No 14: Rooftop bar

 

Now I couldn't completely guarantee that I'd never been to a rooftop bar before. I know we went to a few in New York, but they were always closed in. Anyway, I'm counting this one as after our 5am wake up call to catch a 6.50 Tiger airways flight to Melbourne, heading out around 8.30 pm was about the last thing I felt like doing. In any case, it definately qualifies as going somewhere NEW. This place, Madame Brussels was recommended by my gorgeous hairdresser. We had to queue to get in. We must be hip and cool. It was a lovely outdoor rooftop bar where the staff were dressed in '60s tennis garb. It was packed out so we had the pleasure of sharing a table with some Melbourne natives which was entertaining.

 

Fortunately despite Kerrie's best intentions, by the time we walked back to Melbourne's "iconic" Karaoke bar, there was a queue miles long and it was about 11pm and we were over it so I didn't manage to do karaoke for the first time ever. Good to keep some things on the list for later....

 

 

No 13: graffiti alley

Last weekend I went to Melbourne with Kerrie. By the time we got to and from the airport, I think we were in Melbourne for a little over 24 hours and we certainly made the most of them. Sunday morning we went for a ride on the hotel's groovy pink bikes along the Yarra. Not such an unusual thing for us to do.

Next up was a trip down the graffitti alley. Not my usual cup of tea but it was pretty cool, and made for some good pictures.

We stayed in the Langham Melbourne on the "club floor". This means included in our rate was high tea, pre dinner canapes and drinks and the full buffet breakfast. It was extremely luxurious. We felt like super stars.

View from the Club Lounge.

We wore our hotel slippers to breaky the next monring which may also have been a first for me.

The joy

Arhh the joy of childhood. How is it that Bianca can spin in this thing for 5 minutes without feeling sick? It reminds me of those big Zorg balls you can roll around in but a whole lot closer to home.

No 12 - New fruit n veg shop

It's seriously amazing what you can get for $20 around here. Almost a weeks worth of fruit n veg ( have to go back for lettuce as today's trip to market isn't back yet.

Why had I never been in this shop about 200m away from me before? It was amazing. So fresh and cheap. So close to my home.

I did encounter string resistance from myself at going somewhere new for fruit n veg as I'm quite attached to my other place, but it's a 10 min drive away.

What are you going to buy?

Me: what are you going to do with you money?
B: I'm going shopping to buy some food for my baby.

It's so weird having a girl. Different style of play. In addition to the trains n cars.

This week's challenge - simple dragon cake

 

Last week Uncle Ken came to visit and for some reason the topic of Jake's birthday cake and how he desperately wanted a dragon came up. Uncle Ken drew an outline for the dragon and Jake diligently coloured it in during the week. Based on past late nights making cake the day before a party, I baked the cake last weekend and froze it.

 

I tried to get Jake to want a much easier looking cake but to no avail, he had to have Uncle Ken's design.

 

Pulled the cakes out Friday and freehanded a pattern, cut out all the spikes which completely disappeared when icing it. I'd forgotten how to make that nice butter icing since last I made cake and the ordinary stuff DOES NOT WORK WELL on cut edges. It was all a bit of a disaster. Especially as I'd run out of butter. Connah did a late run to the shops to get butter. After he got back I realised that I needed more icing. It was a sorry cake this morning but I went out and bought smarties and spearmint lollies and hey presto, victory snatched from the jaws of disaster (and more icing applied to the green dodgy icing to stick the smarties on). And of course the kids were only actually interested in eating the lollies off the top of it so I could have just given them a bucket of lollies.

 

Actually Jake was well pleased with the end result so that makes it all worthwhile. Come to think of it, so am I (well pleased with my efforts).

No 11 new walk

We got a babysitter on Saturday night and I tried to book some posh restaurant with a 10 course menu to celebrate our 10 year anniversary but fortunately they were booked out. Instead I pulled out Connah's bushwalks around Sydney walk and found that you can walk from Maroubra to La Parouse. The first bit of the walk sounded a bit dodgy as it went past a riffle range and the bloke writing the book noted that he'd seen bullet lying around so I thought the other end might be safer.

