Back-tracking slightly...

To be fair I've been a little lazy getting this up cause of all the other things that were going on this week, but a few people have asked, so here you have it - Andrew and Ashley's engagement party! It was a great day, particularly hot but a late shower cooled everything down thank goodness. The food and drink flowed for what felt like hours, even though at the end of the day my dad STILL thought there wasn't enough (???), and as usually i always love these occasions when the whole family can get together, all...60...of us. You can always rely on lots of laughter and reminiscing and teasing and all that good stuff. Here are some highlights!

Andrew and Ashley cut their cake!

My dad makes a speech, which included him informing everyone that if they weren't having a good time, it was probably their fault.

Mum with the happy couple!

Max looking gorgeous as always.



Charlie and I sharing the love




Jack gives his favourite person a kiss. I'm the favourite person. Get it? Get it?

Not sure what Christian and I are laughing at here, but anyway. Good times.

Christian and Jack. They kinda look like they've been photo shopped into this photo. But they haven't been. Just so you know.

Max and Christian. Can't believe they are BOTH looking at the camera and BOTH smiling! Usually you don't get that lucky with kids...

Now here's a story. When it came to Ashley's speech, she kindly thanked all the important people, like my parents and Jo and so on, and then she came to me. "Nell," she said, "I love you, you're like the sister i never had. ...except you scare me sometimes".

So folks, there you have it. I am officially a scary sister-in-law. I never knew. Naturally I was forced to think long and hard about my general behaviour, and can admit the following:

- I can fly off the handle. A lot. But. It's a sign of passion, right?

- I sometimes raise my voice when i get angry...only sometimes though. Totally.

- My opinions can be extremely strong. Equally, i'm extremely unyielding when it comes to them

- My stubbornness can be...unbecoming at best

- Some would call me strong-willed *coughs* (those are the nice people)

- I'm bossy

So. Fine. I admit my weaknesses. But still. Scary? Guys? Really?

I've resolved to smile more, even when there's no reason to. It might make me look friendlier.

A spot of dust

First of all, i better holla to my bestie Faatasi, who turn 28 today! Happy Birthday sweets, hope you had a great day and enjoyed your maccas feast. Jealous.



Last night's thievery totally overshadowed the amazing dust storm that swept through NSW yesterday - don't know about you, but i enjoyed a taste of the apocalypse. So now we all know what it would be like to live Mars i suppose. The TV stations enjoyed it though. Whenever Channel 9 went to an ad break it played either 'I See Red' or 'No Air'. Hilarious.



Anyway, here are some pics Jo took from the apartment...

And here are some i shamelessly stole from the papers, just to in case you missed the on-the-hour, its-all-we're-going-to-talk-about-all-day coverage yesterday...

Speaking of the apocalypse, now that I've finished Harry Potter (cried in book 7. it's true. couldn't help myself.), I'm reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy - and it's pretty damn gripping. It's a post-apocalyptic story that imagines civilisation has been virtually wiped out by an unknown force, the planet's landscape now ravaged, burnt and bare, with few survivors. It follows a father and son, who are trying to make their way south to the coast, and flashes back to moments just prior to and initially after this cataclysmic event that has wiped the the world out. Sound scary? It is actually, and i can't put it down. What an amazing writer, his descriptions are haunting and sparse, exactly suited to the themes in the book. He won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for this one, and no surprises there.

I'm going to end by saying...GO THE DOGS TOMORROW!!! DOWN WITH YOU, EVIL EELS!! *cheers on the bulldogs in tomorrows footy match*

A discourse on scum.

Shout out to the asshole who stole my laptop tonight - luckily for me, karma's a real bitch, so i know you'll get your comeuppance - but screw you anyway. Thanks for being thoughtful enough to smash our car window in to get to it though, since our insurance covers personal effects. So i hope my shitty old laptop serves you well while I'm enjoying a shiny new one. Suck it.



But listen, i totally don't hold grudges. You're probably a really valued member of society, and I'm sure your friends and family are really proud of the human being you've turned out to be.



Actually, you know what? I do hold grudges. Hope you get hit by a bus tomorrow.

I don't think you're ready for this jelly

I seem to say this every week, but Lordy have i been busy! I'm so tired right now that i can't even think straight, but I'll quickly recount some of our adventures from this weekend. Which started with a bang when Ashley, Kama and I went to see Beyonce in concert on Friday night!! Can i get woot woot please, cause she was freaken awesome. Seriously amazing - not only can the girl belt out a tune, but she can also shake her booty in sequined high-heels non-stop for hours, even suspended in mid-air which, in my book, is pretty damn impressive.

