Jury Duty

Well its been an interesting week, I went to the Jury Duty selection in the city last week, got picked and have been stuck there ever since, can't tell you what its about until next week (hopefully it will be finished by next week) when its over. I can tell you about the food though, today was rather exciting (well maybe not all that exciting), we have worked our way up from normal sandwiches to gormet sandwiches to baguets and now we are onto hot food. When I went in on the first day I walked down Pitt Street Mall, think I will need to have an evening of shopping sometime this week.

Happy Birthday to Poppa, Its next week but he is 91.

Its Been a While

Well its been a great weekend Friday night started out at Vanessa's place with a movie (The Holiday and Wimbledon) and Thai food night. While we were out hunting down some cookies and cream ice cream, I stumbled on an amazing florist that was decked out with so many flowers (most likely for mothers day) that they were all the way over the footpath right up to the road. It wasn't your standard florist, it had some flowers that you really don't see very often, such as Ornamental Cabbages. I couldn't resist, they are kind of ugly but really amazing all at once. I have some purple ones but I believe they also come in cream as well. I won't try to describe them other than they look like a rose made from cabbage leaves, take a look at the pics.
Saturday came and went like a flash of lightning and finished with dinner at a German Restaurant in Beverly Hills that I am not even going to attempt to spell the name of. It was Chris's Birthday. Happy Birthday Chris! It was a great night, with great food, most of the boys ordered Pork Knuckle, they were like excited little kids when they came out. I wish I had my camera to take some photos. I ate way too much food (Chicken Schnitzel with salad and potatoes that had so much butter on them that I am wondering how I have not yet had a heart attack. Not so good for the waist line either).

Today, being Sunday was once again filled with flying, I was judging the competition up at Warnervale (about 45 mins flying time north of Sydney), always good fun, this time the competitors were sitting in the right hand seat of the aircraft, I think they found that a little more challenging than expected and it definitely kept me on my toes, especially with the really skinny runway at Warnervale, they seemed to want to run of the right hand side of the runway, which really isn't a desired thing to be doing.

Mum is about to pop over for Mothers Day (Matts cooking a yummie dinner), she should be in the car on the way here now so there is no chance of her reading this before we give her our gift. We got her a hot pink iPod Shuffle. Something a little different and out of the usual gift selection that we would choose for Mum but I think she will get some use out of it, or at least I hope that she will.

This week on Wednesday I have Jury Duty in the city, I don't really want to get picked, it all sounds a little daunting. Will let you know how it goes. I hope to see Bron and maybe Alice and Lee for Lunch though, which will be very nice.

Can't Sleep

Well its ANZAC Day, its been a great day, its currently 11.30pm and I can't sleep. I have so so so many ideas floating around in my head for so many things, scrapbooking, sewing, card making, job possibilities and even my flying notes to hand out to my students. I can't sat that this year, I did any ANZAC related celebrations, I slept in fussed around with the layout of some flying notes (I am currently attempting to structure them in a way that will interest an 8 year old, yes I have an 8 year old student and yes he is learning to fly) and designed some tags for Amour Designs (they are blue and kind of a red/salmon colour on white, very plain but it works). Then shopping with Lauren at a multitude of shops. First we stopped by Menai Marketplace to see Renee at her stall that she had set up with all her beautiful products. I at first ignored the urges to spend any money by heading into Big W to get some cat food. Loz and I had an iced chocolate before we took one last look at her stall. I couldn't stay away and ended up with three items that I just love (if there is no photos here at the moment, they will be here soon, its really late and to dark to take any pics right now). I brought 2 wire mannequins (not so sure how to spell that) and an amazing brown and aquaish coloured pin board that I had seen in Renee's Blog several times. We then mozied on over to Spotlight, I picked up a few fabrics and a pair of scissors, nothing amazing. Then a quick stop into office works for some card stock before returning home to a meal cooked by Mattie and a movie ( it was a Keanu Reeves & Sandra Bullock one with the letters in the mail but I have forgotten the name already, it was a good movie though). I had been lying in bed for a while, there is just not enough time in the day to catolouge and complete all the ideas that are floating around in my head right now, I think I need three of me. Starting to feel a sleep wave coming on, time for bed. See you next time.

