My friend Deb posted this meme on her blog last week so I thought I’d give it a go here. I’m supposed to list 10 things that make me happy. Here goes…
- The boy. Without him life would be so dull.
- Shoes. Just looking at them makes me happy. Buying them, even more so.
- Sunshine. There’s some medical reason but I just love it. Until the temperature hits 40C. Then I start to not love it so much.
- Holidays. Even the simplest weekend away makes me smile.
- Rain. The sound of rain on the roof when I don’t have to get out of bed is one of the greatest joys in life.
- Puppies. You can’t be around puppies and not be happy.
- My friends. Even though they do strange things sometimes, they still make me happy.
- Reading. Being entertained by a really good book is wonderful.
- M*A*S*H*. If this TV show doesn’t make you happy, you probably should get some therapy.
- Huffle Mawson. She drives me batty but she is hysterically funny to be around.
Wow, and I didn’t even get to talk about blogging, or taking photos, or the myriad other things that make me happy.
What’s on your list?
If you’re going to disagree with me on MY blog where I get to post MY opinions on MY life, don’t use bad words.
Yes evil person whose rude comment I deleted, I’m talking to you.
My usual source of bird information is not here today so I can’t tell you what sort of parrot this is. But he’s pretty.
Also: he absolutely refused to move to a better location for me. Typical male. Stubborn as all hell.
If you click on the photo to go to FlickR, you can see a bigger version.
For the past few weeks, since Christmas really, I have not been at work full time. In fact, I was sick the week before Christmas and only made it to work for half a day that week. In January, I came to work a couple of days a week because we were not very busy. But now the happy days are over.
This week, I am back full time. Man, it was hard getting out of bed this morning. I cursed the alarm when it went off at 6.20am.
We have a new person in our team at work this week. She used to work here, about three and half years ago. She went on maternity leave, then went to another job for a year, then went on maternity leave again. For reasons I don’t really understand, she then insisted on coming back to work with us. I have been sitting here thinking bad thoughts about her since she arrived an hour ago. And yes, it’s uncharitable, but I don’t care. She’s going to be here two days a week and I don’t know she’s going to do. Even my boss is not sure what she’s going to do. AND she’s already telling us her younger child is sick today so she might have to go home early.
If you leave, please don’t come back.
I’m a such a bitch, aren’t I?
On Sunday, we went to Antarctica. No, I’m not even joking. We booked ourselves on a scenic flight to Antarctica and it was wonderful.
This is our plane, an Airbus A380:
This is my seat:
(We were in First class. It was pretty special.)
We spent four hours flying from Sydney to Antarctica, then four hours flying around over Antarctica, then a further four hours flying back to Sydney. It was a long day but totally worth it. The scenery was amazing. Here, see for yourself.
You can click on any of those photos above to be taken to my Flickr photostream and see the whole set. If you ever get the chance to do this, I highly recommend it. Ring Karen at Antarctica Sightseeing Flights and do it!
Okay, I know I’ve been away a few days but I promise there’s a good reason. This weekend we went to Sydney. Not just for the hell of it, although that would have been a good reason because I forgot how nice it is to visit Sydney. But we went with a specific purpose. You see, we had booked to go on a scenic flight of Antarctica. Yes, you read that correctly. Antarctica. And tomorrow, when I have finished going through the photos and editing them for public viewing, I will show them to you. But for now, I want to talk about dinner. Yes, when I’m not buying shoes I’m eating. Obsessed, me?
Anyway. When we knew we were going to Sydney we thought we should go out for a nice dinner. So I rang Tetsuya’s for a reservation, only they were booked out. This was FOUR months ago. So I asked some Sydney people for a recommendation, and I was told to try Quay. So to Quay we went, because they were very happy to take my booking. And oh my, was it worth it.
Quay has been voted Restaurant of the Year in Sydney for the past two years by Australian Gourmet Traveller, among others. We had high hopes.
We arrived at our scheduled time of 7pm, and were escorted up the stairs to our table. Overlooking the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Wonderful. We ordered a bottle of champagne (Louis Roderer Cristal, for those keeping track) and considered the menu. I had a hard time choosing what to eat, but here were my selections.
