Wednesday 31 March 2010

birthday eve for me

i was surprised by a desk full of balloons when i walked into the office this morning. i LOVE balloons.


and then there was lunch at the station hotel and presents. yah presents. and a late afternoon tea of sponge cake. my work team is pretty lovely, don't you think.

an evening of dr john at the corner hotel topped off a fabulous day.


and that leads into... wait for it...

Monday 29 March 2010

sunday and birthday bowling


jenn had her birthday celebration at the murrumbeena lawn bowls club. an afternoon affair with friends and family, quartered sandwiches and homemade dips. it was a wonderful time. i came home after the long day exhausted but glowing with happiness. truly, it was fabulous.

Saturday 27 March 2010

bbq anyone?


first time piping.... i think that there will be a whole lot of practicing going on. took them over to ilona's for her housewarming. a lovely and late evening shared with friends.




you may ask the question about the hair dryer, i'm not sure i have a reasonable answer. but it was funny.

Friday 26 March 2010

another freebie


trammed into the city to watch this film. fantastically whimsical, sweet and funny. directed by jean-pierre jeunet, who also gave us delicatessen and amelie. totally fabulously french. ;)

happy "special" birthday to jenn.

Wednesday 24 March 2010

today

i received an early birthday card and present from my fabulous friends in l.a., julie and vince. a series of books by naomi novak - i know what i'll be doing over the easter long weekend (besides sleeping)... ;)

Tuesday 23 March 2010

faerie-kind ROCK the house


zzz.... the pixies.... zzzz... think i slept-walked through this day. went to the pixies gig at festival hall with jamie last night. it was AWESOME!!!  no really... the music was loud, the crowd was fabulous (i'd take that lot along to any gig, any day). didn't get home til 1 so i'm so very sllleeeppy. we got a cd of last night's gig too, so i can relive the experience again and again. i did tell you i have a fabulous life didn't i?

now to catch up on some sleep. :)

happy birthday loo hoo of lou-ville.

Sunday 21 March 2010

come to my arms, my beamish boy


o frabjous day. it has been seen in all it's 3D glory. i loved it a whole lot. caught up with alex and chris and jamie.

Saturday 20 March 2010

back to regular life in a big city...

today was a lazy, catch up with normal life day. my landlord dropped by to put my kitchen shelves up. yah! so there's a little more storage (and yes, that is alcohol you can see on the shelf and woger the wubber chicken hanging by his feet). thought i'd show you a couple more pics of the house with stuff in it. there are more pictures to hang, and more shelves to buy but i'm getting there.




this day i hung out with myself. i'm quite good company don't you know? ;) ran some errands and even got in a nap before heading over to terencio and lea's house for a belated birthday gathering for t. night of friends and laughter.

Tuesday 16 March 2010

don't leave things unsaid

i should live by this maxim but it's sometimes too scary to contemplate.

Sunday 14 March 2010

being all cultural-like...

day one: adventures in the nation's capital of canberra. henceforth known as a ghost town with it's own tumbling tumble weeds. amazing how quiet this city is. after brunch in the civic (supposedly the centre of town and where nothing happens and no one frequents) jamie and i headed out to the motel monaro in kingston. a nice place to stay.


after checking in it was off to the post-impressionist exhibition at the national gallery. this ball was just hanging in the sky overhead.


there was a line just for us to wait in and it took about an hour and a half to get to it's end. it was pretty amazing, the exhibition i mean. we weren't allowed to take photos (of course) and although i did purchase an electronic tour guide, i didn't end up using it. jamie and i made up our own stories. much to the disgust of some of the patrons, we laughed a lot and gasped in awe. ;) van gogh's starry night was simply breath-taking, a cliched term i know, but so true.

we caught up with joel, a work friend of jamie's for dinner. mmm... indian food. and then to a pub to listen to the worst cover band in the world. i'm not kidding. who would've thought anyone could get an angels song so wrong? or acdc? well, we found them. it was a bit of a late night.

day two: breakfast alone because the boys didn't get up til noon.


joel drove us around the "city", from one lookout point on redhill, through the embassy district (check out the metal cows, they're on the lawn at the new zealand embassy - yes there was the question of why cows, why not...?)



this is joel and myself standing beside scrivener dam. yes, we stopped to look at a dam. for jamie. ;)


then onto mount ainslie... spelt different ains, but there you go. you've been mounted. ha! some great views over the city from here.




joel dropped us at the war memorial later in the afternoon, and whilst fascinating we could only manage to get through world war I and II. there really is only so much one can take. i'd like to get back to do a little more some day.






then into the evening for chinese, icecream and conversation. all good things come to those who go on holiday.

day three: after checking out and having a late breakfast it was a walk over to the old bus depot markets (for the longest time i read the road sign as old bus depot markers and was wondering what the big deal was...)




we visited the glassworks just near the markets, wonderful to watch them work. didn't buy anything - way too expensive. but pretty.





a terrific bookstore in kingston is the book grocer. and they had an amazing sale on... i ended up getting 6 brand new books for only $31. a couple of wodehouse's, a recipe book, a couple of biographies and something else. could've spent all my money just there. ah... sweet books.


but the old parliament house called to us. joel came along for another visit. really enjoyed walking through this building.












jamie getting into the character of a politician...



i won the voting game, by the way. i didn't expect the boys would continue playing after a couple of spins, but they did to the bitter end... victory was mine.



the tent embassy is still there. which i'm glad of. it's part of our history. may it always be canvas. ;)



italian for dinner before we got dropped off at the airport. bumped into a couple of the swing dancers who were in town for jump town. it was a great weekend. not sure i'll get back to canberra anytime soon, but it was definitely worth a visit.

(supplementary photos provided by jamie, thanks)