Saturday 150510

Brother-in-law stayed the night.
Woke up at 7am, watched Yo Gabba Gabba with Abi and cuddled.
Chatted on the sofa with brother in law and husband till midday.
Went to lunch with my old assistant at Cafe Sopra in Walsh Bay, my favourite cafe nearby.

Had stuffed zucchini flowers followed by the BEST ragù alla bolognese.
Walked home in the breezy sunshine and took these photos on my iphone.

Crunching leaves on my walk home

One of my favourite buildings in Sydney. Hotel Palisade in Sydney

Walked in the door just as Jessica Watson sailed into Sydney Harbour and docked at the Opera House foreshore. Cried tears of joy for her. What an achievement for such a young woman.

Also, has anyone noticed that Jessica Watson looks similiar to actress Mischa Barton? Maybe it's just me who thinks this!

Spent the rest of the night flicking movies.
Made homemade beef burgers with pineapple and egg on turkish bread. They ROCKED.
Went to bed way too late for a Saturday night.
Hmmmm

Have A Good Weekend

Happy Friday to everyone.

Had a lovely Friday today. Crumpets for breakfast. Abi counted backwards from 10 which was delightful. Was naughty and had pizza for dinner. Watched 500 Days of Summer.

This time next week, we will just be arriving at the villa in Bali, unpacking and putting Abigail to bed in her fancy room. Preparing for the sun and sand and pool and cocktails and reading and... Bliss...

Have a great weekend, here is something to get things going.

xx

I love...First Wedding Dances

I love the idea, but don't know if J and I could have EVER pulled anything like this off on our special day.


This 1st video is my favourite and actually made me cry the 1st time I watched it. The bride's face as she finally dances down the aisle is so precious.





This is fantastic. They are both quite skilled dancers, and are having the time of their lives. Also, this dance lasts for 4 minutes and 31 seconds. There is NO WAY I could jive for that long!





This video, while not very flashy, is hilarious. If you have seen the movie 'Old Skool' you will know why. Listen to the lyrics of this song. It's an edited version of the original. This bride must have a terrific sense of humour to let her husband play a naughty song like this for her 1st dance.





I don't know why I like this one, I just do. The groom is pretty into it, bless his heart. Also, anything with Motownphilly by Boyz II Men has to rock.

Girl Crush

In terms of girl crushes, I have a massive, huge, gigantic one on Zooey Deschanel. She is adorable, devine, wonderful, delightful, talented, sweet and I want to know her. She sings, she acts, she is multi-talented. Her band, She and Him are a super cool, folk indie duo, check them out here.

Images from weheartit

This song is amazing. I love Band of Horses. I first discovered them watching one of my favourite teen dramas, "The OC". They are touring Australia in July / August for Splendour in the Grass which I am not attending. But I'm sure they will do a sideshow, which I will attend for sure. I have had this song on high rotation for the last 3 weeks, it makes me feel calm and happy.

16 Days Ago...

16 days ago was Anzac Weekend. I love 3 day weekends, we need more of them!

Here's our weekend in photos, I didn't take too many because we were frantically house hunting, then squeezed in 2 nights at the beach house.

Paying our respects to the diggers at the memorial in Terrigal

Amazing clouds above the beach.

Pine trees of Terrigal. Reminds me of my childhood holidays.

Seriously, amazing cloud.

Once the rain came, we took Abi to Tuggerah Westfields to run around this place. It was hell on earth. A few days later, Abi got sick. Typical.

Abi waiting her turn for the slide. My cherub.

Tom Hanks moment, dancing on the keyboard. She loved it. I want one.

Another storm rolling in as we leave the mall. Watched lightning for hours from the balcony.

J and Abi enjoying brunch at The Kiosk at Pirrima Park in Pyrmont on Easter Monday.

My love. My cherub. My angel. Abi enjoying her tiny teddies at brunch.

Just another Sunday... Mothers Day!

Abi ready for the Mothers Day Classic walk. All rugged up!

J and Abi walking in the domain before the walk begins.

Abi wasn't too impressed to be woken up early.

Thousands of walkers, ready to go.

Doing our bit for an amazing charity.

Off we go! Lots of pink clothing.

Up the hill in the Botanical Gardens. Perfect weather.

Finished!

Spring rolls and prawn toast and tea, oh my!

Mikey, my nephew, and Abi, amongst the buzz of yum cha.

Niece Lucinda, little cutie pie.

Pa feeding Abigail some rice, yummy.

Happy Mother's Day

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Happy Mother's Day, to my Mum, to my sister, to all my pregnant friends, to myself and to you.

