It's just not cricket!

So it's boxing day and my plan was to lounge around and watch the cricket. Didn't really happen.
I have managed to watch parts of it during the day and I'm extremely miffed at missing Warnie boy get his 700th test wicket. Grrr. And the reason for this? Well, the biggest reason is because Mr M would much rather watch repeats of Only Fools & Horses rather than watch cricket! What!?
I sometimes despair, I really do. Okay, so England were gonna get a good stuffing yet again but it's still worth a watch if only to cringe at how badly they do.
But the annoying part is I bought him series 3,4 & 5 on DVD but still he insists on watching the repeats on the TV. And did I mention THE CRICKET IS ON! Even Boony & Beefy let me know half an hour before play was due to start, bless 'em! They're good boys, they even gave us a cracking rendition of Silent Night. We we also treated to cries of "Ho, Ho, Ho, it's Father Boony". Tashtastic!

And I must have been a very good girl as Father Boony brought me a nice lot of pressies! Included was a pile of CDs a couple of DVDs (no Keeping Mum but did get Layer Cake!) a book on Johnny Depp which will be a good read, a set of weights to work of my Christmas treats ( you may think that would be a nasty present but it was actually what I wanted! I really do need to do more exercise) and best of all....... a 320GB external drive for mac! Now I no longer need to worry about breaking his 80GB. It's Lurvly! So I'm gonna transfer all my photo's on to it and possibly my iTunes too. Had great fun trying to get it to show up on my desktop, and of course computer whizz was more interested in bloody Fools & Horses! Grrrr. I'm afraid I just don;t see the fascination with that programme. Sure, some of it is quite funny, some of it is extremely cringe worthy and most of it just doesn't make me feel much but boredom. I know it's not right, I know that OF&H is a British institution, just not my cuppa I'm afraid.

What I am enjoying this Christmas holidays is Charley Boorman's Road to Dakar. Mum bought the DVD for Mr M for Crimbo and we only have two more episodes to watch after staying up 'til gone midnight to finishing watching the first five. If you liked the Long Way Round or even if you like motobike racing, Road to Dakar is well worth a watch.
I also did get the Ministry of Sound Annual 2007. First disc is awesome! The second disc, which has Fredde Le Grande on it, is unfortunately not to my taste. It's a bit too OTT with all the extra electro sounds which to me are unnecessary. Well, you can't win them all but I'm lovin' the first disc so it's not a complete waste.

I managed not to get sunburnt on Christmas day, thank god! Yesterday was really nice. We were woken up by the sound of rain so it felt like back home :-) It picked up for the afternoon so it was back to normal. Not too sure how it will be on NYE, the forecast is for rain but I'm hoping they've got it wrong.
Fingers crossed!

The joys of Christmas

Wrapping! Actually it's not a joy, in fact it's a pain in the arse. This is a skill that is not placed on my CV so why was I asked to wrap 3 bottles of wine. They're currently being re-wrapped as we speak. Not by me of course, after my first attempt, it's best I stay clear of the of the scissors.
Besides, bottles are such an awkward shape. How on earth are you supposed to wrap them nicely? And who cares about the wrapping anyway? All anyone does is rip it off to get to the present! Bah Humbug!

So because I'm not happy today, in fact I'm in one foul mood, I am going to go an treat myself to the Ministry of Sound Annual 2007. Not my usual taste but I bought a Ministry of Sound album this year, can't remember which one and it was very good. While not a big fan of dance music, every now and then I hear a few songs that I really like. At the moment I'm really enjoying Fredde Le Grande's Put your Hands Up for Detroit! I really shouldn't like this song, but it's just constantly in my head and now I have to have it! I hate buying singles so I thought I'd opt for the Ministry so that I can also enjoy my other fav track Love Don't let Me Go by David Guetta Vs the Egg. My only dilemma is which version to buy. I never realised that the Ministry have a UK version of The Annual and an Australian version. Seeing as the UK is an import, it's gonna be a bit exy, so.... think that has decided it really LOL

Now I just have to wait to be let out of work so I can go buy it. Today just isn't gonna finish quick enough!

