Bubby's Belated Birthday Bash.

I need to pick up my blogging mojo and what better way than to write about Bubby's first birthday party. It was a very small party with only ten of us including Bubby. There were balloons, banners and barbeque and I even baked a cake. (Yes, yes, I like alliterations.)

It's a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache. It's pretty dodgy looking but I've never baked a cake before and I certainly have never decorated one. The cake was pretty dry but the ganache was quite good. I used the leftover ganache to make mocha which wasn't too bad at all. I was also going to put the Batman figurine as a cake topper but I didn't leave enough space. It was the same cake topper that my brother had for his first birthday.

We also got to use our dining room for the first time.

Bubby liked his present from my parents. He would throw a tantrum if I so much as try to unbuckle the seatbelt.

There was some dancing afterwards. This kid knows how to party.

I'm currently watching rhythmic gymnastics. Finally, Channel 9 televises a sport that is interesting at a semi-decent hour although I really should go to bed. TGIF in about 20 minutes.

A Sad Day. The Dirty C Word.

You know the feeling of your stomach dropping when you realised that you've lost something you really love, has sentimental value and also expensive? Well it happened to me on Saturday. I opened my sun glass case to find no sunglasses in it. I thought hard and realised I haven't worn it since Thursday. I hoped that it was somewhere at home or in the car but it wasn't. The last place I haven't looked was my desk at work, until this morning. It wasn't there. There's a good chance I either left it on the train but most likely in the fitting room when I tried on dresses. I called the store but nobody has handed it in. I didn't expect anyone would. It was a birthday gift from my parents last year and I really loved it. They're similar to this

I was pretty down for most of the day, you'd think someone had died. I moped through work, through grocery shopping, through picking up Bubby, through the drive home and I was about to mope through preparing dinner until I decided to check my phone for calls and messages. That's when I was given a harsh perspective that slapped me back to an even more painful reality. I was so preoccupied with mourning my sunglasses that I didn't realise I had received a message a couple of hours before. It was from the husband of my dear friend, Kat, informing her friends that she passed away peacefully in her sleep after a long but courageous battle with cancer. I stood staring at my phone reading the message over and over for a good 10 minutes completely numb. Even though we knew it was coming and I've said my goodbye it was still hard to imagine and even more difficult to accept. I called hubby but couldn't get the words out so talked about dinner and Bubby instead. I called another one of our close friends talked for a little bit like normal before the floodgates opened. I wasn't upset that she has passed, she was ready and she's in a better place now. She lived life the fullest and she had no regrets. I was sad for what she had to leave behind, a husband and a young daughter. How do you explain to a two year old that her mummy isn't coming back? How does a grieving husband cope when his daughter just wants her mum? It breaks my heart.

Apologies for being morose. I try to keep things light around here but there's no making light of this.

Goodbye, my dearest Kat. Thanks for the great memories, the friendship, taking turns sleeping on the couch during the many all nighters in the lab trying to finish experiments and our theses, the shared love of Jane Austen, Mr Darcy, ballet and sangria. Rest in peace.

Batman and Bargains.

Hubby and I went on our first date since having Bubby, well second if I count the time I had lunch with him while I was running errands in the city. We saw the latest Batman movie.

Hubby was clever enough to find a discount voucher online for Optus customers so we paid half price. Score! It's really sad that the last movie we saw at the cinema was Inception and it wasn't even a pleasant experience as an idiot couple brought their very young child in the cinema and it cried, a lot. They obviously have never heard of mums and bubs session, or babysitters. I guess we're lucky as my parents were very keen to babysit. So keen that they arrived at 8.30 am, two hours early. We need to go out more often.

After the movie we went and bought a TV. Another bargain at 20% off, another score! On top of that I also got 10,000 bonus points on my Myer One card which is equal to a $100 gift voucher. Awesome! Just don't ask me what kind of TV it is. It's a Panasonic and it's very big. I think it's this one.

I actually don't really know why we needed another TV and rather urgently too when we already have a big TV. I would have thought that a fridge which has a door that doesn't close properly and a washing machine that has paint peeling off due to rust needed replacement sooner and a clothes dryer would also be nice. I don't think a very big TV will keep food from spoiling, wash clothes and dry them. Just sayin'.

After the TV purchase was a done deal I went to get a dress for my brother's wedding from Coast of London. I tried it on last Thursday but the shop didn't have it in my size. They'd have to order it from Melbourne but I was apprehensive about buying a dress I haven't tried on in my size so I walked away to think about it. It was originally $385 marked down to $169. I really liked the dress even though it's a winter colour. Seeing as I'm a sucker for a good sale so I went back to get it today. As luck would have it there was another 20% on top of he sale price. Score! It came down to $155 including the $20 express postage fee. It's a plum coloured Thai silk taffeta belted dress with a full skirt and removal straps. I'd have to wear the straps as Bubby has a habit of pulling down my top when he wants milk. I might try and see if I can turn it into a halter neck. Here it is in a size 10.

I ordered the size 8 but I'm in between a 6 and an 8. I hope it fits fine when it arrives as I forgot to ask their return policy. 

All in all it's been a good day!

