Get down, Get Down....

What a radtastical night!!! My friends are incredible!! The guys and gals at the Apollo Street house VERY kindly hosted a Studio 54 party to help me celebrate my birthday. Jono, Mama Brookie and Martina came over to get into our funky gear and have a few pre-party drinks. It was a fabulous night with lots and lots of dancing, afros, glitter and laughs. Thanks must go to Manny, Karina and the other housemates for offering their digs as a shaggadelic disco lounge. Thank you also to everyone who came along and got down on the dance floor with me!! (thanks to my wordsmith Miss B!)

Little Ash....

Ash has been at "Don't Fret Pet" with her favourite baby sitter, Diane, for the last week or so. Picked her up this morning as Diane is going away. She is in a very sooky mood so I took this shot and sent it to Mum.....

May 9

Well its official....I am 29!!! Wow!!! Even though they were far away in London Mum and Josh sent the most amazing flowers!! One massive pot each!! When reception called I just picked up one and they promptly told me they were both mine!!! Felt very spoilt!! Thanks Mama and Joshy!!!

Since I was too lazy to cook on my birthday Jono, Brooke and Martina VERY kindly accompanied me to dinner at Wagamama's in the Valley. We were heading to coffee when they started evacuating the restaurants and apartments in the complex since the sirens were going off....so an exciting end to a lovely night!! Thanks for dinner guys :)

INXS

Brooke, Jono, Karina and I headed to Boondall to see INXS. The supporting bands were polar opposites to say the least. First up we had Arrested Development!! Yes, that Arrested Development, the 90s hip hop group!! They were followed by Simple Minds whose lead singer danced in a very odd and distracting manner....we thought they were never going to end!! And finally came INXS. Now I will admit I was sceptical of JD and wondered how they would replace Michael but I have to say JD was fabulous. A real performer and worked the crowd really well - including bumming cigarettes off the people in the front row!!! It was a fabulous concert and I would definitely see them again!!

New Aussie words :)

The following were results for an Ozwords Competition where entrants were asked to take an Australian word, alter it by only one letter, and supply a new & witty definition. You clearly need to be an Aussie to understand.

1 - Billabonk: to make passionate love beside a waterhole.
2 - Bludgie: a partner who doesn't work, but is kept as a pet.
3 - Dodgeridoo: a fake indigenous artifact.
4 - Fair Drinkum: good quality Aussie wine.
5 - Flatypus: a cat that has been run over by a car.
6 - Mateshit: all your flat mate's belongings lying strewn around the floor.
7 - Shagman: an unemployed male roaming the countryside in search of sexual activity.
8 - Yabble: the unintelligable language of Australian freshwater crustaceans.
9 - Bushwanker: a pretentious drongo who reckons he's above average when it comes to handling himself in the scrub.
10 - Crackie Daks: hipster tracksuit pants.

Farewell APDC

Well after 2.5 years I finally made the move out of the APDC and into "real" IBM!! The girls made the day so special. I went out to lunch with Brookie, Martina, Heidi, Phuong, Megan and the one boy, Jamie. They gave me a gorgeous Morrissey bag and Oroton heart key ring....SO lucky to have made such awesome friends there. Thanks girls (and Jamie, Manny and Dunc) for everything.

After a long lunch I did head back to the office for a litttle while but I organised a combined farewell drinks at Zen as a few others were also leaving so headed down there pretty early in the afternoon.......

2007

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Wow its so hard to believe its 2007!!! 2006 went by so fast!!! I headed back to Brisvegas on Sunday afternoon, showered and prettied up before heading to Manny's new place. The Emporium party pad has been relocated to Bulimba as Manny had to move house. The new venue is a spacious 4 bedroom home near the river at Bulimba. The new place was a perfect venue to celebrate the end of 2006 and the start of a great year in 2007.

Lots of dancing, laughing, chatting, drinking, eating and a general good time was had by all. At midnight we lit some sparklers and fired off hundreds of crackers. I even made some fabulous new gal pals - Karina and Brooke. Can't wait to hang out with them again!! It was a great night and I managed to evade Martina (who was determined not to sleep!) at about 4am and fall asleep on my blow up mattress in the spare room. Thank goodness I pumped it up at the start of the night!!! Martina and I surfaced at 10am the next morning and after lending a hand with the clean up headed to Oxford Street for some breaky and then home to crash out!!

Was a great night, thanks for having me Manny (and James and Karina)!!!

Christmas 2006

I headed up to Cooroy on Christmas Eve looking forward to another fun Christmas at storm battered Booraloola - soaking up the sun, enjoying good food and spending time with family. Even though the storm had hit only a week before Des has done an amazing job with the clearing. You can actually drive up the driveway for a start!!! The pool is back to a normal colour and the piles of debris in the pool area has been cleared. What more do you need!!

Christmas Day was a surprisingly cool day. Mum and I got up early and went to give the cows their molasses treat on the RTV, accompanied by Ash of course!! Jeez, there are some aggressive cows down there!!! Mum is like a real farmer though, completely in control of those cows!

Toni and Shaun ventured up about 8 or so and we sat down to some present unwrapping. Toni had spent the year firing away a pile of gorgeous pots and plates and kitchen bowls so we all got some of the first Toni Park pottery creations. I have to say they are amazing and we were all very impressed. Mum and I spoke to Joshy and unwrapped his presents for us......as usual Johsy was VERY generous with Mum and I both getting a little Louis Vuitton treat and Mum a gorgeous Mont Blanc pen.

We fired up the BBQ at that point to start baking the ducks. Mum prepared to Coral Trout for us vegos and we sat down to a delicious lunch also consisting of home grown roasted veges. The meal was finished off with our favourite New Farm markets Christmas pudding and custard. All in attendance wore gorgeous crowns and told silly cracker jokes.....I think Shaun might have a career in writing those jokes. His answers were way better than the ones provided!!

Anyway, check out the pics from the day:

Lou and Ash with the tree

Shaun, Toni and Des

Toni, Des, Deb and Ray

Des with rubbber banded ears!

Toni, Shaun and Des

Ray, Deb and Lou

Boxing Day morning we headed down to the Noosa river with a picnic breakfast and the papers to relax.

Toni ready to eat

Des and Ray tucking in

Mum and Ash chilling out

Ash

When the storm hit.....

A massive storm hit Corooy on Saturday night. The security company rang to tell me the alarm had been set off so I drove up with Ash to check it out early Sunday morning as Mum and Des were still on the island. Driving through town it was like a mini torneado had struck. Trees down everywhere, roofs off, horses dead and so much more. Booraloola faired quite well compared to other houses but there will be a massive clean up for weeks to come. Thankfully none of the bedrooms were damaged so Christmas will go ahead as planned!! Whilst they do not fully convey the damage here are some photos.

The view out the front door

The gorgeous old gums on the driveway split in half

The green pool