bye bye 20's

Hello 30's!!!!

a diary of a weekend of being grown-ups

So, we slow down the car and throw Torby out at BT's house. Speeding away, we mumble some instructions about not killing him and that we might be back at some point in the next year or so.
Thence off to Berrima for us, like the big adults we are.

We stop off at some wineries on the way

This place is for sale if anyone's interested. If only I hadn't left the few million dollars in my other trousers, I would have snapped it up then and there.
I spotted (and had to take a photo of) geese at this place
Sat here and had a very yummy produce plate (oh the smoked salmon mouss) and watched the storm come through. So fabulous and dramatic.
Got my feet & legs thouroughly licked by a gorgeous fat old blue cattle doggy at this place
We managed to get lost on some mysterious dirt track that doesn't appear on any map. Still can't quite figure out where we were.

Eventually made our way to historic bloody Berrima and our accomodation, the lovely Rose Cottage.
Oh so cute and wee and self-contained and lovely and comfy and chaise loungey and sweet. I'm still in love with it. The comfiest bed in christendom!

We then went and explored Berrima on foot braving the rain. Oh, to have thought to bring closed toe shoes other than my nice Mollini ones.
Berrima hasn't changed since last time we were there buit it's always lovely to have a wander through and look at stuff. Nice art gallery/shop and lots of ye olde antique shoppes. Oh yes, and the lolly swagman. Mmm sweetie stores, my nemiseses.
Went back to the cottage nad had a revivifying cup of tea nad biscuit and played some games and then had a nap. Luxur, I tells ya.

Dinner was had at The Joureyman. Oh So Very Yummy.
It's lovely to have a very nice dinner occasionally.
It's really about all the little touches like the espresso cups of soup (roast mushroom, zuchini and garlic), the palate cleansing sorbet, the chocolates, the attentiveness but not intrusiveness of the staff, the presentation of the food, the bringing of the bottles over when we'd ordered a galls of botryitis and muscat for dessert and pouring them at the table that make it worth the money.

Our meals consisted of;

Entree
Me - Truffled potato gnocchi with mushrooms from the Mittagong train tunnel, asparagus and parmesan

MrNw - Seared Queensland scallops with crisp prosciutto, avocado cream and a tomato vinaigrette

Main

Me - Roast sirloin of grain-fed beef with mushroom duxelle, confit garlic and eschalot and fondant potato

MrNw - Twice-cooked Thirlmere free range duck with fig, walnut and a truffle sauce

Sides of Buttered broccoli with pinenuts and a mixed leaf salad (went really well with the duck)

Dessert

Me - A scoop of Freshly Churned Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

We also had a bottle of wine and then the stickys and the aforementiones oups, sorbets and chocolates.

It really was divine and we were so very very full at the end of it.

After we rolled oput of the restaurant, we thought we might go to the pub for a beverage or two and perhaps an amusing time betting our fortunes on the doggies or the trots as is our want on weekends away. Okay fortunes is a bit misleading, our bets are somewhere in the dollar mark and the animals are picked based on their names.
Well, I must say that if you're after any kind of nightlife in berrima, you'll be sorely dissapointed. the pub was pretty much deserted, so we left and opened a bottle of wine back at the cottage. Played some more games and then went to sleep.

I woke up far too early, put some clothes on and went in search of the river and to see if I could spot the platypuses. Found the river, failed to find and any platypuses. sigh. trotted back to cottage, had shower, lay on chaise and read trashy magazine until time to wake husband had arrived.

We packed up and drove to the mossvale showgrounds for some markety action.
Not only did we get markets we got bagpipe players and scottish country dancing. Perfect. Actually quite appropriate considering it was a cold, wet and misty morning.
I appropriatley had an egg & bacon roll from the Rotary Club men, bought some jam and old lady cakes and off we went!

We decided that we actually missed the little one, so came back to Sydney and wrenched him out of BT's hands. Okay, maybe not, but she did say she was willing to do it again.

It's nice and revivifying (it's a word) to have a weekend sans baby and play at being un-encumbered grown-ups, but it's also very nice to be home again.

Now to go and do the washing up from dinner on Friday night. Oh the glamour of it all!!!
(Coz 'n' Ob, go have a look at your wine site, we drank some more.)

