Category: Life as a Wife

All night movie marathon…

/ Renae / 1 Comment

…and a triple espresso so you can stay awake.” Okay, so it wasn’t an all night movie marathon, and it was an affogato, not a triple espresso, but we did stay awake! Hubs has been complaining whinging noting that we have been having an earlier bed time than usual – actually, the comments were around the fact that he had a bed time – and wanted to stay up later on the weekends. So I went one better and planned a night of movies on Friday night. We had nothing pressing all weekend, so I figured we could sleep all day Saturday after staying up all night.

I was keen to see Avatar, but we couldn’t get it working on the computer, so we started with Back to the Future III. We had watched I and II in the last couple of months so we completed the trilogy. We then watched Kung Fu Panda which we’ve been meaning to watch for ages and it was SO good! It had laughs all the way through and a lovely message at the end that we can all relate to. The third movie took a bit of deciding on, but we ended up going with The Royal Tenenbaums which I had seen AGES ago and liked it and thought Hubs might too (I was right).

By this stage it was 4:40am and we decided to call it a night. We had consumed choc-dipped strawberries, bullets (my FAVOURITE!!), and I made some choc-dipped snakes as well so we were pretty buzzy but very very sleepy indeed. We crashed into bed and slept soundly… until the phone rang at 10am! Should have thought to put them on silent!! We had another nap that afternoon (from 4-6pm!) and got around to watching Avatar that evening. It was pretty good! As Hubs calls it, Fern Gully with guns, but I really rather enjoyed it. It wasn’t in 3D but I still got the general gist.

So that was our movie marathon weekend! Now it’ll take me a few days to catch up on sleeeeeeeep 🙂

Loser

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I’m a pretty organised person by nature. I love it – it’s my thing. Unfortunately, I can be rather forgetful, which is hilarious when you look at how ordered my life is most of the time. And ever since we moved down to Melbourne, I’ve started losing things! I think I’ve lost 4 scarves to date, and sadly, VERY sadly, I lost my pink hat a couple of weekends ago when I was out shopping. There’s just too much to keep track of down here!! Cardi, jacket, gloves, scarf, hat. No wonder I came home with less than I went out with! I’m sure I left it sitting on a counter top somewhere – I would have put it there while I was putting on my jacket, my crumpler, my scarf, and picking up my bags of shopping. And of COURSE I didn’t realise til I got home, at which time, it was too late to go back and look for it.

And it was one of my favourite hats too. I mean, it only cost $2 (new!) but it was for that very reason (bargain!!) that I loved it so much. That, plus it kept my ears toasty warm. And now that winter has arrived in Melbourne (it’s 2pm and 8 degrees) I’ll be missing it even more!!

Maybe I need to tie a rope around things and tie them to my wrist. I’m so trendy…

Nostalgia

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I don’t know if it’s because I’m pregnant, or because life seems to be changing at a rapid rate, or if it’s the rainy afternoon we’re having in Melbourne, but I’ve been feeling very nostalgic lately. Remembering old times, old friends, the way things used to be, and how they’ll never be the same again and what that means.

And I’ve had this song in my head all day, which lead me to look up this. And I gotta say, after reading the following part of the article, I got all choked up… (see if you can guess what it’s from before you look up the links!)

Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you’re in diapers, the next day you’re gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a place, a town, a house, like a lot of houses. A yard like a lot of other yards. On a street like a lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I still look back…with wonder.

Life is just happening and I feel like I’m along for the ride. And what a ride! Looking back over the last 5 years, I can’t believe how much has changed, but everything is just falling in to place. It makes me feel amazingly blessed.

I should have known

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As I mentioned, it was Hubs’ birthday yesterday (and still currently his “birthday week”) so I had planned to take him out to dinner here. The place had been recommended to us by a couple of people, with the main attraction of “cheap pizzas” ie $4 pizzas from 7-11pm Mon-Thurs. Hubs likes pizza, and we like being cheap, so I thought it would be a great place to go! I was expecting a dodgy little place with mix-matched couches and a casual vibe which would have been perfect, especially since I had my walking shoes on (we had walked the 1.5km from home) and was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. This is not the place that greeted us. Instead, it was this rather trendy, though still relaxed, bar and restaurant that wasn’t really “us”. We stood at the bar for about 5 minutes and looked around for a spare table, of which there were none. After not being served for a while, we had a quick discussion and decided it wasn’t really what we were hoping for, so we left.

