If someone had told me a few months ago that I would have won Best Dressed at the work Melbourne Cup event I would have laughed. Somehow though I managed to pick up the prize. It wasn’t till sometime yesterday arvo that I decided to wear a hat for the happenings today. After SES, I stopped off at my parents and ummed and ahhed over the various hats. Then Matthew suggested I wear Karl’s WW1 Brodie Helmet, a little bit of fabric and a few ribbons later I had myself a hat which would protect my head from shrapnel and was classy enough for the “field”.
The past weekend the HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Leeuwin have been in town and of course on Saturday they were open for a looksie. We ended up having a Medical Section family afternoon out with three of us from Med and three other family members. We toured the ships, had some good laughs and ate way too much ice cream at Hamilton Portside afterwards.
There was a really impressive turn out of people for the afternoon and both ships put on really good tours. The Melbourne had people stationed at various points where the people accumulated waiting for people to climb stairs ready to have a chat about whatever they were near. On the Leeuwin we had good fun looking through the binoculars with which you could see a fly on a leaf 2km away, ok maybe not quite but they were slightly impressive.
On Monday the main deck of the HMAS Melbourne was the place where the enlistment ceremony took place for this months Navy intake. In addititon to the ceremony been on the Melbourne, it also saw the fourth son of one family enlisting. This meant that the Chief of the Navy was in town to do the honours and the press turned out for the occasion.
Then I headed into the city and made a stop at Lush to buy my birthday present to myself and had a wander round the shops and I made the best discovery in Mountain Designs. Keen now makes/sells bags! Oh they had some cool bags. So cool!
After a bit more of a wander and a visit to Blue Cats for some chocolate goodies, I headed out of the city and home and then onto my parents home. On the way I stopped at the flower market and picked up some flowers.
Pabbi cooked skonsur for dinner which was quite enjoyable, it has been sooo sooo long since I have had skonsur. I got to the kitchen table at dinner and there was a package waiting at my place. I was not expecting any presents at all as the deal is after you turn 21 you don’t get birthday presents any more. I opened the package after tea and it was pack of hankies 😀 Nice lady hankies. I had commented to Mum a couple of weeks ago that I hadn’t been able to find nice hankies. Now I have some 🙂 After that I cooked my birthday cake (pretty much this recipe, photo coming soon) for work today as the oven at their place is just a little bit better than the oven we have at the flat.
Then it was home time to watch The Hollowmen(man oh man I love that show) and then bed 😀 so I would be ready for a busy as usual day at work today 😀
On Sunday I did the Bridge to Brisbane with a friend who works in the Maroochydore recruiting office and another one of her friends. We completed the 10km walk/jog in a little under 1hr 20 mins and shortly after we crossed the finish line, we were deciding that our goal for next year was to jog the entire way and hopefully get near the 1hr mark.
It was such a great morning. Everyone was happy,sweaty and content. As we entered the RNA grounds, I picked up my pace and moved into a faster jog, thinking that the finish line was just round the corner, except it wasn’t just round the corner. I rounded corner after corner till I saw the gates to the arena that marked the 200m to go mark. I wanted to stop but I knew that if I stopped or slowed down my pace I wouldn’t get to the finish line, plus there were heaps of people lining the final 200m who had already completed the race and well I didn’t want to look like I had walked the entire race did I? I crossed that finish line and man oh man I was slightly buggered but I felt so good.
Now I am just waiting for midday on Thursday (my birthday!) for the results to come online to see where I placed in the 36000 people who competed.
For the last few weeks I have made a trip each Saturday morning to the West End Markets and oh how I loved them more than any of the other markets I have been to in Brisbane. A lot cheaper than the Jan Power markets and more general fruit and vege stalls as opposed to speciality olive and dip stalls, a whole lot more stalls than the Nundah markets. Just the perfect mix of everything.
I can get bananas from a banana grower at Crabbes Creek, near where Grandad grew up. I can get apples and pears from this lovely old Italian (?) man from Stanthorpe. Heritage tomatoes from this lovely lady. Fresh local squid from the polystyrene box fish shop. Turkish bread that is at least a meter long from the Highgate Hill bakery and everything else I need for the week.
The other week Mum came with me and I took these photos of her sitting on the soccer field eating some American cherries after our shared Hungarian spinach thing which we had for breakfast.
I probably won’t be going the next two weeks as I have weddings on both Saturdays but generally this is where you will find me on a Saturday morning.
Last Saturday night I got frocked up for a good cause, the third annual Defence Charity Ball in aid of Legacy and Red Kite and oh what a night it was. There was eleven of us from work plus the other assorted people that people knew from working in the Defence arena. The guys were looking swish in their mess kits and us girls were sparkling in our frocks. It was a night of good food, dancing, chatting, drinking and posing in Iroquois and with Military Working Dog Puppies and Jamie Durie. After the formalities of the ball were over, the rest of the table started on their way home but one of the other girls and I kept on going till the early morning, enjoying a night out all frocked up in our finest.
My dress picked me, I walked into a dress shop at Chermside, had a flick through a few racks, then the manager came over and said hello, asked me what I was looking for and pulled out a few dresses. The dress I wore, was the first one I tried on. I cam back a few days later with Mum, tried it on again and walked out with it 😀 The dress however meant that I had to wear heels. For those who know me, I don’t really wear heels, luckily I have a great flat mate who has the same size feet as me and wears heels 😀 I wore high heels every night round the flat with my track pants getting used to wearing high heels, I looked well like a picture but it was going to be the only way I would be able to last a night in heels. There were quite high heels too, a good 2cm high …. I have to give big thanks to Andrea and Brandi, my flatmate and one of her best mates for doing my hair and make-up. Which meant that one of the persons I work with (though he does work in one of regional offices didn’t recognise me). My hair was so cool, the curls managed to stay curly for a few days more which a lot more fun the the straight slightly wavy hair I have naturally.
The evening before the ball, Andrea and I met up in the city to find the brooch to wear on the dress sash, we went to sooo many shops and looked and discarded sooo many brooches (so many were just plain ugly). Then we came across this little costume jewellery shop in the Myer Centre and there she was, the brooch which was in my budget and had enough vintage style to be very me.
This ball was my first and definitely won’t be my last.