Saturday

Today has been a great day! We went to see Matts Nanna & Poppa this morning, Matt cleaned out their Chimney while Matts Nanna took me through her garden. I took a few photos, may favourite is this one that looked like lots of green beads hanging on a string.

Alice is coming over this afternoon to make her bag. Then we are off to Tim's 21st Birthday (Lauren's Younger Brother). Other than that, no news.

I just realised that I had not posted my finished bag, here it is.

Wow, there is more photos than text.

Blue

I am feeling so inspired to do crafty/creative things at the moment, my study is finally (after almost 6 months) all unpacked it needs a little bit of rearanging but its all in working order. My first project has been trying to find a new look for my blog, the now old title was, well, boring to say the least. I have finally figured out how to get an image into the header just to spruce it up a bit. Last night I tried pink by usng a photo I had taken of a Peony in my Nannas garden in NZ, don't get me wrong I love pink, but I love blue more. After much pondering and many changes, todays colour scheme is more me.

Matt sprayed all the weeds in the garden a few weeks ago so Daisy had not been outside in while. This afternoon, she was let loose, she crept out like she wasn't sure if I was going to catch her and take her back inside, then she went nuts, she dug holes in the dirt like a dog (and them completely protested to me washing the dirt off), climbed up my trousers and did her very best to evade capture before returning inside. If course I had to take some photos, she is pretty big now (still growing though) and her tail is getting really fluffy.


Going back a few days, the Easter long weekend was fantastic, I achieved a lot. The weekend kind of started a little early for me on Thursday afternoon with the chance to go and see the Qantas B707 that has just come in from the UK. Friday lots of Cleaning and some unfortunate news that Matts Grandad was in the Hospital, he is doing fine now though. The afternoon was great, Lauren and Bron came over to make our bags. Loz was in charge of instructions while Bron & I got sewing. They turned out great, a lot easier than I had first anticipated, and it really didn't take all that long. The rest of the weekend just seemed to fly on by with a great deal of food all shared with family and friends (it was a great weekend).

Lazy Sunday

Well its Sunday already, the weekend is amost over. I called in sick at the flying school this morning, I didn't have any flights booked and I have a cold. We live underneath the training circuit of the local aerodrome, this morning instead of flying over my house looking down, I was on the ground looking up at the traffic flying over. The mornings on the weekend are the peak times for the airport, we get a plane fly over evey few minutes (only for a few hours).

Yesterday was lots of fun, Bron, Alice and myself went on an adventure to the other side of Sydney looking for a Quilting shop that I had seen in a Magazine. They had some amazing fabrics, we were there for at least an hour pondering over which colours and designs we wanted. In the end we purchased an Amy Butler pattern and some funky fabrics to make a bag. I think we will all get together on the easter long weekend (once I have finally finished cleaning out the study) and make a day of it, the picture on the pattern looks fantastic, we will have to see how it looks once I have had a go, at this point I am not feeling so confident that the finished product will be something that I will ever want to use. Today I have posted a link to Flapper Girl Fabrics (In the side bar), I recieved an order from them a few weeks ago (on my birthday), it is much cheaper (less than half the price) to order quilting fabrics directly from the states than get them here in Sydney and it only takes about a week for them to arrive.

Last night we had Chinese at Kylies house and then watched Becoming Jane at the cinemas. The movie was good, maybee one for video though.

On Sunday nights Lauren & Chris often come over (they are coming tonight). Matt is cooking roast chicken and veg. I feel like desert so i made some chocolate mouse to have with ice cream and raspberries (my absoloute favourite food is raspberries).

Thought I would just say "Hi" to my Nanna in NZ, I hope you are feeling better after your operation.

