Must be time for an update

Friday 28 September 2012 - Time really does fly between updates these days. 20 days since my last post, from Ballina. So here are some things that have happened in that time:

Saturday 15 September - Got hair done in the morning, saw the movie Kat & Kimderella (6.5 out of 10, not really recommended!) at Bulimba Cinema with my friend Kim; and then we had dinner with Debbie at my fave, La Quinta Mexican Restaurant, on what seemed to be their busiest night ever. At least 30 people at one stage, were waiting on the footpath outside for a table - and I reckon they, like us, had reservations too! It is that popular.

Sunday 16 September - Nat had a lunch at her place for our friend Flick, who is having a baby boy at the end of November. Rather than a "baby shower" and all the cringeworthy activities that tend to go with that term, we had a nice girls' lunch, and just happened to give her a pressie for the baby. Nat cooked up a storm as she does so well, and it was really rather a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

Monday 17 September - as my Mum & Dad headed from San Francisco to Maui on their cruise, my sister Donna was off to Hawaii with John, Aly & Mitchell. On 20th, Mum & Dad would have landed (?) in Honolulu and met up with Donna & her family at our favourite shopping centre, Ala Moana, for the day. Aly & Mitch didn't know they would be there, so hopefully that was a good surprise, and that they all had a good day together.

Thursday 20th September - Today was Lorraine's birthday, and she, Shikha and I went to Verve for dinner after work to celebrate. Verve is a great restaurant, with big yummy meals for a good price.

The birthday girl and Shikha - did I mention Verve is in a dark basement?

Friday 21st September - on Friday night, I headed to Kim's place so we could catch up on planning for our trip. We now have our flights ticketed, tour vouchered, and our other hotels booked, and so to further fine tune it, we looked at what we could do each day in Paris, Madrid and Barcelona, and just how to get from Madrid to Barcelona by way of a super-fast train. Lots of research involved! She also made yummy tacos for dinner. A good hostess is Kim. Tonight also marked the end of Collingwood's season - they lost to Sydney Swans. Ah well, I still love them. Till next year, AFL - I won't be watching Sydney play Hawthorn in the Grand Final...

Saturday 22nd September - My first day house sitting at Bulimba for my cousins, Ben & Kylie, while they took their kids to Yamba for a week. They have their holiday, and so do I - kind of! I just have to feed their lovely old dog Ella, who only needs a bit of a pat, some food and water and she's happy. My kind of dog...! The house is in a great position, within walking distance of Oxford Street (restaurants, shops, cinema etc) and the CityCat to get to work.

Anyway, that afternoon, my Ballina friend Angela came up to stay for the night. She is travelling to Central America in March with some of my friends she had never met till this day, and Kylie Callinan (one of the organisers) put on a dinner at her place (another of my house-sitting locations - see August posts) so Ange could meet the others she would be going overseas with. I hung out with them for an hour, then met up with Nat, Kim, Mel, Rachelle and her friend Tani, for dinner at Bucci's in  James Street, at the Valley. It was a nice Italian restaurant, with regional style (not sure which region) Italian cooking and we had a good chianti with our yummy meals. We saw The Veronicas with about a dozen friends there too! Afterwards, I drove back to Kylie's, picked up Ange and headed back to my "holiday home" for the night.

Sunday 23rd September - breaky with Ange at the cafe down the road, then she headed off to Robina on the way home, to purchase an iPad I do belive! It was a hot day so I hung out in the house watching Foxtel all afternoon, from memory...

Monday 24th September - Something to look forward to - booked tickets for my sister Sam & I to see Morrissey in Brisbane in December. Very exciting, we both love The Smiths, and I got her the ticket as a combined birthday/Christmas present so she would come with me!

Tuesday 25th September - happy birthday to my lovely friend from school days, Nicole Eldridge. This night Debbie came over and we tried out Ahmet's, the Turkish restaurant near me. It was my first Turkish restaurant experience, and it was pretty good, but really filling. Deb and I had a good catchup.

All week I have been catching the CityCat to work, and this is what I see when walking from Riverside to my work:

The same day I took the bridge photo, I saw this in the afternoon:

A big duck - advertising The Great Duck Race, where they race rubber ducks for charity - you'd probably have to be there...

