Early Christmas

Today we got our early Christmas present from Bo & Claire - a harbour lunch cruise! Jo and I walked to Darling Harbour to meet them both and we enjoyed a coffee at the new Lindt Cafe (and a few free chocolates too!) before we set off for our cruise. Once on board we were shown to our table, ordered a bottle of wine and then got stuck into the seafood buffet! Yummy!

Our lunch catamaran

After our selection of crab, prawns and oysters we all had some dessert before heading outside to the deck to take in the sites of the harbour. The weather wasn't as sunny as it could've been but it was hot and muggy and the breeze from the water was lovely. I took a few shots of the bridge as it is being set up for the usual New Year's Eve fireworks - you can see the big coat hanger before it burns brightly on the 31st December.

The Harbour Bridge, affectionately known as "The Coat Hanger"

After lunch we hopped off at Circular Quay and took a walk around the city, going to all the swanky places like Tiffany & Co, Louis Vuitton etc. Everywhere was crowded as people did their last minute Christmas shopping and the city had a real buzz about it. Bo and Claire bought themselves some goodies before we said goodbye.

I finally managed to pop over to see Lisa & Christian and their two twin newborns tonight too! Alishia and Sienna joined us about 2 weeks ago now and they are just beautiful. So tiny but so perfect. They are both doing well as are their proud parents :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Sugaroom

Tuesday was my team Christmas Lunch and I had been nominated to find the perfect location. I chose Sugaroom in Pyrmont, it seemed to meet all the necessary criteria; not to far away, water view, good food, and within budget.

We all took cabs and arrived just before our 1pm booking and our table of 16 was ready to roll! The restaurant itself is in an odd position right at the end of Harris Street, you would never know it was there but other people certainly did as it was full to the brim as was the cafe next door.

We chose a cut-down 3 course menu and I started with the BBQ Pork Belly with Seared Scallops and baby herbs. The pork was fantastic and although it thought it an odd combination the scallops and pork went really well together.

For main I think I chose the best of the selection, Pan fried Atlantic salmon fillet with crab & lemon risotto mmmmm. By this time we were making our way through the wine list and we had some excellent Semillion and Sav Blanc.

By everyone else's admission I also selected the best dessert. Everyone else was seduced by the Chocolate Pudding I went for the Chocolate 'Opera Cake' with hazelnut ice cream and creme anglaise - yummo!

Overall it was a great experience, the food was excellent and so was the service. The pesto beans with shaved parmesean we had on the side were stand-out and the hand cut chips looked divine. My only complaint was that at times the service was a bit slow but they were full and I guess it takes time to prepare and co-ordinate 16 meals at once. I'd definitely go back.

100th post - Paint, oil and timber

It's taken a while but this is my 100th post in this blog! Yay!

So, what have we been up to over the past few weeks since my 99th post? It's been all centred around getting the flat organised I'm afraid. Jo and I are officially sick to death of paint and paint brushes! After two full weekends of painting (8am to 7pm both days) we were absolutely exhausted that we both came down with a cold and I had a day and a half off work!

Once the painting was finished and I was recovering, Freedom thought this would be a good time to tell us that the decking boards we had been waiting 2 months for had finally arrived. Sigh. We had Jo's mum down to stay for that week and her partner Andrew came down to visit on that night, and what a stroke of luck that was! When Jo and I went to Freedom to pick up these decking boards (16 packs) we had no idea just how heavy and huge they were going to be. We only just managed to squeeze them into the car and drove home very slowly as the car felt like it was dragging along the ground! Andrew helped us lug these things up our 2 flights of stairs.

Now, as I mentioned how sick we are of painting and paint brushes, can you imagine what I had to do next? Yes, OIL the decking boards. TWO coats. Waaaahhhhhhh!

We finally put them down on the back balcony a few days ago and they do look nice, but god they should do for all the effort that went into them!

I am now working from home today as we had some guys come to rip up our carpet ready for our floorboard installation tomorrow. That all passed without incident but when the man came to deliver the floorboards arrived, by himself, with 30 packs of boards, 2.4 metres long, each weighting about 20kg we knew what was coming next. Jo and I helped the poor bastard as much as we could to get these things up our 2 flights of stairs and Jo made a rather cranky call to the floor place to complain that we shouldn't have to help with our own deliver because the shop don't tell the delivery people they will have to carry the materials up stairs. Grrrrr.

Artist's impression of how floorboards might look :)

The boards go in tomorrow starting at 7:30am, so we are hoping for an event-free day and that everything goes smoothly as can be. Fingers crossed! I'll post some pictures when it is all done.

Friday Ramblings

This is just a random ramble as I'm a bit bored at work and thought I should update the blog.

This morning was busy as I had to present the outcomes of a series of workshops about how we manage version control with Tibco to the Technical Forum. The presentation went well and I was happy to see there was little debate and all discussion was positive and constructive. Hopefully we can now move this forward and have it endorsed.

I'm now facing the second weekend of painting in a row, but I think we will have pretty much everything done by Sunday. We also had new blinds installed today so we no longer have the bog standard ugly vertical blinds. Although, I have yet to see the new ones but I think I can safely assume they are going to be much nicer!

Homecoming Queens

After our monster weekend of painting, what better idea when you are exhausted and slightly covered in white paint than to drive out to Homebush to watch Kylie in concert. It turned out to be just the thing we needed, Nicci and Joe arrived (on time) at 5pm and we proudly showed them our handy work before heading out for an early dinner. Thai in Newtown is always a good bet and this was no exception. The food was great at Doytao but the service was as frosty as Tony the Tiger. Still, we were in and out in good time and $70 for 4 people isn't bad. We headed out to Acer Arena expecting traffic delays all the way but were super surprised when we arrived in about 20 minutes! Finding a car space was also far easier than expected, all the good omens were there.

We took our seats (unfortunately not sitting with Nicci and Joe) to the left of the stage and pretty close to the front too.

Now this was Kylie's "Showgirl" tour postponed from last year after she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and was the last of 6 Sydney shows and she sure did put on a show.

Kylie obviously recognised her status as a gay man icon and the show certainly catered for that market pretty well! From the "I'm a Show Boy" merchandise to the buff semi-naked dancers in budgie-smugglers you'd enjoy the show much more if you are a twenty-something queen than an adolescent school girl.

Now I have to give credit to whoever arranged the Chicago inspired version of "Locomotion" which I really enjoyed!! The versions of "Especially for You" and "I should be so lucky" were wonderously shit as ever though.

