Day Three: We spent yesterday out exploring the surrounding area, and we even took a drive up to Sanctuary Cove where I will be staying with work at the end of March (very nice too). But today we decided to do what most people do when they come to the Gold Coast - go to a water park!

We have arranged to visit Wet n' Wild with Dane and Alyse on Saturday so today we went to the brand new White Water World next to Dreamworld. The day started of beautifully hot and sunny that we even had our breakfast out on the balcony but as soon as we hopped in the car the heavens opened. We thought we'd drive there anyway and luckily by the time we arrived most of the rain had passed as blue sky was starting to emerge again.

White Water World's 'The Green Room' ride

We went on every ride (except one which we didn't even realise was there until afterwards!!) and had a great day. The park isn't as big as it's main competitor but the rides it does have are excellent. My favourite had to be The Green Room - a huge green funnel type thing that goes like the clappers. 'The Green Room' is a surfing term for when the surfer is in the barrel of a wave.

Rider's coming out of the funnel on their tube

Jo's favourite ride was the 'Blue Ringed Octopus' - where you lay down head first on a mat and race down one of eight different slides. We'd both start off next to each other at the top but end up in opposite lanes by the end of it - good fun.

The 'Blue Ringed Octopus' in all it's glory

Day One: We arrived at Coolangatta airport on Queensland's Gold Coast at about 2pm, after we had adjusted our watches back 1 hour to account for the time difference. The first thing was to pick up our bags and surfboards from the oversize luggage counter before getting picked up by the East Coast Car Rental company to pick up our shiny white Toyota Corolla that would be our transport for the week. The guys at the car rental place were really friendly, and even helped us fit our boards and bags into the car.

The very cool 'Air on Broadbeach'

We set off up the Gold Coast Highway to Broadbeach and our apartment that we had rented for the week at the fantastic 'Air on Broadbeach'. I'd booked this place months ago and had high hopes for getting a nice and comfortable self contained apartment but all our expectations were blown away from the first second we walked through the door! The view!! The luxury!! The location!! We truly couldn't have picked a better place to stay, very very happy!

Our living area and view

I wasn't sure what to expect from the area as this was my first time on the Gold Coast, but it all makes sense when you see the coast line. I was thinking the beaches would be more like Sydney, all separate by headlands but the Gold Coast suburbs are just all in a row along what must be the largest and longest beach I have ever seen.

The balcony view over Broadbeach

Gold Coast here we come

It's not long now before Jo and I head up to the Gold Coast for a week of sun (hopefully), sea and most definitely surf!! We fly up tomorrow afternoon and will pick up our rental car (we've decided to rent one for the week so we can see some of the coast) before trying to squeeze in our luggage and two 7' 6" surfboards into a Toyota Corolla hehehe.

Places to explore on the Gold Coast

We are both so excited and I personally can't wait because:

1. I will get to go to Wet n' Wild
2. We'll get to catch up with Dane & Alyse for a few days
3. We can practise our surfing at some of the best beaches in Australia
4. We will treat ourselves to a nice relaxing massage
5. We can do whatever we like for 8 whole days without worrying about work
   

Board Art

Since we bought our lovely but albeit bland 'Maliboo' surfboards the other week, Martinette has put her usual creative genius to work using Uni Posca art pens! These pens are great for using on surfboards because they are water-proof and won't fade (apparently).

Her plain white board is now covered with a massive mermaid mural. It's so fantastic that the guy who sold her the board now wants to buy it back from her to put in the window of his shop!!

The 'work-in-progress' version taken via Mobile Phone

I think it looks awesome as it's done in a very 'Mambo' style. I love how she's drinking a beer and sitting next to an eskie of coldies!

I'm now going to be very nice to her so she can make my board look pretty too! I'm thinking of a nice surfie pattern so I can look cool :)

Spring forward

I found out at work yesterday that I have been selected to attend a 5-day Strategic Planning Forum to be held on the Gold Coast at the end of March.

