Motorbike Course

It only meant a 3 months wait to get a slot on the "Pre-Learner" Motorbike course at Botany but the day had finally arrived. I was dropped off early and introduced to my fellow riders at 7.30am and by 8am we were sat classroom style in a porta-cabin running through the plans for the next two days.

The mighty Honda CB250

The course is mandatory in NSW to get a Learner's motorbike licence and it takes 7hrs over 2 days. We went through some theory and handing out of equipement before even seeing the Honda CB250's that we'd be using.

It was at least another 2 hours later before you get to turn the engine on with most of the introductory work done by someone else pushing the bike so you can get used to the weight, balance and brakes. By the end of day two we were zooming (well, not really zooming) around in circles on a mock track getting up to the dizzy heights of 2nd gear. I passed the 'test' and am all set to get my licence, but probably not a bike, further discussions are to be had :)

The Duchess and spring cleaning

We managed to get some free tickets to see the new Keira Knightly/Ralph Fiennes movie "The Duchess" on Monday night courtesy of Donna. It was playing at the Dendy at Circular Quay so I met Nicci after work and caught the train over for a 6.30pm start.

Now I have to say I'm not a real fan of Keira-Knightly-in-another-period-drama-type-movie so I wasn't really expecting that much but I was pleasantly surprised. The film had a great story line, superbly acted particularly by Knightly whose character was intriguing and brilliant through-out. It's definitely worth a look if you're off to the cinema soon.

It's a long weekend here this weekend and we've spent most of it so far spring cleaning. We've chucked out so much old crap, cleaned the balcony's from top to bottom, re-organised cupboards (now we have our new sideboard which has been great for addition storage). We're now just waiting for our custom-made storage/seating to be made and delivered hopefully next weekend. Thankfully the weather has taken a dive (from a high of 35c on Friday to 22c today!) so we haven't felt like we've wasted a long weekend cleaning when we could've been at the beach! Still, hoping the sun comes out again for us tomorrow - now it's daylight savings so we'll have longer evenings to enjoy it!

Bangkok

After an amazing 10 night in Ko Samui we packed up and headed to Bangkok for 4 nights. We stayed at the Swissotel (or Nai Lert Park Hotel) which was in a great location.

The first night we met up with Niwat, a friend of a friend who took us both out for dinner to the V9 Restaurant on the 39th floor of the Sofitel. The food was great and Jo and I had some great cocktails and for first time in 2 weeks a really good glass of wine!

Yum!

Afterwards we went for a drinks to a local bar before getting home around 2am! It was great fun and we hope we can return the favour when Niwat next visits Sydney. The rest of the time in Bangkok we spent shopping! Non-stop shopping! We went to every shopping centre in Bangkok I think; MBK, Siam Centre, Central, Paragon about 4 times each!

One day after a hard day shopping we thought we'd catch a cab back to the hotel for a shower and change before heading out for dinner. After being stuck in traffic for about 20mins and not moving anywhere we thought we'd get out and go to Patpong Markets as it was only about 2 streets away. We ended up having a few beers and shopping at the markets until about 11pm!

All of our shopping out on display!

We did plenty of walking in Bangkok, it's such a great city to wander around and look at all of the different things happening on the street, not to mention all the food on every corner.

One of many street cafes

On our last night we thought it would be fun to see a Lady-Boy show. There was one playing at the Asia Hotel (possibly the worst run down hotel in the whole world, it looks like it hasn't changed since 1973). The whole show was very amateur but pretty funny, and some of the lady-boys were pretty convincing!

Lady-boy? Or just lady?

Ko Samui highlights

Here are some pictures from our stay in Ko Samui....

Peaceful thai hut in the resort grounds - set up for private dining in the evening

View of Bophut beach near where we stayed.
We enjoyed a few drinks over looking this pier

We took a day trip that involved an Elephant Trek and jeep ride
through the mountains and around the island

Jo on the balcony of our resort room

The rather amusing looking "Grandfather Rock" on the east coast of the Island

We decided to do a Thai cooking course. This was the entree we made:
Green mango salad with prawns

On our third day we did a sea kayak tour of the National Marine Park
close to Ko Samui. This was the view from the top of a viewpoint.

