Melbourne for the Millionth Time, Jan 2013

Viv was still away in Malaysia with the parents and more importantly, Caleb wasn't there for me to squeeze. So I utilised my time and skipped across the ditch to see the brats. I have been to Melbourne too many times now. I used to go at least twice a year to see Logan. Money well-spent, not. 

I can't tell you what I did for 10 days except for a lot of snacking, a lot of tv watching and a lot of horror-books reading. Ah Rakoshi, Ah Here's one true love.

Haz celebrated a birthday while we were there so Monica went to DJ's and got his favourite cake.

Kids waiting restlessly to cut the cake.

Haz doing a weird look.....

Pluts...

Ah Here plotting to fatten me up with the cake.

Logan about to raid the overflowing pantry for some goodie.

The monkey faces were never too far away.

 Cake time!!!

 Why did everyone look evil here.... oh yeah Mum was skyping the cake cutting ceremony.

 Make a wish!!!

 Ummm Lauren was eating shapes as she stared at the cake haha.

Family shot.....

 Sinfully gooooooood. Yes I ate half the cake. Shuddup.

She's Craaazy!

I came across a stack of old notebooks the other day and it reminded me of how nuts Monica used to be hehehe. We used to be serious tv addicts and churned through so many video tapes a week. There was a stage where Monica would watch the episodes while furiously writing the synopsis on scraps of paper. She would then re-write the whole thing over again in prettier handwriting in these books. I told you she was nuts. But that's not all.

 She would draw the titles of each tv series we watched according to the graphics on the tv series's poster and write out the cast list too.

She would also stick on any relevant newspaper clippings she could find. Haha

 Pages and pages of the storyline.

Last but not least, she would also write out her review of the tv series.

Bahahahahaha.

Family That Bounces Together Stays Together

While Monica and her gang were here in December, I took them to Crystal Mountain out in the West. It was very boring so I was glad I got a good deal for them on the daily deal sites. But they did have a bungy thing which provided me with some laughs and amusement.

Lauren was up first and she looked teeny tiny! Tres adorable.

Yes I realised there are way more photos of Lauren than the others. My answer? Look as cute as her and I'll post more photos of you too.

Haz reliving his youth:

Logan was reluctant to go but did in the end.

Monica also had a go and didn't embarrass herself.... much.

*victory sign* We rocked it.

Happy New Year 2012, Peeps!

I know, I know I've been very slack. Anyhoo hope you all had a good one. I had an excellent one surrounded by loved ones reminiscing about the good old days while watching childhood home videos. You know you are getting old when you have "good old days" to talk about.

Sidetrack: My answer to the ever popular question of what would you rescue if your house is on fire? This precious cassette tape which the five of us taped when we were kids and sent to the then 16-year-old Mel who was studying in Melbourne. Hmm maybe I should put it in a fire-proof box?

We also had a wedding in the family recently which added to the hecticness of the holidays. The bride looked gorgeous and the groom looked like he struck the lottery. I will be doing a blog on it when I can be bothered. In the meantime, I have been given the go-ahead to post a photo of Mel and since it's as rare as hen's teeth, I will be posting it on every social medium that I am able to. Enjoy!

Oh and by the way, I broke my resolution on January the 1st. Fail!

Surprise!!!!

Monica flew in for my birthday!! So surprised and so touched....

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.

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*.

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.

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...

That's it.