We started walking down the street looking for something else, and I asked Hubs what he felt like. Then I mentioned the B word. Burgers. His face lit up and he looked at me in his “I’m so cute I know I can get what I want if I look at you like this and talk to you all sweet-like” way and said:

“Honeeeeeeey. You know what I’d really love? If we went home and you cooked us some roo burgers.”

I should have known.

You see, my Hubsband is a man of simple pleasures. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned, he is easy to please, but difficult to impress. This goes for most aspects of his life, but in particular, with food. Of course I was happy to oblige. So we swung by Coles and picked up some salad stuff, knowing I had the main makings of the burgers at home. And with a few mushrooms on the side, they really hit the spot. I’ve been making roo burgers for over 2 years now, and I think I’ve pretty much perfected them! Not that I like to brag or anything. We devoured the burgers and topped off a great meal with leftover cake and ice cream, while watching the last episode of The Hollowmen, and a ep of Daria.

Hubs’ take on the evening? “Best birthday dinner EVER.”

And who am I to argue?

(Someone’s looking like a tired little bunny…)

Chocolatey goodness

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Last night, I headed out to Blackburn on the east side of town, to my Chocolate Making Workshop. It was SO much fun. It delivered everything it promised, and then some. Our teacher, Sylvia, was fabulous – so knowledgeable and a lot of fun. It really was a jam-packed 4 hours, and I’m SO glad she gave us a booklet at the end with all the info we had learnt. And of course, now I want to be a chocolatier. You know, like Juliette Binoche in Chocolat (hubba hubba). Sorry. Getting side-tracked.

We started out with Sylvia explaining the history of chocolate and the cocoa bean and its composition. Then we learnt about “confectionery” as opposed to chocolate and how chocolate has to contain a certain % of cocoa bean to be classified as chocolate (i.e. Nestle White Melts are actually a confectionery as they contain 0% cocoa bean) so I’ll be keeping my eye out for the “good stuff”. I controlled myself and didn’t purchase any equipment there and then, but you can be sure that I’ll be looking into it once we move to Wang! Here are some photos from the night:

The little chocolate cups we made using oranges and the chocolate leaves (so going to try these again)
These were our little chocolates in the process. We made ones with hazelnut praline, Cointreau liqueur, caramel, lemon lime genache, and another one that I can’t remember! We also filled some truffles which were scrumptious!

This was our little work area, and the other 3 participants with Sylvia (2nd from left) our expert

The attention to detail was lovely!

And oh so very delicious! Hubs had one when I got home and loved it! I really would like to buy some basic equipment and give this a go – just for fun! I’ll add it to my wish list for when we move to Wang. Who knows? You might benefit from it one day!

Thanks for the prezzie guys – it was just brilliant   x x x x x x

Breakfast in bed

/ Renae / 2 Comments

I remember reading in a magazing years ago (in the Doctor’s waiting room – I wouldn’t waste my own money!) and I came across an article about the then happily married couple, Paul McCartney and Heather Mills. It stated that they shared breakfast in bed every morning, and vowed that it helped them to stay connected and have a great start to each day.

Although it didn’t work out so well for them, I loved the idea of breakfast in bed with Hubs every day, so it began. I’m not sure when exactly – maybe February last year? In any case, it’s been going on for over a year now. And it’s great. I get up a wee bit earlier, go and make us brekky (only cereal – toast is too crumby!) and a cup of tea for Hubs and glass of juice for me, and bring it back to bed. And sometimes Hubs does it for me too which is so nice. It’s just the best way to start our day. We can discuss our plans – what’s going on at work (usually not much), what Hubs’ uni timetable is looking like, whether he has any exams, and whether or not he can meet me for lunch at college that day.

It really is such a special “tradition” that I hope to continue for a long long time.

Gone Fishin’

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A couple of weekends ago, we organised for a group of us to go on a fishing charter with Hubs’ Uncle Wayne. Uncle Wayne and Aunty Alida have been running this business for years (decades??) and we have been meaning to go on a charter with Wayne since we got here. So we FINALLY got around to setting a date aside. My friend Beth was visiting for the weekend, so I tentatively invited her along. I say tentatively, as the last time Beth and I went on a fishing charter, we spent most of the 4 hours hanging over the side of the boat, providing burley for the rest of the fishermen/women. But we weren’t perturbed by our last experience (I’m not sure how!), even after receiving a call from Wayne in the morning saying it was a bit rough out on the water that day. We thought “let’s just do it!!” and so we rendezvoused with the group at 12:45pm and set off.

