Xmas day.

Yesterday was a really great day for all involved. It was a sticky hot night and we got up at 4am due to the heat. At 5 we opened up our presents and we got lots!

I got a new pink bike, 2 x peter alexander pjs: one pair a set of rose 3/4 pants and tank top and the other a silk japanese cherry blossom dress, some REAL grey pearl: an earring and necklace set, a helmet for my bike, a bike pump, a true crime book by Micheal Connolley, a flamingo whirley bird for the garden from stevie. My mum was my kriss kringle for the year and she got me a large flamingo statue, a small flamingo for my kitchen table, a set of flamingo mugs, a beautiful set of tea party forks which have cakes on top of them, a cake stand, a red reindeer xmas dip and biscuit setting.

Stevie got an an antique map from 1870 framed, kenneth cole signature parfume, gucci envy perfume, 2 books for his tattoos on hands and victortian heraldry images, new brown converse shoes, 2x pair of dickies pants, button up shirts, boxers, socks, a psp cover and a sewn one by myself, a new bag for work, new pens, pencils, erasers, and an antique map calender.

From mum he got a fishing king deluxe seat, a tackle box, pliers, 2 knives, scissors and more things for fishing. Stevie's kriss kringle was Aunty marion and keith and they got him a very swish fishing rod and some lures.

It was super duper hot yesterday and I spent the morning cooking, my mum came over at 1.30 and we were able to beat the heat in mum's lovely air conditioned car. Aunty Marion's house is air conditioned, so we sat in side for a while with nibbles, it was aunty marion and keith, courtney and madeline, stevie, mum, me and dad (until he had to go at 4pm), Frank my mum's brother and his wife Aroua with their children Natasha and Patrick, Keith's mum and then his sister and wife and their 3 children later in the night.

The Xmas dinner was amazing, we had a Ham roast, a Beef roast, a Lamb roast, chilli potatoes with rosemary sprigs through them,Fried rice, 3kgs of prawns, tomato and sweet pepper tarts, Lentil Crouquettes with a chilli balsamic salsa,a Toss salad, a chinese cabbage salad with dried noodles which was yum!, and another salad which was lettuce and pine nuts it had a really nice dressing, bread rolls.

Dessert was indivdual chocolate puddings with white chocolate topping, chocolate brownies with ice cream, individual rocky road trifles, choc caramel meringues, fruit skewers and marshmallows with a choc toberlone dipping sauce.

We ate and listened to music well into the night, Uncle Keith got a huge surround sound music system and new tv and dvd for his outdoor area so we listened to neil young and acdc well into the night. Stevie gave an impromtu piano performance with Courtney late at night before I headed to bed around 11ish. Stevie and Keith stayed up watched a Led Zepplin live dvd.

My mum had to work this morning at 5am and was very ill! Too much white wine for her, she got to work ok, threw up and then felt better for the day. Stevie and I were up at 7.30 for the boxing day sales which were a BIG disapointment. Its been quite cool and rainy all day,we got into the sales at 9am and it was packed but not one of my perfume packs I wanted was on sale, watches (which i desperatley need a new one) were 50% off but there were hundreds of people waiting around the counters. Stevie got a brown ben sherman polo shirt from David Jones which was really nice and we cut our losses and caught the train home. As soon as we got home which was around 12ish we cooked up a tomato tart and some stuffed pasta and relaxed on the couch, me with my new book in my new jammies and stevie getting his fishing gear all ready for when wade picked up him at 4pm.

We both have tommorow off before returning to work, on Thursday I'll have a look at myers again but we may go to DFO tommorow a big factory direct outlet near the airport. I went there vaguely before xmas and there were quite a few bargains. I need some dickies shorts and a pair of converse to wear when I ride my bike, I can't exactly wear skirts!

My mum has her camera and is bringing it over tommorow when she brings all the things we left at Marion's and Keiths this morning, so I can post some pics then.I only took a few pictures so I'll post them aswell. Hope everyone had a good day! I only took a picture of the table whilst mum did all the other embarssing pics.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Merry Christmas!