I made my application (which consisted of an interview on paper eg. "Tell us why we should select you", "What can you personally bring to the forum" etc) and a case study to highlight a current business issue/challenge in December last year and I didn't think much more about it until my manager approached me yesterday to say that I had been selected!

I've read the draft agenda and it is FULL ON!! I have to arrive on the Sunday and the conference starts on the Monday morning. All the days start at 8am, finish around 5:30pm, have 45 mins for lunch with dinner starting at 7pm! I don't leave until the following Saturday!

Even though I'm sure it will be lots of hard work, it should be a rewarding week as I'll get to meet lots of people from other business units and get to apply some strategic planning techniques to actual challenges my company faces as some of the case studies written as part of the application process will be used during the week.

And the slightly cool thing is, I get to stay here.

Boards and Bluebottles

Last weekend saw my first surfing related injury. We went out on Sunday afternoon on our new boards (we finally bought our own last week - 7' 6" fibreglass mini mals) and I was only in the water for about 10 mins before I was stung by a bluebottle.

The evil bastard itself

Never mind the sharks, the sodding bluebottle sting hurt like hell! I felt it all around my left knee in an instant when walking about with my board in the low tide. I had seen a few in the deeper water but thought nothing of it as you usually do see some. But this time it must have been under the water pushed down by the surf. When I looked at my knee all I could see was this bluey string all around it.

By the time I had fled the water, the sting had fallen off and I was just left with the pain. Martinette took me back to her place where I hopped straight in the shower, still in my wetsuit, to wash my leg with warm water (apparently the best treatment). About ten minutes after the sting, horrible blister type welts had formed where the stings had been and my leg felt like it was on fire. It felt like you had about 3inch think deep heat on there but worse!

Today, the day after, the blisters have gone and I'm left with red stratch-like marks that are still tender to touch. And these little suckers appear in volume 6 of 120 volumes of things that will hurt, maim or kill you horribly in Australia.

Australia Day(s)

It's been a busy few weeks and here are a few of the highlights:

1. I managed to convince my boss to let me have a laptop so that I can 'work from home'. It was actually much more painless than I thought even though it did need approval from my bosses' boss! Once approved though, my Lenovo T43 arrived swiftly and I know think I'm all important :)

2. The surfing continues with us renting boards to take out at Manly. We've now tried a few shapes and sizes ranging from a 6' 6" Webber Afterburner to a 7' 6" nsp. I'd love to say that the 6' 6" was easy to ride cos it does look cool but unfortunately the 7' 6" is a breeze in comparison.

It's been interesting as we went out this morning before work with a new teacher, Mark, who has shown us the 4th different technique by 4 instructors! Good news was that his way definitely is the best as I caught my two best ever waves this morning! Nothing bothered me much as work today as I felt so refreshed, relaxed and pleased with my efforts.

3. We've finally been out to sample the delights of the Thai at the Bank Hotel. After closing for about 12 months for a $5million refit, this pub is a monster! Huge with 3 large bars, masses of outdoor seating and a Thai restaurant good enough to rival any on King St - which is no mean feat! There must be 20 Thai restaurants on that street!

The massaman beef is so huge I think it would feed about 5 people. My fave's include the duck stir-fry and the yummy curry paste prawns. Mmmmm.

Sorry, I can't talk. I'm listening to Jazz!

For the second year in a row we thought we'd go along to the highlight of the Sydney Festival - Jazz in the Domain.

This basically involves getting as many people and different types of cheeses along to the Domain in the centre of Sydney, getting a plot of grass and staking your claim with whatever blankets and bags you have brought with you, drinking lots of wine and eating lots and lots of food while listening with another 100,000 people some of the coolest jazz there is going.

Our 'plot' at the Domain

Nicci and Carlos were on plot staking duties this year and arrived super early around 4pm to get a good space. We arrived with Carl and Martinette a little later about 5:45pm and were joined by Gary and Wendy-Ann, Brenton and Joe throughout the evening.

