Summer Bay!

After about a 5 year wait, we finally got around to having lunch at Guy's Mum's house in Avalon. Troy, Guy and Philippe picked us up at about 10:30 and we started the drive up towards Avalon.

We dropped off our esky with Guy's Mum around 12:30 and then took the short drive back into Avalon for a coffee and a walk around the shops. I've been to Avalon a few times before, and I always enjoy it. It's got a really nice atmosphere, all the shops are great and there are endless excellent cafes to choose from, all a stones throw from a beautiful beach.

The Family on the Deck

We headed back for lunch at 1:30 and Roger cooked up a great BBQ, complete with one of Guy's famous salads! We had a great laugh over lunch, sitting on the deck in the breeze of a hot and sunny day looking at Guy's baby photo's (hahaha!) with his Mum and the usual non-stop eating and talking continued over Philippe's spectacular cheesecakes (Raspberry and White Chocolcate - mmmmmm!).

After eating waaaay too much we thought we'd try to be a little bit healthy and we drove out to Palm Beach. Guy and Troy went for a quick dip in the water before we trudged up what seemed like a million steps up to top of the hill to the Lighthouse.

I see you baby, shakin' that ass

The lighthouse is at the top of an 850m "climb" through bushland and on a hot day took bloody forever to get up there! But once we'd made it, the view was fantastic. You could see all of Barrenjoey point and across to the central coast (Pearl Beach, Patonga) where you can catch a ferry across. The lighthouse is on the side you actually see in Home & Away. They never shoot in the other direction as the backdrop is mainly mansions of the super rich! Kind of spoils that "small-town-with-a-caravan-park" feel somewhat.

We had a little photo shoot up there before taking a slower walk back down towards the beach and home.

Palm Beach from the Lighthouse

Merry Christmas!

It was an orphan's Christmas in Sydney this year, so we decided to host a brunch. Before we were joined for eggs & bacon by Philippe, Janet, Donna, Anthony and Nathan, Jo and I swapped pressies and I was a very lucky girl getting some goodies from G-Star :)

Jo cooked up a storm in the kitchen and made brunch for everyone including the best fruit salad ever! Anthony & Nathan had a lunch to go to afterwards, god knows if they managed to squeeze anything else in (unless it came in sparkling liquid form!).

Lou, Philippe, Jo, Anthony, Nathan & Janet all stuffed after brunch!

After Anthony & Nathan left for their lunch, Janet went home (as she had to prepare our roast dinner!!) so we played "Smart Ass" with Donna and Philippe whilst drinking Champagne. As it happens, I was the Smart Ass. Twice. Who doesn't know what a 'Stetson' is - honestly. Heh heh.

Philippe & Donna

In the afternoon we headed to Janet's place for some more drinkies, a great home cooked roast lamb dinner and a yummy tropical trifle made by the dessert king Phillippe. Even though the weather wasn't quite up to the usual Aussie standard it was a great day to spend with friends and relax. Janet invited some of her friends over and we spent a really nice evening drinking red wine on the balcony talking and laughing. Now here's to some time of work to take that relaxing theme forward!

Girl's Christmas Party

Donna had arranged for a girl's christmas party for the Saturday night - 16 girls, all to wear little black dresses piled into Yippiyio in Surry Hills to the amazement and bewilderment of the other diners downstairs. We had a private room upstairs that Donna had decorated to look like Santa's dining room.

We all had personalised place mats with amusing photo's of us and a Santa hat each. We even had our own stereo so we could play music up there - god knows how the restaurant coped with us all singing and dancing - I bet everyone who was eating downstairs will never ever go back there again!

Just imagine it....

God knows how Donna got them to agree to this, but the whole thing was also BYO (Bring Your Own alcohol for the Brits, something Aussies do all the time) and there was even a fridge up there for us to keep it cold!

Carnage.

We were in the restaurant until about 11pm when we all decided to move on, we ended up at a club in the city until 3am after dancing the night away to the best (or worst) of the 70s, 80s & 90s. Oh God. Still, that's what Corona is for - to make sure you have a good excuse and hopefully don't remember much.

The Entrance

We're having Christmas at home in Sydney this year so we headed up to The Entrance on the Central Coast to catch up with Jo's Mum and Andrew for a pre-Christmas celebration.

We headed up on Friday to try and beat some of the traffic but it still took 3 hours even though we left North Sydney at 4pm - we booked to stay at the Oaks Waterfront resort which was in a great spot overlooking Tuggerah Lake and the surf beach, close to the shops and restaurants and the newly renovated Entrance Pub.

We ended up having fish and chips on the balcony on Friday night as we were both so exhausted from a really busy few weeks and a long drive.

Mrs B and Andrew joined us on Saturday morning and we went for a walk around the local area, popped into a few shops, had a nice coffee. Jo and I took a drive around and found a few good surf shops where Jo fell in love with a Shane surfboard. It didn't take long for her to decide that this was the perfect replacement for the stolen Maliboo we just lost. It's a 6'10" Shane Stingray in grey/silver and looks fantastic! She bought it and took it home the next day! Can't wait to take it out for a test ride soon!

The Bank's 1st Birthday Party

Jo has spent a huge amount of time organising the Bank's 1st Birthday Party and managed to get a few extra invites for some friends - Anthony, Nathan, Althea, Christian, Guy and Troy all came along to enjoy the night, a band and free drinks!

They blocked off the back Terrace Bar for the event and invited a whole range of customers and clients and local businesses to celebrate - free beer, wine, champagne and a house cocktail were on offer as well as finger food from Sumalee Thai downstairs which went down a treat!

