Christmas 2009

GB and I hosted our first Christmas Eve family dinner and our first Christmas lunch. My family were pikey pikers and did their own thing in NSW and missed out! :)

Chritmas Eve was just the three of us: GB, myself and Mrs K. This is the night we open presents and gorge ourselves on seaford.

Before:


Yes the platter you see on this table is for 3 people!


After:


Christmas Day was another statement on indulgence and traditionalism. In attendance: Mrs K, GB, myself and the Sultanas GB's Grandmother and Great Aunt. It was a lovely and relaxed day (for me anyway - Mrs K did all the cooking and cleaning)


I wish I had taken the time to get a better photo of the tree at night. It really does look magical and a perfect way to end the day with just me awake, the tree sparkling and a sense that it was a fantastic finish to what was a crap year and that 2010 is going to be so much better.



Merry Christmas to all!

Tis the season

GB and I made the trip down to Moorooduc to the Christmas tree farm to get our tree the Saturday just gone. This year we had to squash the tree into my Sonata! It was strange just being the two of us this year and we ended up getting a pre-cut tree. No hours spent in the field debating over which tree is the most excessive etc
I love it! I like how during the day it is all gold and red balls and bows and then of a night time the lights deep in the tree turn it into magic!

The Boulevard

So, as has been our tradition for the last 4 years, we go Christmas light looking the week before Christmas. This year due to our change in location, we were close to The Boulevard at Ivanhoe. This is reknowned for the majority of the street going to effort with their decorations. I have never experienced anything like it. The street was made into a one way so cars could do a lap and pedestrians could utilise the other side of the road. There were masses of people and kids and prams and dogs. The houses varied from the nicely lighted to the over the top. GB and I had a good time but I don't think we will go again next year. Excuse the crappy iPhone photos :)

New Location for Adventures and Mishaps

After a long and tedious couple of months of house hunting, GB and I found a cute little Californian Bungalow on the border of Kew and Hawthorn. It is smaller and lots older than our previous abode, but it has felt like home since the day we moved in. Both GB and I are loving the location. Both our commutes have been shortened and are less expensive.

We walk to the shops or to breakfast on the weekends, which is lots of fun. Also in walking distance there is a whiskey and cigar bar that plays Jazz on Thursdays, 3 pubs and a gazillion restuarants. Woohooo! We don't live in the suburbs anymore!

#63 Send Christmas cards to everyone I know.

I changed this one to everyone I like. Just because it was easier and my lack of self confidence wouldn't allow me to send it to people I barely know or know through other people. etc etc.

Anyhoo it took some time, but less than I imagined and it cost a fair bit, more than I imagined :)

#78 Pack my own lunch 3 days a week for 1 month

This one turned out to be so easy...when I finally found the motivation to do it. I ended up doing Dr Joshi's 21 day detox and that pretty much forced me to have to pack my own lunches. And since then I have found it easier to take my lunches in or do a supermarket shop at lunch times etc.

Halloween 2009

GB and I have been meaning to have a Halloween party for a couple of years. This is as close to it we have come. If we had more attendance it would have been a party. As it turns out it was more a gathering for a movie night. But GB and I made sure we had lots of fun doing it! Stay tuned cause next year is going to be big :)

#100 Plant a tree at Hungry Head

I have been a little slack on the updating. In August 2009 the family gathers at a place called Hungry Head. The initial reasoning for the family get together was in memory of my father Leonard Anthony Giovanni Raffaele. Over the years the numbers of dwindle and the meaning behind the gathering is changing as we are healing from the initial grief and loss and now see the holiday as a chance to catch up with family that we don't often see.
This year we decided to plant a tree in honor of dad. We chose a native so it would blend in with the beautiful surrounds and hopefully take off and become a strong part of the environment.

Alice Cooper at the Palais

Friday 28 August was spent in St Kilda. Drinks at the Espy to meet GB before heading off to see the showman Mr Alice Cooper. It was a fantastically fun show. They killed him on stage over and over.....was it 7 times?.......and yet HE LIVED! He lived to throw bunches of necklaces and money out into the crowd. He lived to kill his daughter (evil nurse). He lived to don a silver top hat and tails. He lived to sing Schools Out for the encore. Fun fun fun.

