Monday, September 30, 2013

Monday 30 September – The tin man






Current location: Erskineville
11.11pm, Blogging. It's actually 11.11pm, right now! Weird. I should be in bed by now but I'm not feeling too tired and I wanted to do some more blogging before I forgot what we've been up to. 


Today we celebrated my boss Patrick's birthday, by kindly wrapping everything on this desk in tin foil. He loved it pretended to love it but probably hated it when he had to unwrap everything. He even got a special Tin Man hat! I was quite brain-muddled when I left work today, purely because of spending most of the day working on one long piece, so Andy and I went for a run, then came home in time to watch the first episode of the new series of Homeland. Man, I love that show! Weirdly, the episode was called Tin Man is Down.

Sunday 29 September – I love Sydney weekends!














Current location: Erskineville, Sydney
11.11am, In the back garden, writing letters. I got up early while the rest of the house slept in, then made some French toast, ate a cronut and drank lots of coffee. When we'd organised ourselves a bit, Andy, Nick, Bree and I went to the beach to make the most of another beautifully sunny weekend. It was super crowded on Coogee beach, but with a beer, a salad and the new issue of Elle Australia, I felt like I was on holiday! Someone also proposed by spelling out 'Marry me Nadine' in the sky, which was cute!

After an hour or two, we came back, got changed and headed out for pizza on our way to see the awesome band Foals. This is actually the fourth time I've seen them, but they never, ever disappoint. They have so much energy, and give so much to every performance, you just can't help but love it. Andy and I somehow ended up at the very front, and spent the next couple of hours madly dancing like we were teenagers.

Saturday 28 September – Grand final day, plus a lot more!







Current location: Centennial Park, Sydney

11.11am, Running! This was probably an error, in retrospect, because I was a bit hungover and it was really hot in the midday sunshine. But regardless of that, Sha, Jess and I went for a cheeky 8km run in the sun, which was harder than expected, but still lovely to be out exercising in the fresh air with two gorgeous women. 

Today was also Grand Final day in the AFL (Aussie Rules football), so the Paddo house had a bit of a gathering and ended up with about 25 of us descending on their little lounge, shouting at the TV, eating hot dogs and willing the Dockers to win (they didn't). It was a fun afternoon, and made me feel like an Aussie! My friend Louise, from Brighton, UK, was in Sydney for a few days, so she came round too, and it was lovely to sit out in the back garden and catch up on everything. A little piece of home!

As the evening came around, Andy and I left to go to Kara's David Bowie-themed party, and spent the night in their back garden dancing, chatting to new people, having a cake fight with Kara and revelling in the awesome Saturday night vibe. What a long, lovely day!

Friday 27 September – Assistant and Emerging Photographer Awards









Current location: Erskineville
11.11pm, At Kuki Tanuki, a Japanese place in Erskineville. We had been out to the SunStudio Assistant and Emerging Photographer Awards, which was awesome because Nick had been shortlisted and was one of the final 15. His photos, on the theme of 'movement' were awesome, and we al turned out in force to support him. It was such a lovely night, surrounded by most of my favourite people in Sydney, and lots of free drinks! What a fab night, and well done Nick!

Thursday 26 September – Comfort eating


Current location: Erskineville, Sydney
11.11pm, Eating icing. Tomorrow is my boss' birthday so we decided to make him a cake and, as I wasn't working the late shift tonight, I volunteered to make it. I've definitely been enjoying baking recently! Tonight's effort was a lime and chocolate drizzle cake, and I was pretty nervous about making it – cooking for colleagues is scary! I was also feeling a bit saggy and tired tonight, I don't know why, but a bit of baking helped.

Wednesday 25 September – Getting my bake on



Current location: Eveleigh, Sydney
11.11am, Talking about Anzac biscuits. I have never had one, and they're a national institution in Oz, so I decided to make some tonight. And they turned out pretty well, or so say my workmates who ate them the next day!

Tuesday 24 September – King lizard and the quizzard wizards



Current location: A road, Sydney
11.11pm, On the way home from the quiz that we've started going to every Tuesday. It's at the Forresters pub, and is really fun and pitched at about our level (although we are a bit rubbish) – tonight we won a bottle of wine for coming fifth, a pizza, and a bottle of wine for shooting a basketball into a hoop above the door. Random, but very fun.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Monday 23 September – Kara and the Courthouse


Current location: Eveleigh, Sydney
11.11am, Making plans for tonight. Today is my good friend Kara's birthday so we're going to a pub (the Courthouse) beer garden for some al fresco food and wine and good times. I've known Kara since we were bessies in Liverpool (where I lived immediately before I started this blog) and by a happy coincidence we now live about 10 minutes away from each other, on the other side of the world. Happy birthday lovely girl!

(Picture taken from my leaving dinner in Liverpool)

Sunday 22 September – Food and cooking and joy










Current location: Erskineville
11.11am, Out for a run! Today I managed a whopper of a 12.5km run, and I was so tired for the rest of the day! It was gorgeous to be out in the sunshine though. When I got back, we went for lunch at The Grounds, Alexandria, but the queues were too long so we ended up at Mary's in Newtown. It's a rad little bar, which does yummy burgers (menu is burgers, or chicken, not too much to choose from!), but was a bit dark for such a sunny day. Lovely to be out with all the family though (Andy, his parents, Nick, Bree and Bree's parents).
Afterward moseying around for a bit, the parents left and the others came back for a big family dinner of lamb (which I didn't eat), and I also made some eggplant parmagiana and a butterscotch cake (which I did eat!). I've been really enjoying cooking more recently, and I love how Sunday nights have become a bit of a 'thing' for us all to get together and have a yummy home-cooked dinner together.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Saturday 21 September – Sorting, walking, lazing



Current location: Erskineville, Sydney
11.11am, At home, hanging the washing out. Andy was at work today so just had a pretty chilled morning, having a lie-in, then doing some washing and tidying etc. The weather was beautiful today, so Roch and I went for a long walk through Newtown, stopping in lots of shops and cafes, buying some books and magazines (including the issue of National Geographic from the month each of us was born), and then we met Jdog and went to check out an exhibition of pictures of Bill Murray (in honour of Bill's birthday!). It was pretty good, some of the pictures were awesome, some were pretty funny.
We stopped for a late lunch in the sunshine, then headed home. And I was so tired I couldn't muster up the energy to do anything! So we lounged on the couch, I napped and read my book, and half-watched the football.

Friday 20 September – I ate kangaroo!





Current location: Newtown, Sydney
11.11pm, On our way home from Newtown, where we'd been out for drinks and dinner. Chrystal, Rachael and I had gone for a couple of post-work drinks to suss out potential venues for our work Christmas party, then Chrystal and I stayed out for a few more before Marc (her husband) and Andy came to meet us. We decided to go for burgers – and I ate a kangaroo one! It tasted pretty awesome, but wasn't a patch on the giant one that Marc got and managed to finish (almost).

Thursday 19 September – Run eat sleep


Current location: Erskineville, Sydney
11.11pm, Sleeping. I've been so tired tonight, work has been pretty full on this week and I wanted to clear my head so I went out for a night-time run, then got home, ate amaaaazing homemade pizzas courtesy of Rochy and Andy, and then was fast asleep by about 10pm. Rock and roll.

(Picture by Lady J on Weheartit)