narrow it down

so I had another busy weekend - the highlight of which might just have been Saturday night when I went out with Leesy J and Jojo. I looked forward to our dinner alllllllllllllllllllll week. We went to Meccah Bar which was delicious and then we went to Freestyle for dessert. This was the menu. I had it narrowed down to 6 choices from this menu. I often have this problem and just have to be forced to lock it in. I often ask the waiter/ess for help. Which of course I did. I asked her " Should I go with the Baked Lemon and Lime cheesecake or the apple raspberry crumble"

She said " umm well one of them is hot and one of them is cold"

ummmmmmmmmmm thanks for that.

I went with the cold option.

Lucky Girl

It was my Birthday yesterday - yes I know another year older another year wiser! I thought I would highlight my present stash. I did very well for an ol girl! I made my sister take a photo with each single birthday item. Of course she obliged because it was my birthday!

I will have photos from my weekend celebrations to post later too. Is it still ok to be having a BIRTHDAY WEEK?

I loved all of my pressies - every single one of them.

snow...bunny???

Time for some more holiday snaps. Yes that is me standing in the snow in NYC! This was the one and only day that it snowed - but there sure was heaps of it! I had organised to traipse to the laundromat first thing in the morning. So I got up when everyone else was asleep, took my bag of quarters and everyone's washing and headed out. The laundromat was run by a very strict person who watched everyone like a hawk. I had planned on getting a hot drink read a book etc, but that was not going to happen because she shooed me out. I went back to our unit - collected my sister and made her come out for breakfast with me - and of course take a photo.

gee whizz that was a long boring story with no funny punch line. seriously...sheesh

you better believe it

No 'photoshopping' has occurred to bring this photo to you. It is still up, and no doubt yet another weekend will pass and so it will remain. Obviously the culprit is pictured

have landed again

back at the same place as my last post - love their free internet. The past week has flown by. NYC was fantastic as usual. I still heart it, and without a doubt will venture back at some stage... the week was full of adventures probably too many to remember...like
*our private tour being conducted in -20 degree celsius weather. I am not even kidding!
*outr hotel having no lift - and seriously being on the top floor is not always an advantage
*having to wear so many layers...layer upon layer upon layer. I didn't wear my long johns ytoday and quite literally my legs nearly snapped off. They were so cold that I 'allowed' my sister and I to get a cab back to the hotel - this is unheard of.
*I saw a rat in the subway - it was going to take me on. it was one on one, but then the rest of my posse arrived and it waddled down the satirs. The funny aprt of this was that i was hopping about going arrgghhh...ohhhh...and my sister thought it was about the hardcore porn magazine that was laying around on the subway... it took her awhile to notice the rat

Dad has been quite funny, and on the flight today said that he would like to go back to NYC - just not when it is so cold...

off to san fran tomorrow.

share and share alike

I think my sister was wanting something I had. She would have just been 1 and I would nearly be 5 , and well let me say some things have not changed.

BTW - the chair I am sitting in was a staple in our house for a long, long, long time. I wish we had kept it , had it recovered etc etc because I bet you can't get anything as sturdy today.

preparations are underway

for the upcoming os jaunt. Last night we dug our suitcases out - well it wasn't actually digging because they were stored at a great height, it was more like precariously balancing on a ladder - but I digress. We always take our backpacks inside our suitcase, you know so you have room for all of the 'kulcha' you want to bring home with you. My backpack is old and sad, the insides are peeling away and I will have to put everything inside a garbage bag so it doesn't get black stuff all over it. I also thought - hmmmmmmmmm I never use the straps so I might cut them out.

I said to my sister, " Do you think it will be ok if I cut this stuff out? "
She looked at me and said, "Yeah why not"
So then I cut a strap, and I said, "well no going back now"

My Sister looked at me and said " Ummm what are you doing?"
I said " Cutting the backpkack straps off my backpack"
She said " Ummmm I didn't know that, what are you going to carry it with?"

I think this confirms that she never really listens to anything I say. I did continue though, and hacked off all of the straps and took out the aluminium hard rail things - and I am pretty sure I am going to love my new - garbage bagged interior backpack, sans backpack!

slap a 'new' sticker on it

and I want it. I am attracted to anything new in the supermarket that has a big flashin sticker attached that says it is new. So obviously when my sister told me about "milky feet" the new sensation sweeping the pharmacy world - I just had to have some. The concept is thus - you put them on your feet and lo and behold 5-10 days later it's like you have had a pedicure - all of the dry skin peels off of your feet. It actually sounds kind of gross but I did it none the less - it was also an excuse to sit with my feet up for a whole hour and do nothing ( because those are the instructions on the box) I am actually a little bit concerned about what the product actually is - but hey I 'milky feeted' on Saturday and haven't keeled over so...tomorrow is day 5!