On the jeep tour we stopped off and took some shots of these Thai statues

Me.

On the way to Ko Samui

Finally, the day had arrived. The packing was complete and we were off to Thailand for 2 glorious weeks. Not even political protests in Bangkok could put us off! We boarded our Thai Airways plan to Bangkok and we arrived after a good flight (even though my headphones didn't work) to get our connecting flight to Ko Samui.

At first I thoguht we were in trouble as some airports were closed due to protests and when we went to check in the lady said that they weren't running that flight today - however they had a flight that went in 45 minutes and they would book us onto that! Result! No 3 hour lay-over at the airport.

Anantara Resort

When we arrived at Anantara we were so ready to relax and we had chosen the right place - from the minute we drove down the flame light entrance way over a pond of water lily's to checking in sat down with an ice cold lemongrass drink and cool face towels we were in heaven.

The pool over looking the beach

Springboard

I took off last week to "Springboard" - a week long strategic thinking/planning 'course' put on twice a year at work. I attended Springboard about 18 months ago as a participant of the course but this time I was back to co-facilitate a group of 7 through the process.

The week is incredibly grueling with long days and early starts but it is just an amazing opportunity to learn. Last time for me was all about learning the methodology but this time it was to put into practise my facilitation skills. I had an absolute ball (I was blessed with a fantastic team who naturally seemed to get on really well together) and even Thursday which is the killer day went well. On Thursday all the teams break-up to put into action all the things they have learnt over the past 3 days. You start at 8am and finish when you finish. My team finished around 9:30pm which was pretty good! We finished at 11pm when I was taking part in the team. It must've been my excellent facilitation skills that kept us on track :D

How much am I looking forward to our holiday to Thailand!

Kasey & Shane

For my birthday this year amongst many other pressies (I was sooooo spoilt!) I received 2 tickets to see Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson play at the State Theatre. Their new album "Rattlin' Bones' is one of my favourite releases this year so I was really excited to see them live.

Tonight was the night and Jo & I had a great time. You really do have to see Kasey Chambers live to understand what a great show she puts on - she can talk until the cows come home and it incredibly funny, humble and excited to performing for the audience. Shane on the other hand is really quiet except for some well-timed and amusing one-liners, you end up thinking "how the hell are these two married!".

They played all the killer tracks off their new album mixed in with some of Kasey's old hits and some of Shane's too from his many "award losing albums".

Kasey is just a real pleasure to watch and is a far as you can get from all the polished and pretentious MTV stars of today - you feel like you're in their lounge room watching them jam. The whole family is involved with Kasey's dad Bill playing guitar and singing while Mum takes care of the merchandise! All round great show, this is the second time I've seen her and I hope it's not the last.

The new Kings X Hotel

We went to the opening of the newly renovated Kings X Hotel this evening. It's had a major overhaul but the downstairs is pretty disappointing really, so much open space it just feels empty with no atmosphere. The rest of the levels are ok, the roof top terrace probably takes the honours (maybe that was because it was the busiest floor?).

Overall though, it's got a real 'try hard' feel about it and it comes off as a really disjointed design. It's like someone with no design skills has had a bash themselves or the architect and interior designer didn't talk at all. From the dodgy "Saturday Night Fever" stairs that light up in technocolour as you walk on them down to the toilets, the laser show in the lift (I'm not kidding) to the Catholic confession box on level 4 it's just all a bit too wanky for me. And don't get me started on the taps/soap dispensers - they have to be seen to be believed!

Still, we had a great night all round and even ended up at 'The World' bar (haven't been there since 2002!) for a rock night!

Jimmy Barnes

It's been a long time coming but last night we went to see Jimmy Barnes at the Enmore Theatre. After a few pull-outs by some of Donna's friends it ended up being me, Jo, Donna, Di, Ryan, Tanya and Philippe. Ryan and Tanya came down from Newcastle for the weekend and we took them to Toko in Surry Hills for the best Japanese on Friday night! Sorry, random tale of yummy food but it's always about good food/wine when they are around.

