Monthly Archives: May 2012
Eurovision Tweets
Last night was the Eurovision final… and Dave and I spent the night trying to come up with clever tweets that would be re-tweeted by SBS and we would see it on TV… it didn’t happen but here is Dave getting ready to take a picture of the screen just in case…
P.S I think we like the earlier rounds better… this years finalists were a bit serious for our liking… although the batman pirates were interesting…
Wordless Wednesday – Music
Meanwhile at the Langham…
There is something magical about the Langham hotel… seriously something magical. This weekend Dave and I returned to the Langham to celebrate our one year anniversary, ideally we would have gone the weekend of our actual anniversary, seeing as we were in NZ, we postponed it a week. The thing is though it doesn’t matter when you go, it’s always the same there, in fact sometimes it feels like you walk into a different time zone, or that time even stops while you are there, because it is just so nice. I feel like if you were ever to cross there in some kind of live news feed it wouldn’t matter when you did it because it would always be “Meanwhile at the Langham, everyone is still happy living in their perfect hotel rooms with friendly staff who are always happy to help” I would imagine crossing to the Langham would get boring really, but not if you were actually there… it was just be nice and relaxing and awesome…
Anyway, it was really nice to have our own ‘meanwhile at the Langham’ experience this weekend. And as a bonus… because it was our anniversary we were spoilt by the staff, I got my own Langham rose on arrival and we were delivered some surprise cake just to help us celebrate. I have decided that I would love to live at the Langham… I know my finances won’t let me and that if I was to live there it probably wouldn’t be the same, but I imagine that if I was a real princess I would have a castle that was like the Langham and that it would always be a nice place to be… but its back to reality for now… at least in my imagination I can still think about ‘meanwhile at the Langham’.
Oh and now I can cross number 32 off the list… because we have stayed at the Langham
Go Mixed Nuts
Last year I returned to my first sporting love… netball. Since living in Castlemaine I had started to get the netball itch because it turns out the football netball club is at the social heart of most small country towns and the more time I spent in the country the more I wanted to play… anyway, when I moved back to the big smoke I was invited to joined a mixed netball team. Now don’t get me wrong, my netball skills are… well… not great, but they are getting better and I do love playing. Last year our team Mixed Nuts was in a grade that we could compete in, we won a few… lots a few, but mostly it was pretty even. But not this season… despite the fact that we didn’t even make the finals at the end of last season, the netball association in their white uniformed wisdom, moved us up a grade… Disaster! This year we are 11-zip… I wish I could say that meant that we had won every game, but no… we haven’t won anything… no games… in fact we haven’t just lost all our games we have been smashed most of them… and while we are improving, it still sucks.
But guess what… we won tonight… yep that’s right… only by 3, but still a win… and it felt good… look at how happy we are…
All that’s left to say is Go Mixed Nuts.
Wordless Wednesday – All Suited Up
525,600 Minutes
Wow… today is Dave and I’s one year anniversary! I think it’s a bit of a strange feeling, because while it doesn’t feel like we have been married for a year, it does already feel like forever. I am not really sure how that is possible, but that’s just how it is. Anyway, 6 months ago I wrote a blog with similar sentiment, and just like 6months ago I thought things would feel really different when we hit the 1 year mark. Before we got married, lots of people told me that the first year would be the hardest, adjusting to life together, sharing my things and my space, but other than having to be a little more considerate and owning up to my unnecessary purchases, it just feels normal… in fact I think that part of me is still waiting for it to fall apart, because apparently it’s supposed to… but so far so good. Maybe if you asked Dave he would have a different account of the last year, after all, he certainly does more than his fair share of house work… but I am getting better, you can’t fix 25 years of bad habits overnight. We are still busy, I still have to plan to see Dave because otherwise our lives get in the way of each others, and I am still messy, so really not that much has changed.
I think the biggest difference of the last 6months perhaps compared to the previous 6 is that we have grown stronger together, which I didn’t really think was possible. Each day I am reminded how very very blessed I am to have found someone like Dave. He is so much more than I could have ever hoped for and I don’t know what I would do without him.
So this time round I thought I might share 10 things I have learnt since I got married, they are a mixture of highlights and random little things, because I don’t really think I have any profound marriage/life-lesson pearls to give… so here are 10 things I now know…
1. Christmas is just as good when you wake up in another house with your husband rather than at home… Santa still comes… in fact Santa is funnier at Dave’s place, maybe it’s earlier on the run?
2. Fun Dave is still my favourite – I am getting used to grumpy Dave he does have a purpose and he does get things done… but it doesn’t really matter how much I need grumpy Dave, I still like fun Dave better.
3. Dave can do anything… even save the same bird twice.
4. We don’t need to do everything together. This is something that I still struggle with, but I know it’s true… in fact it’s a good conversation starter if you do do separate things… seriously… otherwise we are boring.
