Long Time No Blog!

Well the blog excitement wore off pretty quick huh - long time no blog.


I have actually been out having a social life (shocker huh) so here are the highlights of the past couple of weeks.....

Avenue Q

Two words: Freakin' hilarious. Went with the lovely Michelle H and the former crazy cat lady of Rocklea - Cara R. Check it out at http://www.avenueqthemusical.com.au/ - although I'm pretty sure that as I've taken so long to blog about it, the Brisbane run is finished. Sorry about that.

Even funnier than the show though was the dinner that we scoffed down in about 3 minutes when it arrived 10 minutes after we should have left the restaurant. Then we commenced the 6 minute light jog/walk/sprint to the Performing Arts Centre. I still have the stitch in my side from that journey. The worst part was that the food that arrived late was the BEST thing I have ever tasted. Flaky pastry, caramelised onion, goats cheese.....sigh. At least I wasn't poor Michelle who had ordered shoestring chips - I've never seen anyone dip chips in Aioli and shove them in their mouth so quickly. Sad gluten-free girl.

Michelle's Taco/Karaoke Birthday Party

The next night was the celebration of all things Michelle. We started the night at Montezuma's - the most magical Place in the world for celiac Henderson.




Then it was off to Karaoke - so much fun. Highlight of that night had to be MoMan "getting on up" while wearing a curly white wig. Funniest. Thing. Ever. Hurrah for prop boxes...





Also weoall did an amazing version of Thriller (including dance moves!) Good times.






RSPCA Gala Dinner

Next event was the RSPCA Gala Dinner at the Convention Centre. Great night and everyone really dressed up in the 20's theme. Some people went a little too far - the theme was flapper, not slapper ladies!


The fabulous Meredith was in town so she came along and we ate and drank, and ate and drank, and drank and drank and drank. Oooh and we also had a drink. We also got to do lots of photos with our "Juuuuunnnnne" poses:




Briony pretty much stole the show as demonstrated in the picture below. Poor Sophie escorted her from the premises.



And I think the whole night was summed up by the sad shoe heel I found abandoned in the Convention Centre on the scary patterned carpet. Who breaks their heel, but doesn't pick it up to take it home with them? Odd. Things are fixable people!





Roz's Farewell Party


The last event on the social calendar was the bowling party to say "so long" to the wonderful Roz who is going off to spread her magic to the volunteering department of the Mater Hospital (lucky them!) It was so much fun - I was pretty bad at bowling (well it's a sport - duh), but much better at paying out everyone else who was only doing slightly better. Nice work me!




Briony managed to beat us all by forgetting to let go of the ball and shooting herself up the lane. Don't think she knocked any pins over either.





Minne fell in love with the Deal or no Deal machine and got a little over-excited with the NO DEAL part of it:




However we all (Michelle and I) were really excited when she won hundreds of tickets and got to pick a fabulous prize from the cabinet (200 tickets = dollar value 99c)






Not quite sure why she wanted this pen....





We did all get a memento of the night (and Minnie's big deal win) with erasers from the prize cabinet (100 tickets = dollar value 0.02c). Rickland and thong boy were pretty happy.





Shiny topped off the night by winning an enormous stuffed mouse (now a humping friend for Pepe the chi I believe) from those claw machines. Who wins those? Those claws aren't strong enough to pick up a cotton bud! Props to my home girl






Well that's about all.


Oooh I also got a new Microwave. The wattage is so high, what used to take my 20 year old beast 10 minutes takes the new one 3 seconds and I am burning everything.


Peace out.

Flea Market Madness (aka selling our precious homeware)

It's the crack of dawn, pitch-black and raining. It must be flea market day - hurrah! After cancelling due to a potential rainstorm at our last attempt to return to the markets (which actually turned out to be a beautiful sunny day - Weather Channel FAIL!), we tried again today. After waking up at 3.30, I shoved all my stuff in the car and set off for the Henderson Ranch.

It was dark and raining for most of the way there (another Weather Channel FAIL), but just a drizzle when I arrived to three very excited dogs barking their heads off at 4.30am (sorry Michelle's neighbours. And Greg who was probably trying to sleep). We decided to take a chance and filled Michelle's car to the brim with all our stuff. Seriously, we couldn't have fit anything else in - I've never seen a car packed with so much...stuff!

