An unexpected delight...

I have to admit, we should be at the Heidari's tonight, but in a blessed piece of 'luck' (thank you Lord!) - they weren't at home when we duely arrived at 7pm.

So as an unexpected delight - we have a night at home and a chance to cook a proper meal (not the usual late wed-night pizza!).

It feels bad to be rejoicing in not seeing people you actually like and whom I imagine rarely get visitors....anyway...

How is everyone?!

I realised that once I'd done those past two month reviews I sort of lost steam and never came back! Now March is upon us and I haven't even blogged once during February! I know, I know - the heaven's haven't collapsed yet, but it's a bit of a worry that my attention span is so short!

February was a bit of a blur but I do remember a lovely Valentine's Day spent at a French restaurant in Flaxton (near Mapleton in the moutains around the sunshine coast). I also remember a truly stupendous dessert for said restaurant which consisted of five 'samples' of each dessert listed on the menu. It included a creme brulee, a profiterole, a poached peach, fruit (which I did eat!) and a chocolate cake. Oh my!!! That on top of the snails for entree and the duck leg for main! I'm such a glutton - french through and through then!!!

Talking about food - drool - we've discovered a fantastic cafe in New Farm! I love hunting out great eats especially on a lazy Sunday (I don't know why those tops no longer fit really - clothes sizes these days aren't what they claim ;-) ). This cafe, is "Au Cirque" on Brunswick St and is DIVINE! Reasonably priced, great service and the food is so flavoursome and fresh! If you had to classify it I would say the food is french-australian. The only downside is the small size of the place which means quite literally an 'intimate' dining experience (not necessarily a downside if you enjoy a good eavesdrop and a laugh).

Hold those salivating horses Jen I'm going off track.....

February
- we watched Dad stare at the same four walls for another month which creep ever more sedantly towards completion. You can't rush a master - or my father!

- Andrew's work continued to dry up to the point where his hours have now been cut back. We are the lucky ones though at least I am still employed (woohoo for public service security) and Andrew is okay for the moment.

- my godmother had some major mental illness issues which has affected not only herself but her friends, especially my mother who had to admit her to hospital. Things are on the improve though but your prayers would be appreciated!

- my DNA sequencing work progressed with one step forward and two in opposite directions (the way of science - one way works which then opens up more avenues to explore!). I am loving having the opportunity to do some research (shhh) and making a worthwhile contribution to the job.


And now March has marched right on in....as has my dinner.
Time to eat again!

life, it's uncertain,
eat dessert first!

J and A to the rescue..

Have you missed me? Us?


The collective 'we' of the Hargorrisons?!




Oh I see, it's like that is it!


I'm away for a few days and suddenly it's the silent treatment. Well, as I learnt from my cat -once I bang the tin you'll come a running again! Hmm or else just let sleeping cats lie?!..


Alternatively, I'll take the humming silence as your collective indrawn anticipatory breaths...


and release.



Jazzy Cat is back.


It's been, goodness me, nearly four days since we've returned from our Bryon Bay escape and I've been remiss in not reporting in to my cyberspace minder. But what I truly have been remiss in doing, is filling you (my stalwart cyberspace bloggees) all in on a few more classic conversations between my beloved and I.


J and A to the rescue! So without further adieu:



1.
Andrew: "Is that a recruitment place?" - (referring to a building with the sign: "Extra Staff") - Me: "that or a chinese"


note: I'm so glad I chose the alpha male?!



2.
Andrew: "..didn't recognise you" (as I 'surprised' him one day in the house)
Me: "yeah 48secs can do that to you"


note: that and removal of prescription lenses at close range



3.
Andrew and I were watching the crap movie, (Crap with a capital C), "Something's Gotta Give" the other night. As the two main octagenerian's begin to get it on in the movie, (while I cower), Andrew pipes up from the opposite couch:

Andrew: "..my polyps are up!"
Me: "ah that's great?...." (and collapse into paradoxies of laughter)

note: Andrew has polyps in his nose, large obstructions basically, which cause him and thereby me grief. He can't breath quietly, and I have to try and sleep beside a rasping jet engine each night.

and for a new segment:

"You know you've married an old man when...":

a. he can't walk in a straight line
(He says I was going in the wrong direction - the direction we had both agreed on - but he seemed to want to pursue the path of most resistance ie. direct into me!)
b. he collects soap in his ear and takes great delight in telling you about it each day
(we've taken economising to new lengths)
c. he can't hear you when you're right beside him
(He says I'm a mumbler - I say that's true - to an extent. TO AN EXTENT ANDREW!)