After a day of walking into the city (dodging "pilgrims" at every turn due to World Youth Day) and shopping - I bought a great new pair of sunnies from my birthday money - saw a great watch too but I guess that will have to wait :(

We rocked up at the Bank Hotel around 7.30pm and had a few beers (or Vanilla Mojito's for everyone else!) before walking the short distance to the Enmore Theatre at 9pm. Jimmy had just taken the stage when we arrived. We found our seats in the dark and watched Jimmy as he belted out songs from his new album like only Jimmy can. It was when he played his first "hit" of yesteryear that the crowd when nuts and young and old fled to the front of the stage even though it was a seated event.

It wasn't long before we were all up and dancing around to "Working Class Man", "Khe Sahn", "Good Times" and "When the War is Over". He had a great band with him, 2 of his daughters as backing singers and entertained the way only a seasoned performer can.

The man who must be pushing 60 played for nearly 2 1/2 hours to a crowd that was loving every minute and had not one but two encores, finishing up with "Goodbye" and still left everyone wanting more.

iPhone launched in Australia

Just in case you weren't aware, the long awaited iPhone debuted in Australia today. It's been a long wait for the 3G version of the phone and people were queuing for days to get their hands on one. I even had someone in my team line up at 6am at the Optus shop in North Sydney - 4 hours later she had her hands on a shiny new 8GB iPhone.

I personally experienced the coolness first hand when over in the States earlier in the year as Kathryn had one. We used it as a map when driving around California and we tried to make our way in traffic to the airport in the dark :)

Birthday Paaaaarty

The night finally arrived of my 30th birthday party. Nelufa flew up to Sydney (a bit later than expected after Barry booked her flight from Sydney to Melbourne not Melbourne to Sydney!), Tanya and Ryan came down from Newcastle and we all had fun during the day.

We all started to get ready around 5pm and Jo and Tanya took off to the pub early to get things organised. I got a lift with Ben and I arrived around 7.30pm at the Clock to a group of my friends smiling faces, pictures of me all over the place with balloons! The night was fantastic with so many people making the trip from all over Sydney to be there. Thank you to everyone who came along and made it such a special night.

I was totally spoilt and had so many fantastic gifts it was completely unreal. I came away with; a massage at Your Sanctuary in Paddington, G-Star gift voucher, Gordon Ramsay's new cookbook (which is so delicious!), the new Coldplay and Kasey Chambers/Shane Nicholson CDs (both of which are awesome), tickets to see Kasey/Shane at the State Theatre!!, Peter Alexander nightie, movie tickets, manicure vouchers, the list goes on! Jo with help from Donna and others did an amazing job of everything, I really couldn't have asked for more.

Jo, Amy and I posing for the camera

Donna was the resident photographer (see pics below including the best photo of Jo EVER) and the money we put behind the bar didn't last too long but that was probably a good thing considering we left the pub at midnight and a smaller group headed to Palms on Oxford St until 3am!! It all started with Donna and I listening to Sneaky Sound System on her iPod in the queue, followed by the usual Palms tunes, a few beers and then I don't really remember much after that. Great night!

The delicious birthday cake!

Donna, Me, Bronwyn and Jo - all smiles!

The best photo of Jo - ever!

The big 3-0

It's my 30th birthday today and I was awoken to cards and pressies around 6am :) I was truly spoilt with jewellery, clothes, vouchers and more from Jo, friends and family alike.

Unfortunately I still had to go work on the big day and even thought I thought I'd done well to not let anyone know at work I was proved wrong in my fortnighly team meeting! My team had found out somehow and I was treated to them all singing Happy Birthday and an amazing hazlenut chocolate cake! Bloody delicious!

It's all counting down the my party on Saturday night now....really looking forward to it!

Haircuts and new bikes!

I've been going to the same hairdresser in Neutral Bay for about 5 or 6 years now. Cathouse has undergone a few changes since then and over time became more of a Rockabilly clothes shop that hairdressing salon. It didn't come as huge surprise to find out (via Facebook!) that it had closed it's doors for the last time.

After much research and nervousness both Jo and I decided to try Daniel Mostyn on King St in Newtown. Jo tried it out first on Saturday and then I went on Sunday. More about that later.

