Well most people use their blogs to whine, so I have decided to do a wine post!
Just for something new I thought I would share some of my favourite wines. As those of you who know me well will know, I am not that adventurous! Thus my selection is rather short, and restricted to my favourite wine makers - Brown Brothers.
My most favourite is a sparkling red called Cienna.
The official Browns Brothers website described this wine as:
Cienna & Cabernet is a light wine with a vibrant ruby red colour and aromas
of fresh raspberries and red currants. With fruit sweetness on the palate it is
soft and juicy with a refreshing spritzig finish. A sip of this wine reminds you
of summer berries in a glass, while the mixture of good natural acidity and
combined fruit sweetness leaves a refreshing sensation in the mouth.
I like Cienna because it is a very sweet wine (I am a sweet tooth after all) and I think if your not really a wine person, this is the ideal wine for you as it doesn't have that strong wine taste.
My other favourites are all white wines. The first of these, which is probably the one I drink most at home apart from Cienna is Crouchen Riesling. This is a more serious wine and goes very nicely with dinner, and I find is most capable of leaving me with the wonderful winey head feel!
The Browns Brothers website describes it as:
The 2007 vintage is a pale straw colour with youthful green tinges. The nose is lifted with aromas of passionfruit, ripe pear and peach. The aromas follow through to the palate which is mouth filling with natural grape sweetness and a crisp balancing finish. This wine should be served chilled and enjoyed when young and fresh.
To cut the crap and just give it a simple description. Nice - crisp and more grown-up than my other favourites.
My last two favourites are very similar. They are Moscato and Lexia. Both of these are very sweet wines (the kind you don't really have to have with food). Served chilled they are very refreshing. Moscato is described as:
This current release is a light straw colour with some youthful green tinges, while the nose is lifted with aromas of musk and freshly crushed grapes. In the mouth the wine is alive with a vibrant and mouth filling sherbet flavour. A wine of universal appeal, the retained carbon dioxide gives a mild frizzante effect resulting in a lively and fresh wine.
The Lexia is described as:
The 2006 Lexia is fresh, crisp and clean leaving the mouth ready for another glass. This late harvest wine is great with laksa and other spicy dishes. It’s also a great match with a platter of washed rind cheese served with slices of fresh pear.
All of these wines are available from most bottle shops (I go to Dan Murphy's to take advantage of the discounts you get when you buy it by the case). For more details on Browns Brothers wines you can visit their website at www.brownbrothers.com.au
Well, I now have a new project. I have been appointed as an online community development officer for Brimbank Libraries. You may be asking yourself about now "what the f$%k does an 'online community development officer' do?"
First let me point out that I am job sharing this position which Christian who works at Central Services and that it is only temporary for around 6 months.
What this position is responsible for is the research, consultation and development stage of a new website for Brimbank Libraries. What makes this role so exciting is:
a) The website well and truly needs an overhaul, and being in a position to have input into how it should be structured is great.
b) Council has a vision of making the library website more than a static web presence, but more interactive and more of a community portal integrating many of the latest web features such as blogging, wikis, RSS feeds, ect, allowing more 2 way communication between the library and its customers online.
c) Council is looking at building the website on an open source content management system called Joomla. I think the potential of an open source solution is very exciting.
I will be working at Central Services at Sunshine on this position on Tuesdays Wednesdays and Fridays, meaning I will continue to work at Sydenham on Mondays and Thursdays.
OK, You would think after Big Brother being complete rubbish this year, and not having watched most of the season that I would no longer be interested in Big Brother gossip. However all the changes that they are making for 2008 has caught my attention and will probably mean I will give it a go this year when it returns.
There are a number of rumours on the Behind Big Brother website. These include:
Hey,
My computers hard disk had died, so I can not get onto the net at home to work on my blog... but I am working on a post updating my nice long weekend, which is currently in draft, so I will finish it and put it up on the web soon.
