My first Brisvegas hail storm

Queensland, beautiful one day, perfect the next.. How about Brisbane, beautiful one minute, hailstones the next.. After living in Brisbane for a few months I am slowly becoming acclimatised to the warmer weather and wasn't expecting a hail storm to come out of nowhere.

First came the dark skies

 Then a came the hail

Our first visitors

Before we even moved up from Melbourne my sister was planning a trip to come and visit :-)

The Brisbane Festival was on so we headed to Southbank on Saturday for a look around then went up to the lookout at Mt Coot-tha.

Brisbane Festival - Southbank - Liquid Interactive Light Scope

 The Wheel of Brisbane - Southbank

Water feature at Southbank

Brisbane Festival - Southbank - Golden Casket Light Sphere

Southbank Lifestyle Market - street performer

On Sunday we went for a drive through Gallipoli Barracks and then back to Mt Coot-tha to check out J.C Slaughter Falls. After wandering the paths for quite some time we finally found the "falls"...hmmm, I'm sure it's seen better days..

Mt Coot-tha - J.C. Slaughter Falls - Smallest waterfall ever

Meeting the in-laws

After many many months we finally managed to get up to Townsville so that I could meet my future in-laws. We had a fantastic weekend and came home with plans to add a new puppy to our household..

On Saturday we went down to The Strand and discovered some very odd public art. On Sunday we walked down to the markets then along the river and back home for an early BBQ dinner before heading back to the airport.

Ekka

Being a newly minted local I thought I'd better check out the highly publicised Ekka - "Queensland's biggest and most iconic event - the Royal Queensland Show (Ekka) - is a 10-day celebration of life in the sunshine state. Each year, Ekka attracts about 400,000 visitors who can enjoy more than 3000 free things to see and do."

It was very similar to the Melbourne show with lots of cute baby animals, fatty foods, rides and showbags. Although it was a bit cheesy we had a good night embracing the festivities.

Cheese Cheese & More Cheese

I had a bit of a cheese overload this weekend.. I had a wine and cheese night on Friday night with workmates old and new. We had a fantastic night with everything from Bella to Chocolate Port and Kraft Singles to Blue Brie. The Kraft Singles were a joke because every time I go to my sisters place I raid her fridge for 'plastic cheese' and now I've started doing the same at Jane's place...oops! Sprung..

I had so much cheese in my fridge the next day and was so thankful that I was heading to a BBQ the next day. So I packed up all of the leftover cheese & wine and trundled off to Tarneit of all places and spent a lovely afternoon with friends.

Back at work :-(

Today was my first day back at work. I had good intentions....I'd made a delicious Smoked Chicken & Avocado salad ready to take with me for lunch, cut up some carrot sticks (can you tell I'm on a health kick..?), assembled a delicious nut medley and set three alarms so that I wouldn't be late.....long story short, I pressed snooze for 2hours and didn't get to work until 10am...oops!

Mmmm, pizza!

I was lured to a games night at a friend's house in Elwood last night with the promise of home-made pizzas - yum!

I have tried many different brands of pizza bases over the years but never found one that was anywhere near the stanard you get from a good suburban pizza joint. But that all changed while playing UNO...or was it Cheat? Anyway, we started with a delicious salami, green capsicum, red onion, mushroom & cheese creation by Ali using Aldo's Pizza Bases which come in a twin pack and can be found in the fridge section near the fresh pasta & pasta sauces.

Then came a lovely gourmet pizza with pumpkin, fetta, caramelised onion & rocket pizza. I have no idea what the third one was, something with ham I think...it was very yummy but completely overshadowed by the the finale - meat lovers! I have to admit that when Renee asked for ideas to use us the leftover ingredients I piped up with the suggestion to make a meat lovers pizza :-)

When I got home around midnight I was feeling a little guilty about my indulgence and ended up joining the Biggest Loser Club and have been behaving ever since...but I've now got some Aldo's pizza bases in the freezer just waiting for the next craving to hit....

Ring in the year

Welcome to 2009!!!

I had an amazing night last night at a friend's party and woke up feeling relatively good considering all of the cocktails and champagne consumed....

I worked out my New Year resolutions a couple of weeks ago, so here goes:

• restrict drinking to the weekends & special occasions
• exercise 3-4 times a week
• participate in fun runs (even if I just walk...)
• take up some volunteer work (something food related of course!)
• learn more about gardening (so I don't kill my vegies & plants)
• watch less TV
• finish my diploma
• lose 10kg
• eat less junk food (oops, I started badly on this one because my friends brought me round a cheeseburger for lunch as a hangover cure..)

Wow, I didn't realise there were so many...but I guess that a lot of them are related to getting fit & healthy.

I guess I'm also not doing so well on No 6 either as I've spent the day watching Food Safari, Food Lovers Guide to Australia, Nigella & Jamie while recovering. Of course this made me pretty hungry so I scoured the freezer for some of Mum's lamb & vegetable soup. I don't have the recipe (yet) but stay tuned...