Black Magic and a Wednesday night in India

Its interesting how the closer I creep to the big 3-0 the more people say to me...'really? I didn't think you were that old!'. Now either I am looking younger by the day (that wrinkle cream must be working!) or my friends think that because my toy-boy husband is only 24 (soon to be 25) that I too am a spring chicken. Either way its flattering.

Anyways for my 'not quiet 30 yet' birthday yesterday Al and I headed down the Gold Coast hinterland for a lovely, but rainy, day out. It started with a little Black Magic.....the new coffee blend at the Mt Tamobourine Coffee plantation. Al and I had been there about 5 years ago and since moving to Brisbane had not had a chance to return. We were a little bit disappointed to find that the old owner had moved on and the new owners had changed the ambience of the place, but a great coffee nonetheless.

After a filling lunch at one of the cafes and a wander through the shops we headed home taking a rather large detour up the coast through Redlands, Manly etc to see what Brisbane's South-Eastern suburbs were like.

For dinner we headed over to an Indian restaurant (A Night in India) that an Indian taxi driver had recommended. We couldn't go wrong could we? Well the taxi driver was right.....it was FANTASTIC. I would say the best butter chicken I have ever tasted. Finally, we have found a good, and not expensive, Indian restaurant in Brisbane.

During dinner, Al proceeded to quiz me on what I wanted to achieve in my 28th year of life. So here are my top 5 things:

1. Read lots ( I originally said 100 books but then realised that would be about 8 a month....think that's a bit ambitious)
2. Go somewhere I have never been before (ie Canada!)
3. Ride 1 mile on a hippity-hop
4. Learn a foreign language (French I think)
5. Perfect the making of bottercook (dutch shortbread - I really suck at making it)

And that was it, my birthday 2008. Stay tuned for more crazy antics after we have drinks on Friday night and also our weekend away this weekend.

Until then, au revior

Al's new admirer

It's official, I have competition ladies and gentleman. The competition comes in the form of my boss's (well, sadly my former boss) 4 year old daughter. We had a farewell for my boss last night as he and his family prepare to relocate back to Canada on Friday. Corinna, who has previously taken a bit shine to Al, made her intentions clear last night by announcing to her mother than she wanted to stay in Australia and marry Al!

Hilariously she refused to sit next to anyone else at dinner and spent the majority of the night talking to Al and trying to kiss him. Watching Al with Corinna leaves no doubt in my mind that he is going to be great dad one day. (no not just yet, don't get too excited!)

And so we have begun our plans to go to Canada at the end of the year and visit Stefano, Natalie, Corinna and Cass. We're thinking we'll then head over to London to visit another of our friends who is relocating there in April.

Stay tuned for more whirlwind adventures of holnal but in the meantime check out the photos from last night.....there's some cute ones of Al and Corinna.

Farewell photos

PS. If you haven't worked it out already, the ABC finally returned my husband on Tuesday night. I have now relinquished my ABC boycott and can watch Bear in the Big Blue House again, thank god!

The ABC have kidnapped my husband

....and are holding him against my will! (Yes my will, not his)

I thought it was exiciting when Al told me on Friday that he had been called out to fly an ABC crew out to cover the floods in western QLD. Now I am cursing that original thought as he's still not home! They want to stay to get the floodwaters peaking which was meant to be Saturday but its Tuesday and it still hasn't broken the levee banks (damned nature...so unpredicatable).

Meanwhile Al has had a little holiday in the CQld town where the only place to eat is the RSL and there are so few people in town that Al's now a 'local'. I, on the other hand, have been waiting patiently at home for my husband to return. Weekend plans were thrown into chaos on Saturday and I had to call in a favour from a girlfriend so I didn't have to go to the ballet alone.

On the up side I have had a lot of 'me' time including pizza, wine and Hairspray on Friday night.....so much fun and a FANTASTIC movie if you haven't seen it yet. Now that its Tuesday I am kinda over the 'me' time and would like the 'us' time back!

Please ABC, if you are reading this, bring my husband home. Until you do I am vowing not to watch a single program on your station (which means I'm going to miss several episodes of Bear in the Big Blue House and Sesame Street!) or listen to any of your radio programs (Goodbye Macca all over). I implore you, leave today or the floodwaters may prevent you from getting out at all and then Al will have to wear the same two shirts and the same two pairs of underpants for another week!

And it ended with a fat, half-naked greek man

Yesterday was a long day. Both my colleagues are away at the moment and soon to be away permanently (one on extended leave, the other moving jobs) which leaves me as the sole guru on all things communications related. I was bombarded with questions left, right and centre, most of which I could answer but some of which baffled me!

I was so glad when I put on my sneakers and begin the walk home. Finally, time to myself and my thoughts. Turns out I don't have as many thoughts as you'd think.....I have more! I have taken to thinking a lot whilst walking home lately. Maybe its cause I keep forgetting my IPod or maybe its cause I have a lot to think about. I guess mostly at the moment my brain is focussed on work, both Al's and mine and what 2008 will hold for us. Al's got more hours and more study to do and whilst I have finished studying my job is still somewhat uncertain and there are other opportunities in the pipeline that I am tossing around.

Anyway, so there I was wandering home staring into space and marvelling at the world around me (well, Brisbane's CBD) when I was afronted by fat, half-naked, Greek man changing his clothes in a bus shelter outside Roma Street Transit Centre. My dreamy thought world was instantly shattered by this freaky sight. Needless to say I moved on as quickly as possible, but try as I might I couldn't get that image out of my head.

Today is another day, and more thinking awaits. I just hope there aren't anymore half-naked people waiting to ruin my fantasy world on the way home tonight!

Family Fun and Crazy Antics

This year the tradition of 'Three-Pig-Day' continued on 27th December. It started with Bacon at breakfast, continued with Ham at lunch and finished with Pickeled Pork at dinner. All in all a great day of eating I'd say.

Our adventures on holidays continued with 'family fun' (as Chris calls it) in Canberra. First there was a trip to Parliament House to view the Yirrkala Bark Petition. Al and I recently found out that a member of our Indigenous family, Wali Wunungmurra, is the last living signatory to this historical petition. It was an awe inspiring moment when we stood in front of the bark petition at its home in Parliament House. That moment was soon broken through by some crazy guy telling me I could take home the portrait of Robert Menzies if I wanted to! Go figure! Seeing as new security measures meant we couldn't roll down the grass slopes any more we settled for some photos on the roof before meeting Mo for lunch in the grounds of the National Art Gallery.

Mmmmm more ham for lunch and then a trip around the collections of the art gallery including the 2007 National Indigenous Art Symposium. In the gift shop we found a book that we will need to buy our kids to explain Mo, "My Grandmother is a hippy". Pretty much says it all!

Somehow we didn't feel like that was enough culture, so the next day we headed off to the Australia War Memorial to learn more about our nation's history. After about 4hrs the rest of us were ready to go but Al was still stuck in the WW2 section and hadn't even made it to Vietnam and beyond! (Note to self - Husband likes war history).

And if that wasn't enough adventure, we also managed to fit in shopping, scrabble games and rummyking games as well as a visit to the nursing home so Al could play the didg for the olds!

Phew! I think that's enough for now, don't want you to be over-stimulated.

You can check out some of our Christmas pics via this link....more to come when I get time to load them.

Christmas/New Year Photos