Earlier in the day we thought we'd take a nice long walk as it was such a great day and there haven't been many of those especially on the weekends for a while. We ended up walking through Surry Hills to Oxford St, Paddington. While walking along we randomly ended up looking in Woolys Wheels at some bikes. We weren't really looking but when I saw the Avanti Blade 2.0 I thought "why not take it for a spin, just for fun". We walked out with 2 brand new bikes!

Jo's Blade 2.0. Mine is the same but all matt black

So, after spending my surfboard insurance money on two bikes I went off to the hairdressers in search of a new look. I think I've had the same/similar haircut for probably around 18months - 2 years now so it was time for a change. And Daniel Mostyn is the place to go for something different! It's a very "out there" kinda place, with all black walls and a bit cage thing in the middle where they take photos of you and discuss what would suit you.

I met with Stacy, the Art Director for a chat (this was after my wine glass of water with lemon and little mini pudding!) and we decided to go darker in colour and a bit shorter in the cut. The colour was on in no time and I was taken to the dungeon room (all black walls, graffiti everywhere, no windows) for a shampoo. Then Stacy told me her "idea" for something different, which I thought sounded pretty cool so I went with it. You'll have to wait for my birthday party post for the photos :)

Relaxing Weekend

Jo and I decided to spoil ourselves this weekend in celebration of our upcoming birthdays. We started off getting a coffee a great little cafe in the Strand and then heading to Endota Spa at Martin Place for an hour and a half massage - absolute heaven!

At about 1pm when we were finished we walked over to David Jones Food Hall on Market Street for some freshly cooked noodles and a glass of wine. We spent some time walking around the shops and made the mistake of walking into G-Star. About 2 hours later we walk out with a new pair of jeans for Jo's birthday - she's going to wear them to my 30th birthday party in 2 weeks.

We capped of the weekend by staying at the Amora Jamison in the city and having dinner at the Charr Restaurant. The food was great, service a bit stuck up though. After dinner we took the short walk up to Circular Quay and the Opera House on a really clear and cool night.

Powderfinger

Jo, Donna and I went to see Powderfinger play at the Enmore Theatre tonight. We headed off into Newtown and Enmore for a few pre-show drinks at the dodgy pub next door. The only reason it gets people in there is because of the theatre next door, it's such a dive!

Having said that, I think we were the last people to leave the pub and get to the show as they had already started and we were crammed in as we were in the standing area. We made few friends as we weaseled our way to a better standing position to watch Bernard and the boys bang out some of their big hits.

All in all, it was a good show (not spectatular) and it seemed to be missing something but I'm still not quite sure what. Perhaps it was the venue, the crowd, my mood, who knows.

Busy few days

It's been a busy few days.....here's a bit of summary.

Thursday 29th May
Off out for a work dinner in Surry Hills. We start off at the Clock Hotel for a few drinkies and then onto Aree's Thai for dinner. Jo however is living it up in the city at an IBM party hosted by Donna, hence it has a theme (hat party) and she gets home after I do.

Friday 30th May
Jo's cousin Karen, partner Paul and 3 boys came to stay a night with us in Sydney before they flew out on holiday to Vietnam. They got back today and stayed one more night before heading back to Coffs Harbour. You'd think they would be tired and over going out but no, not Karen! They were off out to see Billy Elliot before flying home on Saturday to Paul's 50th birthday party with a 100 people that night! Mental.

Saturday 31st May
Our good friends Kate & Vanessa are expecting their baby boy in August so we drove over to Cremorne (to Kate's Mum & Dad's beautiful apartment) for their Baby Shower. We took some cute baby boy clothes and enjoyed a great afternoon meeting lots of new people, eating amazing food and sharing a great experience for two new mums! We then finished off the day by baby sitting little Alishia & Sienna for our neighbours Lisa & Christian. Awwww.

Sunday 1st June
Off to see the Sydney Swans kick Richmond's ass at the SCG! We took a bloody full on picnic and luckily Julie brought ponchos for everyone as it started raining in the third quarter. Sydney won by a country mile so we celebrated by enjoying a few drinks at the Fox & Lion at Fox Studios.