Andrew
This weekend I went down to my grandparents caravan down at Ocean Grove for 5 peaceful days, away from work and home!
Had a wonderful relaxing time and kept very busy.
Basically our itinerary was...
Friday
I had my RDO but Sean still had to work, so I dropped Sean off at work in the morning, returned home and cleaned the house, packed the car ect. Then in the afternoon I picked Sean up from work and we left from there. We stopped at KFC in Geelong for tea, and arrived at the caravan at Ocean Grove around 7ish.
Saturday
Saturday was more of a sight seeing day. We started out by going to Queenscliff and went for a walk along the main street browsing shops and galleries. We then had lunch at the View Grand in Queenscliff.
After Queenscliff we went to Point Lonsdale, Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads, before heading back into Ocean Grove for Dinner at a new little bar called Zebra Crossing, which was very nice. ($12 parmas every night Amanda!).
Sunday
It started raining when we were at Dinner on Saturday night. And it rained, and rained and rained all night and all Sunday morning. We had planned on going to Sorrento on the ferry today, but instead decided to go shopping at Torquay and Geelong. It was a really misserable day. We just had Maccas for lunch, then Smorgy's for dinner, which was really crap.
Monday
On Monday we got up early and caught the MV Queenscliff over to Sorrento for the day. Over there we walked around the shops, had lunch at some little pub that looked a little dodgy, but had really nice food.
We came back in the afternoon and had an ice cream at Queenscliff (you can not go there and not have an ice cream!) then fish 'n' chips for dinner.
Tuesday
We got up extra early Tuesday morning and headed off home by 8am. Just to be lazy so we didn't have to cook we also ended up going to my grandparents for dinner.
Well that was my lazy weekend...
Today I had a reunion at my old secondary school - Hillcrest. The school is closing down in December and being demolished. The school itself is being merged with three other secondary schools in the Broadmeadows region to create a multi campus college.
This coming weekend we are going down to my grandparents caravan at Ocean Grove for the weekend. I have Friday as my RDO, and have taken Monday as annual leave, so it means I have 5 whole days off work! Over the past couple of weeks I have just really being looking forward to going away and just leaving all the stresses of home and work behind me. Life has just been moving so fast lately and I feel I have just been struggling to keep up with it. I'm really looking forward to actually just spending the weekend with Sean, and not worrying that I have to get this done, or have to get that done. The last couple of weeks have felt like Sean is just a stranger who lives in my house, and that all I do is say hello in passing, so it will be nice to spend time focusing on each other.Well I have had a very tiring weekend. On Saturday we had my grandparents come over with their car (which has a tow bar) and hired a trailer and removed the mounds of excess dirt and stuff from our backyard and took it down to the tip. This mean most of my day was spent digging, and be live me, my back certainly knew it the next day.
On Saturday night we went to my parents place for dinner (after a day of digging, plus starting to assemble our new barbecue later in the afternoon).
On Sunday I finished putting the barbie together in the morning, and then we went out for lunch with my grandparents to the Glenroy R.S.L. - Good old seniors meals, but actually rather nice. I had roast beef and vegies, then chocolate pavlova for desert.
Then Sunday night we went to Seans parents for dinner. So the weekend finished, and I don't feel like I have had any rest time at all this weekend.
Over the Melbourne Cup weekend we are going down to my grandparents caravan at Ocean Grove, so that should be nice and relaxing. It only 3 days, but I am sure I will feel recharged after that (though I do fear that if I suddenly go into relaxing mode I will come down sick)!
Hey, On Friday night I watched Swimming upstream with Jesse Spencer (from TV Series House), Judy Davis and Geoffrey Rush. It is based on a true story about swimming champion Tony Fingleton (played by Spencer) and his upbringing by a controlling, over competitive alcoholic father (Rush).
It was a bit along the lines of Billy Elliot, except it was set in Queensland, and included cute boys in speedos rather than to-to's!