Taken on Jo's mobile phone

My favourite parts where the space themed part of the show where the backing dancers resembled Cybermen and Fembots that Doctor Who and Austin Powers would have been proud of and "Can't get you out of my head" really does live up to it's title. Cathy Dennis has come a long way since I was a kid :)

Changing Rooms

We turned into Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen on the weekend and started to decorate our new flat. Well, not quite as bad as old curly cuffs himself but we did get the paint out for the first time.

The weekend started early as we spent a fun filled Friday night at the Aussie B&Q equivalent "Bunnings" buying paint, rollers, brushes, trays and other such exciting things. What an odd place the world is when Bunnings is busy enough to stay open to 9pm on Friday nights! Once home we started to sugar soap the walls and taping up places we didn't want to paint so we could have a head-start.

We were up bright and breezy on Saturday morning and started work at 8:30am. I'm afraid our colour choice wasn't quite "Changing Rooms". No hot pink and canary yellow for us. We went for a custom made white to freshen the place up and to re-paint the stairs and doors which are an odd cream colour and to paint the back of the front door which is an even odder bluey-grey.

By 3pm on Sunday we had finished about 95% of the downstairs, everywhere had two coats as stipulated on the tin and everything was cleaned and back to normal. The place still smells of fresh paint but we can't worry too much as we are in for more of the same this weekend when we tackle the upstairs.

Can't wait to do the feature walls and finally get to use paint with colour that I can actually see on the wall while I'm working!

Dances in Woy Woy

Another busy weekend for us. Up early to get things organised before heading up to the delights of Woy Woy on the central coast for Dale's dance performance. We arrived at the motel by the water on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon around 2:30 and with Guy in tow we met up with Mrs B and Andrew who had headed down from Port Stephens.

The Watersedge motel was basic but clean and comfortable and had everything you could want for the price. Later that afternoon we took a walk around wandered around by the water to catch the last part of the sunny arvo.

Woy Woy in the Sun

We all had to have a bite to eat (great fish and chips from the Fisherman's Wharf) before heading off to the Laycock Theatre to see Dale in his end of year show. Dale has been studying at NAISDA for the past year and the show was the culmination of countless hours of hard work and practice.

The show, "No Answer" took us through an exploration of aboriginal identity with dance and spoken word. Dale earnt himself a reputation as the comedian of the show with some great acting and witty one liners. The show was great and we all really enjoyed ourselves, especially from our hand picked seats in the second row! After the show we caught up with Dale to congratulate him on a great performance but we could hardly get to him for the hoards of kids wanting his autograph! Awww!

We all hoped to be up early and out walking on Sunday morning but after getting to bed about 1am we didn't quite make it. We were up and out by a respectable 9am though. Andrew, Guy and I drove out to Mt Penang to drop off some things that Dale needed for his performance with NAISDA at the Sydney Opera House that night before packing up and having some brunch.

We said goodbye to Mrs B and Andrew and headed back to Sydney via Berowra Waters, a beautiful by impossible to park spot where Mrs B used to live before Jo was born.

The all too real fire danger at Berowra Waters

We eventually found a park and took a walk around, the weather was great and we sat and relaxed in the sun for a good while. We all agreed it would be a great place to come back to and hire a kayak when we have more time. Hopefully that won't be too long.

Pizza, Comedy and Bronte

We started off the weekend with the usual, some shopping! We went to Oxford Street and took a walk around the Paddington markets. Jo bought a couple of tops from the Ben Sherman shop and then we headed to Bunnings to check out some paint as we'd like to re-paint downstairs.

We had Tanya and Paul come down for the weekend and they arrived about 5:30 on Saturday and we had tickets to see Dave Hughes at the Enmore Theatre. We all managed to get ready on time and headed out to Surry Hills for some dinner. We managed to put our names down at Pizza e Birra and squeezed in a quick drink at The Clock next door.

We were super lucky to find a car spot in the labyrinth that is the back streets of Enmore and took our seats just before Dave Hughes came on at 9:45. He made everyone laugh for the entire hour and twenty minutes he was on stage! Tanya and Paul were roaring and they guy next to me nearly split his sides at one point! It's been ages since we've been to see a stand-up comedian and it was really good fun to spend the night laughing our arses off!

Funny man Dave Hughes

We had planned to get up early and head to the beach but we were all tired from the late night before that we only managed to leave the house at 10am! Bronte is an absolute nightmare to park and it took us a good 15 minutes of driving around to squeeze into a tiny spot, but at least we found one. All the cafes were packed but we got the last table at La Plage and enjoyed a great cappuccino and eggs & toast. Mmmm.

Future Surf Life Saver at Bronte

Bronte looked great today but the waves were shore dumps, although that didn't stop the hoards of surfers taking to the waves.

Surfers at Bronte

Melbourne Cup

Yesterday was the famous Melbourne Cup (like the Grand National for any pommies). There is a tradition at work that everyone heads up to Level 12 where there is a big screen, food and drinks and prizes for the Best Hat and Worst Tie!

For those that have seen my blog before, you will notice my "Top 5" section that for the past few days had been tipping horses for the Melbourne Cup. It wasn't until yesterday at just after 3pm that I realised I am a horse-tipping genius - I picked First AND Second with Delta Blues and Pop Rock respectively. Only one more and I could've had the horse racing holy grail of the trifecta!

This would have been much more impressive had I actually put some money on these horses but alas I only went in the work sweepstake (where I invariablely get the lame three-legged nag each year) and this track record was not broken this year. Ahh well, maybe next year I will get them right AND put some money on them!

Busy Week

I've only just found the time to post a review of the past week! We were super busy on the weekend as we had Jo's cousin Karen and her boys down from Coffs Harbour to stay the weekend.

They arrived late on Friday night and amused themselves at the Motor Show while Jo and I went to Lisa's Baby Shower that we organised. Lisa and Christian (our ex-neighbours but who still live in our apartment building) are expecting twin girls in about 4 weeks time!

Saturday night Karen went to a School Reunion and Karen's partner Paul took us and two of Karen's boys to see the Basketball at Homebush. Karen's other son, Luke, is part of the Australian Children's Choir and he was staying in the city preparing for their peformance at Town Hall on Sunday night.

On Sunday we all drove down to Cronulla to check out the beach and have some lunch. Karen met up with one of her friends who lives down there and we enjoyed a nice sunny day by the beach. The surfers were out in force and were catching some good waves.

Surfer enjoying the surf at Cronulla on Sunday

We had Sunday night to ourselves while Karen, Paul and the boys went to see Luke perform at his concert in the city. They spent their last night with us on Monday and very kindly took us out to dinner for some great Thai in Newtown. We treated the boys to Gelato for dessert, while we were in Newtown we walked past the brand-spanking-new Bank Hotel which (we found out from the General Manager who came out to talk to us as we were all peeking in) was opening the following night.