What are you plans for Mother's Day?

We are doing the Mothers Day Classic walk in the Domain in Sydney. Then off to Yum Cha out in the Hills district with my family.

J arrived home safely from Manila this morning which was great. Abi was very excited hearing his key turn in the door.

Oh, and I won the stationary giveaway on Georgie Love tonight which is just freaking awesome. Thanks Sally!

I bought some flowers for my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law this afternoon and stopped at their place to wish them a happy early mothers day. They both loved their flowers. I also bought my mother-in-law 2 new books our the trip to Bali which she loved.

This is my Mothers Day present from J and Abi. Just a neat little lens for my DSLR. Can't wait to start using this for portraits.

Please, let this week be over...

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Everything from Monday afternoon till today, Thursday, is a blur.Yes, 3 whole days and nights of blur.

Hello, my name is Sam and I suffer from migraines. If you have ever had one, you will know what I'm talking about.

I felt a migraine creeping up on me over the weekend and foolishly didn't obey the signs to slow down and relax. And boy did I pay for it.

I feel like I've been beaten in the head with a baseball bat. My eyes and neck are still sore. Only now, is the pain easing. I'm exhausted after having several sleepless nights.

My husband has been sick in Manila with a travel virus so we have both been on the phone to eachother, swapping horror stories. I hated not being able to comfort him, and he the same.

Taking care of a toddler on your own for week with a migraine was torture. Abigail is one of the sweetest human beings I have ever met, but trying to care for her was almost impossible. I could barely stand and function on Tuesday, thank goodness for Crayola Crayons, Yo Gabba Gabba, tiny teddies and books galore.

Then my gorgeous sick husband calls me from Manila this morning with really crappy news. Our brand new Volvo being transported up from Melbourne was damaged on the transport truck during a freak hail storm this week and is longer for sale. It has been damaged so badly that they can no longer sell it as "brand new". So now, again, we have NO CAR! We can either walk away and buy another car or order the car we wanted which will take 3 months. I have no words. How can we have so much bad luck trying to buy a car? I know that's what it is, just bad luck. But the timing couldn't be worse.

Did I break a chain email a few years ago? Walk under a ladder? What the HELL is going on?!

Abigail has been missing her Dadda, and calls out for him in the night, half asleep. From what I can remember, we have enjoyed lots of kisses and cuddles, but I can tell she does miss him when he is away. Only 2 more sleeps until he is home. I feel sorry for him, having to fly home tomorrow when he is unwell.

It's just a really crappy week. I know it's almost over and I can't wait. We missed Gymbaroo this morning which Abigail was upset about. She looks forward to the class every week. How can it be Thursday?! 4 whole days just gone, like that.

So there's my rant. Hurry up Saturday morning. Can't wait to wake up and see James home from stinky Manila.

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17 sleeps till our Bali sojourn

That's right. Only 17 sleeps till we head north to Indonesia to celebrate James's 30th Birthday. While our trip is only 1 week in duration, I am positive it will be enough to refresh the batteries. My in-laws and brother in law are joining us on the trip.

We have a private villa booked in Uluwatu on the southern tip of Bali. The villa comes with a full staff that include Villa manager, Chef, Driver, Security, House Keepers, Babysitter and even a Spa Therapist who comes to the house for spa treatments. I might never want to come home actually. The owner of the villa has 2 small children herself, so I don't need to take anything with me. High chair, cot, booster seat, car seat, and toys are already available in the villa. Getting closer to perfection by the minute.

I plan to read, swim, spa and eat amazing local foods. Since we have a private car with driver, we plan to explore parts of the island we have never been to before. This will be my 3rd time to Bali. My husband and his family, this will be their 5th time to Bali. The locals are lovely, caring and honest people. Shopping in Seminyak and Ubud. Drinking cocktails in cliff top bars, watching the sunset. I can't wait!

We have been telling Abigail that she is going on a plane in a few weeks and she seems to get excited. It's only a 5 hour flight so I'm not too worried about it. She has flown longer flights in the past so hopefully it will be a breeze. I have a whole family of help, sitting right beside me as well.

This is where we are staying. I couldn't resist posting these photos. 17, 16, 15... Hurry up!

Diamonds, I like diamonds, say diamonds, DIAMONDS!

A famous line that was said to myself and my 3 siblings in Disneyland in California, many holidays ago. We were having our photo taken with 'Marilyn Monroe' and she said to us as we posed;

Diamonds, I like diamonds, say diamonds, DIAMONDS!

