ice skating

I have done ice skating since I was about 10 years old, never did lessons or fancy spins but I can hold my own on the ice and skate backwards long enough to impress the girls!

The noisy one has been busting my arse to go ice skating for years, and now we have a beautiful new rink in the docklands so we finally made it there on Friday with my team mate and all the babychinos.

It took a little bit of persuasion to get the froglet to believe that her fingers wouldn't be sliced off when she fell over. She has stunning black and blue bruises on her knees and claims that her arms are sore too.

they have pond hockey there and anyone can have a go at ice hockey on their rink that is just behind the main skating rink.

My team mate enjoyed herself and the babychinos all had a good time, with her middle one starting out saying that she couldn't do this after being on the ice for less than a minute (no joking!) and by the end of the session she was managing to skate in a fashion without holding on the whole time.

I hope to get down the rink again soon, the 10 year break was too long!

Australia day suprises

Happy Australia day!!

I was sitting here minding my own business when all of a sudden "BOOM"!!! yes fireworks! the local council put on a decent show and we are lucky enough to be able to see it from the street, so no crowds or local yobbos falling over us.







I missed the fireworks that they put on for new years eve so this time i had the camera set up ready to roll... think I managed to get a couple of decent pictures this time.

My most amazing day

Today was the day that my team partner and I competed in our first triathlon. This was a special one just for women and proceeds go to breast cancer research.
the day started very early at 5am... yes you read correctly I was up at 5am and by the time I got the girls up, my support team arrived and we met up with my partner in crime.

Now no event is possible without coffee and this guy was making a killing!!

We registered and received a really nice singlet top, sun visor and swim cap. You can see here my timing chip that I had to wear on my left ankle (note the pink toenails and fingernails!!)

I have big black numbers on my right calf and right arm... in permanant pen!
The order of a triathlon for those who don't know, is swim, cycle and run. Our distances were 200m swim/6km ride/2km run. Quite doable we thought, this was the medium course. My partner and I have been training for months and felt really confident that we would do well and have little or no problem with the distances....

We were partly right... Swim was pretty good, I did get stuck behind a couple of ladies on the last pool can (floating thing to swim around!) so lost a few seconds and also at the steps waiting to get out... Then on the bikes and away I went.. need to work on those transitions! the ride itself was good, but I was puffing a bit and could see the running track.. it seemed MUCH longer than 2km.

My family and friends had placed themselves along the course at intervals which was great as I was cheered on not once but up to 4 times! They really kept me going.. and the thought of my team mate who had a big head start lol.

When I got back to transition I couldn't find my position on the rack for my bike and lost valuable time (lesson to learn!) this kinda threw me off my timing and I struggled to keep going. We had to do 2 laps of the running track, I felt that I ran twice as far as I was supposed to! The weirdest thing is that running is usually my weakest leg and I beat my partner in this and she beat me on the bike which I usually blitz her on... I think I better at hills than her lol.

At the end of the event we received a lovely medal and a huge sense of achievement.
I placed 43rd overall (out of 129) and 8Th in my age group out of 15. I have to tell you though that I placed 3rd in the run leg!!6Th in swimming and 9Th in cycle. My team mate really did well and came 22ND overall and 4Th in the age group. she came 4Th in swim, 3rd in cycle and 7Th in run.
We can now call ourselves triathletes and will be doing this again!

Triathlon pink

I have been meaning to blog all week and got caught up with other stuff.

anyway tomorrow morning at 8am I will be doing my first ever triathlon with my best mate from the gym. I will post details and some photos as soon as I am able to move!

No seriously, I believe that we will do very well and will be on an incredible high afterwards. Got my friends and family coming to cheer me on and have received text messages and face book messages from other friends cheering us on.

I will be crossing the finish line not only with a sense of personal achievement but I will be thinking of all the friends I have lost to breast cancer and my Aunt who is battling this awful disease.

special occasions

The fisherman was looking around the backyard yesterday and let out an exclamation of amazement when he found this lemon on our tree! the noisy one wanted to know if I had been feeding the lemon tree hormones heheheh.


Don't you just love presents?

My friend at the gym and her partner (who is also one of my best mates and boxing partners) became engaged and had their party last night at Monsalvat.

There was a beautiful sunset that I tried to capture.

I spent my evening with my family and friends laughing, having a few drinks and a gourmet BBQ. I danced until my feet ached and I had to give in and take my shoes off. I wasn't alone as my team coffee partner took off hers too (along with most of the women!) The floor was sooo sticky from spilt drinks that dancing became an art form, it was like dancing on fly paper.

I wish my friends all the happiness in the world, they truly are a wonderful couple who deserve everything and more. I look forward to their wedding which I know will be another amazing night of fun and laughter.

happy new year!!

Hey gang!!
sorry for the lack of blogging but here is a blog with girth for you to get your teeth into.

This is the gingerbread house that my mum bought us for Christmas, I usually make one but she beat me to it... not sure if I was happy about that or not LOL.

Now I finally finished the quilt for work... the boss was about to fire me!!


Please ignore the threads hanging about but it was obviously not finished at this point. I used the techniques that I learnt at my guilds symposium late last year with Kellie Wolfsohhn. I need to practise some more!!

This is one of the new guys at the zoo! the new seal enclosure is really good.


we timed our visit quite well and managed to watch a little one on one training with the seals, this one was very cute.



The baby elephants are awesome... Mali's little brother is a right bossy boots and was trying to push her down the hill but she dug her heels in and pushed his little wrinkly butt back.




I nearly didnt renew the girls and my FOTZ memberships but we talked about it and decided that we would renew for this year and see how it goes. The girls are getting older and going off with their own friends more often... poor old mum gets taxi duties :)

It was a good day out at the zoo... first one for the year.