I haven't updated this in a really long time.

If you haven't heard about the wedding it was perfect everything went just as smooth as we wanted. The weather was great too not the 40C that it had been the week b4 and the 2 weeks after!!. Thank you for the wonderful wedding wishes and cards and generous gifts Paul and I truely feel very lucky to have so many people thainking about us, thank you!!

We had a great time with our family so happy to spend so much time with my mom and dad it was great. But very sad to see them go of course. Luckily, mom will be back in August after the baby is born so i am very much looking forward to seeing her again.

We are slowly taking apart the spare bedroom in preparation for it to be nursery. We have been given a cot, stroller and babybackpack from our friends jamie and mags. Which is a huge help as it is tough to know where to start when you need so much stuff!

Paul is getting more and more exciting about the baby as he can now feel her kick and move around. I am pleased that he is so excited to feel her move around i just wished he didn;t wake her up in the middle of the night when i am sleepin!! (he rubs my belly and she sudenly begins to kick and move therefore waking me up!!!)

We are booked into the birthing centre at out local hospital which is a differnt alternative to a mat ward as the room is more like a hotel room and the midwives forcus on what is called an active birth with little or no pain killers so we will see what happens.

We are busy trying to figure out names. Paul is stuck on Lauren Catherine but i am not so sure i like those names but i think i want to have a couple of names ready just in case she is not a Lauren ( i know that sounds werid but you never know SHE could be a HE!!!).

I better go and start dinner we are eating hot foods again so it is a nice change from the salads that we ate for 2weeks as it was tooo hot to eat anything but salads and sandwiches!!

Yesterday, Paul and I spoke to 3 different photographers (they were soo different)... it is starting to sink in that we have about 6mos till our wedding. We are still undecided in what we want exactly. Do we really need printed proofs or is a CD good enough? it is soo confuseing!!

We also looked a suits and dresses ( it was a very productive day-but no decsions were made). We are now thinking that maybe, Paul will wear a suit and me a dress that is a bit more fancy then orginally thought. oh and my dress won't probably be white

Wedding plans are going slowly i don't if it is cause i am busy thinking how badly i want another job or if the stress of the organization of all of the silly little details around the wedding are getting to me and therefore i am procrastanating.

The job well can;t say i enjoy it anymore i think the stress of knowing some of your co-workers are getting there hours slashed ridiculously and that the time will come when it happens to me is stressing me out or is it just the downwards spiral that is taking place in the retail world. Either way i am not enjoying it and need a way out!!

The wedding plans are starting to take shape a little bit more with the Himeji Gardens now being confirmed as the ceremony site and the reception is booked at the Edinburgh Hotel http://www.edinburgh.com.au/ for more details.
Paul and i have briefly spoken to a celebrant so now we just need to get the rest of the details togther...ie. photographer and wedding attire

We just bought a new car which is soo nice and doesn't make all those loud noises like good ole wilma use to make....Paul wants to drive it all the time i am sure he would sleep in it if i would let him.

below is a picture of the new zoom zoom!!

picture of the Himeji Garden the potential site of the wedding ceremony!

we have set a date!!! january 22 2009!!! let the count down start!! but there is sooo much too do!!
find ceremony site -well maybe completed
find recpetion site- we were thinking a restarant
find celebrant-where to begin?
find photographer- this is a very expensive and daunting task
find a dress-hmmm don't want the traditional white thing soo better start looking now
find a suit for Paul- maybe linen maybe not??
find a florist- don't know what i want?

well i am lost too much to think about sometimes!!

Exciting news from Australia. Paul asked me to marry him, Saturday Nite. We had an amazing day out in the country at our fav wineries and then went down to victor harbour and had a great walk. Then Paul treated me to a great nite out at our fav restaurant BEYOND INDIA. I had just left the table and came back and there was two glasses of champagne and luckily the restaurant was empty so it was very quiet and private. He slid the box across the very large table and asked me if i would marry him and be his wife. It was very sweet and he got all choked up. Of course i said yes!
We haven't made any plans yet. we are just really happy and Paul is being really cute by asking me to see the ring every couple of minutes.

The ring is a beautiful white gold diamond ring with baguette diamond on the sides. i may post some pics soon of it and of other stuff that we have been doing here in Adelaide.

well it seems as though summer is not over yet!! we have been beaten the australian heat wave record here in South Australia-Adelaide to be exact. as we have had over 12 days at a temp over 35C and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. as the temp at night is 30C and by 10am it is 35C. and the heat is still coming they are predicting more heat until easter and then it will drop to a cool 31C!!! luckily i am working alot so i am stayin in the air con. but when i get home a convection oven (fan forced oven) awaits for me as we DON'T have air cond. i keep looking at our little fishy and wondering if i should put ice cubes in it??

i think i am starting to go tropo as they call it here too much heat! at least it isn't a wet humidity just really really dry. and there are fires burning in the south and the north of the state because we havn't had any rain since December so anything sparks it!

i guess i should be happy at least we aren't getting bogged down with snow!!!

