Welcome to 2012

WOW – can’t believe its mid Jan already! This year is so good already We just bought our first house and we are super excited, or as my friend would say super giddy!!! Rod has been looking for over 8 months now and we’ll this one was just meant to be. So we’ll be moving in (fingers crossed) 2 weekends before the wedding party. I already have enough this year to keep me super excited, and now this too It’s all happening at once, but we don’t mind!

We had a great Xmas and New Year’s. Then Xmas break I learnt how to do nothing! Read lots, went to some movies, to the beach, swam and chilled out. Was very relaxing! Already this year we’ve been to one wedding which was fantastic, had the best time!

I’m now looking forward to my week off and celebrating Australia Day, our last in our current home. Then a long weekend up in Lancelin with a whole group of school mates and their kids, should be fun!

Happy Australia Day all!

Our Xmas news….

December festivities

How is it already December? The weeks are flying again, as has the whole year. Where has the year gone!?! I have been married for nearly 7 months already – WOW

So last month was the issue with my feet. I have had orthotics for 2 weeks now and slowly getting back to walking correctly, long slow process but not in nay pain now so that is a good thing! So what have I done this month, hard to remember.  Took 2 days flexi and met rod in Sydney. I visited the new Macquarie University Library which has the robotic storage system, that was fun. We saw the Jersey Boys musical which we both loved!  Amazing, we’ve never been to the Capitol Theatre before and didn’t know where we’d be sitting, ended up on 2nd row, awesome, could actually see the performer’s facial expressions, loved it. We caught up with rod’s friends and chilled out as well. Good weekend away.

So there hasn’t been a lot of time for house hunting, but we are still looking. Been about 7 months now. Rod has done the majority of the work. We’ll find something one day.

What else? OK well some fo you will have noticed we’ve finally finished our wedding party invites and they have gone out in the mail. I am so happy with them, I totally love how they have turned out. We already have 35 RSVPs back already Thank you Can’t wait to get more once Xmas is over, something I’ll keep forever, that’s just what I do. in Jan we’ll meet with the function chick and decide food/drinkies and all that other important stuff. So it’s very exciting. Only 3.5 months to go!

So this month I didn’t want to book in a lot fo things until the day, but that had to change as people wanted to catch up. So we’ve done quite a bit already even though its only the 15th. I’ve had a section xmas lunch, 4 dinners in a row last week, including our awesome Secret Santa meal on Saturday night where the Lethal gang went to the yummiest Japanese place in the city: Matsuri and so cheap for the amount of food you got. I want to go back soon. This year we did things a little differently, we pulled out of a hat a gender, instead of a name, which was more interesting. So I bought for a boy, as did Rod so he knew he was getting what I bought, which was great, a logo board game and a bottle of beer. I got a nice candle and a bracelet I totally love, from Charlotte. Megs got a lists book and an organizer from Leigh and Leigh got this wicked clock from Rod. All lots of fun! Brilliant night!

Sunday 11th was our family Xmas lunch at my cousins house down south. All the family f rom Perth came along, something we haven’t done since my Kingshott Grandparents were alive. We had a brilliant day. The decorations were unreal, the food fab, the lucky dip Xmas present lots of fun and just a fantastic day. Rod even played some bocce and cricket with the girls. So glad everyone made the effort to attend.

Last night I went for dinner at Waggamama’s the food was so good and they’ve updated their wine list, with some fantastic WA wines. We had yummy food and then headed over to San Churros for a hot cold choc. YUM! Tonight is coffee with a few conference LT gals, tomorrow night is VC’s and this year it goes for 3 yours instead of 2, because the current VC is retiring, will be sad to see him go. Saturday – have the Leeming School girls catch up, Sunday a rest until 20/20 cricket.