Guy & Troy (in "Blue Steel" mode!)

Jo booked the Boogaloo Crew as the band for the night and they were excellent. A few piece band consisting of a DJ, Singer, Bongo drummer and Saxaphone player, they play funky dance tunes that really create an atmosphere. They've been booked again to play at the Bank as part of the New Year's Eve party.

Christian & Jo posing for the camera

Thieving Bastards

We were due to go for a surf with Janet today at Bondi - I had gone round to the local cafe to get us both a coffee for the drive and Jo went to get the surfboards from downstairs in the garage.

Jo came running up a few minutes later saying our surfboards and wetsuits had gone and that some bastard had chopped off the padlock to nick them.

So, instead of going for a nice refreshing surf at Bondi Beach we ended up at Redfern Police Station reporting a theft. I hope they break their neck if the thief uses them to surf. Bastards.

Sneaky Sound System

Donna managed to get us some last minute tickets for Sneaky Sound System at the Hordern - nice one! We met up with Donna, Jo, Penny and Elka at Love Supreme on Oxford Street. Now, I know it gets hot in Sydney but honestly this place takes the biscuit. It's like eating pizza in a Sauna! The place has no air conditioning and if it's even a tiny bit muggy you end up sweating in your seat knowing that a steaming hot pizza is on it's way! Still, the food is really good but seriously they need some fans or something. And we took refreshing red wine. Doh.

We then drove into Surry Hills to find a park and then walked to Fox Studios across Moore Park to the sounds of Donna's whinging (red wine induced) - she ended up running across Fox Studios to Elka's cheers of "Run Donny!, Run!". Too funny.

Sneaky Sound System

The Sneaky event was an "all ages event" which meant lots of 15 and 16 year olds dressed like they've just stepped out of the 80s - but it did make for a good atmosphere. When we walked inside the venue, Sneaky has been on stage for about 30 seconds and the place was going nuts - like they'd been on for hours!

We started off sat on the sides like a bunch of saddo's - Donna's red wine consumption meant she was dancing in the eisles doing the chicken wing dance. We all ended up down the front dancing away to "I love it" and "UFO". It was a top night, even if some of us did disappear for the last 5 songs and encore to turn up after the house lights were back on with a glass of white wine and a vacant look on their face! Hahahaha!

More Watsons Bay!

The good weather continues and so we decided to go back to Watsons Bay for brunch (well, I was too lazy last week!). We enjoyed some great bacon, eggs and latte (what Sydney ponces we are!) at the Tea Garden cafe at Watsons Bay before taking a stroll along the South Head trail.

Tea Garden Cafe

The trail takes you past some great beaches (including the nudey Lady Bay - hehehe) right to the edge of South Head. The views were great and it was a stunningly clear day.

Along the South Head Trail

It's not long until Mum & Barry arrive and we kept thinking this would be a great place to spend an afternoon in Sydney especially if the weather keeps up like it has been!

Plonk!

We haven't seen Martinette & Carl for ages and ages and ages so it was great to catch up with them both again.

We arranged to meet them and their friend Saga at "Plonk!" at the Spit Brigde near Mosman. Saga's boyfriend is the head chef there and we were treated to some great food and wine! The restaurant backs onto Middle Harbour, has a lovely deck where we sat on a lovely warm evening. Right next to the desk is a small beach and the view is of million dollar boats moored there and of even more expensive houses!

We all enjoyed a yummy Shiraz, bread with olive oil/balsamic and I had a wonderful Corriander Linguine with King Prawns and chilli - mmmmm.

As per usual, we've all agreed not to leave it so long between catch up's next time and by the sounds of it we have plenty of catching up on our surf skills to keep up with them both now!

Manly & Watsons Bay

Ryan and Tanya arrived on Friday to join us, Patrick and Christina for the weekend. We stopped off at the Bank Hotel in Newtown for a few drinkies after work (very convenient for Jo!) before going for dinner on King Street. Much wine was consumed and we finally got up and out on Saturday for a day at Manly beach.

The weather this week for our overseas guests has been dreadful! Rain, wind and cloud all week but today things finally brightened up and we drove to Manly (they decided to bask in the sun finally and caught the Ferry) in shorts and t-shirts.

We took a nice walk around to Shelly Beach and generally enjoyed the good weather after a crappy week.

On Sunday, after a really exhausting week at work I had to sleep in but Jo, Ryan and Tanya took an early morning drive to Watsons Bay for a nice coffee and a walk. As you can tell, the weather on Sunday was just as good!

Lovely Jubbly!

Fancy a dip?

Indigo Girls

It's only taken me 11 years to see the Indigo Girls live but finally they travelled across the earth to play a fully acoustic gig at one of my favourite venues the Enmore Theatre.

Jo and I arrived just on time and scored a park a few mins walk away - we made it just in time to see the tail end of the support act before Amy & Emily took the stage.

Now, I first discovered the Indigo Girls my first year of University back in 1996 and have wanted to see them live ever since (particularly that their live album '1200 Curfews' was one of my most played albums of the last century) - so when I moved to Australia they of course decided that was a great time to tour in London - grrr. Still, better late than never!

You can't deny their musical talents; harmonising with ease, quality guitar playing and improvisation but I have to say I was a touch disappointed with their stage craft. For a duo that have been together for years and years I expected them to be at ease with interacting with the audience and generally put more energy into the banter between the songs as they did playing them.