It was great night, a perfect warm evening to spend outside with friends, enjoying way too much food and listening to music. This is such an excellent and free event you can see why over 100,000 Sydneysiders decided to go along. Looking forward to next year!

Twenty20

There isn't really much to say about England's form this season. But being a glutton for punishment I went along to the Twenty20 game that England played against Australia on Tuesday night.

England are so hopeless they couldn't even win the toss and Australia chose to bat first. Probably a good thing as otherwise the crowd wouldn't have seen much cricket!

Australia were ruthless with their demolition of the English bowlers, but Monty didn't do too badly much to the delight of the crowd of this now cult figure.

The man, the legend, Monty Panesar

We had great seats in Bay 9, an excellent position for Jo to experience her first ever live cricket game. Twenty20 really is like Diet Cricket so for someone who can't watch cricket on TV as it's "too boring" it's a good version to watch as it's so fast paced and there is lots of action.

Thank god Jo is Australian though otherwise I'm sure she'd never watch cricket again after yet another woeful performance by England. Not one member of the team stood up to take any sort of leadership role. Flintoff, who was remarkable in the previous Ashes series has shown that he is actually not Superman by obviously not coping with being a top order batsman, a bowler AND captain all at the same time. Stupid selectors.

Still, the Barmy Army were out in force but even they couldn't muster much enthusiasm for what must be the worst display yet.

Mmmmm, Heineken

Life on the Beach

Ok, ok I know this is getting boring as we went to the beach surfing again today but stay with me. We headed over to Manly to take a surf lesson with Carl and Martinette. We bought Martinette the lesson for her birthday ages ago and this seemed a good weekend to cash it in. We arrived at Manly at 8am for our lesson at 9am. We walked the 2mins from Carl and Martinette's apartment to the Manly Surf Lifesavers Club where the Surf School is based. After filling in our forms we all got into our steamers and rashies, got issued a softie and walked about 200m down the beach as there was a surf carnival at the top end of the beach. There was heaps of us for this 2 hour lesson, at least 20, with 5 instructors for us all.

Once there, we all sat in a semi-circle around our instructor as he explained about the beach, where the rips are, some basic rules etc. We all then hopped into the water to check out the sweep and to cool off (very hot and sunny morning).

After that we all returned to our boards on the beach for our instructor to explain the technique of getting up on the board. His technique was very different to what we learnt at our previous lessons in Anna Bay and actually turned out to be far more effective.

We all took to the water for 30mins to practice before returning to the beach for a quick re-cap and some more tips and pointers. Then it was straight back in for more practice.

There were some good and bad things about this lesson. Firstly the good;

• the main instructor's technique was much better than what Jo and I had previously been doing
• the instructors in the water were excellent and were really helpful
• the weather was great
• taking the lesson with Carl and Martinette was great fun

And the not so good;

• the waves and overall conditions were not the greatest for learning - the current was strong and the waves were really choppy
• waaaaay too many learning in the water, even with all the instructors to keep us safe there just wasn't enough space for everyone and I missed heaps of waves as there were people hovering in front of me - it would've been heaps better if it was quieter

There was a professional photographer at the lesson and I had been wanting to get some good pics of us so here are a few of the best ones....

Martinette practices on the beach
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Carl almost wiping out!
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Jo concentrating on her technique
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I make it up
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Jo's concentration pays off

The Ashes

I took a day off work today to go to the 3rd day of the 5th test at the SCG with Nicci and her two friends Gary and Adrian. I woke up to rain and cloud and I thought I'd spend the day watching England get slaughtered in the drizzle, but as it happens about 9:30am when we had arrived at the SCG and found our seats the sun came out and we had a wonderfully hot and sunny day (while still watching England get slaughtered though).

The Member's Stand at the Sydney Cricket Ground

Play started slightly late at 10:15 and an early wicket got the crowd going. The Barmy Army weren't far away and were a bit quiet in the morning session but livened up in the afternoon with their repertoire of "God Save Your Queen" and after Flintoff's dismissal a great rendition of Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer"!

