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