a Beer, a Whine and The Spirit

Q: What did Wifey do this morning when it was about 4 degrees outside and still dark, but snuggly and warm in bed with Hubs? I mean, what would YOU do?

Did she ignore her alarm that went off at 6:40am, roll over and go back to sleep? No she didn't!! Instead, Wifey got out of the nice sunggly warm bed and played hockey! Oh yes, you read correctly. Goodness knows why (apparently when you're part of a team, you have to turn up to the games. If only I'd known THAT when I signed up!!)

I must admit it took a few minutes of grumbling before I actually hauled my arse out of bed, but I got there in the end! And had lots of fun winning 10-0 against another college. The biggest and best surprise though, was that Hubs got out of bed and came down to watch! He even made me a cup of tea for afterwards!

A few of the girls from my team sighed and exclaimed how lovely that was and how much he must love me. To which Hubs replied:
"I really like hockey."
What a sweetie :-)

Posted by Renae at 10:25 AM Comments

Friends of ours visited a few weeks ago from the Netherlands (we've had quite a few visitors this year so far - it's been great!!) and we played host to them for the weekend. Dan took some super shots of old Melbourne Town and I've added them below.

An old-style tram cruising down Chapel St



Eureka Tower - one of my new favourite tourist attractions!



Dan and Jenny posing at the bottom



A view of Flinders St Station from the Eureka Skydeck



And from ground-level (if you go to the Flinders St Station link on Wikipedia, there's a photo and you can see the Eureka Tower in the background!)



Hubs and I are finding more and more favourite spots to show off down here, and we still have a few things on our "to do" list to cross off within the next 12 months. Although, there are plans to go to America in July currently in the pipeline, so a Beer, a Whine and the Spirit might be going on the road! Watch this space...

Posted by Renae at 2:29 PM Comments

I have a sweet tooth - that's no secret - but I'm finding that my favourite little treat at the moment is a piece of toast, (must be pumpkin 5 seed or something equally grainy and textured) smeared with crunchy (low fat!) peanut butter; cut into 4 squares and enjoyed with or without a cup of tea (chai, black or chamomile!)

Bliss!

Posted by Renae at 4:26 PM Comments

Wow. I haven't had a holiday like that since.... well.... to be honest? Probably since our honeymoon! Hubs and I took our 14-year-old Nephew Nathan down to Sorrento for 5 days over Easter and it was just the best!! We had no visiting schedules, no commitments, just 5 glorious days with Victoria's finest weather to do whatever we pleased! Now THAT'S a holiday! I couldn't decide which photos to cut out, so I just put all my favourite ones in!

We got up late-ish most days and went for a walk after brekky. Hubs' Dad, Poppy, took us along a few of the walking tracks near the beach. Poppy has spent a lot of time exploring those tracks, so he took us to see some great views!

Hubs, Neph Nath & Poppy



Yes, Hubs IS the King of the world!!



This is a really dodgy photo, but I was trying to capture the 4 generations, sitting around the fire. Poppy, Grandad, Neph Nath and Hubs.



Neph Nath's favourite thing to do for the weekend - the good old-fashioned wheelbarrow ride!



Hubs cooking oysters Kilpatrick on the BBQ. No slumming it for us! We also had garlic prawns, smoked cod, honey soy chicken and steaks! (Not all at once, clearly!)



Oh, and not to mention the fine wine we had! 1976 WAS a great year!



Some rellies who came down on Easter Saturday for a visit, with Grandad (far left) and Nanna (far right). (And can you see the kombi in the background!!)



Wifey starting a fire. I had my cocky pants on, and was strutting around saying "look at that stack! This is going to be a great fire!" Unfortunately, it took 2 goes to get it going!



But, you know, better late than never!



Granted, it wasn't as big as Neph Nath's and Hubs' fire :-)



We really did have such a great time. It took me back to my childhood where we used to spend most of our holidays at Lake Cootharaba or on the Burrum River. Just chilling out, reading, swimming, (except that I didn't go swimming at Sorrento. Are you crazy!? Do you know how cold the water is down here!?!) and cooking on the BBQ. I feel so rested and relaxed - I want to bottle this feeling so whenever I get a little stressed or mopey or apathetic, I can just spray a bit in the air and remember how good life really is.

Oh and I love this photo of Neph Nath at the top of the Eureka Tower. It looks like he's peeing on Melbs! Tee hee!!!!

Posted by Renae at 10:09 AM Comments

I can't describe to you what the weather is like in Melbourne today. But I'll try.

It's a mixture of this:



And this:



Oh and this!



And definitely some of this:



Translation: it's ALL GOOD!

Hubs and I are off to Sorrento to hang with the fam over Easter and I simply CANNOT WAIT!! Especially if this weather keeps up. I hope you all have a great Easter and a safe and fun holiday, whatever you're doing!

Posted by Renae at 1:14 PM Comments

I put on a bit of Matchbox 20 the other day and Hubs shared with me that in the song Girl Like That he used to think the line was

Well you got to think with a girl like that
Any love at all, is bent out of nothing
It's bent out of nothing

Instead of:
Well you got to think with a girl like that
Any love at all, is better than nothing
It's better than nothing

He thinks his line is much deeper and more poetic.

Thanks for joining me in Mondegreen land Hubs!

Posted by Renae at 10:07 AM Comments

...I married one. I thought this would mean that I no longer had to do ANY nerdy stuff (fix my computer, know which cords plug into the TV/DVD player/amplifier etc etc) and that's true to an extent. But I HAVE had to become au fait with using a Data Projector, amplifier and Play Station to watch DVDs. Yeah. You read correctly. This hasn't always gone well for me.

One afternoon I came home and I had a pile of washing to fold, so I thought I'd put on a few episodes of the office and do my folding. Data Projector on? Check. PS2 on? Check. Disc inserted? We have a picture! Amplifier on? No sound. Hmmmm... so I started fiddling with the wireless play station remote, as I've seen Hubs adjust the volume through that before, but it didn't seem to be picking up any signal. I thought the batteries were flat so I replaced them with 2 other rechargables. The problem is, you never know if they're recharged or not. Still no signal. So I knew I had to find the duva to put in the thingy of the playstation so the remote would pick up the signal (technical, I know. I hope you're keeping up!) but had no idea where it was.

30minutes later, Hubs came home to find me sitting in front of the data projector , watching the menu page of the office and a little tear streaming down my face. I tried so hard!!!!! (Turns out the lead to the amp was plugged into the wrong socket AND the duva for the thingy was in a "safe place.")

Not to be deterred, I found myself in a similar position last night. I got everything working, but had the same problem with the PS remote. So what did I do? I channelled my inner nerd and picked up one of the guitars used for Guitar Hero, plugged it in to the playstation and used the buttons and strum bar as a remote.

Yeah. I rock! (In more ways than one!!)

Posted by Renae at 4:32 PM Comments