Owww, my head!

I'm still in recovery mode from the works do last night. You know, the nice meal that was very civilised? Well the food was lovely as was the company but we drank a fair bit! I know some of you won't be surprised at this, but I was! LOL

It started with a glass of Champers at one of local pubs where Mr M's work colleagues were having Chrissy drinks. They started at 3pm yesterday but thankfully I arrived at 5.45 in time for a quick one before going to the restaurant for dinner at 6pm. Then before dinner I had another glass of Champers before my boss went into wine ordering over load!
According to the bill we had 5 bottles of red and 1 bottle of white, that's one and a half bottles each. Plus we had a gorgeous shot of Limencello, like a lemon flavoured Grappa. That was stunning, and because I liked it I was given the spare one that was on the table. And I'm wondering why my head hurts!

My boss and his lovely wife also got me a beautiful Christmas present, a gift box of Crabtree & Evelyn's La Source. I'm looking forward to going through all the lotions and potions in that this weekend, and after all the drinking this week, I think my pour body could use a bit of nurturing. Even if it is only from the outside.

And we have another dinner to go to tonight.... friends of ours are going back to Perth for Christmas so we wanted to catch up before they left. I think by Saturday my body, or more specifically my liver, will be begging me for a rest.
Ah, it's all good fun and in the spirit of the festive season. Just watch out for those liquid spirits!

Though I think we should raise a glass tonight for a cricket legend who is departing the sport. The man with the bad taste in undies (yep, you've guessed it, Shane Warne) has announced his retirement :-( Typical, I just start getting into cricket as one of the characters is leaving. It's been interesting to see the responses on the News websites. Most people are sorry to see him leave but there are a fair few that have quite a distaste for Mr Warne and most of it was in regards to his personal exploits. Ok, so he's been a bit of a silly boy but that's part of his personal life and to be honest I really couldn't give a flying f... But that's what sells papers and magazines these days.

This has also jogged my memory of an article I read today about Posh Spice becoming an actress. I say becoming, because I don't think what she did in the Spice Girls film (whatever it was called) is worthy of being called acting. According to the report, Tom Cruise wants Posh to play an alien bride. Now I think that is an excellent piece of casting as it wouldn't require that much make up. Sorry, but in my personal opinion, I don't think the Posh is pretty, I don't even think she is remotely attractive. With her spindly frame and gaunt facial features I really do think that she could convince people that she's an alien. But what I find quite bizarre is that Mr Cruise thinks that she would be the perfect person for the role as he is impressed with her comic genius. Somehow I can't picture Posh as a comedienne, but perhaps she will prove us sceptics wrong. Perhaps.

Sex Bomb

FPMSL, I've just read on the news that some chap in the UK has been awarded damages of $7.51 Million all because he had the desire to have sex after waking up from a Coma!
Now, if he was claiming damages for the fall at work which put him into the Coma, well, that would be different. But he actually won a claim for having a sex overdrive. I find this very bizarre. Even more bizarre is that his wife didn't like his new found sex drive! But they are devout Christians, so maybe the bump on the noggin cleared him of the brainwashing eh?

Anyway, enough of that stuff. Just put it down to me being grumpy. I did warn you it would ahppen this week, and today is the day! It was pouring with rain this morning and we have now found that we have a leak in the en suite, this is related to the rain and not to the many water outlets in the en suite. You see the house we live in has a weird roof structure, most of it is pitched but some sections are flat. The en suite roof is flat. And due to the torrential down pour I got very wet before getting in to work this morning. And to top it all we had a power surge at 9.30 this morning which took out our whole network! No phones and no internet = not happy! We had power everywhere else except in our server room. Nearly 4 hours later it eventually gets fixed, which is how I'm here. Yay!