And speaking of ducks - my 'friend' who I call the Little White Bulimba Duck, who lives at the Bulimba ferry terminal, has been missing from there all week. Tonight I saw him for the first time in ages, asleep and all fluffed up, and I was relieved that he was still there and alive... I hope he was alive. I hope he is not lonely. The other ducks that sometimes swim around him are brown, and he doesn't seem to like them much. 

On a final note - I have watched 3 episodes of Sons of Anarchy Season 5, and it is bloody unreal. So much violence and killing, but so riveting, interesting and occasionally, really sad. Great, great show.

Long Weekend of Doing Nothing

Saturday 8Sep12 - I am in Ballina this weekend. Thanks to myself for working on Ekka Show Day in August, earning me a day off in lieu this Monday. I drove to Ballina on Friday night after work. It was a pretty good run, and once I got past the Gold Coast, there was hardly any traffic.

Mum and Dad are still on their cruise, and would be on their last day in Alaska by my estimation, on their way to Vancouver where they are due on Monday.

Today I had breakfast at a coffee shop at Ballina Fair and then was able to fill in a couple of hours shopping before I met my friend Angela for her first viewing (and my second) of The Sapphires. We both agreed it was a really good movie - or, "really nice" movie, to quote Ange.

Tomorrow I intend to sleep in, meet Ange for breaky somewhere, then wash my car, then wash my hair, with a bit of Foxtel watching in between. A lazy Sunday, the best kind if you can get one.

On Monday I believe I will take my time in going to either Robina or Pacific Fair for some shopping, then to visit my friend/hairdresser Courtney who had a little baby girl, Charlotte, in June. So Charlotte would be almost 3 months old and starting to do stuff other than lie like a little floppy bunny, sleep, poo and cry. I've already asked Court if she can arrange for the baby to be awake and happy when I get there - I'm sure that will be no problem!

Last weekend, I saw The Bourne Legacy with Kim & Nat. They both think Jeremy Renner is a bit of all right, which is true, but although I did like this movie, I don't believe that it was better than the Matt Damon aka Jason Bourne trilogy. There was an amazing, breathtaking, fairly long and full-on action sequence that was really impressive, and Rachel Weisz was actually really good in her role - I find her a bit annoying in the few movies I've seen her in previously. And there's the slight envy factor, with her being married to Daniel Craig in real life... Anyway, Jeremy Renner was a natural for his action-man character - I think his name was Aaron Cross - he was very believable and I liked him a lot. Edward Norton is always good, as he is in this - not sure who his character actually worked for and why he was chasing Jeremy/Aaron though! The Jason Bourne story going on alongside Aaron's brings back memories of the last Bourne movie, but as for the rest of the storyline, I really didn't understand much of what was happening! Didn't stop me enjoying it. 7.5 out of 10.

At work on Monday, we had 2 new people start work in our team. Elena actually trained me in June last year when I started, then she left to go to a different area of Flight Centre, then came back to us this week, for which we are all grateful. She has so much knowledge and experience, that she is training the other new girl, Konstantina (Kossi). Elena is also a most excellent patty cake chef. This is one of the treats she brought in on Day 1:

On Tuesday, I went to Footgear in Queens Plaza, in search for the perfect shoes to get me and my feet around Europe. I found that the only shoes that are really comfortable are my runners. After walking around all day a few weeks ago on the Prado Exhibition and Ekka day, my feet were killing me (I did not have my runners on, clearly). So anyway, the girl in Footgear was very helpful and friendly, which meant I only hesitated for a second before shelling out for these expensive little beauties, that are not the most attractive shoes, but feel like I am not even wearing any, and I loved them straight away for that reason!

Okay, then on Thursday night, Kim & I saw a movie called Moonrise Kingdom. It is hard to describe, other than being as quirky as anything I've ever seen. It was just delightful - set in 1965, and it looked like it was filmed back then, with the bright colours and retro look of everything. It's about 2 slightly disturbed 12  year olds who decide they are in love and arrange to run away together, and the search for them that results. It is both touching and humourous. The characters were mostly fairly deadpan, but with lots going on under the surface. Big adult cast, with Bruce Willis, Ed Norton, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray and Harvey Keitel even making an appearance. Funny cameo by Tilda Swinton - her character was simply called "Social Services" and she talked about herself in the third person as Social Services. By name and by nature! I thought it was funny anyway. This film really does need to be seen to understand just how different and gorgeous it is. 8 out of 10 from me.