So Excited

Two sleeps until Vietnam...

Tonight is washing, packing, and making sure I know how to get from Saigon (HCMC) Airport to our hotel...

Tomorrow night is dinner at St.Kilda with Maree and Mel, and a Grinspoon concert at the Prince Bandroom...by myself at this stage, but hopefully I will find someone to go with today or tomorrow...

Then Thursday morning I'm flying to Vietnam! 12 days of exploring, relaxing, eating, and hopefully not too much food poisoning...

A Cooking Week

When I'm studying I don't spend a lot of time on cooking- I still cook most nights, but I don't take much time to learn new or complex recipes and try them out...but this past few weeks I have been going crazy in the kitchen. Its so satisfying! Thanks so much to Lil for putting me onto Taste.com.au, which has all the recipes from the cooking magazines. So what have I been cooking?

• Roast Lamb with Roast and steamed veggies and Apple Crumble (special because it was for 9 people...I had a bit of help towards the end)
  
• Hungarian Goulash (pretty easy, pretty healthy and very good)
• Chicken Soup (Mum's famous recipe- I finally started liking it Mum!)
• Erwtensoup (A Dutch recipe- I got it off the internet, and it turned out pretty good, although Maree and Natasha were pretty sceptical about it)
• Appel Tart (Another Dutch recipe, this time from Mum. I ate way too much of it! But the main purpose in cooking it was the Biggest Morning Tea fundraiser for cancer)
• Lasagne (to be eaten tomorrow night- it looks pretty gourmet)
  

...Still to make:

• Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Casserole with Thyme
• Chicken, Leek and Mushroom soup

And then comes Vietnam! I don't have many plans yet (on my Sunday to do list), but one thing that I do have planned and am really excited about is the food! I love the Vietnamese food that I have had here in Little Vietnam (aka Richmond) is awesome, and I can't wait to try out the real deal!! 5 sleeps!

Piccies

So far this weekend has been very cultural...the weekend pretty much started on Thursday night, when I went to see Little Birdy and Eskimo Joe at the Palais Theatre in St Kilda. I was excited about Little Birdy, but I'd talked myself into believing that Eskimo Joe had just become too famous and overrated. They were both fantastic, and I will definitely be getting through a few workouts over the next few weeks to their tunes...

My weekend was then interrupted by having to work for a half day on Friday, after which was a long long work lunch. We went to this great restaurant, I know it sounds a bit plebbish, but I haven't had a entre-main-dessert type meal many times before, and it was kind of cool. The food was great, and the service even better... This was followed up by going out with a few work mates- its great to finally (after 6 months) start making some friends at work...

Saturday started with the usual- markets (Queen Vic) with Mel, and breakfast (at Melbourne Central) with Maree and Mel...I'm going to miss you when you go Mel!

Then the real culture started: today I had an AFL game (Essendon vs Lions) and then an NRL game (Storm vs Roosters). Great fun- two such different games, and I had a great time at both. Sadly I have decided to defect from my current team- Port Adelaide, and start going for Essendon, because I think James Hird is hot. Tom explained to me that this would be a stupid move, seeing as Port are on top of the ladder, obviously not understanding how I choose which team to barrack for! :)

The NRL was fun too, and while it is missing ALL the class of rugby union, leaving only the violence and straight lines, it is entertaining. And the men are marvels of nature...

Enjoy the piccies...some are from the past few weeks, and then rest go back a bit further:

Storm vs Roosters coming out of (a farce of) a scrum. Storm won, but both teams played very poorly, probably not helped by having all their good players out for the State of Orgin.

Why can't I be a Melbourne Storm supported? Because this is their crappy mascot, "Storm Man" a skinny little man who the players could eat for breakfast in lycra. Children (and parents alike) should be scared...mind you, what type of mascot is a Rooster?

Quarter time at the Essendon vs Lions game. I got a free ticket in the Medallion club (at the Telstra dome) through work. I still think the game is stupid, but the guys who play are amazing athletes, and its still fun.

Eskimo Joe

Eskimo Joe again. They were just awesome!

Little Birdy. Katie has dyed her hair blonde and permed it, so she looks even more trashy...but somehow still cool. The four guys in the band are still as good looking as ever. Go Perth bands!

Some grafitti down a Melbourne laneway. I just thought it was cool.

The birthday girl at the Melbourne edition of her 21st birthday!

Happy Birthday sis!

Monnie and John just before we headed in to Adelaide Uni to see Wolfmother on Easter Monday!

Some of the best pizzas I have eaten (and I ate ALOT in Croatia and Italy) from Dad's woodfire pizza oven.

Said fantastic pizzas cooking in the woodfired oven.

Rugby 7's tournament in Adelaide on Easter Saturday and Sunday. I went with Tom on the Saturday and Monnie on the Sunday- it was awesome fun. So fast moving and entertaining, all with a beautiful Adelaide backdrop.

Okay, now this is random. Our new household tradition is to have a bacon and egg brekkie whenever its someones birthday. Maree and I got up early to cook the inaugural breakfast for Natasha's 21st, and having never seen a double yolker, cracked 8 double yolk eggs in a row (from the one carton)! Wow.

Blogging Resolution

I saw Laura on the weekend, which was great! And whilst talking I realised that one of the main ways I stay in touch with so many of my friends and family that I don't get to see that often (which is probably going to continue) is with my blog. So I am making a resolution to get posting more often- even when I am studying (because at the moment in my non-study time I am even busier trying to fit in all the stuff I don't do when I am studying!).

Anyhow...a quick update of things that have been happening:

• John came and visited. We talked about his Summer trip to Asia, Adelaide, career, and ate a Hamburger at Grill'd (highly recommended), pizza at Bimbos (I think that was my first trip this year, oh my goodness it was GREAT!), a Yum Cha snack down a laneway and went to Ding Dong and saw two great bands (Dirty Pink Jeans and The Holidays) before piking for the last two (exhausted we were).
• Laura visited from Sydney with Brett. I got to hear how her new life in Sydney and in domestic bliss is going. So glad to see you well babe.
• Tom took me to the footy, Port vs Demons. Port whooped the Demons arses, and then of course, being wimpy Melbournians they all complained that Port had cheated by the referees giving them a penalty. There were no good punch ups. I was disappointed.
• I had my remaining two wisdom teeth out. Unlike the other two which just pulled straight out this required removing a small piece of my jaw, after pulling back the gum and muscle, then sawing the teeth into pieces to remove it. How do I know this? Local anaesthetic meant that I heard it all. I looked like a lopsided chipmunk for a few days, couldn't fully open my jaw for a few more, then I was fine.
• Went shopping to Moorabin DFO. It wasn't as great as last time, but still good.
• I also shopped for new gym clothes and got two new outfits, which is making going to the gym exciting!
• Bought Splendour in the Grass ticks for August with Hayley....will post more about this later- but is going to be AWESOME!

Well its been two weeks since my exam, and I've managed to do a heap of stuff! Two weeks until I'm off to Vietnam. Two and a half weeks until I get the mark back from the aforementioned exam.

Thanks to everyone who's been helping me have some fun! XXOO Renee

80's - Aerobics Style

Finally I did something FUN and got some photos of it! Thanks Mishie and Simon for putting on such a great party. The night was great fun, everyone was dressed up in their 80's best (headbands and lycra galore), and thanks to Alfy's mixing the cocktails were great and (a little too) freeflowing... Sunday was a tender stomach day!

Renee, Mel, and the very lovely Mishie

Luke (someone who was actually around for the whole 80's), Sam, and Al (who even shaved off the beard for the dirty 80's style moustache)

Renee, Mel and Al