Whats happening??

So what's happening in your 'neck of the woods'??

Here, we have been busy doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. The laundry, as you may recall, has been updated into a second bathroom. This is now finished and we have done the bathroom. It is waiting now for the over bath shower screen to be installed and over this coming weekend, I will hopefully have the new door hung.

Last night saw us go shopping straight after a seminar we both went to about water. The shopping centre that we went to, Macquarie Shopping Centre, was chosen for its location to the seminar, and had a great little Tea shop called T2. L had been there last week with the MIL and was still raving about its atmosphere and little goodies on offer. But when we got there, the goodies on offer looked a little boring so we decided not to have anything.

We then went to Myer to have a look at a new pair of PJ's for me. But at the price on offer, I thought it was a bit expensive! So finally, we went to BigW to get a new, slow closing toilet seat for the newly renovated bathroom.

The bad side to all of this was, that we now had to get into the peak hour traffic to get home! We spent longer in this traffic than the time we spent in the shopping centre just to get home!!!

So now, when we got home, I quickly installed the new toilet seat, L had a nice hot shower, and I cooked dinner (Pork steaks with mashed potatoes and veges) and relaxed to a nice night at home in front of the tele...

So, what are you up to?? Any plans for the weekend??

Australian Fathers Day 2007

Today, we have spent te day with family. You see, its a family thing to do on Fathers day. I did not have a chance to get to see my dad today, as his grave site is a little way away. I did think of him during the day though...

So, today we spent the morning painting the new screen dors for the back of the house, the door frames and the French doors themselves. I will take some photos of that soon and post them! After this, we (very) quickly got all cleaned up I cooked some Asian Greens Bean, photo here at my fotoblog, and off we went to L's favourite brothers place. We had to go to the chemist first to pick up some medications first (and some aftershave for me!).

When we got to the 'party' all was cooked, refreshments being served and close behind us were the baby arrivals of Rosie and Riley. Rosie was fast asleep, and Riley, after being handed around from family member to member, was getting a little unsettled and demanding a feed. Lunch was a grand event (as it always is) and then L ended up with Riley. He was somewhat unsettled, and handed him over to me, the baby wisperer. After about 4-5 mins, I handed him back to L for a hold sound asleep...

Rose now entered the living room, in all of her splendour in a very nice outfit, and she was clearly UNSETTELED! She was shifted from mother to grandmother to great grandmother, to aunty and then me. We had a couple of minutes of tears and cries, and a whisper to her saying that she is NOT going to win... I had her all but asleep when it was called for a photo time of all foour grandchildren, doh, her eyes were so heavy...

Four-Grandkids

After the photo was taken, it was now time to get a special Fathers Day photo of all the fathers and thier children. There is Pa,, L's dad, L's brother (with Max and Will), Ian (with Rosie) & Paddy (with Riley).

Fathers-and-children

Winter Christmas in Australia

This morning, I took some photo's in our backyard, before heading up the mountains for our first, "Christmas in July" (the only way we have Christmas in sub 35 degrees... In fact, it was a rather warm 9.5 today! This is somewhat of a novel idea here in Australia.

Fish Bath

Macc Scratch

Cyclamen

Polyanthus

We had such a lovely lunch and afternoon, as can be seen from the menu for today was:
Entree Garlic & chili prawns on a bed of rocket
Main Roast chicken (with gluten-free stuffing!), Glazed ham, Potato bake, Beans with almonds, Steamed broccoli & peas & Gravy
Dessert Sticky date pudding with cream/ice-cream (a gluten-free one too) & Cheese platter
Drinks Entree – Champagne cocktail or Mocktail; Main - Mulled wine, sauvignon blanc, mineral water, Dessert – Hot chocolate, dessert wine, coffee


July Christmas

Christmas Honey Baked Ham

And, the host's for the day...

There was SO much work put into making the day perfect, and perfect it was. Great food, great company and even the weather played nicely as well. It had been some months since 3 of the guest (including the hostess) left the Gardens where I work, so it was great to catch up. Lets not leave it so long next time...

Tully

Christmas Host's
And some fancy 'Cup Cakes' from yesterday...

Cup Cakes

An awkward moment...

We are both 'Mystery Shoppers' and by that I mean, we go to 'places' shop there and get paid for it! Now this can be quite good at times (Hotel stays, High Roller Gaming rooms etc), but the other day whilst completing an assignment, we were in a fast food chain eating our meal. We sat under a huge wide screen TV (I was in love as I want one...).

So, picture this, with a mouthful of food, you hear the catch line from an opposing fast food chain...

The Burgers are Better at...

I went off my meal at that point...

he's sick this week...

I have handed the baton to B. With almost identical symptoms to how I was last Monday, it is safe to say that he will be no good for work, or anything much else this week. It is a particularly nasty virus, and even though I made it to work today, I left early afternoon, due to the persistent headache which led to being a bit nauseaus, and 'jointy aches'*.

So with all this sickness, it was only right that I make chicken corn soup for dinner. So easy, just the thing when you need to keep your fluids up, and just what B made for me for dinner last week. It is almost foolproof, as proven by me, no measuring required and goes something like this:

Ingredients: onion, chicken, stock, vegetables (carrot, turnip, potato, capsicum, or whatever you like), and two cans of creamed corn.

Brown onion and chicken in pot, add stock bring to boil, add veges bring to boil and simmer slowly for half and hour or so. Then add creamed corn and simmer till ready to serve. Too easy and great with crusty bread or toast.

*achey joints, when I am not 100% I make mix words (sic).

I am going BACK to work for a rest, WHAT a weekend!!

On Friday, L and the M.I.L went to a Quilting show in Sydney Exhibition Center (whilst I worked) and then we stayed over for dinner, Indian Curries.

Saturday, I had pre-arranged to take the F.I.L to get his new printer, an ex-lease PC (his CD rom drive had died, and it cant be replaced so I found a very cheap ex-lease one for less than IF they had the parts...), and a new graphics card for our old desktop. This ended up being an all day event, that had me going back to the store with his new (old) as they had forgotten to load XP before they close at 4.30!!

Then on Saturday night, we went to a Sri Lankan festival event, my god, what a night! Heaps of food, and the music was great. We had a ball, but a very late night and still no graphics card installed!

L&B

Sri Lankan Festival

To much food

Dancing

Entertainment
Sunday morning had me off to complete an early morning task and to return with breakfast. I was home for all of 5 mins and finally installing the card. This was a very easy thing to do. By the time this was done however, we were off to L's favourite brothers place (he has just moved in) and then for some Yum Cha. We finally got home around 4.30pm and I could finally start playing with my new toy...

Friday, I got a new toy, a Canon EOS 400D, and a Navman as well (although, this will save mobile calls from L asking how do I get from here to where I'm going... I am LOST).
Here they are, taken with old camera:

New Toys

And the old toy, taken with the 'NEW' toy:

Old Toy

This was actually the first photo taken with the new toy...

Macc

So, with one of these, I off to work in the morning for a rest...

Coffee