5. Our next adventure isn’t that far away… buying a house… although Dave has told me he isn’t sure he wants to renovate a house with me because apparently I am annoying, so I guess we will just have to keep saving forever.
6. Love is doing something you don’t like because it makes someone else happy… Here is what I know,
When I do chores, which I hate, Dave is Happy…
and when Dave helps me cross things off the list, which he hates… I am happy…
7. Dave loves Dex more than he let on originally. When Dex first moved in with Dave, Dave would refer to him as my dog constantly, but since we have been living together, I have noticed that Dave actually loves Dex… so much that Dex is even allowed to cuddle Davo while he is wearing a suit.
8. Despite his often grumpy exterior… Dave is an encourager… he gives me money when I exercise, he helps me with my homework, and tells me a I am good cook even when it’s not true.
9. House work is better when two people do it together… but it doesn’t matter how domestic I become Dave is still much better… but I am trying.
10. Nagging pays off – well eventually… and my last blog about my trip to New Zealand is proof… 7 years of nagging… and this is my view this morning… not bad…
A Life Long Love
This past weekend Dave and I made a very quick visit to New Zealand, this is something that I have been wanting to do ever since Dave went 6months into our relationship. Dave’s Dad’s side of the family is born and bred kiwi and apart from joking about the fact the New Zealand is really just another state of Australia, and mentioning the abundance of sheep I really didn’t know all that much about it, but was curious to see where his family was from and to be able to visualize the places and people they talked about.
I was really thankful to meet the rest of Dave’s family at our wedding last year when his Uncle and Aunt and cousins came for a flying visit of their own, just for us. But I didn’t really get a chance to hang out with them and get to know them, it was just an introduction because before I knew it the wedding was over and we were on our way to Disneyland. And as I mentioned in this blog right here… I have been really excited about going for a long time and it has finally come and unfortunately gone. But even though this weekend was short we did get to spend some time with them just hanging out and celebrating the incredible achievement of Dave’s Grandparents Brian and Jean.
60 years is a long time… in fact in the last 60 years so many things I take for granted were invented or made their way into the mainstream, they have lived through changes that I can’t even imagine, they have watched their boys grow up and move away, one all the way to Australia and then start families of their own. Now their grandchildren are also grown up and as Granddad Brian reminded us in his speech on Saturday he is now looking forward to the next generation again… no pressure. The thing that amazes me most is that they have done all of this together… all 60 years. In his speech, Dave’s uncle Chris explained that only 4% of couple make it to their 60th wedding anniversary, it truly is a remarkable achievement and for them both to get there in such incredible health is just amazing.
While we were there we were also able to go to church with Brian and Jean and I think that this was incredibly special. Sure it was a different style to what I am used to and in a crowd of people that I had never met, but it was still nice to be there, altogether, worshiping as a family. Given that it was also mother’s day it was nice to be surrounded by my extended family mums, seeing as mine was left behind in another country.
I am so thankful for this brief trip, and I am more proud than ever before to carry the name George. I have loved meeting extended family that I didn’t know existed, as well as spending time with friends that I just haven’t been able to before. I can’t wait to go back and spend some more time with my other family, learn more about them, who they are, why that’s the case and where the George’s all began. I guess I just want to live up to my name… the most curious George… especially curious about the George’s.
Oh and here are just a few of my favourite happy snaps from the weekend…
Just call me “Bear George”
Well I survived my first placement… camp and all.
I was actually much more nervous about teaching than I though I would be, I think I had had a lot of friends that had had (wow that’s a lot of hads) bad experiences on teaching rounds, so I think I spent my first week waiting for it all to fall apart, but it didn’t. I did realise though, that my chemistry knowledge is apparently buried a lot deeper than I thought, and will need to excavated (more than just dug back up!) before I go on my next placement in August.
Prior to my placement I was also a little worried about camp, because lets face it, I am not that outdoorsy and the possibility of a hike/rafting trip was not really my idea of fun. The thing is though, I have spent a long time convincing people, mostly Dave, that I would be fine hiking or even rafting if needed… but deep down inside I wasn’t so sure. But the camp has come and gone and other than a few stiff muscles the day after, I survived the hike, camping in the bush and all, luckily I didn’t need to prove my skills in a raft though.
Anyway, here are three things I learnt (well three random things… not necessarily the only things)
- Year 8 boys can have an offensive smell on a hot day… what ever the time.
- I don’t know as much as I thought I did about chemistry… but I will
- And when it comes to camping… I am a pro… I can set up the tent, cook my dinner, get a good nights sleep, carry my pack all by myself and return home still looking awesome…
Oh and just in case you were wondering, yes yesterday’s Wordless Wednesday was a picture of were I had camped the night before… pretty amazingly beautiful if you ask me… I felt like I could have just walked off the set of McLeod’s Daughters… almost a dream come true.
Wordless Wednesday – Wow
The Most Curious George 