Over The Weekend

Over the weekend Luke & I dogsat for my boss & her gf while they went away. Their dog was an endless source of entertainment for us, and many belly rubs were given! Looking after Taj only made us want a dog even more. We stayed over at Taj's house Friday & Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon Luke & I met up with our friends for Tapas & cocktails. And they brought their son also, who is seriously the cutest little friend. To keep himself occupied he played games on his parents iPhone! He totally got how to slide and touch on the screen and pause the game to have something to eat and play again. It blew my mind! We went to the same cocktail bar that we went to a couple of weeks ago, and again it was pretty close to a perfect experience! The cocktails were delicious, and the food was amazing. I already can't wait to go back there again soon! 

We Went Out For Cocktails Instead

1. Mexican Bean Pies I made for Luke 2. This weeks purchases 3. Milkshakes!

4. Stripy Nails 5. Vodka Quatro Cocktails 5. Out for Tapas & Cocktails

Next Sunday I'll be going away to Fiji for a family holiday, so throughout the week I've been getting a couple of things ready. Along side a ticket to Fiji for Christmas, Luke & my brother-in-law Allan, also got a huge money tin. Luke & I almost filled ours with spare coins over the past three months and we opened it this past Sunday so we could bank it in exchange for Fiji money. Afterwards I started to get really excited because next Sunday is starting to get really, really close! I also slightly started to freak out because I had planned to get a couple of new holiday pieces to take with me. So on Wednesday I made a quick trip to the shops to get some holiday pants and a new dress. Sometimes when I go shopping, half way through something just clicks and I suddenly get sick of it and need to go home. I didn't have a dress to come with me, so I stopped by Cotton On to pick up a dress that I already had in different material. When you find a dress you like, I find its best to get it in a few different types of material. I finished my afternoon off by exercising my awesome baking skills and made some mini Mexican bean pies for dinner.

Luke's day off this week was Thursday, and I had to work so we couldn't go to the plant nursery, or bake blueberry bread together like we planned. So we went out for cocktails and tapas instead. I think I have bad luck with dining out because something always usually happens, whether its being served a meal that is missing the key ingredient (i.e., pasta without pasta sauce. Seriously) or finding a rock in my lentil burger. However, Thursday evening almost was a perfect evening! I had the most amazing vodka quatro cocktail with lime, cranberry & passionfruit. The restaurant was right on the water, so it's tapas had a bit of a seafood theme to it which was great for Luke, but not so much for me. They did have three fantastic vegetarian friendly options - polenta fries & aioli, goats cheese & eggplant garlic bread, and broccoli & mushrooms in chilli sauce. 

It's been a pretty laid back and productive week so far. Luke & I broke our milkshake mixer out from its kitchen cupboard captivity and we've been making them all week! I also painted my nails with coral punch, metallic brown & smokey purple stripes. I've been heaps into painting my nails differently since I did painted my zig zag nails a couple of weeks ago. I've been looking for easy nail art tutorials and found so many interesting, creative ways to use your nail polish. Blogging still excites me everyday!

Christmas

I can't believe Christmas has already been and gone, this year has just flown by!

Usually my family goes back to our home town, Gunnedah, for Christmas, but this year we stayed at the Coast for a family Christmas. Saturday morning Luke & I woke up a little later than expected and hurried ourselves to my parents house to open presents and have breakfast before Luke had to go to work (yep :( on Christmas). My parents bought us all a family holiday to Fiji in March next year! It was a pretty amazing present! After we opened presents we had pancakes & fruit for breakfast, then I had to rush Luke off to work. 

When I got back to my parents house, we had cups of tea and played cards while my Dad & my brother-in-law Allan made lunch. It was such a lovely, sunny day, totally unlike the last couple of weeks. It really hasn't been a proper summer here this year. I picked Luke up in the late afternoon, and we had drinks, and the neighbours came over for drinks and Christmas dinner. To finish a lovely day off we watched Bridesmaids and drank whiskey.

I hope everybody else had a lovely Christmas.

And a big congratulations to Hannah from A Cup Of Subtle Tea!

A Weekend Post On A Wednesday

I’ve been a little busy this week and haven’t had the chance to post about my weekend that has just passed. It was one of those weekends that I didn’t have a spare second to really do anything. 