Still, it was a solid performance and I am glad I can finally say I've seen them live.

Patrick & Christina

We picked up Patrick (a friend of Jo & Ryan's from the UK) and Christina (Patrick's Mum) from the airport on Sunday night. They had just arrived from the UK via Hong Kong and are staying with us for the week while their in Sydney.

Patrick works in travel and Christina worked many years for Finair (she is originally from Finland) so they are well prepared for making the most of a week in Sydney; they are taking in the Blue Mountains, a Harbour Bridge Climb, jet-boating on the Harbour, not to mention the usual Opera House, Botantical Gardens, city, beaches etc etc!

Unfortunately the weather forecast this week doesn't look too promising but we've got our fingers crossed for them!

Sunday Lunch

We headed to the Clovelly Hotel today for Janet's birthday lunch. I've never been to this Hotel before and after the initial struggle to find a car space on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon we found Janet and friends out the back enjoying the day.

I have to say, there is something great about having an ice cold Corona with lime on a hot weekend afternoon and that is exactly what we did. After the majority of people arrived we ordered some lunch; I had a really good chilli salt squid salad and Jo had a moroccan lamb salad - really yummy!

We met some really nice people as we only knew Janet and Jo met her counter-part of another Sydney hotel so I believe some networking took place! :) It was a real shame we couldn't stay for longer but we had to go a) because we've got friends from the UK arriving and we need to pick them up from the airport and b) if we stayed it would've been criminal to not have more Corona's and we were driving!

Still, I managed to squeeze in a shot as a partying 'cheers' to Janet (some baileys, schnapps thingy but it was good!) before we left. Looking forward to catching up with Janet for some surfing soon!

Black Eyed Peas

We were offered at the last minute some tickets to see the Black Eyed Peas who were playing at the Hordern Pavillion on Tuesday as part of their Cheesy Peas tour or whatever it's called.

We raced home from work in time to get changed and catch the bus to Fox Studios and managed to meet Donna, Julie and Co for a drink at the Fox & Lion.

We must've been the last people to go through the gates but managed to get a good spot towards the right of the stage. It's been a while since I've been to the Hordern and this time they had big screens up on either side of the stage which I must say did help what I could see - being as I usually end up behind the 7 foot freak.

The 'Peas didn't disappoint, or rather I should say Fergie (and then Will.I.Am) didn't - the rest of the peas quite frankly just make up the numbers! Fergie even squeezed in a few of her solo songs and for the most part these were the highlights of the night. Donna and I even squeezed in some air-guitar so it was all good!

Punks Rock!

Tanya came down from Newcastle on Friday night, I think mostly as she couldn't wait for our Punk Rock party we were hosting on the Saturday night :) We ended up going out for a drink and some pizza, but the next day was ridiculously busy. Jo and Tanya headed out shopping for food, drinks and god knows what else. I went out to buy some speakers for the computer (something I had been meaning to do for about 3 years now!). I finally found the elusive Harman Kardon Soundsticks II at Bing Lee and they didn't disappoint! When Jo and Tanya got home, we had an entire afternoon of preparing and cooking food for what seemed like 100 people, even though we were only expecting about 17.

The Punk Girls!

We finally finished about 5pm and then had to get ready for the night - we had been out shopping earlier in the week to get our outfits - so this part didn't take too long.

People started to arrive for the party around 7pm and by 8:30pm things were in full flow, with Jo belting out "The Greatest Love of All" on SingStar!!

Phillippe and Donna

A special mention has to go to Philippe, who was easily the coolest looking punk at the party! We rocked on until the early hours, quickly going though our reportoire of songs on 4 SingStar CDs (PlayStation game) plus Donna's playlists on iTunes. And all of the food got eaten too! Hurrah!

Photography & Websites

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I ended up helping a friend set up a website for her photography business.

We grabbed a bunch of her photos and sat down with a bottle of wine one night (and were kept full by Jo's best Kylie Kwong recipe) and about 4 hours later and some subsequent tweaking....tah-dah.... www.donnaflynn.com.au

Up to Newie

I reckon it's been about 2 years since we went up to Newcastle for a weekend, so it had been a long time coming.

We headed off straight after work on Friday night and went to Ryan's place near Merewether. We met up with Tanya and headed into town for a drink down at the very nice Honeysuckle development (a bit like a small Cockle Bay - full of bars/restaurants/cafes) before heading out for some yummy Vietnamese at Lans (the food was great although, I can't say much for the decor!)

Mmmm, pink!

The next day was a lazy day, starting off with coffee down at the beach and hamburgers in the park for lunch. We went to stay at Tanya's friends place on the Saturday night and as per usual our obsession with food continued and we enjoyed a fantastic home made risotto and pan fried salmon courtesy of Tanya.

Good Coffee

New Job

After about 5 years (on and off) at IBM, the recent changes have become beyond ridiculous and so Jo now has a new job. She's off to the Bank Hotel in Newtown to work as their Office & Events Manager! Woo-hoo! And she gets free Thai everyday from the yummy Sumalee Thai restaurant downstairs.

To celebrate we headed to Circular Quay for a few drinks after work on her last day at IBM.

Jo and Guy

We had a great time, drinking down the Moet a bit too much though!

Jo with her old boss Joe

Coogee to Bronte

The weather this weekend has been wonderful. Unfortunately we didn't make the most of Saturday after our Friday night out but today on Sunday we certainly did a lot better by doing the Coogee to Bronte walk. We set off about 10:30 and the day was just perfect; blue skies, beautiful temperature and just enough breeze. We even found it easy to find a park in Coogee which was a bonus.

