Stocktake

So far this year we have:

- received 5 wedding invitations
- attended 4 weddings
- had 5 friends give birth
- another 2 friends currently pregnant

Whew! It's been a busy year!

We were in Melbourne this last weekend at the latest wedding of Vaughn's cousin. It was certainly a whirlwind trip, but worth it to attend the wedding and catch up with Vaughn's family.

Here are some photos of the great time we had!

Mark & Bethany's Wedding

BTW: I would not recommend travelling with Tiger Airways... our flight was delayed on the Friday, so we were late getting in, then on Sunday, our flight was also delayed by THREE hours! There were 3 other flights that also were delayed. Most scary, however, is the story that some people we were talking to told. They were meant to fly to Melbourne on Saturday morning, attend the footy and then fly home that night. Tiger rang them the day before, to advise that their flight home had been cancelled, so they had been booked on another flight. Here's the cracker... Tiger booked them on a flight, half an hour after they were due to arrive in Melbourne! Can you believe the stupidity of some people? After explaining the dilemma with that, they were then booked in to the same flight as us. That story was the clincher for Vaughn and me, deciding that we would not fly with them again. They aren't that cheap either, by the time you pay for your ticket, plus extra for checked luggage and allocated seating. And I'm not sure what the "Convenience fees" of $14.55 on our itinerary is!

Rain

I love the sound of rain! It's a beautiful sound! Not only do we need the rain as we are in the middle of drought, but I'm a person who much prefers the cold weather over the hot weather. The sound of rain is comforting... I'm inside and cozy with the heater going and a light rain falling outside! It's a great time to curl up with a good book.

Vaughn and I didn't even let the rain discourage us from our little outing today. Admittedly, we did have to adjust our plans, but we did what we set out to do. I suggested that we walk into the city to go to the SA Art Gallery. As we are being very aware of our money spending and starting a new budget (even so far as to getting rid of our credit card... shock horror!), I thought it would be nice to go and do something that won't cost anything. The art gallery is free, which is perfect! And by walking down, it won't cost us anything, but is also good for you. Before setting out, we saw that it was raining, but decided to head out anyway... instead of walking, we took the car. We found some parking down a side street and still had to walk up the hill under umbrellas, but managed to mostly stay dry. And we only had to pay 20 cents for 3 hours of parking... so our little excursion was still practically free!

It was great walking through the art gallery, but I really only started to enjoy myself in the life paintings. I'm just not into the abstract art, I'm sorry to say! I like looking at a picture and seeing exactly what it. You can then look deeper into the picture and see a bigger story, but it's easy and straight forward! I don't really get the interpretive art... am I just not a deep thinker?! I think that shows my personality... I like straight lines and symmetry.... neatness and order! Boring? Perhaps, but that's me!

And as I finish this blog post, the rain is now coming down so hard that I can barely hear the tapping of the keys as I write. Ah, I love the rain and winter!

Thank you God for this wonderful rain... the much needed water.

A Night Out WIth Emma Dean... Or Not!

My friends and I were looking forward to a night out at a pub, to hear Emma Dean sing, just for something different! So we dolled ourselves up and my lovely husband dropped us off in the city. I jokingly said to Vaughn as we were getting out the car "I'll probably have to call you in a couple minutes because we have the wrong night"... well, we had the right night, but I did have to call him after a few minutes! The website we got the information from, advised us that it started at 8pm. We rocked up at 7:45pm and was told by the bar tender that it only started at 9pm. Correction... the first bands started at 9pm, Emma Dean didn't start until 11pm! We looked at each other and decided we didn't want to hang around that long so thought we'd find some other fun in the city...

And boy, did we find the perfect haven! "Chocolate Bean" The menu was all chocolate (including chocolate soup!). A return visit is absolutely required! We ordered a sample plate and it came with a shot of white chocolate, a shot of dark chocolate, chocolate mousse, baci cake and to top it off, a chocolate dipped strawberry... not to mention the hot chocolates we ordered!! This what we started with:

And this is how it ended up:

A picture tells a thousand words how we enjoyed that!

After that little indulgence, we headed off to the movies and saw "Female Agents" a french movie about women's roles in the french resistance of WWII. Wow, an amazing story of courage and strength. I don't know how they did it.

I'm now off to bed and hopefully my sugar high doesn't keep me awake!

Another Wedding!

As promised, here, finally, are the photos from my cousin's wedding a couple weeks ago.

Lester & Ali's Wedding

A photo is included in the album, but here is the completed outfit that I wore to the wedding. The shawl 'thing' that I'm wearing is the final item that I also made as I thought I needed something on top of the dress so as to not get cold!