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*

Another up and down kind of a day.  Awoken at 5:20 by the hurties, but managed to get back to sleep with pain killers.  Mostly productive day between grumpiness with Certain People.  Got called a wanker by some bitch at drinks.  Got a lift to Gold Creek with Kingsley (even though the bus beat us ;) ).  Had fish and chips for dinner.  Played lots of recorder and a bit of glockenspiel.  Very sleepie.

Then Arian & Co came over again and we got Dumpling Inn takeaway and enjoyed the pool which was still very warm.  And the change FINALLY came through!! Hurrah!! :)  Put some more ice in the fish tank (it was up to 32C) and with the cool air coming through it's down to 29C now.

I think this is a Sumatran Tiger

Lions

Stu got some cool pics of the Red Pandas, I should upload one of his..

This Red Browed Firetail was having a bath in the Red Panda enclosure

The servals were very cool

The Pygmy Marmosets were so cute

Some sort of Iguana..

Meerkat!

Didn't catch the name of this thing..

I think this is a Golden Lion Tamarin (I could be wrong)

Too many people around to get any closer to these guys

Look at the tongue!

Arrived around lunch time, and made ourselves some toasted sandwiches.  The house is huge - lots of living space, three full bathrooms, but only four bedrooms.  Very well equipped though.

Some time after lunch some of us headed down to the local beach (the little one at the north end of Malua Bay area).  Went for a snorkel and saw lots of cool fish, and then had a good long swim with a giant stingray - was awesome!  Then it decided to swim away, so I couldn't keep up with it :)

Came back for beer o'clock, and had a couple of awesome roasts (pork and lamb) for dinner.  Unlocked all the cups on Noah's DS, and later we watched Star Trek.

On Thursday it was quite overcast.  It was Lily's birthday so we went to Mogo Zoo (see separate link for pictures).  Note to self:  don't try to go to any of the keeper talks next time!  All the hoards of people were mostly doing the same thing in the same order, so you just couldn't move in the place.  The pathways are all so narrow and it was stiflingly humid and a bit rainy and so we all got peopled out very quickly.  So much so that we didn't even have the energy to see all of the zoo.  Headed back to the house for a big lunch of stirfry and chicken kebabs.

Got completely bored out of my brain in the afternoon.  Was totally kicking myself that I didn't bring jigsaws or other things for me to do.  And whenever I went anywhere near the Wii, all the kids would jump up and want to play too (even when they were all otherwise occupied).  Since there were only two wiimotes, it wasn't very practical to play with more than two.  It was all a bit frustrating.  Had a bit of a meltdown and went and hid for a while.  

Later in the afternoon sat around and nibbled junk food while having a little party for Lily.

Had some beer, then they got chinese takeaway, but we were all still full from lunch and the party that we didn't get much.  Tried to teach Potty Monty Python Fluxx but he just didn't "get" it so that was a bit of a fizzer.  Had some wine and watched some of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and started to feel better.

Friday we headed down to the Tomaga River with the boat.  Except Stu and Annie kept on driving past the turn off, so we thought they'd missed it.  Waited and waited for them to realise they'd lost us and turn around but they never did.  So we went driving to try and find them.  Eventually we saw them and thought they were following us, but then they turned off *again*.  We couldn't understand it and it was very frustrating.  Eventually we gave up and went to the river.  The others turned up shortly after - turns out they'd just decided to go for a drive.  It would have been nice if they'd told us they were going to do this so we didn't stress out about it :/  Not happy Jan!

Went for a little putter up the river on the boat with Potty

Stu and I swam across the river to get to the sand flats on the other side, but hadn't considered how hard the shallow muddy reed beds would be to get across.. oops.  But saw lots of shell fishy thingies, and a soldier crab (a dog had scared all the birds away).  Crossed the river again downstream where there were no reeds :)

We left some time before the others, and couldn't get the key to work on the front door (it does work, but is very fiddly).  Wandered around the back of the house to see if there was another lock it would work on, only to find the back bathroom door wide open .. oops..

Nibbled on some random food.  Later in the afternoon Potty and I went snorkelling again, but it was quite rough, and lots of churned up gunk in the water, so couldn't see much (not that there was that much to see anyway - most of the fishies must have been in hiding).

Finished off the beer.  Kerry made pizzas for dinner, but none of us were particularly hungry.  Watched Flightplan on tv.

Saturday morning was pack up and go home.  The fridge was still *full* of food - probably enough for another week :/  So of course half of it got thrown out :/  I won't mention the dishwasher incident.  *sigh*  Was only too glad to go home basically.  Although we did stop into The Scottish Restaurant so Stu could get some brunch.  Finally home around lunch time.

Arrived at James and George's a bit after 2pm.  Played some Wii Olympics with the kids until other people turned up.  Then had a very pleasant afternoon/evening of chatting/drinking/eating/eating/eating/playing/present opening.  Watched the fireworks at midnight (only thirteen minutes worth - ripped off!) and went to bed.  Not really sure how well I slept - it felt like I was awake most of the night because the mattress was very soft, but I don't feel like a zombie today so must have gotten reasonable sleep.  

But was a bit sad cause is the first New Years Eve I've had since knowing Stu that I haven't been with him :(

So this morning I came home again.  Almost got sideswiped by a Suburu turning off Pennant Hills Road, but he was doing the speed I wanted to go, so followed him all the way to the Southern Highlands (he turned off before I got to Sutton Forest maccas).  Only saw three cop cars.

