Em and Muz wedding pics

Eeepp! Em and Muz have their official wedding pics, and they are lovely. Here's just a few which the photographer put on her blog, therefore I could cut and paste them...

Em's shoes were totally hot - I think these were more exciting for her than the dress, which was also beautiful, albeit not leopard print.

WOOF! It wouldn't be a Wheater wedding without Perdo there. I had a Pedro Xeminez on Friday after lunch and was explaining to the guy I had lunch with that my friends Emma and Murray have a dog named after the drink. (p.s. Ped was naughty this week - he ate mummy's Country Road top. BAD PED)

Samm, who did Em and Muz's pics, also did Catie and Lindsay's wedding pics. It was awesome to see Catie and Lindsay at the wedding on a brief interlude on their travels through Asia. We miss you guys and think about you all the time!! I check your blog almost every day. It's lovely to see your smiling faces in this pic.

Awww, the bride and groom. It was SUCH a beautiful day, and everything felt so easygoing and warm and fun. Em was just totally calm and absolutely stunning, and Muz just looked so proud and happy and very cute in his kilt too!
AND they are going to be here next week!!! We are so excited and looking forward to hanging out in Sydney!!! EEEKKKKK!

Yoga nemesis.

I know it's not in the spirit of all things yoga related, but I have a yoga nemesis. I can't stand her and spend a reasonable portion of the class glaring at her and being irritated. Let me explain, and when I'm through, I think you might find you agree with me. She's NEVER on time - she always turns up between 10 and 30 minutes late - and this is an hour long class - why bother if you are going to be half an hour late? She clumps across the floor, always sits directly in front of me (therefore blocking my view of myself in the mirror), CLOSES the window when I open it saying "I have a sore throat", she leaves her PHONE on and when it rings during quiet time she just lets it ring, and then the person calls back, and does it multiple times, but she doesn't turn the stupid thing off. She's always dressed in all black (it's probably no surprise to many of you that have a hot pink yoga mat and wear my pink Ugg boots to walk to yoga) She is always dressed like she's going hiking in Antarctica - it's always a coat, polar fleece, scarf, explorer socks etc. And it's really not that cold. She also has a stupid long plait and really boring coloured hair. And she sneezes like a cat.

So after I was totally enraged last week after another window closing incident, I decided I needed to change my position in the room, and am now putting my mat so that my view of her is blocked by a big pillar in the middle of the room. Of course she's hard to ignore in the middle of quiet time when she's thundering in late but this is the best solution for now.

That was quite therapeutic. Another thing that is currently annoying me about yoga is that I can't do the wheel pose. This is the wheel pose. He's obviously very good at it, but I can't get my head off the ground. And I REALLY want to.

Twighlight v Buffy - the verdict is in

I've been planning for a while that when Jamie is indisposed for a few hours that I will go and hire Twilight - the teen vampire film du jour for those of you living under a rock - and that opportunity presented itself this week. I haven't read the massively selling book or any of the sequels, but being a sucker for pop-culture vampire related movies/ TV series, I am dead keen. I just can't bear to be SEEN to be reading the books or spend money on them, so I'm waiting for the library up the road to open so that I can queue up with all the other 16 year olds wanting to read them... but I digress.
So, Twilight the movie - being the BIG Buffy fan that I am, I felt almost a sense of betrayal in going over to the Twilight side, but it was something that needed to be done. I also felt I didn't "get" the Robert Pattison thing - it's something I now feel I understand. I liked that pretty much everyone in the movie was really pale, including Bella, the main female (human) character. So that's bound to become cool with the young folk. However, I just felt that the substance wasn't really there. I mean come on, they are 17 and have known each other for five minters and they are all "I'll love you until I die". Plus, the movie and presumably book strays from some of the central vampire premises - i.e. sunlight kills vampires. Turns out not in Twighlight, it actually makes them sparkle like they are covered in "diamonds" - conveniently pretty, but I don't buy it.
For me, Twilight wasn't even a patch on Buffy (which I just Googled and it turns out it ran on TV between 1997 and 2003 - pretty much when I was at uni). Buffy has so much more than Twilight - hilarious pop culture references, lots of good one liners, the realisation that everything in it is totally ridiculous, likable characters (no-one in Twilight was really very likable, however, I'd totally want to hang out with Buffy and the gang any day. The gang in Twilight were all boring), and it remained excellent for the whole six years (it did kind of go off on the last series). The local video store in Perth used to have the whole Buffy collection, and I'd just keep hiring it in succession - one day the guy was all "did you know this is the third time you are hiring this?" - shut up and give me the DVD kid.
On another Buffy note - does everyone know that Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is pregnant in real life? To her hubby Freddie Prinze Junior.
I have resisted buying the box set for a long time, but I really think it's time. Twilight could have pulled me away, but it only pushed me closer. Buffy for ever!!