Take a look at the day....

Gordon's Bay

Jo at Bronte Beach

The pool at Bronte, don't let it fool you that water is freezing!

Kebabs & Bellydancers

Saturday night we headed back to Surry Hills for Neil & Nicci's birthday party at Amira's Palace Lebanese Restaurant. At first we had trouble finding the place as downstairs is a pizza take-away but upstairs is the 'Cushion Room' were we found many of Neil & Nicci's friends waiting.

Nicci enjoying herself

After the Noiseworks night on Friday we stuck to the water this time! Nicci was fashionably (and typically) 20mins late and when all 20 of us had made ourselves comfortable on the cushions the banquet began!

Nicci and I in an extreme close-up!

We started with bread, hummos, baba ganoush, then chicken and beef kebabs, falafel, more bread, lamb koftas, and the food just kept coming until we couldn't eat any more. Not bad for $35 a head and no corkage fee! Good job too judging by the amount of wine bottles everyone went through!

The belly-dancing was great fun!

Towards the end of the night, the belly dancer arrived and ensured that everyone (except me, hehehe) got up to have a go. Some surprising performances from Jamie and Jason ensured we all had a good laugh!

We finished off with a sing-a-long of Happy Birthday while Neil and Nicci blew out candles stuck in Turkish Delight and Baklava - Yum!

Noiseworks

"Reach out! Reach out and touch somebody...."

We headed off after work on Friday to meet up with Donna and co for a girls night out to the very glam (not!) South Juniors in Kensington to see the Choirboys and Noiseworks.

We arrived at Donna's place about 6:15pm and enjoyed some nibbles and champers before all heading out to get taxi's to take us to Kensington. We did very well and all managed to get 3 cabs in about 5 mins, not bad in Surry Hills on a Friday night.

We got to Souths and had to sign-in as it's a leagues club and took up position at the front of the stage and got in some cheap drinks ($4.50 for a Pure Blonde, not bad!). There were three bands on; Move Trees (fronted by the Muldoon-look-a-like bassist from Noiseworks) who I really enjoyed. They seems a little Audioslave cross Soundgarden. They were followed by the Choirboys (of 'Run to Paradise' fame) and then finally Noiseworks (fronted by ex-INXS stand-in Jon Stevens).

Donna took along her camera and we all took turns taking shots and we got some great ones. I've added some shots above. And how funny is this! Donna was in Bondi the next day getting these printed out and who does she bump into? Yes!! Jon Stevens himself, so she got that black and white shot about signed for us! Hahahaa!

Unfortunately, we were all a little worse for wear by the end of the show and Jo and I did feel the need for a little McPick-Me-Up on our way home, but we did have a ball.

Mahjong

We enjoyed a great day yesterday learning how to play Mahjong properly. About 3 or 4 weeks ago, Jo and I wandered past this place called Mahjong Room on Crown Street in Surry Hills were people were all learning to play Mahjong and when we enquired they said they did this once a month and it included a Yum Cha lunch - sounded good to us! We booked for the session September and invited Nicci and Joe to join us.

We arrived at 11am and sat at our table for 4 (you need a minimum of 4 players) and we started our lesson. The "class" was really well run and once we started to play, all of the rules eventually started to make sense even though we did confuse our "pung" and "chow" most of the time!

The food they served was fantastic. Really fresh and yummy dim sum, dumplings fried rice, steamed asian vegetables and endless Chinese tea - we've already booked in for November!

TV

This weekend we decided to treat ourselves and we bought a new TV from our mates at Bing Lee in Alexandria :) After much deliberation we opted for an LG LCD that has built in HD, Digital etc etc. Anyway, it looks really nice!

Busy few weeks

It's been a busy few weeks since my last post. We've been to Bryon Bay and back with Bo and Claire - staying in a really nice house close to the beach. The weather was a bit wet and windy and our flight home was cancelled due to the the rain and poor visibility but we made the most of our time there and all the yummy food on offer! We also took a drive to the famous Nimbin, home of all things marajuna! What an odd, odd place it is.

Nimbin: Subtle as ever

The following weekend Jo and I finally got around to having our massage that was bought for us by Dad and Maria. We went to Endota Spa in the city at Martin Place and were treated to a 1 and a half hour full body massage. It was fantastic!!

I'm still in my job, which is a good sign and am slowly getting more and more comfortable with the idea of being in charge and am getting my hours under control as time goes on. Unfortunately, as my job started to be managable, Jo's job is going completely bonkers as they give her more and more people to support, I think she's up to 5 now. They are slowly making people redundant but Jo is hanging in there still.

Today is a public holiday due to the APEC Summit (Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation). World leaders from 21 countries are in Australia at the moment, as the city is in complete lock down (well, except for the 11 comedians from the TV show 'The Chaser' that pulled stunt including a fake motorcade whilst dressed up as Osama Bin Laden and managed to breach the $250m security crackdown! Hahahaha). So we're avoiding the city today and are off for brunch. Yum.

Bring on Byron Bay!

This week is going to be a short but hectic week.

Tomorrow I have a new starter joining my team, I will be up to my eyeballs with meetings as we are gearing up for the end of year performance reviews and no doubt a zillion other things that will pop up at the last minute.

But come Thursday I won't care as I am off to Byron Bay for 5 days with Jo, Bo and Claire for some well earned rest and relaxation. We'll fly to Ballina and hire a car so we can get around and I seriously looking forward to spending some time away from Sydney and work to recharge my batteries.

