Random

Barney and I both loves storms and this one on the radar made us smile haha.... we would have gone up the look out to watch it but it was raining too hard. The thunder and lightning was awesome though.



I didn't know we had any flowers in our garden so this beauty was a great surprise!



And the weeds.... this is all the weeds I pulled out of our front yard only and it took me four hours to do. Thankfully it was warm out so I could work on my tan while I weeded :)




And that's the random update from here!! Sorry its boring but there isn't much going on over here... until next time!!

Small Town News

I was flipping through our local newspaper last week and I came across some funny articles. If I keep finding ones like these, I might start a weekly segment because its amazing what is posted in a small town newspaper. Amazing as in "I can't believe this made it into a newspaper".

"Two parking spaces in the Hub car part at Raymond Terrace will be converted to short term use. Councillors voted to install the 15 minute parking restrictions to two spaces adjacent to the clothing bins in The Hub"

Really? This is what our councillors are voting on? I laughed out loud that they would have a vote on whether to make two car spots 'short term use' and that it made the newspaper. Ridiculous I think. They must not have anything else to write about it.

Oh small town life.... I can't wait to see what I find today!!

Building

Some people might not like Ikea because you have to build it yourself, but thats exactly why I like it. I must take after my father because I love to build things. Building two wardrobes made my day :) Our house doesn't have a single closet (oh how I wish I had a closet!) so a new wardrobe was our only choice.

Bases done


Walls added


My supervisor


Almost done


My old 'wardrobe'


Finish product! A clean, organized room :)

Sister City

Hot off the press:

"The Port's sister city committee is looking for residents to travel in May to Bellingham in the USA to compete in the annual sea-to-ski event.
It involves skiers, cyclists, canoers and kayakers. This year the Port was represented by Steve Paul and the aim is to boost numbers next year."



Yes, little Bellingham Washington is Port Stephen's (where I live) sister city! I found this out from the papers months ago but I still get a kick out of it. Of all the cities in the world that I could live in and have a sister city with, its Bellingham. My aunt works in Bellingham and lives next door in Ferndale. Small, small world.

So, maybe this could be my way home? I could fundraise money to ski in this competition to get back to Vancouver. Tempting... very tempting. Now I just have to find some ski hills to train on which might prove to be a challenge....

A Day at the Beach

Just Jessie and I watching the waves crash against the rocks....



It was a warm 25 degrees today so out came the shorts and tshirts! I'm so looking forward to summer!



PS: Like the new blog layout? :)

Lounge Room Changes

On our trip to Sydney we went to Ikea to get a new entertainment unit like I mentioned in my last post. I had the day off today so we did some spring cleaning and built the unit. It turned out great!

This is what our lounge room when I first moved into Barney's house in 2009. We had a 20 year old couch and it wasn't organized at all.


Since I moved in, we've made some changes and its been better. Before we went on holidays in June, we bought a new couch for $300 off of ebay. Such a bargain! We're very happy with it. My father in law couldn't even get out of our old one.



We moved the lounge to the opposite side of the room today, put up our entertainment unit (the old one was big and bulky) and put our bookshelf beside it. I think it turned out great and it makes our lounge room look much bigger and organized. I picked up some nice baskets as well to store our dvd's and put more pictures in frames to tie everything together. We still have a few photos to hang. We also have an office corner which is awesome too.




Over all I'm just so happy everything is clean, practical and organized! Next, we build our wardrobes and work on the bedrooms.

Until next time....

Sydney

On Monday morning we packed up the car and headed to Sydney with our mate Aaron to attend a Fine Wine Festival at the famous Luna Park. We got there, settled into our hotel then made our way to Luna Park.




We got there at about 1:30pm and started trying out wines. It was a free wine show and most people who attended worked at bottleshops (liquor stores) or restaurants. It was great to try out so many premier wines, champagnes, beers, cognacs and even coffee. I'm not really a fan of wine but because I work in a restaurant, I figured it would be good to learn more about them so I can better recommend them to our customers. I still didn't really like a lot of the wines but some were amazing. I even got to try a vintage 2002 Bollinger Champagne straight from France. Beautiful! Along with all the wines was beautiful cheese and meat. Yummy :) We ended up staying until about 6:30, much later than intending but we got to meet a lot of premier wine makers and had a great time.



We stayed in Sydney overnight and the next day we headed to Ikea (the only one in Australia for now) and bought two wardrobes and an entertainment center for $350. Got to love Ikea! Tomorrow is my day off so I will be building furniture and rearranging my living room :) And of course, using my dyson along the way!!

Spring

Yesterday was the last day of winter which means spring is here!



Spring is my favorite season in both Australia and Canada. The flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping and the days are warming up.







BBQ's at sunset are the perfect way to spend the evening with Barney



I love spring!