We got to the Ipswich Showgrounds around 5ish to find others setting up (in the dark) and got directed to our area. Luckily the sun was starting to come up so we set up our tables, put our things out and taped up our signs:



Here's Michelle setting up - along with the early birds that seem to turn up an hour before the markets actually start:






We we finished putting everything out we realised we had ALOT of stuff. Lucky we bought two tables this time instead of just the one.

Then we heard what we thought was a herd of elephants and looked up and saw massive amounts of people swarming our table. It was scary. And it was only 6.30am. It was quite overwhelming and thank god Michelle keeps calm as I tend to get a bit frazzled with people pawing through our stuff and trying to bargain us down 50c.

Michelle then commenced her favourite part of selling stuff - PRICE SLASHING! She does enjoy running around with her sharpie and crossing our prices in order the slash them.

That sharpie was also responsible for this sign - luckily Shell caught the obvious issue with 50c each or 2 for $1 and could fix it before the Ipswich residents noticed.

Greg showed up then with Macca's which temporarily revived us.

By about 9.30 most of our stuff had been sold and our table was looking sparse, but the sun was shining:

And then it got grey....and down came the rain. We had to think quick to protect our precious homewares from the elements. Out came the trusty roll of purple plastic that I bought two years ago, carry around in my boot and it has come in handy more times than I can count (in place of an umbrella running to the Def Leppard concert, sitting on, tablecloth at our last flea market and wrapping a squashed possum in.)

As we looked around and realised other stall holders had bought clear plastic to cover their precious stuff we decided to call it a day. We still had an hour and a half until the markets closed and therefore we could leave, but Hendo battered her eyelids at the man in charge....

...and he opened a back gate for us to drive out (after warning us not to hit anyone - twas all good, the only person that nearly got run over was me). We then drove to the charity bin and put most of our unsold stuff in there so we didn't have to take it home again:



Then the fun part - counting the money!!

Lulu helped Shell and Chaddy helped me and lo and behold (and much to our surprise) the total I counted matched exactly the total we sold! Believe me, that's not what I was expecting.

So we divided up our sweet, sweet cash:

And then it was home to bed. So very, very tired, but a little bit richer - hurrah!

RIP Corey Haim

Ah Corey Haim - I will always secretly love you......I hope you are somewhere where it's always 1987.

Backstreets Back....Alright!!

So Backstreet was definitely back last night at the Entertainment Centre. Leonie worked herself up to fever pitch all day and almost imploded before the concert started. Here she is holding her tickets to paradise...





But we didn't have too long to wait until....you guessed it...BACKSTREET WAS BACK!





They were older, balder and a wee bit chunkier, but they still had those boy band moves:



Nick had a few "special" moves and facial expressions. Actually everyone in this photo just looks awkward really.



B-Rock (Ricklands fav) was looking very spunky in this business-casual outfit (including awesome hat!)




As soon as Rickland spotted her man, this was pretty much her expression for the rest of the night:



"I LOVE YOU BRIAN!"

Two hours later it was all over and Rickland had to wave "bye, bye, bye" to her *ahem* boys. Next time they come they may all be in zimmer frames although I can hardly talk with my Bon Jovi "boys". Each time they come back for another year I do a silent cheer their positions on the hip replacement list must have moved up.





So off we went home....singing fantastically to BSB all the way and laughing at the suckers who parked in the Entertainment Centre and were stuck in the traffic (thanks for the tip thong boy!)

Now we just have to save up the $520 for the VIP meet and greet session next tour.....booyeah!

Rain, Rain, Go Away.....

Yucko. So sick of being soggy. I think Sarah sums it up pretty well in this photo.

Lucky I have the handy dandy gum boots at work for trips outside. One day I shall work somewhere where you can get to the bathroom without needing an umbrella. Ahhhhh everyone has to have a dream....

Today I got to work in my old office - ah the good ol Ausco Shed - how I have missed thee. Especially the rain leakage. Speaking of leakage - please meet.....Sir Hump-a-lot who could also be named Sir Pees-a-lot. Here he is all snuggled up keeping dry and warm.

Sir Pees/Hump-a-lot is Shiny Briony's foster dog. They absolutely hate each other - as clearly demonstrated in these photos: