Category: Melbourne

Oh what a game

/ Renae / Leave a comment

Even if your life doesn’t revolve around AFL, that is, you’re not a Victorian, you would have heard about the drawn grand final on Saturday between St Kilda and Collingwood. Hubs and I were with friends at their friend’s place in Melbourne, so we only knew 3 other people out of the 30-odd who were there, but that didn’t stop us from cheering like mad. As I’ve mentioned, you either support Collingwood, or you hate them, so most people were hoping the Saints would win.

St Kilda were behind for almost the whole game, and at one stage by 3 or 4 goals, but we were never out of it. We never lost hope of being able to come back. And in the 3rd quarter, named “the premiership quarter” we came back and kept Collingwood goal-less. It was incredibly exciting and certainly the best game of football I’ve ever seen in my life. When we hit the lead for the first time, the room, bar the 3 Collingwood supporters, went absolutely nuts! But it wasn’t won yet. Both teams stepped up to the challenge and played like they’ve never played before, and to be honest, a draw was one of the best results possible. What I mean by this, is that you just couldn’t separate the 2 teams on the day. They were both deserved winners, and Hubs thinks they both should have been able to take a trophy home and be done with it.

But that’s not how it works in the “real world.” When the final siren blasted with the scores deadlocked at 68 all, we assumed extra time would be played. But no. That’s not how they do it in the AFL. They started talking about “coming back next week to battle it out again.” Say what now? I have to go through this all over again??? I barely avoided labour this time around!!!! (People at the party kept looking at me and a few asked “when are you due again??”)

So that’s the way it’s going to be. This Saturday at 2pm they will have a re-match. In a lot of ways, it’s no big deal. Another game of footy to watch – what’s wrong with that? But if you consider all the things that are planned for the week after the AFL grand final, Victoria is a mess! All the grooms who have said to their brides-to-be “as long as the wedding isn’t in September, that’s fine” to which they reply “okay honey-bunny. We’ll make it for the first weekend in October.”

Oh boy. There would have been a lot of nervous brides at full-time.

Anyway, the main point of this post was to say how amazing the game was and how much Hubs and I enjoyed it and how it was all people could talk about afterwards. We witnessed history and it was great to be a part of that. Now we just have to go through it all again this Saturday. GO SAINTS!!!

It’s that time of year again…

/ Renae / Leave a comment

FOOTY FINALS WEEKEND!!! You may recall that 2 years ago we watched the Grand Final between Geelong and Hawthorn at our friends place. In that post I wrote something along the lines of “St Kilda are unlikely to deliver the goods for us” and last year, I had to eat my words when I posted about the Grand Final between the Saints and Geelong. I don’t know if I ever actually mentioned that St Kilda lost the grand final last year, and it was a little devastating. Being the supporter of a team who has won every grand final they have played in (Brisbane Broncos) this was a little heartbreaking, but we were beaten by a better team on the day and we were able to get over it (eventually).

This year is a different story. St Kilda have again made it to the grand final (woo hoo!) but our opponent is Collingwood – the most hated, yet most supported team in the competition. Collingwood supporters are scary. I went to a Collingwood vs Bulldogs game this year and feared for my life – no one was safe! They abused the opposition players, the referees, the Bulldogs fans, AND their own players! AND THEY WON THAT GAME!!!!

I don’t know how I’ll cope if we lose to them, but worse still, I think there will be rioting in the streets if Collingwood lose. I’ll still be cheering the Saints on like crazy though. We’re watching the game with some friends and friends-of friends, so of course, I wanted to bring some baked goods along. I was busy last night making this recipe (with a slightly different to-die-for frosting) and, as usual, a) it took longer than I thought; b) since I don’t regularly make cupcakes, I overfilled the patties and my first batch ended up looking like mushrooms; c) I realised (again) I need a bigger mixing bowl and d) the decorating was the best part!!

Note Wifey’s “concentration tongue”… (and piping goods!!)


What?? I was obviously concentrating really hard!!!


Oh when the Saints
Go marching in
Oh when the Saints go marching in
Oh how I want to be with St Kilda
When the Saints go marching in.
GO SAINTS!!!


The Swap Meet

/ Renae / 1 Comment

Ever been to one? Even know what one is? Any interest in attending one? Before Sunday the 12th September 2010, my answers to these 3 questions were “no”, “not really”, “not overly, but Hubs is excited so that’s good enough for me.” Hubs has been working very hard for the last few weeks to get the kombi up and running, and his hard work was rewarded on Thursday night when he had completed all the jobs he thought would fix it, and the beast started. And it hasn’t stopped since!

Over the preceding days we had been talking about buying another car – something a little more “family-friendly”, and one that… you know… was working. But as we were taking the kombi for a test-drive around town on the Thursday night, Hubs with a big grin on his face, I turned to him and said “We’re not going to be getting another car now, are we?…” His response? “HELL NO WOMAN.” And seeing that smile was all the convincing I needed. We were due to head down to Melbourne over the weekend and come back through Shepparton on the Sunday to attend the Annual Goulburn Valley Swap Meet. We still need a few parts for the car (including a centre seat) and thought it might be a fun way to spend a Sunday.

