Author: Renae

Living life as a wife, a stay at home mama of 3 kids under 5, a marriage celebrant, a craft and sewing amateur, a cooked breakfast lover, coffee enthusiast, extroverted socialite, and most recently, someone who is trying to keep a tidy house. It's tough I tell you!

Spy vs Spy

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We recently went up to Bribane for my good friend Ah-del’s 30th and she had a spy party! Hubs and I threw around a few ideas for costumes including a “Get Smart” combo and “Mr and Mrs Smith” and then Hubs suggested “Spy vs Spy”. (Actually, he wanted to dress up with our friend Nate, but I had a little tanty and got my own way! Ha!) Of course, not being a nerd myself, I had to ask what it was, and after reading into it and looking at some pictures, I decided it would be a fun project to undertake!

Cos, you know, when we visit Brisbane we always have plenty of time to kill…

So I got to work and with the help of my cousins and Godson and Billy-Bob’s Mum (mainly direction from her!) I put it together. Through all of this, Hubs was helping a friend of his put finishing touches on his bar, so it was a solo effort by yours-truly. I did, however, ring Hubs just as I was leaving, to tell him I had worked very hard on our costumes and that he needed to go ape-sh*t over them. Cos if you know my Hubsband, you’ll know it takes a bit for him to go ape-sh*t over anything, so it was just a friendly warning that I needed a VERY enthusiastic response from him!

And I got it, of course, cos check out these costumes:

My favourite bit was the dynamite, also home-made! I was quite worried that no one would know what the heck we were but we had quite a few people recognise the characters, so I fel that all my hard work had paid off. The party was a great success with the birthday girl looking absolutely spy-a-licious!

In both costumes!
And here is Bethie, Ah-del and Myself. We have celebrated 18 years of birthdays together! Incredible!!
We had a great time catching up with friends and celebrating this occasion. We hope you had a great night birthday girl (I know you did!) and looking forward to celebrating many many more with you. x x x

We’re going to Sorrento!!

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As you may recall, Hubs and I went to Sorrento for Easter last year and had a really great holiday. Yes, that’s right, a HOLIDAY. We did nothing but read, go for walks, and bbq our meals outside. It was bliss! So you can imagine my excitement when the possibility to do it all again this year came up. We jumped at the chance! And we’ve also invited a couple of friends which will be nice.

The family is also having a memorial service for Grandad so we’ll get to say some goodbyes to old Harry. The family will be there too which will be so lovely, as we haven’t seen some of them since last Easter.

Gosh I really can’t wait!! Bring on the relaxation…

A drinking game – the results!

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So let’s review the 6 South African drinks:
And the order of preference overall, went something like this:
1. Savanna (yay!)
2. Klipdrift
3. Windhoek
4. Black label
5. Archers
6. Castle
Well, that’s how I saw it anyway! I hope you enjoyed the purely scientific experiment!

A drinking game – Archers

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Until we started this experiment, I didn’t realise that Archers was a South African drink. (I can’t find any good links to the drink, so let me know if you do!)

We tried the peach variety with mixed results.
Come on Clayton. Bring it home.
Hooray! A different reaction! Maybe not a great one, but a different one!! (Clayton wasn’t a fan!)
Unlike Anne!
One of her faves
I gotta say I was expecting big things after all the hype!
But I gotta say, I wasn’t overly impressed
And last but not least, Hubs
 Hubs = not fussy (read: will drink anything!)
I think the results for this drink were a bit mixed. Anne loved it, I didn’t mind it, Hubs would drink it, and Clayton wouldn’t. An interesting result for the last drink! I’ll have a wrap-up tomorrow.

A drinking game – Klipdrift

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Klipdrift is a brandy when, mixed with cola, is known as a “Klippie”.

And the taste?
Right. Same face. I give up!
Give me something to work with, Anne!
I think she likes it!!
And I gotta say…
I loved it! (that’s a happy face, just in case you can’t tell!! (What a shocker!))
In fact…
We wanted to go and buy more!!! 
We did leave some for Hubs
And lucky we did too! Thumbs up from Hubs!
Klippie was a favourite across the board, and to be honest, I’d never tasted anything like it so it was extra exciting! Not sure if I could drink more than one – it is quite a strong flavour and quite high in alcohol if I remember correctly (which is unlikely!) Only 1 more drink to go!!!