Thanks Bo for booking us the flights (birthday pressies) and you couldn't have picked a better weekend!

New Toy

My Sony Ericsson T-610 has been going strong for about 4 years now but it is looking somewhat tired so I've decided to upgrade.

As I've changed jobs and am using my phone about 100 times more than I used to (and also because I've been working sooo much) I decided to treat myself :)

HTC Touch

Say hello to the HTC Touch. I have to say, I was somewhat persuaded by some people at work who got this phone last week and it is very cool.

I'm not a real phone techno-geek and I'm sure this phone/pda has it upsides and downsides but for me:
a) It looks good (and it's small and not at all bulky)
b) It makes phone calls
c) It can send text messages
d) It has a camera
e) It comes with a 1GB memory card
f) It has lots of other stuff which I can play with and keep me amused
g) I can claim it on my tax return next year

Sold.

Sydney Weekender

After what feels like a hundred years, Jo and I have spent what used to be the norm; a nice relaxing weekend in Sydney.

It's been so busy no for so long that I'd forgotten what it was like to wake up with no plans on a sunny Saturday morning. We made the most of the beautiful weather this weekend and made sure we got out and about.

We spent most of Saturday walking around Surry Hills, enjoying a nice coffee in a new cafe and discovering the changes in the shops along Crown Street. We stopped off for some lunch, a really nice pizza slice with caramelised onions, fetta and salami at Bird, Cow, Fish before deciding to walk through the Domain to the Botanical Gardens by the water.

After our discovery afternoon we got home and booked dinner for a restaurant that Jo has been investigating for her work Christmas party. It's called Singapore Heritage Restaurant and it's at the top of Bourke Street in Surry Hills. We arrived at 7:30pm, got a parking space right out side and were seated into our little booth where you sit down and cross your legs on the floor on cushions.

The place is beautifully decorated and is very dark and peaceful inside, so much so that they give you little torches to read the menu! We picked two entrees and two mains to share. I chose the calamari with banana and pineapple and the sambal prawns. Jo opted for the soft shell crab and a spicy fish dish.

This is where things started to go down hill. Our drinks arrived promptly, a great glass of Clifford Bay savingon blanc but the food was very average. Not great flavours and when our mains arrived before we had even finished our entrees I was even more irritated. The whole thing felt extremely rushed (even though they weren't even that busy) and we did complain. The staff were very gracious and offered us a complimentary drink, which we accepted as by this time it was too early to go home but I have to say I wouldn't be back.

Jo's Asian Holiday

I thought I'd post some pictures of Jo's trip to Singapore and Hong Kong, they had an amazing time, bought so much stuff I can't believe but they managed to squeeze in so much in their 2 weeks.

At Singapore Zoo

Raffles Hotel - Home of the Singapore Sling!

Repulse Bay, Hong Kong Island

Hong Kong from the Hotel

Two weeks

These past two weeks have been a strange one for me, I've been completely out of my comfort zone not only with work but being home alone without Jo as she spent 2 weeks with her Mum in Singapore and Hong Kong.

I've been working heaps and trying to come to terms with the new challenges my role brings, while still doing my old role and trying to cope with the workload.

I've also lost my social planner and it's been very different for me to organise catching up with people! I started out well though as Claire and I went to see 'Another One Night Stand' at the Capitol Theatre - a comedy night hosted by Red Symons and starring Jimeoin, Judith Lucy, Corrine Grant etc

I've caught up with Claire twice since as we've started our "Management Meetings" as we both have the same crap going on a work and they are basically a work whinge session over dinner and wine! We've had two so far, both extremely successful! If this is the best that comes of my promotion then I'm happy as they have been such good fun.

I managed to catch up with Carl and Martinette too as I took a trip to Manly, it was such a beautiful clear winter day and we took a nice walk to Shelly beach and back. It was great to catch up with them both again. I picked up Lisa and Christian (and the twins) from the airport as they were back from their trip to Germany to see Christian's family and had dinner with them on Sunday.

I managed a night out at the pub with my team on Friday night and I also had a work offsite with my new management team which ended up quite messy in Surry Hills!

So, I've managed to keep myself busy but I'm now exhausted! I picked up Jo and Mrs B on Saturday morning at 6am and we had a very quiet Saturday after the shopping show and tell. Sunday morning we all went for brunch to Wah Wah in Waterloo, I met Chiara (a friend of Steven) for the first time and she joined us for brunch. It was great to meet Chiara finally as Steven has talked about her so much and we got on really well :)

I can't believe the weekend is nearly over again, I'm trying to brace myself for another week at work, wish me luck!

One girl, two cats

This week wasn't as bad at work, that was because I only worked 3 days and I was in bed sick on Thursday and Friday. This is preferable at the moment.

I started to get sick on Tuesday night and it got much worse on Wednesday. I tried to shake it off and even went out for dinner at planned with Carl and Martinette to Radio Cairo in Cremorne (bloody fantastic food, sort of north African, I had one of the best curries I've had in a long time) for Carl's birthday.

Thursday morning though was a different story. Stupid me left my laptop at work the night before so I went into work and picked up and came straight home to bed. That's were I've been pretty much since.

Yesterday afternoon, Jo's mum came down in the afternoon and kept me company. We were all up early this morning as they jetted off to Singapore and Hong Kong for a nice holiday. I just received a text from Jo saying they had arrived safe and sound and that it's really really hot!

Hot Water!!