On Saturday we laid a concrete footing for our eventual garden beds, so that was a fair bit of physical labour! Today was a rest day, we went and fed the ducks earlier (and sea gulls!).
This year we are having the family Christmas at Sean's and my place. We have already started getting things together and bought some wine for it yesterday - though it is starting to get bad as when we go to Dan Murphy's we have to get a shopping trolley!
This week marks 1 year working for Brimbank Libraries - which has spookily flown by really fast. So no doubt soon my boss will set a time for my annual review, then I can look back on things that I was planning on doing in the last 12 months but never got around to doing!
Matt Lucas from Little Britain is on Kath 'n' Kim tonight (which I don't watch cause I don't really find it that funny), so being a Little Britain fan I will have to watch that.
Anyway, that's it for me!
I watched V for Vendetta on DVD last night. I was not really expecting to like it, and thought it was going to be set in the past, but it was fantastic!
Basically it is set about 10 years from now in England. The USA started a war they could not win and has fallen into anarchy, along with most of the world. In the UK however, the lord Chamberlain has taken control of the country and has been given special powers to maintain peace and order following biological attacks against the country.
A masked stranger - "V" leads Natalie Portman on a journey to discover the truth, and that the state of affairs in the UK has all been masterminded by the lord Chamberlain to get power of the country - including the conspiracy that found the government staging the biological attacks on itself.
The movie has themes of the Holocaust, civil war, and a fair bit of action. It was a bit blood thirst at some points, but it really got you thinking.
I know that is has been ages since my last post, but I just seemingly have not had time to blog, or could not be bothered!
Anyway, an update of whats been happening in my world since my last post:
A couple of weeks ago the transmission in Seans car decided to kark it, leaving him standard in a suburban street in St Albans in the middle of a 3 point turn. So I left work and went out to meet him and help push his car to the curb. It turns out he could only drive forward and only under 20 kph, he could not reverse. So we ended up getting his car towed and repaired, which took nearly two weeks! That meant we only had my car for 2 weeks, so Sean would drop me off at work in the morning and then take my car to get himself to work, then he would pick me up in the evenings.
That wasn't as bad as it sounds because for a couple of those days Sean was home sick with a bug that is doing the rounds, so I ended up taking my car for those few days.
Anyway his car is all fixed now, and comes along with a rather hefty repair bill!
Sean is also over his bug, and now it is my turn. I have been home sick on Tuesday and Wednesday. I think I may have started out with hay fever, but may have developed a small chest infection as a result.
I installed our rain water tank a couple of weeks ago, but we have had minimal rain since then, not even enough to 1/4 fill the tank, anyway I have never been so excited about the prospect of rain!
Over the next couple of weekend, weather depending, I am looking at doing the footings for our garden bed walls in the yard, then once they are done it can be full steam ahead with completing the landscaping in the backyard. Sean wants it all finished by December because we are having the family Christmas at our house this year, but I think it is a bit unrealistic, but hopefully by the end of summer it should all be done.
Anyway, that's all, I know its not very exciting, thus I have not been blogging!
This weekend I went to my sisters 18th up at Cobram. This is the sister we refer to as the 'bush pig' for very good reasons. After spending time up at her grotty housing commission place up there, you feel very thankful to return to your nice clean home.
Her party was at lunch time on Saturday, so we drove up Saturday morning (we took my grandparents with us), and stayed up there at a cheap little 'bates style' motel.
At the party my sister also announced she had a surprise (which my grandmother returned with 'you better not be pregnant again!') it turns out they have now decided to get engaged. not that I can ever see it being more than an engagement as it would probably impact on their Centre link payments!
We drove home yesterday (Sunday) and stopped for lunch and a coffee on the way home to break up the 3 hour journey.
On the Harry Potter front I finally finished reading the Deathly Hallows last night, though I will say no more in case you have not read it yet or heard the ending.
