Thursday, May 31, 2007

On This Day Last year - Berlin



Berlin is fabulous- combines the old and the new in a perfect mix - has lots of history -Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Checkpoint Carlie, Potsdam - but has a real air of being clean,vibrant and very funky Uber cool! Everything is BIG - big wide streets,big buildings but sadly..big prices too I guess. Unfortuneately, we were whisked around Berlin at the speed of light..I wished to have much more time here.



Wednesday, May 30, 2007

On This Day Last Year- POSNAN -POLAND


A selection of pictures taken in the main square of Posnan..a city somewhere in Poland ...very hazy as to where. All I know is, it is in between Warsaw and Berlin and it is very pretty. We stopped here only for lunch. Can't get enough of these pretty houses, cobblestones and shingles!The goats on the shingle are a replica of the ones on top of the Town Hall.(2nd pic) Apparently (though I wasn't there to see it, the goats come out from behind their doors above the clock when the clock strikes 12 and hit their horns together 12 times!! lol!!


Tuesday, May 29, 2007

One Year Ago - Warsaw -Home of Chopin

and scary statues..this one a monument to Chopin himself



On this day last year I was in Warsaw. Since I didn't blog it then, I'll take a trip down memory lane, and do it now!. Above is the super ugly "wedding cake" Palace of Culture ..a legacy of Stalin, I believe, and below the charm of the Old Market Square in the Old town. These buildings have all been recreated as the originals were of course bombed in WW II.
I love the old buildings, the old cobblestones and the old inhabitants!!!


In this building ( window bottom right hand corner), is a jewellry store much patronised by the members of our group. It was here I bought this amber necklace (below). While the girls shopped happily inside, the boys mooched and lolled outside.


the local polish cuisine - pierogis..a sort of little dumpling with various fillings. We had these for lunch along with a glass of mulled wine- it was so cold outside and these were fabulous for warming us up as was the mulled wine.

Australian Etiquette

for Chris, Nic and Angus - in case you forget your manners while you're living away!!!..lol


IN GENERAL
1. Never take an open stubby to a job interview.
2. Always identify people in your paddocks before shooting at them.
3. It's tacky to take an esky to church.
4. If you have to vacuum the bed, it's time to change the sheets.
5. Even if you're certain you're included in the will, it's rude to
take your ute and trailer to the funeral.

DINING OUT
1. When decanting wine from the box, tilt the paper cup and pour slowly
so as not to bruise the wine.
2. If drinking directly from the bottle, hold it with only one hand.

ENTERTAINING IN YOUR HOME
1. A centrepiece for the table should never be anything prepared by a
taxidermist.
2. Don't allow the dog to eat at the table, no matter how good his
manners.

PERSONAL HYGIENE
1. While ears need to be cleaned regularly, this should be done in
private, using one's OWN ute keys.
2. Even if you live alone, deodorant isn't a waste of money.
3. Extensive use of deodorant can only delay bathing by a few days.

DATING
1. Always offer to bait your date's hook - especially on the first
date.
2. Be assertive. Let her know you're interested: "I've been wanting to
go out with you ever since I read that stuff on the dunny door two
years ago."
3. Establish with her parents what time she's expected back. Some will
say 11:00 PM, others might say "Monday." If the latter is the
answer,it's the man's responsibility to get her to school on time.

THEATRE ETIQUETTE
1. Crying babies should be taken to the lobby and picked up after the
movie ends.
2. Refrain from yelling abuse at characters on the screen. Tests have
proven they can't hear you.

WEDDINGS
1. Livestock is a poor choice for a wedding gift.
2. Kissing the bride for more than five seconds may cause a drop in
your popularity.
(Excessive use of the tongue is also considered out of place)
3. For the groom, at least, rent a tux. A tracksuit with a cummerbund
and a clean football jumper can create a tacky appearance.
4. Though uncomfortable, say "yes" to socks and shoes for the occasion.


