Weekly photo dump

Happy October! I have started the month in style – conjunctivitis in both eyes and a nasty chest infection.

I’m really not sure how the conjunctivitis came about. But it might have something to do with my optometrist putting me on these new contact lenses that supposedly breathe better… so much for that! I’m also not sure how this horrible chest infection came about but it’s absolutely horrible. I wake up randomly in the early hours of the morning in fits of coughs. Not fun. It is also very hard to try and suppress a stubborn cough in a quiet office when you don’t want people to give you the evil eye for being at work whilst sick. And truthfully I’m all for that – if someone is sick, they belong at home, not at work… but the guilt got the better of me yesterday. Needless to say I was sent home just after lunch. Hallelujah! I just wanted to crawl into bed and under the blanket.

My weekend flew by like most other weekends… we saw a lot of rain last week so I was so happy we had lovely weather over the weekend. Marc’s little nephew had his first birthday party which stretched out a little longer than expected. I’ve never known a first birthday to go any longer than 3 hours but this one spanned nearly five. Only because the birthday cake got delivered very, very late. Poor kid, by the time the cake arrived and we were ready to sing happy birthday, he was ready to tear down the cake in a fit of tantrum. He just needed a nap. Other than that, we spent most of his birthday party entertaining him with blowing bubbles and I admired most of Marc’s brother’s front yard with lavender in full bloom, wishing I had my real camera with me. And by real I mean, the DLSR I am supposed to be getting for my birthday (which was 2 months ago!)… that’s a whole other story!

Well I’m off to rest these eyes instead of sitting them in front of a brightly lit screen. And Marc is going to make me some lunch. Oh, it’s lovely being waited on… I have the most caring fiance in the world. He gets me tissues, water, eye drops, cough medicine… and they have all been sporadic requests mind you, so he keeps getting up to get me something, sits back down and then is up again 2 minutes later. Not a complaint. An angel, I tell you…

Eat Pray Love, Take Two

I was given this book as a birthday present a couple of years ago. For whatever reason I only managed a few pages and the book sat on my shelf for two years before I picked it up again last night. I watched Oprah and there she was with Julia Roberts and Elizabeth Gilbert talking about this ‘fabulous’ book. I knew I had to give it a proper chance because the first time around, I mustn’t have been in the ‘reading mood’ because if a book is good, that’s it, it’s good. Clearly it’s one of those books you can’t put down which I’m not sure how I put it down in the first place when I was given it… because now? I just CAN’T PUT IT DOWN. Maybe it’s all psychological because last night I watched Oprah and Julia and they are two of my most favourite people in the world. Yes, that must be it.

Speaking of Oprah, one of the many cities we will be traveling to in December is the windy city of Chicago. Marc still thinks I’m joking when I say I’m going to stake out Harpo Studios and wait out on the street for Oprah. I don’t care what anyone thinks, she is a God to me.

So my birthday month is going well. I had a superb 29th birthday! I came home from work to the most lovely bunch of red roses waiting for me… from the boy, of course. To be honest, I was completely shell shocked. The boy is the loveliest guy in the world, the most kind hearted, caring and generous man I’ve ever met. But romance hasn’t always been his strong point. To me, flowers are romantic. When he got me flowers last week, it was probably the third time he’s ever bought my flowers this entire time we’ve been together… and I honestly don’t care too much for flowers, but when I do get them, I LOVE them and I’m completely weak at my knees and tears come to my eyes. And that’s exactly what happened when I saw them on my birthday…

Three! One Little Flea…

Happy 3rd birthday, my beautiful little nephew… I love you with every ounce of my being!

A couple of points to note from the photo above… one, it was no easy task to get a ‘proper’ photo of Dylan yesterday. Party, playground, presents, friends, treats, cake, balloons… why in the world would he want to stop for two seconds to look straight at my camera?! Two, besides being steaming hot yesterday, it was also ridiculously windy… I’m surprised my sister managed to light those candles, hence the many hands around the cake trying to keep the flames going… oh it was a beautiful day!

Now that he is three, Dylan is an avid fan of the telephone… I have conversations with him that only melt my heart and bring a tear to my eye. Just hearing his voice does that to me. He is trying very hard to grasp the phone concept… that is that I can hear him but can’t see him or anything around him. When I called him today, he very excitedly told me about this new toy he got and proceeded to say, “Hang on a second, I’ll show you!”… and quickly darted to his bedroom to get this new toy whilst my sister is trying to tell him that “Aunty Jan can’t see it, she can only hear you”. It was very funny. This boy is a little wonder… he is a social butterfly and loves good company. He has impeccable manners and is just so fun-loving. He is well behaved most times and tantrums are very rare these days, if any at all. He loves his little sister and is so good and kind to her. When Lara cries, he says “It’s okay, I’m here”. What a gorgeous big brother!