Graphs Graphs Graphs

Well its Saturday already. I have been updating the board graphs for two days now, lots of dumping data into spreadsheets and resourcing the graphs to show the current periods info (on the edge of your seat kinda stuff LOL). I am not allowed to show you any of the graphs that I do (not that they are anything exciting, they are really rather boring) so here is a picture of my workstation instead. It will look completely different in a few weeks as the whole office is being ripped appart, redesigned and put back together. I will be moving about 10 meters behind where I sit now, a little closer to the window.

I finally found out what is happening with my job! I start as a permenent employee (no more contracting) on the 9th of April!

Thursday night was fun, I had a little shopping spree at miranda with my gift vouchers that I was given for my birthday. I purchased a Blue IPod Shuffle and a pair of blue shoes (i need to exchange them, one is broken). Ohh and a new phone (though that was free with my phone contract thing). It has a camera, Vanessa at work offered to pose for me but as it turns out I have a mac and my phone is only compatable with a PC, slight problem, so for the time being my photos are stuck inside the camera.

Oh OH OHOHOH technology breakthrough, It has Blue tooth and so does the computer, I can send it whoohoo.

This Is Vanessa

Adelaide

Well I have just come to the end of a busy weekend. We started on Thursday night when Lauren & I flew down to Adelaide after work for Ben & Christine's Wedding (Matt and Chris were already there).

Friday was Laurens Birthday (Happy Birthday Loz). Ben Picked us all up and we started the day at Parafield Airport, I went to meet with some people from a flying school, while everyone waited very paitently in the car. Next stop, shopping, we arrived there at 10. The boys picked us up at two and dropped us at the hotel in which we decided to continue shopping, this time in the city of Adealide. We had a lot of fun in Colorado looking for some jeans, I think the staff were having a slow night (we were there for an hour) Loz took a picture of them on her phone, I will load it up as soon as I can. We arrived home at about 9.30pm, pleased with our purchases had a few drinks at the pub next to the hotel, hired and watched a movie and went to bed (the boys were staying at Bens for the night so we thought we would make the most of it). In total almost 11 hours of shopping, I think that is a record.

Saturday - Brunch at 11am, a wander around north Adealide and then the purpose for our trip - The Wedding. Chris was the Best Man and Mattie was a Groomsman. The caremony was at The Monastery at Cross Roads, it was massive and had beautiful gardens. I have attached some photos rather than try to describe to much. The Reception was lovely at The Next Generation Function Rooms on Memorial Drive in North Adealide. It was great to catch up with Matts Family, some of them live in Adealide and some here in Sydney. Matt & Bens Grandparents even managed to make the flight down (his Grandad is 92 and his Nan & Pop haven't flown in 30 years). There is one photo in the bunch that might seem a little odd, Loz and my feet got sore, so we took our shoes off, I like the photo, I had to add it

Sunday - We flew home at lunch time after a fantastic weekend away, good to be home but at the same time a little dissapointing that its all over.

Thanks to Mum and Sarah for looking after Daisy for us! Tonight she fell into the bath tub (full of water and Matt), thankfully Matt caught her before she went completely under. I have just noticed that the Yvestown link that is in my blog no longer goes to the place that it origionally went to, very sad, it was a pretty blog.

Birthday

Yesterday morning it was foggy outside, it was neat, almost looked like there was the set to a scary movie outside the window of my house. I took a photo buts its not that great, not really worth putting up. I love it when its foggy, it was a great start to the day, especially because it was my birthday! I was very very lucky Matt gave me a pair of earings. I love them! Mum and Dad gave me an array of things, my favourite was my painting from Vietnam that they had framed for me. It looks Fantastic, I think I will hang it above my lounge.
















On Monday night I made chocolate cupcakes from a recipe in the cupcake blog (They were the Devils Food Chocolate Cupcakes with Butter Cream Icing), they were so good! I took them to work yesterday, they were gone in a flash, I didn't get a chance to take a photo so I think that is good enough reason to make some more tonight if time permits.