There are a few photos over at Flickr

Sorbolene Thief

Next to his change table, are two storage boxes (filled with fabric) on top of those are all his nappy changing supplies.

Occasionally, I'll notice that a tube has fallen to the ground or things have been pushed around. Didn't think he was tall enough yet to reach the top without something to stand on.

Yesterday, there was quietness from his room for a while and I went in and this was the sight that greeted me.

A sorebolene covered baby

.

caught in the act, originally uploaded by Miss DV.

Everything is now pushed back a lot further.

we knew it was going to happen sometime...

... and it happened tonight.

icky, icky, icky!

what is she going on about? I hear you mutter.

Well, Mr Nw's child decided it would be a great idea to 'back out a steamer' in the bath.
It didn't even have the good grace to stay as a lump, it dispersed. It was revolting.
Needless to say, there were showers and now our bathtub, toys and nonslip mats are soaking with a lot of bleach.

Oh, the glamour of it all!

to the beach!!!

if in doubt, hat on, pants off!, originally uploaded by Miss DV.

We dragged DestructoMeg & Snerg to Shoalhaven for a much needed "weekend out of town". There was wine tasting (mmmm, delicious wine), eating of strange pizza, playing of dumb games, drink of wine and beer and cider and a ginormous bacon-y breakfast followed by more wine tasting and antiqueing. It's a hard, hard life I tells ya!

There was also the beach for Nw, Torby & I early Sunday morning.

Very funny to watch the little one scurry towards the water only to get freaked out when the waves got him. He'd keep going back for more. Brave little sausage!

The water was so clear and so very cold. I loved it through all my girly squeals

Eventually he got too cold, so wapped him up in his super-hero towel and went back to the cabin for aforementioned breakfast.

Have a look at flickr for more photos.

We all had a hoot!

Well Nw, Torby & I did. Megzzz & Snerg were probably too tired to complain.

oh miss potter!

Went to the movies yesterday after my gruelling 2 and a bit hoyurs of work and before the lovely lunch with the lovely Krin. Yep it's a hard life.
anyway, the movie I saw was 'Miss Potter' .
It was lovely and pretty and interesting and well done (a bit slow towards the end but that's probably because I really needed to wee). My only problem with the whole movie was Renee Zelwegggerer. Can she possibly, even for 2 seconds, crack a smile or a frown or something other than that annoying little pursed poutylip thing she does.
I mean really, smiling isn't that hard. Mind you neither is eating. Maybe if she did that she'd have the energy to un-purse her lips.

So, if you aren't as annoyed by her as I am, go see it. If however you find it hard to restrain yourself from screaming at the screen, 'step away from the botox and go eat something!' whenever you see her, don't. Other people in the cinema might get a bit snippy.

you have been warned

If you hate 'loved-up couple doing romantic valentines day thing' stories, stop reading now!

So, after warning Nw a few days ago that V-day was fast approaching and I needed some romancey type things to happen, he delivered!
The flowers were delivered in the morning, the evening ame and the child was whisked away to the grandparents and then I was whisked away to town to get the ferry across to Manly for fish & chips on the beach (v similair plan to one of our first dates) we then strolled back and had a beverage (amusingly enough, nw had a beer called stiegl) in the belgian/bavarian (so hard to tell the two apart) bier cafe. Then ice cream, ferry ride home and sleep.

Taking the ferry across the water reminded me just how pretty the harbour is. It really does take my breath away. So sparkly and stuff.

(Just so you know it wasn't completely one sided, I gave Nw, some choclites and some beer. I'm a good wife.)

oh what a weekend

Friday had 'baby free day' which neded up involving work, haircut, shopping, nieceminding, cooking dinner and swapping one niece for the other

Saturday, went for walk with Isobel (the elder niece) to the shops. It takes a lot longe with a two-year old in tow. She then got picked up and we went for the drive to Aveline's memorial. It was lovely and sad and happy and everything rolled into one. Dragged home screamingly overtired baby, had nap in the car, went to bbq, drank some lovely 'dusty' wine, fell asleep.