Tis the season

So obviously it is December - how did that happen? Which obviously means that Christmas is here again. I mean has it really been a year? Of course I have a whole heap of nostalgic photos that I will be displaying over the next few weeks - but I thought today I would start with the obligatory Santa photo. WE were never scared of Santa - that I can remember and in fact I remember mum being quite clear about the fact that if you didn't believe in Santa he no longer delivered. Can I just say I STILL BELIEVE!

weekend adventures

This week is dad and Jo's birthday week. Yesterday we went out to Karoomba Vineyard and Lavender Farm for lunch. It was yummy - of course - it always is! The only slight problem was that they did not serve beer. Which was a bit of a shock for dad. I didn't know there was no beer. Dad did manage to struggle through lunch though.

can you see a pattern?

Not just the pattern on the dresses (it was the 70's) but another pattern??

I posted this photo a few weeks ago. Apart from working out that it wasn't Shirl's wedding we can't really narrow it down - other than we think Mum might have been pregnant with Jojo - maybe - which would place it somewhere around 1975. We know it is after 73 because mum is wearing a wedding ring. Dad is no help at all - as this was obviously a family gathering on my Mum's side, Dad would have just tagged along - in a totally loving way of course because Dad likes hanging out with Mum's family. My mum is from a family of 14 - 12 girls and only 2 boys. Mum was around the middle. This is a photo of the sisters with their dad - my poppy. p>

Can you see the pattern I speak of? As a hint it may have something to do with why I constantly have to go to the gym...

PS My Mum is in the back row - the purple dress and beside her is my Aunty Shirl. My Aunty Ivy is in the front row - pink dress beside poppy

gotta love it

My sister and I with a kanga! And you can see again the theme of mum dressing us the same coming through. I am pretty sure we both loved these outfits - in fact I am also pretty sure that my sister is constantly on the look out for something similar...in contemporary fashion kulcha! If you see one let me know stockists - she will be there to buy it. It of course does NOT have to be terry toweling or quite so short in the crotch area.

I heart jacaranda's

I love this time of the year. I love the Jacaranda's. I went for a walk this afternoon and took a photo of every Jacaranda I saw. This walk wasn'tlong - it was around my block - that was it nothing major - but this is how many Jacaranda's there are in my hood. I can never remember what they look like without the flowers - my sister thinks they are ugly. I don't think they are - because well surely you would notice if there were this many ugly trees surrounding you? Wouldn't you?

in the words of

one of my favourite blogs...don't say that you can't have a practice dress up in the middle of summer (ok slight exaggeration). I don't know why the urge struck , but it did. So my sister and I found ourselves putting on our clothes for the upcoming holidays. I couldn't bear to put all of mine on - so I just went with Jacket, scarf and beanie. My sister however had jacket, scarf, beanie, polar fleece, thermal vest and thermal long sleeve shirt. She did however leave the thermal long johns off. We can both without a doubt say that we were definitely warm enough...here in our lounge room...in sunny SEQ...

That 70's show

continues. I really don't know how all of these photos got scanned into a folder on the computer. I don't think I was meant to find them but oh well - I did. This I am pretty sure is at my sister's christening - which must be 1977. The 'adults' in the photo are my nanna and grandad - My dad's dad who was known as 'Matty' - and his 'new' wife - who is the only nanna I have known. I think once again Margie did a fully rockin job with the dress - can anyone say cute green maxi dress? I think I may also see a hint of red shoes - can you? Is it possible grandad's pants were too short when we was standing up? (He was quiet a tall man) and if I said 'cankles' what would you say back to me?

action shot

When our nanna gave us this photo a few years ago , it absolutely caused hysterics. I mean it seems like a normal enough childhood photo however it really is not. You see this photo was taken at my nanna and grandad's house. Again normal enough - except for the fact that it would appear that I am jumping on the lounge, have my feet up on it etc. We used to go to nanna and grandad's every week for dinner - well at least that is my memory - maybe they came to our house not quite sure on those details. Basically we did see them a lot though. Whenever we went to nanna and grandad's though there were a heap of rules -like
* Don't jump on the lounge
* Don't ask nanna for ANYTHING
* Don't touch the TV ( My sister did once and grandad caught her and I'm pretty sure she got the fright of her life)
* Use your manners etc etc
* Be seen and not heard - and all that jazz