I will never forget the day he was born… the most anticipated day ever, three years ago! He brings incredible joy to not only my life, but also to Marc’s… who happens to love this boy more than he thought he could love anyone.

My Flirting With Disaster is Modern Love

I really just wanted to post about our dinner last Saturday night…

It was beautiful. I wouldn’t say perfect, but it was good enough and we had fantastic quality time just the two of us. May seem weird that I say “quality time” because you’d think that when two people live together, surely every minute is quality time? I can assure you it’s not the case!

Sure we see each other every night and we’re talking and cooking dinner and chilling… but at the same time, the phone is ringing, the tv is blaring and we are distracted by thoughts of work, family, friends, the general running of a household and so forth.

So, when it’s a Saturday night and it’s quiet and it’s just the two of us and a tealight candle between us, we TALK. Like, really talk. We laugh, we joke, we ask questions, we tell stories… it’s quality time. Not that we don’t do all of that on a normal day but it’s just different when you have each other’s undivided attention.

Anyway, back to the dinner. The restaurant was really nice and the food was delish. I wouldn’t say to-die-for like I would some restaurants we’ve been too, but it was still extremely enjoyable. The only downside we found was that we were done at the restaurant in an hour. An hour?! It wasn’t as if we were rushed or we were just chowing down our food… but for some reason everything came out really quickly and before we knew it, we were done and paying the bill. For a fine dining restaurant, that was a little disappointing. You’d expect to be at the restaurant for at least 2 hours if it was a fine dining experience… oh well.

So that was our Saturday night. It was strangely a pretty warm winter’s night so we enjoyed the ‘warm’ fresh air before heading home… to watch the rest of the footy. Bloody footy!

Crazy, stressful week this week…  have a great one!

Awful Happens All the Time, Try Not to Let It Kill You

When the time comes to build my dream house, I will be OVERFLOWING with ideas… truth is, I already am. The other night when Marc told me his work mate designed the house he is currently building for his family, I thought aloud, “I’d love to do that”. And Marc said, “Well, why don’t you?”. That’s my guy. So strongly confident that I can do whatever I want. Lucky for me, he believes in me, has faith in me and always knows that if I can dream it, then I can do it. Anyway, so when the time comes… yes, I will design my dream house.

So, it’s a little late for a weekend post but I had a great weekend- Marc and I watched Gran Torino which I personally thought was a let down. I’m not sure why I thought it would’ve been a good movie? I know Clint Eastwood is a great actor, he may even be a legend to some, but I felt like he made that movie for the sake of making a movie.

On Saturday, we headed to the beach! We have a few beaches near us (within a 15 minute drive) but we always opt to go to our favourite, Anglesea Beach, which is down the Surf Coast on the Great Ocean Road, over an hours drive away. The beaches near our house are what we call ‘city beaches’ where they’re extremely crowded, somewhat dirty and not as beautiful. The beaches on the Surf Coast however, although a fair distance to drive to, are amazingly beautiful. Long, wide beaches, beautiful clean water and very much more scenic. We stayed at the beach for a few hours until it was time to head home to get ready for a friend’s Chinese New Year potluck party. I love how we celebrate Chinese New Year over a couple of weeks… it seems neverending.

Sunday was Dylan’s second birthday. I am still reeling at the fact that I completely forgot my camera. I was in such a rush Sunday morning (preparing freckled sandwiches for Dylan’s party) that I just forgot to pack my camera. I am relying on photos from my sister, so do not hold your breath! The party was cute… it was only family so it was small and intimate. Dylan of course was spoilt rotten, we wouldn’t expect anything else. His parents got him a sandpit for their backyard as part of his birthday present so he spent most of the morning in the sandpit and his wading pool. Marc and I got him a Thomas the Tank Engine (latest obsession!) toddler couch and he loved it! The sweetest part of the day was when Dylan asked his little cousin Josh who is only 7 months old to share his new couch with him. It was priceless. I need to get these photos… after all presents were open and everyone had cake, we headed to the beach near my sister’s house. We spent a couple of hours there and headed home after having too much sun!