Work has been full on this week too as my team takes on a completely new direction by being responsible for TIBCO BusinessWorks, of which I will be the transition into being Team Leader over the coming months and hand over my current role to someone else who is yet to be appointed!

And we have still been getting up at 5:20 for our runs! Zzzzz.

Fitness Update

Well, Jo and I have been doing really well on our early morning fitness regime. We have diligently being getting up at 5:30 on Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's for either Tennis, a Jog or a good 50 minute walk.

This morning was no exception, as we walked for 50 minutes and we back home eating our Weetbix before you can say get-out-of-bed.

I had a health check (provided by my very generous company) on Wednesday to check my blood glucose, cholesterol, BMI, Waist/Hip ratio and blood pressure. All my results were either in the normal range or were even better so I was very happy with that, and it is definitely an incentive to keep up with the exercise rountine.

Unfortunately for us, Daylight Savings starts on Sunday so we will put our clocks forward 1 hour on Saturday night meaning by Monday morning it will start to get light at about 6am instead of 5am. This will be the biggest test to see if we can continue the early morning starts when it still feels like midnight. Wish us luck.

Lawn Bowls

Yesterday was my 'Team Building' afternoon at work. Usually this conjers up thoughts of corporate idiots in combats pretending they are commandos on an assault course. This however, is the 21st Century, and 21st Century post Secret Life of Us teams go Lawn Bowling!

There are 16 people in my team, and we all trudged up Miller Street on a cloudy and slightly chilly day up to North Sydney "Bowlo" for Rock 'n Bowl! An idea created by an ex Rugby Wallaby and self-title "Minister of Fun". The Bowling Club is in a great location, with a beautiful view over Sydney Harbour. It was a shame that the sun wasn't out and it was overcast but the view was still good.

Basically, they divide you into teams (we had 4 teams of 4) and then you play round-robin style against each other. Then there are semi-finals, and the winner of these play for the Winner's Trophy and the losers of the semi-finals playoff for "The Horse's Arse" cup. Our team played really well until the semi-final where we came unstuck. Ronald and Simon in my team but put in excellent performances and seem to be lawn bowl sharks from way back! Unfortunately, my team was the winner of said horse's arse, but still a trohpy is still a trophy!

Breeze, Coffee and Pride

Inspired by the "Three Beautiful Things" blog I discovered today, where everyday the blogger describes three beautiful things she has experienced, here are my three beautiful things for today.

1. Feeling the cool breeze wash over me as I lay down on the grass of Sydney Park at 6am this morning after an early morning jog. It was slightly muggy this morning and after finishing my run the breeze was so refreshing.

2. There is nothing like a well made fresh coffee and turkish toast and vegemite in the mornings! A fresh coffee everyday is one of my vices and I don't often get toast as I eat breakfast at home but this morning the smell of butter and vegemite on hot turkish toast was too much to resist.

3. The feeling of accomplishment and pride as a shiny new home owner today :)

Early Morning?

I bet you're all dying to know, did we manage to get our bums out of bed at 05:30 this morning.

And the answer is..........no we didn't. We were up at 05:20 instead!!!!

We were up bright and early and set off on a nice warm morning (it is supposed to hit 34 today!) for a half hour jog, followed by some weights at home, and we were eating our weetbix earlier than usual!!

The trick is now to try and do this a couple of times a week and keep it up - consistency is the key!

Getting Fit

Tomorrow morning sees the start of Jo and I's GOYA Plan (or Get Off Your Arse Plan) in an attempt to get fit for summer. The plan is to get up at 5:30am and go for a run. Yes, 5:30. Now, anyone that knows me should also know that for me there is usually only one 5:30 in the day and it is not of the AM variety. But we have to start somewhere and this exercising before work is one way of doing that as usually by the time I get home from work I can't be bothered. Jo can also break-in her new luxury runners.


It is part of a multi-pronged attack on our continuing lazieness, the other prongs being:

- Play tennis (although the council are demolishing our local courts - bastards)
- Go swimming
- Go to the beach (and run, swim, surf etc)

I will provide an update tomorrow to let you know if we actually went for a run, and if not I will try to come up with a good excuse :)

Google Docs

Google continues it's innovation in presenting Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets to us users.

I've had a play around this morning and while it's not going to give you all the functionality that Word and Excel offer (of which about 90% of it we never use anyway), it is what the online concept brings. The idea of a collaborative document that can be viewed and/or updated by invited guests may mean the end of sending huge documents and clogging up inboxes all over the world.

Here is my boring test document for you all to view. Google assigns a unique URL to each of my new documents allowing me to easily send you the link, publish to my blog straight away (which I haven't tried yet) and either invite you to update it, doing away with Microsoft Words irritating Tracking feature :)

Victoria Pool

We have been very lazy for months now, so on this glorious Sunday morning we decided to drag our lazy butts to the pool for a dip, some laps and some sun.

We headed to the newly refurbished Victoria Park Pool and enjoyed a great hour of sun and relaxation. After about an hour though, from absolutely nowhere came a huge gale! The quickest southerly I have seen for a while, instant gale force winds and a drop of 10 degrees in about 20 minutes saw us only stay at the pool for about an hour and a half before we went in search of some good coffee to warm us up! The Varga Bar hasn't let me down so far, and they didn't again. God their coffee is good.

Pizza e Birra

We went out to try a new pizza place on Thursday in Surry Hills. Pizza e Birra had looked good went we went to for brunch a few weeks ago to a cafe next door so we thought we would give it a try.

We went with our neighbours Lisa & Christian and we put our names down before heading to The Clock pub for a nice glass of wine. We met up with friends of L & C and enjoyed the upstairs bar at the pub. The Clock used to be a local of mine when I was living in Surry Hills but I think I must have overdosed on it as I haven't been there for years. It had a nice cosy atmosphere upstairs and I barely had time to finish my drink before Christian's mobile was buzzing telling us our table was ready.

Eight of us sat around a long table in the dimly lit and noisy restaurant, we got our priorities right and ordered a great bottle of Shiraz to kick things off. Jo had to make a trip to the ladies before the long, I normally wouldn't mention her toilet habits, but bear with me. After about 10 minutes (which is long, even for Jo!) I was wonder where the hell she had got to. She eventually turns up after having to send a message for help as she had been stuck in the loo! Hahahahaha!

After we all stopped laughing, we decided we were happy to share our dishes so we ordered a garlic pizza to share and 5 very different pizza for main. The pizzas were excellent, light and crisp with some great toppings! My favourite was the one with peas! Very odd, but strangely the pick of the lot.