The Basement

We finally made it to The Basement after 8 years! Fiona arranged a girls night out to see the double bill of Axle Whitehead (of Australian Idol and getting-naughty-bits-out-on-stage-while-drunk-at-award-ceremony-and-getting-the-sack-from-Channel-10-fame) and Brian McFadden (of Westlife and shagging Delta Goodrem fame).

The venue itself is near Circular Quay tucked away and obviously downstairs under ground. We went with the dinner option for some extra cash which also means you get a great table close to the tiny stage and waiter service for drinkies :)

The venue is pretty small considering, I couldn't tell you how many people it holds but it's more like a big bar and couldn't be more than a couple of hundred max which gives it a really intimate feel. The food was good value and tasty for the price, I'd certainly go for that option again.

There was even an acoustic support act who was really good while we waited for the "headliners" to appear. Axle arrived on the ickle stage around 9:30 and performed a pretty lengthy and high energy set before Brian belted out tunes new and old from about 10:30pm. Both the boys, regardless of your opinion of them (probably the same as mine) put on a really enjoyable show and made the most of a great venue.

San Francisco

I managed to get approval for a trip to San Francisco with work to attend TUCON - the annual Tibco Usergroup Conference. Tibco BusinessWorks is the platform that my team looks after at work and it seemed a good idea to take a look at what Tibco are up to in terms of their products, future direction/strategy and also find out what their other customers are doing.

I went with my boss Pete on the Sunday flying Business Class with Qantas. It was the first time I've flown business class and even though it is ridiculously expensive it was worth it! The seat, the service, the food, everything is so superior. To the fact that you can recline the seat until it's flat, to the little white table cloth they put down before you eat, proper crockery/cutlery and freshly cooked food and a chance to pre-order your bacon and eggs - nice one!

We arrived before we left due to crossing the date line and got to the hotel at around 11am Sunday morning (even though we left Sydney at 2pm Sunday). I took the chance to freshen up before meeting Kathryn (who I haven't seen in EIGHT years!!!) that afternoon.

After the initial shock of actually seeing each other in person, we met up with Pete and took a cab up to Fisherman's Wharf for the usual tourist look around. We walked around and took in the sights on a great warm day (apparently the best of the year so far!).

Kathryn & I at Fisherman's Wharf (Alcatraz in the background)

We took a walk over the Golden Gate Bridge and I was able to get some great photos like the one below as the fog hadn't descended onto the city yet.

The Golden Gate Bridge without fog

We were also lucky enough to be in town when the Giants were playing. The Giants are the San Francisco baseball team. Pete and I were also lucky to have Kathryn with us as she actually understands the rules being a big baseball fan - we were able to question her throughout the entire game which made it far more enjoyable given it was bloody freezing!

San Francisco Giants vs Colorado Rockies - Giants go down 2 - 3 dammit!

We were also treated to a baseball 'must do' which is have a big serve of Garlic Fries (they come complete with a mint when you've finished!) - yummy!

Garlic Fries. Mmmmm garlicky...

Pete and I enjoyed the conference and attended the keynote presentations and many seminars, presentations and breakout sessions over the course of the week. But that's boring so I'll go onto the interesting stuff. Once the conference finished on Friday, I met up with Kathryn again and we headed out to dinner with her good friend Cara (who picked a great restaurant for dinner). I also had a bit of time to do some shopping in Union Square hitting Nike, Abercrombie & Fitch and G-Star the hardest!

We also found these houses on Alamo Square...

Pretty houses on Steiner Street (of Mrs Doubtfire fame)

The Saturday (my last day) we decided to drive into wine country up in Sonoma County. Another perfect weather day meant we took a leisurely drive, enjoyed buttermilk pancakes for breakfast and ended up in Healdsburg. Such a lovely town full of great wine and food, we took a good walk around taking in the sights. We then headed out into the country side where we found Sonoma Lake and we took a drive around.

Sonoma Lake on a beautiful clear day

Kathryn drove us back to San Francisco via Sausalito (north of the Golden Gate Bridge) which is a very expensive part of town and very picturesque - we almost got lost on the way to the airport but thank god for the iPhone and Google Maps!