Marilyn was seductive and sexy as she posed with us. She lingered on the last "diamonds" and really drew it out, diamondddddds. My sisters and I laughed at the time, even as young pre teenage girls. To this day, we still bring it up at inconvenient and inappropriate times, just for a laugh. My younger sister even puts a sultry voice too, much to our approval. I'm going to hunt for the actual photo of this memory, I'm sure it's at my mother's house.

This post holds little information, just a brief  insight to a happy memory of mine. I'm having a less than ordinary day today, missing James in Manila and my brain is definately frazzled at the moment. House hunting has really taken a toll on me.

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Single mother for a week

Image by Peter Emmett

James is off The Philippines this morning on a business trip. He's been to almost every financial city in Asia, but never Manila.

He's only gone for 6 days, but always, he is missed dearly. He left early for his flight, giving Abigail silent kisses in bed before he left. Abi and I are used to being alone for periods of time, but it never gets any easier. She asks for him in bed, and doesn't understand when he doesn't come home every night. But I know how hard it is for him to be away from us too. In a foreign city, working hard, meeting new co-workers. He seldom gets the see the sights, unless he is taken out by clients. It would be hard to visit so many amazing places and never be able to full appreciate the whole experience.

I remember an old dance song that begins with "On my plane to Manila" which is very fitting to start the week. The lyrics continue, suggesting to dance without wearing seatbelts, I know there will be none of that on James's flight to Manila.

Weekends need more hours

Friday

After waking up at 3am to hear Abigail vomitting in her cot, we spent the next few hours changing sheets, pyjamas, blankets and slept on towels, pre-empting the next upchuck. Since Abi's headcold has lingered for 2 weeks, I decided a visit to the Dr was overdue. A stomach bug and headcold was the diagnosis so we headed home for rest and cuddles and stories. Had an uneventful indoor day, the weather was gloomy and I was grateful that Abigail slept for 5 hrs.

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Saturday

Woke up early to start the day on a high. Dropped off Abigail at my mothers house to prepare for a day of househunting. You can read how my day went here, it was exhausting, mentally and physically. Had a quiet afternoon sitting in the comfort of my family's home, talking with my parents while Abigail slept. When she finally woke up at 4pm, we cuddled Nanna and Pa goodbye and headed back into the city for Tacos and crappy Saturday night TV.

Sunday

Another early rise this morning. We dropped Abigail at my in-laws house and headed to Auto Alley in Parramatta. For you overseas peeps, Auto Alley is a VERY long stretch of road in suburban Sydney, with every car dealership next to eachother. It's very convenient but overwhelming at the same time. Thousands of people all looking and test driving cars.

We test drove cars and made decisions. A big one. A new car purchase. I'm much more positive that this is the car for us, for our family. A trusty Volvo, they don't get much more safe than that! Drove to my in-laws to pick Abigail up who had just woken from a nap. As we drove home on the M2 / Cahill Expressway, our positive mood was rubbing off onto Abigail. We were listening to Mos Def and she was singing along in the back seat, enjoying herself. I felt like a radical Mum, introducing my daughter to hip hop at such a young age, haha. Another busy week ahead. Can't believe it's May! MAY!

xx

Date Night - The Ballet

28.04.10

Date Night

Dinner - Rockpool Bar and Grill

Ballet - The Silver Rose at the Sydney Opera House

James and I decided to have a grown up and arty date night for April. I purchased tickets to The Silver Rose at the Sydney Opera House when they had almost sold out. I was lucky to buy 2 seats in the 6th row, a complete beginner's fluke!

My mother-in-law drove into the city with her overnight bag to mind Abigail and stay the night in the spare room. We showered Abigail in kisses and headed out for an early dinner at Neil Perry's Rockpool Bar and Grill on Bligh Street in the city. James had the signature dish, a wagyu beef burger. He loved every bite as we enjoyed our swish surroundings.

We were grateful for the slow downhill walk from the restaurant to the Opera House to walk off dinner and enjoy the fresh autumn breeze. There was a chill in there and we both wore jackets and scarves. I'm no expert at the ballet, but the crowd were dressed quite well. I've been before and seen people wearing tracksuits and thongs. We saw mothers with young aspiring ballerina daughters, old ladies linking arms, eating dainty sandwhiches and couples, like us, enjoying a night of culture and art.

The 3 acts were all different and lovely in their own right. I find my mind often wanders watching the ballet, but I am drawn to the music and the exquisite bodies of the dancers. We could see the orchestra from our seats and during the performance, I spent a few minutes watching 1 violinist flipping pages of her sheet music and staring at the conductor. I thought to myself, why are you staring at this woman, ENJOY the dancing!!