Hungry Head 2009

The family gathers once a year in a place called Hungry Head. A set of cabins delightfully situated in the bush 50 meters from the beach on the north coast of NSW.

We spend alot of the time around the campfire listening to music and drinking, and as the years go by and the younger ones drive the activities more we are spending a little more time at the local pub in town.
It is the kind of place I would like to bring visitors to our Country. Where they can wake up in the morning and be welcomed to the new day by kangaroos and kookaburras. As the years go by, the Kangaroos are becoming more and more tame. This year even a mother Kanga with a jooey in her pouch let me pet her.

This year GB and I spent a little time on our own...doing some touristy stuff. We headed up to Dorrigo to check out the waterfalls, skywalk and rainforest.

We took the walk along the Urunga Boardwalk and were surprised that there was an extension built in 2006. It had been 3 years since we had taken the time to enjoy this part of what Urunga has to offer us.

A relaxing week with a dash of family tension.

The week we got our groove back

It has been a big week, several anniversarys were celebrated:

GB's 27th Birthday
1st year in our house
6th year of my Job

GB's birthday was a quiet affair. We had a poker night at ours on the Saturday night with some friends. Cards were played, whiskey was consumed and we stayed up long enough for it to become GB's birthday so presents could be given. The theme of gifts were completely in line with GB's two main loves - meat and alcohol. I believe he was very happy.

The day of birth was then celebrated by a family lunch gathering for the youngest member of the Oliver/Kahler family. In attendance: Grandmother, Great Aunt, Mother and family friends Sigrid and Geoffrey. Small but with enough emotional intensity to ensure it certainly wasn't boring. Mrs K cooked a wonderful beef roast, lemon tart and lunch was finished with cheese.

There are 3 things you are always guaranteed with such a gathering. 1) There will be an abundance of alcohol. 2) Great food will be served. 3) There will be moments I am giggling to myself at the tension and inanity.


"It is a Monday night, I have my holey boots on, a hankering for popcorn and the Astor is only a couple hundred metres away, HIT IT!


I met GB at Mothers Milk bar on Chapel St for a pre-show drink. It was a cute / comfortable bar and didn't have the try-hard feel of some places in the same area. Not to mention they had $3 pots of Asahi. What more could you want?
We headed over to The Astor with enough time to look around the old little theatre as both GB and I were Astor virgins. It is exactly what you would expect from a cinema of that vintage. Great atmosphere, quaint decor and interesting historical displays. GB and I both become instant fans of the experience. It is cheap, you can buy cake from the candy bar and they run great old classics and cult movies. We vow to be regulars.

Another school night outing! My my.

A quick trip to PJ O'Brien's for a drink and dinner prior to the concert and then on to Hamer Hall to experience Tim Rogers, Josh Pyke, Chris Cheney and Phil Jamieson bring to life The White Album. And it was just amazing. I very much like Hamer Hall as a venue for events such as these - it lends that added sense that what you are experiencing is special.

To my shame I hadn't actually listened to The White Album all the way through prior to last night. Mostly it made me want to go home and load my itunes with all that is The Beatles except one song which made me want to go home and listen to Radiohead's Ok Computer all the way through.

I think Chris Cheney and Tim Rogers were the stand outs for me - apart from the very excellent music. Everyone on stage looked like they were enjoying it more than the audience. And to my delight for the last two songs everyone stood and got their groove on.

Double Date

Double dates are lots of fun. I find it amusing that couples become even more couple'ly, that Coupledom intensifies. Our double date was an early evening dining experience on the Tramcar Restaurant, followed by drinking at some new pub at Crown Casino (please note that I hate the Casino!) and then back to our serviced apartment for the night.

All but Tina were feeling a little fragile this morning. Was it the copious amount of sparkling white on the tram or the tequila shots at Lagerfield? Who knows and who cares just give me bacon and eggs. Hooray! The room includes a breakfast buffett. Rock on!