New Dress

I got a new dress on the weekend!

It's a work dress but it's still exciting.

You know that feeling you get from wearing a good quality dress that's well cut and fits perfectly?

That feeling is going to get me through work today- after a naughty Monday night out last night with two wonderful friends.

It was totally worth it! And wearing my new dress will help!

A nice little present

My Englishman bought me a little present yesterday. It's small, practical, pretty and I was in need of a new one.

I have also lost one similar before so would not have expected to get another.

At least this one fits in my handbag (but only just today!)

Can you see what it is?

Kitty Love

I'm hanging out at my sister's house this morning. She and her husband have the most beautiful cat! Her name is Mia.
Mia has grown into her markings and is the kind of cat who loves to have a lap to sit in.
She is also a little psycho at times and will attack boxes, hair elastics and the corner of the hallway!
Her best trick is to play 'fetch' with a hair elastic. She doesn't always bring the elastic straight back as she gets distracted and bats it around, but she does bring it back for you to throw pretty consistently!
And unlike many dogs, she doesn't try to snatch it back when you go to pick it up!
Right now, Mia is settled on my legs. She is soft and warm and not too heavy.
Aaaahhhh, kitty love!!

What a lot of worrying.....

When I was younger, I was very good and not worrying or stressing about stuff.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more and more of a worrier. My Mum always used to talk about how she would wake up at 4am worrying about something and not be able to go back to sleep. I’m not quite at that stage yet but I have been known to wake myself up around 5am with a worrying thought and be unable to get back into Deep Sleep afterwards…

When I look back, I did used to worry about stuff but I was just good at letting it go, especially to go to sleep. These days, worrying and being stressed and anxious seems to affect my sleep a lot (that, and sleeping with The Englishman, who is a light sleeper who can’t handle noises and cannot turn over quietly and easily in bed!). It’s one thing I really dislike – losing sleep, or at least not getting good quality sleep, in the name of things I cannot do anything about.

Normally its just work stress but at the moment I have a bunch of other things rolling around in my head. I’ve been holding on to them since at least Sunday, which is unusual. Normally by now the Englishman would have asked me what was wrong and managed to get me to have a really good cry about it and feel a bit better and less stressed.

The Englishman has asked me a few times, but he’s currently dealing with his own stressors (serious work stress, plus his parents visiting us) so I haven’t wanted to dump on him…. And I knew he wasn’t really up for dealing with me having a cry and needing support because he hadn’t insisted on me telling him what the problem was. He usually insists to the point where he gets angry and this week, he hasn’t. He’s had too much going on himself and he’s really needed me to take care of things at home and also be able to listen to his problems. Neither of which I’ve really managed to do.

What I have managed to do is keep the house to a minimum level of tidy/clean, cook some dinner tonight, NOT yell or get angry when he threw a tantrum at the shops and walked out, and when he said he really needed to sleep after listening to me finally tell him some of what’s been worrying me and start to cry, let him sleep and come out here to the lounge and type this blog entry instead. Because otherwise I would have kept him awake while I tried to stop bawling my eyes out ! Coming out here and typing this has helped a little already and I know eventually I’ll get my cry and my proper hug and I’ll feel better. Just not today.

Anyway, this entry is a little bleak so apologies to whoever reads it! There is nothing seriously bad going on, just a few extra things to worry about. And with In-Laws staying, non-stop weekend plans, work stress and yucky weather, its just gotten on top of us at the moment.

I know we’ll get through and things will get a little better (especially once we sort out a new fridge – GAH!) but right now I just wish I was still good at putting my worries aside at bedtime.

Fingers crossed I’ll drift off a little easier now……… -_-  zzzzzzzz

Dinner at Aria

My Englishman and I at Aria

It was my birthday over the weekend – one of the big “0” birthdays. As has become a bit of a tradition for my Englishman and I, dinner at a fancy restaurant was on the cards. The Englishman had booked 6 months ago and had not told me where we were going. I found out on my birthday morning when I opened one of my presents and found a Matt Moran cook book “Dinner at Matts”. I knew straight away what that meant – we were going to Aria for dinner!!!!

So on Monday night, we both got dressed up to the nines and caught a taxi to Opera Bar. The weather was abominable but there were still a lot of people about, being so close to Christmas. We had a drink at Opera Bar – a beer for the Engilshman and a ‘Twisted Collins’ (fig and pear flavour) for me – and looked out at the dreary scenery. Then, up to Aria for dinner! We chose to have the Seasonal Tasting Menu with matching wines as this gave us a chance to try a few different dishes in small doses and really get a feel for the food.

The food was overall, delicious. It was well cooked, well seasoned and beautifully presented. Some of the dishes were served on black stone instead of traditional white crockery, which fitted with the dishes. What appeared to be a 7 course menu however was really a 10 course menu! With 2 appetisers (one at the very beginning and one between the mains and dessert) and petit fours with coffee, it was a LOT of food. Plus matching wines which couldn’t go to waste!

We had a number of different people look after us throughout our evening. The gentleman who took our order, got our cutlery (and brought more at ‘half time!’) and took our photo was friendly, had a sense of humour but remained very professional. The woman who mainly served our dishes and explained them was a little dry and humourless and almost looked like she wasn’t interested in her job. The sommelier who served our wines however, was fantastic. Knowledgeable, but not reading from a script, she gave us lots of information and really explained why each wine had been chosen to match each dish. This was great as a few of the wines seemed like an unusual match until the sommelier explained and we then tasted. Then, they made sense.

We had great seats in the restaurant – right at the window with an unobstructed view of the Opera House. It was perfect for people watching! The restaurant was a little noisy however – it was very busy although there were a few empty tables, and the air con above my seat was a tad too cold.

Neither of us was impressed with the toilet facilities. There was nothing wrong with them per se, however they were pretty standard and without any of the trimmings you would expect in such a high end restaurant. They really just had lots of clean hand towels, but that was it.

This was my dessert - just a bit of Birthday 'specialness'!!

If you’d like to see what we ate and what I thought of it, check out my website, Monstercake, for a run down of the menu and my ‘review’.

Ankle - Day 3

Just thought I would post an update photos and show how much 'progress' my sprained ankle is making.

It's starting to go an interesting colour!

I made it to work today so my foot has not been particularly elevated for the past 8 hours, although it has been compressed in one of those stockings people wear on planes......

 I think it looks just as puffy as yesterday, possibly worse......

My toe pointing is making some progress however!

Inspiration...

After spending all day at home immobilised today, I discovered a great little blog by Lady Daa Doo which inspired me to get back on here and do some more blogging.

Her Lord Daa Doo sounds suspiciously like my Englishman, she grew up in a country town like me (I have to face it, Newcastle is a country town!) and from the blog posts I've read so far, she loves a laugh, a glass of wine and getting creative now and then.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the inspiration and blog a little more.........