This was James's 1st time to the ballet and while he confessed it was rather long, he did enjoy himself. Hopefully he will agree to another performance with me later in the year. He gets to choose our next date night, he mentioned seeing a movie which we NEVER seem to do anymore. I was hoping for an art exhibition but what can you do. If he happily sat through 3 hours of ballet, then I will return the favour by sitting through a 3 hr action movie for him. The things you do for love.

xx

Ballet Images from David Kelly

Hello NEW Car!

Today we bought a new car! The car that I originally fell in love with 2 months ago. And now it's mine!!

The Volvo XC60. We test drove 3 different models of the car. Then we went over to BMW and test drove the new X1 4WD. It's barely a 4WD though, not much bigger than the 1 series coupe. I admit, the BMW was really nice, but pretty small in the back. The boot in the Volvo is bigger too, which is important to me. There is a 3 month wait for the BMW as well, but the Volvo just landed in the country and I will have my new car in 3 weeks. Which really helped make the decision easy for us.

Here is my new car. Need to think of a good strong name for him. Volvo. Vovo. Iced Vovo. Olvo. Olva? Oh gosh, ok, maybe he will just be XCEEEEEE.

Mine is Black Exterior with Cream leather interior. We drove behind one last night on the Harbour Bridge and it was so cute and fiece! When you brake hard, the brake lights are a special LED pattern that flash at you. Disco Volvo!

Now I am officially a Volvo driving Soccer Mum! Woo!

1 thing ticked off my list. 9128 things to go!

xx

Learning Curves

Today was hard. We viewed 8 open houses and except 1, they were all a big disappointment.

I cried on the way home from the last house. We left Abigail with my mother as she Abi is still not 100% well and I'm sure the last thing she felt like doing, was being driving around, getting in and out of the car etc. It was easier doing the house hunting without Abi because we could really look around with a fine tooth comb and actually inspect the house top to bottom.

Today made us realise that perhaps we should just build a new house on our land. We drove to our block of land after we picked Abigail up and sat there, gazing at the possibilities. Our future, Abi's future, on this block of land. I hate being a Virgo sometimes, my terrible procrastinating and indecisiveness plagues me often.

I realised that, while my life is really all over the place at the moment, the issues with the car, the house. These are all temporary. I have my health. My husband and daughter love me, we are a very happy little family. I am thankful for all my friends who care about me and my family who support me through thick and thin.

I am grateful for where I am, right now. Tonight. With love and happiness in my life. Yes, I don't own a home yet, but that will change very soon. And yes, recinding on the car contract was very frustrating and time consuming, but it's just a car. It's not the end of the world.

Images via weheartit

Great opening lines on real estate websites...

James and I are house hunting again. We have decided to sell our block of land and buy an older house instead. We have had 2nd thoughts about building in the area where our land is, and we also don't want to wait the 12 month turn around time for a new house to be built and completed. Patience is not my virtue.

Our land is going back on the market this weekend and our agent hopes to sell it for $30K more than we paid for it which would be fantastic.

In the mean time, we have started the gruelling task of house hunting. Some weeks I love it, jumping on Domain and seeing all the new houses for sale. Other weeks, it's so disappointing that I could cry.

Last Saturday, we viewed 10 homes, only 3 were really appropriate for our family's needs. Tomorrow we have 12 to view, but realistically won't get to all of the open homes.

My favourite part of the web browsing, is the catch phrases on each home listing to entice you to open and read more info. These are some of my favourite opening linesof the recent home listings I've been reading:

Opportunity isn't knocking, it's screaming!
This is just brilliant. Now the agents are SCREAMING for my attention.

Top This!
Simple, to the point. Top this open home. Well, I went... And it sucked.

STOP, you're home.
Warning, this is your new home. Scare tactics won't help you Mr Agent.

A pleasure to call home.
Any house that isn't a pleasure, is no house of mine. But most of the ones we viewed last weekend, were FAR from a pleasure.

I'd say, close to perfection.
Mmm, close, but not quite there. The 1970's kitchen and bathroom are a dead giveaway.

Happy memories begin here.
Yes, leave your scary nightmares behind at your old house, and move in here.

Thanks Mum, this is home.
Playing the Mum card here, which is hilarious. Can we have this house Dad? Ask your mother.

And my all time favourite:

Is this your new home?
Maybe, but probably not. In fact no, this house is next to a cemetary!

I will be adding more of these amazing opening liners as the weeks progress. I hope for my sake that we find a house sooner rather than later. I can't stand these poetic real estate agents anymore.

xx