We also have our office Crimbo party tonight. It should be really good as it is only by boss, his lovely wife who also works here and Mr M and myself. Unlike Mr M's office party which involved face painting, a santa impersonator and worst of all.......Children! It was a night that we both ahad been dreading but thankfully the kids were well behaved and we managed to drink quite a bit of the free booze on offer! Isn't that what Christmas is all about?

Hic!



Hmmm, for some strange reason not all posts have the ability to leave comments and I'm not too sure as to why. After being asked by my best friend why she couldn't leave comments, I decided to allow it, but after changing the settings only the first post and the last appear to have the comments ability. Needs some investimigating me thinks!

This weekend I've been mainly.....

Sleeping! I love weekends 'cos I can get so much sleeping done. I reckon I must have been a cat in a previous life as they also like to sleep. I've been told on numerous occassions "you could sleep for Wales!" and now it seems I can also sleep for Australia too.
If only there was sleeping in the Olympics, I could win two countries a gold medal. Hmmm, they probably wouldn't let me represent two countries. Sorry Australia, you win enough gold medals on your own, so sleeping for Wales it is!

Strange! It's Monday morning and I'm feeling quite happy, must due to all the sleep I had. By mid week I'll no doubt be back to my grumpy self. But maybe not, it is nearly Christmas after all and that means plenty of alcohol in many different forms, plus food and presents and alcohol followed by sleep. Please note that the last sentence was not written in order of my activites for Christmas day. I know I like to indulge in a glass of wine or five but never before midday!

We went shopping on Saturday. Hey, this is exciting, honest. We bought a food processor!
So maybe it's not exciting to you but it is to us, but even the food processor isn't as good as the saute pan we bought. Is it wrong to fall in love with a saute pan? It's just so lovely! It's an Anolon Advanced by Meyer and was a little on the pricey side but we had a gift voucher to use in Myers so what the heck! It is the best pan I've ever used and I'm now after the complete saucepan set to replace our old Tefal ones - sorry guys, you've been relegated!

And even better than a food processor and the saute pan (though the saute pan was used Saturday night) was the Chicken Korma we cooked from scratch. Big thanks to www.curryfrenzy.com for the best Korma I've had since coming to Sydney. And it tastes so authentic to the true British curry - Yum! We had a few problems with the coconut but we will rectify that for next Saturday nights curry fest. And best of all, it's actually pretty easy to make. Check out the link and click on recipes to have a go yourself, there's plenty of recipes there. The only ingredient we left out of our Korma was the Cayenne Chilli because we couldn't find one in the supermarket. Instead we used Cayenne Chilli powder and it did the trick just fine.

Also on Saturday we watched some of the Cricket. Yes, I know I shouldn't mention the Cricket as England aren't doing too well but there was a piece of sporting history that was made. My fav Aussie Cricketer scored the second fastest 100 in test history! Go Gilly! For those who have no idea as to who I'm referring to, it is none other than Adam Gilchrist. What a star!
See told you I was getting into Cricket!
I was talking to Mr Milko about the famous Almanac that comes out every year and I couldn't remember the title. I was racking my brains until I finally remembered that it was Wisden, only to be greeted by a look of "still don't know what you're talking about". He hadn't heard of the Wisden Almanac! I though everyone knew of that book even if they didn't know much about Cricket. I don't know much about Cricket, I'm just starting out but I knew of Wisden.
Well you learn something new every day!

Saturday was also good as Boony & Beefy made a strange sound. Sure enough, they are now saying new things. Yay! In fact the boys were jabbering away quite well during the Cricket this weekend. Okay, so some of you are reading this thinking "what they hell is she talking about?"
VB (the great Aussie beer even though Boags premium is more tasty) have a promotion happening called Boonanza. No, this has nothing to do with the 80's TV show but has everything to do with Aussie Cricket legend David Boon. The man with the Mo' has been immortalised in a cute little talking doll and has been joined by the English fave, Ian "beefy" Botham. These two little guys come out with some great phrases for the cricket and about VB.
You should know that it doesn't take a lot to entertain me! But if you want to take a look, got to www.boonanza.com.au 'on yer Knackers!

