Category: Melbourne

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…

I drink green tea

/ Renae / 3 Comments

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!

Sunset on a yacht

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(I’m going to blog about South Africa again very very soon! I PROMISE!!)

But first, let me tell you what Hubs and I got up to a few Tuesdays ago! Our friend’s Dad has a yacht and we were invited to a day/evening out! 4 of the boys met at Brighton where the yacht is moored and sailed in the bay, had a swim (i.e. were dragged along) in the bay and then met us at Docklands, where 5 of us joined them for the return voyage. I always get excited about sailing, and it’s not til we get out a ways that I remember I get sea-sick. I wasn’t too bad on this journey though – I stayed above deck and managed to not chuck.

The whole evening was just lovely. The weather was gorgeous (though, not enough wind on the return trip) and the company, as always, fabulous.

“Damn, I think we lost Hubs. Can you seen him?”
“Yeah, I can see his dreads, right there!”

“I hope he tied the rope nice and tight!!”
Nathan and Cal looking hot, and enjoying the view
Hubs and Wifey trying to do the same…
…and looking like clowns…
Enjoying the great company (and nibblies!)
Stunning sunset
(I couldn’t decide between the 2 photos)
The sunset reflected on the Eureka Tower, and nothing else – it was incredible!
Thanks so much for a wonderful day out guys! I can tick “sailing in Port Phillip Bay” off my “things to do before leaving Melbourne” list.

Let there be cake!!

/ Renae / 4 Comments

A friend of ours, Sophie G-C, celebrated her birthday yesterday, and Hubs and I hosted a little par-tay at our place. I wanted to make a cake instead of buying one, so I was going to do something similar to the one I made for Hubs for his “21st” last year, ie, a big chocolate cake with lots of sprinkles in the shape of an “S”. But NOOOOO (said in a whiny voice) Hubs had to come up with something even BETTER. He said I should make a Superman cake instead! That way the “S” could stand for Sophie!

I looked up some pictures (thanks Google!) and found a couple of REALLY impressive ones, as well as a few amateur ones and had a feeling mine was going to look a little dodgy, but, I wanted to give it a go. I made my square cake, rotated it 45 degrees, chopped the top off, printed out a template, dyed some icing some Super great colours and iced to my heart’s content. And I gotta say, I was SUPER chuffed with the end product:

Not bad hey? Maybe I take after Mum even more than I thought! Here is the work in progress: (I started with a template, cut the yellow bits out and put the template on the cake. I filled in the yellow bits, took the paper off and was left with the red bits to fill in. I used red writing icing to trace around the yellow bits before adding the red icing):
And then it was just a matter of whipping the blue icing around it. Piece of cake! ha ha ha ha ha ha. Punny!
And here it is, fully ablaze! (you can see my signature choc-dipped strawberries in the background!)
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Sophieeeeeeeeeeeeee
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Hope you had a great time Sophie!!!

A weekend walk

/ Renae / 1 Comment

Hubs and I have decided to do some long walks over the weekends (by long I mean anything between 5 and 10km BTW) and last Saturday we had a great day exploring the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. The weather was sensational, and after walking into town from home, we wandered around for a few hours, enjoying the sunshine (we both got sun burnt) and each other’s company.

Matching Crumplers! (I’ve been wanting this photo taken for AGES!)

Turkish Delight! Yum!

We checked out the local flora and fauna…
And played around a bit too!
We also checked out the Shrine of Remembrance.
 

We then headed to our favourite place in Chinatown, Shanghai Dumplings, and stuffed ourselves silly for $20!

Mmmmm… dumplingicious! 
(I know I look a bit spaced out, but I was sunburnt and tired from all our walking!)
And washed them down with a couple of Tsingtaos!
We then headed off to Pellegrini’s (a “Melbourne Institution”) for a coffee
And we finished off a big day out by seeing Sherlock Holmes at the movies, which, by the way was a great movie! It’s lots of fun with a bit of mystery and mayhem. Really really enjoyed it.
All in all and amazing day with Hubs, exploring this great city we live in, and enjoying it while we can!