Single Ladies was obviously a highlight, as was Crazy In Love, and of course plenty of ballads like Halo and If I Were a Boy. She did all the old Destiny's Child stuff too, and i kept wondering whether she has to ask the other two if it's OK to sing those songs at her concerts. All in all i would report her as being as bootylicious as you'd expect, and then some. Faatasi (who was there too) sent me a text after the concert ended that summed it up best - "Beyonce is GOD!" We had a fantastic night - and i will say right now that when she sang At Last with a montage of Barrack Obama showing on the screens in the background, Ashley cried. Bloody Americans. *winks*

Ashley rockin it at Beyonce

Ashley snuck McDonalds apple pie in - and i wanted it.

Um, excuse me - but if you like it then you should have put a ring on it.

Saturday morning i was still pretty hyped, which was lucky cause i had to get up early (well, early for me on a Saturday) to go meet Faatasi in the city - we went to check out the Museum of Contemporary Art, because, we determined, that is what adults do on Saturday mornings. And after all, we are adults now. (*sniggers* sure...)



Firstly, i will say that i had my real camera with me, and Faatasi only had his iPhone - yet HE was the one that got busted taking photos (which apparently is not allowed, because God forbid you disturb the art). Also, i would like to clarify that i use the term "art" here loosely - in my opinion, modern art is hit and miss, and certainly doesn't always require talent. For example, a bunch of beer cartons (VB, if you're interested) and packets of nappies strewn haphazardly in the corner of the room does not an artist make as far as I'm concerned. The MCA felt the opposite though, since that was one of the "pieces" that featured. I can't tell you how many times we looked at each other with furrowed brows and to ask "is this really art?" If it is where do I sign up to get my art put on display, cause excuse me, but i could give the beer and nappy lady a run for her money.



Don't get me wrong, there was some really interesting, thought-provoking stuff we loved, like this stuff:

(Admittedly, it was the pretty colours on this one that we liked, not the message behind it all)

And then of course the stuff that made us say "errr....?"

Naked man says come inside.

Calculator mounted on wall. I'm still so baffled by this that i can't even think of anything witty to say about it.

Faatasi inspects some weird, eye-ball looking stones in glass jars.

Our foray into the arts got us pretty hungry, so we headed over to Pancakes on the Rocks (via the markets) for some food, only that we couldn't decide whether we wanted savoury or sweet pancakes - so we got both *shrugs* I'm pretty sure the waiter was confused about how much food we were ordering, being that we were only two people. But he obviously doesn't know us or our stomachs, cause I'm pretty sure we can eat most people under the table. Kat and Jo joined us eventually (after a bit of a debacle involving Kat ending up totally in the wrong place, however i will not go into that here as it caused us all quite a bit of grief at the time...)

Then it was goodbyes all around, and i darted off the hairdressers to sort out my scraggly birds nest of a mane which was in serious need of some attention, before darting back to town to watch the NZ vs Australia game with Kat and Turnsie before heading over to the Annandale Hotel to see Shihad in concert...however, i will post more about that, and Andrew and Ashleys engagement party later in the week cause i am pooped!

It's official. I'm a gleek.

So, I'm officially loving glee, the first two episodes of which i watched tonight and lurrrved - been clicking my fingers to Don't Stop Believin' all day day too, much to the disgust of Jo, who was also forced to watch said episodes (but he didn't fool me - i saw him laughing behind his hand).

And on Tuesday, Kat, Tony and I went to see Inglorious Basterds, which i thought was great - a return to form for Tarantino, and a very entertaining movie all round. Plus seeing Brad Pitt play a southern American pretending to be an Italian was hilarious. But the stand out performance was by Christoph Waltz, the guy who played Hans Landa, otherwise known as "the Jew hunter" - every line he delivered was so chilling, every move he made so deliberate, i just thought he was excellent.

Storyline, you ask? In Nazi occupied France, young Jewish refugee Shosanna witnesses the slaughter of her family by "the Jew hunter" Hans Landa. But she escapes, and plots her revenge several years later when a German war hero takes an interest in her and arranges an important movie premiere at the theater she now runs. With the promise of every major Nazi officer in attendance - including Landa - the event catches the attention of the "Basterds", a group of Jewish-American guerrilla soldiers who have made it their mission to hunt down every Nazi they can. Their paths cross with Shosanna on that fateful evening, the outcome of which will change the course of history...

