Category: Photos

Day 1 – Hellllllooooo Hollywood!

/ Renae / Leave a comment

NaBloPoMoHo (Holiday) beginnnnnnnnsss….. NOW! (Click on the photos for larger image.)

Friday 26 June 2009 – Los Angeles, CA, to Palm Springs, CA. 162 miles.

We left Brisbane on Friday 26th June at 11am without incident. It was also the start of a very long Pigtail Friday! We flew V Australia and I would not hesitate in flying with them again. They had all the trimmings and the 12 hour flight really wasn’t so bad. We arrived at LAX at 11pm “home time” which was 7am LA time. So we had to start our day all over again. We felt a bit zonked but very excited! (I tried the “red-eye removal” on the photo editor, but it didn’t work! Tee hee!)

We took the shuttle to the car hire place and they said we had a choice of a Chrysler Sebring (which is what I booked) or, and this was said very nonchalantly, “I think there’s a Mustang out there too.”

Say what?… Oh yes pleeeeeeeeese!

So we jump into the very new, very red Mustang and take note of the odometer reading – a mere 316 miles a-thank-ya-very-much! And we’re on our way! Now bear in mind that it’s technically 1am for us at 9am in LA so we’re a little tired but in good spirits. Hubs is in the driver’s seat and I’m navigating. We start cruising around and our first impression is that LA is very dirty and a little scary (my impression). After getting slightly lost, we find ourselves again and decide that we should head out to the water, just to say we’ve been there. On the map it really didn’t look very far, but I didn’t quite get the hang of the scale and it was actually about 25 miles away. Oopsies!

We stopped off at a El Pollo Loco (I think) and had our first greasy meal. It was okay, but I found it amusing that Hubs was most excited about the mac-cheese that came with it!!

Then, from a distance, we spotted the HOLLYWOOD sign,

(gosh can you even see it?? It was SO smoggy) then we got a small glimpse of the beach and the Santa Monica Pier and turned around to head to Palm Springs on the I-10.

I’m not exactly sure what time it is at this stage – maybe 1:30pm or so? As we are heading out of LA, we come across a heck of a lot of traffic coming in. I’m so glad we were going in the opposite direction, but apparently if we’d left after 3pm it would have taken us 2 hours to get out of LA alone.

And now for our first experience at WALMART!! We love Walmart. We think it totally rocks. We managed to pick up camping gear (everything but a tent) for a total of $30USD (2 camp mats, sheets, pillows, a sleeping bag and a tent peg hammer) and a few other bits and pieces for the trip. And we’re on our way again! We put the top down (now that we’re out of scary LA) and turn the music up and start singing – mainly to keep us awake!

Hubs is still driving at this stage and is getting pretty sleepy so we pull over and I take over the driving. We don’t have much further to go, so I’m not too scared. Yet. Once in the driver’s seat however, I’m not so comfortable. I keep telling myself “keep right keep right keep right” and even though we’re on the freeway, everything about this feels so wrong. I can honestly say that I experienced the scariest 5 minutes of my life. I had the biggest cars I’ve EVER seen zooming past me, I’m struggling to keep in my lane (Hubs is very politely and helpfully gesturing for me to move to the left) and don’t even get me STARTED on the condition of the road. Hubs very kindly puts on Cindy Lauper for me to calm my nerves and keep me focused and I do believe that helped! Thanks Cindy!

After a little while we take a smaller highway towards Palm Springs and I’m much more comfortable now. The scenery around us is breathtaking and it starts sinking how much of an adventure this is going to be and how much fun and good times lay before us.


We arrive at Palm Springs at about 5pm and our hotel (Travelodge) is lovely. There was a pool and since it was over 30 degrees we thought we’d have a swim. This was a perfect start to our holiday. The hotel really was the best we stayed in for the whole trip which was a nice way to start.

After our swim we “had a little nap. Not entirely unexpectedly, this “nap” lasted 14 hours. We woke up at 8am the next morning and felt completely refreshed and ready to go. It was amazing!

It was the LONGEST Pigtail Friday on record, and a great start to our holiday.