 

Parked out at La Parouse and found ourselves a new beach but I can't count that as I've already got one. We then went for a wander and found that the track has recently had a whole section of boardwalk laid right around some headlands and coves. It was amazing. One of those Am I Really Still In Sydney type of walks. After seeing some new sights, we headed for a Thai restaurant. Turns out there are about 8 restaurants down the end there down the hill, who knew. It was fantastic as the sun set over Botany Bay. Usually we only see the sun set over water if we are on holidays overseas or in WA so it felt like we were a thousand miles away. What a great and relaxing evening out. I'm so glad that posh restaurant was booked.

This is our backyard

Home of many happy memories, one very big Mulburry tree and some recently mowed grass.

No 10 with Tobes

 

We've been doing the divide and conquer a bit lately. Jake got an invite to go to a friend's house for the afternoon and so I took Toby to the movies while Bianca was meant to go to sleep. It was a HOT HOT day and likely to be rather busy lunchtime on Sat at the cinema that had Tobe's preferred movie on at Broadway and also lots of traffic and we all know I prefer to pretend I live in a small country town not Sydney so don't deal well with traffic (but do deal well with knowing the local librarian, bakery owner, meet people walking down the street, get to sit in an uncrowded train carriage and get to park right outside my movie theatre).

 

Just before I left I remembered that I'd never been to Beverley Hills cinema and looked up the session times and bingo, the film was on, starting in about 15 mins but it's only a short drive. Sure enough managed to park just outside the entrance, buy our ticket (and the world's biggest bucket of popcorn and softdrink for $7.50) and get in before the shorts for other movies even began rolling.

 

As we walk in Tobes says " hi Tai" (a friend from daycare) and so Tobes got to sit next to Tai for his first ever movie and my first time at Beverley hills cinema. Based on their popcorn prices and ease of parking, we'll be back too! And Wreck it Ralph was a surprisingly enjoyable film for an adult (and I had Tai's Mum to talk to too). Small world.

School is paying off

Jake has also taken to getting up with Bianca some mornings for the 5.15 shift. "I've got it mummy/ daddy, you go back to sleep" thankyou I will. Lovely little boy. Now he can read night time stories and cook pancakes, looks like our work is almost done here.

Poppy time

Poppy cane to do a course in Sydney and stay the night.

We shall walk

So our family goal of walking more is going ok. We do semi- regular laps of the block of an evening. Managed one Sat night after a day spent largely indoors due to a lot of rain. Bianca has picked up a bunny from cousin Collette which she found buried deep in a linen closet being cleaned out before she moves shortly. It came for a walk too.

 

Toby is keen for a bushwalk so must get on to that soon too. Bianca is a pretty good walker for a 2 year old but I'm not sure her range is good enough for too many bushwalks yet and she's really not that keen on hills. which is a shame seeing as Nana lives on top of a hill.

New 8 & 9

This one just scraped in but I think it's a good one... eat out in a posh restaurant alone. While I was in the habit of doing new things the other weekend when I was away, I decided to sample the food at Pepper's restaurant, Season's which I'd heard good things about. I had two courses and they were divine. Here is one of the courses above which probably is not done justice on my dodgy phone picture. It was fish and quinea and fried zuchinni and stuff. Don't think I'll pose a threat to food bloggers around the world with that review.

I dined alone on Sunday night at around 6pm so was the first one in and it didn't get too busy before I left about an hour or so later. I even treated myself to a glass of wine. It was actually rather relaxing. I've eaten the odd meal at a food court or cafe for breaky but haven't done a full proper dinner, with wine whilst alone before. Probably not my first choice of thing to do, but it was good for the soul never the less.

New 9 was a Reflexology massage/ treatment/ session. or is it just called reflexology? I was lucky enough to have quite a few massages whilst training hard for the marathon last year, which probably held me together but I've never had Reflexology before - it's all about the feet. Whilst after a massage I'd usually happily have a nap under a tree, reflexology left me energised and off for a walk along the beach. It was very refreshing - a bit like a weekend of yoga. It was no great hardship to endure but wasn't something I'd have tried but for my challenge. What do you know? I liked it!