Next week looks a little quieter (at this stage). Def going to get my hair coloured/cut, having one lunch at the pub and then we finish at 12 noon next Friday – hurrah. I am counting down the last few days of work, until our Xmas closure, always love this time of year! Charlotte and Megs have finished too by then and we’re hanging out for the day and then going into the city to try the new Aviary bar. Should be a great way to celebrate the end of a very busy working year!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic 2012, that brings lots of happiness and good health!

Cheers.

Nov update

Since I’ve been back from QLD I’ve been in pain with my feet I’ve had numerous Dr’s, podiatrist and orth ped surgeon appts and spent ALOT of money. I have neuroma in my feet which craig says can be fixed with personalised orthotics. So I had my feet measured and manipulated this week, and they should arrive by the end of Nov. Which means I should be used to wearing them by end of Dec and the end of this year! Which is a good thing since I have a hen’s day and a wedding to attend in Dec/Jan. The waiting game sucks, as I am still slowly limping around and my foot hurts occassionally, but not as bad as last week when I had 4 days off from work. This week just took one day. I have lots of sick leave hours, and its a quiet time at work so I am very lucky I can have time off here and there. So that’s the feet saga!!!

My credit card has had a bashing this month, first with all the Dr appts, the mri scan was a killer, but thankfully all test results and scans have come back all clear, so that’s a plus! We have booked our flights to KL and then onto London and return for our England trip next year – so we are both very excited about that!  Yesterday we paid a deposit on a tour with Trafalgar, we’re off to Rome and Tuscany, I can’t wait for that! Have wanted to go to Tuscany forever! We’ll also go to Norway to see Tone, Munich to see Josef, Salzburg, Vienna and then time in the UK to see family/friends and 2 weddings. Gonna be another awesome holiday!

Have also booked seats to see Jimmy Barnes at the zoo, Ronan Keating at Kings Park, Mary Poppins at Burswood. When we go to Syd next month we’re also going to see Jersey Boys, fantastic!!! Oh yes also booked hotel in Syd too.

So we have lots to look forward to and save for. You know me I am always saving for stuff like this! Which is all awesome.

The past 2 weeks we’ve also been working on making our wedding reception invites (so keep an eye out in your letterbox, we’ll be posting them before the end of this month!), they look so awesome, I totally love them! We are spending time organising other things too for the party, am very excited about that as well! 2012 is just gonna rock, we’ll be partying all year! bring it on!

Rod is still house hunting. We put an offer on a house a few weeks ago along with about 6 other couples, we weren’t successful, but oh well, keep looking.