So that was my very boring New Years.  Almost went to bed without blogging tonight but decided to try and keep up last year's resolution to try and blog every day where practicable.  We're also going to weigh ourselves every day (we have Wii Fit Plus now - there's some cool new activities on it to do).  Other resolutions?  Just the usual - trying to be more organised around the house - with cleaning and maintenance and the fish and plants etc etc.  We'll see how we go.. :)

Happy 2010!! :)

Just putting a placeholder here cause MT is pretty crap at back dating across months.

..

So. 2009.  

Certainly not as *big* a year as 2008.

We've been in our house over a year now, but it's still not really "settled".  We did buy a nice big dining table, but that's about it.  We still haven't fully organised the rumpus room (although shelves are finally on order!!), and so "my" hobby room has been held up because of that (and because I've been too lazy to try and Freecycle all the crap that's been dumped in there).  We've only put hooks in the wall for one thing (my big Lego mosaic) so most of our pictures are still waiting for somewhere to go.  The spare bedroom has continued to be really really useful, and we've had a steady stream of people staying the night (mostly my brother heh).  The pool has been *brilliant*.  Mostly got the hang of taking care of it, so hopefully we don't get any algal blooms this year.

Work has been variable again this year.  The first half of the year feels like a bit of a blur.  I got a couple of big projects completed mostly on schedule.  The second half of the year was mostly working on the one thing, which we tried but failed to get into production by Christmas.  All through the year it was just insanely busy.  Not as insane as Stu's work though.  He was essentially doing three people's work and the stress of it all was taking a toll on his health.  So when an ex colleague had a positition advertised, she said he should apply.  Which he did, and he got it.  So a new year and a new job for the sweetie.

Our big holiday of the year was a trip to Japan for two weeks.  It was a significant challenge to try and organise because we went with a total of six people.  In the end Nat and I did the majority of the planning which worked reasonably well.  The holiday was *fantastic*!! - had a really great time.  Wish we could have stayed longer - at least twice as long would have been the bare minimum I think.

Went to Sydney a few times - in January over the long weekend while Stu played in Cancon - just caught up with lots of my friends and family.  Also in October for a primarily touristy weekend - even stayed in a hotel!  And then for Christmas and again for New Years.  Went down to Malua Bay with DC three times in March, April and October.  Mostly just us and him, but we did get Neil down for the October weekend.  And to Kangaroo Valley for Chris B's 50th which was a lot of fun.

Our fish tank numbers remained stable at seven.  We did lose a huge number of fish in the heatwave in February (where we had three consecutive 40C days with no cooling down at night).  All the julis, all but one of the adult multis, and all the tetras and the other little fish died.  The young multies and my angel were the only upstairs survivors.  I replaced the tetties with some leopard danios.  The multis grew up and have been breeding like rabbits.  Stu brought home the three julis he had at work and got some leleupies too.  The kribs downstairs I think need to have their tank rearranged, as they just sit there and do *nothing* all day.  Guppy breeding has slowed down dramatically too, not sure what's going on there, maybe needs some new genes..

Fairly quiet Lego year.  Made a nice big mosaic of Australia, and now my mosaics have a hanging place in the spare room.  I dug out and sold a bunch of Space Lego which cleared a little space - but have a long way to go!  And over Christmas built the Star Destroyer and Millennium Falcon to have them on display together.

I hadn't seen a single preview for it, or read any reviews, so I went into it with no idea what to expect (which I usually find is a good thing heh).

Stu's complaint was it was totally predictable, and James Cameron ripped off other people's ideas yet again.  And that is true.  But you have to remember that this is a James Cameron Hollywood blockbuster - of course it's going to be like that.  You don't go to a movie like this really expecting any new ideas.  

What you can expect is a movie that visually is utterly stunning and incredibly beautiful.  As someone who likes bright shiny coloured things I was enraptured by the forest at night :)

A big downer for me actually was the 3D.  The glasses really dull the colours and brightness of the picture to the point where even scenes in the sunshine look subdued and lifeless.  I think there's more to lose from the 3D than to gain from the experience (which is fairly distracting anyway).  

So anyway.  The test of a good movie for me is in repeated watchings.  Maybe we'll see it again in 2D ..

Friday was the last of our Friday work parties.  We went bowling and I won the loser's er, learner's prize for coming last .. :)  And then we went out for lunch, and then some drinks.  A very pleasant afternoon :)

Saturday we drove to Sydney and went to two of my cousins's kids's Christenings.  All sorts of cool memories of various Greek events, a good party (if a little too noisy), and catching up with family.  Wished I was coordinated enough to do some Greek dancing, but ended up doing a little ordinary dancing to popular music (and even mum joined in - freaky! :) ).  

Sunday was Christmas lunch at the parents'.  The aunties and uncles on mum's side, and the B and SIL came along, so was a great afternoon.

If at all possible, avoid Macca's at South Goulburn.  It's seriously the worst in Australia.  Even when there's noone there they aren't organised enough to take people's orders and get them right.  Longest wait times ever!!  Stu didn't get what he ordered. Epic fail!!

Today was back to work and what should have been a fairly seemless rollout turned out to be epic disaster.  We ended up having to roll back and it was all very depressing.  This product seriously sucks donkey balls.  *sigh*

Four days to Christmas and have barely done any Christmas shopping .. doh..