Crazy People. The Kindness of Strangers.

I am very upset by something that happened to me today. I was standing on a sidewalk somewhere in the heart of the financial district in the city, eating a packet of chips, minding my own business while waiting for my husband to swing by with the car when a man walked past me yelled f* off and spat at me. I was so shocked all I could do was yell "Oh my God, you're disgusting!" He just kept walking as if nothing happened. He is obviously not right in the head. I wasn't even looking at him and I only noticed him after he yelled at me. He was a big bear of a man but I was ready to throttle him. I really wanted to unleash my entire vocabulary of curse words and trust me it would have been colourful but then I would probably look even crazier than him. I wasn't scared of him and it certainly wasn't the first time I've encountered a lunatic in the city but I also knew that it was pointless to start a fight with someone who's crazy and not to mention five times the size of me. Hubby arrived two minutes later and I was still shaking with rage. What upset me most was that there was no consequence for his action. I just kept reminding myself that his punishment is the life that he leads because it must be pretty sh!t for him to end up mentally unstable. Luckily he was far away enough from me that most of his spit ended up on the ground but one drop did hit me on the forehead. The grossness of it makes my skin crawl. I had a scalding hot shower (which I'm sure did wonders for my eczema that is fast becoming out of control) as soon as I got home and I washed my hair three times in case he got me there too.

Thankfully, there are far more polite, friendly, helpful and kind people out there than the crazy ones. For example, the day that I took Bubby to the museum I dropped my umbrella as I lifted the pram out of the train and it fell onto the tracks. If it was any other umbrella I would have just left it. It wasn't an expensive umbrella, in fact it was just from a discount store and one of the ribs is broken and held together by a bright orange packing tape with fragile written on it but I bought it in Tokyo when hubby and I were on our honeymoon so it had sentimental value. I was ready to walk away from it and resigned myself to just looking at honeymoon photos of me holding it when this very nice guy went on his hands and knees and risked his neck to retrieve my umbrella using his own. I pleaded for him to just leave it but he still tried and succeeded. I couldn't thank him enough and it made me a believe in the goodness of people. Remembering the guy's heroics makes me forget about how angry I was at the nutcase today.

Things happen for a reason and I found a reason to be actually thankful for being spat on. After I put Bubby to sleep I decided to blow dry and straighten my hair for the second time today and I discovered that I left my straightener on from when I used it this morning. I wash my hair every second day which means I wouldn't have washed it again until Saturday and I don't normally blow dry or straighten it unless I'm going out. If I wasn't forced to wash my hair it would have been days before I discovered that the straightener was left on and goodness knows what could have happened. If I really wanted to be philosophical about it then I would say one person's lunacy leads to another person's serendipity. I still much prefer to have been shat on the head by bird though.

Since long posts are boring without photos here are some photos featuring my honeymoon umbrella and shameless showing off of travel photos.

Day At the Museum

I took Bubby to the Australian Museum yesterday. I was going to take him to Sydney Wildlife Park in Darling Harbour but it's a bit of a trek especially in the rain so I'll save that for another day.

All covered up. At least one of us stayed dry.

I had to stop and take a photo of this florist kiosk in the middle of Martin Place. 

Bubby absolutely loved the Australian Museum. As soon as I put him down he squealed and went straight for the stuffed dingo. He kept kissing it on the mouth. It would have been cute had it not been for the fact that it is a dead dingo. he also gave the stuffed wallaby a big cuddle but they both toppled over. Oops.

He also had a lot of fun with this tortoise shell.

I think he could have happily spent hours in the Kids' Area.

All the other kids were sporting tails so I put one on Bubby too. He liked it and kept swinging it around. So funny!

I can't wait to take him back to look at the rest of the museum since we only went to Search and Discover and Kids' Area. I can't wait for him to be old enough to do the Torchlight tour!

Masterchef Australia 2012 Finale. (Spoiler Alert)

Source

Phew! I originally had my money on Amina but she sort of peaked too early, then I thought it might be Kylie who screwed up some dessert dish or Mindy but she had to go and stuff up her Barramundi (BTW I don't think those two could be more similar), afterwards I was sure it would be Audra but it wasn't to be. I am, however, glad that it was Andy who won. I'm pretty sure it was a bit rigged anyway as from a marketing point of view I'm not sure that it would be easy to sell Julia the Ice Queen. If she smiled just a little bit more throughout the series she might have won the competition. Andy on the other hand is funny and likeable and also a bit of an underdog and don't Australians just love a good underdog.

photo from Sydney Morning Herald

I am so looking forward to Masterchef All Stars!

Vroom Vroom!

Bubby likes to say vroom vroom for some reason. I don't know if he associates the sound with cars or not but this lucky baby will be getting his very own vroom vroom for his (belated) birthday party from my parents:

It's a remote controlled car! He is one spoilt baby. He also got a TV from the in-laws for his birthday. I wonder if they remember that he just turned 1 not 16. I guess it's because he's the first grandchild on both sides. Poor subsequent born children, the novelty might have worn off by the time they arrive. 

Oh, and for the record 'subsequent children' don't all have to be mine. I have two brothers and a sister-in-law, you know.