Saturday arvo we went and fed Yoda before heading to Mishi's for a games night.

Had some nibblies and then some yummy chicken wings and sausages at Mishi's.  After dinner played a game of Trivial Pursuit (in teams so we had half a chance) except everyone else got questions that generally we could answer, yet the three or four times we actually got a go they were stoopidly hard questions that not even Stu knew the answers to.  So that was all very depressing, but at least the game was over very quickly.  There was then talk of playing Ticket to Ride, but there were seven people which made it too hard, so just had some tea and chatted for a while longer.

Sunday we got up and went over to Potty's cause Jeff and Ruth were in town and visiting.  Helped do some hedging, but Potty came along with his electric trimmer after we were done and redid the whole lot, so we needn't have bothered *sigh*.  At least we got a nice lunch.  Did our shopping and came home.  

Sunday evening we headed over to Windy's for eating and drinking and being merry.  Lots of yummy roast pork and potato bake.  I made a caesar salad and most of that got eaten which was a good thing.  Then played some Singstar until got booted off so the kids could do High School Musical.  So that was pretty meh.  But Windy and I had a couple of games of Monty Python Fluxx before everyone left and we were finally allowed back on Singstar.  Had a great time at that until everyone else got too tired.  Surprise of the evening was doing exceptionally well at Aqua's Barbie Girl.  Who knew I could be so good at a song I've barely heard in twenty years!

Today we decided to have a quiet day at home (with a quick trip to Bunnings thrown in).  Did some gardening and a bit of tidying and watched last night's Bones and Castle online.  Then cooked our anniversary dinner.  $50 worth of ingredients!  Would almost have been cheaper to go out! heh.  I did Lana's stuffed chicken (the recipe that has won her a trip to Sydney to cook for Margaret Fulton!), which was yummy, but a little over cooked and a little too salty.  Also did an asparagus bake (another one of our new favourite recipes) and for dessert did these mini pavlovas which epic rocked!

Still very full, but quite sleepie and thinking about going to bed soon...

Crazy busy day at work, with a nice lunch at the pub in the middle (was talking to Dave in the morning and he said he'd had a nice steak for dinner the night before, so had a craving for steak :) ).  

I have a mission for myself for the weekend, but I doubt I'll finish it, so I'd better not say what it is just yet heh :)

Cleaned up the house this morning, then waited around for Annie to come over (she was supposed to get here at 12, but didn't arrive to 1:30, so was totally starving by the time they got here).  So we went for a little walk, taking the kids to the park and going to the bakery for lunch.  

And no photos to mark the occasion.. doh!

Did our shopping in the arvo and had a $35 dinner ($19 bottle of wine, $13 worth of salmon and ~$3 asparagus).  Unfortunately I burnt the bottom of the salmon trying to get the skin crispy, but it was otherwise delicious and the asparagus was good too.

I could use another day of weekend though....

La Famiglia Pan Bread - this stuff is epic win!!

The photomosaic jigsaw I finished last weekend 

This morning we went into civic and had breakfast at Cream.  Was delicious.  Then looked in BigW for Toy Story Lego (nothing on special) and JB HiFi (bought a couple of cheap cds).

Aimed to leave the hotel at 9am this time (since it was "really" 10am), giving us an extra hour in Melbourne :)

Decided that we were going to go do the super duper expensive hotel restaurant.  Turns out it was an all you can eat buffet for $35 each.  I only managed to get two plates worth of food in (I never get good value out of all you can eats!)

Went back to our room and packed up, then checked out and left our bags with the concierge, and Nat and I did a quick photoshoot of the hotel.

Went for a wander up Exhibition St.  Saw sushi burgers and a sign saying nothing happened.

Then wandered up through Exhibition gardens (Carlton Gardens) to the Exhibition Building.

I was most surprised when we got around to the north side of the building because there was a whole museum that wasn't there fifteen years ago!  Made taking photos from the north a little difficult heh.

Decided that we'd actually go into the museum and have a look.

Pygmy blue whale skeleton

Flutterbies?

Big taxidermy room "Wild" .. at least a lot better organised than the one in Japan

And we have a thylacine too!

I had a long wander through the body exhibit, and then a quick run through the mind exhibit (would love to have spent longer there) before meeting up with the others to decide on a plan.  While everyone decided what we were doing next, I raced up to take some photos of Phar Lap (would liked to have looked through the whole Victoria exhibit there as well)....

So went back to the others and we walked up to Lygon Street.  Although we didn't have time to sit down and eat, Nat got some take away pasta from one place.  Next time we'll organise ourselves better to actually eat here properly.

And then it was back to the hotel to pick up our bags, and hop in a taxi to head off to the airport. 

Our plane back - Virgin Blue 737-8Q8 (VH-VOU)

We didn't get much of a view during the flight because it was dark, but we did get a nice sunset from the plane on the tarmac

So arrived back in Canberra and Andrew drove us home.

Totally great weekend away, lots of fun, and even a decent amount of exercise :)  

We want to come again next year and organise ourselves better to see some of the comedy festival and have a proper meal on Lygon Street :)

Headed down Friday afternoon/evening.  

Stopped for pizza in Malua Bay at the Sandy Foot Cafe.  Decided to eat in, and had a "Big Mama".

The others had arrived just before us, but they let us have "our" room.. very sweet of them :)

Proceeded with the challenge of a keg in a weekend.  But I didn't have to put too much effort into it - got quite a bit of help from Dave and some from Stu :)  After a bit of Wii Sports Resort we had a spa til 2:30 until the dog really needed to go to sleep.