Up until Thursday night, we were thinking we’d have to hire a car, but thankfully I have a brilliant Hubsband who fixes stuff, so we jumped in the kombi on a sunny Friday afternoon and headed down the Hume towards Melbourne. We caught up with friends on Friday night and the Saturday, and loaded up the kombi with all sorts of marvelous baby furniture and paraphernalia, thanks to our wonderful friends the Baileys and the Bakers. We then caught up with Hubs’ uni friends for dinner on Saturday night and watched the end of the Bulldogs vs Swans game – a great night was had by all, and it was so lovely to see all our wonderful friends.

Sunday morning was an early start with the alarm going off at 5:30am. “We” (Hubs) wanted to be at Shep by 8am ish, but ended up getting there closer to 9am. (I slept half the drive.) I was quite intrigued about this whole “swap meet” thing and Hubs was telling me that it was a “Classic Cars Swap Meet” so I was looking forward to seeing lots of restored vehicles and, well you know, Classic Cars!

I was to be frightfully disappointed.

The reality was more like this: Every August, wives of Goulburn Valley start pestering their husbands to “clean out all the junk in the garage” to which the husbands respond “it’s not junk! This stuff has a lot of value!” The wives say something along the lines of “I don’t care what you do with it, just get rid of it!” So the husbands cleverly think to themselves “I know – the annual swap meet us coming up! I’m sure I’ll be able to sell my junk there.” And that’s 80% of what we saw. Junk from people’s garages. The “classic cars” were few and far between, and it became evident VERY early on that we weren’t going to find what we were looking for.

Add in some soft rock playing on a loop in the background (80s and 90s baby – I was in heaven!), some sausages on bread, the odd mullet or 2, more than enough ugg boots, and 1 lone kombi (a 1977 model – one year younger than ours*) and you’re pretty much looking at 3 hours of Wifey being very good at not complaining but wishing she was lounging around somewhere else. Anywhere else!!

Here are some examples of what we saw:

Now to be fair, there were SOME classic cars. They seemed to be either looking like this:

(believe it or not, this one had a “SOLD” sign on it)

…or this…
…or this! (NOW we’re talking!)

(For more fab photos, visit Hubs’ flickr page here.)

So we arrived with the desire to buy a couple of carburetors, a center seat, and a new engine :-). We left with a “new” saucepan ($10), 5 lemons ($1), 2kg of nuts ($20), 2 cook books ($2) and some snow chains ($5). I was excited with my little treasures, but Hubs was annoyed he didn’t get to buy anything manly. The snow chains were a bit of a “I want to BUY SOMETHING” purchase, but hopefully they’ll come in handy.

Hubs has since heard through the grapevine that there is a VW Only Swap Meet in Melbourne in a couple of weeks time, so we’re heading down for that one too, and will hopefully find what we’re looking for. Although, if the last one was anything to go buy, it might just be a whole lot of non-car-related junk from VW owners’ garages. Only time will tell…

*technically the kombi we drive still belongs to Hubs’ family, but Hubs adopted it 10 years ago and has never left it’s side.

From Newman to Wang

/ Renae / 2 Comments

So as they say, better late than never. I’ve finally gotten around to going through all the photos we have taken the last couple of months, so I’ll be able to fill you in on our big move. First of all, packing up our unit at Newman was a mammoth task that we put off mostly until the Wednesday/Thursday/Friday before we moved. The funny thing about having limited space and trying to move all in one go, is that you end up packing the stuff you hardly ever use first, and have to leave the stuff you use often because it can’t fit in! Ridiculous, no?

I must say a very big thank you to everyone who offered to help and who did help, whether it was by manual labour, bringing over banoffee cakes, packing a trailor load of stuff to take up for us, and taking things off our hands (too many to mention). Oh, and to the cleaners at Newman for cleaning our flat for us on Monday!!! Something I thought I would have time and energy for, but Littlefoot decided to sap all my energy for the weekend so it didn’t get done.

As happened last time we packed the kombi, I just left Hubs to it and he did a great job. Even though it looked like this time we wouldn’t fit half our stuff in!

We were worried about pushing out the windows towards the end! I’m not sure we could have fit another thing in!!!

Deja vu anyone? I wanted a photo with the door open, but everything would have fallen out, so we had to make do. We were all packed by about 10am Saturday morning which was a pretty good effort if you ask me! Now Hubs, where do I fit??

This was a bit unacceptable for little ol’ preggo Wifey, so we dropped by our friend’s place who was already taking a trailor-load up for us, and left a few more things with him. This made for a much more pleasant trip. Victoria put on some glorious weather for us as we drove out of the Newman gates for the last time and onto the Hume.

The next chapter I already spoke about here, but here are some photos to go with our first couple of days in Wang.

Hubs trying to keep warm on our first night
Our lounge room and makeshift bedroom for the first few nights
Where oh where will it all go?