Saturday adventures

On Saturday we went for a walk from home through the city and to the art gallery. Our adventure started at the bakery - like all good adventures. I think living so close to the famed Bourke Street Bakery is totally great - it's literally two blocks away. And we have been getting well acquainted with all their tasty goods. It was a rainy and windy day, but we were very lucky in that it bucketed down as soon as we got to the gallery. It also meant we had to stay in the gallery for a while. I must admit that I was more excited in looking out the big windows at the rain and the view than most of the paintings... My suggestion that the art gallery would be more interesting if there were price tags on things was met with a look of mild horror from Jamie, but I think it's a really good idea. Especially for people who know nothing about art i.e. me.

Sure, it's big and it's colourful... but HOW MUCH CAN I
(or James Packer) BUY IT FOR??

The world mourns...

I don't know how to embed a youtube video in the blog, however, I'm sure you'll all click on the below link to watch the video clip of Jordan and Peter Andre singing "A Whole New World" (from Aladdin), and share in my sadness that the demise of their marriage means we will all be the poorer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUfpCebOmFE
On another note, the couple that marathon's together clearly doesn't stay together. According to the Guardian, Peter and Jordan recently completed the London Marathon, he in seven hours and two seconds, she in seven hours flat. Maybe he couldn't hack her beating him by two seconds and that's why they split...
I'm so intrigued by them though, and hoping they re-unite with an OK cover soon...

Korean booze

So Hite is the Korean beer we were drinking on Friday night. Jamie marvelled at its remarkable similarity to soft drink, and hence marketability to children. I was more intrigued by the small foil label on the neck, versus the paper label on the main body of the bottle.

It didn't taste like a great deal, mostly water, so it could have been worse. The point of it really was to wash down the Soju: a "distilled beverage native to Korea."



Another show of of fantastic Korean labelling - "fresh" - inclining one to think this may be water, or some sort of good for you beverage. Fresh indeed it was. You drink it in shots throughout your meal (which are in the foreground of the first photo), and you must show respect to the eldest person at the table by letting them hold their glass the highest.

So here is our revered elder with a bottle of Soju...

It kind of tastes like a lot like sake, a bit sweeter. The purpose is clearly to get pissed, so who were we to culturally offend?

Pilates

I didn't go to my usual Saturday morning yoga class because I was stuffing my face with scrambled eggs with J-Mo and Liam. However, I was commenting to Jamie that I missed it.

So while I was doing the groceries, I spied some pilates DVDs and thought it would be a great idea to buy one to do at home. And Jamie then thought it would be hilarious to take photos of me. He wanted me to make clear that I was still chewing the last bites of my grilled cheese sandwich as I sat down to do it.

I'm not sold on the particular DVD I got, and I probably did as much damage as good twisting around and trying to look at the TV while in strange positions, but I think I'll extend my search for a good yoga DVD to do at home. Lucky our living room floor is big enough for me to lie on my mat with my arms stretched out, because there certainly isn't anywhere else in our vast mansion I can do that...

Stew and scrabble

Jamie's mum Verna was with us on Saturday night, so while Jamie was cooking bullfighter stew, Vern and I played scrabble and drank red wine. Clearly everyone was pleased with that situation. The stew was great, and with it you serve macaroni which you pour some of the stew juices over, and lots of parme.... arggmmmlll. It's so good.



And the weather is definitely changing to call for this sort of cooking, which J-Mo and I both love, and lets be honest, we do it in summer anyway.

The timing all worked very well, and this was the results of the scrabble game. And really the only reason I'm blogging about it is because I won. And we all know that's the most important thing.

