A Day at the Races

I got an email from a friend Michelle mid morning Thursday saying 'we're going to the races on Saturday and it's also Deb's birthday - do you guys want to come too? So I emailed Bloss saying what do you think and he emailed back saying good idea (wonderful thing this email) and so we did!  Then I emailed Deb and said how dressy and she replied 'a dress and feathers'!  So then I had a quick dash into town on Thursday night to get a fascinator - of course before that I had to race home - try on a few outfits and decide what to wear so I could get the feathers to match. Mind you in a town the size of ours there's often not a lot of choice.  But I was in luck found a nice little black number which matched beautifully - I gave my wedding dress another airing - it's such a pretty colour and I think I've only managed to wear it another once since we got married.

All dressed up ready to go

The fascinator! - actually I love hats and was really disappointed that my DiL's mum didn't want to wear a hat at Grant and Tiff's wedding - as I would have loved to.

Bloss and I ready to go

I think Bloss has just worked out the winner of the next race

No idea what I was saying here

At the race track

With Michelle and Deb (the birthday girl) we had two people taking photos at the same time so weren't really sure which camera to look at.

After a week of almost non stop rain - but I'm not complainig as it was long overdue and has greened everything up beautifully - yesterday turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day - hot and sunny but with a lovely breeze.  We had a table of about 20 of us and took our own finger foods and generally had a ball  - we'd little table bets as well as the tote and the bookies.  I had one minor win - but overall made a donation for the day! but Bloss had one decent win so I think he probably came out a little bit in front.

I managed to drop 400g of the Christmas excess this week - although that was more by good luck than good management so I need to knuckle down this week and get back into it.  25 weeks tomorrow until Shaz and I are off to Italy and other parts.

We finalised the itinerary last week and have booked our flights  - here's the plan: (I need to transfer it to my sidebar)
Fly Brisbane to Dubai and have 5 days there with Shaz's daughter
then fly to Rome - two nights there, then pick up a 16 day tour which starts with 2 nights in Rome so overall in Rome for 4 nights.
The tour covers Pisa, Florence, Venice, an overnight ferry to Greece, then Tolon, Olympia, Athens then we board a 4 day cruise of the Greek Islands stopping off briefly at Patmos, Crete, Santorini, Mykonos then back to Athens then from there fly to Istanbul for a couple of nights then back to Brisbane via Dubai.
We leave on 5th July and get back on 31st July.  It will be awesome!

Bloss is considering a trip to the US to see his son and our 3 little grandsons there.  But the project he's involved in at work is going to reach top gear this year so he's not quite sure of the timing and when he'll fit holidays in yet.

Today - well I'm still in bed - it's almost 8am - but there's no rush!  Clive arrives back from Sydney sometime today - he was down there last week at the cricket and then yesterday was at a friends wedding in Bowral.  He's only here for I think one or maybe two nights and then is scheduled to fly to WA.  Grant, Tiff and the boys are coming down for tea tonight - will come early so the boys can have a swim.  I mentioned in my last post that I had bought a vest for Curtis - we thought we might have a bit of a fight on our hands getting him to wear it as he can be a real strop sometimes - but he put it on quite happily - saying he was going to a "wahoo poo party".  It's a Wahu brand and it turns out he'd seen an ad for the Wahu pool party range - amazing the power of advertising!  Anyway the current phrase in our household describing having a swim is 'let's go have a wahoo poo party'!!

And on that note I'll leave you - have a great week everyone.
Love Z xx

Welcome to Twenty Ten

Happy new year everyone and I hope you manage to realise at least one or two of your dreams this year.

We've had a lovely family Christmas with unfortunately too much to eat and drink but lots of lovely presents.  The proceedings started on Christmas Eve when we went to Grant and Tiffs for tea - she always has some sort of theme - Mexican, or Italian in the past and this year Chinese - some yummy Chinese dishes.  We had breakfast wtih a friend on Christmas morning then home for a bit of quiet time at home then Grant Tiff and the boys came down at night.  You may remember in my last post that I said that Clive had been flown home from WA because of the cyclone - he got word to go back a couple of days before Christmas but then at the last minute they said they didn't need him on that rota so he's still here - and how lovely to have him with us for Christmas.  We'd a friend round for tea on Boxing Night and had a hilarious night - we've got We Sing for the Wii (bit like Singsta) and she had Guitar Hero and with a little bit of alcoholic lubrication we were making a right old racket!!  We'd another two couple round on the Sunday night - so more eating drinking and socialising.

I was back at work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - actually pretty busy as we had some year end deadlines to meet.  Last night we went round to some friends for tea - we had a steam boat - gosh I just love that style of cooking.  Then just a few quiet drinks till midnight - a couple more then home - feeling good and no hangover this morning.

And now a few Christmas photos

We got Josh the Olympic Games for the Wii but I think the older kids had just as much fun!

Mother and son on We Sing - Lady GaGa - Poker Face!

I bought a little float jacket for Curtis and it's made a huge difference to his confidence in the pool.  This is him and Clive - he loves being thrown into the air and splashing into the pool.

This was a floating toy I got for Josh - but you can see how much enjoyment everyone was getting from it

Josh - just floating around

I think I told you that I had ordered my book which I called Serendipity - Central Europe - I'm delighted with it - can think of a couple of things I might do a little differently next time but overall very happy with how this first one turned out.

Here's how it looks on the outside

A view of the inside pages

Some of my beloved doors - a little bit of trivia - the blue door on the right hand page is the door of the church where I was married the first time round.

More doors and some of Bloss's lovely lampposts.

On a more serious note I've managed to add on 1.5 kgs over the Christmas week - like so many others - but got back to being sensible on Thursday and as everyone else is saying - it's a new day, new month, new year and even a new decade - with a holiday coming up in just over 6 months.  So let's get on with it!

Love Z xx