Back to work

The weather has finally started being warm, warm and warmer and I am back behind my desk with the freezing aircon. But I can't complain too much. Four weeks is plenty long enough to forget about work and really relax. I spent the last 5 days of my time off in Canberra and had a great time. I didn't go and see any of the sights like I did last time, this trip was just for relaxing and catching up with my mates. We were going to see an exhibition at the art gallery but the tickets were $20 and none of us could justify that.

On the Thursday and Friday my friend was working so I hung out at her place. I went for a swim, did some tidying up and generally wasted time. On the Friday I spent quite a while in the kitchen making a chocolate peppermint mousse cake and pavlova for the party that evening. Yummo. It was Mexican food and plenty of tequila for us! Felt surprisingly perky the next day though. I must be incorporating some moderation into my drinking in my old age... My friend made The Best vegetarian sauce for the tacos and tortillas. I will try to replicate it myself at home sometime. Satisfaction.

Saturday kicked off with a quick game of tennis. Well, less of a game and more of smacking the ball around with no skill what-so-ever. I have never played tennis and it showed. I could chase the ball down fine, I just couldn't get it to go where I wanted it to, when I wanted it to! I small rest and then off to 'Civic' for some window shopping and a bit of late lunch at a great cafe - cheap and tasty. Then we decided to head to the Lake and hire a paddle boat. It was a really lovely warm day and everyone else had the same idea. We ended up waiting for about 20 minutes for one to come back it, but it was worth it. We discovered that no matter how fast you peddle the boat aways goes the same speed! If you start trying to speed it up, the paddles just skip over the water and your basically just churning it up rather than pushing through it. That was a little frustrating since we wanted to careen around for a bit. Oh well. While we were chilling out under the bridge a body fell off it right in front of us! Some guy had decided it was fun to jump off the bridge and climb onto his mate's canoe. Clever.

I wouldn't put my head under in that lake for all the world!

So now I am back at work - same as ever. I am trying to find things to keep me busy but it is difficult. I have already exhausted my "List of things to look up on the internet" for my holiday planning. Only an hour and a half til lunch...

Canberra Times

Today I am making peppermint mousse cake and a pavlova. It's all for a good cause; we are having a party tonight! I am in Canberra staying with my friend and chilling out a bit before I start work again next week. Ick. Let's not think about that. Yesterday I got to thumbing through some Super Food Ideas mags and found heaps of great recipes. We made some vegie burgers for dinner last night and today the dessert baking kicks off. No matter that the party is Mexican themed, dessert just needs to have sugar in it. I don't know what they eat for dessert in Mexico.

I am doing some research for my holiday. It seems I need to get cracking on the visa front if I want to visit Cuba... We are looking at heading to the "poor man's Galapogas", aka, Isla de la plata and Machalilla National Park. It seems that is way more affordable and has a similar amount of crazy animals and we may even see some whales as they start migrating through there in June! It would be nice to get some diving done - we'll have to see.

OK, off I go to whip up some egg whites...

Christmas

I ate too much.

More photos

Making a dive for the try line at Henley

I am pretty excited about something. Perhaps the free drinks?

Touch club 25th anniversary dinner - medal winners


Go-go gadget arms!

Touch days

Here's a picture of me running around last night. We won 7-2 but we should have done much better. How long is my hair getting! Better sort that out I think. There are more pictures - beach touch ones. Sunday was the big event and we had poeple diving all over the sand all morning. It all went pretty well and even the weather was perfect, not too hot but not raining. Unfortunately I got a little bit sunburnt on my chest, the only place i forgot to reapply. Just goes to show how well that sunscreen works.

Last night after touch I made a batch of gingerbread biscuits. They look pretty cute, all Christmas shapes. I bought a baking tray and it came with all these cutters. I also bought a sieve and a rolling pin so now I am pretty close to done for kitchen stuff. Tonight I am going to ice them. The gingerbread recipe needs some work though I think - it isn't tasty enough. I'm going to have a look on the web for something with more omphf.

This weekend I am catching up on some housework and planning on cleaning out all the crap from my wardrobe and getting rid of it. There isn't really much in there, but there is stuff I don't wear. I am down to about 5 outfits for work which go on rotation and it's getting a bit boring! Friday night is the work dinner - too bad it's cold or it could have been another occasion for my new dress. I am still allowed to call it new even though I have already worn it.

Tomorrow I am paying the desposit for my flights to The World. It's very exciting. My friend is joining me for 6 weeks of it and she is hyping me up too. She's back in Adelaide soon so we're going to start making some concrete plans for Machu Picchu etc. Just think; next year the blog will actually be worth reading cos I'll be in South America!! More photos soon...