Monday Monday Monday

We job searched & went to the library today - very exciting....
So, just for you, a picture of the first pies Murray made (the other night) with the pie maker his Mom gave us - leftover mince with veggies - in pastry - yumm yumm yumm

And last night we had a bit of this fab mayo Anna brought for us (with fish) oh WOW is it good!!!

And today at the grocery store I spotted this $28 Easter egg - wow - just a BIT much - an egg for a Big Dude I guess!

Hello, my name is Monique and I am 30

Started off my birthday in a nice way
My sister-in-law Helen took us out to an AMAZING breakfast at White Water - a restaurant facing Manly Beach, and then took me out shopping for my pressie - YAY for my lovely new jacket! :)

Then it was time for me to go to the hair salon to get some highlights put in my hair. Somehow it took them FOUR hours - yes 4 - just for color, I didn't even have a cut! Long story short - they were super busy, their hair heater was broken so I sat for ages waiting for the bleach to do it's work 'naturally'. However I waited SO long I came to realise she forgot about me. I finally flagged someone down to ask where the heck my colourist was, she came over and said oh yes - time for a wash (yes - cause I reminded you!!!) and then after a nice wash I go back and see my highlights are white - I asked for them to match my natural sun highlighted color.......
So, back to the sink to have some toner put in, then another wash.
It went on so long that she ended up coming over to apologise, gave me 20% off and a free blow dry - I was happy in the end, so that was fine with me!
Oh and the worst part - I forgot my library books there - opps!!! I will have to pop by tomorrow morning to pick them up from the salon!

Made it home then it was time to quickly get home & get changed.

Anna & Murray - posing for photos with a pre-dinner drink

Anna & Me

Ali, Me & Anna

Posing for a photo - the dress & lovely necklace were b-day gifts from my sweet hubby

Me & Helen

We eventually made our way down to Hugos restaurant at Manly Wharf where Anna treated me to my first b-day cocktail - a fancy guava & apple bellini - yummm!

It was fun to have our friends out to celebrate - Nicole & Helen

Ali, Murray & Steve enjoying a beer (2 for Murray!)

Hugos is known for it's pizzas and WOW were they good!

Everyone at dinner (other than Helen cause she was the photographer - bummer!)
Clockwise - Ali, Murray, Steve, Nicole, Cameron, Selina, Me & Anna

After dinner they brought out a surprise!!!! Helen had bought me this GORGEOUS cake!!

It took me three tries to get all of the candles out!

Cameron & his lovely girlfriend Nicole

After dinner we decided against the Wharf Bar and instead made our way down to the Charlie Bar at the Manly Pacific Hotel - they didn't put quite enough sugar in our Capriana's - but they were still good!

Lovely Selina & Steve

Murray, Steve & Tom

Me, Anna & Selina

Sister & Brother - Helen & Murray

Cameron & Helen

Murray loved when Tom surprised him with this Jack Daniels plus mint - fancy!!!

Silly by the end of the night:)

We had fun night - making our way to a dodgy bar on the Corso, and then finally on to the Sugar Lounge - THAT was fun!! Good dancing (my feet are KILLING me today)!

Such a fun night - so fun to celebrate with such a great group of friends :)

Animals & Stuff

Today we made our way to the Australia Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 exhibition. It was good (although the way they displayed the photos in London was much better in our opinions - these were all smallish prints, in London most photos were large & gave much more of the WOW factor. Here are a few of our favourites.....
Frog & snake standoff

This is so amazing - diver & whale - wow

I love this guy's expression!

This is Murray favourite photo - baby ostrich following their parents up a dune (those white spots are from the spotlights - they aren't part of the photo)

Amazing photo - check out the leaf reflections in the drop of water - amazing

p.s. I officially only have 5 more hours left of my 20's ..... 30's - here I COME - are ya ready?

My feet hurt

Today I caught the Manly ferry into the city
Nice view from the ferry

Then I shopped - 2 hours of walking up and down Pitt Street - I hit all the shops and department stores - I found....
One dress I liked that was too big for me, and the only size left
One dress I liked that was WAY too expensive for me to look at, nevertheless buy
One dress I liked a LOT that just didn't suit my body shape

And then my feet started to hurt - so I gave up for the day
And hit Starbucks with the new issue of Woman's Day magazine (the only gossip like mag they had in the shop) and a LOVELY iced chai - yummmm

Then tonight I helped out at the Sydney Swans Fundraiser - playing waitress for the evening (and thankfully I found out before the event started that the Swans are AFL - Australian Football League - not rugby as I had thought - ha).

There was GORGEOUS food (we managed to have a bite here & there between trips out with the VERY heavy plates). And an Aussie TV star didn't understand me when I said raspberry - his girlfriend had to translate - I guess that's cause I say it like RAZZ BERRY, and Aussies say RAAHS Berry, which I thought was quite funny. Anyhow, it was an interesting evening!

And tomorrow - I am taking my earnings to the Corso & buying the jacket I have been admiring for weeks - yay - early b-day pressie for me:)

Clean clean clean

Today we decided to clean our screens and windows and put in our new blinds
I CANNOT believe how black the panes of some of the windows were - ewwww - did the previous tenants EVER clean? Nasty

The before - murky dirty bug screen & old yucky blinds

Cleaning the screens in the shower - it just took some water as it was all just built up dust - but still - ewwwwwwwww

The after - clean windows, clean screen - and........... the same blinds.

We got our new gorgeous blinds out of the box then realized - our windows are NOT standard size - the new blinds we bought are standard sized and 1.5 cm too long. Bummer.

So, we had to put the old ones back up for now (as the bedroom windows are like fishbowls because of the walkway to the building behind us - people can see right in).

And then we went and returned the blinds, and got an order form for custom ones - *sigh*

Oh well - at least the view out the windows is much better now! (Murray was exclaiming during lunch 'look the screens are so clean that fly tried to fly right in - he couldn't even see it!)

The LAST trip post!

The Home Run -
North Carolina to Minnesota

http://www.muzandmo.blogspot.com/

Check it Out! :)

Nice relaxing weekend

On Friday afternoon we set off to drive to Murray's parent's house for the weekend
I drove for over 2 1/2 hours (just over half of the way) - stressful (you can see my death grip on the steering wheel - I certainly am NOT a relaxed driver yet)! The freeway was fine, but the mountain we had to go down was scary - lots of tight turns and NO shoulder!! I really noticed how narrow the lanes felt as well compared to lanes in America (I swear they are at least a foot narrower). We made it with no dramas though, and it was good practice for me!

Saturday night my mother-in-law Lyn made us a lovely meal starting with this YUMMY appetizer - mango, avocado & prawns - yummmm

Lyn, Peter & Me - it was a GREAT meal!

And then they surprised me with an early birthday cake & presents - that was fun!

The cake was delicious as well (however, I am clinging to my 20's for the next 5 days!)

It was SO nice to get away from Sydney and job searching & all that for a weekend, and fun to catch up with my in-laws. We feel SO much more relaxed now back in Manly after the lovely weekend :)

Today after getting back from another interview, a long awaited package arrived - our year's supply of clothes washing powder - hooray! When we bought our washing machine way back before Christmas the deal was that you got 9 boxes of washing powder as well. I was JUST thinking this past weekend that I should probably chase that up as we hadn't heard anything and WAH LAH - they are delivered - fantastic!!