QLD & Stuff

We had a great time in QLD - a shame it hadn’t been a little warmer, but wasn’t at work, so all good. Luckily we flew Virgin and so didn’t sufffer any of the QANTAS dramas. So we did the overnight flight, arriving into Brisbane about 5.30am their time. Both tired, but did have a little sleep on the plane. So we took a train and bus to Srufers where we were lucky, our room was ready at the Raffles Royale - so we dumped our bugs, freshened up and took bus up the coast a little to Sea World. We thought it would be good to do this theme park on the day we arrived, so it didn’t matter if we were tired while watching the dolphin show. Totally loved the big penguins, so amazing, totally out there, and so cute. Rod tell’s me this is why he wants to go to Antartica, I’m happy to see them here. Another highlight for me was the NEW Jet Ski stunt show - helped the UK guy was very good-looking :) hahahaha. But the stunts were so awesome, this guy did 5 somersaults in a row on a jet ski -how? Without hurting himself, I was impressed, Rod was too After a few hours there we headed home on the bus. Had a rest and then took a different bus to Broadbeach - a really nice area. Street was lined with bars and restaurants. I had booked a table at the Onyx bar – on the website it looked awesome with yummy tapas food. It wa sa shame it didn’t live up to expectations. Started off badly with them taking 40 mins to get us a drink each. I had to complpain twice, we were so close to walking out. When we finally got our drinks I mentioned we weren’t happy with the timing it took and we weren’t paying, lucky for her she had offered to take it off the bill before I had a chance to complain. Took a little longer for a food to come out and I’d say Rod and I can cook better tapas than that. Anyway the music was awesome, a guy playing his guitar and singing – we really enjoyed that aspect of the night. The free mojito I had was so nice though So if you like good service DON’T go here!.
Friday
Had a little lie in, before having breakfast at “                              “ a place nearby. I had the best drink ever. Something I’d like to try and make at home. Passionfruit Iced tea with lemon and mint – yummo, so good. I had never had iced tea before, it went down a treat. Highlight of my breakfast. Took bus to Movie World, bus was packed had to stand the whole way, my feet/legs hated that. Wasn’t too busy at Movie World which was great. We went on one ride, Scooby Doo rollercoaster, in the dark, scary man! And it went backwards too. We’re not really ride people, so to go on that was a big thing. I think the anticipation is worse, just the waiting. Of course i screamed, but it was fun, 1st rollercoaster ride with rod ever I think (??). I enjoyed all the different shows (mainly kids shows) but they were lots of fun. Highlight was the Car stunt show - bloody awesome, for $300 you could have had a ride in the stunt car, I was really thinking I would like that. The cars went up on 2 wheels and did awesome stuff, fire, smoke, bang Left there on a high. We got some good photos of the parade too. had a great day. headed home, went in the spa, nice and hot, pity the weather wasn’t. Chilled out for a bit, had some wine, read for a while. Tonight we just hung out around home, and did the local scene. Found Orchid Avenue, a little street with lots of nice bars. Lots of people dressed in Halloween outfits. Found a nice bar, called Picture, loved it, we sat near the bar and watched the awesome cocktail man shake his cocktails, it was fun. Also had the best cocktail, I had a summer cosmo, yummo! Went down a treat! Kept walking…. getting hungry… Ended up at a nice thai place, yummy dinner. Walked home, great day/night!
Saturday
Big day today! Up early, had packed previous night, took our cases with us to Wet n Wild - a small improvement on the weather! Sun was out, still cloudy.  Arrived early, sat on the grass and read for a while. Let the kids all rush in. We had an awesome locker esp for suit cases We felt extra special. Suncream on and ready to go. I was ok for an hour or so walking barefoot on the concrete, but by the end of 4 hours I was walking slowly! The rides were pretty good, but I reckon Bali’s WaterBomb park is way better! But still had fun though. From here we got changed and took bus and bus back to Brisbane, as trains were out of action. Slept on a nice coach all the way.  Limped to our awesome hotel, opp the Botanical Gardens.  Royal on the Park - a hotel we found on Wotif, and with the help of Kelly and Darren’s wotif gift voucher - wedding present, we had a great 2 nights there.  Great heated spa. Nice room. Had an hour to chill and watch the QANTAS chaos, before getting ready and heading to the Summit for Amanda’s wedding cocktail reception. It was really nice, Rod only knew one couple. Was great to finally meet Amanda, she is lovely! Had fun dancing, wine and some food. Home and in bed by 1am.
Sunday
Would have loved a chill out day, both of us very tired, exhausted from 3 days of theme parks and dancing, but all worth it. Got on train again, nice and relaxing and went north I think? Up to see our great friends Rob and Lisa. been about 3 years since we last saw each other. So good to have a catch up! Lisa made us a yummy lunch, spent a good 3 hours there. train home. Both very tired. I had sore feet! Walked down to Eagle Pier where we had the best dinner ever!!! At a Japanese place, called Sake. it was like tapas again, the food was so very good. have to go back there one day, or find the equivalent in Perth! Was the BEST!!!!
Monday
Finally a CHILL OUT DAY!!! So good it was today, last day before we fly out tonight. Asked for a late checkout so we could just chill. Took our cases to South Bank, more lockers. Went for a walk, with limping MC Ended up at more tapas, it was a weekend of tapas, just awesome. Ended on a very big high, this place was just amazing – OLE - they make white sangria - superb, tasted so good! Need to make it myself! The food was divine, loved the crumbed stuffed olives Chickpea fritters were gorgeous too! Aswell as the chorizo and beef meatballs, mmmm getting hungry just thinking about it! From there we just chilled before taking train to airport. Both slept really well on the way home. Then had a great sleep ready for work the next day. Was an awesome 5 day break, a shame we missed seeing the Queen, but we had a brilliant time!
I’ll get some photos up on FB soon

