Actually this was week before last .. been seeing a lot of balloons lately

Last Sunday morning I made pancakes for breakfast

Thursday morning took photos of fish

And saw a big Dong

Friday there were four gak gak birds lined up in a row

Saturday we had a pastry and coffee at Knead

and then did our food shopping afterwards.

I did a jigsaw

And did a bunch of UK planning.

Didn't end up going out for dinner, which was a bit sad-making.  Watched Toy Story 1 and 2 instead.

Today it was miserable again, so stayed inside all day.  Did a whole lot of nothing, played a game of Ticket to Ride Europe, and cooked dinner.  Which is still cooking :)

This arvo was cleaning house all day and making Lego.

This evening Nat and Andrew came over and we watched some tv and played some Buzz and Wii.  And got the worst Pizza Hut pizza *ever* !!  Will be writing a letter to Pizza Hut tomorrow about how epic crap it was (nearly two hours wait and it was cold when it got here :( ).  But otherwise a fun night.

Some photos of today will be updated when I get around to getting them off the camera...

Two years ago today we visited Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna, then the Wiener Riesenrad (big Ferris Wheel).  

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...

Sorry.

I didn't want to blog until I'd finished blogging our Melbourne trip.  Which took all week.  Hrmmmm.

Nothing much really happened all week.  There was work.  And a day off.  And work again.  And beer.  And dinner at Taj Agra, which gave me the hiccoughs.  And more work.  

The day off was lovely.  Had a relaxing morning doing the jigsaw I got in Melbourne, and then going into town with Stu and having lunch with Melita.  Could easily have a day off every day!

Today we got ready relatively early and went to Satis for breakfast, then visited Little Sneezy/Whingey/Farty (haven't got a good nickname for her yet! Maybe Violet Crumble? hehee) and the rest of the family, then our food shopping and suddenly it's nearly 2pm.  Didn't do much with the rest of the afternoon, just jigsaw and kirigami catchup and Melbourne trip blogging.  

And now it's most definitely beer o'clock.  I tried to suggest it to the sweetie while we were out shopping that we could use some more beer, but we didn't end up getting any.  So had to pay 2-3 times the price at the local bottle-o.  Oh well...

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 :)

Watched our plane pull up, and took our seats up the back of the 737.  Fairly average lunch, and otherwise standard sort of flight.

Qantas 737-476 "Currawong" (VH-TJU)

Lake Eucumbene

Khancoban Pondage

Lake Dartmouth

Last getting off the plane, but no wait at all for bags :)

Then hopped in a taxi (no queue!) and headed into the city.

The Giant Cheese Stick and Zipper (aka "Melbourne International Gateway")

Our hotel (the Stamford on Little Collins) was very swishy for the cheap end of the swishy market.  Super cool glass elevators :)

Our room

View from our room window

We essentially just dumped all our stuff before heading out again for a wander.

Wandered past Hosier Lane and saw some people photographing the graffiti so went to see what they were looking at.  Found several adjoining lanes covered in lots of cool graffiti (there was even some being created while we were there!). 

Moving on, walked past Federation Square (which didn't exist last time I was in Melbourne)

.. and an Apple store ..

.. and past Flinders Street station (with the new Eureka tower behind it - also not there last time I was in Melbourne)

Then headed across the Yarra River 

MCG from Princes Bridge

Lights on Princes Bridge

Took photos of the Arts Centre

.. and horse and carriages on St Kilda Road

Then wandered through Southbank.  Stopped at this point for a snack to keep us going, as we thought we'd be having a late dinner.  

This girl played short pieces from a stack of tunes.. a lot of movie soundtracks .. we were having a guessing game of what they were while we had our snacks.

Next we headed for the Eureka Tower.  Fifteen years ago I went up the Rialto Tower.  This one is a fair bit bigger.

It has bugs on it!

We headed up to the Eureka Skydeck 88 ($16.50 each).  Unfortunately it's a disaster for photography.  The windows are tinted blue and gold in different sections which screws up colour balances, the glass is *very* reflective, and the building is at all different angles.  We didn't even attempt to do any sort of panorama.  But we did spend ages up there taking photos and looking at stuff (and went outside to get blown away, but didn't do the Edge which was another $12 or so).  

South west Melbourne CBD, including the Rialto Towers, Spencer St, the stadium and Docklands.  

Tinted windows

Flinders Street station and Federation Square

Spirit of Tasmania coming in to dock

We hung around for about an hour waiting for the sun to set so we could see the place at night, but after an hour (when it was just starting to get dark) we gave up and headed back down.

The Yarra River is a lot prettier at night than during the day..

Walked past Flinders Street station

.. and wandered up Swanston Street and ended up at City BBQ Chinese Restaurant in China Town.  Dinner was ok.  We shoulda ordered less food.  Or made one of the dishes vegetables.  It was a very *brown* meal.

Wandered back down Russell Street.  

Was amused by the plastic food we saw in one place.

Dropped off the sweetie who had had enough, then went out again looking for ice cream.  Tried bottom of Swanston St and Federation Square without success.  Then went across to Elizabeth Street and walked all the way up it to La Trobe Street before heading back, eventually getting Magnums at a local minimart place.  I suppose we can't complain - it was Good Friday yet there was *heaps* of stuff open, and open til late too.  Don't think that'd happen in Canberra!

"The Public Purse" - sculpture we liked in the Bourke St Mall

And so ended Good Friday.  It was a pretty good Friday :)  Lots of walking (really should replace the battery in the pedometer!) 

And this blog post only took fifty minutes to do.. no wonder I've been putting it off for days..

This is a pic of dinner last night..

There was roast potatoes with oil and salt .. fried mushrooms with shallots and fresh parsley.. tomato with various cheeses and basil .. very nommm

Tonight I had beers lined up from eleven different countries .. Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Holland, Japan, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Denmark and Mexico :)   (not all mine!!)

Then was a very pleasant dinner at Prince Palace (cause 2 Yummy was closed).  Followed by Men's Pocky and some turd dessert....

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.

We replaced the beef with TVP for a vegetarian option and skipped the chilli, but otherwise followed the recipe pretty much exactly.  It turned out quite well - maybe slightly dry - but my fault for not adding enough moisture in the middle.  

I liked this recipe because for the most part it used "whole" things - whole packets of things and whole onions etc.  Makes shopping for it very easy.  

Sadly, like the lasagna, it takes a *lot* of effort and time to make.  

And it doesn't photograph well at all :)  (There were two baking dishes-full from the packet of tubes)