Matchbox 20

Thanks to Donna we managed to get tickets to Matchbox 20 at the Entertainment Centre. It wasn't until we walked into the place that we realised that we had 3rd row from the front seats and the best view ever!!

When we arrived, Thirsty Merc were doing their thing to get the crowd going and doing a pretty good job of it too. They went through their hits such as 'In the summertime', 'Someday Someday' and '20 Good Reasons' - the whole time I was pestered by Julie to air guitar along!

Thirsty Merc do their thang...

Once Matchbox 20 stepped foot on stage as predicted the whole place went nuts and Rob Thomas launched into what would be a 2 hour performance of hit after hit. They rolled out the new (from Exile on Mainstream) and old and the crowd lapped it up.

Rob Thomas mid performance

As much as Donna & Jo wanted to, unfortunately there was no getting past the security guard to get to the front and once he spotted Donna's camera he made her put it away so I'm lucky to have these shots at all. Apparently they decided to play a different Australian song at every one of their gigs down-under and we were treated to a INXS cover version before they wrapped up their show with a great performance of Long Day.

Matchbox 20 take a bow

Kirsty & Craig's Wedding

Today was Kirsty & Craig's wedding. Kirsty is a good friend of Jo's as they worked together at IBM. We went to Kirsty's hens night a few weeks back and now it was time for the big day. We met Fiona in North Sydney and drove over the Harbour and Spit bridges to Freshwater (Harbord) where the outside wedding was taking place in a small reserve overlooking the beach.

Nice day for a white wedding...

The ceremony was beautiful in such a wonderful setting and on a day of perfectly clear and sunny weather. Our good friend Donna was the wedding photographer and she took some great shots including the ones above and below, I'm Kirsty and Craig won't be disappointed to have these in their wedding album!

The happy couple

After a glass of Champagne we all made our way to Shores at Middle Harbour for the reception. Another great setting overlooking the water the party got started after the round of speeches with the band grooving from the word go.

Paaaarty!

Downstairs there was also the 'Barefoot Ball' taking place (which we gate crashed a couple of times throughout the night!) where all the men were in Tuxedo's on the top half and boardshorts/thongs on the bottom! The girls were all in dresses and no shoes and everyone was dancing around to a great live band on the beach. The night went on with a fantastic three course meal followed by plenty of drinks and dancing to the band...

Billy Elliot liiiiike!

There is something distinctly odd about watching a Musical performed entirely in Geordie accents but that is what we experienced last Friday when we went to see Billy Elliot at the Capital Theatre.

I am a big fan of the movie so the musical was the next logical step, it's been playing in Sydney since last November and it finishes up next week so it was lucky we managed to get tickets.

Overall, I thought the show was excellent. The young actor who played 'Billy' was outstanding and was supported by an equally good cast. The show kept true to the original story line and embellished certain areas in true musical style (the Priscilla-inspired dancing dresses and the Maggie Thatcher fairground were additions that I don't recall from the movie!) that added to the humour as well as the seriousness.

The show started with some Pathe news reels of history and set the scene for the the miners strike of Maggie T's Tory era and the class war that followed. We watched as Billy 'F' and blinded his way through boxing, ballet, watching after his Nan and his families struggle with a year long strike and their working class son's love of dance not dirt.

As someone who spent many a year in Newcastle (ok, the story is set in Durham and true Geordie's can tell the difference between a Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, Durham, Middleborough and Northumberland accent) I felt more qualified than most to judge (and understand!) the accents being spoken and sung. Most did pretty well I thought and there was definitely enough swearing to make it authentic!

I believe if there was a 'crowd favourite' award though, it would've easily gone to the young lad who played the camp cross-dressing Michael - his parts where hilarious and had the crowd in stitches!

Hen's Party

I'm not well versed when it comes to Hen's Parties so this was going to be a bit a challenge for me (especially as it would be the second time I've met the "hen"!). We raced around on Saturday afternoon trying to make it to Circular Quay for 3:30pm to meet Donna and catch the ferry to Manly - we made it with about 2mins to spare!