Keeping with the theme of Cricket, Mr Milko was watching an excellent programme last night while I was busy finishing off the Crimbo cards. I came down in time to watch the last half of the programme. It was called Bodyline and was about a test cricket match between Australia and England back in 1932-3. I guess you could say it was the scandal of cricket, much worse than the pictures of Warnie in his undies! Hmmm, no, I think the pictures of Warnie in his undies are much worse, at least for causing me nightmares. Warnie, you're a great cricketer but you have terrible taste in underwear.
The last part of the programme is on tonight, and I enjoyed last nights so much that I'm prepared to miss CSI Miami just to watch it! It's only a repeat of Miami anyway, so chances are I've already seen that episode. Sorry Horatio, but you've been relegated too! Just for tonight anyway.

Hoodwinked

We watched Hoodwinked last night.
I'd been waiting for over a week for a copy to become free from the Video Store (or should that now be DVD Store?) and it was in last night. Lot's of excitement as I've wanted to see this film for ages.

Result: Dissapointed :-(

It looked like a really good funny film but it just wasn't that funny. There were a few bits that made me chuckle but they were very few. Was it me? Maybe it was 'cos I was pain from my neck which had been giving my grief since yesterday morning (think I must have slept awkward as it was my usual neck problem), or maybe it just wasn't that funny?
Must say though, I did enjoy the character of Granny who actually gave me the most laughs with her love of extreme sports. But I did think the wolf was going to be funnier 'cos it was the same guy that did the voice of Kronk in Disney's Emperor's New Groove - and that WAS funny!

Still have the Lake House that I want to watch and might see about getting that out tonight, hope that won't be a dissapointment as well.

Actually the best film I've seen recently, which is the best comedy I've seen in ages, was Keeping Mum. What a little gem of a film! It hadn't been advertised that much over here and I caught the trailer for it on Fox Box Office. We got that out the other night and I enjoyed it so much I put it on my Xmas list!

Let's just hope that Santa brings it.

Men in Trees

Watched the first episode of this last night and it was actually quite good. It's from the makers of Sex in the City of which I was never a big fan, and had actually forgotton that fact until close to the end of the episode when the main character gave a monolgue just like Carrie Bradshaw used to in Sex in the City.

But apart from that, I thoroughly enjoyed it :-) It sorta reminded me of Northern Exposure but it's not quite so kooky. Must be 'cos it's set in Alaska. I'm not saying it's as good as Northern Exposure, oh no. In fact it will never be as good as Northern Exposure :-)

Santa's bringing me Season 4 for Christmas! Yay!

Had a pretty good day in work yesterday, not that I generally get bad days in my new job but yesterday just seemed to .... just go well. I've been given a job to fill and haven't been having too much luck on finding the right people for it even though the ad is up on Seek etc. It's a very specialist role to do with a specific peice of EDM software. I've since found out from a very close friend that EDM stands for Electronic Dance Music (think that's right) as well as Electronic Document Management. There's probably more people with an interest in the first EDM rather than the latter, but it's the latter that I need.

So imagine my surprise when I had three CV's emailed to me yesterday and two interested phone calls! Jump for joy? I almost fell off my chair! So I'm quite happy that I seem to be getting some where at last. And it all happened due to someone else's blog. Good stuff this bloging malarky :-)

But with the good comes the bad.

I was not a happy bunny last night. They are widening the freeway which isn't that far from our usually quite cul-de-sac and the barstewards kept waking me up in the early hours of this morning. Disrupted sleep makes Miss M more of a bitch than usual...grrrr..... as the neighbour next door very nearly found out when he decided he'd like to drill a wall at 8am on a Saturday morning! Oi, shit for brains some of us have been working all week and relish the lie in on a Saturday morning and I really do not appreciate being shocked out of bed thinking the bloody wall is gonna come down you fuckwit! ....grrr...snarl....grrrr

And the reason the freeway is being widened, for those of you who are intrigued, is because of the Lane Cove Tunnel. Yet another waste of money because people won't use it 'cos it will cost too much on the tolls so Epping Rd will still be as packed and cramped with cars every morning with people trying to get to work in North Ryde. Boy am I gald I don't work there! BTW, you can see the Freeway widening in the pic - fun huh?