Now my grandparents were not mean, by an stretch of the imagination - the rules were more mum and dad's thing. Nanna has said in recent years that they always enjoyed our visits because we were so delightful and well behaved ( unlike some of the other grandkids I think) . So the fact that this photo demonstrates some of the rules being broken is hilarious. To me anyway.

saturdeeee night

the big fancy staff dinner was on Saturday night - you know that I had problem after problem with the dress. AS a result I simply HAD to buy a new dress - which in itself was fraught with difficulty. SO many thanks must go out to Jojo - who came dress shopping with me twice, Dad who endured Thursday night, and Aunty Shirl who ventured out on Saturday morning in to the big smoke with me. The dinner was nice and it was great to catch up with some people who I hadn't seen for ages. Always good I say. I didn't drink anywhere near as much as I wanted to - which I guess in hindsight is a good thing.

Also I promise to stop boring you with collages - but it is so much fun. You might also notice that I still have the wish necklace on. It went with the dress - thankfully...

red

I have mentioned before that I love red. When I was mucking around on picassa last night I came across these photos and thought they would perhaps give an insight into my love of all things red. Let me walk down memory lane:

• the red trike - with of course my mum and dad. I am figuring this must have been around 77 / 78?? That trike provided hours of entertainment for years and years and years. Literally I am pretty sure that we were still using it well into primary school - late primary school. You could double people on the back - standing up so it was way cool. Our neighbours also had a marvelously flat driveway that had a turning circle. I love that mum has me in a cute red stripe t.
• The red trench and beret. I was on my way to Townsville- this was my 'travelling outfit'. That tree grew into a huge mango tree in our backyard.
• The Asian influence. These are some of my 'portrait' photos. I still think I fully rocked that mandarin collar. And mum also fully rocked the large round
• The harem suit - Mum also liked to dress my sister and I in themed outfits. Each season we would have a 'good outfit' - and there was always a theme. They may not have been identical but they always coordinated. I remember for this outfit I had to wear a fruit brooch - which I did not think was rockin!
• The red bikini - what can I say - this was a crocheted bikini - from when they were first popular I would imagine. That very well may have been the last time I wore a bikini. Mum loved this bikini - she still talked about in 'modern times'. It was expensive but oh how she loved it.

so now you can see - why I love red so much.

Back together

I think the Internet and I are back together!







I have spent the last few days at a conference - I on the whole liked it - but there were a few people who really annoyed me - and I was all like.."SERIOUSLY...SHEESH! WHAT IS WITH YOU PEOPLE..." AS a summary I learnt

• that I do not under any circumstances like playing icebreaker games - big SNORE. ( although I did meet someone during one of the games - who had a strange set of four things in common with me. For example - I had a godson called Xavier, he had a son called Xavier - now you don't come across that kind of thing everyday)



• that manners do not get you anywhere - especially if you want to leave early



• that people can very easily - in the words of my Mum "SLIP OFF" my radar and into the land of no return.

Because it is Saturday my running update is thus

• ran for 1 Hour and 2 Minutes ( I had to finish the song I was listening to), which equated to 7.3kms and 960 calories...I didn't think I was going to make it to the 45 minute point but then I did and somehow found a second wind and could push on. I know it is not really fast but I did try and run at different paces today - even up to 9 at some points.

Continuing the theme of things around my house - today's photos are of some pictures/frames that I have around the house that I love. The first set I bought in New York - I didn't realise that 3 of them were landscape and 1 portrait orientation - I just bought them because I liked them. I also didn't realise that when I was hanging them - but I kind of now like that one is out of order. AS my sister would say it is a "Point of Difference" and this is always to be encouraged. The second frame are photos I took when I lived in the Ville. The frame was a gift from friends for babysitting their delightful children one time - and we were discussing this just last night. Again we don't love the wall colour in our house - but alas New York calls so repainting comes in second.

A super long post from me today...SNORE! I have a theme ready for next week, but do you have any suggestions about themes that I could use. It has t be something I can take a photo of

I'm a planner

I like to make plans. I like to make lists. I like to cross things off lists etc. Planning our overseas trip is no different. I mentioned in a blog last year that I was spending an inordinate amount of time researching jackets on the Internet. It's just what I do. This is a screen shot of the spreadsheet I have up and running for various components of the trip - I purchased travel insurance on the weekend, and when I needed to add it to the spreadsheet I had a hard time remembering what exactly all the colours meant. My sister who was sitting beside me at the time rolled her eyes and said, "Don't look at me - I don't understand it". Luckily it all came back to me - I was able to update it and well - does anyone want me to produce a graph - I could probably do that as well.

PS Also notice my trickiness in linking back to the previous blog where I mentioned the jackets. I'm getting clever.

PPS the jackets have been purchased - alas it was not a North Face.