I'm going to start writing again - Shock, Horror Etc.

So it's been nearly six months since I wrote my last blog.  The irony is that heaps has happened in that time, so I really have no excuse for updating it except for pure laziness.  I think my desire to write is tied in with my enrolment at university.  Maybe because while I'm at uni it seems like more fun to write blog posts and when I'm not at uni the rest of life and sleep is more exciting :P

So quick update on the last six months!

In December we went to go see Muse in concert - it was amazing.  As expected they totally rocked my socks off and the show was just way too exciting.

At the end of December my BFF's little son turned one! She had a lovely 'woodland' themed party for him and it was very sweet to see all the little ones playing together.  The cake was omg amazing (visually since I couldn't eat it :P):

And I finally got to give Cameron the quilt I'd been working on since *thinks* October.  I did a quilting class for four hours every two weeks - great fun and a really good starting point for a complete newbie to the sewing machine!

In January, where I live in Queensland was hit by the floods.  It was a pretty scary time for us because we can see the river from where we live.  But we were really, really lucky to avoid the flooding - by only about 20cm!  If the river had reached the height they were predicting, we probably wouldn't even be living at home still :(  It was really positive to see Queensland pull together and be really supportive of each other in a crisis - makes me proud to be an Aussie :D

Also in January we went on a trip to Melbourne!  I'd never been to Melbourne but always wanted to and let me tell you, I was not disappointed.  I love how eclectic it is as a city - it has something for everyone, which makes it really interesting to visit.  I couldn't live there, but it's definitely a great place to spend a week in.

View from Eureka Tower, Southbank.

I'd also made the decision two weeks before we went to Melbourne to say bye bye to all animal products.  Yes, I am now a vegan (superpowers pending).  So it seemed quite fitting to spend our time in Melbourne with our vegan friends: Phil and his gf Amy.  I have seriously never been so well fed in my entire life - the food was amazing, vegan and just.. omg amazing.  

I'll cover some of the vegan stuff in another post (as well as updating some of my blog roll!).  For now more photos of Melbourne!

Trams!  Really funky way to get around!

 R.M Williams building in the middle of Melbourne Central (shopping centre).

Oh no! It's a giant bird attacking a village! (Relax, it's just a model tudor village :P)

Dinosaurs @ the Melbourne Museum

OMG! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!

Projects on the go in 2011:

- Learning the in's and out's of veganism, nutrition, cooking and the art of a smoking hot bod.

- Writing a business plan to buy a new business mid next year!

- Going to uni and continue to be awesome

- Learning to sew clothes and look at creating some upcycled pieces (inspired by Tweal blog)

- Creating a line of party decorations and giftware

- Researching homeschooling and alternative curriculums

So this year a lot of my writing with focus on those things as I come across them and as I learn more (of course in amongst the usual day-to-day crap I do that I feel the urge to write about!).  Now off to obsessively download apps for my Iphone before taking a walk through the Toowong cemetery! xx

Ekka 2010

So I'm pretty sure the last time I went to the Ekka was when I was a teenager.. so maybe around 14 years old? Okay so lets say I went to the Ekka around 8 years ago.  For those not from Brisbane the Ekka is like a big city fair that lasts for a week every August.  We even get a day off (or two if you're still in school).

I couldn't remember anything about it, so I thought 'Okay this year, I'm going to do it!'.  I actually had a really great time (despite being all on my ownsome), there were heaps of areas to look at in most interest bases - my personal favourites were the animals, the cake decorating and the food stalls (yum!).

Going Vegetarian

I've been thinking about doing this for a while.  We have a couple of friends that are vegetarian and vegan, I've always been particularly struck with the idea of not eating animals, because I think it's not necessary when we can live without meat and I found the growing number of people choosing not to eat meat a sign that it was becoming easier to be able to do just that.  Last time I tried, I found that there weren't any good substitutes in terms of taste and availability, and it just wasn't the right time because I was still living at home and couldn't really ask my family to change everything just so my needs could be met.