On Saturday morning I started a 3D jigsaw of a church and had an early snack lunch before heading up to Myrtle Beach for a swim.  It was *soooo* beautiful!!  Except for all the seaweed on the beach, but that was a totally minor thing.  The water was beautiful and warm and crystal clear, I was kicking myself I didn't bring our snorkels.  We caught a little (1.5cm) fish in our hands, and a similar sized squid or cuttlefish baby.  And a little black worm thing.  One of the best ocean swims I've ever had.  

Headed back to the house for more food and jigsaws.  I finished the 3D one and started on a "mystery" one - it comes with a story and you have to look at the picture (once it's finished - there's no picture on the box) to solve the mystery.  Finished that while the others cooked up a storm on the barbeque.  We finished the keg at 6:30pm - WTF?? :)  Good thing Dave had brought some kirin :)  Ate dinner by candlelight for earth hour (even though supposedly candles produce more greenhouse gasses than electric lights - fail! heh)  Only stayed up in the spa til 12:30 :)

Sunday I started another jigsaw - one I got off freecycle recently.  Played a bit of Wii as well (Super Mario Bros for Wii - still didn't like it any better the second time around).  Cleaned up and headed home mid afternoon (via The Scottish Restaurant).  It was so fricken humid at the coast that it was bliss to sit in an air conditioned car for a while!  Was pretty grumpy that I missed the airport open day.  Think I'll cancel whatever plans I have next time..  But otherwise a very nice weekend.

The minor problem of the whole night being I hadn't worn the dress I wore in nearly two years.  I think I've put on a heap of weight since then :(  So it was nearly a big disaster.  Felt like I was in a straight jacket all night.  Took a good three champagnes before I finally started to relax.  Speaking of which, they friggen ran out of champagne!!?!?  How epic fail is that?  

Anyway, it was quite a fun night.  Even danced (I'm allergic to dancing) and the sweetie even danced with us.  And Chris snuck us a bottle of wine to take home hehe :)

Some of our table at the ball

Bradman Room at Manuka Oval

The sweetie and me

Lamb entree - lovely and tender

Chicken main - not too bad

I claimed the Queen of Hearts card

Chris and his Astin Martin

Other than that we mostly just moaned in sickness for the rest of the weekend.  Stu wanted to get some fish and plants so we took the car for a wash and had subway for lunch, and I got a new guppy as well.  Didn't realise how few healthy guppies I have left :(

The first half of the long weekend was great.

Friday night we went over to Nat and Andrew's and met Suki.  Soooo cute!  Had pizza for dinner, then played some Wii music (some bits of it were fun, others were tedious), Singstar, Wiiracas and Mario Kart.

Saturday we went to Belco markets for breakfast and to look at fish shops.  Got back and got some housework done then spent a good chunk of the afternoon doing fish stuff.  Stu did a big tidy of the fish stuff in the garage and I cleaned out the danio tank and took the five danios back upstairs.

Sunday was doing more housey stuff when I started having an immune reaction.  So went and lay down around lunch time for a couple of hours.  The rest of the afternoon went in slow motion.  Did do a little tidying of my hobby room, so at least the day wasn't a complete waste :/

Today was just a mopey blah sort of day.  Did a jigsaw.  Ripped some of my cds.  Did the food shopping cause we had to.  That was about it really.

I did freecycle a couple of inkjet printers which was good.  Although a bit sad giving away a printer I spent $300 on back in the day.  Nowadays it's practically cheaper to buy a new printer than it is to buy new ink.  So stoopid.

Yesterday morning Stu got up relatively early and we went into town.  

Got to see the new Canberra Centre parking light system.  This is so totally brilliant.  Rhodes shopping centre should pay attention to this!

Had some breakfast at Gus' in civic then I got a card for the parents while Stu got a hair cut.

Came home and packed, then headed off to Sydney.

Arrived at Luc&Lizzi's around five pm to take a donut photo of Ryan.

Then headed to the parents' place.  The plan was to go out to dinner so we decided to go to "Tropical Restaurant" Chinese in Jannali.  The food wasn't that bad (I actually really enjoyed the BBQ pork with garlic sauce) and service was pretty quick, but they enraged me by not providing free tap water (you had to buy bottled water or soft drink).  It was a BYO place, although "alcoholic beverages only".  So there was no way to get a free drink of water.  This, while perhaps not illegal unless they were licensed, is downright *rude*.  I refused to buy a drink at all, and will never be going back there.

This morning we went to church with the parents.  Then went and got Stu a coffee at a cafe in Jannali.  Then came back for a parish lunch, which my aunties and uncles and some of the parents' friends came along to for my parents' 40th (ruby) wedding anniversary.  Wasn't too painful heh :)

After lunch and dessert we came back to pick up out stuff and photograph parrots..

Then headed home, via the little brother's to say hello and happy anniversary to them.  Had a lovely long hold of Yingarna (she is sooo beautiful!) although didn't take any photos to prove it.

Was later filled with rage at people who don't know how to merge.  Apparently there'd been an earlier accident on the Hume Highway.  We drove maybe ten kilometres in first gear just crawling along north of Goulburn.  Then got to some road works where the two lanes merged into one.  At that point the traffic jam vaporised.  No trace whatsover of it.  How can you go from two lanes at 5km/hr to one lane at 100km/hr ??? Fricken fricken!!  I hate people.  Truly I do.

There was actually water in Lake George, but we were pretty exhausted and just wanted to go home, so just took some snaps from out the window.

Now it's nearly midnight.  Because we haven't spent nearly enough time at home this weekend :(  *sigh*