And tomorrow night - Beyonce concert! Can't wait to shake my booty to Single Ladies (whoa oh oh...*hands go woop woop in air*. Will report back over the weekend.




Lastly, let me recount a conversation i had yesterday with my good friend Faatasi, who tried to convince me to learn sign language with him. Yes, you read correctly. Sign language. Now, while the prospect of talking with my hands is kinda tempting, and has a secret agent-esque feel to it that's obviously appealing, the point remains that it feels wrong to learn sign language when a) we aren't actually deaf and b) we don't know anyone that is. Faatasi assures me this isn't true - for example, he says, we can use our new found skill to expose the frauds on the train who pretend to be deaf while shoving a sign in your face asking for two dollars. What if they really ARE deaf though, i dare to ask, but he dismisses the notion instantly. They're not.




OK, fine, that's kinda handy. What else? Well, he tells me, we can talk to each other and no one will know what we're saying! I'm still skeptical. What do we ever have to say that's a secret? Not the point, apparently, and neither is the fact that the last class is on my birthday. What better way to celebrate than to sing Happy Birthday in silence! Still, i push, it's a little bit inappropriate. Surely there's something else we can learn? I trawled the community college site and finally find the answer - Ukulele Essentials. The even provide the ukulele. Faatasi is thrilled. We can start a ukulele band, i say! With spandex costumes, he cries! We proceed to think of every song we can that features a ukulele, like Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head and Somewhere over the Rainbow, before realising that actually, there aren't many songs that do feature a ukulele are there? Still, he isn't deterred. We'll mix our own version of other songs, he says determinedly, starting with Crazy in Love (original sung by Beyonce). Though, he muses, can we dance and sing and strum that fast all at the same time? Best get a lead singer then, just for the fast songs.




And so folks, if you ever see a ukulele-playing-band in town, drop into the show. Cause it might be us.

Birthday props!

On Friday, my dear cousin Daniel reached that age. We'll whisper it together. 30.



To mark this descent into middle-age, Romina threw the party to end all parties, complete with flamenco dancers, free-flowing sangria and an iced vovo cakes. That's right ladies and gentlemen - an iced vovo cake. I'm going to go ahead and say right now that the genius you behold below started right here baby, with yours truly. I mean OK. Romina was right there with me on the idea. And yes, its true she carried it from conception to reality without a hitch. But hello. A creative brain like mine cannot be held back.




Besides. When you think Daniel, you think biscuits. The man's obsessed. I reckon he could smell a biscuit in a cupboard three doors down. He's a connoisseur in the art of biscuit eating. So much so that when he eats them, he experiences a rare form of memory loss similarly experienced by people coming out of a coma - although physically present in the moment, he has no recollection of the events that led him to be holding an empty biscuit packet that a mere 10 minutes ago was still full.




And the iced vovo is his favourite of all my friends. The one he can't live without. I mean, his wedding vows? "Till death do us part, or you take away my iced vovo". Sorry Rom. It's not you. I reckon it's the little pink marshmallows. No-one could compete with those darn things.

Voila! Iced Vovo cake genius. Hold your applause.

Rom and I workin' some attitude.

Jack says "lemme hear some woop woop"

Daniel says "lemme hear some woop woop"

So, I think my favourite part of the evening was watching Daniel flamenco it up with the lady dancers, if you know what I'm sayin *wink wink*. Now, let me say right here that Daniel has had dancing lessons folks. In fact, he and Rom reunited at salsa lessons, which led to dating, which led to marriage, which led to iced vovo cakes at his 30th birthday bash and so on and so forth. But alas, on the eve of celebrations honouring his survival of 30 years on the planet, Daniel did not put his best foot forth.

I mean, was it funny? Hell to the yeah! Some might say sad. But not me, no siree. I was laughing my ass clean off the table kids. That was the funniest thing Ive seen in months. Skinny white dude pretending he knows how to dance the cha cha? CHECK! Topped my night off like a cherry on a sundae. (Kidding Daniel - ya did good kid. Kinda. I mean it really was funny. But i totally laughed with you, not at you. *coughs*)

In all seriousness, it was a really fantastic night which Romina could NOT have pulled off without me. Just kidding, i did nothing. We had a great time!! Happy birthday Daniel, hope when we're old and grey we're still doing the two-step same as always.

Dan and Rom :)

A Streetcar Named Desire

I couldn't think of a more witty blog post tonight, sorry folks. I'll take suggestions though. Give away a mars bar to the best one? Anyone? Are you out there?




