Thursday 22 October – The Jinx

Current location: Alexandria
11.11pm, Watching the last episode of The Jinx. It's a six-part documentary that a friend recommended to me... It's about Robert Durst, and three deaths/murders he is implicated in. I don't want to say too much about it, other than WATCH IT. One of the best-made docos I've ever seen, with the most intense ending! It's had Andy and me hooked this week... Seriously. Go watch it. And try not to Google anything about it before you watch it.

Sunday 18 October – Rugger bugger

Current location: Newtown
11.11am, At Matty D's house. I got up early this morning and got to Matty and Em's house for 6.30am to watch the Rugby World Cup... The Wales v South Africa game was so good (until S. Africa won, booooo), especially as Matty is from Wales so we had a good cheer squad going. Then we saw the NZ v France game – and as Mia and Gaz (who are both Kiwi and huge rugby fans) were there too, it was super exciting. NZ smashed France, so at least they were happy! Em made us amazing brekkie too, then I went home and went back to bed for a nap. All before midday!

Saturday 17 October - Parsley Bay

Current location: Alexandria

11.11am, Washing my bike. Despite the fact I ride it almost every day, I don't give my poor bike (Blue Nun) much love. As a result, she's pretty dirty, getting rusty and needs oiling, so i did all that today, and gave her new Spokey Dokes too. 

In the afternoon, the sun was shining, so Andy and I hopped in the car with our friends Mia and Gaz, and headed to a beach I hadn't been to before. Parsley Bay is a harbour beach just along from Rose Bay... and it is beautiful! Great for swimming, it's really calm and has shark nets (something I'm becoming increasingly fond of!), plus lots of room to run around and attempt to do handstands. Our friend Matty and Em were there too, so we had a fab few hours of beach time.

Afterwards, not wanting to end the fun, we all decided to go out for pizza, and as it was a lovely evening, we sat outside Pizza Piatsa and had wine and a lot of laughs. A fab and fun Saturday!

Friday 16 October - Oztag

Current location: Alexandria

11.11pm, Falling asleep on the couch. We'd had a pretty quiet Friday night, getting home at about 9.30pm after playing Oztag and having a few post-game drinks. I've joined a new Oztag team (it's like tag rugby) without having any idea how to play, so tonight went along to a training session. It was heaps of fun – and I realised it's also probably the first time I've learnt a new sport since I was at school, 14 years ago!

Wednesday 14 October - Smooth criminal

Current location: Alexandria

11.11pm, Sitting at home, with our car parked safely outside. No different to usual, except that we'd had to break into our car, which was in Aldi car park, a couple of hours earlier. Andy had locked the keys in the car, got a cab home, picked up a wire coathanger, a wedge of wood (and me), and then we went back to the car park and broke into our own car. It's amazing what this man can do! 

Sunday 11 October – Soggy feet

Current location: Mosman
11.11am, On our way to brekkie. We stayed at Emily and Dave's last night, on the Northern Beaches, and they took us to their fave breakfast place this morning. It was so yummy, and so filling, and so cheap, and I definitely want to go back there. (I can't remember what it's called, sadly.)
After our yum brunch, we drove back home and I had a lazy afternoon of watching Grey's Anatomy, then went out to play netball (we got thrashed).
The evening brought a whole new bunch of issues to tackle, when our hot water tank burst and our apartment flooded. As a result, our carpets are soaked, all our towels spent the night on the floor soaking up the water and we squelched around our apartment making phone calls and apologising to the man who lives downstairs.

Saturday 10 October – Wine Club!

Current location: Queenscliff
11.11pm, At our friend's house. Tonight we had 'Wine Club, which is a semi-complicated-but-very-fun evening. It consists of three couples: Dave & Emily, Brad & Cathryn, Andy & Lucy... Although Cathryn, of Brad & Cathryn, had actually been whisked away to Necker Island (Richard Branson's private island) so it was Brad & his two very cute dogs, who didn't help with the cooking/cleaning/conversation, but did keep us entertained.

