Weekend Mornings

There is one thing that I always try to make time for on at least one morning of the weekend and that is to have a slow breakfast on the deck couch with a pot of tea (Sencha Peach from T2, muesli with yoghurt and fruit or toast with Vegemite and some reading material. It may be the most recent book I’ve got out of the library or it will be an issue of Real Living.

tea and magazines

Whilst, the above activities are not affected by the weather, the following is. If the sun is out and I can’t tell you how happy I was that it was out this morning, the hum of the washing machine downstairs is the sound of a weekend morning. This of course provides the following outcome.

washing on the line

Georgie took me to the Valentino Retrospective at GOMA this mid-afternoon as a belated birthday present. Whoa, those outfits are amazing, some are plain crazy, some are beautiful, others are amazing. The work and detail is just incredible.

I took this photo on the way past QAG heading towards GOMA.

Cement Paradise

25 things to do before 26

Well I’m most certainly 25 now; I had a lovely weekend, went to Gerties on Saturday night with some friends, had breakfast at Sassafras on Sunday with N and then a browse at the Paddington Antique Centre, where I picked up the most amazing find; a Figgjo Lotte Salt Box/Cellar. I remember when I first saw one of these listed on ebay, I just was awe; the amazing shape, the placement of the designs, the everything. I also remember the price the auction finished, whoa that was some money. The next few times I saw one come up on ebay, the auction finished at similar prices. I can happily say that I picked up mine for a whole lot less.

Isn’t it beautiful? I’m not sure what I will put in it yet but I can assure it won’t be salt.

A lovely birthday find

Yesterday I had a great day. It was a training day at work so no candidates and a chance to have lunch together as a department. I went to the orthodontist and got the news that I’ve been wanting to hear for the last nine months or so, it’s time to go see the prosthodontist, yay! I have an appointment on Oct 5, which will hopefully be an x-ray to confirm root placement and the like and that we can move forward with the implant procedure. Cross your fingers. It’s now week 9 at Uni which is hard to believe, it seems like just yesterday I was looking at my lecture notes for week 1 and thinking it sort of makes sense. I’m really looking forward to next year. When I got home from uni I was presented with the most amazing bunch of red, magenta and orange gerberas from one of my flatmates as belated birthday present. It’s gorgeous, I’ll have to take a photo later.

Now to to the meat of this post. 25 things that I wish to do/complete before I turn 26 next year.

  1. Be finished with orthodontic work.
  2. Challenge myself to take more thoughtful photos.
  3. Ride my bike more.
  4. Get a will.
  5. Get better with my practice of one thing in means one thing out for my belongings.
  6. Spend more time creating.
  7. Print and frame more photos.
  8. Bake a rainbow cake.
  9. Do more study.
  10. Go to the Drive In – hopefully the Wonga one if it re-opens in the next few months.
  11. Go media-free for at least 48hrs.
  12. Make marshmallows and honeycomb.
  13. Be more regular on my blog (gee, that sounds like an All-Bran ad).
  14. Grow my investments.
  15. Reduce the stack of clothes in my mending/alterations stack.
  16. Make my own tea blend.
  17. Make strawberry jam.
  18. Get fresh flowers more often.
  19. Write and comment more.
  20. Grow professionally.
  21. Get my routines started again – planning meals for the week and exercise.
  22. Read some more classics.
  23. Finish my granny square blanket.
  24. Make mulberry crumble or pie from the mulberries in the freezer.
  25. Turn 26

There it is, some things are small, some things not so, some things are little, something things require effort.

And we’ll end off with two books that I’ve been enjoying immensely at the moment. 50/60/70 : Iconic Australian Houses by Karen McCartney and The Iconic House by Dominic Bradbury.

Two of my current books

24.99726 years

Tomorrow I turn 25. As of tomorrow I am most certainly in my mid 20s. 25 it sounds so much more formal than 24.

For everything that the last 364 days have brought me, from the good, the bad, the ugly, the forgettable, the unforgettable, the amazing, the challenging, the one thing that I think will always be a hallmark of my 24th year is of course Pabbi dying. My 25th year starts to unfold tomorrow and as the year passes it will be interesting to see what it brings. I’ve got a number of things I want to complete/accomplish next year but mostly I’m here to live and to make the most whilst doing just that; living life.

and to move away from birthdays but onto happenings of the last week.

For the past week I’ve been literally overdosing on strawberries.
Strawberries ....

I am very pleased to announce that I got 80% for my accounting exam last week, it put me in the top 9% of the class, I aim to improve on that as the semester continues. The exam was Saturday morning and Saturday evening was Riverfire which we watched from a hill in Wooloowin. Oh sigh, we had 3, yes 3 dump and burns this year from the one plane. Oh the F-111 is one special plane.

Dump and Burn

Tonight after work N and I had “dinner” at the 40 Days and 40 Nights of Chocolate Buffet at the Bistro Allure. Oh I’m just recovering from chocolate and sugar overdose. I’ll go again in a couple of weeks with some of the girls from work and I’ve got a game plan worked out. The plan from which I shall not deviate is to get one piece at a time, eat that piece and then go back for more. mmmm chocolate ….

One of the many cases of goodies
Chocolate Buffet at Bistro Allure

N’s plate
Chocolate Buffet at Bistro Allure

My plate
Chocolate Buffet at Bistro Allure

This is one of the adorable presents I got from one of the girls at work today. A mini tea set. The perfect desk accessory for a tea fanatic like myself. I had received the little sugar pot at Easter and was told that I would get the rest of the present for my birthday. Total gold. The best thing is that the tea pot actually pours πŸ™‚

A mini tea set for my birthday

Riverfire tonight

It’s Riverfire tonight and it is quite windy… We’ll have to see how it pans out but fireworks and the amount of wind we’ve got at the moment tends not to make a good show.

This is the last year for the F-111, well so they say since last year was meant to be the last as well, frankly I’ll believe it when it doesn’t do a flyover next year …. There are no Roulettes this year which is quite a πŸ™ for me. I love seeing them doing all their formations etc instead there’ll be some Black Hawks flying about …

Riverfire from the Beach at Captain Burke Park

I made pizza muffins earlier – basically this recipe but with more veggies in. They’ll be snack food tonight along with some Lebanese pastries I picked up on the way home from uni this morning.

I had my first uni exam this morning, 9am on a Saturday … I was fairly confident going in, going out well, I’m still confident I’ll get a decent mark but not as confident as I was going in.

Some collected links from the last little while which I’ve been meaning to share.