Other Stuff
So other news, if you haven’t seen from my FB, I’ve been limping around since we returned from QLD. pretty painful and its my so called good foot! Went to the podiatrist last night, how funny, he’s an old friend from Leeming - Craig Boulton, we had a good old catch up while discussing my feet – hilarious! But he’s diagnosed me with Morton Neuroma - something which I’ve probably had for years, but at least now we’ll get it fixed with an MRI scan and some awesome expensive orthotics, but I don’t care how much it costs, to have no pain would just be amazing! So I can’t walk, no tennis, no gym, no UWA Sports Day But am looking forward to feeling good again.

Other than that, Rod and I are well. Busy making our wedding reception invites so they can be posted before XMAS!!!!

Post conference plans

So, who can believe the conference is over and my awesome trip to KL as well!?! Both events were huge and awesome, and now they’re over. Of course they are both well documented in my journal and photos. Hope to make a digital photo book of both, or even a combined one, something I can always look back on.

So what’s next?
Well I’ve got lots to look forward too. Lots of planning and organising which is what I love to do:
1. Our Wedding Reception
2. Weekends away in Qld (Rod’s friends wedding) ; Sydney (Rod’s conference)
3. Wedding in January
4. Easter holiday in Perth with friends that come over for our wedding reception
5. My brother’s wedding in UK in September
6. Big Europe/UK holiday to coincide with brother’s wedding
7. Our wedding party in UK with England family and friends!!!!! (late September on a Saturday – date still to be confirmed).
And somewhere in all of that Rod and I are house hunting, so hopefully we’ll be in a new house before the September trip overseas.

So lots to plan, organise and look forward to now that the pressures of the conference are over.

I LOVE KL

Sorry Melbourne but I think KL will be my new shopping destiation, flights are cheaper, shopping and food is cheaper and shopping is different, so many cool shops here. I love tangs Dept store too, totally rocks over Myers and DJ.