Not the most exciting of news to report but it is for us! At our flat, the so-called hot water takes approximately 2-3 minutes to come through in the morning for a shower and when it does, it's usually just warm.

Lately it's been getting worse so I called strata, who called a plumber, who arrived yesterday morning. He tried a few things but said it might take some time to fix up. We left for work and left him to it and when we arrived home Jo had to try out the shower to see if it was working.

The water is now scorching hot and he has probably doubled if not tripled the pressure! We're so excited. How pathetic! We both can't believe we've been living with such crap hot water and pressure for so long!

More Manager updates

Well, if this doesn't sum up my week I'm not sure what does. It's 11.21 on Friday night and I've just finished work.

This week has been extremely intesting as tomorrow is end of financial year here and working for a superannuation, investment and insurance company, coupled with massive incentives for people to invest in super due to federal budget changes things have been somewhat hectic!

It has been suggested that over the past week we as a company has taken 3-4 times a much money as usual and our systems are getting hammered left, right and centre.

I have resourcing issues, people problems, a mobile phone number that won't port over to a work account, no credit left on the stupid phone, a million unanswered e-mails and to-do items....ahhh remind me again why people want promotions!!??

My birthday continued!

Well, my birthday surprises didn't stop there as when Jo and I got home from the Hilton on Sunday there were some other little goodies in store!

Firstly, I opened all my cards from family and friends and Jo gave me my birthday present; a brand new Babolat tennis raquet! Looking forward to trying it out soon, when it stops raining in Sydney!

Jo had also arrange for heaps of our friends to join us for dinner at Govinda's in Darlinghurst for dinner and then for a movie in Govinda's legendary lay-down-on-beds-and-cushions movie theatre.

We arrived on time at 5:45pm to find Kate, Vanessa, Guy, Josh, Phillipe, Jade, Carlos, Brenton, Janet, Nicci, Joe and his son Rory all ready to tuck into some yummy dinner.

Some of us then rushed up to grab some spots for the movie Pan's Labrynth but we weren't quick enough to get the cosy beds but we did get two cosy lounges at the back so that was good. The movie was odd but very enjoyable, kind of a mix between fantasy and adult drama, I was surprised as I wasn't expecting to like it but by the end I thought it was great and forgot about the subtitles!

The stragglers then headed to The Piccadilly pub in Kings Cross for a nice nightcap :)

Priscilla Hilton

This weekend we've been celebrating my birthday in style!

I bought Jo and I tickets to see Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (The Musical) for her birthday and she thought it would be cool for us to stay at a nice hotel in the city to make a weekend of it. Jo found a great internet deal for a night at the Hilton that included breakfast at Luke Mangan's Glass Brasserie and a drink at the wonderful Marble Bar.

We spent the morning with Ryan who drove down from Newcastle and we all enjoyed some great Thai for lunch in Newtown. He gave us a lift into the city and we checked in at 3pm, dropped off our bags in our room and then headed out for a bit of afternoon shopping at Myer and David Jones.

We spent some time getting ready and headed downstairs to check out the Marble bar for a nice glass of wine before hopping in a cab to Star City where Priscilla is playing in Sydney. We took our seats in the dress circle and looked forward to the show. In our performance, the character of Bob (usually played by Michael Caton from The Castle) was played by Home and Away's own Alf Stewart!

The show was fantastic, the costumes were amazing and the musical did extremely well following all the main plot lines of the movie and keeping all the great one liners such as "That's all Australia needs...a cock, in a frock, on a rock!". The music had the crowd going and there was a great atmosphere in the Lyric theatre - this show has been a huge success for the producers and Star City alike and is in it's final run in Sydney before it moves to Melbourne.

We enjoyed a great breakfast in the Glass Brasserie, I've never seen so many type of bread, muffins and cakes! And for $39 per person for the full buffet you'd bloody well expect quality! Luckily, this was included in our deal as I think most people would struggle to get their money's worth without feeling sick!

It was a great way to spend the weekend and my birthday :)

Gold Class

Jo and I finally made it to Gold Class at the Greater Union, Bondi Junction last night. We had a call from Nicci who had two vouchers and asked if we'd like to go see Shrek the Third with her and Joe and we thought why not!

We arrived at 7:15pm and thought we'd get something to eat from the yummy food court at Bondi Junction Westfield but they were all shutting up shop for the night. We then wandered Bondi trying to find something open and eventually found a Thai Restaurant so red curry beef, chilli and basil seafood, vegetarian pad thai and asian greens it was for dinner.

We made it just in time for our 8:40pm showing of Shrek and the usher took our tickets and showed us to our front row lounge chairs. I've never been Gold Class before but god it's great. First, the cinema must only seat about 30 people. All the seats are like massive cosy lounge chairs that have a button that reclines the chair and extends a foot rest, there is a table with a wine cooler between each set of two seats, wait service for food or drinks if you would like. Basically, why ever go to the normal movies again!

My first week

I'm officially at the end of my first week as a manager (or people leader as we tend to say now) and it's been interesting to say the least.

My first day involved attendance at the monthly People Leader's Forum from across technology meet for a whole day for education sessions, working groups all that sort of stuff. As I'm trying to replace my old role I was only able to stay for the morning but I was welcomed into this clan-like group :)

Apart from that, I really have been just getting used to the idea of what this change means for my (and my team). I certainly have lots and lots to learn and to be honest am quite daunted by the challenges that are sure to come my way. I can't say the week as been smooth, I've experience many bouts of self-doubt and I can feel my usual confidence ebbing away at points but I suppose we all have to do things once and time will be the thing that will give me the experience I need.