....any connections here. Connections?

Wordless Weeknight..

I'm a bit lacklustre in all respects tonight.

So you can breathe a sigh of relief - no wordy post to follow!

Instead ponder on a few random photos -

Candice, Carlene and Rachael @ Chalk Hotel - Girl's Night Out

Steph's Hen's High Tea

Southbank by moonlight

Drinks @ Jo Jo's (aka: Photo Fun for Jen)

Leo - the lionhearted burmese (not ours unfortunately)

My man!

Mt Glorious - it is!

Today was a Sunday.

Technically, you may be right in reminding me that the monks may say otherwise, but I say in all other respects it felt like a Sunday!

And what a delightfully fine day it was too - for celebrating, belatedly, my mum's birthday. Andrew and I had organised lunch, at the cafe we discovered on our last trip to Mt Glorious. So, together with my godmother - Murph, family friend - Ted and Mum and Dad, we all trooped up to this glorious mountain retreat for a leisurely lunch. And, unlike last time, I had my camera with me to capture the moment (and the view).

The birthday 'troops'

The Birthday Girl's Sparkler Moment

My Godmother - Murph the Magnificent



The cafe has a spectacular view over the valley and you can see, on a fine day, all the way to the islands in the bay. We had a table on the verandah to take in the view to its fullest - and I was delighted to see they had made an extra effort for our birthday group - with lovely additional touches, such as flowers, tablecloth and candles!

A bird's eye view!




A few quintessential Hargreaves-isms from the day:

1) The heated horticultural conversations - One particularly extended conversation involved what the prolifically-fruiting citrus tree in the garden was. Mum swearing it was a Tangelo and grilling the waitress on this (not to her satisfaction) - while everyone else swore it was a grapefruit (Andrew, wisely, abstained from the heated discussion!). Dad brought up the leaf structure being closer to an orange in his debate (good point Dad), while Mum used the 'pimply' appearance of the skin and size of the fruit for her counter argument (hmm). Ted then disappeared to 'borrow' a fruit from the tree to take home for confirmatory testing - ie. taste testing! I tell you - I have no idea where I got my love of science from!


2) The Trivia King - aka: My Dad sharing with me his tips for remembering over 80 countries' flags! Apparently he's decided that 'flashcards' are the way to go - makes it a lot easier to train your memory that way. He's neatly printed out (all in work time of course) these flags and plans to test Andrew and I next time we come down to visit them...hmm now when is that again? 2009? Would love to see the government big-brother IT department looking through Dad's IT usage and seeing 'Azerbajahn, Quebec, Turkmenistan' and 'flags', coming up continually in his search records! I tell you - never a dull moment!


Actually, I have to admit that I'm secretly very impressed with Dad's mental ability and his voracious reading habits. Also, I'm continually awed by Mum's horticultural knowledge and wish I remembered half the things they told me. But alas, I've got the dreamer side of Dad's genes and the impatient side of Mum's genes - mix well until an even consistency, bake on high for 9 months and voila: a day-dreamer who loves to create and seek out new projects, but doesn't retain much from any nor really get a substantial lot done in the process!

Talking about projects - the beautiful rambling garden at the cafe inspired me, yet again, to look at my own poor backyard and get 'stuck-in'! Plus, the warm and cosy enclaves inside inspired further day dreams a la Martha Stewart!

The cosy enclave inside

So, all-in-all, the warm weather, the good food, the great company, the gorgeous surrounds combined to make me feel that Sunday had come early!

