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Working Backwards Through the Weekend

27/11/2011

Happy birthday Andy! Today (Sunday) we had an enjoyable day in the Yarra Valley. Steve drove us to two favourites - Coombe Farm and Coldstream Hills and we also tried Tokar and popped into Domaine Chandon for some bubbles tasting.

Lunch was at Innocent Bystander and the pizzas were super yummy as were the accompany fries.

Saturday was very wet - a whole day of rain. We ventured out and Steve suggested lunch at Movida. Who am I to argue? We had a wonderful meal sat at the bar grazing on various beautiful dishes.

Friday evening was the first of our Christmas engagement - Jazz at the Museum. Organised by PwC, we attended last year and it's really weird to think that it's been a whole year. Less Jazz at the Museum and more just at the museum, there was lots to drink and some tasty canapés made the rounds. It was good to catch up with some of the colleagues and exchange conversations about Christmas plans.

And now it is the countdown to the festive season. My route to work consists of walking across a bridge and through an underpass. There is usually an old man busker who plays the harmonica and the usual tunes are some rousing hymns that remind me of assembly time at school. However this week, we've had Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, O Come All Ye Faithful and Hark the Herald Angels, so there's no avoiding the festive cheer.

Steve and I go to Tasmania on 14th December which isn't that far away and we are very excited. Work has been busy for Barley Boy so we're looking forward to almost a full month off! Lucky us!

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The Barnes' Birthday Bonanza

20/11/2011

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This weekend was Karly's 30th birthday and celebrations in the office kicked off with lunch at Red Spice Road followed by afternoon cheesecake.

Steve and I had a Friday night date at Attica which we'd booked about three months ago! As Melbourne's current Restaurant of the Year we had to get on the waiting list and be patient!

Friday saw temperatures hit 34 degrees only for them to come back down to the 20s by 6pm and thunderstorms arrived.

Saturday was very grey and wet but luckily birthday activities were very much indoors. We met Karly, Cam and Chris at 1pm and the Carlton United Breweries for a tour and some sampling.

An informative whizz round the site ended with some tasting at the bar. We also left with some freebie beer (3 bottles each) and a novelty keyring!

Here are the Barnes in their beer outfits because that's what you do at the end of a brewery tour and on your 30th birthday weekend!

And here are the Barleys in their fancy dress get up. Steve quite likes wearing a jumpsuit!

After the excitement of Saturday, Claire and Martyn picked us up on Sunday to go for yum cha in Box Hill. And they very kindly treated us so thank you Mr and Mrs W. It was very enjoyable and between the four of us we managed to chomp our way through may baskets of dim sum.

Steve went to watch Melbourne Victory play Perth Glory (soccer) with Martyn afterwards and we ended the weekend with dinner at an Italian restaurant close to home.

The next few weeks are busy busy busy with Christmas parties, trips out, dinner plans...watch this space!

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Golden Summer

12/11/2011

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This week I had my first "Golden Gaytime"! All the Brits take pictures of this well loved Aussie ice cream and even Stephen Fry referred to it when we saw him perform recently. In an age where things are renamed for fear of being offensive / discriminatory / politically incorrect, it's refreshing that Golden Gaytime remains...well, golden and gay!

It was a warm sunny day and Tanya, Karly and I had gone out for a lunch break stroll. On our return, I had a craving for an ice cream or ice lolly and was convinced to try this traditional favourite.

It's like a toffee ish vanilla ish ice cream on a stick covered in biscuit crumb not dissimilar to Digestive. Not a bad stick ice cream and an experience I'd be happy to try again.

Steve and I enjoyed a midweek dinner date at Docklands. The food wasn't all that memorable but it was quite romantic to watch the sunset over the water.

On Saturday we made plans to meet Lynn and Steve in Mordialloc for a late lunch and mooch around the area.

Lynn and Steve are a couple we met a few weeks back for drinks after work. I assisted Lynn find a job when she and Steve first relocated to Melbourne from Cheshire.