The Barmy Army kept the crowed entertained

Nicci and I applied her bizarre coconut smelling spray on sunscreen about a zillion time as the sun was so blazing hot and in the Concourse where we were sitting we got no shade at all until about 6pm! I think this was probably the only event I have been to where the queue for the men's toilet was longer than the women's.

The crowd must have been about 70% - 30% in favour of the English who were absolutely everywhere, god knows how many are in Sydney at the moment for The Ashes. We didn't see much trouble, only a few people got kicked out and that is probably due to the ground not serving full strength beer, only light beer.

England's 2nd Innings

Overall, England played so badly it wasn't funny. Not that I know much about cricket but when it came to their second innings they all looked scared shitless! Especially after Andrew Strauss took a Brett Lee screamer right on the head that practically knocked him out!

All in all, The Ashes were lost long ago and this display showed me exactly why.

Happy New Year

December 31st was a busy one for us this year as it is our good friend Bo's birthday. Bo arranged lunch for 10 of her good friends at Sugaroom at Pyrmont (where I went a few weeks ago for my work Christmas lunch). We arrived at 12:45 just in time to find Bo pulling up behind us with Liv and Claire.

I knew what I was in for as I had been only a few week ago and the food was so good I went with my same selection as last time!! The BBQ Pork Belly was fantastic and the salmon was equally as good. Liv arranged for a Mango-Passionfruit birthday cheesecake for dessert and this was soooooo good!! The base had coconut and pistachio in it mmmmm.

Bo and her yummy birthday cheesecake

It was a really nice relaxing lunch and everyone had a great time and it was good to see Bo really enjoying herself :)

After we said our goodbyes Jo and I headed home to feed the cats and get ready for our trip over to Manly to spend New Year's with Carl & Martinette. We were so full from lunch but it didn't stop us from nibbling at the cheese and dips Martinette had organised.

We walked down the the wharf to catch the 9pm fireworks and then headed back to the apartment for a late BBQ dinner and some drinks to ring in the new year. We watched some of the midnight harbour fireworks on TV and toasted the new year with some champagne.

We woke up on New Year's Day hangover free (yay!) and were hoping for some good weather so we could go for a swim but it was cloudy and raining :( The weather started to pick up later in the day and Martinette, Jo and I decided to go shopping. We had a successful trip with me buying two new sets of swimmers from Quiksilver (only $60 each!) and Jo getting a new set to go with her new set she got the other day while we were waiting for our haircut appointment. We are now officially set for our planned trip to the Gold Coast in February!

In the afternoon the weather had become really nice and sunny so we took a walk over to Shelly Beach for a nice swim and walk. I've never been to Shelly Beach before but it's a great spot as the beach is really sheltered and is almost like a lagoon as you can go out quite far but it's still quite shallow. It seems to be a great place to snorkel too judging by the number of snorkels I saw around the rocks.

The nice and cool Shelly Beach at Manly

A great end to a really nice New Year's Day.

Baby's first surf lesson

We arrived for our surf lesson keen as mustard at 12:00 even though the lesson didn't start until 12:30. Once our fellow wannabe surfers arrived for the lesson (two brothers aged 12 and 7!!) we went round the back of the surf kiosk and we kitted out with wetsuits and a soft surfboard each. Mine was 8' 6" and I could barely lift the thing, I had to drag it along the sand to our surf spot!!

Our teacher for the day, Angela, was a young Aussie girl and she sat us all down to explain a bit about rips and what to watch out for (namely each other and other surfers) and to demonstrate what we'd be doing first.

One Mile Beach at Anna Bay

Our first challenge was to get out into the water up to our waists, wait for a wave (or more precisely white wash was this is easier), when the wave was approaching push the board out in front of you, hop on, paddle and when the wave reaches you to put your hands at chest level around the 'rails', push up with your arms but still be laying down but with your chest raised and follow the wave back in.