I have also discovered that Renee (So Inspired) has put a link in her blog to mine, I was very excited (I know, it doesn't take much to excite me). Hi Renee! While I was in her blog, I also discovered a new one in her list, ohhhh, there is lots of fantastic pictures in there, take a look (Yvestown)


I am heading off to Adealaide tomorrow night for Ben & Christine's wedding (I can't believe they are getting married this Saturday). I will see you in blog land when i get back.

Hair Cut

I discovered this morning that taking a photo of yourself is not as easy as I first thought. Last night I had my hair cut and coloured, I thought this morning while it was still looking ok I should take a photo. It will never be this neat and tidy again. Of the many photos I took, they were all a bit fuzzy, but good old black and white seems to make it look that much better.

Another end to a busy week. I don't think I have been so thankful for a Friday night, work was nuts this week and looks like it is going to be worse next week. Though when Thursday comes around, I will be jetting off to Adelaide for the weekend. Relaxing on Friday. Ben & Christines Wedding on Saturday and flying home Sunday. Can't Wait!

Family Photo

Well it has been a busy few days Sunday night the girls and I went to Swan Lake. It was good. Monday, really busy at work and today has been interesting to say the least. I was told 3-4 weeks ago now that my job that I am working in as a contractor was going to stay mine and that I would be permanent, the processes started to happen and then people in the office were made redundant. Today I was told that i can't actually have the job without applying for it and that there are other applicants. I'm not real happy about that. If I don't get the job, I obviously have to find a new one, as I am already doing the job at the moment. Daisy has an upset stomach, she is very very quiet and currently on top of a pile of papers on my desk. I am very excited about tonight though, its art classes. I have not been in months and have new found inspration on what to paint. Will let you know how it goes. My painting skills are not the best but I have fun.

On the weekend, Matt took some 'family photos'. The 'family' being Matt, Daisy and me. They turned out to be more comical than serious portraits. I have attached one, I think its the best one there was, we don't look good at all but it was lots of fun.

I have discovered that my suculent plant is flowering again (not to sure the actual name of the plant) I never even knew that it flowered, but this time last year just like it is doing now, it grows a really long shoot out the top of it that is approx 20cm tall, at the top are lots of fluffy looking little flowers. I have attached a picture. The flowers haven't come out yet, will put another picture up when they do.

I have added two new links to my blog today, Lee's Blog (a friend of mine from school. Hi Lee) and Laura Gunn Studio (she makes beautiful paintings).

Blogger

Well after many dilemas with my previous page, I have moved to Blogger and also uploaded many photos to Flickr. So far so good, a faster internet connection would be nice but not necessary (I am a few centuries behind with good old dial up).

Happy Birthday Kylie!

Its fianlly the weekend and I have both days off. Last night we went to dinner with friends, thismorning, shopping with Mum and tomorrow is cleaning and I am going to see Swan Lake at the Capitol Theatre with the girls. The photo above is one of my new favourites of Daisy, she is actually sitting still enough for the photo to be relatively clear. There is a hair tie infront of her feet, its her favourite toy, she bounds around the house flicking them all over the plave. I have no hairties left, she runs away with them and they never come back. Daisy sitting still is a rare thing, see photos on the right, she is a blur!

Busy Busy

Wednesday 7th March 2007

Well the last few weeks have been full on! I flew both days on the weekend (thankfully I have this weekend off). Flying comp at Maitland on Saturday and fully booked with trial instructional flights on Sunday. The flying comp was great fun, I flew a Newcastle Flying Club Cessna 152. The sequence was longer than the usual comp sequence that our club does (oh I didn’t mention, it was an interclub competition, lots of flying clubs from around NSW came together, I judged the Newcastle club entrants) The entrants completed 5 patterns;

1. Instrument flying (under a hood)
2. Practice Forced Landing from over head the field at 2500ft and touch and go with a spot landing on the grass.
3. The River Bash - A low level flight (500ft) over the river that goes around the airport through the hills. Conditions were that the aircraft was to stay directly over the river (and not crash into the hill! That part I think was the most important - the not crashing that is).
4. Flour Bomb - bomb a target with a flower bomb.
5. Low level circuit (500fT) with a spot landing on the grass.
   