I apologise in advance for the quality of the photos. They were taken with the iPhone in the dark.
For entree, I had the Sea Pearls.
Tuna sashimi, aquaculture caviar, sea scallop, smoked eel, octopus, mud crab and abalone. Sounds unusual. Tasted amazing.
For second entree, I had the Five Tastes of Lobster.
Don’t even ask me what was in it, but the little pot on the right (above) had lobster consomme with lobster flavoured custard underneath. Not a clue how they did it. Delicious.
For my main meal, I had Crisp Pressed Duck Confit.
Words fail me. Sensational.
For dessert, I had something called the White Peach Snow Egg. Don’t ask me, I was intrigued by the name and just had to try it. So glad I did.
That white thing in the middle? A crispy shell covering peach flavoured meringue with some sort of icecream (yellow, so it looked like an egg) inside. With peach granita and something else, I don’t know because I’m not a chef and clearly not a great food writer either.
All I can tell you, is that if you go to Sydney and you want to eat some sensational food in a beautiful setting, go to Quay. It will be so worth it.
By the way, I wore my Louboutins and I definitely had the best dressed feet there. Seriously.
But how could I resist?
Damn you Christian Louboutin. If only you made really ugly shoes, I wouldn’t be tempted.
In case you haven’t guessed by now, I am a bit of a tech-head. I love technology and gadgets and anything new and cool 
Which is why I have a mac (actually two) of course.
Anyhow, today I have two new toys to show you. This is my magnificent new Kindle:
And these are my new headphones from Bose:
There is a good reason for me getting both these toys. We are going to China and Russia and three of the ‘Stans in April and we’ll be away for a whole month. We’re travelling by train and that’s a whole lot of reading time for me. Our last holiday was only eight days and I managed to read six books. You do the maths. This is going to save me a lot of space and weight in my luggage.
The headphones are noise-cancelling beasts which are far more comfortable on your ears than the earbuds you usually get with an iPod. I can use those for about an hour and then my ears start to hurt. These are going to be MUCH more comfortable for long trips.
Really.
Today we’re all about the sparkle. Trish wanted to see the earrings I got for my birthday and yes, it’s taken me more than a month to get around to posting them. Sorry about that. But look, here they are:
Pink sapphires surrounded by little white diamonds. So pretty.
And this week’s flowers, Lysianthus (I think that’s how you spell it?):
Because it has been, I don’t know, about a MILLION degrees here for the past few days, my brain is complete porridge. If nothing makes sense here this week, that’s why. I’ll try to sort myself out next week.
Just don’t tell him, okay?
Remember ages ago here and here I started my personal bathroom meme? Well, it finally occurred to me that I haven’t quite finished with that yet.
So, in the continuing interest of full disclosure, here is my favourite bathroom item:
The world’s best hair smoothing serum. If I didn’t put this in every time I washed my hair, I’d look a lot like one of those crazy ladies you see walking down the street yelling at people randomly. You know, the ones with the really big hair? Yep, that would be me. Only I’d be cleaner. And possibly not yelling at everyone. But possibly doing that anyway.
However, my biggest problem here is that I bought this miracle product in Banff in 2008, and have so far been unable to find it anywhere in Australia. In fact, I just emailed my hairdresser and asked if he could find me a bottle! Gotta love technology.
The point is, if you are out and about and happen to see this stuff, please buy me three bottles. I’ll be your best friend forever.
I love roses. I really do.
Took this a while back in my mother-in-law’s garden. I just like it.
If you click on the photo you’ll be taken to my Flickr photostream where you can see a bigger version.
It reached 38deg C today. So we’re celebrating new year’s eve like this.
Take two of these:
A bowl of these (we had more, but ate some) bought fresh at the market this morning:
And a plate like this:
And you have the perfect way to ring in the new year.
Since here in Australia we’ll reach 2010 before most of you, I’d like to wish every one of my friends a happy and healthy 2010. Here’s to many more years ahead. Cheers!
