Christmas 2007

This year was our first family Christmas in Australia. I got woken up at 6am from a call in New Zealand allowing me to open my Christmas presents from Darryl.

I tired to go back to sleep but it was light out and I was excited so I ran upstairs to get the family up. As the kids had been out the night before and weren’t in the mood I stomped back downstairs to wait FOREVER for them, especially Sara (the Christmas grumblebags from way back) to get up. When they finally rised we all got to open our presents. This year I got a pretty good haul – a ring, teddy bear, toothbrush, rock, scorched almonds, necklace, bag patches, pack, pacsafe, towel, bag, ipod charger, drink bottle, scratchies, money pouch, mobile phone holder, frame, bubble gun.

The morning started off good with us preparing Christmas lunch etc and we sat down to lunch and things started going down hill firstly for Courtney who disappeared into her room in the middle of lunch and then mum. Me and Sara tested out the new singstars she got and then she headed off for bed as well. They had all come down with a tummy bug, lucky I didn’t get it …

Toni

Yes, that is a NZ flag and not an Australian one.

- See more pictures in my slide show and photo gallery!

9 December 2007

Courtney’s 19th Birthday

Today was Courtney’s 19th birthday so we thought we would make the effort and dress up for a nights partying. We dressed up in our best gears and went upstairs for some drinks and singstars. After bazillions of photos (check my photo gallery or my bebo for more), me having to stand in the middle to break up the colour!! We headed to town. First stop was Cocktails and Dreams– boring (they have one sort of music that just keeps going on and on and on) so me and gramps (aka Darryl) headed off to an “old person’s bar” where they play music you can sing and dance too and that was also airconditioned (bonus!!) after a while there we decided to head home. Mum came and picked us up and we picked up Sara on the way past, where she then proceeded to lay on the deck all night and was still cronically hung over on Sunday!

8 December 2007

Fishing Charter

I had booked a fishing charter on Saturday afternoon from 12pm to 5pm (five hours) for me Darry and Dustin. After paying the full price of $120.00 us along with six other passengers boarded the boat ready for our day ahead. We were told that some people were running late and had got lost and that we would be waiting for them. So we sat on the boat in the heat waiting for them being told every 5 minutes that we would wait just five more minutes. After an hour of waiting they finally turn up saying that they thought it started at 1pm. So naturally we thought, well we are FULL paying customers we paid for FIVE hours of fishing we would just stay out an hour longer as we had paid for five hours of fishing.

I can tell you I was extremely annoyed that they totally ripped us off an hour. So I sent them a crappy letter (most of which is above) and am waiting upon a reply (which I doubt I will get). Aside from the above, it was a pretty good day, not many fish caught though. Although we saw some spectacular dolphins jumping out of the water and we took home 1 fish each.

This photo is off me in the harbour, it was probably the biggest fish caught!

.

Toni

17 November 2007

Ice Skating Show



For some weeks we had been learning a routine to do in the annual ice skating show/competion and the time had finally come. We donned our outfits, sparkly skirts in different colours and took to the ice. Fortunantley, no falls were had and a great time had by all. It was a really great day and after all our work we came second and got medals to show for our hard work.




Toni

Sorry, I know I am a slacker!!

I know I am a slacker! Haven't posted in ages.

Well, that is because I am really busy at work at the moment (funny, I know) and I haven't had time to post my blogs and the computer at home is soooooooooooooooooo slow.

So when I can will post.

I do have news however, I will be back in NZ from 27 December 2007 to 12 January 2008.
Hope to catch with you then.

Love Toni

FIshing

On the weekend Darryl and myself headed out fishing. We were fishing down by the Broadwater on a beachie area when along came these people with this weird pump, pumping the sand. Darryl went over to see what they were doing and they were pumping for Yabbys!! They gave one to Darryl and said put this on your hook. He brought it over and put it on my hook, after a while I felt a big bite but it appeared my line was stuck AGAIN (I had already lost two lines in the weeds) so I gave it to Darryl to look after, after awhile he called me over and told me to wind in my fish! I caught a fish, an edible fish, 1cm over the required size! They didn't touch any of our other bait just the Yabby so that is what we decided we needed to use.

On Sunday we headed down to BCF to purchase our very own Yabby pump and I purchased a crab net to get some more tasty crabs. Apparently there is a knack to pumping Yabbys and we just must be naturals as we got heaps (I sustained a Yabby pumping injury so let Darryl do the rest of the work!).

We tried our luck with the Yabby and the net. I tried out my crab net the next weekend and caught three tasty crabs. Unfortunately, no fish though.

Toni

Girls Weekend in Melbourne

18 October – 21 October 2007

Pam and her friends had decided to have a girls weekend in Melbourne and invited me to come along. I was excited with going to Melbourne (and avoiding all the Indy havoc) but I think more excited to have some time off work. All the public holidays seem to be at the beginning of the year which leaves you in desperate need of a holiday by October.

