Friday, November 20, 2015

Thursday 19 November – Sydney sunset dinners


Current location: Eveleigh
11.11am, Messaging Jess and Ri about plans for tonight. This is the last time I'll see Rianne for a little while, as she's going back in the UK soon, booooo. Today was a scorcher, so we met in the sunshine at the Opera House, and had a few glasses of bubbles looking at the Harbour Bridge, then wandered along to a little restaurant on the water to eat steak and drink gin. What a win! Plus, it was 28˚C at 10pm, which was pleasant to say the least. Such a fun night with my little lady loves.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Sunday 15 November – Productive Sunday


Current location: Alexandria
11.11am, Still in bed. OK, I know it doesn't sound like a good start to a productive day, but once I got up (about 11.15am), I turned into a domestic goddess. By the time I sat down to 'lunch' at 3.45pm, I had cleaned the bathroom, washed and dried two loads of laundry, changed the sheets, done the washing up twice, emptied and cleaned the bins, taken the recycling out, sorted through my paperwork, tidied the apartment... and then uploaded four months of photos to Facebook, and now am updating the blog and backing up my computer. I'm so productive when Andy is away (at a boys' weekend away with his soccer team)!

Saturday 14 November – My rubber arm



Current location: Newtown

11.11pm, At Matty D and Em's house. They had a bbq to celebrate Em finishing her master's, and I'd been meaning to leave for about the past two hours, but was having such a fun time, I hadn't quite got around to it yet! I'd also fully intended on not drinking, but my arm was easily twisted once I was offered a Corona (what's a bbq without a beer, hey?!). Such a funny, silly night, as all the best ones are. 

Friday 13 November – Goodbye Danica!








Current location: Redfern
11.11pm, Cycling home from the pub. Today was my good friend Danica's last day at work, as she's off to her dream job at Cleo/Dolly. I'm very proud of her, but selfishly very sad, as I'll miss her heaps at work! She's such a funny little bunny. 

After work, we set up a little margarita bar in the office, and then went to the Bearded Tit in Redfern to continue the drinking. It was such a fun night, and a fab way to start the weekend… Although I wish it was for a reason other than Danica leaving!

Wednesday 11 November – Goodness Me Wholefood Night Markets





Current location: Alexandria
11.11pm, Asleep, full, happy, healthy. Yee and I had been to the Goodness Me Wholefood Night Markets, and eaten our body weight in paleo/organic/free-range/gluten-free/vegan snacks. Surprisingly yummy and such a cool event. It was their first one, held at the Grounds (always a good venue), and I can't wait for it to become a regular thing.

Tuesday 10 November – Storytelling


Current location: Redfern
11.11am, On our way home from a night of Storytelling, at the Giant Dwarf. It was a group of comedians, who all told ghost stories, and it was so funny (and a teensy bit scary). Ducky had taken me as a treat for my birthday (the amazing birthday that keeps on giving), and we'd been for yummy dinner at the Dove & Olive (and I'd even managed to squeeze in a quick netball match, which we'd smashed too!).

Monday 9 November – Oztag, game 2



Current location: Alexandria
11.11pm, Reading in bed, and being full. I only just ate dinner, as we had a late game of Oztag… My second game ever, and it was so bloody fun! We beat the other team 22-2 (only partly because they had 7 players to our 10!) and I scored two tries. Yippee! I'm loving learning a new sport and trying something different, and I just can't enough of team sports. The best. 

Saturday 7 November – Bookwurmz on tour #2

















Current location: Gerroa
11.11am, On the beach. It was pretty dreary weather but Sha, Jess and I decided to go for a run to blow off the wine cobwebs from last night, and see a bit of the beautiful Seven Mile Beach, which our house overlooks. It was a gorgeous run along the beach, then we went back to the house and had a big brekky and coffee with the others. In the afternoon, we decided to explore nearby Berry (known for its doughnuts, which of course we had to try!) and spent a couple of hours moseying, pottering, wandering. And eating (pies, sausages rolls, juices, and of course the doughnuts). It's such a cute town.