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend

/ Renae / Leave a comment

I was just sitting here at work and I noticed that my engagement ring was a bit dirty so I gave her a bit of a clean and now she’s sparkling once again. I think Hubs did a brilliant job choosing my engagement rings.

The first one, with which he proposed, is a Puzzle Ring. For those of you who don’t know the story, Hubs took me aside while we were on Day Camp, where we had met 7 years prior, and gave me the ring, and after proposing, said “Life with me is going to be full of challenges.” He then took the puzzle ring apart and said “and here’s your first one.” It was a LOT of fun putting it back together again (after declining kind offers from the 12-year-olds in my group to “help”) and I wore it proudly. I was engaged to the most amazing man on earth and he had given me a beautiful ring that was gorgeous and nerdy. Just like him. What more could a gal ask for?

A few days later, he presented me with this:

A platinum, tension set diamond ring. It is stunning. It really blew me away then, and I still catch myself admiring it. A lot.

Again, it’s a bit nerdy, with the tension setting, and Hubs chose it because it was so different and because it is, I’m sure he would say, “teyodally awesome”.

And it is. I love it. Thanks honey x x

Shabu Shabu-licious!

/ Renae / 2 Comments

On Saturday night, Hubs and I were invited over to dinner by our friends Rohan and Miya. Hubs and Rohan study together. Miya is half Japanese, and they treated us to a Japanese dish called Shabu Shabu. And as Hubs put it “It wasn’t just a meal, it was an adventure!”

We got to cook our own fresh ingredients like carrot, cabbage, fish, tofu, spinach, spring onions and bean sprouts and noodles and “fish” them out when they were done! Then we placed them in our sauces which were ponzu sauce with spring onion, or sesame sauce (my fave!) and then onto the rice. I can still taste the yumminess of it all! And it was so healthy as well! Just boiled ingredients and tasty sauces. I wanted more and more but just couldn’t fit any more in!

We then finished off the meal with a lovely self-saucing chocolate pudding and some of my choc-dipped strawberries. It was a lovely evening with new friends and we can’t wait to go on Rohan’s Dad’s yacht some time in the near future! (Now you HAVE to take us! Ha ha ha.)

Here’s a photo from the evening – check out the awesome set-up!

And hopefully a photo of Rohan and Miya to come (cos I forgot to take one of them on the night – I was distracted by the food!!!!)

Sew what?…

/ Renae / 3 Comments

I’ve been meaning to blog for AGES about my sewing ventures, but there haven’t been many exciting ventures to blog about. Mainly clothing alterations and mending really. Last weekend though, we replaced a few rubbish bits of furniture (we were using a single bed as a couch) with some much better bits of furniture (a couch!!) including a bigger desk so Hubs and I both have work spaces. My sewing machine is now much more accessible and I’m much more enthused to use it.

And here she is:

She was a wedding gift from very good family friends of mine and I just LOVE her!! Ahem… I keep referring to her as a “her” but I don’t have a name for “her” as yet. These things take time!

Anyway, back to the story.
Hubs: “Wifey, can you please make me a pocket thing to put my pens and notecards in?”
Wifey: “Well I AM still going for Wifey of the year, so sure!”

I started thinking about a leather case with denim interior (cos I love the 80s) and in my head it looked awesome. Would have been tricky to pull off though. Then I came across an old satchel thing that I got for free at a conference and started imagining how I could re-model it! After some stuffing around, I got to work on it last night. But then I had no elastic so I told Hubs:

“I’ll have to finish it over the weekend once I have elastic.”
Hubs: “Aaaaaaaaaaw but I reeeeeeeeeeally would like it nooooooooooowwwwwww. Don’t we have any elastic lying around that we could use?”
Wifey: “Hmmmm… well there DOES seem to be some elastic holding my tracky-dacks up! Maybe I could use that!”

So I’d like to say I very carefully picked out the piece of elastic from the waist-band (it was floating fairly freely – only sewn in 1 spot at the seem) but if you know me well, you know that when I get an idea in my head, it has to be done NOW NOW NOW so I butchered my waistband, but luckily I still had a draw-string so it was all good! And the elastic was PERFECT!!!

Once I finished making it, and Hubs was suitably pleased, I personalised it, just so he doesn’t get it mixed up with other people’s.

