Looking at the bright side.

I've been sick the last couple of days.  I'll spare you the details other than I was brought to my knees, violently ill.  I think it was some sort of bug because Jamie had it last week (and I refuse to believe that a burger from Fox Studios did this to me, burgers can do no wrong), so while I've been feeling revolting, I have found two upsides.
1. No detox, atkins, or cabbage diet can ever achieve the weight loss I have achieved in the last few days.  Good upside.
2. Not that I doubted it, but Jamie definitely loves me.  Because love is dabbing bits of vomit of your beloved's t-shirt, rubbing their back as they lie on the bathroom floor, and getting endless cups of lemonade, water and tea.

We are the coolest people you know.

I know there are some of you who may not be immediately convinced by the title of this post, however, read on dear reader, and let yourselves be convinced.
We are *so* cool that functional household items we own are featured in the height of retro cool movie, A Single Man, directed and produced by none other than Mr Tom Ford.  That's right my friends.  Our water glasses feature in the opening scene, and our matching water jug also features in another critical scene in the movie when the main character is trying to kill himself.  And I'm not ruining anything for anyone who hasn't seen the movie by saying that, everyone knows the whole premise of the movie is about a man who wants to kill himself.  But back to the water glasses and jugs... We are that cool that Tom Ford chose the same items we did.  And here they are.  Make sure you remember to start breathing again...

Welcome baby Juniper!

Today we caught up with our lovely friends Blake and Ros with their brand new little baby, Juniper (Juno) Lorna Thomas!  She was very good, didn't make a sound, and she's lovely!  Very long like her parents, deep blue eyes and a strong little grip on her hands!!  I had a totally awkward cuddle, but it was great - awkward only in that I'm petrified of new babies and have no idea how to hold them.  Here's mum and bub.  So cute.  Congrats guys, and thanks for coming out to lunch with her.  Can't wait to watch her grow up! xx

Congrats also in order for Em and Muz, who have confirmed they are having a baby girl.  Which I *totally* knew.  Hurry up already Bunny, I want to play!

And here we have it.. nearly.

Here's our new bathroom!  The doors aren't on the vanity yet (they had a scratch and needed to be re-sprayed), but we are so thrilled with it!  A toilet seat that doesn't fall off!  A shower screen that doesn't have wire mesh weaved through it!  A bath!  Tiles that aren't brown and green!  Shelves behind the mirror so that everything can be put away (except for the artfully displayed Aesop)!

The vanity (with Aesop), and mirror reflecting the towels and towel rail.  The window sill needs to be painted.

The new shelves around the washer and dryer.  And a door WITH A HANDLE.  Admittedly, it's a blue door (Tiffany blue) at this stage - unfortunately Tiffany haven't asked me to do some obscure product placement in the form of their brand colour on a door in exchange for jewels, that's just the colour the door came in, and it also needs to be painted.

Fancy seeing you here!

So after three weeks of living with the Wheaters, we have apparentley all morphed into the same people.  We packed up our toys and came back home on Friday night, and the Wheaters came over for Pizza e Birra and show and tell.  We said goodbye after their very generous hospitality, and moved on to our own lives again.  Except they were the same... On Saturday Jamie and I were out doing jobs, one of which was to do the fruit and veg shopping at Fratelli, and have a late lunch (2 x toasted chicken sandwiches at Dank St Depot).  Just as we started chomping in, who should walk in, but Muz and Em, who were also going to do their fruit and veg shopping at Fratelli, and also decided on a late lunch of 2 x toasted chicken sandwiches at Dank St...  We hadn't said a word to eachother about doing it, it was just a total coincidence.  Naturally, there was a table available next to us, and we talked like we hadn't seen eachother for a month (well, Em and I did anyway).

Back home.

Today is a month since the work on our bathroom started, and while we aren't quite done yet (hence no photos) we moved back in home Friday and we are LOVING being back and TOTALLY LOVING our new bathroom.  It looks so great, and while it isn't hard to beat what we had before, we are really pleased with it.  Last night we used the bath (!!!) for the first time, and I've been enjoying turning the dimmer up and down and standing in the doorway just staring at our new room. I've always been a real home body and being back here is just such a great feeling.  It really feels like a weight off my shoulders, and it makes me look at what we have and feel very grateful.  To make the transition easier, we hired cleaners to get rid of all the dust, sand, sawdust etc.  Best money we ever spent.  They did a great job, and saved us a weekend of doing it.
Pictures to come as soon as the washing machine is in place and the cupboard doors are on.  Then I'll finally start posting about a new topic (surely everyone can't be interested in a month's worth of bathroom related posts... then again, surely they can't be that interested in everything I eat).