DRIVING ETIQUETTE
1. Dim your headlights for approaching vehicles, even if your guns are
loaded and the roo is in your rifle sight.
2. When entering a roundabout, the vehicle with the largest roo bar
doesn't always have the right of way.
3. Never tow another car using panty hose and duct tape.
4. When sending your wife down the road with a petrol can, it's
impolite to ask her to bring back beer too.

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KOGS Reunion - Kambora Old Girls

Was held on Friday night at the Belrose Bowling Club. A good line up attended - about 80 I think - here is the goss from the night.-
People living in London:
Chris
Matthew Gorrick
Jenny Gray and Caroline Gray
Tanya Drake
Lauren Meakin
Jodie Morse (soon)
Evan Wilcox

Weddings:
Caroline Waldron
Jenny Waldron ( imminently)

Grandparents:
Steph Slater
Jeanette Morse
Chris Lund
Pam Norman
Wendy Hair
Lorraine Meakin

What did they grow up to be??
Most ppl seem to work for recruitment agencies- weird but true.
Hayley Montague works for a big bank ( forget which one) in Brussels.
All Kerry Waldron's children are psychologists!!!

Ex staff attendees were David Giles Di Millgate and Chris Bedford.
David Giles looks EXACTLY as he did in 1987 when I first met him!!!
he hasn't aged a day, is enjoying his retirement and sails the boat to Patonga---hahahaha all those years we listened to his stories of how he was going to sail arouid the world!!!

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Week ending 18/5/2007

Saturday night: We did dinner with the Changs and Jan and Warren at a place in narrabeen (Alkoven). The food was pretty good and there was lashings of it. I had the salt and pepper squid for entree -it was enormous. I was full after that and still had mains to come. In fact, I was so full I left every single one of my little roast spuds-whoever heard of leaving roast potatoes!!!!!!!!!


Mother's day: Thank you to all my four beautiful children who did mother's day stuff with/for me. We had a very yummy brekky in manly..I had fresh fruit bruschetta with ricottta and cinnamon.yum. In the evening Jenny came over for dinner and we celebrated her birthday with dad's eafood pizza and megan's ice cream cake and 7 candles I rustled up leftover from someone's birthday. Chris rang and we had a long chat. I was so pleased he'd remembered mother's day - turned out he hadn't !!!!-it was just coinicidence that he rang - still i reckon he must have known intuitively on a subconscious level.

Bathroom renovations have ground to a halt as we await new teal tiles.

Had drinks with Jeanette and Steph last night. Always fun!!

Am busy working on a budget - am going to become water/electricity nazi. Lead story in smh today is a doom and gloom piece re the imminent doubling of electricity bills due to electricty shortage due to inctreased demand and less output due to not enough water.
Tonight: going to watch marie antoinette on dvd and go to bed early.. Goodnight!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Bathroom Renovation Disaster!!!!!!!

With the help of a professional colour consultant I chose a neutral "sophisticated" "modern" and "architectural" mosaic feature wall for our ensuite bathroom. It went up on Thursday and came down on Friday. Our beautiful (in someone's head) mosaic feature wall was in reality oppressive, depressive and just plain sad!!!!!! Felt like showering inside a grey army tank!!!. Thanks to new improved glues, it took the tiler longer to get the bloody thing off than it took to put up!! This is costing a fortune in labour costs and now of course I need to buy more tiles and rethink the colour scheme!!! Am having a reaction to neutral and architectural and colour professionals and am going with teal !!!! Colour and life is what I need!! Stuff your bloody architecural!!!

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Bathroom Renovations


So after promising to come at the beginning of the year, the builders have finally turned up to do the ensuite. Day 1 entailed an hour of demolition work to get the bathroom looking like this,followed by the issuing of a bill for many thousands of dollars. They then left for 2 days after which they came back, painted the walls with some foul evil smelling waterproofing stuff,issued another bill and went away again for 2 days. The tiler has finally come back and is making progress on the walls. Hopefully all will be finished at the end of next week. I can't wait!! Watch out for the after shots..I think it will be beautiful!!!