I started back at work yesterday...the same old stuff. But at least i am working again which is good cause you can only do so much cleaning baking and cooking. Plus its not so much fun when u are home alone.

Last weekend was really busy. Went to our friends house and then went up to the river, so Paul went knee boarding well he attempted it. And i got burnt you don't realize how strong that sun is until its way too late. Then on Sunday we went to Glenelg (which is "thee" place to be if you go to the beach). A Paul was given a gift certificate to go for a ride on a jet boat. I was orginally gonna go but then i saw how fast and how bumpy it is. That is not for me!! So Paul and Larry went out and Brenda and i stayed on the shore thank goodness cause neither one of them looked good after the 2omin ride.





Our garden is growing like mad also. The zucchini plants have taken the rest of the garden hostage. Oh well we will know better for next year not to plant them. We are still eating tomatoes and lettuce as we are just going through a real hot spell so everything is begging for water, which keeps us busy.

Well, what a year......

It has been a very busy busy year. This time last year I didn't think that I would still be here in Oz ( i didn't know where i would be). This time last year Paul and I were still on the road to Perth ( a long and hot trip- but very much enjoyed). Our travels have brought us all the way round Oz and we wouldn't have changed anything that we have done ( well maybe the watermelon adventure) But,here we are now at home in Adelaide, enjoying the heat and the dry humidity. It is on it's way up to 41C on New Years Eve ( a real scorcher!!) Paul and I had a great xmas eating prawns (not shrimp) and mussels and of course great european cheeses and wine of course. Paul spoiled me horribly with a new Digital Camera (in red) for my birthday and a ipod Nano (8g) in RED also. Paul has been busy making beer-his new pressie and he can hardly wait. He is already looking for the next kind of beer to make. We are getting use to the life here going to the beach and having lots of bbq's. Aussie Aussie Aussie!!!

We are very happy to stay and can't wait till are friends and family come here to visit. Till then have a good one, and enjoy a bottle of SA (barossa) Shiraz for us!!

cheers,
e

we are here to stay!!! well till at least 2012. what a relief for both of us, as now we can plan for the future which is great. Last nite we bought a great bottle of champagne, then went out to our fav restaurant in the city (beyond india). It was sooo yummy. we stuffed ourselves and we are a little hungover but all is good as i think this is just starting to set in. Wow, we are on cloud nine right now it is soo great. I only wish that Paul didn't have to work today (sunday), he is working on a really big project at work, whihc has him working till 8.3p everynight. i am keeping myself busy by baking and cooking exotic meals for him. I have posted some new pics from last nite also.

cheers
e

I am a resident permanent resident of Australia!!!!!! as of today my birthday!!!

This will be my 3rd Xmas in Australia. But, I still can't get use to the lack of snow and the heat that we have here in December!.

Tonight, Paul and I are going xmas shopping, joining the thousands of others who will also be at our local shopping centre. Chaos awaits us tonight!! Luckily I don't have that much more to get but even still it will be crazy. Especailly around BIG W (WALMART)!!

Our place is getting a bit more christmassy everyday...the tree out front (see pic) and i have put a xmas runner on the table, beads on the mantle piece, stockings handing off the fireplace and i have even bought Paul some eggnog (not my fav) and 2 small fruit cakes, that i have hidden. (so paul won't eat them now!!)I am tryin to make it more homely around here for christmas.

paul dug this tree out of the garden in sept to make room for our veggie patch.... seriously!!

Well we are still waiting for a reply from the gov't surprise surprise!! they have asked for STAT DEC's from our family (thank you for to those of you that have sent us one!!!) then hopefully everything will go through as soon as they are all in. Unfortunatly in the meantime i have had to quit my job at DJ's due to my work limitations which is not a great thing of course. As who really wants to find a new job at xmas!! Not so easy!!

Paul is currently in Melbourne on a training course so it is a bit quiet around here.. no fighting over the computer for a week!! LOL!!! It is the second time this month that he has been away 2 weeks ago he was in Brisbane (it feels weird not having him around)but it gives us both times to appreciate each other. Miss him though!!

Other news.... We had a federal election on Sat which is a good thing as we now have a new PM (Kevin Rudd- Liberal). He seems to really have people like Paul and Me in his thoughts meaning people that are not making more than $100,000 per year and is changing work reforms and is going to sign the KYOTO protocol which is another great thing!!We are both happy with the new changes as he is a fresh face and it is very energetic towards the future and climate change!
e


I also added some new pics check them out under "ADELAIDE"

brighton beach

the weekend...where do i start...