It was such a beautiful day – bright blue sunshine! – but it was quite windy, so Wayne headed for more sheltered waters, and we cast our lines and waited. We didn’t have to wait long before we got some bites, and Beth caught the fist fish of the day – a pink snapper, or “pinkie” as they call them. Though, she wasn’t so impressed with getting up close and personal!

It wasn’t big enough to keep, so off it went, back in the drink. She did however catch the only “keeper” for the day a bit later on – a nice little flathead that we all had a little taste of for dinner that night. I had had lots of bites and my line felt quite heavy, but it wasn’t putting up a fight. I thought I might have myself either a log-fish or a crab. I was wrong!

Yes, that’s right folks. I caught myself a star fish. A first for me!! Hee hee. Quite a few of us were catching fish, but none of them were big enough to keep 🙁

Hubs and his catch

Wifey, convinced she’d caught the same fish as Hubs

Luke and Grae, catching… ummm….. not much at all! 🙂

Uncle Wayne cooking up a storm for us on the BBQ
Beer + Friends + Fishing = Awesomeness!

Melbourne really turned on some great weather for us, and thanks to travel sickness tablets, ginger tablets and ginger beer, Bethie and I didn’t provide any burley for the trip. Hooray! We’re so glad we managed this before moving out to Wang. Something else to cross off our “to do” list!

Hot Cross Scones

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I LOVE hot cross buns, and I’ve been so distracted by goodness-knows-what lately that I’d forgotten to buy some for Easter! So on Tuesday night at dinner when we were discussing these delectable delicacies, I decided I was too lazy to walk down to Woolies to buy some, (and too stingey), but I wasn’t too lazy to try and bake some! So when I got home, I looked for a recipe on line and they had yeast in them. No yeast in the cupboard. So I googled “yeast free hot cross bun recipe” and it came up with this one. Bingo!

Now I think I’m pretty handy in the kitchen, but really, I should stick to recipes at least when it’s the first time. I MAINLY stuck to this recipe, but the end result was not what I expected. I mixed all the ingredients like it told me to: (pardon the yellow tinge to the photos – no idea how to use Hubs’ camera…)

And then did some kneading:
Then cutting out with my cookie cutter that I’ve never used before!
Then I prepared my flour and water mixture for the crosses
Then they were ready to put in the oven! I was pretty excited by this stage!
Hmmmm…. these don’t look like hot cross buns. I wonder how they taste?
Very sconny indeed. Oh well. I tried. And I’ll take them down to Sorrento to share them around. They are quite lovely as scones I must say! Thankfully we had HCBs for morning tea at work the next day, so I didn’t miss out! And maybe Hubs’ Dad will have some for us in Sorrento! 🙂 3.5 hours to go before I’m on holidays! (yes, again…)
HAPPY EASTER!!!

Baby steps

/ Renae / 1 Comment

Apart from being a line from one of my favourite movies of all time, Baby Steps is also an accurate description of my “progress” in the last 12 months. One of my goals was to become more open to new ideas, and not to just dismiss them off-hand because they differ to my own. I think by nature, I’m quite a defensive person and this comes from having a low self-esteem for many of my teenage years, (and beyond 🙂 which stemmed a lot from my body image. So when someone has an idea that differs from my own, I take it personally, or I think they think I can’t come up with ideas of my own. Crazy? Just a little…

Anyway, I noticed early in my marriage, that I was quite dismissive of some of Hubs’ ideas – crazy or not – and it took me a while to realise how that affected him. So I decided that it was in my power to change that behaviour and I realised the other day that it was happening naturally now – like when Hubs’ suggested the Superman Cake; a year ago I may have said “that’s too hard” or “don’t be ridiculous” but not this time! I investigated the idea and decided it would be a great thing to try. If I had considered it and decided not to do it, that would have been okay too. It’s the consideration that’s important in this life lesson.

I’m feeling quite pleased with myself in fact! Next thing to work on: thinking before I speak. That’s going to be a doozie!