The first part of the Hen's Party was at the Manly Wharf Hotel which has a great deck and view. We met up with the "Hen" Kirsty (who Jo used to work with at IBM) and Fiona (another IBM-er) and got a round of drinks in. Over the next few hours, the other invitees arrived, photos were taken (until Donna had to go to a RSVP event in the city that she was hosting/photographing) and plans were discussed. We moved onto the dinner destination and place of the arranged 'entertainment'. Now, we had all been speculating as to what the 'entertainment' would be and as it was a hen's party, a stripper seemed the most popular guess.

L-R: Fiona, Donna, Me, Kirsty, Jo

As we approached 'Artichoke' (they cafe for dinner) things became a bit clearer. It's an ART cafe, when we arrived and went upstairs there was a big cosy chair in the corner, pencils on the table, paper attached to drawing boards....oh god. It's a nude model.


I actually found the whole thing quite relaxing, and even if I do say so myself my sketches (Alex, the model, did 4 poses in a 40min session) were pretty darn good! Hehehehe.

You can't escape a feather boa when Donna is around

After dinner and some drinks we moved on to "In Situ" a really nice little cocktail bar in the backstreets of Manly for some cocktails (well, Fiona had Cosmopolitans, I had a coke). The place had a really nice atmosphere and is far removed from the awful Manly pubs frequented by drunken yobbos so I'll have to remember it for the next time I find myself in Manly on a Saturday night.

Looking forward now to Kirsty's wedding on the 11th April.

Easter Long Weekend

Another long weekend, another dreadful weekend of weather.

We took off on Friday to Newcastle to spend the weekend with Ryan and Tanya. Ryan had a bad crash on his scooter last week (which saw him undergo surgery and have metal pins put in his arm) so we thought we'd give him some company and sympathy. His arm is about 8 times it's normal size and he can't really go out and about too much.

Due to the predicted crappy weather, we spent most of the weekend relaxing inside with good home cooked food, wine and Sex and the City DVDs.

Jo had not discovered the pure genius that are the 6 seasons of Sex and the City but this weekend we managed to watch all of Season 1, season 5 and half of season 6. We've got some back-tracking to do through seasons 2 - 4 before we find out what exactly does happen with 'Big' and of course before the movie comes out later this year.

We did manage to squeeze in some exercise though - Tanya is on a self-inflicted bootcamp regime that saw us up and out early on Sunday for a 6km run. Now, Jo has been doing bootcamp twice a week for the last 10 weeks while I have not. I was quite impressed with my effort of around 36mins for the full 6kms without a break.

Zhanna - too cute

I just wanted to add these pictures of Zhanna because they are so gorgeous!!

Melbourne

We decided a while ago to take a long weekend and head down to Melbourne with Ryan and Tanya. The time had come and we were up early to catch our flight at 8am. We got to Melbourne and met up with Ryan and Tan at the apartment. We'd booked into the Medina apartments on Flinders Street which turned out to be fantastic! The place was brand new with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and plenty of space and in a great location.

Jo and Tanya getting ready for a night out

We kicked off as we intended with a trip to St Kilda for lunch. Ryan had been telling us about this place called 'Claypot' for ages and we decided that was the go. We ordered a tapas style entree with bread, dips and antipasto type dishes follwed by a whole flathead (cajun style) and a gumbo claypot. Mmmmm, the food was fantastic as was the service. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and it set us up for the day.

The weather in Melbourne was beautiful and we had to head back to the apartment to get ready for the night. We arranged to meet some of Tanya's friends in the city around 4:30 who took us to the Marrakesh Bar. There was a $5 cover charge however they did $1 Corona's. Yes, $1 Corona's!!!! You can imagine how the afternoon went! After we poured ourselves out of the bar we walked to Fifteen (of Jamie Oliver type fame) for dinner where we also met up with Ryan and Tanya's sister Nalufa.

Jo and Ryan - cute couple!

We were surprised to find that all the wine on the menu was pricey as with nothing under $65!! However, lubricated by the $1 Corona (and probably averaging out the savings) we ordered 2 bottles to start. The service and food at Fifteen was excellent. I had the buffalo mozzarella salad to start and the slow cooked pork belly (4 hours to cook!) for main. We were all too full (of Corona most likely) for dessert which in hindsight was a shame.

