Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
King (Isaac) and I
Babysat Isaac last Saturday night so I amused myself by camera-whoring with Isaac.. heheh. It's my blog, so bite me.
Viv wanted a piece of the camera action too.
He looks so funny and cute here.
These were all taken before he turned into Monster Baby.
Viv wanted a piece of the camera action too.
He looks so funny and cute here.
These were all taken before he turned into Monster Baby.
Child Abuse..
This is what happens when the mum and dad turned their backs on us and Isaac for a few minutes.. hehe... Isaac is modelling Viv's DIY flowergirl outfit for THE wedding. Unfortunately he doesn't do it justice as he is too butch. Très amusing though.
The minute we stripped it off him, he started crying. There are 2 possibilities : He liked dressing as a girl and didn't want to take it off, or we traumatised him... haha.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Beep beep...
I want to do the Quarter Marathon in October. Who wants to join me and Viv? I'll lock in Quarter for now but aim for the Half. Quarter is 10.55 km and Half is 21 km I think.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Round The Bays 2011
A few months ago, I got it into my head that I would like to be able to run for more than a minute at a time. So I did the rational thing and downloaded a running app off Itunes. As you do. I secretly worry that I look like a lunatic ala Phoebe from Friends when I run so I've kept to the backroads around the neighbourhood when I do my running. This suspicion did not ease when Lauren mimicked me after she saw me go for a run. She said "This is Ee Ee pretending to run" while running in a totally pitiful way. What the!
Week 1 saw me doing 8 lots of 1 minute runs followed by 1.5 minutes of walks. Week 1 was veeerrrrrrrrry painful. I was so unfit and the half hour sessions felt like an eternity. Week 2 was a bit better for my short attention span with 6 rounds of 1.5 minutes of running and 2 minutes of walking. Still very unfit and still wanted to die after every session. I was in Melbourne for Week 3 but I powered through and still did the runs. They became more challenging with 2 rounds of 1.5 minutes run and 1.5 minutes walk followed by a longer 3 minutes run and 3 minutes walk. Then I graduated to Week 4 which was 2 rounds of 3 minutes run and 1.5 minutes walk followed by 5 minutes run and 2.5 minutes walk. Anyhoo I can manage the 5 minutes run but it was a struggle at times.
Viv talked me into doing Round The Bays a week before it was due to take place so I upped my training a bit in order to survive the 8.4 km course. The plan was to follow my app on the day and do the Week 5 training which was three lots of 5 minutes run and 3 minutes walks and then just repeat that until the bitter end. It didn't go exactly to plan.
The run was supposed to start at 9.30 and we rocked up about half an hour before hand. I didn't realise the whole world and their dogs would be out in force AND in costumes!! They don't call it a FUN RUN for nothing. We got as close as we could to the start line and that was probably about a block and a half away. The crowd was just humongous with people representing all sorts of organisations. It was fun seeing what the corporate tees of each company looked like. There was a huge charity presence there too with people dressed up for all kinds of causes. Heaps of parents were pushing their prams.
Word of advice : don't bring your babies! A. It is annoying when you bump your expensive pram with 4WD sized wheels into the back of my poor defenceless ankles. True story. And B. There's a chance that you might slip and cause the aforementioned expensive pram to topple over and propel your precious bundle of joy out of the expensive pram and onto the pavement. *crack*. True story also. St John's was kept very busy.
Anyway back to me. Jason and his cousin ran together as they are manly men and wanted to finish the race in 2 seconds (Yeah right!) so Viv and I ran together. I thought I was gonna be a real burden on the gym bunny but turned out I was quite the energizer rabbit myself!!
Like I said, we were a block and a half away and with the massive crowds around us, we didn't make it to the start line until about 5 minutes after the whistle was blown. At first, we just walked and weaved like a maniac all over the show in order to get out of the slow moving crowd. Once the roads opened up a tiny bit, we started running and kept weaving around the walkers and slow joggers (losers, eat my dust!). We kept this up for FIFTEEN minutes. I was so impressed with myself as this was totally unchartered waters for me. I think it was more distracting with all that was going on around me so I didn't focus as much on how much time was ticking by. Whereas if I was running by myself, the mental dialogue would be like "Oh my goodness, ONE minute has gone by. I am TIRED. I want to die. I want to STOP. Is it FIVE minutes yet? Nooo? Darn it!!!". And so on and so forth.