A drinking game – Savanna

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Mmmmm Savanna. Just thinking about it now takes me back to the long, warm summer days, lazing around the braai, shooting the breeze. This was a big part of our trip and a great one at that.

Clayton, what did you think?
What does that face mean?????
Let’s see if I can get more of a reaction out of Anne…
Ooooooh yeeeeaaaahhhhhh
Well we already know how Wifey feels about Savanna
And just to show you that I don’t take myself too seriously, here is possibly the WORST photo of myself I’ll EVER post on the internet!*
And Hubs? Well he was the one who introduced me to this delicious drink!
He loves it!
So I would say that Savanna is the clear winner at the moment! And I think it’s still my favourite! I need to find somewhere in Melbourne that sells it…
*I realise other people will put embarassing photos of me on the internet, but what I can’t see, can’t hurt me!!

I drink green tea

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I don’t know how it happened! I just started having green tea in the evenings while Hubs and I watch Boston Legal. I usually make him a herbal tea of sorts (rooibos, cranberry, chamomile, green) and I’d often have a chai tea, but lately I’ve just been making him a green tea then chucking the tea bag in my cup with some hot water to sip on. And it’s extended to my workplace! Now I’m drinking a cup in the morning AND in the afternoon! It’s funny cos I’ve always thought “I wish I liked green tea” and now apparently I do. I hear it’s good for you or something, so that’s even better!

Now I’ll just concentrate on my “I wish I liked running” thoughts and who knows what might happen!

A drinking game – Windhoek

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(Prounounced Vintook). The last of the beers in our experiment, Winhoek Lager is actually imported in from Namibia and is the beer of choice amongst Hubs’ South African relatives. And it may have been the beer of choice amongst these 4 Aussies too! Let’s see…

Drink 3 – Windhoek
Clayton was looking forward to this one
Not that his reaction was any different to the first 2 beers!!
Anne liked the 2nd beer better than the first, but what about this one?
Hmmmm… take or leave it?
Let’s hope Wifey has a better facial reaction to this one at least!
Not great, but certainly better! And the beer? I seem to recall I liked it!
And what about Hubs?
Oh so classy…
It kind of looks like he didn’t really like it, but maybe he still had traces of burp in his mouth! Gross!
I believe this was Hubs’ favourite beer, even if his face doesn’t show it! I seem to recall it was generally liked by all involved, and certainly the favourite of the 3 beers.

A drinking game – Black Label

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So the next drink off the ranks in our experiment was Carling Black Label. This beer isn’t strictly brewed in South Africa, but there is a brewery there, so it counts! (I’m sorry for the lacklustre research on this topic, but you get that.) I believe in South Africa, this is typically seen as a more fancy beer. Castle Lager, (as mentioned in the previous drinking game post), is more your everyday drinking beer. Like XXXX!

Clayton’s up first again:

With pretty much the same reaction as the last beer!
Anne?
Not as bad as the last one, though, still not convinced!
What does Wifey think of this one?
Not so excited either? (what a face!!??? Hubs really has a way of catching the feeling.)
Speaking of Hubs
“Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh”
It seems the Black Label was more of a hit than the Castle, but I don’t think that would have taken much 🙂

A drinking game – Castle

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Okay. Drinking is not a game. It’s serious business. And we conducted this experiment purely for educational and research purposes. We lined up all the South African booze alcoholic liquids we could get our hands on acquire within the constraints of our budget. The plan was for the 4 of us to try each one (and yes, share our germs) and then have a photo taken of our initial reaction. Now, granted, some of these drinks we had already tried, but there were a few surprises! I’ll (try to) blog about 1 drink each day. Are you ready?

Drink 1: Castle Lager.
And the results:
First up, Clayton

“Nice”

Next, Anne had a go
Not a fan
Now for Wifey’s turn
Yeah, I’ve had better
And Hubs?
ontemplative? Or satisfied…
So for Castle, we seemed to have 2 yes, 1 no and a maybe. It really was quite a bitter beer, and after drinking a few Savannas beforehand, my palate wasn’t quite ready for the shock! More fun to come tomorrow!