I set off early on Thursday morning and after a few minor hiccups (the car battery going flat and not being able to find the Sydners (I was at a different terminal!)) we headed to our accommodation in a limo drinking champagne!! I had never been in a limo before and it was very exciting!

We headed to our accommodation which was a cute house in Williamstown. We then had a luxury spa treatment and spent the rest of Thursday night playing pictionary and eating cheese and crackers. Which seemed to the be the main food on the menu this weekend!

Friday and Saturday were action packed shopping days (I being quite restrained myself) with the girls spending up on mostly shoes and dresses – I think there were about 14? dresses brought and at least 10 pairs of shoes between 7 girls!! Friday night was spent at Draculas and Saturday night we were all supposed to go out and party like we were 18 but shopping got the better of us and we ended up staying in and chatting, which was just as fun minus the hangovers the next day.
On Sunday we headed over to St Kilda on a ferry boat and checked out the sites and the girls when in a cake mission!

Myself and another girl had to go on Sunday so we said our goodbyes headed to the airport and unfortunately that was our weekend over.

Had a great time and whilst big cities aren’t really for me the side allies with cafes and chocolate shops were a definitive highlight of the trip.

Have posted heaps more pictures in my new google photo gallery!

Toni

Saturday 13 October 2007

KATIES BLACKBELT GRADING

Everyone wearing their "Go Katie" shirts

Katie, a solicitor at my work, had invited everyone from work down to watch her black belt karate grading (Shodan grading) on Saturday afternoon.

Now, I can tell you, she is one CRAZY girl. Who would want to inflict this type of pain on themselves voluntarily?

Katie Fighting

The Blackbelts she had to fight.

The grading lasted about four hours (I only went for the last two). She had to do all these moves then 150 sit ups, LOTS of crunches, LOTS of knuckle press up, two pieces of wood broken over her, and then 15 1.5 minute fights against black belts, many of whom are twice the size of her!! I was hurting for her! She was so battered and bruised by the end of it but she passed with flying colours and seemed to think it was worth it!! J We spent the rest of the evening partying in celebration, needless to say she could barely walk on Monday!!

Katie getting her blackbelt

Don't forget to check out more pictures in my photogallery!

Toni

Fishing

Darryl came back to the coast on 3 October 2007 and because we are both trying to save our money we decided to find a hobby that once you have everything for doesn't really cost much to do. So fishing seemed like a fun idea.

We trotted down to Anaconda and lucky for us they had a big family weekend sale. $15.00 each later (much much later, that had sales everywhere, was sad to leave) we both had spanky new fishing rods (mine is pink). $10.00 at Kmart for the gear and we were set.

We headed down to the cannels and tried our luck, unfortunately we only caught a small fish, but thought we would try our luck tomorrow. On Sunday we called Dustin and Nic and invited them along we headed back down to Anaconda to get them rods as well (much much and three torches later!) we had their rods and were all set to go. Unfortunately, it was really windy and our lines kept getting tanged but me and Dustin caught a small fish that we threw back and I caught a crab which I took home and ate and it was real yumm. I have since googled good spots to go and can't wait to try them out this weekend!

Toni

My Addictions

Chocolate Machine

I LOVE these things, they are just so damm temping. All those chocolates sitting there just waiting to fall off. I don’t even really play for the chocolate (most of the time its cherry ripes and I don’t like them) but I just play for the satisfaction that I can get them off and only paying $2.00 for sometimes 12 chocolates and sometimes even big ones. I did however win something that was slightly more exciting that the chocolates.

Lotto

I want more money (who doesn't!)and since I can't really get more hours at work and whilst my casino gambling career is going alright, it just wasn't enough. I was never going to win millions at the casino so lotto seemed like the solution (and I can even do it from the comfort of my own home if I wanted too!). So for the last couple of weeks, I have started purchasing lotto tickets, but only for the big winning games (there are about 7 a week (I think)) $4m, $20m etc. Unfortunately, I haven't won the big prizes but haven't done two badly. Have won a 6th division, one week and 6th and 7th division on the same ticket as well which gave me $37.00 this week. Surely the millions aren't far off …

Pokies

Every week we still usually go to the workers for bingo/poker and pokies. And this week, whilst I didn't win anything at bingo or during the bingo break to win a chicken I was waiting for the boys to finish playing poker and what do you know, I won the feature on my pokie machine, $115.00 later and I was feeling less bitter about not winning anything at bingo or a chicken.

Toni

Random Pictures

My sister sitting in the cat basket!!

