thanx Natski!

Well, as you would have read earlier, with interest I hope, we have just spent a week in Melbourne, alas away from the kidz (aka 'The Petz'). We had such a lovely time, with a conference to go to, the Melbourne Flower Show and study to do, just to make up the mix!

After the weekend of debate for Uni, which happened to be the same weekend for the littlest sister's wedding we left the house in the capable hands of Natski. Now whilst everything was FINE, there was a slight dilemma with poor old Jasmine! She had an injury of sorts, and whilst she was going to call us about it, it was decided by both Natski and BMJ that a trip to 'Uncle Allen's' for a 'Check up' was best. Saving us from being on the "First available flight back"! This would not have been the case, mind you, as we were at the Flower Show at the time, and still had a day of SHOPPING to do!!!

So Natski unfortunately had to pay for the pleasure of:

1. Catching Jasmine.
2. Carting her down to the Vet in the washing basket with the dish rack on top to stop her getting loose in her car.
3. Jasmine, not being the best traveler, wet herself in the said clothes basket which overflowed onto her work top which was required that night or the following morning!! YUK!
4. Giving her a quarter of a tablet morning and night (not an easy thing to do when you're by yourself...)

All whilst we were having such a lovely time!!!

To make matters worse, for poor Natski, when we got back and it was time to say goodbye (she had a party to go to), her car had a flat battery and was going NOWHERE!!! But that's another blogg that Natski will have to do....

The house was ok though, and we hope that this saga of sorts, has not put her off wanting to do it again!!

week in melbourne

We have had a week in Melbourne, me for a conference and B to go to the Flower Show and as a tag-a-long.

The conference was great, I attended with 2 workmates and it was very worthwhile. The weather was brilliant, better than Sydney, although I was not really prepared for this, and neither would it seem were the cabbies who don't seem to know what airconditioning is. My trip to the airport in the taxi before flying home was unbearable, and apparently my workmates had a similar experience a couple of days before.

This time in Melbourne I discovered the whole 'laneway' shopping experience thanx to one of the conference people. We were staying on Flinders St and just behind us in Flinders lane was a great little shopping and eating area. We ate dinner here nearly every night, and discovered some great shops including Alice Euphemia (I bought a gorgeous brooch here by Melbourne based designer Iggy and Lou Lou) and one that my dad would like 'Il Papiro', which had beautifully bound books and papers.

Il Papiro

We also managed shopping experiences on both Brunswick Street, and Bridge Rd, my favourite shop on Bridge Rd was Havana Blue (Banana Blue labelled clothing) discovered 5 minutes before we needed to catch a tram back to the hotel to check-out, although I still managed to buy a funky peachy pink cardigan.

On Brunswick St, I bought a pair of rose gold ethnic looking earrings from a store whose name may have been KoKo and a couple of hair accessories from the Alannah Hill factory outlet. Other shops I liked were Harem Melbourne (fashion and homewares, 248 Brunswick St), Mazi (Brunswick St, Bridge Rd and Melbourne Central, I visited all three and bought a fabulous little bird hair adornment at the Melbourne Central store, I mean you need to spread the spending around), A Jewellery Store Named Desire (Brunswick St), Douglas and Hope (Brunswick St and Melbourne Central). B also found Bridge Rd quite satisfying, adding to his wardrobe at PO Box. If only we had more time.

We also visited the Queen Victoria Markets, which are a bigger, cleaner version of Paddy's or Parklea markets but not somewhere I'd be going back to in a hurry, although if you lived in Melbourne the fresh produce and deli section looked pretty good.

We also managed a couple of open house/units (and the auction for one of them) on the last day. Both places were in Bible House on Flinders Lane, and we were sooooooooo tempted to make a bid. It was a great 3rd floor apartment, but only one bedroom and really no place for our little family, especially Macc the greyhound.

The littlest sister's wedding

was beautiful! I still had the remnants of my cold but the garlic, echinacea, zinc and magnesium combined with the cold and flu tablets seemed to help a lot.

It was a gorgeous day, sunny and hot. I read my reading without any stuff ups, and had a great time at the reception with a little help from just a few strawberry daiquiris.

Apart from the bride and groom, the stars of the show had to be the singing priest

The Singing Priest

the page boy (my nephew Max) and flower girl (my new brother-in-law's niece, Kassidy).

Now be good the pair of you!

Aren't the little devils cute?

Seceret kids business

Party Time

Drunk on CHOCOLATE

Stop the party, I wanna get off!!!
The food was delicious although, what do you make of the dessert!

Better than SEX!! And more than a few 'Raised Eyebrows' too!!

Congratulations l'il sister and Ian!

littlest sister's wedding

Hi!

Surprise! I have suprised myself. There is strong competition for the computer these days at our place - B is studying totally online and that pretty much gives him first dibs on the PC. When I get a go, I get distracted by ebay, other blogs and then have to force myself to visit my uni discussion board. Sooooooooo.... our blog is suffering, and I generally don't have the time to make an entry when I am at work. But not today. I have made time, whilst having my lunch.

I am also attempting to get more organised - last night I made myself a timetable for when I will study, watch tv, and for other commitments, such as quilting. I felt I needed to make it clear for myself, but also B, when I needed the computer, time out, etc. I also made a list of things to get done including to blog. It made me feel so much better, I was back in control of my time. Hooray for me!