Anyway they're lovely people and we enjoyed a very sunny Saturday. We had a walk along the beach and then spent the rest of the day sat outside enjoying drinks and food with a view of the ocean.

The weather is pretty much warm every day now although sometimes its grey and other days its blue skies and sunshine. We've had some thunderstorms during the week too. Hayfever season has kicked of with a mighty atishoo for me and I hope it will end soon

The Christmas decorations are up in the shops but because it's so warm outside it really doesn't feel Christmassy and now and then I'll see a big Christmas tree or something and it takes me a few seconds to register that it's mid November.

The run up to Christmas is going to be pretty busy for us. We have various weekend plans going on and then we leave for Tasmania on 14th December. Really looking forward to that trip so hoping the next few weeks will whizz by.

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Fancy Friday and Happy 30th Cam!

6/11/2011

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Three day working week ending with a Fancy Friday! Friday was the quarterly awards and drinks do at work. The theme was befitting the time as the boardroom was transformed with a bit of astroturf and some horse themed decoration into Flemington Racecourse.

The Office Support team got into the swing of things by donning feathery fascinators and hats providing some glamour to our end of the office.

Friday night was also work drinks for Steve and lucky for us the chosen bar was the very close Belgian Beer Café on the ground floor of our apartment building. As I walked past the terrace, I was lured in and it seemed rude to not pop in for one given it's locale. Unfortunately one vodka became several and Saturday was a hard day to get through!

Throbbing heads and sick stomachs reigned on Saturday morning. We managed lunch out with a half litre of wine but it didn't chase those hangover cobwebs away. Saturday was a gloriously sunny day so after lunch we spent some time at the park and then in the garden area by the pool in our apartment complex.

Encouraged by Tanya, I purchased a pressure cooker recently and it arrived in the week so Saturday evening I experimented with a Thai red chicken curry and it was pretty successful even if I do say so myself! We also helped a damsel in distress on Saturday evening. In Martyn's absence, Claire had managed to lock herself out of the apartment having lost her keys so she and the very cute Batfink sought refuge at Barley B&B. Unfortunately we were unable to provide waitress service breakfast as we had other commitments in the morning so Claire and Batfink had to make their own breakfast!

Happy birthday Cameron! Flirty at thirty and just reaching maturity!

Cam and Karly kindly invited us to celebrate his coming of age with them and we made plans to hire a small fishing boat and spend the morning in the water before the weather turned to rain.

We met up at Mordialloc and there were 5 keen sailors ready to catch our dinner. Steve, Cam and Chris hired fishing rods. Karly bought a hand reel and I opted out. Armed with frozen whitebait (see picture) we were ready to trawl the seas.

It was not long before Chris felt the first nibble and reeled in a little flathead. It was all drama as we didn't know what to do but we transferred it to the net to have a good look before releasing it back as it was too small to keep.

Chris managed to land another little flathead. Karly caught a mammoth star fish and Steve managed two little snappers in quick succession! All in all, pretty successful for a bunch of amateurs. Sadly the birthday boy had to make do with no fish but he was very helpful in assisting with unhooking them as the catches were made.

It was a very fun morning and something we'd like to do again now that we know how!

The rest of Sunday has been spent cooking up a traditional roast dinner. We've had roast pork with crackling, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, stuffing, peas, gravy and some roast pumpkin as a nod to Australia! You'll be pleased to know we had some friends round to assist - Christine whom my friend Charis introduced me to and her friend also from Hong Kong, Charlene. They've just left now so all that remains is to do a clean up and then it's bed time ready for a nw working week.

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Merry Melbourne Cup

5/11/2011

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Spring Racing Week has started and with it comes the Melbourne Cup public holiday and we hope for warm weather. Steve and I took the Monday off so enjoyed a 4 day weekend and had a great time. The weather wasn't particularly great and we remember it being a lot warmer (also wetter last year).

Yes, indeed Melbourne Cup weekend marks our Melbourne anniversary. It's been one year since we left home. In some ways it feels like it's gone super quick but when we think about all that we have done then actually it's probably about right.

