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July, 2009 Where its all at Well Im moving. To be honest I find windows live a bit clunky at times and well, I just get a better feeling with blogspot. so im moving everything over to:http://www.aprilicious.com/ January, 2009 Well, its a new year, and it promises to be a good one So here i am just watching the tele, watching all the hype around Obama's inaugeration. I cant help but feel excited, like this year is going to be different somehow. Somehow better, more positive. Ok, well its truely been ages since I posted anything on here, and to be honest, Im not really sure if Im going to continue with the whole windows live space thing. One thing that attracts me to windows live, well, its the capacity, the space they give you. Its hard to knock back 25gb, even if all the software i have downloaded kinda sucks. I mean, what where they thinking with Windows Live Messenger 2009, and what happened to sharing folders, which where almost the only reason to use msn versus Gtalk or something else. And windows live photo gallery thing, its got a lot to learn from Picasa, which totally rocks in comparison. I mean, how do i know what photos i have already uploaded to my live gallery and which i havent? Kinda dumb really, but Picasa only gives you 1gb for free so its kinda useless. Anyway, enough ranting, back to watching the tele... lol May, 2007 Long time no update.This all happened a while ago (about 5 months ago), but I got very slack and forgot to post an update. So here is a brief run down of what was a great little summer break. It seems like a tradition, but we always seem to find ourselves down rosebud way every new years eve. There is something to be said about spending some time with friends at this time of year, especially if they have a nice little spot right on the beach. I only took a few photos, but it gave Lachlan a chance to try out his new radio controlled boat he got from my parents at Christmas.
The next week Andy, Lachlan and myself booked a nice little cabin down in Phillip Island, it was great, I love Phillip island and it was made better by the fact that we had some of our friends come down and share the cabin (the staff never found out) While we where near the beach, the beach wasn't really usable when the tide went out, although Lachlan and Crystal had a great time splashing in the mud. Lachlan and I also caught our very first fish (ok, we had to go to a fish farm) but I maintain it was still a whole lot of fun.
December, 2006 Way too many christmas partiesOK I admit I love a good party as much as the next person, but this year the work Christmas party scene just started to get that little bit too much, well as far as my head was concerned. I mean three Christmas parties was and is just about as much as I can handle in the one month, especially if you attend them the way i did :-) What do they say about having too much of a good thing? But i don't see the point of attending a party and not having a good time, and that, when surrounded by IT professionals you don't really know means a little (or a lot) of social lubrication. The first two where not too bad, just the usual finger food and stuff. But the last one, held by the "social club" in flagstaff gardens kinda did it for me. I guess it all went south when I was hit in the face with a ball from the lads who decided to orient their cricket match and bat directly into the crowd not 10 metres away. It just got more and more intoxicated from then on and ended sleazily in a local bar.
November, 2006 Lachlan's 8th BirthdayWell, it was that time of year again, Lachlan turned another year older and we had a little celebration. I actually still cant believe that he has turned 8 years old already. Time really does fly when your having “fun” I guess, and lots happened this last year for all of us. Lachlan wanted a Simpons theme party this year. Not the easiest to cater for as far as I am concerned, but he has thought of more curly ones and at least we where able to find Simpsons themed party plates and accessories. It was fun watching Lachlan and his friends have a good time, and in the spirit of sharing, they even all ended up with one of Lachlan’s bionicles. The kids then played the traditional pin the lamb chop on the Homer as well as the time old eat the hanging donut off the clothes line game… which was very funny. October, 2006 Just Goin GoodWell, the last couple of weeks have been pretty good. I've started my weight watchers and lost 4.9kg in the first two weeks. This of course means that I am no longer drinking alcohol like a pirate, which fortunately hasn’t been that hard to do since I no longer work for the finance department. Those people where possibly the biggest group of alcoholics I've ever worked for, and based on how badly I was treated, I guess "the demon drink" was just one way nice folk coped with some (not all) of the most unpleasant, vindictive and clueless managers to walk the face of the earth. We also caught up with some friends over the last few weeks and attempted a couple of bike rides, which in the end didn’t really work out as well as I'd hoped in the exercise department. However, the little ones had a great time, just not that much of it riding our bikes. My new project manager at work William was kind enough to give Lachlan a BMX which had apparently had been left by an old flat mate and he no longer wanted. He even brought it round to my place, how nice is that. We are now in the process of trying to teach Lachlan how to ride without training wheels, he is getting there, but its just going to take a lot of practice and patience. Work has been good also. Im finally working somewhere where Im not treated like a dumb blonde and am utilising my software development skills at more or less the correct level. I havent really got into it yet, still kinda just absorbing and bug fixing at present but I will unleash the inner geekette soon me thinks. I just hope I dont scare anyone. :-) October, 2006 So let the diet beginWell, I have got to the stage now with my weight that I no longer feel that my plain Jane try to eat the right foods and do a little exercise approach seem to be working. So on Wednesday night I decided to attend my very first ever weight watchers meeting and started my first serious effort in a long while.