Saturday I worked all day, and finished a little later than usual. 

When I got home I had to get ready to drive to Newcastle, which is about an hours drive from my house, to go to my best friends dinner party. As I was getting ready, I was picking stuff up around my house to take, and my camera had been playing up and I turned it on to see if it was feeling well enough to go out for the evening and it was officially broken. I was a little flustered and annoyed so I drove to the shops, ran in to Dick Smith, picked up another digital camera similar to the one I had (but purple!), paid for it and ran back to my car. 

Quickly came home, got the rest of my things and drove to Newcastle. I hadn’t been able to see Lara in a couple of weeks, but it was so lovely getting to see her before Christmas, firstly so we could exchange awesome gifts, and also because the dinner party had a Hanukkah theme to it! It was such a beautiful evening, she had gone to so so much preparation. She cooked a three course meal for like 15 people! I struggle to make to the right portions for Luke & I!

Lara bought me the most amazing birthday/Christmas present, because I hadn’t seen her since my birthday the gift got rolled into one. I was lucky enough to be gifted with a Maxwell & Williams ‘Kimono’ series tea cup that I’ve been wanting for ages, and she picked me out the most perfect one!, babushka measuring spoons, a Playboy cover to cover collection from the 50’s, a copy of Samson & Delilah (so I’ll get into Heaven after catching up on a decade of Playboy), the cutest printed tea towels, hand wipes because I’m addicted to any sort of wet wipe, and some antique souvenir travel tea spoons. It was a bit of a monster gift!

I left Newcastle just before midnight as I had to work the following day. I’m so glad I got home just in time to get enough sleep, because we were so super busy for most of the day, which was good because it made the time just fly by. Sunday evening was our work Christmas party, which was such a great night! We were able to bring along partners, so Luke was my date. My boss is such a lovely lady, she made all of this lovely food, and her girlfriend made killer cocktails throughout the evening. I didn’t take photos at all which I’m now a little team sad about. But I did get one photo, and it’s awesome enough to make up for the fact that I didn’t take any more! 

23

It was my birthday today, I turned 23! 

It feel so bizarre to turn another year older, and to sometimes still feel the same way you did as a sixteen year old. I don't really fuss about with birthdays, I just don't get into them the same way as my older sister does. She likes to have herself a 'birthday week'! This year I actually got to spend the day with Luke. I've only spent one of my birthdays with him since we've been together because he has to work all the time. It was such a fantastic day. Because we had dinner plans for my actual birthday, my parents took me out for dinner on Monday evening. We went to a local restaurant & had dinner & drinks. It was a nice little evening. 

Luke & I slept in until 10 am, luckily my aunty called me & woke us up, otherwise we probably would have slept through more alarms or snoozed them. I normally can just wake up and be up, but if Luke has the day off, I'm the opposite. After we woke up, we had blueberry bagels & coffee & I spoke to my friend Lara. After breakfast we got ready for the day, and made a little drive out to Terrigal and had lunch at Bellyfish, this cute little beach side cafe that I had been told had killer coffee. So we went for lunch. I had a spiced lentil & chickpea burger, & Luke had salmon. After lunch we went to the movies & saw 'Jack & Jill'. Luke gave it 0.5/5, and I would probably rate it 1.5/5, only because there was a handful of actual funny scenes & Katie Holmes is a babe! After the movie finished we went to my parents house after they finished work and had cups of tea with them. My mum had a bucket filled with different types of tea & chocolates with a gift card for Myer. So I know what I'll be doing tomorrow!

We left my parents house around 6 pm to get ready for our dinner date at The Cowrie. The person who owns the restaurant Luke works at, also has a couple of other really nice restaurants. One of them is The Cowrie, which is a fine dining & ala cart restaurant. It was such a fantastic birthday meal! I had a vegetable & cheese entree, it came out so neatly presented & looked really colourful. And for my main I had a marinated goats cheese tarts with persian figs. And for dessert, Luke & I shared an indulgence dessert plate for two & I chased it down with a cappuccino. When we came home, we made some whiskey drinks & watched a couple episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 the original series. So all in all, it was a pretty fantastic birthday indeed! I got to do all the things I wanted to do, and do them all with my best friend!