The rest of the way, Viv and I pretty much walked double the length that we would jog, then sprint for a bit. It was very good actually. I didn't actually push myself as hard as I should have because at no time during the length of the course did I feel like my heart was going to explode. Oh well, I shall aim to improve my time next year. Official time for me? 71 minutes and 40 seconds... hohoho!! Not bad for a former couch potato huh?? Best time was 26 minutes and it was achieved by the dude that won the Auckland Marathon last year. Might do the half marathon this year if I can find someone to do it with me.....
Around 80 thousand people took part in the fun run.... can you see me?????
Enroute to St Heliers' Bay:
Viv got us into Telecom's corporate marquee after the run and it was tres good. There was free food (buns, salads, coleslaw roast chicken, ham, fruits), drinks (soft drinks, water, beer, cider, wine), jelly beans, massages (I got one.. hohoho so good), sunscreen, facepainting (was gonna get one but worried about the paint causing breakouts on my face so I refrained) and a balloonologist (balloon animals making clown), giant bean bags to sit on. It was great to sit back and relax after the workout. Weather was great so it was a very good day.
Freebies that I snagged:
Mini bottles of sunscreen, bag of jelly beans, water and a tee shirt. Product placement, much?
Proof of my time!
Week 1 saw me doing 8 lots of 1 minute runs followed by 1.5 minutes of walks. Week 1 was veeerrrrrrrrry painful. I was so unfit and the half hour sessions felt like an eternity. Week 2 was a bit better for my short attention span with 6 rounds of 1.5 minutes of running and 2 minutes of walking. Still very unfit and still wanted to die after every session. I was in Melbourne for Week 3 but I powered through and still did the runs. They became more challenging with 2 rounds of 1.5 minutes run and 1.5 minutes walk followed by a longer 3 minutes run and 3 minutes walk. Then I graduated to Week 4 which was 2 rounds of 3 minutes run and 1.5 minutes walk followed by 5 minutes run and 2.5 minutes walk. Anyhoo I can manage the 5 minutes run but it was a struggle at times.
Viv talked me into doing Round The Bays a week before it was due to take place so I upped my training a bit in order to survive the 8.4 km course. The plan was to follow my app on the day and do the Week 5 training which was three lots of 5 minutes run and 3 minutes walks and then just repeat that until the bitter end. It didn't go exactly to plan.
The run was supposed to start at 9.30 and we rocked up about half an hour before hand. I didn't realise the whole world and their dogs would be out in force AND in costumes!! They don't call it a FUN RUN for nothing. We got as close as we could to the start line and that was probably about a block and a half away. The crowd was just humongous with people representing all sorts of organisations. It was fun seeing what the corporate tees of each company looked like. There was a huge charity presence there too with people dressed up for all kinds of causes. Heaps of parents were pushing their prams.
Word of advice : don't bring your babies! A. It is annoying when you bump your expensive pram with 4WD sized wheels into the back of my poor defenceless ankles. True story. And B. There's a chance that you might slip and cause the aforementioned expensive pram to topple over and propel your precious bundle of joy out of the expensive pram and onto the pavement. *crack*. True story also. St John's was kept very busy.
Anyway back to me. Jason and his cousin ran together as they are manly men and wanted to finish the race in 2 seconds (Yeah right!) so Viv and I ran together. I thought I was gonna be a real burden on the gym bunny but turned out I was quite the energizer rabbit myself!!
Like I said, we were a block and a half away and with the massive crowds around us, we didn't make it to the start line until about 5 minutes after the whistle was blown. At first, we just walked and weaved like a maniac all over the show in order to get out of the slow moving crowd. Once the roads opened up a tiny bit, we started running and kept weaving around the walkers and slow joggers (losers, eat my dust!). We kept this up for FIFTEEN minutes. I was so impressed with myself as this was totally unchartered waters for me. I think it was more distracting with all that was going on around me so I didn't focus as much on how much time was ticking by. Whereas if I was running by myself, the mental dialogue would be like "Oh my goodness, ONE minute has gone by. I am TIRED. I want to die. I want to STOP. Is it FIVE minutes yet? Nooo? Darn it!!!". And so on and so forth.
