbourne to see the Lion King with my sister Ronda and friend Fi. We're going in May and I'm very excited!

I'm sure I've missed a few things, but they're the highlights and now I'm finally up-to-date with the blog!! I've only been behind since about November!!!

Melbourne and other places

Rightio...what's happened in the past month or so??!!!?! We got up to a bit before our trip to Melbourne. Some of the highlights included dinner at the Plough Inn with Mickie and Nell, Tony went to Big Day Out (I stayed way away from that one!). I met up with Vanessa and Fi for a drink - I hadn't seen Ness in ages and it was so good to see her.

On the Wednesday night before Australia Day we flew to Melbourne for a long weekend. We stayed with Tony's cousin Tony and his wife Nat and their son Sylas. We arrived safe, minus Tony's bag which had been left behind by Virgin Blue. Never fear, it arrived bright and early the next morning!

On Thursday afternoon we visited with Tony's uncle Willy and aunt Agnes, had a BBQ with their son Jeff, his wife Melissa and their darling daughter Renee. Thursday night Agnes and I got stuck into a couple bottles of Rose' while Willy and Tony polished off most of a bottle of Southern Comfort. Needless to say, we were a little slow off the mark on Friday morning! Willy and Agnes drove down to Mornington Peninsula ahead of us, to show us the way. We stopped off to visit Tony's mum (she's buried in the most picturesque cemetary on the Peninsula).

Agnes, Tony, Willy (holding Becky)

We then said goodby to Willy and Agnes and went on to Portsea where we wandered down to the ocean side of the point. Man that water was cold - straight off the icebergs! The funny thing was, that there were crazy Melburnians sunbaking!!!

We then stopped for lunch in Sorrento before making our way back round the bay. Mid afternoon the weather did a sharp change (how very un-Melbourne!) and a nasty little storm blew through the area. I couldn't help but admire the rapid response of the local SES, not to mention their fancy Ops vehicle... (I had to hang out the car in the rain to get this pic!)


Friday evening we caught up with our friends Paul and Jillian at their place in Glen Waverley. We had a lovely antipasto style dinner with them and a couple glasses of champers! We had to cut our visit short though as we had to get the car back to Tony's cousin.

Saturday afternoon we hit Chapel Street (in the rain!) and then had a BBQ dinner with Tony, Nat and Sylas. Sunday morning we went into town to pick up a few things and then met another Paul in Brunswick St, Fitzroy. This is where I discovered Jen Heaven - a discount Alannah Hill outlet. That evening we caught up with Tony's long-time friend Ernie, partner Dora and new baby Stella.

Monday was a quick trip back to the Alannah Hill outlet (there were a couple of things in the shop I didn't buy!) before flying home to Bris Vegas.

Here's little Sylas

Part 2 - January round-up

Ok, here is really quick run-down on the past month or so....

Christmas Eve - Fi and I went to the movies and saw Cheaper by the Dozen 2, then back to her place to assemble Chey's Chrissie present - a new bike
Christmas Day - at Mum and Dads with the family, swimming in the pool etc...
Boxing Day - in the afternoon Tony and I ventured into town for some shopping, we got some bargains for Tony and he had a ball spending his vouchers.
Tuesday 27th - We went to the movies and saw Narnia. I loved it, but Tony thought it was a bit childish (well, it is a children's story!)
Wednesday 28th - Fiona was staying up the coast for a week at a friend's holiday home, so we made good use of the free accommodation and went up to Caloundra for the night. We took Zack and he had a ball playing on the beach. Here's a pic of Fi's daughter Chey and our puppy dog:



Thursday - on our way home from Caloundra, we stopped in to see Tony's folks (who were staying at Redcliffe), then went for a swim at Mum and Dads
Friday - we had lunch in town, did a bit of shopping then that evening I did more shopping with Fi, meanwhile Tony played a friend's Playstation at home
Saturday (New Year's Eve) - lunch with Tony's dad at Redcliffe, quiet dinner at home with friends (while we finished playing the kiddy Playstation game, Madagascar - never again, those things are too addictive!!). For New Year's Eve we went to the Shadow Lounge on the river. Twas a lovely night and we were home around 2-ish.
New Year's Day - We went to BBQ Breaks at Fridays

Tuesday 3 Jan - back to work.... :-(
Thurday - Dinner at Wagamama's with Mickie and Nell
Friday - I got an SES call-out to do a forensic search at Inala. It was about 40 degrees and we were searching for a murder victim's wallet in REALLY long grass. I just about died it was so friggin hot. That night we went to Vince's birthday drinks at South Bank, although it wasn't a very long night - I think I was suffering the effects of heat stress.
Saturday 7 Jan - we went to Summafield Dayze on the Gold Coast (a music festival)
Monday & Tuesday - I think the effects of Friday caught up with me and the annoying little cold I had the previous week turned nasty - I had a couple of days off work

Friday 13 - My cousin Katrina and her partner Guy were in town for the weekend, so I had dinner with them at Mum and Dad's then took them on a Brisbane-by-night sightseeing tour.
Saturday - SES training (to get my Certificate I and part of Certificate II in Public Safety, plus nationally recognised accreditation in Land Search)
Sunday - SES again until lunchtime, then up to Bribie Island to spend the afternoon with my old school friends.

Thursday 21 December
Over the two weeks prior to Christmas, my Marketing team at work had been playing "dress-ups" with themed days - e.g. red day, white day, stripes, beach/Hawaiian wear etc... On the last day we went all out for Eighties day...