It's been another busy week at work. Steve has been working hard and I have been on induction / training as I transfer to a new employer. Instead of being employed by EnergyAustralia as has been the case for the last year, I am now working for their supplier on site. The work is the same but it's a whole new team; and we've moved to a different floor so it is a period of transition. Induction / training is always tiring but I've loved returning to the Hudson offices and saying hello to the people I left last year. Slightly ironic that my previous employer is now my current employer once more.

During this week I had a great night out with Natalie from work and we enjoyed some great hospitality at the launch of Bomba. This was followed by another evening of drinks and food with the new work team at a bar in the CBD.

So when Friday arrived, we were ready for some rest. We saw in the weekend with dinner with Fitzroy with Rob and Lorna (Rob works with Steve and they play football together) where we toasted the 20 week scan of their bundle of joy. Lorna is an editor with Lonely Planet so it's always wonderful to go out with her and chat about travels.

A rainy Friday evening led to a rainy and windy Saturday with intermittent blue skies but heavy showers more the norm. Anniversary celebrations were to take place on Mornington Peninsula so after a lie in we headed that way via Brighton.

In spite of our 3 years here we've never actually seen the bright beach huts of Brighton that are on numerous postcards, posters and other people's Facebook albums so we made a stop. It was a very quick stop as the rain soon came in and it was pretty cold.

We headed into Brighton for lunch and warmed up in a local cafe and Steve dried off with a strawberry milkshake and a newspaper!

It was also Grand Final day in the AFL and many places were closing up in time to watch the game. Never ceases to amaze me how much like a public holiday Grand Final day is like. I even saw a rural post office with a notice in the door stating it was closed for the weekend due to Grand Final.

After Brighton we headed via the coastal route to Flinders where we checked in at the Flinders Hotel and we spent a leisurely Saturday watching TV, napping and reading.

Dinner was at Terminus which was on site and we enjoyed the Middle Eastern inspired menu.

Sunday brought sunshine and after breakfast and check out we drove around the area and enjoyed brief walks to various coastal look outs.

Lunch was at Paringa Estate and was very enjoyable and then it was homeward bound via the Glaze It Studio to pick up the plates we'd painted last week.

So next anniversary will be 10 years. Who knows where we will be and what we will do? I can imagine we will spoil ourselves though!

Speaking of which, we have 4 days of work before our week off in Bali. It's going to be a busy week before a week of rest and massages.

On Wednesday 25th September, Steve and I will have been married for nine years. That's a pretty long time! And looking back at this picture, well it proves that we have aged for sure. For two people, I feel we have experienced many things, most of them positive over the last nine years.

And with the actual anniversary falling mid week, well it's only right that celebrations take place during the weekends on either side of the date. So we started with some fun things this weekend although I think the time has crept up on us and it's a bit of a surprise that it has come round so quickly.

The run up to the weekend has been busy. Steve has been working hard and there was many a night when he would come home and I'd be in bed then he'd be up and off and out by about 7am in the morning. I've had a lot on workwise to as I transfer employers - same job, same place but instead of being an employee of EnergyAustralia I am now an employee of one of its suppliers providing a recruitment service. Ironically, that company is the one I left for EnergyAustralia! How life comes round. Anyway that transition officially takes place as of tomorrow so I spent last week trying to sort everything out prior to moving desks onto another floor and because next week will be about training and induction so I'm not around as much.

Anyway back to the fun stuff. So I have a long overdue dinner date with Kim on Friday night which works out well as Steve has to work anyway and we enjoy some delicious food and cocktails.

Then before we know it, it's Saturday and we enjoy a mooch around Smith St in Fitzroy, our new adopted neighbourhood that we seem to enjoy spending time in including lunch before an afternoon of rest on the sofa. Dinner is back in Fitzroy and we have a fun meal at Casa Ciuccio.

Today has been a beautiful day with lots of sunshine and we enjoy yum cha before heading to Glaze It. Tradition says that the 9th anniversary is celebrated with pottery so I'd arranged for us to spend a couple of hours at the Glaze It studio where we can paint a piece of pottery and they fire it for us ready for pick up a week later.