The rest of the way, Viv and I pretty much walked double the length that we would jog, then sprint for a bit. It was very good actually. I didn't actually push myself as hard as I should have because at no time during the length of the course did I feel like my heart was going to explode. Oh well, I shall aim to improve my time next year. Official time for me? 71 minutes and 40 seconds... hohoho!! Not bad for a former couch potato huh?? Best time was 26 minutes and it was achieved by the dude that won the Auckland Marathon last year. Might do the half marathon this year if I can find someone to do it with me.....
Around 80 thousand people took part in the fun run.... can you see me?????
Enroute to St Heliers' Bay:
Viv got us into Telecom's corporate marquee after the run and it was tres good. There was free food (buns, salads, coleslaw roast chicken, ham, fruits), drinks (soft drinks, water, beer, cider, wine), jelly beans, massages (I got one.. hohoho so good), sunscreen, facepainting (was gonna get one but worried about the paint causing breakouts on my face so I refrained) and a balloonologist (balloon animals making clown), giant bean bags to sit on. It was great to sit back and relax after the workout. Weather was great so it was a very good day.
Freebies that I snagged:
Mini bottles of sunscreen, bag of jelly beans, water and a tee shirt. Product placement, much?
Proof of my time!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Melbourne Feb 2011 - Part 2
Day 7 saw me playing chaffeur as Monica left Tom to our devices. Tom is not a hot bodacious butler. It's her old crusty Mazda haha. I drove Mel, Andrew and Viv to the nearby Westfield. May I just take this moment to say how much more pleasant the journey was without Mel shrieking at Andrew's driving every 5 seconds? Heheheheh....
Anyway, we walked around and tossed around the idea of having a liquid chocolate masquerading as a light hot chocolate from Koko Black. But I said nah we better be good. Right after I said that, Viv spotted macarons and made a beeline for this place. It was meant to have the best macarons in Melbourne so all reason flew out the window at that stage. Our brains were filled with the chants : Eat me! Eat me! Eat me! and they refused to be silenced.
Viv and I were busily choosing the flavours we wanted when I just happened to glance at Andrew. He had this wistful look - much like how Oliver would have looked at that second bowl of hot steaming soup. So I asked if he wanted one too and he gave me a sheepish nod haha. And that's how we ended up with 3 macarons.
Andrew's choice - passionfruit. He demolished this in 2 seconds after I took the closeup.
Anyway, we walked around and tossed around the idea of having a liquid chocolate masquerading as a light hot chocolate from Koko Black. But I said nah we better be good. Right after I said that, Viv spotted macarons and made a beeline for this place. It was meant to have the best macarons in Melbourne so all reason flew out the window at that stage. Our brains were filled with the chants : Eat me! Eat me! Eat me! and they refused to be silenced.
Viv and I were busily choosing the flavours we wanted when I just happened to glance at Andrew. He had this wistful look - much like how Oliver would have looked at that second bowl of hot steaming soup. So I asked if he wanted one too and he gave me a sheepish nod haha. And that's how we ended up with 3 macarons.
Andrew's choice - passionfruit. He demolished this in 2 seconds after I took the closeup.
But he was gracious enough to slow down long enough for me to take my innards shot.
Violet & Cassis on the left and Jam & Lamington on the right.
This was my favourite out of the two, plus the blackcurrant ganache matched my nailpolish.
But the J&L was delicious too. Nomnomnom.
Anyhoo we went to Chapel Street after that as I wanted to get a pair of shoes from there. We had TGI Friday's (again!) for lunch and then picked up the brats from school.
Mel and Andrew went home the next day and we just mucked around a bit. Can't remember what we did now. Monica and Haz had tickets to Mary Poppins that night so Viv and I had to put the kids to bed. Now that they are older, putting them to bed is a breeze so the night passed without incident... apart from the endless reruns of Tangled. *Flower gleamed and glowed..* *slap myself silly*.
Violet & Cassis on the left and Jam & Lamington on the right.
This was my favourite out of the two, plus the blackcurrant ganache matched my nailpolish.
But the J&L was delicious too. Nomnomnom.
Anyhoo we went to Chapel Street after that as I wanted to get a pair of shoes from there. We had TGI Friday's (again!) for lunch and then picked up the brats from school.
Mel and Andrew went home the next day and we just mucked around a bit. Can't remember what we did now. Monica and Haz had tickets to Mary Poppins that night so Viv and I had to put the kids to bed. Now that they are older, putting them to bed is a breeze so the night passed without incident... apart from the endless reruns of Tangled. *Flower gleamed and glowed..* *slap myself silly*.