Facebook

Strange co-incidence this week as I was pointed in the direction of Facebook by two completely unrelated friends!

I had no idea what this whole facebook thingy was all about (it's like an online community where you can keep in touch with friends) but after I signed up I instantly had 3 friends linked and after 4 days I can proudly say I have 13 friends :) Quite an acheivement.

I'm now back in touch with people I haven't heard from in ages, including one (my good friend Andy) to find that his wife is expecting their first baby any day now!

The real value of technology :)

I'm that Twat!

You may remember from this post that my team is being split off, will need a new manager and that I was hoping that person wasn't going to be a twat.

Well, I'm that twat! I finally plucked up enough courage to put myself forward for the role (after some conversations with my manager and his manager who practically told me to apply!).

I had the interview last Monday, about 3 hours after I found out that Nell had died :( and I was interviewed by my manager and his manager. The interview only lasted 30 minutes but felt like an age but I did heaps on preparation and it definitely paid off as I answered all their questions well and presented my vision of the team going forward. I'm sure this much have looked impressive!

I found out on the morning of last Thursday that I had been successful and am now (well from tomorrow as it hasn't been announced yet) promoted from Senior Business Analyst to Development and Support Manager with 15 team members!! Wish me luck!

Farewell Nell

We had some very sad news last week that Jo's Aunty Nell had passed away. She was 72.

Nell had been ill for some time, being a heavy smoker her lungs were not good and she had been in hospital for a few days before being admitted to intensive care were she died on Tuesday. Even though we knew she was ill it still doesn't prepare you for when the worst happens.

Jo drove up to Coffs Harbour with her Mum on Wednesday and I flew up on Thursday to attend the funeral on the Friday.

Nell was a religious lady and her service was held at the local church in beautiful Sawtell that is no more than 50 metres from her house. The local priest, Father John, had tears in his eyes during the service as they were very close and he was there when she died. Nell's daughter Karen (Jo's cousin) and her 3 sons; Matt (13), Luke (15) and Cameron (10) all made speeches at the service and did so well considering the circumstances.

The amount of people who turned up the funeral and wake was a testiment to how loved Nell was and she will be missed by us all.

Life on Mars

For those in the UK this will be old news but for us on the other side of the world the TV show "Life on Mars" finally aired on Sunday night.

This is a show my mum told me about probably a year ago now so when I saw it advertised on the ABC I had to tune in.

The show is about a 21st century copper who has an accident and wakes up in 1973. He can't determine if he is in a coma and has a very detailed and vivid imagination or if he really is in 1973. He finds himself Detective Inspector at his normal 'nick' in Manchester on a murder case with startling similarities to one he was working on in 2006 (but without the help of mobile phones, DNA evidence or computers)

Sam: "Where's my PC terminal?"
1973 copper: "You need a constable down here?"

The contrasts between the two eras were very interesting. Everyone smoking in the office, woman officers treated like tea ladies, having to use an operator when making a phone call. I thought the best line of the episode was from Sam's boss "Hey you kids! If anyfing 'appens to that motor, I'll come over to your house an' stamp on all your toys. Alright?". Hehehe. I really enjoyed it and will definitely be tuning in next week.

Names & Dates

Ok, this has to be at least an 8.5 on the cacky handed witch scale - Steve, your opinion please as you're the only one who reads this blog :)



The cocky cow even re-tunes mid song! Hehe.

Ps. The 'cacky fingered old witch' phrase comes from a very amusing story by the very amsuing Jack Dee.

32 Flavours

Check out the rare live TV performance by Ani Difranco - playing one of my favourite songs "32 Flavours"...

Chad Vader strikes back

Thanks to Steve for the heads up that Chad Vader episode 7 is now available on youtube. Will Chad get back the Day Manager's job? Looks like we'll have to wait for episode 8 - doh!



Best line: "Shut up! No!! You shut up!!" Hehehehe

Pink!

Last night we went to see Pink at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. We met up with our concert companions at Donna's place in Surry Hills and were introduced to Michelle, Julie, Trish, Steph and Bronwyn.

We all enjoyed a few drinks and nibbles before heading into Chinatown for a bite to eat (and to avoid the support act) before the show. I've never been to the Emperor's Garden before but the food was fresh, yummy and cheap so chances are I'll be back! We got to the Entertainment Centre at about 9pm and Jo and I took our fantastic central seats, unfortunately not sitting with the others who had seats elsewhere.

Pink kicked off her "I'm not Dead" tour to an extremely enthusiastic and noisy crowd to "Cuz I Can" and the got the entire place rocking.

Pink struts her stuff

She dazzled the crowd throughout a 2 hour energetic show that saw her display huge amounts of flexibility in a net 30 feet up in the air and talk to the audience in an intimate mini acoustic set. In between she was dancing around the stage, voice strong and always with a smile on her face. The entire show went so quickly but was so packed with energy you certainly didn't feel short changed and definitely left feeling fully entertained.

Donna had arranged for us to get free entry into the Shelbourne Hotel after the show for a few drinks and a dance. As suspected, our little dance turned into a long one and we eventually left at about 3:30am!! I blame the "retro" theme of 70s, 80s & 90s and my quality air-guitar :)

Still, I paid for it in the morning as there was a server upgrade at work this weekend that didn't go to plan and I had to have a tele-conference at 9am to decide what action to take. Eurgh.

My Humps

Fergie: "Check it out!"



It really should've been like this originally and Fergie should've done the cover! Hehehe.