Sunday, shopped, had JD's lovely friend deliver her bbq and outdoor furniture and then had bbq (using the wood burning one, not the nice shiny oh so much easier to use, gas one) for dr nik's 29th birthday. Got rained out at one point but the lads manfully held an umbrella over the cooking meat while we all madly bought everything inside. We didn't go hungry and fun was still had.
I even made a birthday cake type object.

Okay, it's really 3 stroopwafles, 2 candles and some cake writing gel, but close enough.

Since it's now all of Wednesday and I'm only just getting around to posting this, I'll tell you about the rest of the week to be.

Tonight the lovely husband is whisking me off to Manly for fish and chips on the beach, tomorrow I go to work in the morning and then have an afternoon of freedom, freedom I tells ya!! (the beloved grandmama & grandpapa are looking after the wee one.)
Friday, cook nachos and then go see Violent Femmes, Saturday go to Shoalhaven with lovely friends, Sunday come home, Monday go to work etc....

Musings from my desk

The following is the random email I sent myself from work today. It was one of those mornings, followed by one of those days

nice girs don't do that sort of thing

A lass today cvommented that 'You don't seem like the type who listens to that music. You're too nice'

The music she was reffering to was System of a Down.
I informed her that I listen to lots of types of music ranging from pop, rock, alt, heavy, death, aussie hip-hop, thrash, punk, sca, classical, opera, and lets not forget 'easy listening'

I find the whole notion that 'nice girls' don't listen to anything but mariah carey very strange.
Music gives you a greater understanding of humanaity and emotions and thoughts and ideas.
I don't agree with all of them but they are there and only listening to one type is too limiting.
but then some people don't read books.

does this shirt make me look pregnant

Okay, three disturbing things on the way to work this morning

1. the nice woman in the newsagent I occasionally (once a month at most) go into remembers me. She knows that Torby is just over a year old, she remembers where I work and that I only work a few days a week. Either I'm memorable, she has a freakishly good memory or she's stalking me. Not sure what to go with.

2. afforementioned nice woman, asked me if I was pregnant again. Yeah, I don't think she's that nice anymore either. Note to self, never, ever wear this top again.

3. my spirits were lifted however by the lass in my favourite cafe remembering my order. I like it when that happens.

What I meant to say was...

Hmm, when lass who is filling in for your boss pulls out a scrapbooking magazine, do not under any circumstances have a conversation along these lines
'oh cool, a scrapbooking mag, hand it over, I'm never allowed to look at them'
'why not?'
'because my friends will mock me mercilessly because it's a crap thing that sad old... oh bugger!'

those scrapbookers, no sense of humour

look, naked wine bottles

Hey Coz n Ob, go look over here

Your wine has it's own blog

sun damaged and sleepy

Yesterday BaggyTrousers, the Canadian (tm) and I went went for a bushwalk through the Royal National Park.
By bushwalk through the National Park, I mean coastal walk/rock scramble/swim between Bondi Beach & Coogee.
There was trackwork between town and the park so sensibly we gave it up as a bad plan and headed to the beach instead.
Well, wouldn't you!

There was the picnic on the cliffs, the swimming at Bronte and the children forming their own blue-bottle death squad, the scrambling over rocks and poking things in the rock pools (you can tell that the canadian isn't australian by his way of actually poking random creatures with bare hands. where is his sense of self-preservation, where is the ingrained knowledge that every single living creature wants to kill you!!!)
I got to wallow in the water at Clovelly. I haven't done that since I lived there years and years ago. Must go again and bring goggles so I can look at all the fishes and rockes and cool underwater stuff.
We walked through Waverley Cemetary. It was as beautiful as I remembered it.
We ate dumplings and pork candy for dinner with chums
I almost fell asleep in the pub at the late hour of 9pm.
Haven't seen that much sunshine in way too long.

I know have a touch of sunburn on my back and my cheeks are a bit pink.
Legs don't hurt though. Knew all that walking with Torby was doing someting other than making my man-calves even manlier.

I managed to not take a single photo. Trust me , it was all beautiful

All I can say is..

Woo-Hoo !!!!

hip hip hooray!!!

Thanks to the most fabulous madame du saggy drawers giving me the best present ever of a night without a baby, I get to escape Sydney for a weekend.

We're going to go here in a few weekends time.

I even convinced the nice man that despite him wanting people to stay for two nights, he was willing to rent it to me for one.

I'm very excited.Publish