Cirque du Soleil

We went to see Cirque du Soleil's "Varekai" on Thursday night at Moore Park. We were there early as parking at Fox Studio's is usually a nightmare. Parking actually turned out to be very easy and as we walked around the "Entertainment Quarter" at Fox it wasn't hard to see why. It's gone to the utter shithouse. Fox Studios used to be ok, had a few good shops like Stussy, Beach Culture, General Pants etc. Now, it's full of cheap asian crap clothes shops and if it wasn't for Cirque I'm sure there would be no-one there.

We walked through the gates and took our seats under the Grand Chapiteau. Our seats were fantastic, on the side and close to the front. The show started slowly with the odd characters creeping out onto the stage.

The people behind Cirque du Soleil must be absolute nutters as their stories never make any sense to me but you can't question the talent of the performers. The show is a blend of gymnastics, theatrical dance, acrobatics, comedy and traditional circus skills (see the mad juggler below) with a twist.
Everytime a performers has finished their act, you think to yourself 'That's my favourite'. That is until the next act comes on! Every part of the show is just amazing, every performance is timed to perfection. We both really enjoyed all parts of the show, but if we had to choose the stand out acts we would go for:

1. The two guys on bungee ropes
2. The contortionist lady who could bend her body into any position possible
3. The three cute chinese boys (couldn't have been more than about 8years old)

I ache

This weekend was supposed to be peaceful and relaxing, just pottering around Sydney doing a few bits and pieces but all that was shattered as it turned out to be one of the busiest weekends in history!

Friday night saw us head to the Kirribilli Hotel after work for a few well deserved cold beers (that eventually turned into beers and pizza). Saturday morning saw us up and out to Guy's place by about 10:30 for Dale's birthday 'coffee and cake'. We then all headed into Chinatown for Yum Cha, Jo and I hadn't been for months and Dale had never been at all. We did well, sampling the best that the East Ocean had to offer and the bonus was that we didn't have to wait for a table as we were at their doors by 11:45! After Yum Cha, Jo and I treated ourselves to a goodie from the best Chinese bakery, while Philippe went for Cold Rock Ice-Cream and Dale and Guy went for Gelato!

We left the boys around 12:45 and decided to walk from Chinatown to Paddington via Oxford Street. We walked and walked and walked and practically made it to Centennial Park before we walked down the other side of Oxford Street back towards the city. Jo picked up a couple of really nice tops along the way. We made it all the way to Crown Street before diverting through Surry Hills. By the time we made it to Cleveland Street we thought we might as well walk home. We arrived home after about 4.5 hours of walking and about 20kms at about 5pm.

I spent the night on the lounge watching the NRL and the Dragons lose to the Storm and went to bed completely shot.

We were up early on Sunday as we were meeting Lisa & Christian for breakfast. We headed to 'Bird Cow Fish' on Crown Street and I enjoyed a fantastic cappucino and egg & bacon roll with homemade bbq sauce. Yummy! Jo went slightly healthier and opted for the bircher museli with yoghurt, apple and prunes!

We headed off to Manly in the afternoon to see Carl & Martinette, they are moving from Mosman to Manly and had offered us some furniture they are putting into storage. The furniture looked great so we said we'd look after it for them instead of them storing it. This saw us spend the rest of the day moving furniture and dismantling a bed as the movers were coming to put the stuff into storage on Tuesday so we didn't have another opportunity to move it!

We finally finished moving at about 7pm and we both had a 2 minute shower before heading over to Bo & Claire's for dinner. Claire arrived home on Thursday after a 3 month stint in the UK and Spain, we went with Bo to pick her up from the airport. She brought us back a huge back of PG Tips and some squeezy Marmite!!

Bo & Claire cooked the best pork roast I think I had ever eaten and we enjoyed it with a nice bottle of Taylors Shiraz. We left them at about 10pm and Jo was still on high when we got home and she wanted to move the furniture to clear the lounge. We finally hit the sack at about midnight and I was up at 6am for work. ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Swans & Dragons

This weekend saw two big footie games take place. Firstly the Dragons got beaten by the Storm in the NRL on Friday night dammit! So close but yet so far for the Dragons team that couldn't shake off the demons of their Grand Final loss to the Storm in 1999 despite being 14 points clear.

The Swannies did Sydney proud though by making their second AFL grand final apperance in as many years. They'll be hoping to back up their fantastic win last year against last years rivals West Coast this Saturday at the MCG.

Go the Swannies!

The coolest beanbag in the world

We re-arranged the loungeroom furniture on the weekend (getting ready for when we can buy new things as we will officially be 'homeowners') and we love the new look. The only thing wrong is that we really need another sofa or chair to fill up some space and provide some more seating. We don't really want to be spending a lot of money on a brand new lounge or chair so I thought I would do some research (god bless the internet) and I came up the most fantastic, the most genius idea ever. Are you ready? Sure? OK here it is....a bean bag. No, no wait you have to hear me out. Not any old beanbag, but the godfather of cool beanbags.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you....the MILANO!!!


I know, I know. It's the coolest thing you've ever seen, you don't have to tell me :) If you have beanbag envy, you can purchase one at www.beanbaglounge.com.au

Property

An update on our impending house purchase, we finally got the approvals that we needed and exchanged contracts last thursday. We now have about six weeks until settlement when we will be the proud owners of a mortgage and apartment :)

Jo's cousin came to visit from Coffs Harbour on the weekend, she and her partner Paul went to see Hugh Jackman in "The Boy from Oz" currently playing at the Entertainment Centre. Jo and I spent most of the weekend looking around for things that we want to get for the apartment, starting with replacing the ugly vertical blinds - yuk!

Will keep you posted on any further housey type updates.

iPod Death

My iPod sadly departed us on Monday. RIP.

Steve Irwin Dies

Crikey! Who would've predicted that one!! I was at work when a colleague told me the sad news. I had to admit, I was truely shocked and even upset to hear that this inspirational Australian had died in such a freak accident. He really did seem someone who was invincable and would be around forever.

I have been lucky enough to visit Steve's "Australia Zoo" in Beerwah in Queensland, and he had created a truly great experience up there. An employer of 500 people and a father of 2 he leaves a lasting legacy behind him.

Community Day

Today was "Community Day" for me. The company I work for allows all employees two paid days a year to work as a volunteer for charities.

I volunteered to help the Cancer Council in Wolloomooloo for the day. I was told to arrive at 10am, which I dutifully did along with my 10 other co-volunteers (most of which I knew from work). Our role for the day was to help sort all the returns they had received since Daffodil Day.

