2 Working Days...

...and I'm on holiday!

Yay! I need it too, I've been working 12-hour days lately, which is why you haven't heard much from me. Our deadline is Friday.

On Friday afternoon I will be leaving work early to go to a wedding, Saturday is the "recovery barbeque" (seems to be an Aussie thing), and first thing Sunday we fly up the coast to here to go sailing for a week. Oh I can't wait!

Speaking of weddings, last weekend we went to a wedding in the Hunter Valley, a wine region 2 hours north of Sydney. It rained all weekend but stopped for the ceremony and the barbeque the next day, which was lucky. Milord somehow managed to lose 3kg (6 pounds) in a week to be able to do up his suit pants on the day! I wonder if he's kept it off for this weekend's wedding?

The ceremony and reception were held at a little vineyard called Tallavera Grove, overlooking a valley of wet green vines. I liked the flowers hanging in glass decorating things.




Here we are all glamorous (and shiny - note to self, carry powder!). I lurve the red dress, and it will be getting another outing this weekend too!


The wedding was at midday, followed by lunch and so on, and we left the venue at dusk. By this point I had had far too much to drink, so Milord and I headed back to our accommodation for a lie down. I woke up at midnight fully clothed with the lights on, cleaned my teeth and removed my makeup and went back to bed! I think I slept through most of my hangover which was brilliant.

We had brunch with a friend in the area, and her cactus was flowering:


Then we went to the home of the wedding couple for a barbeque. They had roasts on a spit and a band and DJ and unlimited booze. It was a good party, but we grabbed the offer of a lift at about 7pm and had another early night. I hear the party carried on until the early hours and everyone looked very rough when we popped by the next day to fetch our car!

This sheep is actually an icebox:


At some point in the weekend Milord and I passed our 6th montheversary too. That went fast!

Last night was the stag/hen night of the couple getting married on Friday. The hen night was pretty sedate - I got there a couple of hours late anyway because of work so didn't I drink much - and I was home in bed by 11. Not so the stags! Milord got in at 3:30am after about 6 pubs and clubs, slurring and stinky and obnoxious (although it's possible that anyone would be obnoxious at 3:30am). At 4:30am I moved onto the couch to get away from the stinky snoring, and when I snuck into the bedroom to get my shoes to leave for work this morning the fumes nearly knocked me down!

I'm pretty sure he won't be feeling good today!

Right, better get back to work. If you don't hear from me before the weekend I probably won't get a chance to post again until I get. back. from. sailing.... woohoo!

Odd Things

I've seen lately...

On my walk to work I passed the rear of a large building. In the center of the parking lot a couple of men were laying out a patch of turf on the tarmac. It would have been in the way of anything trying to enter or leave.

Today I saw a cyclist on one of those "lying-down" bikes sail through a red light in the middle of Sydney. 4 lanes of traffic had to stop or dodge.

Back off the wagon...

And just fine, thanks!

Milord and I cracked the bubbly last night, which was very pleasant and I was very tiddly after just one glass! I threw together dinner and we started the next bottle of wine...

...and we were useless cheap dates. We stopped after half the bottle and went to water. Today was fine, Milord is still losing weight and girth and is on track to fitting into his suit in 2 days time!

Tonight could be a different story...

Break open the champagne!

Septsober is over! Woohoo!

I have a very good bottle of "traditional method" sparkling wine in the fridge awaiting my arrival home after work (who else finds it really annoying that we can't label it "champagne" any more?) as well as a decent sauvignon blanc to follow.

Our diet is doing it's best to stay on track this week as we are off to a wedding on the weekend and Milord is 2cm off getting his suit pants done up... that's down from 3cm on Saturday so it is possible he'll get there in time! It's quite amazing how fast my man can lose weight when he puts his mind to it.

I look fine in my dress but it wouldn't hurt me to lose half a kilo or so. The forecast for the weekend is hot and rainy, so I'm not fully decided on what I'm wearing yet. Either a full length red satin halterneck, or a blue/black mid-calf lace/satin number. I'm dying to wear the red, but it might be too hot for a midday wedding in 30C humidity!

I had no takers on the Ocsober sponsorship, so I'll spend that $100 on new earrings and a handbag! Mwahaha...

Roll on hometime and a glass of bubbly!

[update: 20 minutes to hometime and Milord is emailing me time checks...

...in unrelated news check out the view from my office window. Isn't that just totally awesome!]

1.5 days to go!

Septsober is nearly over! Just over a day to go and I can pour an ice cold glass of crisp dry sauvignon blanc, inhale it's grassy goodness and then sip the gooseberry capsicum nectar and feel it tingle all the way down my throat.

This weekend was the roughest craving I've had in weeks. Partly because I was tired and cranky (note to self, do not donate blood when having your period - bad combo), and I think partly because the end is in sight! I only survived because Milord kept me on the straight and narrow.

We went cycling this weekend - I borrowed a friend's bicycle and Milord and I explored a cycle track which follows a river not far from home. Apparently the total distance is 25km, but we just went went for half an hour then turned around and came home. It was lovely with lots of parkland, sports fields and a golf course along the way. We will take a picnic next time, and I must take photos.

I haven't been on a bike in years, and I haven't really cycled since I left school. It does come back quickly, although I had a lot of trouble with tight corners! I also had trouble with my bum - after an hour in the saddle I was in agony, and a couple of days later I am still aware of my butt bones... we may need to ease into this cycling lark!

Septsober almost done, what about Ocsober?

No no not me! I'm not doing another month off the grog until maybe next year... I hear February is a nice short one!