Though it does remind me that I really should get an E-Tag for the car, especially as more and more new roads are Tag only. Which has now reminded me that I need to pay my bills. and it's nearly pay day! Woo hoo!

Christmas time, misteltoe and Wine

I'm sure I've spelt mistletoe wrong, but never mind.

Yes, it's that time of year once again! Where does the time go? All I know is that wherever it goes, it's going there too quick!
Apologies for the Christmas cards (to the people who get Christmas cards from me) as they only got posted yesterday. I'm hoping they will arrive in time for the big day.

So what are the plans for a sunny Christmas in Oz this year? Probably the same as last year but minus the sunburn! For those of you that have recently joined and do not know what I'm talking about, please let me explain.........
Last Christmas day we took some turkey sandwiches, pickled onions and plenty of water, to the beach with us. For the first time in, oh, many years, my legs were let loose to blind anybody that dare look at them. So off we went to sit on the beach for about an hour or so - any longer and I get bored, but this is Australia so we thought we'd "do the Australian thing". Having applied suncream to my legs, I merrily looked at them blending into the sand with their paleness. By the time we had got home, I was tender. By the evening, I was cooking very nicely! By the next morning, I couldn't walk very well!
You see, I seemed to have managed to cook my legs. In fact I, or rather the sun, did such a good job you could have eaten my legs 'cos they were cooked so much. This resulted in much pain and a close brush with whether to go to the hospital or not. Fortunately it went down and about three weeks later my legs were almost looking like they should, all be it with a touch of extra colour.

So this year, dear Santa, I would like to not have sunburn for Christmas!

Apart from going to the beach and making sure I'm covered from head to toe, we will be enjoying the time off work. We have a nice little fibre optic tree this year which I've even managed to decorate with a few small baubles. It's not the same as having a nice big 6ft tree but it's much better than the 30cm mini real tree we had last year. At least we can get presents under this tree as opposed to having them around the TV!
Yet it still doesn't feel like Christmas :-(
I reckon it's because of the weather as well as missing my friends and family. Although the weather today is 18 - 21 degrees C!!!! How cold? Yes, i realise that isn't really that cold but it is when you've had a drop from 35 degrees C yesterday. Funny weather.

So who is everyone backing for Crimbo no.1 in the UK? I hear that there is a big push for Sir Cliff this year - about time too! Though I'm not sure if his song is very chrissmassy. I like a nice proper Christmas song, like Slade's "It's Christmas!" Though hearing them all the time is very tedious and soon has me pulling my hair out. I remember we used to have a pretty decent Christmas soundtrack in the shop, there was Destiny's Child singing some xmas song or other, Mariah Carey and other people I've never heard of, but it was good. And it was fun.

Also, I've not seen Mistletoe for years. Does it still exist? I wonder if they have it in Australia?
Perhaps I should take a look.

"Where you from? You sexy thing"

Yes it's me! I finally have my own little peice of t'internet to call home. Yippee Zippee!
Now where do I start......

S'pose I should explain the title. Well, as friends will no doubt agree, I am terrible at mis hearing things. No, this one isn't mine, it's actually my Mum's. It's been around since I was little and as I needed a title for my blog I decided to use it. I was going to go with "pretty bacon" but that had already been taken as a blog address :-(

Well, whoever own's it, I do hope they are making good use of it. But I bet they weren't singing "Pretty Bacon" at the top of their voice many moons ago at an after race concert at Silverstone so Nerrr! Hee, Hee, Heee.
Yes, I did know that it was a Sex Pistols song but having only ever heard it as a child (don't ask, it will pobably get explained at a later date) I really didn't know the lyrics. I knew the tune, just not the lyrics. So I'm standing in a sea of people and sing along to what I thought they were singing. No wonder they looked at me strangely! Though that happens quite a bit anyway LOL