I have uploaded some photos of my niece to Flickr, which are below:
Jessica
Jessica and Uncle Sean
Today Sean and I went to the Gisborn market in the morning, then up to Mt Macedon for lunch (there is a photo of the Memorial Cross at Mt Macedon on the left). We did some grocery shopping on the way home to last the week and that was pretty much the excitement for our weekend.
Saturday night we went out for one of Seans friends birthdays to Rockpool at Crown. I had my suspicions from the start that this was going to be an 'interesting' evening.
For entree I had Duck Ragu (or something like that). For starters I don't eat duck, plus it tasted very strong and smelt horrible, so I didn't eat that.
For mains I had some Wagyu steak, which I ordered well done. When the waitress brought it out it was dripping with blood. I had fears that the meat would possibly start mooing at me it was so uncooked. I sent the steak back, then 2 minutes later they bought it back, slightly cooked on the outside, still mooshy with blood on the inside. anyway I ate some of the outer layer of steak and had a carrot as a side (the carrot was very nice).
Don't ask me what I had for dessert (Sean ordered it). It was some pastry thingy with a sort of creamy hazelnut filling. It was nice, but by that point I was so over the whole place I couldn't really be bothered eating it so I left most of that too.
so if you are looking at going to the Rockpool, my advice - run in the other direction! It was horrible. I could have known from the foul stench as soon as you walk in (I think it was the smell of the meat they have hanging near the entrance).
After dinner Sean and his friends then decided to go for drinks at some bar at Crown. At the bar they had some sheila singing who was pretty good (the best part of the evening). Therefore I got to zone out and listed to the music, as the conversation wasn't much. When Sean goes out with his friends the conversations has as much depth as a babies paddling pool. If your not talking about what brand names you own, or how rich you are, it's just not worth talking about.
I have vowed after Saturday that if I ever have a birthday dinner, if you don't want to come - just say so! I will completely understand if you don't want to go to either all you can eat, or McDonalds for dinner!
On Sunday I had a lazy recovery day. Watched a couple of movies on TV, did my ironing and just generally bludged most of the day, so it was a nice recharger for the start of the new week.
So far we have no plans for this weekend, which is good, as being school holidays I am sure I am going to feel buggered by the end of the week.
Anyway, better go!
Didn't mention that a couple of weeks ago I went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I haven't seen the first pirates film yet, but have seen number 2 and enjoyed it. The third film was ok, but it was a bit like the final Lord of the Rings film though, where the ending just dragged on. The special effects were really good, so as an effects movie it was outstanding.
This is one of my favourite photos on Flickr. It is a couple of ducks and was taken by a Caroline Springs resident in Caroline Springs.
I have started playing around and uploading a lot of my photos to Flickr (which you can see on the right hand side of the blog), so I thought I might start sharing some other cool photos I find on Flickr here.
Well, it has finally happened. As of noon today I am an uncle.
Celina had a baby girl, 8 pound 6 (I'm not sure if that's big or not - so do not know if we need to start the baby on lite and easy baby food). Mother and baby doing well, Uncle Andrew unimpressed, and uncle Sean over the moon.
She named her Jessica Lee. She is taking her fathers surname, but none of us know what that is!
Well it has been a hell of a weekend. Winter has set in, and do I get sick - no, my computer does! My PC has come down with the Vundo virus which is proving to be a pain in the butt to remove. I have run several different virus removal tools specially developed to kill Vundo, and I still have traces of the stupid thing throughout my system!
We had an electrician come over last week and install some new light fittings around the place. This included 2 new fittings in the gallery which have improved the lighting in there so much. We also have a new light in the stairwell which looks really cool (I will post some new pics soon), and finally a heater lamp in the bathroom which you could cook a roast under!
Delfin also came and did the front and side garden beds last week, so from the street view the house now looks completely finished and occupied.
Have a full week at work this week, no RDO plus I'm working this Saturday, so this Sunday will be a total bludge day.
Also, most of you probably won't believe me, but I have not been watching Big Brother this year. This has to be the crappiest season ever and lost my loyalty after about week 2.