Monica and Haz all dolled up:
Last Sunday in Melbourne brought a sudden drop in temperatures as is the norm in Melbourne. We went to a park which had some cool flying foxes and I had fun riding them haha. After that we went to Preston and did some grocery shopping before having lunch.
Kids being kept occupied with Haz and Monica's his and hers iphone.
The monkey in the window chef kept churning out handmade noodles. It was amazing watching him turn thick fat dough into tiny strands of noodles with a few economical flicking actions.
Fried noodles of some description:
Beef noodles in soup is always a given for Lauren:
Deep fried ginger spare ribs which were finger-lickingly good:
Onion pancakes:
This was my choice - redbean pancake.
Soooooo good.
Went home to hang out and Logan built a structure using Jenga blocks. He was very proud and dragged me in to take photos of it.
My fave:
Meanwhile Lauren was playing her favourite game again - Real life Barbie.
I was playing my least favourite game - keep-old-age-fat-curse-away-with-manic-exercise. Logan and Monica joined in the "fun" for a bit too.
Last Sunday in Melbourne brought a sudden drop in temperatures as is the norm in Melbourne. We went to a park which had some cool flying foxes and I had fun riding them haha. After that we went to Preston and did some grocery shopping before having lunch.
Kids being kept occupied with Haz and Monica's his and hers iphone.
The monkey in the window chef kept churning out handmade noodles. It was amazing watching him turn thick fat dough into tiny strands of noodles with a few economical flicking actions.
Fried noodles of some description:
Beef noodles in soup is always a given for Lauren:
Deep fried ginger spare ribs which were finger-lickingly good:
Onion pancakes:
This was my choice - redbean pancake.
Soooooo good.
Went home to hang out and Logan built a structure using Jenga blocks. He was very proud and dragged me in to take photos of it.
My fave:
Meanwhile Lauren was playing her favourite game again - Real life Barbie.
I was playing my least favourite game - keep-old-age-fat-curse-away-with-manic-exercise. Logan and Monica joined in the "fun" for a bit too.
Right after I took this pic, Lauren sat "Sharkie" and "Kitty" down and lectured "Sharkie" that it is not right to eat humans and that it should only eat fish. Methinks Monica needs to stop letting the kids watch Jaws.
Monica busy at work cooking my last meal hehe.
Check out the juicy juicy duck:
Kids were very sporting when I asked them to pose for me and my instructions were "Look like you can't wait for the steamboat to boil as you are very hungry". They did well...
Love the sneaky sideway glance she gave Logs here:
Awww sibling love is the best....
One pot wonder:
Shot of Duckie's neck.. just for the heck of it.
We were leaving Melbourne on a Monday and Monica took that day off to hang with us. We went to Westfields Doncaster again since it's the closest and once again had Cacao macarons.
My precious.....
Viv chose Short Mac which was a coffee flavoured macaron.
I chose Hazelnut Praline.
Either I was sick of macarons or these weren't as good as the one we had previously. The flavours were nothing too special.
5 seconds after we inhaled the macarons, Monica suggested that we go have coffee and cake since she had a voucher. So off we went.
Christine - Brownie biscuit, walnuts, macadamia nuts, milk chocolat mousse, creme brulee.
Millefeuille - Puff pastry with cream pattisserie
Soooooo disgustingly rich.
Poor millefeuille rudely destroyed by 3 eager forks:
We pottered around for a bit more and skipped lunch. I know! Shocking! Picked the kids up and then went to the airport. Our plane got delayed so Viv and I spent the last of our Oz dollars on a ham toastie. I thought I bought full service for the leg back but it turned out I only bought seat + bag, which meant no food or entertainment. My cynical self was right! We just lucked out on the way over. But the plane we were on on the way back was a special purpose plane just for the new fare system so our entertainment system were limited to non-blockbuster stuff.
Viv and I were famished so we bought some snacks using the touchscreen.
Yay for free tea or coffee.....
Viv watched Tinkerbell ...
Our food arrived.... sandwich, lollies and cheese & crackers. Pretty sad, really.
Meanwhile I did something to my screen so it had to be rebooted, which took forever...
Waiting......
Then I tried to win a million dollars but the closest I got was $125K.
