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.