Dragging the chain

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I know I know I know! I haven’t blogged about much interesting lately, but we are having technical difficulties at home, uploading (downloading? crossloading???) our photos from the last 2 months (all 3500 of them! Don’t worry, I’ll be selective) so because I haven’t been able to use them, I’ve been a bit lazy. I can’t believe we’ve only been back in Melbourne for 8 days. It’s like we never left. Last week went by very slowly, but we just had a really great weekend. The weather was really great so we simply had to get out amongst it.

Hubs starts back at uni in 1 week, and is busy with his PhD at the moment, so we really have gotten straight back into it. But we have enough time to watch an episode (or 2 or 3) of Boston Legal each night. Even though the second season isn’t nearly as good as the first, I haven’t given up on it yet, and it seems to be improving as the episodes go on.

Anyway, that’s enough drivel. I PROMISE to resume my usual witty interesting posts in the next few days…

Catching up

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We just got back to Melbourne from Brisbane last night, which brings an end to our blissful 6 week holiday! And the nice thing is, I really wasn’t dreading going back to work. It’s good to be back into the swing of things, especially after the delay in getting home yesterday…

Our flight was due to leave at 1:20pm and with the hour time difference, we were due back at Avalon airport at 4:45pm Melbourne time. At 1:05pm, we were informed that the plane had been struck by lightning on the flight down from Mackay that morning, so they were just doing safety checks. As annoying as the delay was, I was okay with the safety checks being carried out. We didn’t get away til after 3pm and were informed once we left that the temp in Melbs was 37 degrees!!!!!!! Two and a half hours later (and after I had finished reading one of the crappiest books I’ve ever read), we started our descent into Melbourne and were told that the temp had dropped to 20 degrees! Aaaaaah Melbourne. How I love your temperamental ways.

So we landed without fuss, jumped on the shuttle, then a cab, and we were home around 7:30pm, just in time to watch the Australian Open Men’s Final last night.

The perfect end to an amazing holiday. I’ll fill you in on the details in the days and weeks to come! Oh, and I just opened up my Google Reader after not checking it for 6 weeks and I have 337 new items to read! It’s going to take a while…

It’s good to be back!

Take the long way home

/ Renae / 2 Comments

Myself, Hubs and Nate will be starting our road trip back to Brisbane tomorrow night and we’re excited!! This is where we’ll be for the next few days:


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Once we hit Brisbane, we’ll be pretty busy leading up to Christmas, and then of course we’ll be heading to South Africa and doing something like this:


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So as you can see, we have a LOT of fun to get through the next few weeks! Then it’s my 30th birthday! YAY!!! And then we’ll be attending Hubs’ brother’s wedding (double YAY!) and then flying back to Melbs for our last 5 months here before we head to Wangaratta (or to the locals, Wang!) which is here:


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Looking forward to seeing so many of you soon! And some of you not soon enough!
(You can drag and zoom in and out on the maps! Go nuts!)

My Mary Janes

/ Renae / 1 Comment

No, I’m not talking about this type of Mary Jane. I’m talking about THESE.

Oh, and these:

I have bought all 3 pairs since we’ve been in Melbourne, for a grand total of…. hang on, how about I play another game!? How much you think I pay for each pair? They are all leather (wouldn’t buy anything else when it comes to Mary Janes!), super comfy, and totally sexy! Again, I’ll put the price down the bottom, but I can assure you, you WON’T BELIEVE ME!!!

Another angle? Sure thing!

I love them all, and I promised Hubs I wouldn’t need to buy any more Mary Jane shoes for a long time… Maybe…

Blue pair: were $90, I bought them for $35
Black pair: $50
Pink pair: were $70, marked down to $40, scanned at the checkout at $20!!!
Grand total: $105!!!!! BARGAIN!!!!