All the merdandise that doesn't sell is posted back to the office as we had boxes and boxes to sort and then package up for storage until next year. They didn't have as much mail/merchandise as they thought they would have and the 11 volunteers from work and the volunteers already there made short work of the task and we were all finished by 12pm!

Painting & Decorating

We spent yesterday helping our neighbours (who are expecting twins in December) paint their spare room and turn it into a nursery. We started off the day in the usual way, with a nice fresh cappucino, then we met Christian and helped him upstairs with four hundred painting and decorating items he had just bought from Bunnings Warehouse. Christian started off sanding down some furniture while Jo and I had the fun task of painting the ceiling. What a nightmare job that is, we both had one of those rollers-on-a-long-stick type things and were smearing paint around for what seemed like hours! We had gone round the edges first to try to make life a little easier. While that was drying, we all had the task of painting the walls. They had chosen a light green colour as they are not 100% if they are having two girls or a boy and a girl.

The walls were done quite quickly in comparison to the ceiling. While they were drying we went to get a new light fitting so we all had a bite to eat and went to Moore Park. Christian picked a new light in like 2 minutes flat (Jo and I would've been there for hours debating like girls do) and we were back in a jiffy.

We gave the ceiling and walls a second coat before the first beer was opened (very well restrained I can tell you!) and then Christian installed the new light (after looking up what blue and brown wires meant - not filling me with confidence!) and hey-presto the room had been transformed 'Changing Rooms' style :)

We were all very proud of our efforts and Christian cooked us a great BBQ and Lisa gave us the most beautiful bunch of flowers to say thank you.

Reality TV

It's a bit shit isn't it? I mean it's cheap and easy programming and has a nasty habit of turning 'ordinary' folk into L grade celebs overnight.

Here is an overview of all the reality tv on tonight...

1. Border Patrol - Currently number one in the ratings for the Tuesday night timeslot can you believe! It's all about customs and quarantine at Sydney Airport. Mainly about clueless Chinese geriatricts bringing in all sorts of odd asian food like dried dogs ears and such like.

2. The Force - Backing up from Border Patrol (and shamelessly cashing in said programs success) it's about, you guessed it, the Australian Police Force. Right now, they have pulled over a young lad with a noisy exhaust. I kid you not.

3. Torvill & Dean's Dancing on Ice - Oh. My. God. Minor celebs, specifically a male model you've never heard of, a female model who has been on one advert and a rather unpopular breakfast show host battle it out on ice for the crown of who can look the least uncomfortable shuffling around on ice skakes. Riveting.

4. Star Portraits - Stolen from the UK and hosted by Rolf Harris and is about 3 artists painting some celebrity. Ground breaking stuff.

5. Real Crime - You guessed it, they've turned CSI into a reality tv "documentary". I can imagine the TV Executives rubbing their hands with glee.

All in one night, why Australian TV you are spoiling us...

Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains

This weekend we headed off to the Blue Mountains for a few days of fresh air and red wine :) We left after work on Friday night, picked up Guy and Dale and joined what seemed like every other person in Sydney along Parramatta Road. After we got on the freeway the traffic eased and we arrived at our cottage in Katoomba around 7:30. We got the keys from the letter box as instructed and proceeded to try to open up the wrong cottage - ours was the one next door!

Once in the correct cottage we were all pleasantly surprised, the place was spotless, had a nice pool table, pay-tv, two large bedrooms, a spa bath, a BBQ outside. Everything you could ask for was there. We flipped coins to pick rooms and then opened the bottle of complementary red wine.

We had taken enough food to feed an army and Jo created a platter to be proud off. We turned on all the heating and sat down for a night of pool, food, wine and fun. Guy made a great Oreo cheesecake and we all ate it in what seemed like one mouthful!

We woke up the next day with a slight hangover, but the BBQ egg & bacon breakfast soon sorted that out :) After yet more food we headed out for the day, our first stop was Leura, a small village about 5 minutes drive from Katoomba. I had never been there before and really enjoyed walking in and out of the many shops and cafes looking at all the yummy gormet food on offer!

That afternoon we headed to Echo Point for a look at the amazing view of Blue Mountains and the Three Sisters.

The Three Sisters

We walked part way down the Giant Staircase and took some pictures. It was the most beautiful sunny day that everything looked spectacular.

That night we had a BBQ dinner with some of the great food we bought in the deli at Leura. Earlier that day there was a cute black and white cat hanging around outside and she returned that night. Jo heard her outside and opened the door to say hello and the cheeky little bugger runs in! She was in luck and was treated to some left over BBQ steak and then curled up on my lap for about half an hour! We were all so tired we ended up watching a movie on TV before all hitting the hay at about 10:30! Such party animals!

Sunday morning started slowly but we all showered, packed, had breakfast and tidied up and we out only 15 minutes after our 10:30 check out time. We headed back to Leura for a wander around as we all preferred it to Katoomba. We checked out the Fairmont Hotel (part of the luxury Peppers chain) to see how the rich holiday and saw a sign to Sublime Point which sounded interesting. The views from Sublime Point were fantastic.

Dale and Guy at Sublime Point

We finally found somewhere to have lunch (we were planning on having High Tea at the Carrington Hotel but all decided against it) and my pumpkin, fetta and lentil pie was one of the best pies I have ever had. Yum!

Sydney Weekender

It was a glorious weekend in Sydney, back to how it should be for this time of year when it is slightly warm and brilliantly sunny.

Saturday saw us excited at the prospect of a sunny weekend so we were up at playing tennis at 8am to make sure we made the most of it! We both played well, and I think it ended up being one set all by the time we had to leave the courts. We had to do some dull tasks like clean the house before we headed out for the day, and had to endure the weekly food shopping trip.

We decided to head back to Bar Reggio for the first time since being back in Australia, so we met up with Nicci for dinner. We drove around for about 10 minutes trying to find a parking space near Stanley Street on a Saturday night (not an easy task) but eventually found one. We waited 30 minutes for a table but it was worth it. After 3 fantastic pizza's and a great bottle of red we were so full! Nicci came back to our place for drink and chat before heading home around 11:30.

Sunday morning was like how every Sunday morning should be, starting off with a bit of a lay in followed by meeting friends for brunch. We picked up Guy and Dale and decided to try a cafe that friends of ours had been telling us about in Waterloo. I spotted a table outside so practically jumped out of the car while it was still moving to commander it while Jo looked for a car space again (that damn Hillsong church had taken every available space in what seemed like a 10k radius). We ate at Wah Wah cafe, and we had prime position soaking up the morning sun outside. The food was pretty good (I had bacon and eggs - how hard can it be?), but the coffee was fairly average and service lacked somewhat. All in all, it was ok but I wouldn't rush back.