Stevie and I have been up since 4.30am singing Xmas caroles in bed. It was such a hot night I barely got any sleep even with the fan straight on me on high. At 5.20 we decided to get up and open presents and how lucky am I with a new flamingo pink bike! I also got a flamingo for my garden, its like a windmill instead its wings move! Thankyou Jimmy, Judy and Rach and Lou for your present, it will be well spent tommorow!

Here are some pictures of me on my bike, I havent ridden ever since I was 8 and on Xmas day had an unfortunate accident involving a pink 'trendy' bike with flowered seat, big handle bars and fluro spokes on my wheels, a Jack Russell dog biting my wheel and myself falling down a drain. It only took me about 5 minutes to learn how to ride again, lowriders are quite hard to steer, but look at the fuzziness of the photo cause I was going soooo fast.

Just call me speedy scarletto.

Its only 6am now, I think i need some more sleep before I peeter out tonight!

We've gone to the shops and bought the last of the supplies, we just need ice in the morning for the esky.


Some things I love about an Australian summer are mangoes at a $1 each! Golden circle pineapple juice crushes with Bunderburg ginger beer in them. I could drink these all days, and considering its 30+degrees, I should be!


Stevie wrapped up all his presents and we are debating when to put them under the tree. I was cleaning the bathroom when my neighbour came to the door with presents for us, I hid behind the curtain but we got presents for both neighbours at the shop this afternoon.


I have made some chocolate caramel brownies and two batches of triple chocolate brownies and am all set to make the rest of my food tommorow.


I asked stevie if he wanted me to iron something for tommorow, and he was like, what for, I'll be in the pool all day!


Here's some of the supplies we got today, mangoes, pineapple juice, IRONBRU stevie ran down the aisle in amazement!, a carton of carlton draught beer and a bottle of captain morgans rum,3 bottles of ginger beer for myself. Bear in mind we have a train ride to the sales at about 8am!, so someone may have a sore head!


Merry Christmas everyone! Another good thing about living in Australia, we get Xmas morning first!
We got the kitties some presents aswell, not that we can say they've been good, especially after prawn head morning. We have decided our new cat's name will be Lola.
Wish we could be with all of you that are in Scotland...kiss kisses xoxox

Only one more day!

Yeah Its Xmas eve day! I'm really looking forward to christmas now, mainly cause I have finished work! I think its kitty xmas day today, as I have just woken up to see about 10 prawn heads on my kitchen floor (which I spent yesterday cleaning) from the kg of prawns I bought yesterday for stevie and I to bbq tonight. During the night Desa and Isis have come up with a plan to open the fridge, I think Desa was ontop of Isis's shoulders and then attack open a sealed plastic bag which was covered in paper aswell, full of $9 a kilo king Australian prawns. I have such naughty and clever kitties! Thats what you get for having purebreds I guess. They must have feasted cause I only have heads on my floor left and neither have screamed at me for food like they normally do first thing in the morning!
Last night when stevie got home we went down to the waterfront markets and had some dinner from cafe NADA. It had just gotten dark at 7pm and had cooled down considerably from the 35degrees it was yesterday. We shared a bruschetta and I had lasange and salad and stevie had a chicken tandorri salad with a few beers. It was a nice stroll seeing all the Xmas lights up.
Mum and I went to the shops yesterday for our Xmas grocery shopping. I am making triple chocolate brownies and chocolate and caramel sauce brownies tommorow, a lentil vegie loaf and a semi sundried and sweet pepper tart. I will make the brownies toda, but the rest will be in the morning. We aren't going over to Aunty Marions until 3pm so I got things fora bbq breakfast on Xmas day.
We are having a little get together at our's on New Year's with wade and his girlfriend tracey and their baby Ruby and another of stevie's friends Remy. My mum may come around aswell. We're just having a bbq and we'll go see the fireworks on Scarborough Beach, there being let off from a barge in the middle of Morteon Bay supposedly.
Today I have a little more cleaning to do now..thanks kitties! and then I'm going down the street to get some Carlton Cold beer for stevie tommorow.
I can't wait till Santa comes! I was listening in bed to Frank Sinatra singing xmas caroles, and I don't even like Frank Sinatra!
I got some more cute retro reindeers (thats what there called!) yesterday which were on sale, they're made of tinsel material and are white and pink, and my larger ones are white and red. A bargain at only $2.50 each and $1.25 for the small ones.

