…tricolour mash! Who knew you could mash peas??
Meatloaf, squash and…
Category: Photos
Bargains galour
As I have also previously mentioned, Mum and I did some great shopping in that first week while Hubs was away and got some absolute gems! Like….
A $20 couch!
A rocking chair and bookshelf (pictured here with Wifey and sewing table)
Fold-away sewing table in all it’s glory, and lovely chairs
A Queen-size bed
A totally awesome upside-down fridge (and one of the chairs)
We also got Hubs a couple of tables to set himself up with a little study, and of course, we have the data projector up and running – it’s sitting on the top of the fridge – and the media PC with all our movies, TV shows and music in prime position. I might even get around to taking some photos of them at some stage!
Today has been a bit of a struggle for me hormone-emotion-wise so I’ll leave it there for now. I’m going to go and have a cup of tea and a rusk, and do some more blogging later.
From Newman to Wang
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!
Littlefoot
“Date”: 20 weeks
Feeling: Hungry all the time (again!)
Wearing: Whatever the hell fits!
Looking forward to: that first kick
Nuts about Peanuts
I’ve mentioned my love of Peanuts before (here and here), and my desire to own the complete Peanuts series of comic books (they are still being released!!) and the fact that I am currently struggling through reading a biography about Charles Schulz (that I think I’m going to give up on to be honest). What was my point again? Oh yeah, I love Peanuts. So when we were in Minotaur the other day, and came across the Peanuts 60th Anniversary Book, I went, well, a little nuts 🙂
But I didn’t actually really consider buying it. It was a bit pricey, and such frivolousness at this point in time wasn’t on my mind. But it was on Hubs’ mind. He said something like “Go onnnnnnnn. Let’s just get it. If you REALLY want it, we can say it was a birthday present since I didn’t get you one.” This isn’t really true – Hubs made me a beautiful photo album that didn’t cost much, but that took him hours to put together. Still, who was I to argue?? And since I got to get a new comic book, so did Hubs! (Perhaps that was his plan all along! 🙂 He wanted Strange Girl and the whole series (5 books) was available at a very good price so it was a done deal.
I haven’t even opened it yet. I’m saving it til we move to Wang. The anticipation is kind of killing me, but in a really awesome way. It’s going to be SO goooooood….
Au Naturel
I remember when it all began. I was 15 years old and I wanted to dye my hair. Mum was a bit reluctant at first, but I convinced her that a Napro Live Colour, retailing at $4.00 at the time, was a semi-permanent, and might not even make a difference. I’m sure Mum then asked “well if it’s not going to make a difference, then why do it at all” and I’m sure I would have responded with “just becaaaaaauuuuusssse okaaaaaaaay?????” (my negotiation skills were a little light-on when I was 15.) I’m sure the real reason was that all my friends were doing it and I didn’t want to be left behind.
So permission was granted. I’m pretty sure I started with the chestnut colour which made my hair nice and shiny and glossy. And then I was hooked. The thing about Napro semi-permanent dyes, is that they’re actually quite permanent. (Aren’t they Ah-dele!?) I mean, the shine and gloss fades after a week or 2, but the colour certainly stays around. So I was hooked. I moved on to the reds and burgundy colours after that and ever since then, I’ve always had a colour in my hair. Mum actually let me experiment with foils at age 17 and I had some wicked stripes happening for my formal. I looked like a tiger! But mostly, I just went with the all-over-hair dye.
Once I turned 18, the freedom was so overwhelming that I moved on to permanent dyes! Woah! (I also got the top of my ear pierced, got a tattoo, and considered a belly button ring. Oh yeah. It was a big turning point in my life!!)
At 26, and during what I’m sure was a bit of a crisis point in my life, I decided I wanted to go blonde. I had found a hairdresser who worked from home who was happy to oblige (at a good rate too!) and suggested that since I had so much red dye in my hair, caked on over the years, that she would just put a whole lot of foils in. And I didn’t so much go blonde, but ginger. Well, kind of orange. The roots (that didn’t have any dye in them) were a lovely blonde, but the rest, well, not so much.
So I decided to start fresh. Wipe the slate clean. It’s been almost a year since I last dyed my hair. And since I’m pregnant, I also decided that I would wait til the bub is born before I embark on anymore dye jobs. So here’s what my hair looks like in it’s natural state:
(Thankfully you can’t see all the greys!!) And another one, in my natural colour, but waved for a 1920s-themed lunch we went to a few weeks ago:
I’m not sure what I’m going to do once I dye again! How about I try blonde again?! Ha ha. Maybe not. Maybe some cute red tips or something. Am I getting to old for such things!?? NEVER!!
I should have known
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…)
Happy Birthday Hubs!!
You really take the cake 🙂
Showered with love
Last weekend was a big one and on the Sunday, a couple of my friends had asked if I wanted to catch up for coffee. It was in my diary, but by about 1:30pm I was so tired and had put my neck out, so I had a little lie down on the couch with Hubs. *sigh*. It was lovely. The thought crossed my mind to cancel coffee, but then I thought better of it – we’re leaving Melbourne soon and I really wanted to make the most of my time here with my friends. So my friend swung by and picked me up around 2:30pm. We were meeting our other friend at her place (for whatever reason) and when we got there, she opened the door and…..
SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!! My friends were hosting a surprise baby shower for me!! Needless to say, I cried. It was so thoughtful and touching and it really blew me away. They had been planning it for a few weeks and Hubs was in on it too! We had a lovely afternoon eating cupcakes….. (how gorgeous is the plate!!??)
…and other delicious food…
…playing fun games like “guess the ingredients in the baby food”…
…and opening presents!!
So you can imagine how glad I was that I didn’t try and cancel!! Although, Hubs would have changed my mind. I really had no clue whatsoever and I love surprises so much! I’ve been missing my gal pals back home lately, and it really was so special to be reminded that I’ve met some wonderful, thoughtful, caring, beautiful women down here who have welcomed me into their lives. Thanks ladies – you really made this time in our lives even more special x x x
Chocolatey goodness
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