I feel like I’ve been here longer than a week, we have done so much stuff and now I can walk the streets like a local, don’t even need the map. OK so what have we done, or should that be what haven’t we done:
Sunday – arrived late arvo, dumped our bags went to Pavillion food hall for late lunch, early night.
Monday – Buffet breakfast in hotel rocks! (Staying at awesome Prince Hotel!!!). Took monorail to Tourist office. Gals went shopping and I went on hop on hop off bus, just to do something chilling and in air cond. Was good, but lots of traffic! I got off at the Petronas Towers for a few photos and a walk through the shops. Ended up being adventurous and using my map and walking back to hotel, without getting lost A shame can’t go up the towers, closed til Xmas for maintennance, next time! Met gals on level 10 for a swim, pool is lovely. Cocktails all roound. Dinner was at a place recommended to Carol and the food was awesome, Hakka! Chinese like food, ended up being $16 a head and there were 8 dishes which we shared, food was delicious!
Tuesday – Buffet to start the day. Susan, Pat, Sarah and myself went on a City Tour today in a mini van, with others, was a fun day. A few rain showers here and there but otherwise a great tour, our tour guide was lovely. We went to the National Palace, a Chinese temple, National Monument, Independece Square, Batik craft place and then the Twin Towers where it decided to bucket down! Great 3 hour trip. In arvo we had lunch at Shaghai teaplace had a few dumplings and some yummy tea. Sarah and I went for a wander through “Pav” and that was my first introduction to TANGS Didn’t buy anything but knew I’d be coming back! We ended up doing our own little walking tour and walked the whole of Bintang Walk to the end checking out the place. We are so close walking wise to all major shopping plazas – great thing! Came home and freshened up. I went to Happy Hour alone and wrote in my journal, very relaxing. In evening we took a taxi to CHinaTown and did the markets. Met back in Susan’s room to talk about our ChinaTown experiences
Wed – Buffet. Today was Sarah and Michelle’s Shopping Adventure – we walked to Times Square, massive 10 level shopping plaza. Started at top and worked our way down, even contains a theme park inside, but we didn’t go there. Bought some bargains. Had a great day, must have walked about 8 kms I reckon. In arvo we all met in the Bar Lounge and celebrated Carol’s birthday. How cool is the hotel, they gave her a small choc cake. Susan had bought some cheese cake tartlets – so good. Were supposed to be having tea, but Sarah and I had already ordered 2 Moscow Mules – mmmmm, went down a treat after our shopping trip. So it was cocktails all round! Did some more chilling. Susan and pat went for a maasage. In the evening all but Carol took taxi to Sky Bar at trader’s Hotel. One of the places I had wanteds to go. The view was amazing, but the customer service was beyond a joke. I don’t think we were “posh” enough for them. But was good to see. We had free cocktails, but not sure if they actually contained any booze, but the food snacks we had did the trick Another awesome day and night in KL
Thursday – Buffett. Today i was having a day to myself, as were a few of the the others. I went to “Pav”, 1st stop my fav jewellery shop Accessorize, bought 2 pieces there and then went to TANGS, spent at elast an hour in there. Came out with a skirt for work, but most importantly a WICKED cocktail dress for my wedding reception. In my fav colour of course, it is eprfect exactly what I wanted!!! Can’t wait to wear it Walked around more in Pav, bought a couple of tops. Dropped shopping off and then took monorail to Hard Rock cafe where I met Pat and Susan. Susan has never been to HR, so pat and I had to take her there. We had the best time, had a little snack each, I got my signature disck of chicken wings we all had a cocktail, the girls in a keepsake glass. I bought a t-shirt, my usual purchase, cheapest HR clothing ever Took monorail back to hotel, chilled out!!!! Had a quick swim before I went off for my awesome hawaiin massage, which included a foot spa, full body scrub, hot stones and oil on your back, legs and then an awesome massage, 2 hour session for $80, in the hotel! Bargain man!. Just what I needed! Dinner was across the road at this awesome traditional Malay place, buffet with traditional dancers, then Bailey’s night cap in Pat’s room – perfect!
Friday – Up early, buffet, Susan and I took taxi to the gardens area. Spent 3 amazing hours in the Bird park, the world’s largest bird aviary, where the birds roam free, well most birds. Some are naughty and try and escape, like this cute hornbill we met. But it was so awesome, we got some gerat pics. I nearly collided with a flying falmingo, it just came out of nowhere, it was hilarions. Susan said that would have been a great photo! We had a great time here. Getting hotter as time progressed. had a quick walk through the orchid garden and then over to the butterfly park. So hard to take pics of butterflys! We were dripping by this time and thought rain is coming! As we got in taxi it bucketed down, we had planned the morning’s events so well. taxi ride home was so nice and cool! Best morning. Got back to hotel, chilled, went for a swim, the pool was so very warm, just perfect! Showered and then Sarah and I went to Happy Hour for last time. Others went to Times Square for dinner. Sarah and I had fun chatting over our drinks, it was a really good chill out session. The rain thankfully had stopped so we walked to Pav and had yummy dinner at Island Resourt, a place attached to Tangs, hahahaha. Food was great and I had a mojito too, my 1st on this trip. Baileys night cap at our place as we had the best view of the Twin Towers. Today we had the King and his family at the hotel so we had security everywhere, plus the King’s 2 blue and white rolls royces – we feel very high and mighty sharing our hotel with his family packed ready for last shopping tomorrow.
Sat – Im writing this on our last day, was awake so early, off to our alst buffet, lots of lasts today, but I’m sure I’ll be back in KL one day soon, want to bring Rod back here, he would love it, maybe not the shopping, but lots of other things. I’ve had the best week with the ladies, its been the best reward present after our amazing conference!