Mt Glorious - well worth the drive!

Mu'Ooze Magic..

Another great dinner at the local Eritrean restaurant in Moorooka - Mu'Ooze. This time a group dinner to catch up with Andrew and Jane (friends of Andrew M's) who were visiting from Hong Kong.

Andrew, Jane and Murray get serious with an SLR and a bottle of vino.

The share platter for mains - great curries and vegetable dishes all served together on this crepe style bread. Fingers welcomed!

The speciality of the restaurant - freshly roasted and brewed coffee while you watch! The BEST coffee I've had!

Ah good food, good wine and good friends! Bellissimo!

Another week endeth..

Top Five's for the week ending the 22nd June:

1) RDO's - I love government jobs! I get a rostered day off every three week's and boy, does it make the difference! I saved up two and used them to make this a four day weekend. Bliss!

2) Sharing a day off with Andrew for the first time. Today we lazed about in the morning (read sofa time) and then went for a drive up to Mt Glorious which was, wait for it, glorious! Beautiful winter weather meant that we were able to see down into Samford valley and across to Moreton Island clearly from the lookouts. Yet, all this beautiful scenery - and no photos! Yes, you heard right, today I was sans camera. I ditched the digitals (who were under-energized) and instead had to savour the experience with my other senses...which leads me onto lunch, and the Mt Glorious Cafe and Restaurant. I cannot recommend the view from this cottage cafe enough along with terrific fare. All in all, I was inspired to do more day tripping, and, take the SLR on a much-deserved outing in future.

3) Cold Feet - are there any other fans out there of this phenomenally good British TV series? I'm/We're addicted. I made the mistake of buying the whole series' on DVD. 36 x 1hr episodes later.....and hence far too much sofa and less computer action! (ah the mental deprivation!).

4) Workmates - I have such a great workplace. Not only is my boss an utter gem who made me a birthday card - isn't she the sweetest - but the guys whom we work closely with in another section (Nursery Stock) are hilarious fun! The other day I was doing an inspection with Craig from nursery stock, and we were discussing children. He was mentioning the 'presents' he and his wife received from their in-laws - that being a children's cubbyhouse! (they have no children). Hmm, said I. Subtle!

He laughed and said that will be me soon - and I said something along the lines of "I've heard children have been raised by wolves.." (meaning to finish the sentence) and he broke down into fits of laughter. I didn't want to kill the moment with the rest of the sentence, so needless to say he now thinks of my maternal side in terms of rare, medium and well done! .... Anyway, good to see we share a good sense of humour!

(No animals were harmed in the delivery of aforementioned jokes).

5) And what would a week be without another set of inane J & A conversations. An avid reader (thanks Paula) said she "wet herself with laughter last week" so I take that as encouragement enough!

Scene II : A rare dinner at the dining room table -

1) as we begin our meals and with no lead in - A: "Trrific". J: "What?". A: "Trrific". J: "I don't get it?". A: "I'm Adam from Cold Feet". J: "Ah, no, you're Andrew from Moorooka - who alas isn't a cool sexy scot from a British TV series. Can I eat now?".

2) A: "Do we have any garlic?". J: "Yes in a bottle labelled Garlic". A: "Is that the bottle with the labelled rubbed off?" . J: "aaah does it say 'Garlic' "?!

3) A: "So we don't have any Garlic then?" J: "Well did you taste the contents of the jar with the label rubbed off?". A: "No, I think it's Ginger". J: (thinking to herself - Watson strikes again!) "But did you taste it?". A: "Jen while I didn't discover the Garlic, I did discover that we have three different types of Mustard - Seeded, Dijon and ofcourse Hot English. Very impressive!". (Andrew it seems is not only a garlic conniseur but a mad mustard fan too).

4) A: "Stop looking at me like that". J: "Like what?". A: "Your too good with those eyes". J: (what can I say, I've got a knack with my cornea's) "that's just because you can't outstare me!". A: "Okay here goes" (begining his penetrating stare at me above his glasses). J: (staring back with my mesmerising cornea's).