When we came back to the house, we decided to snuggle down and watch a movie (The Holiday), and cracked open the red wine and cheese board. We basically didn;t stop eating or drinking for the next eight hours, as Bree and Jess cooked us an amazing feast (with two desserts) and we made our way through the excessive amount of wine we'd brought. It was such a lovely, girlie night (we even played I Have Never!) and then we tried to get a game of Sardines on the go, but the darkenss and spookiness and hauntedness of the house put paid to that. Such a beauty of a weekend though, with laziness and indulgence and decadence the key components!

Friday 6 November – To Gerroa



Current location: Gerroa, NSW
11.11pm, Dancing around the kitchen, drinking wine. We're on a Book Club weekend away, and have come a couple of hours south of Sydney to a little beachside town called Gerroa. All eight of us finally arrived (after one carload suffered a breakdown and a car reversing into them) and immediately began the chats, the wine, the pizza and (most importantly) the unwinding.

Wednesday 4 November - Anna is born!


Current location: Eveleigh
11.11am, Checking my phone. For the billionth time, after Mum messaged me this morning and said my sister had gone into labour. When I got home from work, I finally had a message from Mum: 'Call me now!'.... and she delivered the amazing news that my sister Claire had had a healthy little girl. At this point she didn't have a name yet, but she was named Anna Lucy Harrison. I love her with all my heart.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Tuesday 3 November – Prince of Penzance


Current location: Eveleigh

11.11am, Calling Andy and asking him to put a bet on for me. It's the Melbourne Cup today (the Australian equivalent of the Grand National), and one of the horses was called 'Prince of Penzance' so, being from penzance myself, naturally I stuck $5 on it. I didn't look at the odds, the colours, the fact the jockey was the only woman in the race, the form (why would I?) but just had faith in the name!
We watched the cup at work, and I couldn't bloody believe it when number 19 – Prince of Penzance – romped home to win, making the jockey Michelle Payne, the first female jockey to ever win the Melbourne Cup! So exciting!
Made even more exciting (for me, probably not for Michelle) was when I then found out it was an outsider with odds of 101/1. Woo! Go Penzance.

(I took this picture at lunchtime... It's unrelated to everything, but it's pretty.) 

Sunday 1 November – Sunday recovery


Current location: Alexandria
11.11am, Driving to Paddington to meet Bree, Nick and Karyn, who were having breakfast. We grabbed a coffee with them, then headed to the beach for recovery swims and sunbathing.

Saturday 31 October – Day of fun!










Current location: Alexandria
11.11am, Packing the car, with games and drinks and balloons and so much bunting. Today i am celebrating my 30th birthday with a big picnic in the park!

Magically, miraculously, wonderfully, the rain that has been forecast all week suddenly disappeared this morning, so ager jumping for joy and rejoicing, I ran around Sydney like a madwoman, getting helium balloons blown up, buying ingredients for punch and getting the last-minute bits ready for the day of fun. Just as we were sorting it all out, there was a knock at the door… and my amazing friend Rianne was there!!!! This was a mega shock, because Ri lives in England, not Australia, and the night before I’d been looking at photos on Facebook of her enjoying a holiday in Thailand! The sneaky little lady had jumped on a flight from Thailand and surprised me!! It was the best! I immediately put her to work, of course, chopping up fruit for the punch, then we all hopped in the car and drove to Sydney park for the shenanigans. 

The next hour entailed decorating the part of the park we’d chosen for Day of Fun (the same part where I proposed to Andy, actually).  Every time someone turned up, I thrust a bag of bunting or some streamers at them and, in no time at all, we had the park looking amazing! So decorated and exciting-looking! It really set the scene for an awesome day. 
As more and more people arrived, I changed into my ‘party outfit’, which was gifted to me by Sha… A teeny weeny pair of shorts and matching singlet, ready for me to get active! I also had a beautiful crown… and a personalised netball bib, as did all my ‘family’!! The bibs even had a picture of me doing a star jump on! So good!

