Travel Time

This week I have a quick trip to Canberra/Sydney/Melbourne.

The plan is as follows:- Tuesday morning wake up in Brisbane. Go to airport and travel from Brisbane to Canberra. Have a few meetings. Back to airport and fly from Canberra to Sydney then from Sydney to Melbourne. Staying in Melbourne overnight, have a planning day on Wednesday then back to the airport and home to Brisbane.

Doesn't that sound like fun?

Lovely surprise

There was a lovely surprise waiting for me when I came home from Canberra last night. What a lovely husband I have - still buying me flowers after 10 years together.

Thanks darling!

Emergency

Tom took a squash ball to the eye tonight so we ended up at the Mater. It was a tad stressful and I drove like a tourist on the way there but we did get there and the doctor pronounced Tom's eye to be fine. What a relief. I mean what if Tom couldn't see how pretty I am? what a tragedy that would be :)

Fabulous veal recipe

Since I am still sick poor Tom had to come home early today to take me to the doctor and then, while I waited for the doctor, go grocery shopping. And then once we were home, medical certificate excusing me from work until tomorrow in hand, he also had to cook dinner.

We had veal steaks in the fridge so I found the following recipe on the net. Tom cooked it to perfection and it was the best veal I have tasted. Well done darling!

Mustard Veal

• 4 small thin veal steaks
• 1/4 cup mustard
• 1 tablespoon butter
  
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 cup chicken stock or water

Preheat oven to 160°C. Place veal between 2 sheets baking paper. Bash with flat side of a meat mallet until paper thin. Using half the mustard, spread over both sides of veal and then coat lightly in flour. Heat half the butter and half the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat until sizzling. Cook steaks for 1 minute each side until light golden. Transfer to an oven-proof dish. Add garlic, stock and remaining mustard to pan. Bring to the boil, stirring. Pour over veal. Bake for 15 minutes. Serve with mashed potato and green beans.

Wedding Dress: dress for wedding

This week has been frantic. Today I did 8 hours of training and about 4 hours of report writing. And then after I was exhausted and totally over it - I went shopping. Because our weekend is already fully booked (dance card is full boys and girls) we had no option but to shop for my outfit for the wedding next Saturday tonight.

I started at Maiocchi as per Ness's instructions. (Thanks for the tip Ness - I really like the store) I thought I was on a winner with this dress..... but it wasn't quite right. I did find another couple of tops that I really liked but in the interest of getting an outfit in time for the wedding I shelved them and moved on.

My next stop was Cue which really only seemed to have very picked over sale stock in styles that didn't appeal anyway. At this stage Tom joined me and we contemplated giving up and going home - what stamina we have :) . But instead we had a bite or two to eat in Queens Plaza which gave us renewed energy.

Then we started fresh at David Jones. I went straight to the Veronica Maine area and found a great dress. I tried it on and it was a really great very flattering and very much my style - plain and classic. Now if I was a guy I would probably have bought it straight away but I am not so I proceeded to search the entire of David Jones to see if there was a better option. Needless to say an hour of my patient husband's time later, which included a trip to lingerie, hosiery, shoes and menswear, we concluded that in fact the dress I found first was the best in the entire shop. So we bought it. And now I just have to pray that no one else who is going to the wedding buys it too....

Travel

Finally I got Gold Status on my Qantas Frequent Flyer. Now I just have to try and maintain it. ..hmmm.

I am doing a lot of travel at the moment. I am leaving for Sydney tomorrow and am there until Wednesday night. Then on Friday I am doing a flying visit of Townsville - going up in the morning, running a training session and then coming back after work. Then next week I am going up on Monday night and back Tuesday afternoon and then ditto the week after. And then two weeks after that I am in Canberra for a project management course for two days.

Travel makes me tired. But it is always nice to come home.......

Proposal

Andrew and Kat's recent engagement has got me thinking about when Tom and I became engaged. It was such a special day. Tom put so much effort, money and planning into making sure it was really special for us.

It really all started on my 21st Birthday when my grandfather passed away. It was a very sad day for me and left a bit of a sadness associated with the day. Two years later on my 23rd Birthday Tom picked me up from my apartment at Toowong to spend my birthday together. Little did I know what he had in mind....

My first surprise was that Tom had hired a beautiful black BMW Z3 Roadster. At this stage I had no idea that anything was happening. I just thought it was for my Birthday. We drove the Roadster up to the Sunshine Coast hinterland - it is such a nice area up there.

Tom drove us to my favorite picnic spot behind the church at the top of the hill in Montville. We both got out of the car to go over and look at the view as we had so many times before. We have had lunch there a lot over the years - so much in fact that I had a local artist paint a picture of the beautiful scene for Tom's birthday one year.

Overlooking the picturesque north coast hinterland Tom got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I am not sure if I actually said "yes". I think I may have said "of course". Followed by an Elaine style "get out" and happy tears. I was so thrilled.

Following the proposal we drove to Noosa and had lunch at the Sheraton to celebrate. That night we saw my parents and Tom's parents to tell them the happy news.

It was a great day and I think about it often. It was really special and just perfect. Having such a special event happen on my Birthday helped me distance the grief from my grandfather's death from my Birthday and made it a day for celebration again - just as it should be.

Congratulations Andrew and Kat

Andrew finally popped the question to Kat (Congratulations guys!) so it seems that I will be going to a wedding in December. Time for a new outfit....

Home sick II

I am home sick again today.

I managed to only do three loads of washing yesterday and spent lots of time resting so I was really happy with that. Today I have been even better doing absolutely nothing except for a bit of tidying around the place...I couldn't help myself.

But on the up side to do feel much better tonight and I will definitely be at work tomorrow.

For lunch today I had vegetable soup that I made on Sunday night. I was even more delicious after stewing in the fridge for a few days. Here is a picture I took of just before eating it today. See below for the recipe. It is very easy to make and so long as you use good quality stock it tastes great.


Classic Vegetables Soup

2 x 400 cans chopped tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely crushed
2 carrots, chopped
2 sticks celery, chopped
2 zucchini, finely chopped
4 cups vegetables stock

Combine all ingredients in saucepan over medium heat. Cook for 20 minutes. Cool before transferring soup to blender. Blend soup to desired consistency. Reheat and serve hot with crusty bread or croûtons.

Home sick

I am at home sick today. I have been sick for almost two weeks and up until now have struggled through. But since I still am not better I thought it would be prudent to have a full day off and do nothing but rest. I actually think that is going to be a challenge for me. There are a lot of things around the house that I could do today and no doing them is going to be difficult. I will see how I go.

Luckily there is a fair bit of new stuff on the Buffalo. I think there will be a lot of lying under the blanket on the couch watching tv.

Hopefully after today I will get better......