Nearly done...

It's all coming together!  The toilet is in, the hardware for the shower is in, and they tell us that by tomorrow the rest will be done!  In this picture, the sink is just resting there, waiting to go next to the toilet, it's not permanently there.

BIG shower head (sorry nature).

I love a good bath, and I'm so excited to be able to do it at home soon!  Here are the bath taps...

We've just come from home, and the workers were still there, cleaning up and putting finishing touches on things.  We've also hired cleaners to get rid of the dust that is all through the house, so we can move straight back in on Saturday.  Phew.  I'm really glad I don't have to deal with it, because it really is on EVERYTHING and it's really gritty - the kind that gives you goosebumps when you touch it.  I've got gooseubumps just writing about it.  So barring some massive disaster, the next blog post should be an 'everything is done' post.  So exciting.

Getting there!

We are making progress and it's quite exciting!  The tiling is all done now, and they just need to stick in the other bits like a toilet and sink and we will be done!  They've told us that they will be finished onThursday, so we should be back in by next weekend, which is great.

This is what we came home to last night - it isn't grouted yet, so will look even better after that happens.  Jamie isn't sure about the mosaic yet, but I'm a big fan.

Here it is up close - pinks, blues and greys.  I really like it, and it compliments the floor really well.  When all the other stuff is in and we have some nice matching towels, I think it's going to be excellent.  And it's nice looking into the bathroom from the kitchen and seeing a bath and some nice tiles rather than a toilet (which is what it was before).

While we'll be glad to get back into our house, we've been having a ball with Em and Muz, it's lots of fun living with them.  Yelling at So You Think You Can Dance, cooking, eating leftover Easter chocolate, playing with Pedro, going out for team activities.  They've been so generous letting us stay and invade their house, and we've loved every minute!

Bathroom progress.

The destruction is complete... Progress is being made.  I walked in to see this and muttered a pleasant "oh" of surprise on Thursday.  The bath was in place and the walls were rendered.

We were exra pleased that work was happening over the Easter weekend, by Monday evening the bath was fully bricked in, the new roof was up and the waterproofing was drying.  The rest of the house is still a bomb site, but I'm loving the progress.  We are hoping that a week (roughly) will get us to completion.  We could be totally delusional, but fingers crossed.  Meawhile, we aren't in a massive rush to move back home.  We've had such a fun weekend with Em and Muz.  Right now Jamie is sitting across from me reading the paper, while Em and Muz choose their wedding photos with Pedro napping on the rug in front of them.  Cute.

Mollymook.

Last weekend we escaped the house to go to Mollymook for a few days.  We spent a great deal of time louging by this infinity pool.  A GREAT deal of time.  And it was totally blissful.  No great surprise I was a total fidget who struggled to sit still for five minutes and rotated around all the diferent sun beds, put sunscreen on every five minutes, got water replenishments, snacks, new reading material etc.

Bannisters itself is a renovated 60s motel.  It was fine, but we weren't blown away.  The pool was definitely the highlight.  The rooms were adaquate and clean, but for the sort of prices you pay, I'd expect more.  And on the last night we were there there was a wedding, which we weren't told about, and as I pointed out to the very helpful (that's not sarcasm - she was really understanding and helpful) lady on reception, if we wanted to hear people get drunk and carry on we could have stayed in inner Sydney for free.  We got our last night complimentary as a result.

The reason we stayed at Bannisters was because Rick Stein opened a restaurant there last year. He's all about fresh, simple produce, and the meal didn't dissapoint.  This was my entree - Jamie had lobster ravioli.  I had fish cury for main, and Jamie had Bouillabaisse.  Everything was excellent, beautifully fresh.  The restaurant was a little noisy and lacked atmos, but the food was spot on.

We got a nice table because we told them it was our birthdays.  Unfortunatley we had a late booking and there isn't much ocean to look out over once it gets dark.  But we looked cute.

On the Saturday we went for lunch at this beautiful winery called Cupitts.  This is where you taste the wine, and it's a creamery from 1851.  We both *loved* the food and would reccomend it to anyone.  It was French style, and just excellent.  They've obviously spent a lot of money adding lots of French touches around the place, and it's all just gorgeous.  We sat outside under that marque until about 5 just watching the sun move across the valley.  Such a perfect afternoon.