It is very weird to think just last Xmas we were in Scotland. Everything has gone so fast and things have changed so much aswell! In the new year we want to write a list of what we want to achieve, first on the list being air conditioning, paint the house and a pool, hopefully all by next Xmas! We'd also like maybe a devon rex and a holiday for a few days down to melbourne...ie shoes!!!!!!

Stevie is excited for his deep sea fishing adventure over at Morteon Island, he leaves on the 9th at 5am and comes back on the last ferry. He's going with wade from his work and another guy he met who comes in and gets tattooed, he's arranged a boat, all the equipment they need and a bbq for them...I'm a fishing widow I swear!

Nutty as a nutcracker

I have barely survived 9 days working straight in the crazy sub city that is Chermside. Its started to adversely affect me. At 4am this morning I woke up worrying about a person's job which had gone missing at the lab. I need a break! I went into work early today to see if I could fix it as Sydney are an hour a head of us with day lights saving's. The centre was open for 32 hours straight last night from 8am yesterday to 9pm tonight. Thankfully we closed at 9pm only and I did the day shift. It has just been sooo crazy busy and I feel like I could sleep for days! We had my work's night out on Wednsday night, we went out to a pizza place called BadaBing and had a $400 tab. Stevie is out tonight with his work.

I don't have to go back to work until Thursday and then I work for 4 days and then have another 4 days off, so atleast it will be a nice 2 weeks.

I thought I had some of the best light displays at Scarborough but this last week everyone has gotten their lights out and all the richey riches of my town have gone completly OTT WITH LIGHTS! Pfft! It was caroles in Redcliffe tonight.

Some of the sales have started and I bought a few wooden and tin ornaments for the house.I got 4 wooden nutcrackers for only $8 each and also a Xmas tree which has small tin soldiers which go around the tree singing song's.It was a bargain at 75% off and only $10! I also got a tin soldier with a clock who sings a tune on the hour.

I have all my xmas presents sorted. I have bought sooo much! I am also going groceries for Xmas tommorow, I am making a lentil dish, a cherry tomato tart, brownies and some couscous and roast vegie salad. We are having a ham, a roast, 4kgs of prawns, steaks and sausages, roast vegies, lobster, salad and aunty marion is making mini xmas puddings with white chocolate sauce, strawberry cheesecakes and macadamia tarts. We are staying at Aunty Marions' and then going to the boxing day sales in the city.

The weather has been really mild and lovely, today we even had some rain this morning, my garden is very green and we have a beautiful frangapani which has bloomed in the back yard. Its been averaging around 28degrees which is mild considering it is normally 35+ around this time. Xmas day is notouriously one of the hottest days of the year.

I'll post some pics of my decorations as I am getting my jammies on and having an early night!

Holy Batman!

Holy cow! The whole of the front of the house just moved, we've just come back from Stevie's bday dinner with my mum and dad at the lovely Breakfast Creek Hotel. We were originally going to sit in the outdoor area but it started to rain so we got some seats in the restaraunt which was really cool as it was half inside/half out and was done up all spanish and matador filled. I could have taken a whole bag full of decorations for our living room. Halfway through dinner it started pouring down and you could hear the possums on the roof. The breakfast creek hotel is known for its huge steaks which you choose from, there are about 10 different types of steak ect...I was the only one who refrained from eating my friendly beast that is the cow.

We had a lovely chatty evening and on the way home there was quite a large thunder and lightning display, the sky was going purple and you could actually see the forks of lightning going all the way to the ground!

We have just got hom and had some cake and there was the LOUDEST ever crack of thunder which actually vibrated the house, the sound alone went for a good two to three minutes! The storm has brought us some much needed rain aswell, which I hope will last through the night. I'm off to bed, I love the sound of rain on a tin roof. I'll quickly post some pictures before the electricity may go out!

Notice we are all wearing our dark rimmed glasses, we were the table of the bespectacled!Uncle Keith is having his 50th in January and he is having a party where you dress up as a rockstar. Dad is going as either the guy from Boney M or the policeman from the Village People, Stevie wants to go as MC5, Mum is wanting to go as the blonde from ABBA and I am debating either: Kate Bush, Cyndi Lauper( my fav) or Nana!