People ask us about what we plan to do given one year is like our planned halfway mark. The question is whether it is the halfway mark or the one third mark or one quarter mark...and we don't really have an answer. The Australian adventure still has an end date but we're not sure when the end date is.

Steve and I enjoyed a midweek double date starting with dumplings at Hu Tong with Claire and Martyn and finishing with a cocktail at 1806 with some QI in the middle.

The very witty Stephen Fry has been on an Australian tour (but no show in Sydney apparently) and has brought along the likeable Alan Davies.

The show started with some Fry ramblings and he then brought on some Australian comedians and Alan Davies to do a QI show.

Saturday was Derby Day in the racing calendar. We expected rain and a grey day but decided to brave it anyway. Instead we were pleasantly surprised when the cloud lifted and the sun came out. Accompanied by Andrew and Stacey (Steve works with Andrew), with fleeting visits from some of Steve's other PWC kinfolk and Cam and Karly who were high living it in the members area, we enjoyed a good day of racing.

Flemington racecourse has its own train station and on race days the trains runs every ten minutes which is highly convenient. I'd been warned about queues and massive crowds and although the day was busy, getting a drink and placing a bet was not as frustrating as it could be. Definitely more space and less queuing than at Donny races or York.

Steve and I indulged in champagne and I had a few flouro coloured frozen cocktails. Sadly it wasn't a money making day as the bets we won were the favourites so they didn't pay out much.

Derby Day is historically black and white day. Steve were a purple and white striped shirt and I was in red so traditionalists we were not. It's a lot of fun to people watch. Australian ladies definitely like legs out, boobies out and plenty of tan!

We also saw these guys in strange looking suits following the black and white colour theme. Not sure it's the best look though gentlemen.

After all the activity and a touch too much champagne, we left the race course around 5pm ish and I was fast asleep by 6pm! I woke around midnight, complained I was hungry, went online for an hour, sent two work related emails and went back to sleep and woke at 9am!

The Sunday after Derby Day, Steve and I enjoyed breakfast in South Melbourne before going to the market and realxing day including dinner in St Kilda.

Monday was Ladies' Day. Karly and I met up for lunch (Steve tagged along) in the city and packed Steve off for a nap whilst we hit the shops. Shopping is obviously thirsty work, so we stopped off in Fed Square for some liquid cocktail refreshment.

In this picture, Karly has our shopping bounty and also a cocktail very memorably named "Pedro the Stupid Donkey". We feel Pedro may be stupid but he must be pretty happy as it was tasty beverage with a strong kick. Much like Pedro no doubt!

Monday night was another date with my hubby and we had dinner in the city.

Other shenanigans in the weekend included some time in the temporary marquee that Crown Casino set up for the racing with big screens and a couple of bars. We'd walked past this a few times last year but had always assumed it was ticketed. This year we discovered, it was actually walk in and there were different kinds of entertainment including a rock band that started off the set with "We built this city" and other classic soft rock options that the Aussies seem to love. There was a lot of dad dancing to watch!

On the actual Cup day (Tuesday), Steve and I had an impromptu lunch in Nobu. Always a pleasure to revisit a favourite and this time our favourite welcomed us back with arms that were perhaps too welcoming.

Along with the amazing food, we also indulged in cocktails, two bottles of wine and two carafes of fruit sake...uh oh! One of the great memories I have of this meal is hanging out the window watching the race on the big screen in the marquee.

And our horse came in...and we had some other bets and got a couple of placings too so excitement all round!

Sadly this rush of excitement combined with an excessively boozy lunch meant I had a hangover by 9pm and bed beckoned signalling the end of a very fun, very food and wine indulgent and very memorable Cup weekend.

The other great thing about a 4 day weekend? 3 day working week!

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Working Backwards Through the Weekend

The Barnes' Birthday Bonanza

Golden Summer

Fancy Friday and Happy 30th Cam!

Merry Melbourne Cup

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