Surprise Birthday Party

Last Saturday was my Mum's surprise 50th birthday party. Sometimes people usually can pick up on something going on, but my Mum had no idea at all! I finished work around 4, and made a frantic dash to my parents house thinking I was going to miss her being surprised as my dad asked everyone to arrive at 4 ish. When I arrived I was greeted by some of my cousins in leotards with balloon chests & some were wearing wigs. The theme was to come dressed as Ju. My sister had taken her to my aunty's holiday house to have some afternoon drinks, while everything was being set up. We all gathered in the back yard and when my mum & sister arrived, Ju (my mum) walked out into the shed to put some drinks in the back fridge and she opened the door to see almost 50 faces shouting 'surprissseeee!!!'. I don't think I've ever been to a surprise party before, so it was pretty exciting, especially because it was for my mum as well.


However, it almost didn't go so smoothly. Earlier in the day I was working and my mum, sister, and some family friends came in for coffee, which they had said the night before that they would. I had just started my shift, and was in the outside dining area & I saw my uncle John walk past. I yelled out to him & said hello and he was going to come in for breakfast, so we walked back into the cafe so I could seat him. We were towards the back of the cafe, and my uncle John starts to wig out because he sees my mum start to walk in. So I quickly walked towards them and hurried them outside, my mum got a little upset because she thought I didn't want them to come into my work. Aww, poor Ju! As they were sitting down, my uncle John made a swift exit. On his way out, Jamie, one of the friends my mum was with saw him leave, he knew about the party though. And about ten minutes later, Jamie saw more of my family when he went to the bathroom! Throughout the day I saw heaps more of my family walking past my work.


It was such a lovely evening getting to see all my family again, the last time I got to see them all was my sister's wedding back in August. My dad organized pretty much everything, and he invited some family friends we hadn't seen in almost 8 years! When Ju saw them she almost had a heart attack! The worst thing about these sort of events is how fast they go. The whole night flew by! I was talking to some of my cousins and they were asking what time Luke would be coming as he had to work and wouldn't finish until after 10 pm, and I was thinking it was 9 ish, and then he appeared! 


So after many, many wines & whiskeys later we caught a taxi home around 12.30 am as Luke & I both had to work the next day. I took my work clothes to my parents house to wash and dry while I was there, and I even remembered to bring them home with me, which even I was surprised about. As I was getting out of the taxi I had my washing basket in my arms and it pulled on my necklace I was wearing and broke it, and I dropped my basket. I picked up the few things I dropped and came inside and made myself an asprin drink. When I woke up the next morning, I couldn't find my work shirt, so I found another shirt to wear instead, as I walked to my car I found some of my clothes out the front of my house on the road! 

Awkward Family Photo

Ju & my aunties

Chris, my aunty Sharon, Me

The last photo I took of the evening. 

Enough said.

Meeting The Boyfriend

My very dear friend Lara invited Luke & I over for a dinner party to meet her new boyfriend and housemate. It was such a delightful evening of friends, foreign music, fantastic food, wine and whiskey. She made a vegetarian lasagna, chorizo pasta and salad. The lasagna was one of the best ones I've had in quiet some time! Luke made citrus donuts with dark chocolate dipping sauce for desert.

Bamboo Buddha

Last Saturday two of my lovely friends came to visit, & we went out for coffee & lunch at one of my favourite places on the coast, Bamboo Buddha. It is such a tranquil environment, with a vegetarian menu. You sit outside amongst the fresh air, in this big open paved space with a rain forest setting. It is truly amazing. Despite the business name & above description, it is not a tacky, hippy shake cafe. We spent a few delightful hours there together, & then I wrote them directions & they were on their way. It was such a lovely morning.

(Georgia's absence from our date photography is not a measure of love, she wasn't feeling winter's wrath)


After lunch, I was Newcastle bound once again to have drinks with Ninny. We had an amazing Indian dish, drank punch & whiskey, went to the pub & danced, came home to a bowl of corn relish dip & the comforts of Kyle's bedroom where our night ended. Kyle & Ninny are my favourite people to drink with!

Tea party w/Ninny!

A couple of weeks my bff Ninny and I had a tea party, and she finally got around to giving me our lovely drinking snaps! It was such a lovely evening, as it always is with Ninny.