My goal is reasonably ambitious, but I want to try as hard as humanly possible to reach my goal weight as calculated by the weight watchers formulae. And no, I’m not brave enough to publish my weight online at this stage, so I will be using a percentage scale, currently being at 100% of my starting weight.
This isn’t going to be easy, basically I’m going to have to loose up to 34% of my body weight to reach this goal, if it is at all even possible. But I’d be happy to get any results at this stage, and unless I try, I don’t think its going to just happen.
It’s been three days now, and I have already survived one test of will power. We had a work function last night and I managed to only have a small portion of nibbles and beer, but it was hard, free food and a wide range of European beers on tap, ah, the food of the corporate banker, how did I survive and how will I survive the next “software release” party. October, 2006 Party Time!Well yes its that time of year again, the time of year one gets just that little bit wiser, mature, cultured and so on. So what better way to celebrate climbing the maturity ladder than to throw a party and get intoxicated, and do the kinda stupid things you did when you where a teenager. Actually, speaking of teenagers, it kinda felt like a bit of a school reunion as I hadn’t seen some of the guests well, in a very long time, and what better way to say hi to someone you hadn’t seen in a while or perhaps even there new prospective boyfriend is to answer the door in a cheerleaders outfit (like I normally do).
September, 2006 The whole goth thingOk, im the first to admit when it comes to the whole goth look im not exactly up there with it, but its something that i've always been interested in.
Anyway, saturday I got inspired when i walked past vicious venus in smith street collingwood to try something a little different. and Later that night when we decided to go out to dinner and then a club i decided to see just what i could come up with that would classify as goth.
Well i have to say, i think that its probably harder for a blonde with olive skin to really pass as a goth. There is the danger that you just end up looking like a dominatrix, and Im still not too sure which category i fell into, but there is one thing that I noticed having at least tried
I have to say there is something to be said about the attention one gets when casually strolling down a street in st.kilda (I just had a horrid thought) anyway I have attached some photos so you have an idea what im rambling on about.
May, 2006 Workplace Bonding - Russian StyleWell I have been pretty slack updating this site, I think its all works fault, yeap I blame my job. There!
The thing is that I have been pretty busy spending quality time with my work mates. I have attached some photos when a bunch of us went to celebrate Sergei's birthday party at the local marfia hideout... um russian reception centre.
All in all it was an amazing night, I dont think I have ever had that much vodka (well if you excuse when my good friend Tracy and I got sloshed at Lakes Entrance when we where teenagers) Anyway, the following images may be a little disturbing for those not used to seeing people make an arse of themselves. (I wont tell you what happened to Andy)
April March, 2006 The Freedom MachineWell after a long time waiting, I finally got my new bike, well I got it a while ago, but haven’t until today had anything meaningful to post about it.
Today Andy and I decided to go and spectate in the Commonwealth games Road Bike Race. We missed the women’s, it was on way too early. We decided to ride to the event as it was around Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens which isn’t all that far from me down the Yarra bike trail and thought that we could pack a little something to eat and pass out under the cool shade of a tree. (it was pretty hot and sunny)
I think we excelled at the eating and passing out under the cool shady tree bit. And as it was far too busy to actually ride anywhere, we just strolled around and looked at the boys beating the cycle track, whom where pretty impressive.