Inspiration was thin on the ground to begin with and Steve asked me what I was thinking of doing. My answer was maybe something to do with Australia and before I knew it, he'd stolen my idea! So rather than use our story, I decided to try and capture the essence of our relationship and I've always loved Banksy's girl with balloon but the one where she's chasing the heart balloon is quite solitary and sad so I went with the one where she's lifted off the ground but rather than by herself, I gave her her soul mate and took some poetic licence with the balloons adding some heart ones too. Yeah I've probably infringed copyright laws but I'm not selling the piece and it's only for our personal enjoyment so no harm right?

At the end of the session we take our creations to the front desk to sort out payment and firing them etc and the owner asks me if mine's a birthday present for a 9 year old?! I guess it could be interpreted that way. So we explain it's a 9 year anniversary and the link to pottery which she didn't realise so she liked learning that little tidbit of knowledge. She then looks at Steve's creation and says; "umm so that's Australia???" very tentatively and then, "And is that a bridge?" But she did say his kangaroo was good.

And next weekend there will be more fun things planned. Speaking of fun things though, Amelia Grace is now copying the adults in her life so she's learning about hair brushing and using a phone - all those important things! Just too cute.

It's the calm before the storm in a topsy turvy way in that we're acclerating and hurtling towards a blissful week off in Bali and the end destination is the calm and the countdown there the storm!

So what's been a go go? Steve kicked off week 1 of busy season somewhat behind his colleagues. That means he's up and out the door by 7am and comes home around 9pm and works at home through until the early hours. Apparently this coming week is going to be the clincher. Oh the life of an auditor...and an auditor's wife.

My work has been fairly busy as people go on annual leave (ha! My turn will come) and that always means covering a little more and we're also moving towards a change in process and structure so it feels like we're in transition stage and there's a sense of anticipation of change just round the corner.

Steve proudly went to watch Richmond in their first finals game in twelve years. They lost though so maybe next year...

Some other snippets of what events in the last two weeks follow,

Impromptu ice cream at Icy Queen with Sugar Queen Kristianna one evening after work. See how her eyes have lit up? That's her reaction to sugar!

Wardrobe twins! Britt in the flowery trousers and Bianca in the flowery top are my colleagues and don't they look delightful? Apparently no consultation took place.

We had a visitor! Gerry! We met Gerry about 5 years ago (we think) when we cruised the Eastern Med with Celebrity. Since then we've stayed in touch via FB and when a work trip brought him over here it was great we could catch up over dinner and drinks. We love visitors and catching up.

We also caught up with Carrie and Jim over  a delicious Saturday lunch that started at 1pm and saw us get home at 7pm.

I mentioned it was Amelia's 1st birthday party in my last post. Her celebrations continued to her actual birthday in the week and here she is with momma and pops opening more presents. She is definitely growing up and is a mini person in her own right with her own will and personality. Somewhat stubborn in nature, freakishly independent and so inquisitive; she's certainly a handful.

There's definitely been a sharp corner turned that takes us right into Spring. The breeze is warm, the skies are blue and we've been blessed with sunshine. Steve and I had a great lunch at Huxtable on Saturday and then we wandered from Collingwood through Fitzroy all the way home stopping off for liquid refreshment along the way. We even managed a couple of drinks with Rachel and Tim as our paths crossed in Fitzroy.

We passed by some beautiful blossoms on the trees late afternoon time as we meandered towards the CBD from Fitzroy.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny too and we decided to visit the Trailer Park which is where various food trucks gather on a weekend and different trucks on different weekends. There's also bars on site and lots of open air seating. Such a great place on a sunny afternoon and I can see us returning.

Today we ate from Beatbox Kitchen (burger and fries), Cornucopia (sweetcorn and mini tacos) and Gumbo Kitchen (pulled pork sandwich) and we ended on a sweet note with creme brulee from the Brulee Cart.

We were there pretty early so there was plenty of seating available. We did have to wait a while at Beatbox Kitchen for our order but it's pleasant enough to wait in the sunshine.

This weekend was Amelia's first birthday and she had a huge party at her house with lots of family and friends. Apparently she loved it all and refused to go to bed and played avoidance games with mummy so she could stay up! My cousin Samuel made the impressive cake and my cousin Zoe made the Hello Kitty cake topper. Such talented people.

Let's look it up on Google!

With great grandma Boo Boo - going in for a kiss.