OK, so not much to report this week, except that Jo has been away in New Zealand visiting the fam, which means i have had 5 days of watching whatever i want whenever i want on foxtel and it has been GREAT. I mean. Of course it's great when he's here. I'm just saying. It's also been great while he's... not. But for the most part it's WAY greater when he's here. Except for the foxtel thing. Cause honestly? That's been...really great.




I'm talking unlimited access to SVU, Oprah, Jon and Kate Plus 8, Friends, Project Runway, Sex and the City, the Gilmore Girls....and new discoveries too, like 30 Rock, which is really very funny. No Megastructures or Megamachines or Megabuildings!




Not that I'm some sort of television addict. I mean yes, i like watching mindless trash TV. So what? Is that a crime now? And how much TV is too much TV anyway? 5 hours? 6? Says who? I work hard! If i want to watch a few hours of television when i get home than i will! Yes siree bob. No problem here...*stares blankly at screen as brain cells are rapidly vaporised*




Besides, i did do one cultural thing this week - Leah and I went to see Cate Blanchett in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Names Desire. Let me just say this:




Cate. Is. Freaken. Amazing.




Seriously. She was fabulous. She was the perfect Blanche DuBois, first of all - sort of reminded me of Vivien Leigh's version in the old movie, except better. She's just so natural, i really can't stop blubbering on about her to anyone who'll listen. When we tried to describe her performance to Chris afterwards, we found ourselves reverently blubbering words like "luminous" and "resplendent" and "gifted", which yes, OK, was probably taking it all a bit too far, but hello. It's Cate Blanchett. We were a tiny bit in awe.




Joel Edgerton was fantastic too, as Stanley (though when it came to his famous line "STELLA!", i think we secretly wanted him to deliver it in a more Elaine-like way than he actually did. She's ruined it for all Stanley's i say.)




I mean it's a great play anyway, but it becomes pretty brilliant when you have two wonderful performers as leads - makes it that much better to watch.




In other news, i learnt a new word today - auspices. I'll let DT tell y'all what it means though, since he's the one who spent half an hour today looking for a definition that made any sense. What a weirdo. *ducks*

She'll be coming round the (blue) mountain(s) when she comes...

On Wednesday - another bright and sunny day, I'm just sayin' - we took a day trip up to the blue mountains. Jo and I have been a few times now and we both really love it up there. Something about that clean mountain air i guess...though i can't say he loves watching me spend hours trawling through second hand book shops and antique stores. But hey. Who's counting right?

Ok, so away we went, and after a quick lunch our first stop was Scenic World, which basically has a bunch of different activities you can do amidst the parkland of Katoomba - home, of course, to the famous 3 sisters. We hopped on the skyway first, which is trundles you across a canyon of sorts, and even has a glass bottom, for those who get excited about that sort of thing. Here's Dawn looking not at all concerned about being on the skyway...

We did get lovely views of waterfalls and miles and miles of bushland - beeeeeautiful!

On the other side, there were several walks you could take, so we did indeed take said walks and took in some of the beautiful scenery along the way.

Jo and his mum at one of the look outs

Dawn at the base of the waterfall! Pretty :)

The 3 Sisters - legend has it that the three sisters were real - aboriginal women from the Katoomba tribe. They fell in love with three brothers from another tribe, but tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers would not accept this, and decided to use force to capture the sisters, causing a big battle (men. *shakes head*). Because the lives of the sisters were in danger, a witch doctor turned them into stone to protect them. He intended to turn them back into humans after the battle was over, but alas, as sometimes happens in battle, he was killed, and in a cruel twist of fate, was the only one who could reverse the spell. And so, dear readers, the sisters remain as rock, reminding generations to come that boys are soooooo totally not worth the trouble they cause.




Goofin' around with the skyway in the background.

Next up, we took this train thingy that heads straight down into the valley. It's VERY steep, but we put on our Indiana Jones hats and survived it.

Dawn and I on the train thingy

Oh, that's me riding a copper horse.

Once we got off the train, we took another long and windy walk through the bush. Very cool down in the valley, and we were lucky enough to spot a lyre bird digging around - they are very shy and very rare to see in the wild! We also came across an old cabin used by the minors back in the day - cause they did a lot of mining down there, apparently.

Dawn and I in the cabin. Do you feel transported back in time? Neither did we.

Love this picture Jo!

Next up, we visited the nearby town of Leura, which has a toy and train museum that we made time to see! The museum is in the lovely old house, and it has beautiful gardens too - there's Dawn hanging out with the roses. The museum had me dolled out pretty quickly (Barbie through the ages anyone? That gal has a hella lot of outfits, let me tell you), but i loved the flowers!