However, I know that a lot of Aussies will be attempting "Ocsober" to raise money for Life Education, a non-government organisation who educate kids about the dangers of drink and drugs. I would have signed up myself but the timing was a bit off for me.

Instead I am prepared to sponsor someone else. None of my friends here in Sydney are interested - bloody alkies.

Therefore: If you intend to participate in Ocsober and you stumble across this post before October 2008, leave me a comment and I'll sponsor you $100! If you're very lucky I might be able to talk my 3 readers into sponsoring you too! I'll give you a guest pass to my blog and you will be required to blog once a week about the experience. If you are in Sydney then I'll take you out for a drink when you are done.

I hope you find the experience easier than I did.

Odd Things

I've seen lately...

On the way to work I saw 3 women on the edge of a park, dancing a slow bollywood-style routine in near-perfect unison.

I saw a wedding party having their photos taken in a bustling pedestrianised mall, surrounded by hundreds of hurrying people. The bridal couple was posing in the Armani store doorway, right in front of a huge poster of a half-naked man.

The optomotrist store in my high street has a poster in the window advertising a Stevie Wonder gig.

Across time

Inspired by Claire's letter to her 17 year self, but considering that I recently wrote about being 17...

If you could talk to the you of 10 or 20 years time, what would you say? What questions do you have? Here we go...

Dear Saffa in 10 years time,

So, mid 40's eh? How's that going? Milord is jumpy right now about turning 50 in a couple of years, are you cool with it? I'll tell you what I'm telling him: no one over 30 thinks 50 is that old! Folk over 60 think you're wet behind the ears. Relax and enjoy, you have decades still to come!

Are you a good mother? They'll be well under 10 years old if I do my job right so in theory at the nicest stage! Do you enjoy being a mom? If you are struggling then remember why you did it: because it is the biggest adventure challenge there is and you didn't want to turn into one of those rather strange stunted women who never had a family and who channel all their love into dogs and cats. You know who I mean.

Are you still a good wife? Your 10 year anniversary has just passed. Remember your priorities - your husband must come first if your marriage is going to be happy. Husband, then children, then self, then job. Do you have the balance right?

Are you taking care of yourself? You better be, because I'm knocking myself out here in your 30's to give you a good body to carry on with! Moderation, darling. You know the truth, now believe in it. And get that husband of yours to cut back too.

I'd love to know what job you are doing. There are very few programmers around in their late 40s (ok ok, mid 40s) right now... does that become the norm or do you head into management? Did you stop for a few years to bring up the kids? Did you discover a whole new direction? Whatever you choose I'm sure you're fine. If you're not fine then stop! Go do something else - it's never too late to be a success in a new direction - just think of your mom and what she achieved after 55.

Speaking of which, how is your mom? She'll be just over 70. Did you manage to get her to emigrate to be with you? Is she living in a granny flat in your garden helping with the kiddies or forging yet another career somewhere? Did she find someone to love? God I hope so, she has so much to give to the right bloke. Is she with a good bloke? If not then do something about it this time!

And how's Dad and Stepmom? Still semi-retired on the sunset coast spoiling the grandkids when they get the chance? I bet Dad's turned into one of those marvellous sinewy old blokes who can still windsurf at 75. Awesome.

I assume you're still in Sydney, but if you're in a whole new continent I won't be surprised - you always had itchy feet.

Don't you dare get boring on me! Remember: "Life is short, so why not?!"

Yours sincerely
30's Saffa

What wasn't for dinner Wednesday

Day 24 off the grog. We have added fairly strict dieting to our regime and now we're losing weight... funny that. Oh well, one week left and I get my life back!

Cravings: Gone.
Skin: Great, except I now have PMS (pre menstrual spots) coming up.
Weight: Down a bit, but that's because of diet not drink.
Money saved: We were doing pretty well then got a parking fine and speeding fine so would have spent the same on wine and a taxi!


I'm going to stop the weekly meal post - I'm very busy at work lately so it seems every other post is about food and that's just not interesting! If we cook up something stunning I may post it in future.

For the record though last night we had a butternut, brussel sprout and asparagus risotto that's a keeper! If anyone asks I'll post the recipe.

Haircut again

About a month ago I cut my hair from shoulder-length to quite short. It was a nice enough cut, and an enormous relief after several years of long hair, but it just wasn't quite what I wanted. I'd had to argue with the hairdresser to get her to make the sides short and I found the whole look was a bit shapeless and hard to style. What I wanted is what is probably best known as a "pixie" cut, but try explaining that to a Vietnamese lady with bad English!

So the other day I was passing a proper hairdresser and on impulse I popped in and asked if they had a free slot. They did, and I described the cut I wanted to the ladyboy assigned to me.

"Very short back and sides, and longer on top."
"How short?"
"Very short."
"Like a boy's cut?"
"Uh... what?"

So (s)he brought me a brochure of men's cuts and I chose one. I presume they don't call it a pixie cut when it's on a bloke, but that's exactly what it is!

Cute, sexy, much easier to style, and Milord likes it too. (The fringe is supposed to fall forward, but I have a wild cowlick to contend with)


In my 20's I had quite a similar cut, so this makes me feel a decade younger. The only difference is that I used to have my hair a whole lot lighter - "platinum blonde" I think we called it. Milord has seen the photos, and yesterday he commented that my hair is so much darker than back then, and he'd like it lighter. Well, why not? I picked up some pre-lightener at the chemist (because the usual stuff doesn't take me light enough) and disappeared into the bathroom, emerging with super-blonde hair a bit later. Milord was a bit shocked, silly thing! (If your natural colour is not blonde then don't do this at home)


I now look exactly like my mother did in her 30s (she's always had very short platinum hair)... which is not a bad thing but it is a little disturbing!