Hallelujah!!

We're going camping and just dropped off the cat at MLs place. And guess what she gave me. Swedish dip sauces!! I don't think you can understand how happy I am. Thank you soo much sweetest ML!

Champagne and cakes

Had a boozy afternoon at work today, celebrating N who is getting married next week. We went to a really cute place in Redfern, the tea parlour, and had afternoon tea with champagne and lots of delicious cakes!









The tea parlour is such a cool little place. It feels like you're in your grandmother's lounge room. A very nice way end to this work day!

This day has otherwise been pretty ordinary. Brett left to go climbing in the Blueys early in the morning - with my wallet in his bag! So I've pretty much only had cake and champagne to eat today and I'm still waiting for him to get back to pick me up from the city. But he's stuck in traffic somewhere out West...

But the good news is that I got him to watch True Blood. And now we're hooked!

Me on the couch

We've been to quite a few bathroom showrooms today. I'm all bathroomed out now and have noo idea what I want anymore. Before we started looking I knew exactly what I wanted. Well I thought I knew. So now I've decided to go back to square one and look through more magazines.

This is what I look like tonight. We've just had amazing parilla for dinner and are about to watch some TV series. In the last couple of years we've watched all episodes of Lost, Jericho, 24, Mad Men and Downton Abbey. We need a new series now. Maybe I can convince Brett to watch True Blood. He's suspicious about it for some reason. I'll let you know how I go.    

Sorry for poor blogging lately. I've been very busy and not much has happened.

Anyway, my parents just emailed me this photo. They're in Chamonix. Do I need to say I'm extremely jealous?

Hunter getaway!

 We have just got back from a really lovely getaway in the Hunter Valley, which we were given as a wedding gift. We had such a relaxing time doing pretty much nothing. The first day we went for a little drive and then hung out in the hotel bar and had a fantastic dinner at the hotel restaurant - Sanctuary.

 We spent the following morning wine tasting and then went back to the hotel for lunch in the garden followed by massages at the spa. And then dinner at our favourite restaurant - Shakey tables. We always have dinner there when we visit the Hunter, and we've always been super impressed.

 Me amongst the vines at Wyndham estate where we bought my favourite sparkling shiraz and Brett's favourite port. You can't get them anywhere in Sydney so we had to stock up!

 We took the tourist route back to Sydney and went via the historic town Wollombi, which was nice but disappointingly small. But we found a really cool pub in St Albans, a tiny small town halfway between Wollombi and Wisemans ferry, where we had an AWESOME lunch. I had yummy smoked trout and Brett had rabbit pie. yum yum.

Then we kept driving towards Wisemans ferry whilst hunting for our dream cottage. We really want to buy a little cottage close (but not too close) to Sydney. It needs to be old and charming, hidden, lush, have a wine cellar and olive trees and vines in the garden. And a basement where Brett can brew his beer.

Well, thats our getaway. I'm so relaxed now and recharged and ready for a busy period over the next few weeks.

Awesome day in Manly

Brett and I have had the most amazing day in Manly. It started with brunch at Manly Phoenix - delicious yum cha and an amazing location overlooking the harbour. Afterwards we went for a long walk around Manly.

First stop was a coffee break at Little Manly Beach, then we kept walking to a secluded beach halfway up to North head. Then we went back home and spent the afternoon in the sunshine on our balcony, drinking Brett's amazing beer and just relaxed. Well, Brett was watching the rugby and I was planning a little getaway for the next couple of days.

Now we're about to head to the city for dinner and a few drinks with some friends. I love days like this!

I'm back!

Tumblr didn't really do it for me, so I moved back. 

See you here from now on!

New Blog

I haven't had any inspiration for blogging lately and I've decided that I need a change. So I'm trying out tumblr for a while. So check out my new blog.

See you there!

2010

So it's 2011. Even though it felt like 2010 was over before it even began, quite a lot has happened this year.

The year started in a very sad way with my grandfather passing away and we went up to Sweden to say goodbye. When we got back home the seemingly endless wedding planing started. We spent months creating invitations, planning food, entertainment, clothes, music, guest lists and seating plans.

 In the middle of all this I took a break to head up to Singapore for a few days to hang out with Brett who was there for work. We also went camping several times in the Blue Mountains, Lake Glenbawn and Seal Rocks. We went skiing several times in the Snowy Mountains. The first time for Brett's birthday when we stayed at lake Crackenback resort and a few other times when we went ski touring and camped out.