(I love that I can sew hearts at the push of a button and a stomp of a foot!)

And of course Hubs’ comment at the end:
“You could make heaps and we could sell them on eBay!!!!!!!”
Wifey: “hmph.”

Autumn in Melbourne

/ Renae / 3 Comments

Everyone loves Autumn. How could you not? There’s no point describing Autumn in words, when pictures can tell the story so much better.
Enjoy!

I found this leaf among thousands! I heart Autumn!!

Around College

/ Renae / Leave a comment

Here are a few more photos of the College that we took in January.

The Dining Room

Inside the Dome Dining Room (You can see High Table in the top right)

Outside our unit

The view from our balcony

Happy Birthday Hubs

/ Renae / 1 Comment

As many of you know, I LOVE surprises. And I love giving them almost as much as receiving them! So the last month or so I’ve been scheming behind Hubs’ back, planning a big celebration for his 2nd 21st!! He was getting cranky that everyone else on college is having their 21sts so I thought “why not!?” So I went to work on the organising. I sent out emails, used my friend’s facebook account (cos apparently it’s easier than emailing the entire med student cohort) and got busy planning the cake. Just remember – I don’t do things by halves…

Here’s the progression of the cake:

With Hubs not around, I got to lick the bowl all on my own!!!!!!!

Maybe I should have shared it after all…


Enough about the cake. Let’s get to the prezzies! As some of you know, Hubs got a new SLR Digital camera from our families which he LOVES, but even better than that, I had a street named after him!!

(Biggest coincidence – this street is about 3km away from where we live and just around the corner from the pub we were having his party at!!! CRAZY!!!)

Right. The Party! There were friends, balloons, embarrassing 21st speeches, lots of beer and wine and a GREAT atmosphere at a fabulous pub called The Brunswick Green. I highly recommend it! I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story…


Eeeeeeeeeew grooooooosssssss!


A couple of friends from Brisvegas – Jodes and Nate (and Hubs’ birthday pot!)

Hubs’ friend from Mackay was also down for the weekend for his birthday, so of course we had to meet up for a drink!!

A few nights ago Hubs and I were cuddling and he told me I fit perfectly next to him. Like a puzzle piece. It’s not hard to love this man.
Happy Birthday honey.

My week of footy

/ Renae / 3 Comments

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! What a great few days I’ve just had! As previously mentioned, my friend Ah-dele booked herself in to come down to Melbs for the State of Origin and the Broncos vs Melbourne Storm (“I hate those Melbourne players”) game.

Here we are geared up for the State of Origin: GO MAROONS!!!

The atmosphere was really great and there were over 50,000 people there which is only a couple thousand off a full-house for footy games! It was SO much fun.

We even ran into a few people we know who happened to come down from Qld for the game! It was quite a close game, though the score (28-18) doesn’t really reflect that. The last 10 minutes were particularly exciting, and even though I never thought we were going to lose (not really, anyway), I realised that I’m out of “footy match watching” practice. My heart was racing!! Subsequently, I lost my voice again, but was TOTALLY worth it!

So then Friday night came around, and we were very excited to be heading out to Melbourne Olympic Park for the match. It’s a very old-school stadium and only seats just over 10,000, as well as standing room for a few thousand more. I reckon there were about 14,000 people there and probably less than a thousand Broncos supporters. It occurred to me that I’d never been to a game where my team’s supporters were so vastly outnumbered, but there we were, Broncos scarves (thanks TM!) and beanies and gloves and lots of enthusiasm:

Unfortunately, we got completely annihilated. 48-4 was the final score and we were gutted. It was never going to go well, 2 days after the Origin, and missing Hodges and Lockyer, but we couldn’t prepare ourselves for such an onslaught. We were NOT happy Jan!!! But credit where credit is due. Melbourne had almost as many players in origin as we did, and they had a blinder of a match. They just couldn’t put a foot wrong. Luckily, Melbourne is my 2nd fave team, so I don’t hate them too much for humiliating us!!

We left the game and headed to the Turf bar to drown our sorrows in cheap champagne and cheesy 80s and 90s music. A great end to the night!!