Wolloomooloo Wharf

After brunch, we decided to all go for a drive and see where we ended up. Who would've predicted a pub of all places :) We found ourselves in Woolloomooloo and took a walk up the Wharf before spotting the Tilbury Hotel and we went in just a for a quick peak - honest. While there though, the garden outside did look tempting and the nice cold Coopers I had made it a good choice of pub for a Sunday arvo.

In keeping with our busy theme, we dropped of Guy and Dale and headed for Mosman to catch up with Carl & Martinette. We took a stroll along the Cremorne walk, which takes you past some great views of the city, opera house and the bridge. Once back at their place, we had a great cuppa and slice of cake that Martinette had freshly made for us.

We had to leave around 6pm as we had arranged to have dinner with Guy and Dale so Jo dropped me off while she headed home to feed the poor, lonely and neglected-for-the-day cats. We were treated to a great BBQ and yet more red wine as a great weekend came to a close.

O'Neill for Villa

Well, well, well. Villa has yet ANOTHER manager. Will this one promise so much but offer so little? Only time will tell and we don't have long to wait with the new Premiership season starting in around two weeks.

As per usual, Villa are in disarray and badly in need of funds and leadership and I don't care who takes charge unless they are given some money they are going no-where fast. Even if funds are available, we now have to hope that Martin O'Neill isn't cursed by the Villa-Puchasing-Curse whereby they buy a very inform player only to sit and watch them self destruct on the pitch in the Claret and Blue. This has happened waaaaay too often - what could the problem be? The manager? The Chairman? Or maybe just living in Birmingham is enough to send these players to the pit of despair and starts affecting their game :)

Anyway, I shall be watching and waiting to see if Martin O'Neill can do what he has done for Leicester and Celtic alike.

Long Weekend

This weekend is a long weekend in Sydney (if you work for a bank that is as it's a "Bank Holiday"). For some unknown reason, IBM also takes advantage of this holiday so Jo has Monday off too.

What is the only thing that can be guaranteed about a Bank Holiday weekend? Yep, you guessed it, it will RAIN. Even in Sunny Sydney, it's been raining all day and isn't likely to stop for a while yet. AND the even more annoying part of it is that it isn't raining at Waragamba Dam (where Sydney gets its water supply from) so therefore does not help the drought situation one bit.

We have Jo's Mum and partner Andrew are coming down for the weekend though so this will ensure that our time will be well spent in the dry - mainly in shopping mall's, at Yum Cha, out for dinner :)

We're looking forward to entertaining our guests and the spare room looks like a hotel (complete with mini soap and shampoo as Jo has a slight obsession with these details) and we know that Andrew will cook us a great hot breakfast tomorrow morning!

It also gives us the weekend off house hunting, but we think we have found somewhere perfect but more on that later....

Bored of my favourites

I'm officially bored of my favourites. Everyday my morning internet routine is thus:

• BBC News & Sport
• News.com.au
• SMH.com.au
• Daily Telegraph.com.au
• My friends blogs
• RealEstate.com.au

And sometimes if I'm feeling adventurous:

• chaser.com.au
• Onion.com
• Apple.com
• AppleInsider.com

And of course, my daily lunchtime obsession with BBC's "Have your Say" site, where I love to rant and read other rantings of the day.

I've been in this routine now for sometime and I've become bored with the monotony of it all. So, I've decided to take a look at other people's favourites! Using places like digg.com, del.icio.us and newsvine you can see what other people are reading. I'm trying these out to expand my mind as my current use of the internet is probably about 0.0000000000000000000000001% of total information.

More updates from house hunting

In a nutshell, god there's some shit out there. It's only been a few weeks but if you're ever feeling depressed, don't ever decide to buy a house to cheer you up!

Although, you have to laugh and take it all in your stride. It is quite interesting looking around other people's places and seeing how they live.

We've spent some time going to inspections left, right and centre and we managed to have a look at some places we've always walked past and thought "I wonder what they are like inside?" - now we know. They are generally, very very average! Especially this place in Newtown that had a wonderful view of the railway tracks. I mean, actually looked over the railway station. Terrible!

We've continued to focus on our main target areas in the Inner West, despite being swayed by cheaper prices on the Northern Beaches (such as Dee Why for example) and have only really found one that caught our eye in Erskineville, in a new development that was very nicely finished off.

It really is an eye opener going from looking at places to rent to places to buy. The Real Estate agents are so nice to you! I especially enjoy walking around places that are on the market for around $900,000 and pretending that I'm interested. They must look at me and wonder what I do for a living!You feel like walking around and saying things like "The views from our place in Mosman are much better than here" or "Oh, it doesn't have a spa, how do people live here?". Hehehe.

Updates

I thought I should update the blog as it's been a little while since the last post. No specific topic this time but just a quick update on the happenings of the past week or so.

• Guy and Dale are back from their holiday to the red centre so we've caught up with them both a few times
• My friend Nicci managed to get us tickets to Kylie's rescheduled concert in November! Apparently this was quite a difficult task as the tickets are like rocking horse poo
• We're still scouting the market for a decent place to live and talking to very exciting people like banks and mortgage brokers
• Bo will come back from 3 weeks in Spain (as black as the ace of spaces most likely) on Saturday so we will doing our second trip to the airport in a week
• We've booked to go to the Blue Mountains for a weekend! Yay! The first 'holiday' since our last holiday :)
• We're freezing our butts off over here and drowning in rain while the UK slowly melts to a halt after stupidly high temperatures for a country that has practically zero airconditioning on public transport
• I can officially stop doing two peoples jobs when my colleague gets back to work from her jaunt to the UK on Tuesday. Hurrah!

House Hunting

Is there anything more soul destroying that looking for a somewhere to buy. I think not.

Not when you are after a place that looks like this...

But your budget is more like this...

Still, all us first home buyers are all in the same boat I guess (except the rich ones). It really does take time, there are lots of places on the market and it takes ages to get through them all (even if using the internet) and places that look great from the outside need completely renovating on the inside or vice-versa. Then there is the entire process of securing a loan, finding a solicitor who won't rip you off (good luck) and sealing the deal without some bastard gazumping you.

In Australia, there is the First Home Buyers Grant. Introduced a few years ago to help first home buyers get into the astronomical Sydney property market, it provides those eligable with $7,000 plus no stamp duty on properties up to $500,000. Which is a huge help considering that the normal stamp duty on a house that price would be around $20,000.

If you've ever wondered what the difference is between a First Home Buyer and a normal Home Buyer is, the answer (for Sydney anyway) is about $100,000. We've seen lots of places with great potential but the problem is, if we bought it we wouldn't have any money left to renovate! So if anyone wants to help out two young, harder working first home buyers you are more than welcome!