Hot Hot heat.

Boiling! Thats the only word I could use to really convey how I have felt today. Its been soo hot the last two days, 30+ and I have felt like dieing.
Last night we had our 50th bbq and ate burgers and slushies, stevie had three of them! He proceeded to stay up till 1am in our bed reading his new (and now finished) Ricky Gervais book. We woke this morning to a bright and sunny day and lulled around the house till 11.30 till we went down the street for some lunch. We had golden circle pineapple juice, mango, weiss mango sorbet and watermelon juices with lots of ice for breakfast. They were beautiful.
Scarborough cafes were packed with lady's who lunch having their Xmas party's so we stopped off at the newsagent to have a goss at some mags and then had Italian. I had roasted vegie's burger and chips which was really nice and stevie had a lasange. We had 20 mins to spare before I went to the doctors so we went down to the water. On the way home I got one of my favourite ice creams ever, Weiss Mango and Macadamia bar and came home and had pineapple crushes again. It was too hot to do anything so at 4pm stevie went out to the deck to draw, it had cooled down nicely and I even brought my ironing board out to do my weekly uniform ironing. I cant even fathom eating, I just want icy cold juices.
Unfortunatly this is the last day I have off for 9 days, saying that I will be in air conditioning! Heaven! I am taking half the day off on Tuesday and dad is going to take me to two places to get the last of my pressies. I am going to get the rest of my presents during my 1/2 hour lunch breaks.
Its crazy news about the Suffolk ripper as they are calling it! I have a fascination for true crime books, with about 3 boxes of them alone. I'm surprised after they found the first 2 bodies, they didnt have some undercover surveilance going on of the prostitutes.

The Griswalds of Scarborough.

I couldnt get all the different coloured lights flashing at once!

Charity shop finds, knitted Xmas pud

Holly napkin holders $1.00 for 4 care of Scarborough Op shop

Kitchen table

Front window

Mantle

Stevies new bar toy

New lava lamp

Desa thinks its his birthday

Alais it was meant to be a minimilist effort this year in the way of decorating the house for Xmas. It was real difficult getting all the lights flashing at once, there are red lights in the window and in the two bushes infront of the patio, blue in the topiary trees and all the icile ones around the window and patio and the fairy lights around the garland.

Stevie and the bbq and outdoor setting

Cous Cous and sweet potato salad..yum!




My stocking











Stevies Stocking











Stevies pressies

Its stevies birthday today, sweet 23! He woke us both us at 4.30am before proceeding to go back to bed till a more respectable time of 7am. He's gotten two phone calls from dad and jenny already and has opened up his presents from me.

We are having a bbq breakfast and then going to Sultan's Turkish restaraunt for lunch, where mum is going to pick us up from and then he'll get some more pressies from Mum and Dad.

So far he has gotten an XBOX 360 LIVE, three games: Rockstar games Table Tennis, Project Gotham Racing and Dead or Alive 4. He's gotten 4x button up short sleeved shirts and 1x long sleeved shirt, Echo aftershave, 2 pairs of dickies work skate pants in brown and navy blue and an antique print of a ship with all it's captains to frame.

I have made some brownies and gotten the best ice cream, cookies and cream for dessert. He is playing his xbox now whilst I organise breakfast, His birthday dinner isn't going to be until Friday night where we'll go out.

We didnt take any pictures of the lights last night as we were watching a show called Mythbusters before we crashed out. So we'll do that tonight and take some of the inside decorations aswell.

....

Today stevie has played all his games for about 8 hours! We have dined on mango, pineapple juice with watermelon and mango sorbet smoothies which have been lovely as its been super hot. We have got things to make bbq burgers for dinner, lentil for me and beef for stevie.

He got some more presents including an awesome painting from judy and jim and the girls, an orange lava lamp, a ricky gervais book and a bar butler with four spaces for rum (one of those things where you put the bottle upside down in and you can do shots and have a gun to fill up drinks with) from my mum and dad. We have been looking up some of our 60's books and I am going to find some retro fabric to make curtains for our front room.