We headed out sat morning to the Adelaide hills not too far from our house, the car hadn't been up to speeds of 110k in a long time so i was a bit worried but it did just fine for being as old as Paul!!

We headed down south (did a bit of a loop) to Strathlbyn in the fleurieu peninsula.
We then booked into the motel and had a quick bite to eat at the organic cafe- who would have thought that a small town of maybe 20,000 had an organic cafe, a nice surprise!- then we hit the wineries in Langhorne Creek, "Bremerton" was first and probably the best as they are small and the head Winemaker, is very picky about the MALBEC she produces. Unfortuneatly because their wines are good the had sold out of it!!! Paul was of course disappointed as this was one of the main reasons for coming down this way as MALBEC is not grown in a lot of places. But of course we didn't come away empty handed!! This was just the first one of the day!!Then we headed out to "Bleasdale" and luckily for us they had what we were looking for so we didn't jsut by one no, that would be silly we ended up buying 7!! luckily one was free thanks to the bday gift i gave Paul which enables him to get 6 free bottles at selected cellar doors. Also Paul decided that we needed a half barrel for the garden as they were only 20$! (yes we really needed it??? did we??). So that went in the boot of the car as well. The thing about Bleasdale is that is not a regular cellar door where you taste what the cellar door person offers you and then you discuss it nope here it is all out for you to pour for yourself and there was only Grandma Potts to stand at the cash register when you wanted to pay. Needless to say there was one guy that had finished off a bttle (believe me he did as Paul and I watched HIM stumble back to his car!!).
car hadn't been up to speeds of 110k in a long time so i was a bit worried but it did just fine for being as old as Paul!!

We headed down south (did a bit of a loop) to Strathlbyn (see pics ) in the fleurieu peninsula. We then booked into the motel and had a quick bite to eat at the organic cafe- who would have thought that a small town of maybe 20,000 had an organic cafe, a nice surprise!- then we hit the wineries in Langhorne Creek, "Bremerton" was first and probably the best as they are small and the head Winemaker, is very picky about the MALBEC she produces. Unfortuneatly because their wines are good the had sold out of it!!! Paul was of course disappointed as this was one of the main reasons for coming down this way as MALBEC is not grown in a lot of places. But of course we didn't come away empty handed!! This was just the first one of the day!!

Then we headed out to "Bleasdale" and luckily for us they had what we were looking for so we didn't jsut by one no, that would be silly we ended up buying 7!! luckily one was free thanks to the bday gift i gave Paul which enables him to get 6 free bottles at selected cellar doors. Also Paul decided that we needed a half barrel for the garden as they were only 20$! (yes we really needed it??? did we??). So that went in the boot of the car as well. The thing about Bleasdale is that is not a regular cellar door where you taste what the cellar door person offers you and then you discuss it nope here it is all out for you to pour for yourself and there was only Grandma Potts to stand at the cash register when you wanted to pay. Needless to say there was one guy that had finished off a bttle (believe me he did as Paul and I watched HIM stumble back to his car!!).

With our tastebuds almost gone we hit one more winery "Lake Breeze"(see pics). (not too breezy there though as the tempo was well over 35C). We spoke to the head winemaker about the different varietals he grows and bought a beautiful bottle of White Frontinac.

We headed back to the motel to enjoy our fine bottles and sit in air con!! Paul treated me to a great dinner at the ONLY Pub in town which happened to be the same place that we were stayin (how convienent!!). Sunday (today) we headed South along some wonderfully twisted roads (not fun) to Victor Harbour (see pics). Vic harbour is well known for Granite island and its fairy penguins. It was too hot of a day to venture out so instead we made our way home.
But b4 we did we stopped a "CHEESEFEST" in McLaren Vale (another wine region). We kinda stumbled upon it and good thing because for 4$ each we were both able to taste beautifully soft riped brie's that were at the perfect ripeness (basically just melted in your mouth!), amazingly strong and tangy washed rinds and beautiful blues from King Island Dairy (my favs come from there). We stopped ourselves from buying as i can get all of it at work but it is great to have Paul with me to taste them so now i know what he likes (the stinky ones!!). That was it the weekend that didn't stop.

I Forgot to mention that we stopped at another cheese shop on the way to McLaren Vale they had dry aged cheddar, I will definetaly be getting some of that in the future. The great thing about this weekend is that it has opened up my eyes to the great cheesemongers and winemakers of the area and how lucky that i live so close to them all! (anyone jealous...i can't wait to share these great places and food and wine with you all- so get down here!)