A: "Where are your eyes??, I can't see your eyes". Ah the benefit of a staring competition with a blind man who can't see above his glasses - J: "There right here staring at yours". A: "Are you looking down, I can't see them when you look down (sounding afronted and confused at the same time) , they just look like two moths on your face". Ah romance isn't dead!

Gold for the Morrisons again!

Hope you had an equally enjoyable week!

Sunday shenanigans...

Love.

&
Laughter.

This was my Sunday.





Morning motivational -
We managed to convince one member of our Afghan family, the eldest daughter Roya, along with her husband to come with us to the World Refugee Day celebrations at Annerley. As one of my friends Adele, who also met up with us, mentioned - it was confronting, yet exhilerating, to feel in the minority for once. Murray, Tom and Cathy also rounded out a great group of friends who came to celebrate the diversity and soak up some new cultural experiences with us.
The celebrations were well under way when we arrived, with great performances on the stage including Iranian dancing (the little kids were amazing!), Congo choir and and African rap group called "No pain, no gain". There was a rock climbing wall set-up for the kids (one of which flew up the wall leaving us all gasping), henna painting, stalls and lots of great food! Ofcourse, you may well guess what my main motivation for coming was...













Roya (from our Aghan family), Cathy, Adele, Murray, Andrew and Massoud (Roya's fiancee).

~~~~~~~~

Afternoon delights -

I accompanied two other classy laaadies, Helen and Candice, to Gold Class (ooh la lah) for Sex and the City - mandatory indulgent chick flick viewing. It left you wanting to walk out of the cinema and straight into a shoe store...or atleast sashay out of the lobby surrounded by a great gaggle of gal pals, in search of a walk in wardrobe to overtake. Very deeply disturbing film - who has that much money? - and when do we start a similar awesome foursome ?! (I bags Miranda's role).

And so endeth another week...

Top 5 Fave's for the week ending the 8th:

1) The stupid conversations I have with Andrew - in particular trying to mime a sudden brilliant plan I had tonight of going to Freestyle Tout for dessert. Let me recreate the madness...

So to get the ball rolling, I introduced him to the fact I may have had a cunning plan! This involved Andrew's favourite "Kia eyes" (the explanation will take too long) and once hooked (I took the bemused frowning as encouragement), I followed this winner up with silly arm movements, to indicate my 'freestyling' dance. After guesses of Bollywood and serious psychiatric disorder - I had an inkling that I may be floundering alittle - so I tried to break it down into 'style' (involved pouting and puffed out chest?!) and.....well, there was no And, as I finally shouted FREESTYLES FOR DESSERT at his blank face. Needless to say he put me in my place straight away, "Why didn't you just mime swimming?"...hmm, damn my neglected Articulate practice.

2) Andrew/Jenisms:

• A: "The steak took 17.5 minutes, only turned it once, with 7 mins on the first side and about 9mins on the other" J: "Oh there's no 'about' it Andrew!".
• J: "Did you notice the echo?". Andrew looking quizzically at me over the table.."No". J: "Huh, huh, huhhh.. see that echo with the wine bottle". A: "Ah yes, another glass for you Mrs Morrison!". (nb: there was an echo with the empty wine bottle when you directed your voice at it!...good experiment should you get bored with your dining partner at the table!)
• A: "That pepper says best by 2002!". J: in supercilious scientist voice "Andrew pepper doesn't go off!" (my standard response to anything with a due-by date suggesting we should be dead by now).

Gold for Morrisons!

3) Sundays, relaxing ones (in this case with in-laws up the coast), where you finally get your spiritually starved souls to church in the morning and follow that up with some serious journalism - well, we searched for it in the Sunday papers for quite some time anyway! Then another good serve for the soul, in the form of Songs of Praise. Yes, you heard me admit it here first! I might as well go the whole hog and say that, not only am I a fan of Antique roadshow, but I do enjoy abit of Songs of Praise on the side! I'll search for the appropriate group to associate myself with on Facebook and truly come out of the vestment closet. I have to say there's something really nice about visiting (with Aled no less) historic churches from all over the beautiful English countryside, set to some well-sung hymns, to make you feel like it's Sunday! (put away those aghast expressions!)