Lots of flying hours which is great.

My study is slowly coming together, brought a new bookshelf (the same as the one I already have) on Sunday afternoon. It looks great! I thankfully had Lauren and her BIG car to help me pick it up and put it all together. Putting it together was a bit Interesting. I have attached a photo. I still have a million things that have to go on it yet, and a whole pile of photos to go on the top. The painting of the rose that is on the wall is the one that I painted at the art classes that I used to go to with Mum. I hope to add a few more. You will be able to just make out Daisy on the floor, as you can see, she is not the size of Matts hand anymore! She has more energy than ever before as well! I will post another photo when everything is on the bookshelf.

In a few weeks (the 22nd) we are flying down to Adelaide for Ben and Christine’s wedding. I can’t wait, a 3 day holiday with Loz and Chris.

At the moment I am ordering some amazing fabrics designed by Heather Bailey (There is a link on the right).They are fantastic! I will show you what I do with them when they arrive.

First Wedding Anaversary

Sunday, 25 February 2007

I can’t believer that its a year ago since we were married. Everyone from NZ was here. This weekend has been really relaxing, no work for the whole weekend, just pottering around the house. Matt took me out for dinner last night to Danny’s Seafood resturant at La Perouse. We had a cold seafood plater - YUMMMM, it was really good.

I have managed to get the study all cleaned out and moved the furniture around. I love it, it is finally working for me. I need to get a few things such as another book shelf as I have so many things. This afternoon, I am working my desk, setting up all my scrapbooking stuff so that at long last i can start scrapbooking again.

Not Much News

Mekong Delta

Well its been a while since i have put anything new in here. Daisy is growing like a mushroom, she is more than 4 times the size that she was when we got her almost 2 months ago. I have sold 32 items on eBay this week, which was a pleasant surprise. OHHHHH big news, I found out that I will be a permanent employee at Qantas in my current position, no more contacting whoohooo. I think that Matt is finishing night shift next week, we will wait and see though. Not much else to write about so I thought that I would post some of my favorite photos from our holiday to Vietnam in December 06 (Click on the Flickr link on the right hand side of the page).

Old Photos

Monday, 4th February 2007


Last night I finally after almost a year and a half I retrieved a million photos off an old laptop that I had scanned from Hoki & Nan and Nanna & Poppa when I was in NZ in December 2005. This one is one of my favorites, Nanna is on the left.

Instrument Rating Renewal

Sunday, 28th January 2007
This weekend was the Australia Day long weekend (whoohoo no work on Friday) Loz, Chris, Bron and Anthony came over for a BBQ on Friday. Yesterday (Sat) I went flying with Dad in the Global Express, got to take Lauren with me and Today I finally renewed my instrument rating (with only 3 days until it completely expired). An NDB approach in the simulator and an ILS, unusual attitudes and steep turns in the Dutchess.

Jenny & Michaels Wedding

Saturday, 20th January 2007
Today seemed like one of the hottest days ever, we sat in the shade in the gardens of Curzon Hall to see Michael and Jenny get married. It was a lovely day, jenny looked fantastic and the reception centre looked like a castle, I think the reception room used to be the church, it had amazing ceilings and was set out beautifully, round tables with tall purple orchids in the middle (about 15 tables in all), they looked stunning. It was a great night (Thanks to Loz for Driving us there).

Daisy

This afternoon we picked up Daisy from the lost dogs home (yes she is a cat). She is so so cute and tiny, she purrs whenever you touch her and eats like she is a vacuum cleaner. Her energy is amazing, she just goes and goes and goes.