We haven't found anywhere that is right for us yet (well, there was one place that was fantastic in everyway possible, except when the planes flew over and you could practically wave to the Captain), but we will keep looking around for that mythogical 'First Home Buyers Dream'.

Which file extension are you? Geek-tastic

I saw this on someone else's blog and it amused me. So this is apparently my "file extension" type.



Which File Extension are You?

Other quizzes include:

Which OS are you?




Which Nigerian spammer are you?

Olympics 2012

A year ago, London celebrated winning the bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. I went searching for some news on how well London was shaping up for this huge event. A trip to BBC News was a good place to start as they have an entire section on the subject in their sport section.

I hadn't been to Sydney before they hosted the 2000 Olympics but I have been a beneficiary of the the changes that were made to make it such a success. The entire Darling Harbour area was regenerated (okay, so today it looks a little worse for wear but when I was here in December 2000 there was still an Olympics buzz about the place). I have been many times to the fantastic Olympic Stadium (now called the Telstra Stadium) out at Olympic Park in Homebush. The entire Homebush area was a wasteland, and I believe London has half of the Sydney contractors/organisers involved so they probably intend to do a similar re-vamp of East London.

Every year we always talk about going canoeing/whitewater rafting in Penrith at the man-made facility that was built there (never made it yet, maybe this summer). And apparently the trains were unbelievably reliable in those two weeks. Although CityRail have been regretting it ever since as everyone says "If they could do it for the Olympics, why can't they do it now!".

London hasn't been quite so accepting of being the host of this party, and many people are probably already nervous after having witnessed the whole Wembley Stadium debacle (Australian contractors, a-hem).

Still, they have another 6 years to make their mark and let's face it, if Athens can do it, surely London can.

The Talented Mr Crouch

Not Barty Crouch of Harry Potter fame, but Peter Crouch, England's very own 10-feet tall beanpole.

Who knew he was so talented off the football pitch as well as on it. Blimey.

Ups and Downs

On the up side this weekend we headed to Nelson Bay to pick up the cats after they had 7 weeks of luxury holiday camp rest and relaxation. It was quite amusing when Jo called after Zhanna and went to pick her up and Zhanna ran away! How quickly they forget!!

It wasn't long before they remembered who we were and were curled up at the end of the bed as if we had never been away.

We both really enjoyed the weekend (if not the drive home with Zhanna doing her usual vomit, pee, poo, sleep routine) and Jo's mum spoilt and looked after us as usual.

On the down side, WHY CAN'T ENGLAND SCORE FROM PENALTIES!!!!! Honestly, they all need to go to therapy sessions or something to help them with the pressure. I stupidly set the alarm for 12:55 instead of 00:55 so I got up late and no more than 2 minutes after I sat down to watch the game, Rooney was given a red card. I can't speak for the first half but the display the England team put on for over an over without Beckham or Rooney was ironically the best of the entire tournament!

As soon as it went to penalties though, we were sunk. You could see it in Gerrard's eyes, he was never going to score. So it's over for another 4 years and who do you go for now? I can't go for Portugal, the team that knocked us out. As much as I enjoyed my holiday in Italy I can't go for the team that knocked out the Aussies so unfairly. And it's unheard of for the English to go for either the French or the Germans! I might have to switch back to AFL.

Brokenhearted Aussies

Well I was awake at 1am for the second night in a row (after watching England scrape a win over Ecuador) to watch Australia take on Italy in the World Cup for a place in the quarter finals.

I've watched all but one of Australia's games and I think they have proved themselves to be way above their 42nd place world ranking and easily matched Italy for 93 minutes of the game. Being an England fan, I know all about going out of the World Cup due to penalties but to go out in the last second of a very even and well played game to a penalty that was no where near a penalty is the cruelest part of this sport.

The Aussies can take real pride in their performances, they have played with far more cohesiveness and stability than England have but they suffered without Harry Kewell to add some bite to their attack against Italy.

So England are to take on Portugal for a semi-final spot but even with half of the Portugese team on yellow cards and some of their players either injured or suspended it will take much more of an effort by England to get through this one. As has been much debated in the press and probably every household in England, the team are getting results but just not performing anywhere near their potential. Sven's formation and tactics are also questionable and I don't think playing Rooney alone up front is the right way to ignite their attack.

It seems he needs to try something new, like Lennon and A Cole as wingbacks with three quality central defenders in Carragher, Terry and Ferdinand there should be no need for a defensive midfielder. Beckham would be better playing in a more central position to allow Lampard and Gerrard to play further forward. Take a risk and put either Walcott or Crouch up front with Rooney. Anyway, that's my 2p worth.

End of blog

Or is it? I've really enjoyed contributing to this blog during our trip overseas and I hope you've enjoyed following us around Europe for 5 weeks and checking out what we've been up to.

I've enjoyed it so much that I think I will continue with my public musings for a while longer, although I might have to change the domain name from ljeuropetrip to something more appropriate now.

I'll let you know what I'll change it to in due course.

More pictures

I have retrospectively added pictures from our time in Italy to the relevant posts...

Home Sweet Home

We decided that we didn't have enough time to go to the Vactican (we would've had about 45 minutes there) so we just wandered around Rome before getting the train to the airport. This marked the beginning of our 40 hour trip home.

It went something like this...

Get to Rome airport at about 1pm , wait around until our flight at 5pm. Fly for 2.5 hours back to Amsterdam. Stop over in Amsterdam for about 1.5 hours before flying 12 hours to Kuala Lumpur. Wait in KL for 6 of the most boring hours until we board for our final 8 hours of our journey.

I managed maybe 1 hour sleep on the entire trip, Jo managed maybe 3 at the most. We arrived in Sydney and we both got through passport control quite quickly (even with my two passports, grr). About 4 flights had all arrived at the same though so we waited for about 30 minutes to get our bags and then Jo and I separated into the two channels for Quanantine. I went through "Something to declare" and I had some keyrings made of wood and Jo went through "Nothing to declare". This probably took another 30-40 minutes. Australia is super strict with these things. While waiting for our baggage my back-pack was checked by a Beagle and sniffer dogs patrol the baggage conveyer belts.

Bo and Claire were waiting for us on the other side (even with a balloon!) to take us home. It was great to have some friendly faces waiting for us and we went home via getting some milk for a cuppa as soon as we walked in the door.

We exchanged birthday presents as today is my birthday, Jo's was the 19th and Claire's the 14th. All June babies. Claire was delighted with her Diesel bag we got for her in Venice and a leather journal for both Claire and Bo for their trips at the end of this week where we return the dropping off at the airport favour. They got us some great Bonds pj bottoms and a fantastic Kylie Kwong cookbook. Mmmmmm, Mrs Jangs homestyle eggs.

Roma

Our time in Florence had come to and end, and we have thoroughly enjoyed it. Our day started with our usual bread intake (we've never eaten so much bread in our lives!) before starting the walk with all our bags to Santa Maria Novella train station.

It was here I spotted the coolest of sights. Police on Segway scooters!! There are police everywhere in Italy but the Segways were the coolest mode of transport I have seen them on yet!

The train ride to Rome was painless and it goes to show how every other European country can sort out our train system except England - had to have a little dig :)

We found our hotel with little trouble and dropped off our bags. The lady at the desk was very helpful and told us the best way to get around which happened to be the Metro to the Colleseum. On the way we stopped for a pick-me-up cappucino, probably the best since we have been in Italy and at 1.60euro for both it was by far the cheapest!

We arrived at the Colleseum shortly after and took a walk around. We debated whether we should go in but it was 11euro each (doesn't sound much I know but we have the dregs of our budget left) and we had both been before so we decided against it. The Colleseum is an amazing structure and you just can't appreciate the size until you are right up next to it.

We walked through the Roman Forum and discovered it was about 37 degrees today. We needed to get out of the sun so we headed for the shade of Via di Corso which took us to the Trevi Fountain (as spectacular as the last time I saw it) where we cooled our feet in the mini water cooler jets. We went from here to the Spanish steps (less spectacular than last time for some reason) then up to Piazza del Popolo before heading to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona.

It reached beer o'clock and I could've skulled my Natro Azzuro but paced myself but decided to stay for another anyway! After the heat of the day, god that beer was good. We walked back to the Colleseum to catch the Metro back to Termini and back to our hotel for another shower.

We went out to dinner (fantastic pizza) and are now at the internet cafe round the corner. We have yet to decide if we have time to visit Vatican City tomorrow but I guess it will depend on how well we sleep tonight.

We start our monsterous journey back to Oz tomorrow, with our flight from Rome taking us to Amsterdam (back tracking god dammit) at about 5pm tomorrow. Only then to we start to make head way by flying to Kuala Lumpur for a wonderful 6 hour layover. Then we start our flight to Sydney. Oh god.

Siena e San Gimignano

We were up early again for our day trip to the towns of Siena and San Gimignano. We found the coach spot and claimed our seats before the guide started her speech. I can't remember her name but she was a nutter. All her sentences started with "And I tell you somethings....", "And I tell you why..." and "Please even on the right hand side you can admire...".

We got to Siena after about an hour on the coach by which time everyone was wishing the guide would just shut up. As we got off the coach we heard mutterings of people taking the piss by quietly saying "Please even on the right hand side you can admire the beautiful toilets". Ok ok, I did a few impressions too and Jo thought they were funny for the first 2 minutes.

We had a guided tour of Siena before some free time to wander around. We are used to the heat but it was a really hot day and Jo and I spent most of it trying to keep in the shade! The town is beautiful and the guide was telling us about the Palio horse race that they have in the square (below) twice a year.
We hopped back on the coach and we thankful for the air conditioning as we drove to San Gimignano. The guide went on and on and on about "the beautiful bell towers" and how the town is a "germ of the middle ages". When we arrived I'm sure it was even hotter than before and I rolled up my jeans to my knees and we headed straight to get something cold to drink. San Gimignano is like a fortress built on a hill with a fantastic view of the Tuscan countryside. We walked down the narrow roads and through small piazza's and took a walk along the outer wall where the view was spectacular.

We hopped back on the coach and thank god the guide was quiet until we reached Florence again when she went on and on about "the most important..." everything. The most important road, the most important church etc etc. Whatever.

We headed straight for the hotel and the sanctuary of our air condidtioned room (what princesses we must sound!) and had a shower before going out to find something to eat before the England v Sweden game. We found a great little restaurant where we shared a buffalo mozzarella, proscuitto and eggplant salad before a pasta platter for two.

We were so tired we watch the football in bed! I thought the goal by Joe Cole was superb and I couldn't understand the commentators to know (and still don't) how badly Michael Owen injured his knee. Gerrard also did well as sub but it was typical England to throw it away with our dodgy defence of corners and set pieces full stop practically in injury time I think. Dammit.

Jo's Birthday

Jo's 31st birthday started with a great surprise with birthday cards (and money!) from Dad & Mia, my Nan and a card from Mum & Barry! That, along with the beautiful necklace Mum & Barry, Jo has been a very lucky girl :)

We woke up feeling much happier in our new hotel and we went downstairs to a nice buffet breakfast to set us up for the day. We had intented to do a bit of shopping mixed with some more sightseeing and maybe lunch in a nice garden/park in the afternoon but once us girls get shopping there seems to be no stopping us. I think we went around the markets about 10 times looking for ourselves and some gifts before Jo found Miss Sixty and went wild. Well, not really wild but got a few things. I can't talk really as I hit Diesel in the afternoon and got an entire outfit :)

Our lunch was great, we stumbled upon this great bakery that made fresh foccacia and I had one with tomato, buffalo mozzarella and basil. Jo had one with peas (odd I know, but it was yummy). After that we thought stuff it and had a slice of cake each (the justification being it would be the same as birthday cake). I had a wonderful Chocolate Torte that Claire would die for and Jo had a vanilla custard and almond pastry type slice. Both were delicious!

We weren't sure if we could stay at this great hotel we had found for the 3rd night as there is a Fashion show starting and all the hotels are booked up. We spent some of the morning looking for a back-up in case they couldn't fit us in (we found one and later cancelled it as luck would have it we can stay where we are). We also booked a day trip to Siena and San Gimignano tomorrow at a travel agency (see previous post for whinge about unhelpful Tourist Information offices). It seemed a blessing in disguise though as we were also able to book our train tickets to Rome in the comfort of the air conditioned travel agency instead of the sweat box that was the 30 minute queue at the train station. Hehehehe.

We also thought stuff it for dinner as we were wandering around the usual "Trattoria" type places, none seemed quite right and it felt like fate meant we should happen upon this great restaurant slightly out of the way of the main square. We ordered a nice bottle of Chianti (of course), shared a tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad to start (our absolute favourite and it was great). Jo had pumpkin ravioli for main and I had a saffron and summer vegetable risotto. We capped off dinner with a great espresso as cake twice in one day had me fearing I wouldn't fit into my new Diesel pants :)

After dinner we went for our usual after dinner wander into some of the piazza's to soak up the atmosphere.