I’ll leave you with the “before” shots to ponder over, and let you get excited that I actually have some “after” shots to show you in the next few days!

Inconceivable

/ Renae / 1 Comment

I love The Princess Bride. And I LOVE how Vizzini says “inconceivable” all the time. And then Inigo Montoya says “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” My friend recently bought a copy of the DVD because it came with a key ring that says “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my Father. Prepare to DIE.” when you press a button. (More memorable quotes can be found here.)

Believe it or not, this post is not about my love for The Princess Bride, though I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that. This post is about moving to Wangaratta. Tomorrow. I mean, we’ve known for 8 months (just think about that for a moment – 8 MONTHS!) that this move was coming. In no way should we have been caught unaware. But here we are, with 24 hours to go, our place filled with packed and to-be-packed boxes, our wardrobe has thrown up all over our room, and we pretty much know the kombi needs a push-start each time we want to start the engine. Fun, oui? Well at least we have a home to go to (yay!) and we have a plan. You gotta have a plan my friends.

Exactly 2 years to the day, we moved to college. And exactly 2 years and 1 day after we moved in, we’ll be leaving. I’ve been looking forward to a bit of a change, but leaving here is filling me with sadness. We have met the most incredible people, been shown the most gracious hospitality, and had some of the best times.

But now it’s time for new adventures to begin; for new friends to be made, and for more good times to be had. I know that it was God’s plan for us to be here at Newman for this time, and I thank him for his great idea often. As I sit writing this, Littlefoot is kicking away (the coolest thing I’ve ever felt in my LIFE) and I know he/she is looking forward to what is to come.

Why, oh why?

/ Renae / 2 Comments

Dear Channel 9,

I am a Queenslander living in Melbourne. I have embraced AFL and watched many games, and have attended several live matches as well. But like I said, I’m a Queenslander, so I’m a Rugby League supporter at heart. I was so excited when Victoria embraced Rugby League and was positively elated when they had one of the State of Origin matches at Etihad last year, which I eagerly attended.

I think you know where this is going.

I watched the first State of Origin match of the 2010 series from the comfort of my home, and I’m sure you can imagine how pleased I was with the result. I unfortunately missed the second match due to a Melbourne University function (only Victoria would book an event on State of Origin night), so for the last 3 weeks, I have been so looking forward to watching game 3. I know it was a “dead rubber” but when you love a sport, these things don’t matter. Plus, both teams still had a lot to play for – Queensland were looking for their first clean sweep since the 1995 and New South Wales were looking to regain some pride.

So, perhaps you can imagine my utter dismay when I turned the TV on at 8pm only to find Daryl Somers staring back at me. “It must be a mistake”, I thought. So I turned over to Foxtel to see if they were showing it live. And then I noticed the delayed telecast to start at 9:30pm.

Are you for real? You want Victoria to embrace Rugby League, so you delay the telecast of one of the biggest matches of the year? This makes no sense to me. Especially considering that there are a few Melbourne Storm players in the competition. I just can not fathom it.

Can you please tell me why you chose to do this? I noticed in today’s paper that you have axed Hey Hey because of poor ratings, which is even more frustrating, since I’m sure you would have had a number of Victorians wanting to watch the State of Origin over Hey Hey. I hope I don’t have to write another letter like this, this time next year.

Regards,
Wifey

NOTE: FYI I stayed up for the delayed coverage and watched Queensland win 23-18 in an absolute CRACKER of a match, and I’ll be posting this letter to Channel 9 today.

Lunch at college

/ Renae / Leave a comment

College is quite a strange beast. You get thrown into a mix of 272 students who are undergrads, post-grads, male, female, Catholic, not Catholic, shy, smart, funny, social, silly, confident etc etc etc. At meal times, there will be certain people who you might sit with regularly, and get to know them quite well. There is generally some segregation between the Junior Common Room (under-grads) and the Senior Common Room (post-grads) but that’s more out of habit than anything sinister.

Towards the end of the semester, and over the mid-year break, the numbers dwindle to about 30 people, and often lunch and dinner will consist of only 2 or 3 full tables. This is one of the best times to be around college. The food is better (last night we had beef osso bucco and mini pavlovas) and you get to sit with people you may never have even said a word to the whole semester. And there are some characters, let me tell you.

The table that Hubs and I sat at today at lunch time was an unlikely mix of people, and I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard. We had an American, 2 Germans, a Pole, Hubs and I, a Fijian, and a Daylesfordian. We started with a joke about 3 philosophers, then covered topics ranging from “the best joke ever” (it wasn’t, but the delivery made up for it), to the Smurfs, to the best action movie about to be released (the name of which escaped the person who told us about it, but it could be this one), to peppermint tea (I had my first today and I’m so hooked), and so much in between.

It will go down as one of the best meals I’ve had at college, and seeing as how we’re leaving in 10 days time, it was a fitting way to wind down the clock.

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

/ Renae / Leave a comment

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

/ Renae / Leave a comment

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.