In September we had a bunch of people visiting Sydney and had a great time entertaining them and showing them around the city. And of course, the reason for all these people visiting - our wedding. Brett and I declared our love publicly. I couldn't stop crying and Brett made the cutest speech ever in Swedish.

Then we went to Argentina for our honeymoon and had some of the best food and wine we've ever had. When we came back to Sydney our friend's have had a baby and it rained for weeks on end. I went up to Byron bay to see my brother who stayed in Australia for a couple of months after the wedding.

 After I came back I got a motorcycle license so that I could ride the 1960s vintage vespa Brett gave me as a morgongava. My brother came down to Sydney to stay with us for a while and we worked on starting up a company together. I decided to run Sydney Marathon in 2011 and started training.

 Then it was almost Christmas and we went up to Brisbane to see Brett's family and afterwards to Hong Kong and finally Verbier where we went skiing and spent some time with my family.

That's 2010. I hope 2011 will be just as good.

Verbier

So, we're back home after an amazing skitrip to Verbier in Switzerland where we spent christmas and new years with my family. Brett finally got a white Christmas and we got to do some of the best skiing we have ever done in some very sweet pow. Because of the slow internet connection in our house in Switzerland I could't really update my blog so instead I will do a recap of the highlights of the trip now.

We actually started the trip in Brisbane where we spent a couple of days celebrating christmas with Brett's family. We stayed at Brett's sister and her boyfriend's house and played with their two beautiful dogs Xena and Lucy. 

After spending two days in Brissie, Brett's sister dropped us off at the airport and we were supposed to go to Sydney - Singapore - London. But that's when everything went pear shaped. The women in the check-in had absolutely no idea what she was doing and managed to loose our booking in the system. And she didn't know how to fix it so she sent us over to ticketing to sort out the problem ourselves - which we did. But when we came back to drop off our bags she claimed we missed the cut-off time for check-in and we had to wait for the next plane. Useless cow.

Since we would miss our connecting flight in Sydney there was no point catching te next flight, so instead we tried to get on a direct flight from Brisbane and rushed over to the International terminal. Unfortunately the flight was full so we ended up staying another night in Brisbane.

The next morning we managed to get on a flight to Hong Kong, but  since there was no connecting flight to London the same day we had to spend a night in Hong Kong - which was great since I had never been. So we had some delicious food and drinks, did some shopping and sightseeing, went to bed at 4am and woke up at 5.30am to go to the airport. 

4.5 hours into the flight, when we were well and truly asleep and happy to finally be on our way to Europe, we were however told we had to turn back to Hong Kong as Heathrow was closed down due to a snowstorm and we couldn't get permission to land anywhere else in Europe.

So 9 hours later we landed back in Hong Kong and had lost a day of our lives. So. extremely. disappointing. But what can you do. 

The next morning Heathrow was still closed and we started to think we would not be able to make it to Verbier. But since we didn't really want to go to London anyway, we started looking for some cheap tickets to go somewhere else in Europe, and found some extremely cheap tickets to Geneva via Tel Aviv. So Brett shaved his beard and we rushed back to the airport, were questioned by mossad agents who were very suspicious that we only bought the tickets 3 hours ago and went to Isreal!

We had another 6 hour transit in Tel Aviv which we spent eating kosher food and surfing the web. At 10am the 21th of December we finally landed in Geneva after 6 days of traveling. Phew. 

Finally in Verbier and keen to do some skiing we hit the slopes straight away. It was snowing the entire first week and there were no people in the slopes at all. Paradise! We stayed at a really cute chalet right next to the lift, about a 15 minutes walk into town and with an amazing view of the mountains.

We skied some amazing powder from the top of Mont Fort (3300m).

 We had lots of vin chaud and long lunches in the sunshine.

We bought a Christmas tree and celebrated Christmas on the right day (24th) whilst it was snowing outside.

In the evening Santa came around and handed out some pressies!

A few days after Christmas we went to Chamonix to check out the town and hang out for a day.

 And a few days after it was New Years. Brett was very excited about this since fireworks aren't permitted in Australia. So we bought a whole bunch of fireworks and firecrackers and spent ages setting them off. Good times. 

The day after new years we said goodbye to my family and Verbier and went back home - which went a bit smoother than the way up. 

After we landed back in Sydney we picked up a very pissed off Shirin from her cat sitter Miss Lemona (wannabe kittynapper) and right now she purring and has cuddled up to me on the couch. I think she at least missed us a little bit!

It's good to be back home.