Hungerford Hill

Jo and I took our first trip this year up to Nelson Bay to visit Jo's Mum for her birthday. We left early on Saturday morning and arrived at about 10:30. We had no plans of what to do for the day but inspiration struck and we decided to go to the Hunter Valley for the day.

We were off shortly afterwards and decided to stop into a winery for a look around as even though we had decided on our destination we still had no idea what to do once we got there.

We entered Hungerford Hill and saw people having a very nice lunch out on the terrace, well that was that. We were sat at a table in no time looking at a delicious menu that was to turn into Mrs B's birthday lunch treat :)

The head chef is Darren Ho (yes, brother of Lisa) and his asian influenced menu was delicious. We were all treated to a complimentary

Mrs B and I started with the aylesbury duck won tons with roast duck jus, blackwood fungus & pickled vegetables while Jo had the sea scallops stuffed with water chestnuts on sautéed garlic chives & sauce vierge.

Jo and I then had the beautiful fish of the day and Lyn had the waygu beef cheek slow braised with hungerford hill shiraz, on braised witlof & paris mash potatoes, served with béarnaise sauce. Yum!!

If that wasn't enough, we had already had a plate of mixed bread before the entrees and after we treated ourselves to gelato at a place down the road! Pigs!

Missy's Back

I went to see Missy Higgins showcase her new album "On a Clear Night" at the Enmore Theatre on Friday night.

We spent the first half an hour trying to "sell" a spare ticket we had by a late cancellation but with a lack of touting skills we ended up giving the ticket to some French tourist who seemed pleased enough!

We arrived in time to get a drink and take our seats to watch the support act. Leroy Lee played about 5 songs, a simple acoustic set that was reminissent of Jack Johnson mets John Butler.

Missy arrived on stage at about 9:40 and the crowd awoke and burst into cheers as the catchy but simple riff from "Secret" emerged from behind the curtain. The album was only released about a week before the concert but I've been lucky enough to listen to it for free for the past week via Claire's website :)

"Secret" is one of my favourite tracks on the album, probably because it consists on 3 notes on 1 string so I should be able to play it on my guitar hehehe.

Missy in action....

Missy played a great set mixing new with old favourites from the ever popular "The Sound of White". True to form she stuffed up the opening lines to no less than 3 songs but her innocent charm means she can get away with it with the crowd laughing along as say blurts out "Ahh! Those are the wrong words!" then mentally backtracks to the beginning to start over again.

Points have to be awarded for effort though when she gave up her trusty piano and guitar to simply sing, although you can tell she finds it extremely awkward and you want to shout "That microphone does detact from the stand you know!". Once again, a very enjoyable show from someone who improves everytime I've seen her.

Work, work, work

It's official, I'm in training coma.

Not only am I in a new role, in a new team, with a new technology, with 1 technical person to support 3 production applications with about another 10 on the way, I seem to spend my life in training courses.

First there was the Project Management course going back a few months, this was backed up with the conference in Queensland (sounds like a junket but wasn't really), followed by a dose of "Emotional Intelligence", then came my LSI training (I can't even remember what it stands for but they plot stuff about you on a circumplex, that's about all I can recall), now I am on a "Resilience" course that is for 2 hours a week for 6 weeks. I think. I have an exam to take in July and the rest I'm trying not to think about!

And to top it all off, it was announced today that my team is going to be split away from my current manager into a separate team. As much as I'd love to apply for that role, I'm not sure I'm ready to manage a team of 15! Fingers crossed whoever lands the role will do a good job and not be a twat.

The past few weeks

Well, if I thought my week up at the Gold Coast was busy I was wrong! Things certainly haven't calmed down since I've returned, either at work or at home! Here's the recap of the key events since the beginning of April....

1. We farewelled Steven as he returned from his trip to NZ for a night and took him to one of our favourite pizza places (Bar Reggio) in Darlinghurst. Our quiet Monday night dinner took 2 hours to eventuate - I've never seen that restaurant so busy in my life! We had a great time though and devoured some excellent pizza's.

2. The Easter long weekend was then quickly upon us and we were on cat/house sitting duties. We looked after Tiffany and Mia (Lisa & Christian's cat who has gone away to christan their beautiful twin girls with their family), we made sure that April and May (Carl & Martinette's cats who had gone up to Mooloolaba for the Easter break) were ok and of course our own little ratbags. We ended up spending most of our time our in Manly praticsing our non-existent surfing skills but we sure did have fun. We checked out a new bar - "Henry Afrika's" before enjoying dinner at the Manly Ocean Beach House.

The Manly Ocean Beach House Restaurant, at Manly obviously :)

3. On a sadder note, we helped our friend Jenny pack up her house as she was moving to Melbourne on the 12th. Jenny lost her husband Steve in December to a brain tumour and I have to stay it was a very strange experience packing clothes into a box of a man who I had never met and would never get to meet.

If I ever need anything to put things into perspective, I will certainly recall this experience and I have such utter respect for Jenny and how she is handling the horrible situation she now finds herself in.

4. We've had Jo's cousin Karen, partner Paul and 3 boys stay since Sunday so we've been busy little bees and our apartment feels much smaller with 4 adults, 3 young lads and 2 cats in it!

5. The pace doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon as coming up in the next few weeks are:
- A weekend in Newcastle this weekend
- Jo's Mum's birthday on 3rd May
- Missy Higgins concert at the Enmore on 4th May with Bo and Claire
- Pink concert on 12th May

and don't get me started on what's been happening at work!!