The next few entries I will address the wedding of 10 days ago, our trip to Melbourne last week, and then if anything of interest has occured this week, you'll hear about it.

pass the tissues

I need to blow my nose! I have a cold and I feel lousy.

I just thought I'd share that with you.

pink salt

Pink Salt

View of dining area - communal tables

We packed a lot into today, including food, family and shopping. Working backwards:

As the title of this blog suggests (for those who have been watching My Restaurant Rules) we had dinner at Pink Salt, in Manly. I guess I have to admit, we are reality TV junkies. But even so, I can honestly say the food was fantastic, and the service first rate. Evan was the perfect host (Bella had the night off) and Kiralee who served us, was such as sweetie, the whole experience was like you were the most important guests in a friends home.

We sat at a communal table (with 3 other couples), which was fine by us, we didn't have to wait long, in fact we walked up to the door and were seated straight away. In some ways I had been hoping we wouldn't eat for at least an hour, as we had come straight from the family easter lunch (4 hours of eating).

I bought some of the pink salt flakes as a souvenier, and because I liked it. I also liked the idea that in a very small way if more people used it, it might help with Australia's serious inland salinity problem. The salt is naturally pink and from the Murray/Darling River region. It contains naturally occurring minerals and elements resulting in a high quality salt with a unique flavour, and such a pretty colour.


Dinosaur Design bowl with pink salt

I also liked how the salt was presented in a tiny pink dinosaur design bowl. I think I need to add to my dinosaur design collection.....

Today was Easter Sunday, and we had lunch at Auntie C's in Randwick, this consisted of lots of food, chocolate and sitting around. It was nice.

We had a rushed morning, after going to the Royal Easter Show the night before and discovering the stall selling hand woven and felted cotton and wool mix wraps were almost sold out, we panicked and took ourselves back in to the Show first thing this morning. I wanted one to wear to the Littlest Sister's wedding next weekend. I had originally thought that an aqua green would be the best colour to go with the dress I was going to wear, we took the dress with us and instead I got a mauve and pale green/grey striped one which matches perfectly. Just as well really as the green ones had all sold out. I would put a link to Ann Collins who makes these divine wraps but she does not have a website just yet. B gave her a lot of encouragement to get one up and running. She visits the St Ives Heritage Craft Fair from time to time though.

I also purchased the Miffy Alphabet cross-stitch as we made the dash out of the showgrounds.

fish mornay

Well, today went looking for a bit of fish! Not any old fish, but a special fish to replace chilli. After almost 30 mins looking for parking in Westfield, we finally got ourselves a spot and joined the masses inside.

We not only trudged around the majors within, but found a plentiful supply of chocolate goodies for tomorrows 'Easter' binge. We had made ourselves a list of 'to-do' items, one of which was to find a suitable replacement for the dearly departed chilli. On the list of attributes required, was a long whispy fins & tail, pretty colouring and attitude! Well, we got two out of three, it remains to be seen about the attitude and if he will allow Jasmine to share HIS living space!

So long Chilli

After much discussion over names (Chilli, Bok Choi, Jalapeno, Jesus (prouounced 'hey zeus' & it is the Easter Weekend!!) ,and Lavender due to his colour), we introduce Mornay!

Mornay

chilled out

Chilli the siamese fighting fish has passed away. Chilli has been a good pet, causing us no trouble, just quietly doing laps of the vase and tolerating Jasmine (the cat) drinking his water. Chilli was our second siamese fighting fish, our first fighting fish was also named Chilli (I liked the name) although Chilli the first met his death through an unfortunate circumstance, which goes something like this:

The scene - winter, it's cold in the loungeroom
Me to B and the Next Sister Down who is visiting: Do you think Chilli is feeling cold?
B: I think he's all right
Me sticking a finger in the water : He's a tropical fish isn't he? The water is cold!
So I turn on the new MicroFurnace ceramic heater and place the vase (fish bowl) in front of the heater.
B: What are you doing?
Me: I'm warming the water up a bit for him
Next Sister Down: I don't think that is such a good idea
Me: It's all right
A couple of minutes later...
Next Sister Down: I think that's enough, you'll end up cooking him
Me: Don't be silly, it'll take ages before it heats up, look he's swimming around now, he was cold
Next Sister Down: I think you're wrong..... I think he's in the throws of death
A few kamakazi dives later and I had to admit she was right.

Chilli the second, was not given any such helping hand from me apart from a sprinkling of food each day. He had lasted 2-3 years, and we kind of expected he would be with us for while yet. We had a bit of a chuckle earlier in the day when Nat, who will be houseminding for us in a couple of weeks, said we had better get her a photo of the fish cause she couldn't see him in the bowl, and should he die on her she would need to know what to replace him with. We just laughed it off. So it was with some suprise to find him dead this evening.

Blogging friends

Today we finally got to meet 'N'! What was supposed to be dinner, ended up with a late night (thanx 'A') and an early morning (THANX 'A') and before we all knew anything else, it was arranged for both 'A' and 'N' to come over for morning tea, which naturally carried over to lunch!
Today we had 'Spicy Fish' on a bed of 'Cockroach (in joke after My Restaurant Rules) Rice, and veges of Carrots, Peas and Brussel Sprouts YUK!

A good time was had by all, and cant wait to do it all again!!!

Blogging friends

bloggerbot bother

There is something wrong with bloggerbot! I have a couple of posts waiting in the wings, and about half a dozen photos to illustrate however, bloggerbot is stuck at please wait, loading.

I think I might go back to my less than weekly postings....