Anyway, we took a few pictures and we made sure that we got one of my new bike March, 2006 Trip to the Melbourne AquariumIt was a sunny and relatively hot Sunday, and, after Andy had left to
go do some chores and stuff, Lachlan and I just relaxed and spent most
of the afternoon just bumming round the house. But while Lachlan was
content to create yet another Lego masterpiece, I was getting a little
bored. So I did what I normally do in these situations: I did a ring
around all the usual candidates for a last minute Lachlan friendly
drop-in. No luck, either people where out, or they already had plans. I
guess the heat had something to do with it. So at the last minute I decided to go to the Melbourne Aquarium and Lachlan was more than happy with the idea. Its been ages since we last went to the Aquarium. I think Lachlan must have been 4 or perhaps at best 5 since we last went. Some things still look the same, while others have changed a fair bit. Some of the fish must have grown up too in the meantime as some of the sting rays where gigantic. We also got to see the giant squid that they had frozen on display as part of the Monsters Of The Deep exhibit. We took a photo, but they didn’t really turn out, so I have enhanced the photo so you can see it better. When we approached the Aquarium, they have this massive inflatable squid covering half the building and when we entered Lachlan asked if the Squid on display was the same size as the one on the roof. He was a little disappointed to discover it was not. (You can kinda see how big it is in one of the photos below when you compare its eye to Lachlan’s head) Anyway, we had a great time, who knows where we will go next time February, 2006 Some days, you’re just better off not getting out of bedWoke up at 5:30am to the alarm, its now dark outside, time to get up. My 7 year old son is with my ex today so there is no need to be up so early to make the mad dash to before school care, but that part of my brain isn’t functioning so I decide to get up anyway and end up watching TV in bed, I fall asleep again.
I wake up again, now its 7:00am and I’m late I rush, pack my work clothes get my bike gear on and rush out of the house. As I’m late I push myself a little faster on the bike.
I’m on the bike trail now and doing some serious speed down a hill (can normally do up to 35-40kph downhill) only there has been heavy rain all weekend and the bike track disappears under a foot of wet sloshy mud at the very bottom. The front wheel sinks in and I keep on going. My feet are still clipped in, so the bike summersaults and sends me into the mud headfirst, then comes to rest on top of me (you can see the shape of the bike frame across my legs) At this point I loose any sense of manners and swear profusely (a scene from four weddings and a funeral comes to mind: fuk-ety fuk)
As the guy behind me points out, I was lucky as the mud broke my fall, gee I’m so lucky, and apart from some bruising my biggest problem was riding the rest of the journey to work looking like a mud wrestling contestant. Some of the looks from people as I road up Swanton street where interesting, I saw a mother quickly restrain her child as I rode past in fear and people didn’t cross my path as they normally do as I rode down Bourke street mall. Thank goodness we have showers at work.
I enter the change room, and am greeted by the usual inhabitants at that time of morning. My theory that people I work with (at present) are oblivious to everything was proven… I had to point out that I had an accident and explain that I don’t normally walk around caked in mud. I shower, get changed and go to my desk.
But the icing of the cake had to be when I went to the coffee machine, the guy in front of me has this massive mug which takes 3 shots of coffee from the machine. So I have to wait till he is done. I go to put my mug under the machine and it starts beeping….
“Out of coffee” and there isn’t any spare coffee. Ah fuck it! January, 2006 Happy New YearWell, Its another year over and Lachlan and I decided to take up an offer from our good friends Tim and Leah to spend some time with them down at the beach near Rye.
We spent at total of 5 days in some of the hottest temperatures we’ve had in Melbourne in a long while. It was great, live become a series of trips down to the water (we where seriously 10 meters to the beach max) deciding what to cook and the odd trip to the shops. Fabulous
Although sharing new years night on the beach with a 100 drunken people I didnt know was entertaining December, 2005 The Christmas Time BlurWell, I have to say I really love my new job. I’m working with some awesome people, and we seem to have the right balance between work and pleasure.
