Champagne - twice in 1 week!

Yay! Three months since my last champagne posting we are back on topic. It was with great pleasure this week that I was able to review 2 of France's finest:

Bubbles 1 - G.H. MUMM 1999 Brut Millesime

Occasion - the engagement of our best man to the love of his life! Mazel tov.

This champagne was amazingly soft, buttery and delicious. It danced lightly on the palate and floated gently to the head! I immediately wanted another bottle to check if anything could taste so ... well ... floaty!

Bubbles 2 - Veuve Clicquot Brut

Occasion - the sale of our unit to an offshore investor currently cruising on the Queen Mary - cheers to you Mrs N!

For me, Veuve signifies contract signing as it was the traditional way my work celebrated deals back in the naughty 90s. Its big and brash and bright (like its orange box) and makes you feel like shouting 'yahoo'! So it was the perfect choice for finally settling on our sale.

Its official - I can cook but can't bake!

In the last week I have cooked up some simple but delicious meals. We've had cottage pie (for us & bub), organic beef sausages with tomato salad and corn, t-bone steak (ok hubby did bbq these so i cant take full credit) with israeli salad, persian fetta and brown rice & last night's yummy chicken tikka masala. Baby Naomi also was served some very tasty salmon with potato & carrot mash, steamed zuchini and a kind of bolognese made from chicken mince.

However, on the baking front, I attempted some cookies and they were so bad I couldn't even bring myself to give to the homeless guys at the beach. They went straight into the bin :(
The funny thing is that Hubby Mark doesn't even have a sweet tooth so I am just baking for the fun of it ... or maybe the challenge? I love pottering in the kitchen, dirtying every dish in sight ... but I would like to be able to eat the results of my therapy occasionally!

Time space continuum leak!

Not sure what happened but its March! The mornings are noticeably cooler and although the sun is still hot around midday, the air temperature is coming down to meet the water temperature, with both hovering around 20 degrees in recent days.

With summer over life is getting busier. I have started doing some work from home (which is what I should be doing now) and picked up another subject at uni (more about that later).

But we still have found time to enjoy of course!! I am loving Centennial Park at the moment and find myself there a few times a week now. Last weekend we hired bikes and took Baby Naomi on her first ride. She loved it ... for the first 5 minutes. We are not sure if it was too scary after that or if the unsightly helmet was just ugly and annoying but she made it pretty clear enough was enough. Suitably complicated manoeuvres followed to return bikes (Hubby Mark rides back, drops off bike 1, gets car, picks up bub, i ride bike 2 etc) ... but it still was a very enjoyable afternoon!

New Shoes!

Thanks so much to Mum & Dad for birthday money! Its so exciting to go shopping guilt free and buy something I really don't need but have covetted for a while. I have recently developed an obsession for 'Sambag' (www.sambag.com.au) - a Sydney shoe boutique specialising in handmade ballet flats (still made in China but they assure me its a workshop of 12 guys rather than a factory).

After driving past and staring longingly for months it was great to be able to go in and buy a pair! I ended up chosing the 'Grace muted snakeskin ballet flat in black with matching grosgrain ribbon trim and bow'.

I think its the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Happy Birthday To Me!

On the 22 of this month I turned 33! Eeek.

My day was lovely - a quiet Bondi Sunday. We went out for breakfast and although we couldn't get a table at our regular local spot we ended up at the Ravesi Hotel for fancy pancakes complete with view. Oh la la. Later in the afternoon we went out for sushi and a wander through the markets. Then Unky Dan came over and we had chocolate cake - with candles! Yay!

The evening was an extra treat. Bubbe Esther babysat and Mark & I went to our first movie in 9 months! Ironically we splurged on Gold Class tickets, reclined in plush seats, sipped wine and slurped $20 icecream ... all while watching Slumdog Millionaire. Hmmmm.

I did very well on the pressies too, scoring books, DVDs, smelly things, pretty things, money and .... a video camera (on order so stay tuned for our foray into movie making coming soon)!

Going ... Going ... Not Sold!

All day the excitement and anticipation was building. After months of cleaning and buying fresh flowers for open for inspections, our auction night had finally arrived. I was so nervous I stayed home. Baby Naomi was in bed and I had a beer in one hand (no red wine left in the house!) and my phone in the other. Hubby Mark called from the packed auction room where the hum was audible even over the speaker phone (or, in hindsight, was it just static?). Suddenly there was a buzz at the door - 'We're here for the auction'! After sending a rather frantic sounding couple up to the real estate office and re-settling bub (bloody buzzer) I returned to my lotus pose and waited for proceedings to begin.

'Who will start the bidding on this immaculate Bondi beach pad - it ticks all the boxes'. Waiting, waiting, waiting. NO BIDS!

Over 100 groups have tromped through our place, they turned up at the auction and yet sat with arms crossed and did nothing. GFC? Too many 'hot auction' reality tv shows? Who knows ... Now its up to our agent to negotiate with the highest non-bidder apparently!!

It feels so strange being so out-of-control of the situation. Its like waiting to give birth, although admittedly my part in that was a tad more important than the current 'vendor' part.

So we wait, and enjoy Bondi a bit longer! Might go for a swim :)

Sniffles

I have a cold. Sniff sniff. I was a bad patient before I was a mum ... but now being sick is even more difficult than before! Naomi doesn't care if I'm sick ... she still wakes up at 6am kicking and squealing with delight - Yay another day! Doesn't she know that every now and then its nice to feel miserable and spend the day under the doona? Maybe its because she has a sleeping bag? Damn you SIDS safe sleeping! And what's worse is that I can't even take any good drugs because I am still breast feeding. Woe is me. Sniff sniff.

Lucky for me I have a fab Hubby ... my Valentine's Day present was sleep!!!