Category: Photos

It’s my birthday week! (and I forgot!)

/ Renae / Leave a comment

It was my birthday yesterday and it just hasn’t felt like my birthday week this year. I don’t really know why. I have reminders for all of my friends and family’s birthdays a week in advance in my phone, and a week ago, a reminder popped up for my birthday and I thought “huh? Really??”

So anyway, I woke up yesterday morning (at 8:45!) to this:

which quickly turned into this:
If there’s a better way to wake up, I’m yet to find it. 

We then headed to our local Kiwi cafe, Jandals for this:

and this:
Sitting here:

We then went for a drive around Scarborough and dreamed about houses we might one day live in (you know, when we’re old and rich!) It was then coffee o’clock so we grabbed a couple of take-aways and went for a walk on the Redcliffe pier.

After dropping Chanbe off for an afternoon with Aunty Liesel, Hubs and I met my parents for a Gold Class screening of the second Sherlock Holmes movie. So. Much. Fun.

And to top the day off, we met up with our immediate family (there were 12 of us) for a scrumptious dinner at the Brekky Creek Hotel. By the end of the night, I finally started to feel like it was my birthday. And what a great one it was…

We’re sailing! – Part I

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Since being in Brisbane, Hubs hasn’t had a lot of luck with sailing. He has owned his hobie catamaran, “Big B”, since before we were together, and we have had a lot of great times on that boat. For the last 3.5 years however, it has been sitting in his Dad’s backyard, yearning to be free. So the boat was in our front yard within days of arriving in Brisbane.

The first day he took the boat out with BFF Ben, they cartwheeled the cat in really rough conditions resulting in this:

But you should have seen their faces. “It was totally awesome! You should have seen us!!” I’m kind of glad I didn’t as I probably would have been worried sick, but I’m glad they got some thrills in the process of smashing up the boat 🙂

So Hubs and Ben spent an evening building a new boat from the 2.5 boats Hubs owns, and had quite a bit of success. Um, except for the fact that when they took it out, it… um… almost sunk. After more fibreglassing of the hulls, Hubs and another one of his mates Nate had a great afternoon of sailing up and down the waterfront at Margate:

It turned out though, as you can see from the photo, the blue hull was taking on water again, but it was through the pylon, not the bottom of the hull, so Hubs has since sealed this leak and is keen to take “The Phoenix” out again.

Part II to come…

Christmas 2011

/ Renae / 2 Comments

This year, Christmas day was held at the house we’re staying at, with both mine and Hubs’ families coming along. Which meant we didn’t have to travel anywhere all day long. All. Day. Long. This is quite significant for us, as every Christmas we have been together we have gone to at least 3 events on Christmas day, so it was just so nice to sit back, relax, and enjoy ourselves. I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the tale.

A mere 30 people gathered around the table(s) in the back yard

Just a few prezzies under the Christmas tree
A few of Chanbe’s Christmas presents (the pool as well as the outfit)
There was a bit of food
and a yummy Christmas Cake made by my Mum
And Santa came to give out the presents!
And boy were there a LOT of presents!
Including a very clever shirt for Grumpy 
(“Grumpy 
But not by Chance”)
Thanks to everyone for making the effort to come all the way out to our place for Christmas day. I can’t tell you how lovely it was to not have to move from our house all day, and to be with you all.

Cousin love

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In our first week in Brisbane (Woody Pt) we had our nieces stay with us and they were super keen to play with Chanbe and help me look after him. It was so so lovely having them here and it made the transition a lot more smooth for me than it might have otherwise been. We did lots of fun things like go to the beach:

We made yummy cookies:
That were then beautifully decorated:
We went shopping:
Where I accidentally bought the world’s biggest coffee:
We blew bubbles:
And watched chick flicks:
And had lots of lovely cuddles:
We had such a lovely few days and we are looking forward to lots more special time together.

Movember 2011

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When Hubs wanted to do Movember in 2010, I said to him that if he did it this year, he had to do it every year and get a photo with Chanbe on his birthday each year. So far, he’s 2 from 2 🙂

Movember 2010
Movember 2011

Hubs’ mo this year became quite unruly and I couldn’t wait to shave that sucker off. The great shave was scheduled for the Sunday before he started his placement at Redcliffe hospital – the day after our arrival in Brisbane.

Our nieces were keen to be a part of the action as well. 
(Sorry about the photos – I’m learning about “white balance”)

And of course we had to shave it off in stages!
Stage 1

Stage 2 (that is so so wrong)

And in true current form, I don’t seem to have a photo of a fully shaved Hubs on the day, so you’ll just have to take my word for it, that he looked so so much better.

Thanks for everyone who sponsored Hubs’ Movember efforts. We’ll see you again next year!

He’s still one

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Though, with the number of birthday parties we had for him, you could be forgiven for thinking Chanbe was already onto his second birthday! The day after we arrived in Brisbane, we had the whole family over to celebrate. I had found some gorgeous rocket ship invitations, so in keeping with the theme, I decided to make a rocket ship cake. Mum prepared the slabs of cake for me the night before so I just had to cut out and decorate.

We found Nanny’s old Kenwood to help with mixing the icing – how retro!

vanilla gluten-free and yummy chocolate on the bottom

The icing job was a bit more involved than I expected it to be, but thanks to some strategically placed snakes and smarties, you wouldn’t have known. I couldn’t wait to light the sparklers!!

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…
Blast off! The sparklers were awesome!
Happy birthday Chanbe! What a wonderful year it has been watching you grow up and learn so much. You bring your Dadda and I endless joy and we can’t wait to see what you get up to in the next year. Love, Mama  x x x

A room with a view

/ Renae / 2 Comments

Here I am, blogging with a seabreeze tickling my… ummm…. fancy? And enjoying what I see:

And when I’m at home blogging, this is what I get to look at:

 

So I’ve just informed Hubs, that no matter where we end up, I need a view. I need to feel like I’m part of the world, and not just part of the block we live on. It might have be something we work towards, but it’s definitely on my “to have in life” list.

Living in the country…

/ Renae / 3 Comments

We can do things like have lunch at a friend’s place and feed the local wildlife:

and really get up close and personal!

We can take a walk around the pond and enjoy the valley:

On my way home from my walk, if Chanbe is still napping, I can sit down on the bench around the corner from home and make some phone calls. And enjoy the view!

Or I can do the dishes and enjoy the view! (They were the snow-capped mountains in August.)

Or we can sit on our deck with a cuppa or glass of wine… and enjoy the view…

I’m quite certain that living in Wang and MB has ruined me for city living. Who knows where Hubs and I will end up!