The next morning started off fairly slow as you can imagine but we picked up pace and head to Prahan and Chapel Street for some shopping. We stumbled upon an Industrie sale where I picked up some shorts for $15 and a top for $5. Jo did the same buying 2 pairs of shorts and about 6 tops all for $5 each! In the evening on a recommendation from a Chef friend we tried a tapas place called Movida for dinner. It was conveniently very close to our apartment just of Flinders Street and the food was wonderful (well, mine was!). The dishes were very different and the flavours beautiful. Some of the dishes that Tanya and Ryan had were a bit hit and miss but overall if was a good experience. We finished off the night with a walk down Southbank, a drink watching a band and then a dip into Crowne Casino and the Roulette tables (no visit is complete without it!)

Ryan and I between courses at Movida

On Sunday we went to catch up with Nalufa in Richmond and ended up doing a photo shoot with her two beautiful kids William and Jade.

William, Lufa and Jade in quintessential family shot

After a very busy weekend we headed home very full and committing for a miniumum two week detox!

Pip's 40th

It's been a month of 40th Birthdays so far. We celebrated Donna's 40th in early Feb, followed by Anthony's and now Philippe's.

Birthday Boy!

We met up with Philippe, Guy and Troy after work on Friday and headed to the Minus 5 bar at Circular Quay. This place is a bizarre concept where you rug up in Ugg Boots, gloves and a huge jackets and then enter a bar made entirely of ice! The hefty $30pp (for 30 minutes no less!) includes a vodka cocktail (in a glass made entirely of, you guessed it, ice!). All goes well for the first 5 minutes then after the cocktail has finished and you have to amuse yourself in an ice cave overlooking the best sunny harbour in the world it loses it's shine somewhat. It should be called "5 Minute" not Minus 5.

Troy and I posing at Minus 5

After that 'experience' we all got cabs to Surry Hills where we had a table booked at Cochin, a Vietnamese restaurant. Now, I'd like to say that it was fantastic however, it took the ONE waitress around 15 minutes to bring the menus and then she hovered over us trying to take our order straight away! Odd!!

When the food did arrive, it was pretty good but the atmosphere seemed tarnished by the obvious lack of wait staff. Guy, Troy, Jodie and I bought Philippe a really nice Pierre Cardin watch for his birthday. Philippe was over the moon with it and took off his old watch to replace it straight away! We did enjoy the food and a few drinks but I can't say I'd rush back.

We made our own entertainment at the restaurant

We all headed out to Oxford Street post dinner and this was the night before the annual Mardi Gras so everywhere was packed. We tried to find somewhere without a queue that ran the entire length of Oxford Street and finally find a place and settled down for a few birthday drinkies. We ended up getting talking to a nice selection of random strangers before heading home and leaving the partying crowds to it.

Anthony's 40th

Backing up from Donna's birthday, Anthony had arranged for a party at his place for his 40th. Now when I say party, I mean PARTY!

Jo and Anthony enjoy a pose in front of the camera

The man had a bar (complete with bar staff), the entire party catered by Simon Johnson, a professional photographer and a chef to cook us all a seafood paella in front of us in what must've been the world's largest frying pan!

Simon Johnson cheese board. Honestly.

Jo and I arrived at 6.30 to see the final finishing touches being made to the cheese board before the party really took hold. The party did have a theme of 'Carnivale' but I'm afraid Jo and I were all fancy dressed out after Donna's birthday and our drag escapades.

Well ok, not quite all fancy dressed out

Nathan and Anthony however did look fantastic (see pics). I'd love to have some more pics to publish but my bloody camera broke that night. Grrr.

Anthony & Nathan all dressed up

The party started off fairly slow as you can imagine and as the night went on we met some great people. It seemed not many people knew others apart from Anthony & Nathan so we were all in the same boat. We hit it off with "Amy" the photographer (I can't remember her real name but towards the end of the night she had her make-up done by someone else and she looked exactly like Amy Winehouse!).

It's Amy Winehouse!!!

I'm not really sure how it happened but we did end up on Oxford Street until about 3am and whilst walking to get home all I can remember is people shouting out "Amy! It's Amy Winehouse!" Hahahahaha.