Yay! Plus a bunny necklace from Shanalogic.com. Hot.

Now to find dinner, so I can eat early, so I can go for my next lot of blood tests earlier tomorrow. Yays!

The place has been done up for dining, cocktails, as a guest house, and for high tea!

They were actually setting up fro High Tea for the 60th birthday of one of my school friend’s mums when we snuck out back for a sticky beak!

They accommodated our orders really well – considering the array of dietary requirements at the table (including lactose intolerant, coeliac and vegetarian), as well as us arriving at 10:50 when breakfast ends at 11am!

I ordered the fruit salad which came with some granola and yoghurt (I got my yoghurt on the side, but didn’t end up eating it – the fruit was gorgeous and fresh!)

The bed was a Queen… Super soft mattress… fought a bit with the pillows to get comfortable. Rish slept well, I tossed and turned a bit. Probably just me ;)

The location in brilliant – no view from our 3rd floor room (313), but that’s okay! Navigating to the hotel caused a couple of problems, but we had trouble with the one-way (and then NOT one-way) roads. Parking is ?$42 overnight valet only. We parked off-site. (a whole different saga there!)

HUGE bathroom. I’m not a fan of shower/baths, but this was okay. They provided an anti-slip mat, and I’m glad for the rail! Hot water came on pleasingly fast!

Nice toiletries. Used them all, nice citrus smell. Could be made better by having squeezable bottles. The conditioner was, which was the only way it was coming out.

Robes were provided, we didn’t use though. 11am checkouts are awesome. As were the blackout curtains (NO light!) and it was very soundproof – for a Monday morning only heard the occasional vehicle.

Other cool thing? This clock:

Some of the funny tshirts over at Nerdyshirts.com have been done before (or I don’t quite ‘get’, like the Adventureland shirts), but there’s a few to add to my list to revisit next time there’s money in my Paypal account! (hint? or perhaps I just need to save a little?)

Sporks for any party, and a Buddy Jesus, just in time for Easter!

Maybe that’s what I can get for Easter, instead of chocolate which I’ve been reacting hideously to, people can buy me tshirts, or funky geekery. Whatcha think? ;)

I foolishly went the trout… a little bland :( Would have loved maybe some extra lime wedges on the side, or chilli in the udon.

But Wagamama redeemed herself with the dessert selection. Passion fruit sorbet with lychees and a side of sake? WIN!

Next time someone suggests dessert in Civic, it’s Wagamama all the way!

Nice to meet you! You’re real people!

We eat a lot of steamed dishes – including the must-have BBQ Pork Buns. Yums.

And finish with the best coconut jelly around ;)

There were so many girls in awesome corsets, petticoats, hats, dresses… didn’t snap any (focussed) shots of them though.

Fairy Bread!

Sydney.

We sang “Happy Little Vegemites”, she covered the Ship song, did Oasis, and left us satisfied to go off into the night :)

Even if she hates Vegemite. Cos I’m accepting like that.

A soy latte to start the day from my most referred search term – Lava Espresso, Weston :)

A black cat, up to mischief on the path to work

A purrty flower on the way home.

Can I go to bed now?

Based on a recipe (with a few changes) from the Golden Door Cookbook. Yums!

Our version:
250 g spaghetti (what we had)
125mL lite so good
1 tsp cornflour
1 tablespoon homous
A punnet of grape tomatoes, halved (or cherry, whatever)
85 g baby spinach (1 cup)
A small zucchini, shredded (used the grater)
1/4 tsp lemon zest – we may have added more ;)
4 tablespoons crumbled feta
1 tsp shredded fresh basil (again, think we put more in)

1. Cook pasta, drain.
2. Meanwhile, warm the milk gentle in a pan. Mix the cornflour with 2 tsp water until smooth, add to the milk with the homous. Bring to the boil, and the reduce the heat to a simmer.
3. Add the tomatoes, spinach, zucchini and lemon zest. Toss the sauce through the cooked spaghetti, add the feta and basil and serve immediately.

(had the leftovers with a nice piece of steak the next night. haha)

We’ve only had this totally awesome gingerbread train kit from Aldi since the cocktail party we had before xmas. It was a whole $12. And I finally made it up this afternoon.

I love Aldi. I can’t wait to see what they come out with for Easter!

Mmm Calippo! I only ever ate the Lemon flavour as a child, but this all-fruit Berry flavour from the newsagent went down well this afternoon – good for my sore, dry throat!