Sounds easy doesn't it. The tempation is when the wave catches up with you to put your arms out in front of you which then tips the board into the water and you wipe out! We had a few practise runs at this and we all had the hang of this part quite quickly.

Angela called us back to the beach and demonstrated part 2 of the crash course, which was to attempt to stand up on the board. This involved raising your bum up after you had lifted your chest up and then moving your legs one by one to the correct position on the board (your strongest leg at the back, which is also the leg you attach the leg rope to). Jodie is left foot at the back (otherwise known as being 'goofy' footed) and I am right leg at the back.

Someone else's board, much smaller than mine!

We hit the water again and Angela spent some time with the youngsters to make sure they were ok, Jo and I caught wave after wave and eventually we both managed to stand up on the floating raft that were our softboards!

The 2 hour lesson went surprisingly quickly and we had such a great time that we signed up to do another lesson the next day!

Day two saw me "progress" to an 8ft board and it was much of the same really, just consolidating what we had learnt the previous day. Jo made excellent progress and was catching about 80% of her waves I reckon. I was a bit slower on the uptake but towards the end of the lesson I managed to work out where I was going wrong and caught a few goodies.

The father of the two boys we did the lessons with (they joined us for day 2 aswell) took a great picture of his son that managed to capture Jo full flight and he said he would e-mail to us, if we receive it I'll be sure to upload it in all it's glory :)

Aussie Christmas

Christmas is over for another year and it was a busy one for us. We left on Christmas Eve to make the drive up to Nelson Bay to spend some time with Jo's Mum. The journey was as predicted; long, full of Zhanna being sick in the car and boring. We made it up safe and sound and unpacked our car full of pressies.

Christmas Day was a bit of a wash out as we woke up to rain and cloud but we had a nice day none the less. We all swopped pressies in the morning followed by a visit from Jo's brother, sister-in-law and nephews. Jo's Mum put on a great lunch for us all and we all ate until we felt sick!!

Boxing Day was a much better day weather wise and Jo and I decided to head to the beach. We checked out a few but decided on One Mile Beach near Anna Bay as it was more sheltered and less choppy than some of the others. The surf was good but very cold and we lasted a few hours before heading home. We spotted on our way out that they had a surf school at the beach so we enquired about lessons for the next day and by the time we got home we had talked ourselves into it :)

Early Christmas

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

Our lunch catamaran

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

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

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

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

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Sugaroom

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

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

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

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

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

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

100th post - Paint, oil and timber

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

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

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

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

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

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

Artist's impression of how floorboards might look :)

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

Friday Ramblings

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

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

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

Homecoming Queens

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

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

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

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

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

Taken on Jo's mobile phone

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

Changing Rooms

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

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

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

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

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

Dances in Woy Woy

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

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

Woy Woy in the Sun

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

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

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

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

The all too real fire danger at Berowra Waters

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

Pizza, Comedy and Bronte

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

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

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

Funny man Dave Hughes

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

Future Surf Life Saver at Bronte

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

Surfers at Bronte

Melbourne Cup

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

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

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

Busy Week

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

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

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

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

Surfer enjoying the surf at Cronulla on Sunday

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

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

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

Fitness Update

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

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

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

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

Lawn Bowls

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

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

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

Breeze, Coffee and Pride

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

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

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

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

Early Morning?

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

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

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

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

Getting Fit

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


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

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

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

Google Docs

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

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

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

Victoria Pool

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

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

Pizza e Birra

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

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

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

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

Cirque du Soleil

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

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

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

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

I ache

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Swans & Dragons

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

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

Go the Swannies!

The coolest beanbag in the world

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

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


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

Property

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

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

Will keep you posted on any further housey type updates.

iPod Death

My iPod sadly departed us on Monday. RIP.

Steve Irwin Dies

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

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

Community Day

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

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

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

Painting & Decorating

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

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

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

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