Orlenas Hens Night

21 September 2007

On Friday night was Orlenas Hens Night. We went out for a really nice dinner (we shared the seafood platters) at Fermented Grape. They also had a $5.50 wine buffet (if you ordered a mail meal) which is the reason we went in the first place! Had a good night and since I wasn't drinking I went to drive home at midnight only to find that the carpark which I had left my car in (I didn't know what time it closed and I hadn't been planning on staying out that long!) has closed leaving me and my car stranded. Fortunately, mum had brought a car so she was able to come and pick me up!!


More pictures in my gallery



Toni

What a crooked back!!

At the Ekka me and mum purchased a consultation with a chiropractor as we had been told we were "out of alignment". The time came and we went and saw the chiropractor, he did various test things and some xrays.

The conclusion was that ...

I have a pretty crooked back! Which may be the reason I am so damm clumsy. My hips are out of alignment and I really should get something done before it gets worse. He said I had mild scoliosis.


See my xrays. If you draw a line across my hips and up my back you will see how crooked I am!!




I am not sure whether I am going to see a chiropractor or an osteopath, but really should get something done especially with the kind of work I do.


He also did this test where he could tell what part of your spine was having pressure put on it. Black isn't even on the scale so its pretty bad.





Toni

Last night in town

Friday 31 August 2007

On Friday night its was Darryl's last night on the Gold Coast before heading back to cold, raining, Tauranga, New Zealand to finish studying. He can't do it here because he needs to do it full time and has to do some practical stuff that needs to be assessed by a New Zealand assessor.

He had planned a special night out.

We started the night by having a yummy dinner at Moo Moo's steak restaurant. This place has mouthwatering steak.

We then went to the casino for what I thought was to do some gambling, so as i sat at the pokie machines winning up, Darryl disappeared with my winnings and not returning for some time with my coins and with me running out of coins I called him and found out that we were not in fact going gambling but to the casino show Zingara. The show was pretty good and my favourite part was when they brought out the "Globe of Death". This is where they have a big cage and motor bike riders got round the inside of it. I was quite excited as I had read Jason's Blog a couple of weeks ago about it. They started with two riders, and then three riders, and then four riders where everyone was like wow and THEN they brought out another rider!!! Five riders, I can't beleive they didn't crash into each other and then they split the globe in two and three riders rode in the top half and two in the second half. It was pretty amazing.

I had a great night out and thanks heaps Hun. Can't wait to see you again, whenever that might be, work hard!!!

Toni

Just needed a photo

Just need a picture link so can put a picture in my profile.

Toni

BRISBANE

25 - 26 August 2007

This weekend we decided to head up to Brisbane and see what the big city offered as this was Darryl’s last weekend in Australia before he headed back to New Zealand to finish doing his studying which he can’t do here (sob sob).

The big city didn’t really have much to offer. We couldn’t go to bowling because it was too busy, we couldn’t find the main dining area and the casino was way too packed!!!!!! We did however get to dress up which is fun.

On Sunday we headed out to the markets and myself and Dustin got caricatures drawn of ourselves and then headed back to the coast. Brisbane isn’t really like the other big cities, in that there is not a lot of entertainment or excitement.

The Gold Coast is way better.

See the photo gallery for more pics.

Toni

Poker, Bingo and Pokies

22 August 2007

On Wednesday me and Darryl usually head out to the Southport Workers Club to play Bingo (yeah I know, boring out couple!). We usually have a pretty good run, where one of us usually wins something, except for the last couple of weeks, so instead decided to play the free Texas Hold Em Poker they have there and Dustin and Nic were going to join us. We found out that we couldn’t all sit at the same table so me and Nic decided to head into bingo and the boys played.

The boys had a good night playing the poker and it was free to bet “100’s and 1000’s of dollars”! We did alright in the bingo room with Nicola and me both winning a line prize and me winning a $20 voucher for the club.

So as we always do in the break, we headed to the “pokies room” (gambling addict anyone!) and tried our luck on the pokies. During the bingo break if you win over $1.00 on the pokies they give you a raffle for a chicken (we have won this a few times) so I was trying my luck and losing terribly. Nicola was doing ok, so as I was waiting for her she gave me a few more bucks of her winnings to put into the machine and so I did and I WON the major jackpot $298.00 woo hoo!!! I think I have a career in this gambling business!!

Ekka 2007

10 August 2007

On Saturday morning we got up bright and early to catch the train to Brisbane for Ekka 2007. The Ekka is the big Brisbane show. It goes for 10 days. We spent a bit of time going around the exhibits and a lot of time in the “taste testing tent”. I got a free spine examination and found out that my spine is “extremely” out of whack and may be the reason I am so damm clumsy! I brought a spinal assessment for $45.00 (normally $250.00) and get it checked out tomorrow.