Conference was a HUGE success!!!

So I knew this would happen. I’d start off well with my conference memories and now, its nearly 2 weeks since the conference. I was sick all of last week. Conference ended up being fantastic. The conference dinner was just awesome, had the best dj and everyone danced til their feet hurt. The food was lovely too! Best conference dinner I’ve ever been too, and I’m not being biased come friday we were all so exhausted so there was not alot of partying and celebrations. A few of us went across to Fenians and had a yummy Irish meal and a glass of wine to celebrate the END! I was home by 10 pm which was great, time to get ready for my early flight to Sydney.

Bryan Adams – at the Sydney Opera House, was just fab! So glad I made the solo trek over there, wasn’t even in the city for 24 hours, but it was just the best. Last week spent most of my time resting in bed with an infection. finally am feeling more my self, in preparation for a week overseas in KL with some of the conference committee. Roll on a week of rest and relaxation, some drinking + lots of eating!!!!, shppping, swimming and what else?

Day 3

Wednesday 14th September
What a day, massive welcome opening ceremony, awesome dancers for the official “Welcome to Coutnry”, then Russell Woolf presented and he was just so funny, he told us about the weather for the next week, had us in stitches. Susan, our Convenor, did a gerat opening speech too. Then Rachel Green opened with a great keynote. All the food was great, awesome scones and jam/cream for morning tea, went down well. Lots of great speakers, lots of networking, chatting to new people, such a massive full on day, but everyone had the best time. Took lots of photos, was very busy. Am very tired now, hence the lack of detail. The IFG sessions went really well. Headed down to happy hour for a little while, where more networking was happening. We were all practising our new info from Rachel’s sessions, meeting at least 10 new people. Rod came in to meet me and we stopped by the girls room and had nibbles before going out for Japanese. Just quickly blogging and then heading up to my room. My feet are so sore! Great day of program, so good to see everyone enjoying something that I have worked on for so long, seeing the Program working is just amazing. Am so proud and happy with this Program, we have the BEST speakers ever! Just amazing!

Day 2

Tuesday 13th September 2011
Woke up at 5.30am, again, managed to go back to sleep, but had a bad dream about the IFG sessions, I’m sure they will all work out ok… Just too  much thinking while I’m supposed to be sleeping!!! Woke again at 7.30am, had breakfast and a cup of tea and got ready for our Special Libraries tour. Met down in the foyer, did a bit of internet and then waited for the delgates to arrive. We had a group of 16. Took a bus to the busport and walked to the first library, Dept of Attorrney and General, massive library and lots of staff and awesome views out to the Swan River.  From there took delegates down King Street past all the expensive shops, got on a CAT bus out to RPH Library, that was a great tour! They have their own ghost. We didn’t get to meet her, but we were told stories about when she visits library clients in the basement of the library. Great tour. After that back on the CAT bus to the fantaastic ABC Library, that was a great tour too – 3 great Special Library tours, everyone had a fun day. Some stayed on to have lunch in the East Perth area and the rest of us took the bus back to the Perth area. I had lunch at Jaws, love that place and then went back to my hotel for some much needed chill out time. Tomorrow is going to be a massive day! Got my registration satchel at 4pm, chilled some more before heading to Welcome Drinks. Susan did a great welcome speech, Rob the magician was fantastic, everyone loved him!!! He did some very cool tricks, which I am still wondering how the hell did he do that! He was a hit! Food was fantastic, plus a few wines. Had a small meal for 1st timers dinner, blogged and then went to bed. Tired, but an awesome day, looking forward to the start of the offical Program, please let everything go as planned!