Chinatown

Its been an exciting food based weekend. On Friday we went out with oz, Blake and two of their friends from Canada. He (Doug) is from where my mum and dad live, and she (Jess) is from where my brother Phil goes to school. Totally strange co-incidence.
Anyway, Doug lived in Korea for a few years, and on Friday night we went out for Korean. It was awesome. Doug took charge and ordered everything for us (in Korean - we had total cred with the waiters) and it was great. It was a BBQ place with the little pit and hot coals so you cook your own meat, and have lots of sauces and soups and other tasty morsels to go with it. And plum wine. Which is kind of like sake, but not as strong. Which isn't to say my head wasn't throbbing the next morning... when we caught up with Liam for a really yummy breakfast. After our brekkie, I wandered down to Chinatown to go to the mega-Asian-IGA they have there. I get TOTALLY excited and go a bit mad. Jamie wisely stayed home (and I took that as license to also go check out some factory outlets that are in the same shopping centre and got two totally reasonable winter knits and two cute gym tops). But Asia-mart is awesome - so much that I just have no idea what it is, what to do with or what the label even says. It's totally un-westerner friendly. I took about an hour just looking at things, and then re-looking trying to find things. I did fairly well - the only thing I couldn't find were fermented black beans.
So, pictured is my loot, which includes: rice wine, sesame oil, fermented soy beans, chili oil, sambal, mega pack of fresh tofu, fried tofu chunks, soba noodles, Chinese sausage, fresh noodles, dried shrimp, snake beans and bok choy. A very successful trip... and we are going to eat well this week!

Touchdown!!!

Jamie has a share in a box at the SCG for all Swans games this season, and this weekend was the first time we went. Those who know me know I don't know great deal about football, and have never really been enamoured with the game, other than going to a box and having pies, mini-burgers and beer (yes!!!). I kind of enjoy it like I enjoy going to the races - I don't watch what goes on, but I have a great time eating, drinking and socialising. We had a fun afternoon at the footy - it was a lovely day, and I was giving the zoom on our camera a great workout. Also in the box was Lucia - who is from Prague, and is marrying one of the other guys who shares in the box. A minute after she arrived we were comparing engagement rings and I knew we'd get along well. Talk about commitment though - she's making a huge effort to understand the game. Snaps for her.

J-Mo and me, hanging at the footy.

After the game, they let the masses swarm on the oval, and it was chockers. This little kiddie was just too cute though, kicking with his dad... aawww

We went to the change rooms and WAG lounge after the game, and it was kids galore. It was actually really cute to see all these massive battered and limping men kissing and cuddling their kids. A real family atmosphere, which was surprising. And the kids were going totally mental. Hilarious.

And we live ten minutes walk away from the SCG - this is what we had to tolerate while we walked through the parks home. Ah, Syd-ner-ey, you have my heart.

My new BFF... French CJ.

So, last night I went to the opening of the new Sydney Uni law school. They used to have the law school in the city, right next to the courts, but they've just moved it back on campus. The building is really cool That U shaped thing in the foreground sends natural light down into the library. There were Judges, attorney generals, the Governor-General (who had on a really cute fuschia coat - I like her a lot), etc etc. I went straight for none other than Chief Justice of the High Court, Robert French. I was just about to tap him on the shoulder when speeches started, so was temporarily thwarted. After the speeches he walked to the other side of the room (not because I was stalking him)... BUT then later when I was chatting with one of the guys from work, French CJ, came over and said hi TO ME!!! He remembered me from when I used to write about him in WA, and I totally had like nearly 10 mins of one on one with the highest judge in the land!!! Eppp!!! He totally cracked up at my jokes too - like he was holding this strange (and apparently rare) book of old Indian law he was telling me about, and I was all "I presume you don't always carry it this close to your heart" - ah ha ha. Hilarious. Other topics discussed were: court reporting, Perth, his sons (Rob, the hot one, is getting married), the decision handed down by the High Court that day, and the excellent standard of legal reporting at the Fin. That Lindsay Dodd fellow also came up in conversation through the Notre Dame and Tom link, and, yes, Linds, the CJ of the High Court asked after you. Awesome... I was totally stoked and giving myself high fives for the rest of the night. La la la. So now me and the CJ are BFF's.

The library has a reading room made to look like a High Court bench (where my BFF sits)! It's so cool. There are lots of little alcoves and reading rooms, and it was busy with dilligent students, even at 7:30 on a Thursday night.

It is really an amazing building, but having said all that, I'd still rather have gone to uni in Freo and have the law library be an old stable.

After lots of bubbly (not French, but not bad) and tasty canapes (which I'd give a 7 out of 10 - I've had better, but I've definitely had worse), I skipped off to Pizza e Birra for dinner with the hubby and a couple of his friends who were in town visiting.

And because I worked last Sunday, I have today off!!! Yippee. So I had a lovely long sleep in, I'm going to clean the house, plan what to cook over the weekend and next week, and then go for a massage. Perfect.