A vegan put me onto some great websites that just have the most scrumptious looking food - all completely vegan!  I swear if we didn't have the biggest piece of crap oven in our flat I'd be in there trying every recipe on these websites.  Go here to be blown away (but maybe stay away if you're allergic to green things):  VeganYumYum and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Also for anyone interested I found these two websites particularly helpful:  The Vegetarian Society and The Vegetarian/Vegan Society of Queensland.  But there's heaps of resources around for how to cook, where to shop and a practical information about staying healthy on a vegetarian/vegan diet.

I started today by buying tofu and doing my first vegetarian shop - needless to say it was vegetables, fruits and beans galore!  I look forward to trying out some new tricks :)

Food - A Night In India

Not literally haha, that WOULD be something! Friday night we went to a restaurant called 'A Night in India' in Toowong. We'd been there once before and couldn't remember if we actually liked it or not. But Justin wanted to get his curry on and hey, who am I to get between a man and his curry?

It was fairly busy for a friday night, but we still managed to get in. Started off with pappadums with raita and mango chutney. The raita was epically yum, I seriously need to have a go at making one myself because I could have eaten buckets of it. Then I had my usual Butter Chicken (Mild of course, because I'm a wuss) and Justin thought he'd be different with the Madrasi.


The good thing about this restaurant is that they serve all the meals with saffron rice by default instead of just normal rice, which we thought really added to the meals. I think I prefer the Butter Chicken from Punjabi Palace or Karma, but I really liked the Madrasi that J got. After the massive meal (of which we had leftovers of course!) we decided to go for a walk along the river. It's not as romantic as it used to be though, because of all that construction they are doing, but it sure stopped me from falling into a curry concussion on my lounge lol.

Mt. Cootha Picnic, Magpies and Ants

Today my lovely boyfriend decided we should have a picnic. So after my class at uni, I came home and Justin was making some little lunch rolls and I cooked up some eggs and we hopped in the car to find a nice spot at Mt. Cootha. We are very lucky to live just a short five minute drive from the gardens and we've discovered lots of nice quiet areas that tourists and day visitors often don't drive to. So we stopped at one site surrounded by trees and not a person in sight.As we were unwrapping our rolls I noticed a few magpies (no surprise) making their way over to a nearby tree to scope out the sucker-value of these picnickers no doubt. Then quite suddenly we found ourselves encircled by an entire family of magpies (mum, dad and three babies) all very keen to have a piece of our lunch.

I honestly have never seen magpies get so close, Justin of course fed them from afar at first. Then we started testing how close they would come until I literally had one a few inches from my lap sitting on my satchel bag. At this point Justin could hand-feed them, they were taking it reasonably well from his hands. But it was seriously freaking me out, I thought we were going to get rolled for our food by this pack of magpies!

After we ran out of food, they eventually flew back to their tree. And then we had the displeasure of meeting the most vicious bloody green ants. One bit me behind the ear (Man, the pain!) and another bit Justin in the back of the neck. After spending half an hour in peaceful nature, the picnic had turned into a warfare zone and we decided get the hell out of there! I think next time we'll have to scope out the ant situation before we set up our picnic ;)

Breakfast at UQ

Today I had my second last spanish exam for the semester. I think it went well for the record.. I just spun a whole lot of BS and tried to spell it as well as I could with my broken spanish vocabulary. I also somehow managed to get 10% out of 15% on my previous grammar test - in my eyes I couldn't ask for more bahaha.

Anyway I got to UQ an hour earlier than I would normally and my sole mission at 8:15am was to get me some Merlo action! I freaking love Merlo coffee, I'm going to have to address this addiction some other day though because something else distracted me from my goal - Ye awesome Ham/Cheese Croissant!

So damn good! And I had a decent view from the Pizza Cafe:

Anyway, while I was sitting down murdering my HCC and mulling over recent developments, I saw this bird just swoop like a ninja into the slightly ajar door of the Pizza Cafe restaurant. He then proceeded to jump from table to table picking up crumbs.. I seriously loved his arrogance, so much so that when he swooped near me for a croissant crumb I took a quick snap of him: