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.