Like anything in balance there are times when the pendulum can swing one way more than another, and well these last couple of weeks leading up to Christmas have certainly been fabulous. I have had a great time and evidence suggests my work colleagues have as well.
I’m not too sure just home many little functions we have had, but I think that if I where to see another invite to some sort of Christmas “Do” I’m going to scream. Besides I think im getting alcohol poisoning or something coz I’m just soooo tired and I’ve only been here a month.
I don’t think I have ever worked in a place where I just seem to “slot” it so well. At least it feels that way, but I don’t want to be presumptuous, as I said to my development manager while drinking at a Christmas party; “I had better behave myself as I’m still on my probationary period” she just looked at me and smiled… (I’m hoping that was a good smile).
I’m not too sure how it happened, but I seem to have turned up in a fair few photos taken at various functions, here are some for your entertainment. Remember, I can explain each and every one of them: here are a few of them: November, 2005 Splash Time on Cup DayI cant remember a Melbourne cup day that went as planned, and like many others this years kept with the tradition.
But what started off with pretty much everyone changing plans or disappearing on me, ended up really well because for the first time in a while we had brilliant weather for the cup. So Lachlan and I ended up down at the local pools, soaking up the rays (well I did, Lachlan was sun smart) So yes, I now have some serious tan lines im going to have to work to creatively hide, but it was all worth it. I love summer, even if its technically not. Circus SpectacularLast Thursday was Lachlan’s time in the spotlight, my six (turning 7) year old star. His school had the right idea when it came to the theme: Circus Spectacular. I guess littlies school concerts have a tendency to become somewhat of a circus on the night, so why not theme it accordingly and let all have a good time doing what they do best, being kids and having fun. October, 2005 Ska8er ChicGosh, I’ve been off work for just a few weeks and I think I’ve started to put on some weight so its time to take some affirmative action. So today I went rummaging through the cupboards looking for my rollerblades.
Its been almost 6 months since I’ve skated, and really, im not very good, but want to learn. My best friend Tim is like mega good, and it looks like so much fun.
Anyway, its amazing just how much of a work out I seem to get just going back and forth in the car park. Who knows what will come of this. October, 2005 And... ActionSaturday was a first for me, as it was the first time that I ever took an “acting” part in a movie, be it a tiny little role. My friend Helen Mihajlovic is the producer of “The Immortals” a gothic film, and asked me to play the part of Mrs Bryston, who manages a solicitors office. I guess being a “business” person I already had the appropriate attire on hand. Apart from meeting many wonderful people, actors etc, the shoot was in Ormond college, a seriously spooky and beautiful building. Believe it or not its used as student accommodation for Melbourne Uni. I have added some photos of “Mrs Bryston” and one including my other half, Andy. I had lots of fun, and cant wait till the premier sometime next year. July, 2005 Lachlan's Bionicle ObsessionIm not
sure if saying that Lachlan is obsessed with all things Lego is putting
to big a spin on it, its just I don’t know any other way to describe it. Lachlan is easily THE most important person in my life, that goes without saying. But he is also a very special kid. Now I know that all parents say that about their children, but Lachlan really really is. We have both been through a lot over the past couple of years and lots of things have changed for him, which couldn’t always be helped. Throughout this whole time, there was always one constant that never faltered: Lachlan’s love for both his parents and our love for him. And he is the kind of wonderful child that isn’t shy to express himself and give you a great big cuddle. Perhaps the fact that Lachlan is so special that both his parents have come to perhaps fuel his Lego obsession making numerous purchases over time. I’m not sure. We’ve both lost count over the years… its one of those things you don’t really want to know about. Anyway, he tends to vary what he is really into, this week we have seen a return to Bionicle Lego, after a spout of Star Wars Lego. The picture below is just a small sample of the Bionicles he made over the weekend, each of which needed to be clearly explained. |
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