Tulips!

Pretty in pink

Out in the gardens

The old house where the Toy Museum is

It was time to head back after a quick stop at the bakery (cause who can resist a blue mountain bakery. I mean really. It's the proper thing to do.) Then, back to my parents where Mum had prepared quite the feast for our arrival - fresh pasta and chicken schnitzel and sausage and meatballs....Daniel joined us for dinner too, and it was fun to reminisce on old times. We particularly enjoyed swapping stories about the mushroom man...but i reckon that's a story for another time.

So that's the visit! Phew, mammoth few days, but lots of fun. It was back to work for me the next day, and Dawn flew out that night...tearful goodbyes at the airport - little did she know she would be seeing Jo sooner than she thought!!

Happy Fathers Day Daddy xxx

Very quick post to say Happy Fathers Day to the old man - we've had our fireworks over the years (some spectacular ones if i do say so myself, not to brag or anything), but at the end of the day theres love and that's the main thing. We had great BBQ today - lots of food and wine and apple pie and old Italian songs on youtube (gotta love modern technology).

Me and Dad

Mum and Cooper thrown in for good measure

Last night we feasted on a home cooked Italian meal made by Chris - papadelle (made from scratch, if you please!) with veal ragu, home made bread, and some sort of fruit and chili chocolate tart, which Leah kinda scared me off at first....but i tasted it and it was lovely. So thanks guys! Fun times as always.

Plus I'm onto my last Potter - i haven't read the 7th book since it first came out, so it's practically like reading it for the first time!! Right?? Kind of?? Bah. Anyway, another hugely busy week lies ahead. Movies, plays, parties...you'll hear all about it soon enough.

A wild time at Wildlife World.

So to continue the re-cap of Dawn's visit, i will briefly take you through Tuesday, when we headed off to Darling Harbour for a bit of an explore - and spent a very long time indeed lusting after sweets at the British Lolly Shop! Lots of sour stuff, yummm. We decided to head over for lunch at Baia, an Italian place we like, and of course feasted on garlic pizza, tomato and mozzarella salad, pastas and panini's...and a cappuccino to top it all off.

Jo and his mum at Darling Harbour

Then it was off to Wildlife World! Which claims to be Australia's number one tourist attraction. Err. Not sure about that, but we did have a good time checking out all the aussie wildlife on show. Here is a selection of what we saw...

A stick insect...which i poked, hoping for a reaction. Alas, did not get one.

Creepy crawly spiders. Jo loved to touch. *strokes spider*


Snakes! Ew. Australia, lucky country that we are, is home of the top three most venomous snakes in the world. These are the Fierce snake (or inland taipan), the Australian Brown snake and the Taipan.
I mean. In case you were headed off for a bushwalk and needed to know.

Some lizards, like the frilled lizard that Jo is making friends with here.

Koalas! Awww, some nice animals, finally. Here is a mother and her cub, who will reside in her pouch for about 8 months before moving out. Like most Australians, koalas are pretty darn lazy. They can sleep for up to 19 hours a day, and the rest of the time, they eat. And since all they eat is eucalyptus leaves, and we idiot humans keep chopping down their only source of food, they are becoming more and more scarce in the wild.

Kangaroos!

Real ones too, don't worry. There are over 40 species of kangaroos in Australia actually, but we saw red kangaroos and grey ones. The red kangaroo are the largest marsupials in the world - they weigh over 85 kgs and stand taller than a man. Y'all don't want to hit one of those with your car. For your cars sake. Kangaroos can't go backwards - which is why they feature on our coat of arms, to represent a county always moving forwards.

Kookaburras. These furry birds are cute! They usually live in the same area for life, and also mate for life. When they make noise, it sounds like laughter. Which is why they are also unfortunately known as the laughing jackass. Oh well.

Womabts. Don't ya love them? It's pretty rare to see them in the wild, since they only come out at night and are only found in certain parts of the country. During the day they hang out in their burrows - depending on the species, the burrows can turn into interconnecting labyrinth type things where whole communities of wombats will live. Minus David Bowie of course.

Annnd pretty butterflies :)

Nice picture Jo

It was a great day out, even though i did start feeling sick a little later and ended up in bed with a temperature...but we shall not speak of that. Gotta run, we're off to see Leah and Chris - Chris is cooking us dinner, so hopefully we survive. Coming up in part three of Dawn's visit - the Blue Mountains!