The idea behind Wine Club is that each couple spends $60 on two bottles of wine, a red and a white. We all buy the same grape (a Pinot Noir and a Riesling) but Andy and I brought a $50 white and $10 red; Dave & Emily brought a $30 white and $30 red; and Brad & Cathryn the dogs brought a $10 white and a $50 red. We then blind taste-tested them, made notes and decided our favourite, the revealed the bottles/prices. Brad also made amazing food for us, including scallops (my fave) and loads of other gourmet treats. Very impressive!

The night was a roaring success, for multiple reasons. One, the company meant we laughed so much; we barely stopped laughing from when we arrived at 6pm to when we left at about 2pm. Two, the games, including Sardines (fast becoming a favourite), and heaps of games I don't know the names of. Three, we all agreed on the red and the white that were our favourites. And, somehow, luckily, they were both the $10 bottles! Man, I love having cheap taste.

Wednesday 7 October – Airport and trivia

Current location: Alexandria
11.11pm, Getting ready for bed. This is quite late for me, but I'd been out to two social events tonight! Firstly, a group of us girls from work went to the airport (yes, weird) to go to a restaurant launch. The food was delish and the wine was free, but it was still quite strange to be in an airport departure terminal and not be flying anywhere!
Then Yeezy and I came back to Newtown and met our Wednesday netball girls to go to pub quiz. After quite a few seasons, this team has just disbanded, so we decided if we weren't going to be playing netball, we'd use our Wednesday nights to do fun stuff!

Monday 5 October – At work

Current location: Eveleigh, Sydney
11.11am, At work. Waaaaah. Everyone else in NSW (it feels like) has today off work as it's a public holiday, so those of us who were in the office we feeling a bit sulky. Luckily we got to go a bit early, so my friend Yeezy and I met Andy and went to Tamarama for a swim, then to Bronte for a BBQ. Perfect!

Sunday 4 October – La Perouse

Current location: La Perouse, Sydney
11.11am, At the beach! This weekend has been stunning – mid-to-high 30s and sunny – so we met our friend Petros and went to the beach early. Andy wanted to take us to a new beach, so we went to La Perouse, which I've never been to, and it was gorgeous! As we were there early, it wasn't that crowded, but also wasn't that sunny, but by the time we left a few hours later, it was packed and boiling!
We spent the afternoon at Sha and Tristan's place, having a swim in their pool, then eating delicious dinner they cooked for all 11 of us, and generally catching up on the lives of all our 20/30-something-year-old friends, with everyone excited that it was a long weekend. Tomorrow is a public holiday, but I have to work sadly (another 38˚C day predicted!) so I left them all to their drinking and went home like a sensible Sunday nighter.

Saturday 3 October – All the beer at the BBQ

Current location: Manly
11.11am, At the beach! We woke up early this morning (surprisingly, considering how late Jess and I stayed up until, listening to crap music and watching strangers' wedding videos on YouTube – don't ask) and then wandered along the shore to a beautiful brekkie place on the water. There was a very cute dalmation dog who wanted to hang out with us too, as we ate our yummy bacon and eggs and toast and tried to stop him snuffling it. It was mid-30s today, so hot and sunny, so we joined the thousands of other people who had the same idea as us of going to the beach, then spent a few hours reading, swimming, sunbathing and loving this part of the world.
In the middle of the day, Andy and I headed back to Sydney and joined our friends at a BBQ, where people had gathered to watch the AFL grand final. Due to the team we were supporting (West Coast Eagles) losing from the get-go, and the fact the TV was inside and the nice weather was outside, we didn't end up watching that much in the end. Instead we drank a lot of beer and laughed a lot at everyone's guilty pleasure song choices, until it was dark, the Eagles had lost, the beer had run out (even after an emergency run to the bottle shop) and we all went home to bed.

Friday 2 October – Manly meet-up

Current location: Manly
11.11pm, Playing music trivia games at Jess and Mitch's house with Andy. Turns out I'm rubbish at music trivia, and am better at just watching others play it! After work today, I went to Run Club (the first time I've gone; it was good!) and then caught the ferry over to Manly to see Jess and Mitch and celebrate the start of the weekend! We had some drinks at the Bavarian Beer place on the wharf as the sun went down (so picturesque!), then wandered up their house and had dinner, opened the wine and began the chatting/playing games. It feels like coming on holiday when we're over here!