With my outfit on, I grabbed my megaphone and began ordering people around! We split up into teams and had an egg-and-spoon relay, then played some cricket, a game of touch rugby, had sack races… the organised fun was endless!
As well as all the awesome games and activities, we had so much relish food to eat, courtesy of my amazing friends and Andy’s parents, who set up an amazing feast. Some of the highlights were salted caramel trifles, sausage and caramelised onion baguettes, chicken drumsticks, a summer fruit platter and a huge and incredible cake made for me by Mia!

We then played ‘egg toss’, where you partner up, play throw-and-catch with an egg, and then take a step back, so you get further and further away. There were a lot of cracked eggs, a lot of cheering, and an amazing distance covered by the two eventual winners, Craig and Matt.
After all the games were done, two teams were tied: blue and yellow. So we did what any group of 30-somethings would do to decide the champions: have a netball shootout!

The blue team (my team!) were crowned eventual winners, and we got little trophies and a lot of glory… And all this before the rain started!
What an amazing party and day of fun!

As the evening came around, about 10 of us went back to our apartment, ordered pizza, and fell into a too-much-sun-and-beer slump, fuelled by carbs, and vegged out for a couple of hours, before I kicked everyone out so I could go to bed. 
What a bloody winner of a day!


Friday 30 October – Lawn bowls and LOLs


Current location: Marrickville
11.11pm, Cycling home from Barefoot Bowls. It was an F45 ‘end of challenge party’ (the challenge being a 9-week attempt to get everyone fit/strong/healthy. I don’t stick to the challenge very well, but my goal was to be able to do five chin-ups… and on my 30th birthday (on Thursday), I did them! They were crap ones, but it still counts!
Anyway, lots of people did much better than me, and managed to reach there goals, and it was really nice to have a party to celebrate that! We played a bit of Barefoot Bowls, drank lots of beers, danced and they gave out awards (I won one for being the social organiser… one of my prizes was a pink netball, which obviously then got thrown around, resulting in glasses breaking. Oops). Then Andy and I cycled/wobbled home.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Thursday 29 October – My 30th birthday!




Current location: Erskineville
11.11pm, In the Swanson hotel. It was the end of the a remarkable day. Today I turned 30!
The day went something like this:
-Woke up at 6.15am, to Andy singing me Happy Birthday
-Went to a weights class (something I never thought I'd be doing on my birthday but hey-ho!) and achieved my goal of five chin-ups 
-My friend Frankie bought me breakfast after, then I rode home, spoke to my mum and opened a couple of pressies
-Went to work, where my desk was decorated, I had flowers from my friend, and I was wearing the world's most amazing jumpsuit (present from awesome friends)
-Ate chocolate consistently until lunchtime, then ate a chicken wrap and chips
-Had a chilled day while my lovely boss Patrick picked up all my slack (sorry P-Dawg!)
-Ate cake and had everyone sing Happy Birthday to me and another colleague, whose birthday was yesterday
-Ate more chocolate
-Went home, drank Champagne with Andy and opened more presents
-Some friends came round, who did my make-up, drank Champagne with me and gave me more presents (spoilt isn't even the word here)
-Went for dinner at Bitton, my favourite French cafe, which just happens to be at the end of the road
-Ate so much amazing French-inspired food, including the best garlic bread I've ever eaten in my whole life, with 21 of the most awesome people in my Aussie life... including work friends, netball friends, gym friends, English friends, Aussies friends, Andy's family... So surrounded by awesomeness and love!
-Was spoilt rotten with even more presents, all so well-chosen and thoughtful
-Went for drinks with Nick, Andy, Bree and Karyn (who'd flown down from Brisbane)
-Went home, exhausted and piddled and so, so happy. I miss home, and my homies, but I am so incredibly lucky to love and be loved on both sides of the world. I love my thirties so far!