4) Getting through presenting 3hrs worth of training on Quarantine Diseases and not blowing it! Even the curly questions I got from the participants didn't throw me too much (no I'm not 100% sure that the fungi found in Tuttenkhamen's tomb would be viable after 5000yrs!) nor the fact that some were nodding off right before my eyes!

5) The anticipation which gets you through the week because it's a LONG WEEKEND...need I say any more!


Thumbs down:

There not being four days to the long weekend, so you can fit in seeing friends AND the dreaded domestic duties!



NB - WATCH THIS SPACE for exciting news concerning a joint venture with a friend...
NNB - Actually it may not happen overnight, but it will happen! (we hope)
NNBB - aaah, that DOESN'T have any reference to babies!...well, not the obvious one you might think!

A do run run run, a do mother's day fun run..

We woke up in the morning at a half past six,

cause Andrew about-do a fun run run, a do fun run.

He was in quite good company with the premier and lord mayor,

all doing a fun run run, a doing a fun run.

His wife, parents and mother-in-law all cheered from the sidelines,

as he did run run run, all 8k's he run run.

At 8.37am as the crowd (of four) went wild,

he finished the fun run run, 36mins he run run!

Mental spew...

and a big thanks to Anna Banana for that imagery!

So good to be back in Brisbane yet so good to see Melbourne again. Give me a home which is historic, a city gastronomic, a gallery or two, a pastry or three, a tram to travel round, and an old bric-a-brac market.

I heart Melbourne!

Andrew and I spent the long weekend and Monday (which was Andrew's birthday - and he's not letting anyone forget it) wending our way down the delightful streets of Melbourne - enjoying the sights, and sampling delights in every second store. Our accomodation had the most amazing views over the city and was within walking distance of the city centre, so it couldn't have been better. The weather, while fantastical chilly, was not too unkind and we spent a glorious day in St Kilda on what was predicted to be an overcast day with hail! We also managed to squeeze in trips to the gallery (I love Melb gallery), a night out with friends, a long trawl through Queen Victoria Markets, a visit to Max Brenner's chocolate cafe and a stroll along Brunswick St in Fitzroy.

Top Picks:

1) Absolutely amazing bar (got to know a local to find it, no signage) which was like a 1920/30's jazz club complete with art deco furniture, amazing views of city and sublime (but expensive) cocktails! = 10/10 . THANK YOU KERRYN!

2) "Top Bread" - shop selling pastries of every variety sweet and savoury for around $2. What a choice for breakfast! = 9/10

3) Melbourne Art Gallery - while I'm sure there are many galleries in Melbourne I always love seeing the variety of things on display here aswell as the permanent collection items. The shop sells great cards too = 8/10

4) Queen Victoria Markets - FOOD SECTION. The clothes and other things are nice but the food section on Sat/Sun is quite a feast for the tastebuds. Even better would be to do a foodies tour but alas they are very popular and book up fast! = 8/10

5) The parks - so many and the foliage in autumn is so reminiscent of the northern hemisphere proper 'fall'. Infact Melbourne reminds me very much of the UK and it is nice to be able to wander through large parks and see many families and school kids taking delight in the natural surrounds = 8/10

So here it is in a pictorial nutshell - Our time in Melbourne:

Federation Square - really innovatively designed open area for people to bring deck chairs and watch open air big screen movies etc.

Ah sweet chocolate -Max Brenner cafe:

Queen Victoria Markets: Food Hall

Queen Victoria Markets: Doughnuts made fresh before your eyes - aaargh, drool

St Kilda: Street Markets (bought some 'essentials' - scarf and some ceramics)


St Kilda Pier:



Birthday dinner with Andrew's friends: Mike and Kerryn


The absolutely awesome (and I don't use that word lightly) bar that Kerryn showed us: cocktail heaven!

Melbourne by night - as beautiful as by day (gush gush):

The view from our hotel room: