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!