Anyway, better go do something constructive. I promise to post some more pics soon.
Before you even think it, I know... I have been really slack with my posting lately. But I have been too busy... I swear.
I have been doing some more work on the side for SirsiDynix which is keeping me occupied, as well as my normal job. Plus there is always something to do around the house.
Today we went to the Gisborn market first thing in the morning. It was a decent size market this month, we just got some apples, and Sean got a jug thing for his mum for mothers day. I had an organic mixed berry flavoured yogurt... it was very nice.
Last week I went to a Web 2.0 training thing in the city. It was very interesting and talked about web 2.0 which is just a fancy marketing name for 'social software' on the Internet which includes things like blogs (like this one), wikis see http://www.wikipedia.org/ for an example. It is like a web page where anyone can add content or make adjustments to the content. It also looked at things like My Space, second life, Google Documents (http://documents.google.com), which I had never bothered to look at before... these were really cool and have just as much functionality as Microsoft Word and Excel. What I really liked about them is you can choose to 'share' your documents with certain people, and you can both make changes simultaneously, and you can see the other persons changes straight away. Also included was Flickr, which also has some really good photos on there. I found some photos on there of the ducks and swans in Caroline Springs taken by a local guy... they are really good (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=caroline+springs+%28swan+or+duck%29&m=text).
At the house we have started doing a little work out in the yard, digging trenches to lay pipes before we get a concrete slab laid for our shed so we can eventually put in a water tank. So slowly piece by piece things are starting to come together.
Anyway, I can't think of anything else to report for now!
Walking with Dinosaurs live was fantastic! It was unbelievable the size of the puppets/robots, and just how lifelike they looked. I was so surprised at how easily and freely they moved about on stage. The biggest hassle for the night was parking. Walking with Dinosaurs was on at Vodaphone Arena, next door there was the swimming on at Rod Laver Arena, and then there was the first match of the footy season on at the G. So we ended up parking all the way down at Crown.
Hi all,
Well it has been a busy couple of weeks at work, plus to top things off I am working this Saturday as well, so it feels like a very long week! Can't wait for next weekend (long weekend).
On Friday I am going to see Walking With Dinosaurs in at VodaPhone Areana. I am really looking forward to it, from the TV Adds it looks great. There is some video footage of how they made the Dinosaur puppets here, and a preview of a scene from the show here.
On Sunday Seans uncle is coming over to do the decking around the backyard for us. This became a high priority after the good bit of rain we had earlier in the week. It made me a couple of inches higher whilst I was hanging out the washing with the mud sticking to my shoes.
So far I have nothing special planned for the Easter weekend, just catching up on rest sounds good. Sean doesn't get the public holidays, so he only has Saturday and Sunday off.
Anyway, better go. I will put a post on to tell you what Walking with Dinosaurs was like.
Bye
Hi all,
Finally I am back on the net after moving in. Took me a little longer than expected to get the Internet connected up at the new place after moving, but that's all done now.
The move went well, it is hard to believe that it was only over a week ago. Most things are done around the place now, and most things have found a home. The only real messy area is the kitchen due to lack of cupboard space, but we have an island bench on order that should hopefully be fitted within the next couple of weeks.
Also still to come is a built in wardrobe for upstairs which is happening in 2 weeks time, and roller blinds, which we are waiting on an install date for.
I am off work until Tuesday, so I have the next few days to do little odds and ends around the place. Sean has been keeping me busy.
Most surprising thing from the move is the house didn't come with toilet roll holders! I could not believe that, so that was a moving in night trip to Bunnings to buy a couple of those for me to install.
All the electrical, couches, dining setting ect arrived on time as expected. Can't believe how much packaging they put around these things though, it's unbelievable.
When we got our phone connected we had our first phone call within 1/2 an hour. Unfortunately it was some telemarketer calling from some Delhi call centre!