Thursday 1 October – Out with a whimper

Current location: Alexandria
11.11pm, Just getting home from post-netball drinks. It was our last two matches tonight in the Allsorts comp (which Newtown Kings and Flamingos play in) – and sadly, both teams lost! That kind of reflects how the season has gone for us so far, to be honest! But it was definitely the funniest season I've ever played! We didn't stop laughing (except when we were shouting) and I've made some ace friends. We had a funny little awards ceremony afterwards (I was awarded the 'Most Games of Netball Played in a Week Award', which is probably fair, and also was a runner-up for 'Player of the Year' for Kings). What a great bunch of netball nerds.

Sunday 27 September - Tea and scones

Current location: CBD, Sydney

11.11am, Drinking tea! My beautiful friend Saman suggested meeting at the Tea Salon in Westfield, and it was so sweet. We drank fancy tea from fancy teapots, and ate scones and talked about weddings, including Saman's incredible week-long Pakistani wedding last year. She's such a beautiful character and I am so glad we get to live in the same city again and drink tea – whether it's from fancy teapots in Sydney or old mugs in London.

Saturday 26 September - Double the fun

Current location: St Peter's
11.11pm, Goodness knows. Drinking, dancing maybe. Or picking people up to demonstrate our strength? Or taking photots? Or laughing. Definitely laughing. Listening to MMMBop? Eating sausages and a lot of crisps? All these things happened, thank goodness. What a wonderful night at my lovely friends Mia and Gaz's house, where we had an awesome house party. It's been a while since I've been to a house party, and it was so fun! I immediately reverted back to the uni version of me, which involves causing mischief and being silly and drinking whatever is made for me (this time, by Gaz, who I then proceeded to call my 'Spirit Animal' all night). So much fun with funny people. It had been a day of awesome fun too, and my work/netball/life friend Amy's 30th. We went to Clovelly Bowls, and had a BBQ and bowls in the sunshine.
So many of my favourite things today, and my fave people!

Friday 25 September - Nick's pics

Current location: Erskineville

11.11pm, At Hive Bar. I was in the Friday frame of mind, and a few of us decided to kick on in a little bar near our house. After work, we'd been to an exhibition where Nick was a finalist in the Emerging and Assistant Photographer Awards. His pics are always beautiful, but these ones were a bit funnier to look at, because they were of us! A while ago, we went to a studio he was working at so he could take photos of heaps of us (all his close friends and family)... Little did we know we'd end up on the wall! (I was super hungover when this picture was taken FYI.) The exhibition was really fun and, although he didn't take out the top prize, there was a lot of praise heaped upon Nick for his wonderful photography. We celebrated with lots of beer and then headed to Hive to celebrate some more. Well done lovely man. 

Thursday 24 September - The rematch

Current location: Alexandria 

11.11pm,  Not being asleep. Every time I play a late game of netball, I get home feeling pretty wired and not at all tired. Our game tonight finished at about 9.30pm, then we had a beer after, so I didn't get home until nearly 11pm. An hour later I was still feeling wide awake... which might have had somerhing to do with the adrenaline from our awesome win in the Newtown Derby. It was the rematch after the last game, which the Kings (my team) won 15-8 against the Flamingos (our rival team/friends). The Kings turned on the skills tonight, and won 26-15, so we retire from the season as reigning champions. (Only in the Newtown Derby though - we actually haven't won any other games!) 

Sunday 20 September – Sydney Bridge Run

Current location: Botanical Gardens
11.11am, Eating some brekkie. Post-run. Today was the Sydney Bride Run, which as the name suggests, is a run across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There are a few events, including a marathon, a half marathon, a 9km run and a 5km run. My friends Michelle and Allison and I did the 9km – which is one of the longest distances I've run in a while! – but it was really good! The atmosphere was great, and we all managed to keep running the whole time, and finished it in just under an hour, which is what we wanted. Afterwards, we went to the VIP tent (because we are fancy work for New Idea) and had a scrummy sausage and egg brekky, met Jesinta Campbell, then went to meet our friend Julie, who did the half marathon. Legend!

Afterwards, I went to the Forresters to meet Andy and my friends Emily (who also did the Bridge Run) and Maddie, drinking white wine in the sun, then red wine when the sun went down.