a Beer, a Whine and The Spirit

I've had this Peter Coombe song in my head since we arrived in Brisbane on Saturday. After the weather in Melbourne (tops of 25 degrees, mostly 22 degrees though) these 30-35 degree days (plus 88% humidity) are killing me! Hubs is loving it though, so at least that's something!

It's been a crazy start to our 3 week holiday in Brisbane, but so lovely to see everyone. I'm still fighting my sinus/chest infection so decided to take it easy today which has been bliss! Off to the shops with Nanny and Grandpa tomorrow (which consists of me trying on clothes, not finding anything I like, then Nanny stomping her foot down saying "I no leave til you buy something!") so that should be fun! No doubt a trip to ALDI will also be on the cards.

I spent a lovely afternoon with my Godson Billy-Bob & Billy-Bob's Mum yesterday which was de-lightful! Looking forward to spending quality time with friends and family over the next few weeks, so if that's you, we'll see you soon!!!

Posted by Renae at 5:18 PM Comments

A whine

Well it must be nearly time for me to go home because I'm sick. Again. That's 5 times since we arrived in Melbourne that I've been sick. (Cold, flu, cold, rubella, sinus infection.) I'm convinced it's because I'm not eating enough veges down here. Or my immunity is shot at the moment. Or I'm still acclimatising to the Melbourne weather. (Right now it's 19 degrees and raining.) Or maybe I actually have a Man Cold. They're pretty serious you know! I'm trying not to be whiny-Wifey but it's SO HARD. I just want to curl up in bed and sleep for 2 days. But we have to pack tonight and I was going to do some "work" on Hubsband's dreadlocks. Aaaah well. No rest for the wicked.

This time tomorrow we'll be basking in the Queensland sun, pining for the cool days of Melbourne. (Maybe I need more Vitamin D!! You don't get much of that down here...)

Okay. I'm done complaining. For now :-)

Posted by Renae at 3:32 PM Comments

In "Goodbye Stranger", Supertramp sing about saying goodbye to strangers and lobotomies:

"You can laugh at my behaviour
That'll never bother me"

or is it

"You can laugh at my behaviour
Or have a lobotomy"

They BOTH sound okay to me!

Posted by Renae at 11:37 AM Comments

On our trip home in October, Khicken and Kturtle put on an amazing spread for breakfast for Mum's birthday. Here is the menu, accompanied by photos.

~ STARTERS ~
Breads, cheese, olives, sun dried tomato.

Smoked trout sandwiches, Dad's salmon & avocado specialty:



~ FIRST COURSE ~
Herbed pikelets with pear and cream cheese, brandy, brie topping:



Asparagus and prosciutto bundles served with hollandaise sauce:



Field mushrooms topped with fun stuff:



Jumbo savoury omlette with caramelised onion (available dairy free as well):



~ SECOND COURSE ~
Grilled figs wrapped in prosciutto:



Seasonal tossed fruit, choice of yoghurts and Birthday Cake! Here's a great photo of Mum and Dad with the birthday cake made by Mum's friend:




And, as always with it was the little touches that made the day super-special. We also had sparkling white wine and coffees with liqueur of choice!

So thanks Kturtle and Khicken for an AMAZING feast and an all-round brilliant breakfast!

Posted by Renae at 11:23 AM Comments

Since we kicked all the Junior Common Room students out... ahem... since they left of their own accord... a few weeks ago, we've pretty much had the place to ourselves. Oh, apart from the 175 Homeless World Cup delegates who stayed with us for 10 exciting/crazy/entertaining days, and now the 30 or so "maths nerds" who arrived yesterday. Anyway, apart from all of those people, there are only about 30 of us staying here at the moment. It's lovely! We don't have to line up for dinners, the food is even better (we had corned silverside the other night - delish!) and it's just nice and quiet.

I guess we'd better not get too complacent though. They'll be back before we know it! In the mean time, we'll be moving into our new unit (still on college) once we get back from Brizzy and will have much more of a home, rather than just a couple of rooms, so we'll be looking forward to some visitors in the new year to show off our new abode. I'll be sure to post some photos of the new place once we're settled in, but in the mean time I have a bonza (yes, I just said bonza) before and after sequence of Swanston St, where we live.

Taken in late August:



Taken in late November from around the same spot:



Noice huh!? Though, I'm not sure what Mother Nature is playing at the last few days - it's December and it's currently 16 degrees and raining. Can't wait for those 35 degree days back in Brisvegas!! (I'll be complaining within a week, guaranteed!)

Posted by Renae at 3:46 PM Comments

Happy 1st Wedding Anniversary to Wifey & Hubs!!

Here we are just over 1 year ago:


Hubs woke up to a real treat Monday morning, when I sang a song that my Dad used to sing to Mum on their Anniversary: (to the tune of Happy Birthday)

Happy Happy Anniversareeeeeeeeeee
Happy Happy Anniversareeeeeeeeeee
Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy
Happy Happy Anniversareeeeeeeeeee!

Okay, so Dad is not known for his musical genius, but we always knew how much he loves Mum. And now the tradition has been passed on to us! Then Hubs surprised ME with 2 gorgeous roses:


Hand made of course!


(I found out later that he hadn't done any of his uni work for 3 days cos he was working on the roses! TOTALLY worth it from where I'm standing!)

Hubs also gave me this card:


which totally cracked me up!

We had a disc game on Monday night, so we went out for dinner along Hardware Lane in town on Tuesday night.
We had oysters for entree which were SO YUMMY


And the restaurant even sprinkled hearts all over our table for us! We had a lovely night listening to some jazz (which is what you do in Hardware lane)


And just generally had a lovely night out. Thank you Hubs for a wonderful year and I look forward to MANY more to come.

Posted by Renae at 10:08 AM Comments

We were playing Ultimate Disc last night when we saw this Smiley face in the sky. It was so cute! And we'll have to wait another 5 years before we see it again!

Posted by Renae at 2:21 PM Comments