If I haven't sent you my new contact details yet just drop me an email so I can pass them on to you. Don't be offended, my mind has not really been with it, so it's nothing personal!
I have some photos of the house for you...
Anyway, better go. Lots to do...
Andrew
Hi,
Had final walk through on Tuesday which went well. It was different to I thought, as it was not really a walk through and pick out the defects sort of thing. Apparently the building supervisor and one of the directors from the building company each do a walk through prior to handover to pick out defects.
There are still a few small details that need to be finished though before handover, including painting a window ledge that was never painted, some skirting boards in one spot, plus tidying up the plaster around some of the cabinetry.
The hot water system and over are installed the morning of handover (handover is not til 3pm).
I am talking just under 2 weeks off work for the move (I will leave early on Tuesday 27th Feb and not return til Tuesday 13th March).
When I get back to work I am doing system coordinator for 2 days a week, and my normal job for the remaining 3 days, as our systems coordinator is currently the acting manager, library services. It should provide me with some good experience, plus I am doing the roll out of a new print/copy credit management system to all the libraries.
If you need to contact me while I am on leave, just call me on my mobile (probably won't be checking my email that often for the first week or two, depending on when I get the Internet connected up). I will forward my new address and home phone to everyone soon.
Tomorrow Sean is going in to have all 4 wisdom teeth removed, so hopefully that will go well and he won't be sore for too long.
Anyway, better go.
Andrew
Well, there is now just under 2 weeks to go before I move. So far everything seems to be running smoothly. We have organised the couches, sofa bed, and electrical (fridge, diswasher, washing machine ect.) to be delivered the day after handover. To pick up the remaining bulky items (dining setting/entertainment unit/bedroom suite) we are looking at hiring the Thrifty moving van hopefully on the Thursday.
The Friday before the move (which is on a Tuesday) Sean has to go into hospital to have all 4 of his wisdom teeth removed, as they have become impacted and have been causing him some pain. The upside of this is he may still be drugged up during the move - which will prevent him becoming a total stress head.
Most of our things are now packed, apart from what we need for general day to day living. As Sean most likely won't be well next weekend, we are going to pack as much as what is left this weekend as we can, and prepare which boxes we are going to take with us to survive night one in the house.
The hot water system and oven are yet to be installed in the house (it will have to be done by the end of the week as final inspection is on Tuesday). All of our neighbours have gone with the standard polished concrete flooring option, so this week they have had the resin finish put on their flooring. I think it looks absolutely horrible and am so happy we upgraded to the floorboards.
Anyway better go. I will try and get another post in just before the move, then it may go quiet for a while, as I won't have Internet access at home straight away, and I am taking 2 weeks of work for the move (I will be on leave from 2pm Tuesday Feb 27 and will return to work on Tuesday March 13).
-Andrew
Hi All,
Received word from the builder yesterday and the date is set for handover. Handover will happen on Tuesday February 28!
Well, I don't have any new photos, but a small bit of progress has been made on the house. The electrical works are now complete, and they started laying the floating floorboards down stairs this morning. With all that is left we are hopeful for a February moving date.
Had a total bludge of a weekend which was really nice. Most of it was spent at home watching season 1 of Carnivale on DVD.
I will heopfully get some new house photos to share this weekend, and will post them.
Another movie we watched was Keeping Mum starign Rowan Atkinson, Kristin Scott Thomas and Maggie Smith. It was hilerious. The story is of the family of a vicor (played by Rowan Atkinson) who live in this small little community. Pretty much the entrie family is unhappy, the Vicor has no inspiration, his daughter has a new boyfriend every week, and his wife if getting a bit on the side. Then comes along a new housekeeper Grace, played by Maggie Smith, who they don't know has escapped from prison where she is serving a life sentence for murdering her Husband and his mistress many years earlier. Well many character and associates of the characters end up falling victim to Grace, as the murders bring the family closer togeather. If you can get your hands on it, it is well worth a watch.
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