In the afternoon, we decided to head over to the “fun” side. We didn’t end up going on any rides as they were quite expensive and we are taking my sister (who is moving back to the GC on 3 September) to Dreamworld in a couple of weeks. We did however try our luck on the side shows and it payed off. I WON!!! I played a game that I thought would get me a giant carebear if I won unfortunately they were all out so I received a giant dog. These toys must have been 1 metre high. Who can say that have ever won soft toy that big on side shows before. I still really wanted a carebear and was somewhat disappointed with my dog and then Darryl and my sister walked up to this random person with a purple carebear and asked to swap. He said yes and so I got my carebear. My sister thought that she would also try her luck on another game and she won also, taking home a giant pink unicorn thingee.

It was a pretty good day and am stoked with my giant carebear and i think someone got tuckered out! ;)

Toni

Something to tide you over until I write a proper update

You know you are a kiwi when ...

* you get angry if someone tells you to cook them some eggs...
* you know its not a sweet potatoe but good ole kumara.
* You’ve lost at least one filling to a K-Bar
* You know that ‘thongs’ go on a girl’s bum – ‘jandals’ go on your feet
* The difference between your winter and summer uniforms at primary school was a jersey.
* You wouldn’t touch Steinlager with a 10 foot pole
* The sound of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ makes you feel physically sick
* You got fish ‘n’ chips for lunch at school on a Friday
* The underwear you put on depends on which rugby team is playing that day
* You get excited when you walk into a 7-11 overseas and see L & P
* The America’s Cup results interest you.
* You know that “the big taste always gets through!”
* Any sport is interesting to you when we beat Australia at it
* The temperature hits 20 degrees C and you have to strip down to your undies and sit under a tree in the backyard
* You know for sure that Rachel Hunter is the hottest woman in the world
* The thought of sitting on the toilet in winter makes you cry
* You’ve trodden on a cowpat in bare feet
* You’ve referred to an accident as a “Minties moment”
* You know what a ‘Perky Nana’ is.
* You can say 'Yes, I shag sheep' with a straight face.
* You can swim (really big in Europe)
* You don't trust any sunblock under SPF20
* You can say 'Mate' with just the right accent!
* You played rugby at least once in school.
* You know that the only way to get out of PE is to have a limb in plaster(preferably the leg)
* You'd kill for a frozen buzz bar and a DB on a hot day.
* You can say Whakatane without thinking it's a swear word.
* You miss earthquakes.
* You get excited when you see anything remotely sheep-ish!
* You can take the lid of a beer bottle with a fish slice
* You had a pet lamb/calf, and attended your schools Lamb and Calf Day.
* You miss going to A&P shows
* Hotdogs come on a stick, with crunchy batter and heaps of tomato sauce.
* Watties is the king of all tomato sauce.
* You know what scroggin is and would never go tramping/camping without it.

Toni

SINGSTAR 90'S

Just wanted to write a rave about Singstar 90's.

SINGSTAR 90'S ROCKS

Its the coolest one to come out since singstar 80's.

Can't wait to come back and play it with everyone.

Toni

My last couple of weeks

Hey Everyone

Sorry I haven't updated my site in a while, that is because nothing overally exciting has been happening lately, but incase you care about the mundane parts of my life I have given a summary of what I have been doing:

- Went to Wet 'n' Wild - Bloody Freezing!!! - they had nice warm spa's though (think pretty much the only "hot" pools on the gold coast)

- Hung out with Dustin and Nic and played poker and singstar, they also let us spend a room in their resort and had a bubble bath spa!

- Had to fork out another $140.00 on my car as the exhaust pipe (the actual long thing on your exhaust) feel off and it sounded like a truck

- Started playing netball again after over a year, goes well for about the first half and then ankle gets sore because concrete is too hard, hoping that this problem will stop soon :p

- Went to casino on Friday night and won $185.00 on craps table, woo hoo, hoping to repeat winnings this Friday night as rent has increased

- Watched The Simpsons movie, wasn't my kinda thing and I personally didn't find it that funny, but Darryl and Sara cracked up.

- Read the new Harry Potter book. It was great!!! Except thought the ending was dumb. What did you think?

- Did a new quiz on Bebo Toni’s Bebo - go and do it!!

- Joined Face Book - apparently this is the new big thing, I don’t really like it as its quite confusing, but I have my own aquarium

- My sister moves back to the Gold Coast on 3 September

- New Singstar 90’s is coming out

And that’s pretty much a summary of the highlights of my life to date

Exciting events that might happen and could be interesting

- Going to Ekka 2007 on Saturday

- Going to Brisbane for a dress up flash weekend and gambling

Until those events materialise, drop me a line and let me know what you are doing or at least let me know if you still read my blog!

Toni

Caloundra Beach and Tax Return

Here is a picture from Caloundra Beach.

Oh and I got my tax return back today $1,456.40! Woo hoo! I love getting money back from the Government!!

Hope all is well.

Leave me a message

Ciao

Toni