As far as vitamins and other supplements? No advice right this moment, but came across this really awesome visualisation of what the evidence is currently pointing to for what supplement for which disorder. Bubbles!

Seems I’m on a good track with my probiotics, vitamin D and valerian usage… Seems Boron’s getting a bad name for menopause… glad I’m not at that end of life!

From ACON (AIDS council of NSW):
Apparently Gay hate crimes increase around Mardi Gras time.
Is your workplace LGBT-friendly? It’s more than just “having a policy”… (http://www.prideindiversity.com.au/)

From Riayn’s twitter:
Realising why we don’t have gay marriage since all my co-workers believe I should be happy with current defacto laws. Umm, no.
2. Also was told I could go overseas to get marriage. None of them realised that the Oz government refuses to recognise it.

Happy Sunday. (Alas I wasn’t at Mardi Gras, or the Eurotrash party I was invited too last night, instead I spent the evening watching “Step Up” and whatever Tomb Raider was on.)

Something to brighten your Friday night. Thanks to Tracy, it brightened mine!

(Though I feel bad for the base :( *sniffs*)

Percy L. Spencer holds patent (US) 2480679 from 1949 on microwave popcorn.

Thank you Percy.

Went back to work today. One of the OTs tried to drop me home after our school visit this morning, but I stayed til the end. Mostly catching up on emails and progress notes. It’s amazing how fast you get behind! Especially at this time of the year when the teachers have found their feet and are starting to contact about the kids!

Headache on and off today, along with some puffiness still in my throat. Getting there. Didn’t fall asleep! :p

Friday tomorrow, then a full on weekend of Uni things! Got the first lecture for ‘Disabilities and Learning Difficulties’ – gotta get my readings done!

At the start of the month I declared that for Febusave (which I keep typing as Februsave, maybe next year the men’s version can be FeBroSave?) I would pack lunches for work and cut back on buying coffees and diet cokes…

I did quite well on the lunches front. I think I bought lunch once this month – and it was a day where I was due to take part in a group lunch at work, took one look at the Pide on offer, with all its cheese, and wandered out with someone else who couldn’t face that hehe.

Caffeine intake did drastically reduce, but not completely. As did the chocolate and snack buying at work – helped along by feeling hideous at eating cadbury’s and the work “shop” dissolving.

Extra expenses for this month such as text books for uni, registering for the conference in May, and buying pretty dresses weren’t factored in. But they can be supported, plus I’ll get the conference fee back soon from work.

All in all, I’m glad I stuck to the taking lunch thing, even if I might need a break from tuna for awhile! (I did have it for lunch today. Sheer apathy!)

Still to organise our actual dates to go to Europe. Getting there!

Lasted about five minutes out of bed this morning, before deciding that I wasn’t going to struggle though a day at work with a headache, woke up with a throbbing head, rather swollen throat glands, and just not wanting to stand up. So, called work to say I wasn’t going to be there, back to bed, up and down today, but mostly horizontal.

Felt better for it. Starting to fade a little now, but certainly more optimistic about the world.

How was your Tuesday?

(Peace fingers!)

For starters, the service was at a Polish Catholic church, in English and Polish.

At one stage all five Japanese girls were snapping away.

The bridesmaids wore Kimonos.

(Then the Polish relatives feed the guests up on cakes.)

The you head up to the top of red hill to On Red, with its gorgeous view of Canberra, provide Sake on the table, serve Polish vodka through the night, do all the speeches in English and Japanese. Oh and serve New Zealand wine. Cos that’s the Australian thing to do ;) (Australia loves its Marlborough Sav Blancs)

(apologies for the dark photos later in the night)

Dinner was a degustation of 5 courses (with a choice of 2 desserts)

Pan seared scallops with apple, avocado & wasabi puree, shaved fennel, tomato salsa & lamb prosciutto (this was yum!)

Totellini of goats cheese with prawns, tea soaked raisins, coutes, brown butter and percorino (wasn’t fussed on this one, but I did pass over the cheese topping to Rish, which may have gotten rid of some of the flavour)

Roasted fillet & tartare belly of atlantic salmon with waldorf salad, tomato sorbet &; garlic tuille

The Polish Vodka came around for toasts

Veal loin with creamy mash, garlic puree, roast vine ripened tomato with white anchovy & kalamata olive salsa (some weren’t fussed on the anchovy and olive salsa, but it was right to my taste!)

Passion fruit curd with meringue, pineapple & mint salso, line syrup & sour cream ice cream