Landed in Auckland and we breezed through customs pretty quickly and got home around 1.30 am as I predicted.
Snacks Viv and I bought from the supermarket... all 7 glorious kilos of it....
Closeup 1 : Be Natural cereals which we don't get in NZ. Monica, i need more of the pink lady one. Soooo good.
Closeup 2: Various Jellies. Ok I'm weird, shuddup. But in my defense, the jelly flavours we get here in NZ are boring. Yes smartasses, I realise we have strawberry and raspberry here. Monica gave them to me because Logan isn't allowed this brand of jelly as it contains preservatives. So there!
Closeup 3: Various biscuits.....
Closeup 4: Pizza flavoured pringles....... so good! Loads of Santa elves because Monica bought a gigantic box and needed help finishing them. Oh and a Violet crumble that Viv bought.
On with the shopping:
Alannah Hill stockings and a sample navy cardigan.
Sass and Bide skirt:
Various navy stuff as it's my favourite color at the moment and my other new obsession - men's accessories. Blue silk top, $10 shorts, bowtie and skinny tie.
Closeup of the skull on my tie...
Last but not least, shoes. Of course I bought shoes! Navy suede heels....
Chanel-like pumps...
Check out the juicy juicy duck:
Kids were very sporting when I asked them to pose for me and my instructions were "Look like you can't wait for the steamboat to boil as you are very hungry". They did well...
Love the sneaky sideway glance she gave Logs here:
Awww sibling love is the best....
One pot wonder:
Shot of Duckie's neck.. just for the heck of it.
We were leaving Melbourne on a Monday and Monica took that day off to hang with us. We went to Westfields Doncaster again since it's the closest and once again had Cacao macarons.
My precious.....
Viv chose Short Mac which was a coffee flavoured macaron.
I chose Hazelnut Praline.
Either I was sick of macarons or these weren't as good as the one we had previously. The flavours were nothing too special.
5 seconds after we inhaled the macarons, Monica suggested that we go have coffee and cake since she had a voucher. So off we went.
Christine - Brownie biscuit, walnuts, macadamia nuts, milk chocolat mousse, creme brulee.
Millefeuille - Puff pastry with cream pattisserie
Soooooo disgustingly rich.
Poor millefeuille rudely destroyed by 3 eager forks:
We pottered around for a bit more and skipped lunch. I know! Shocking! Picked the kids up and then went to the airport. Our plane got delayed so Viv and I spent the last of our Oz dollars on a ham toastie. I thought I bought full service for the leg back but it turned out I only bought seat + bag, which meant no food or entertainment. My cynical self was right! We just lucked out on the way over. But the plane we were on on the way back was a special purpose plane just for the new fare system so our entertainment system were limited to non-blockbuster stuff.
Viv and I were famished so we bought some snacks using the touchscreen.
Yay for free tea or coffee.....
Viv watched Tinkerbell ...
Our food arrived.... sandwich, lollies and cheese & crackers. Pretty sad, really.
Meanwhile I did something to my screen so it had to be rebooted, which took forever...
Waiting......
Then I tried to win a million dollars but the closest I got was $125K.
Landed in Auckland and we breezed through customs pretty quickly and got home around 1.30 am as I predicted.
Snacks Viv and I bought from the supermarket... all 7 glorious kilos of it....
Closeup 1 : Be Natural cereals which we don't get in NZ. Monica, i need more of the pink lady one. Soooo good.
Closeup 2: Various Jellies. Ok I'm weird, shuddup. But in my defense, the jelly flavours we get here in NZ are boring. Yes smartasses, I realise we have strawberry and raspberry here. Monica gave them to me because Logan isn't allowed this brand of jelly as it contains preservatives. So there!
Closeup 3: Various biscuits.....
Closeup 4: Pizza flavoured pringles....... so good! Loads of Santa elves because Monica bought a gigantic box and needed help finishing them. Oh and a Violet crumble that Viv bought.
On with the shopping:
Alannah Hill stockings and a sample navy cardigan.
Sass and Bide skirt:
Various navy stuff as it's my favourite color at the moment and my other new obsession - men's accessories. Blue silk top, $10 shorts, bowtie and skinny tie.
Closeup of the skull on my tie...
Last but not least, shoes. Of course I bought shoes! Navy suede heels....
Chanel-like pumps...
That's it.
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