"Snowy's" 90th Birthday Celebration

Yesterday we headed out to the Forrest Hill School of Arts for

 Grandpa Vern's (Ben's Pa) 90th Birthday celebrations. 

There were lots of speeches to be had and a lovely 

presentation of his restored and framed medals from

the second world war, including a couple from his 

services in Tobruk. Below are a few photos that I 

took courtesy of Photobucket! 

(Very proud I worked that out!)

BIRTHDAY CAKE!!! :D

Well here it is. I opened up my hotmail account today (first time since February) and found photos of the birthday cake from our River Cruise (thanks to party planning helper Miss C).

Not a bad likeness! :P

The house that Mel and Ben built - update

The land title has been pushed back to October of this year (unlike the June / July window we were given when we signed the contract). So because the land title has been postponed the deposit bond we'd applied for is no longer 'short term' and is deemed a "long term" which of course has additional service fees, higher intrest... so I bit the bullet and paid the 5% for the land outright. talk about being messed around! By the time the banks and the brokers got their acts together we'd saved enough money to save the hassle!

So last week I took a day off work and we ventured out to Hoppers Crossing to make our tile selections. To be honest it was harder than picking the bricks, roof tiles, bench tops, cupdoard finishings, door handles, wall and celing paints, window trims, garage doors, and gutters! There were so many coloursm, finishes, price brackets and sale prices (which confused the matter even more as the builder dosen't get the sale prices because of the delay between ordering an having the tiles delivered). So after almost two and a half hours in the showroom, we ended up with white... yes white tiles for the bathroom, ensuite, laundry and toilet. The kitchen got spoilt with some latte ceramic and glass tile for the splashback above the stovetop. The floortiles for the main living spaces we will lay after handover (as we WILL get the sales prices in 12 months time and be able to but builders premium tiles for the price of the standard inclusions!)

The plans came back with the changes we wanted to make, but we've noticed little things, like the meter box is on the wrng side of the house, and the site plan is half a meter further from the fence than we'd planned. So they need to go back to the draftsman and be 'tinkered' with again before we can sign off on them.

We have seen the naked shell of the display home version of our plan out in Officer as it was still being built. It has now been open to the public for a few weeks and we have pictures of the display furnished - which is good as it gives a betterunderstanding of what till actually fit in the rooms (they all look so bg when they're empty!!!)

The next step is signing the builders contract with Clarendon on the 15th of next month when we get back from Queensland. At this stage the build should start Oct / Nov and be finished before Easter next year. Then we'll need to have the tiles, carpets and other little extras that we've recently discovered aren't included (such as the toilet roll holders).

2 months down, another 10 to go!!! Long process but fingers crossed it will all pay off in the long run!

Mxoxo

The Covent

Today I ventured out on my regular Sunday Stroll with Dame C. On fathers instruction we headed out to Abbortsford to visit The Convent, and it was worth the trip. On the way there... we managed to take a wrong turn and ended up in a dead end... the dead end just happended to be the Natio Factory Outlet, so finding the silver lining in that little cloud, we decided to have a little sticky nose and came home with a couple of bits and pieces at a 'reasonable' price! From the fence at the factory outlet we could see The Convent so we knew we weren't far from where we needed to be, just needed to wind our way through the tiny streets of Abbortsford (with cars parked on both sides of the road) till we found the carpark.

Once we arrived it was time for a coffee, which hit the spot as a morning tea! We ventured t

hrough the craft market, the Phil Stokes Glass works studio (which not surprisingly was quite warm), a contemporary gallary space, a flea market, some deralict buildings on the propery, though the herb garden, past a band having their photos taken, 

wandered past the Collingwood Childrens Animal Farm, and back for cup of coffee number two (not as great as the first one). There were stacks of 

people out in the lovely autumn Sunday afternoon (including a wedding later in the day),  and plenty of things to see and take photos of. More than 300 photos later and over 3 hours of wandering through the gardens we finally decided that we were more worn out than most of the tiny tots there and it was time for our afternoon nap.

All in all a great backdrop for a Sunday Stroll and a cup of coffee (or two!) The Glassworks were gorgeous (although expensive) and we met a lovely artists who illustrates childrens books and has an exhibition coming up. I bought three gift cards at the market, but don't get excited coz  I'm not giving them away! I'm going to frame them... eventually!

So thanks to Dad for calling yesterday to tell me all about it, and to Dame C for joining me on a thouroughly glorious day!

 

A little River Boat Cruise

So, a month ago we all headed out for dinner for Ann's 60th Birthday. Everyone knew where we were headed except the bithday girl. Unfortunately I haven't got photos of the birthday cake to share, as I was a little busy with the candles - which were almost as hard to light as they were to blow out!!! The food was good, the music was awesome and the company was even better. There are a few photos here from the night, there are more on facebook and I'm sure there are photos of this much talked about cake....

Where did 2008 go?

Well now... the second half of 2008 went a little something like this...

Work, sleep, move house, work, sleep, have a birthday party, sleep, indulge in some 'retail therapy', work, go to see Batman - the dark knight at the movies, work, sleep, have "finally finished" drinks with Lydia at her uni cocktail party at the Lexus Centre, work, groceries, sleep, have dinner with the folks, work, sleep, ridiculous amounts of shopping, sleep, work, Craig's 21st, work, sleep, a load or 2 of washing, sleep, work, coffee with the girls, sleep, Friday night drinks with the crowd from work, some free tickets to a Taxiride show... at work, sleep, work... catch breath.... work, sleep, Christmas, Queenscliffe, work, sleep, work, fireworks opps - there, it's gone... Hello 2009!!!

So 2009 is here and the first month has already passed us by.

New Years Day was spent having Breakast at Lunch time in St Kilda then aimlessly walking it off around St Kilda and along the beach. Also made a trip to the Elephant and Wheelbarrow Pub in St Kilda (where Ben and I should have had our first date... but we never got there.)

There's been 2 Movies so far, Seven Pounds (take tissues ladies) and Gran Torino (which was great but I was a little disturbed by the act that there was a 4 year old boy sitting in the seat next to me on a Sunday night in a 9.40pm movie session as the 'boys in the hood' let go of some fairly foul language!)

A dinner at Number 8 at Crown, also very good - lovely Tasmanian Salmon, salt and pepper calamari (Ben ordered that but I just had to pinch just a little bit! :) ) and the tenderest lamb ever!

More coffee and catch ups with Jay and Cori as well as a day trip back to Ballarat to see Lyd.

A great cocktail party (again a work function) and a lazy Sunday afternoon clipping out the photos (from the cocktail) that were found in the Herald Sun and The Age. Quite chuffed with that one really!!!

Oh and of course there has been plenty of work! As for the rest of 2009, I'm planning on going back to donating blood (haven't been able to since I had my tonsils out this time last year), Moving in March, finish Certificate III in Hospitality in April, a Pay rise in June (don't ruin it for me now K.Rudd), a trip to Queensland in July , another year older in August, and maybe back down to Tassie before 2010 creeps up on us all!!!

That's all for now folks, promise I read the blogs more often than I write them.
Mxox