Just some news

Sorry it has been a VERY long time since I've written anything.
Much has changed in the recent year/months?

I'm no longer enjoying the beautiful North Queensland sunshine, but rather stuck in dreary Melbourne again. At least there's plenty of good food and shopping!

Mr Kittylove and I had a pretty decent time on the road trip back-helloooo Gold Coast Theme Parks! I felt like a kid at..well, MovieWorld!

Since moving back I've also had plenty of time to catch up with old friends-hello Cabaret!

Ninja cat misses the warm weather dearly, he spends most nights pressed up against the heater.

On the bright side he now has a best friend, a kitten whose appetite for food almost exceeds his (although she's generally more polite about it). He absolutely dotes on her, she's got him wrapped around her little paw. I mean it, he even lets her eat his food and is afraid to eat hers. He also puts up with her swatting at his tail..It's love.

While I'm a little sad that he doesn't care about me anymore, I'm grateful that he's now stopped meowing at 3am in the morning for attention AND I can walk around the house without having my ankles randomly attacked. I'm sure most cat owners understand!

Oh, that's right. Mr Kittylove asked me to officially be Mrs Kittylove, yeow!

Apologies for the terrible photography, it is much sparklier in person. I have not yet taken any photos outside!

That's about it for now. How have everyone else been?

Why, hello there!

I'm sorry it's been so long! It's been quite busy here and I have had a couple of trips in between.

Just some happy memories from the last few months:

Chinese New Year

Sadly I couldn't spend it with my family in Victoria, but my Qld family was close enough!

We had an awesome seafood feast followed by drinks in town.

Clockwise starting from the top right corner: XO sauce scallops, Ginger crab with egg noodles, Steamed prawns, Sliced abalone with chinese mushrooms and Steamed fish

My contribution to the evening: Coconut and mango sago. It was my first attempt and very delicious if I do say so myself!



Just after Easter all the girls from work went to our boss's beach house for a girlie weekend. The beach was so beautiful and we had a blast. The only disappointment was the weather, we didn't get many hours of sunshine.

One crazy busy Saturday at work a lovely client brought these 'Thank you' flowers for me with a card. It absolutely made my day! It's so rare, but wonderful when someone shows appreciation for the work you do. Some days I find myself bogged down with work that can be depressing and it's just so nice to be reminded that people actually do see the effort you put in.

One night I was called outside by one of my neighbours, "There's a snake outside your house! Do you know what type of snake it is?"
A very impressive python. Let's just say I was relieved that it was not at my carport, but the one next door! Apparently there'd been a kitten that was playing underneath the car earlier today, so the snake must've seen the kitten and was waiting for it to make a second appearance.

Of course, I had to include an obligatory Ninja cat photo.
So here's a photo of him flipping me the bird.

Do any of your pets show you contempt like this? I'd like to feel less alone!

Two weeks of happiness

For the past two weeks Mr Kittylove had come up from 'down south'/aka Victoria to visit. It was so lovely to have someone to come home to from work-disgruntled cat excluded.

Unfortunately I was too slow to put dibs on the few days off available where the bosses decided we were overstaffed for those few days (the bosses put dibs on having those days off instead!) so I had to work the whole time he was visiting. I did have one weekend off, one Sunday and a two rostered day offs, so it wasn't too bad!

Whilst it was great to have an extra hand at home to help out with things (especially kitty litter duty!) Mr Kittylove did drive me crazy at times and there were definitely some casualties.

Casualty #1:
Kittylove's new lamington baking tray (used only once). Mr Kittylove was trying to make roast pork and thought my tray would be perfect. No foil covering, no baking paper..
The pork was excellent although a little too salty; he was a little too enthusiastic with the salt, but my tray is now caked with cooked grease and has gone from silver to yellow. No amount of soaking is helping at all! Any tips would be appreciated.

Casualty #2:
The cake. I recently found a sweet treats cookbook in my suitcase-present from Mummy Kittylove.

When we were invited to a last minute dinner at a friends' house the Baked Chocolate Cheesecake recipe seemed perfect! Mr Kittylove was enamoured with the cake and nagged me all week to bake him another. I'd spent the afternoon prepping, determined to make this cake even better than last time. His job was to fit the cake into the oven around his roast pork which had taken up half the oven. I had only just sat onto the couch when I heard 'OH NO! UH OH!' plus a string of obscenities. As Mr KL was positioning the cake into the oven he'd touched the baking paper onto the hot bars in the oven, setting the baking paper on fire. The cake was coated in burnt paper. *sigh* He did attempt to redeem himself by standing in the kitchen trying to scoop the paper out of the batter while I left the kitchen to bury my head.

Just a small slice for me! 

Definitely not a Masterchef contender judging by my poor plating skills, but the cake was delicious!

On his third night here Mr KL and I decided to give the kitchen a night off (I heard the oven sigh with relief) and headed to try Korean BBQ at KohYa. I'd been there in the past with friends, but Mr KL had not been there before.

His verdict? Two thumbs up! He loved being able to cook his own meat and I loved not having to clean after him. Win/win. A little pricey for us at $40pp minus drinks, but it's a great 'once in awhile' treat.

After this massive food loaded post the next one will be more about the touristy side of things.

Tonight I have to continue bringing my house back to order after the mess Mr KL left behind-6 empty coke cans, empty gatorade bottles left on dining table, anyone? He says 'efficiency', I say 'the bin is 4 metres away!'
I'm also finding myself rewashing dishes and pans because he only washes the top side of the plate and not the bottom and only washes the main part of the pan, not the handle that's greasy! He has improved in the 2 weeks he's been here, he knows I'm very particular about hygiene and cleanliness and will become very stressed if there's dirty dishes left for a day.

Is your partner's idea of domestic cleanliness like Mr KLs'?

Long time no see!

Sorry I've been MIA for the last few weeks, I was overloaded with work over the Christmas/New Year period and have been hosting a special visitor for the past two weeks.

Will be posting on Tuesday though! Have some lovely photos to share.

Side note, has anyone been watching the tennis? I miss being in Melbourne for the Aus Open!

Boxing Day..

Regional area style!

Being from Melbourne I was accustomed to Boxing Day crowds. I had a plan; priority list of stores and things to look for as well as the order to look for them in (most popular items to disappear first to things people don't go straight for at the stores).

Our Myer opened at 8:30 am, the other stores at 9am. I wasn't sure what to expect, are the shoppers here as dedicated (insane) here as in Melbourne? Will I be crushed by a mob trying to get in the door?

I decided to arrive to the shops earlier in case parking was difficult. Turns out there was no need. 8:10am and the car park was practically deserted! For once there was no need to hurry and plenty of time to sit and enjoy a nice breakky.

Freshly baked scones with delicious cream and jam!

I was expecting quite a crowd around the front entrance by the time Myer opened, but there was just a small handful of people milling around which was awesome.
Unfortunately being a small store there really wasn't much of a selection available and not much caught my eye-the only thing I had been after was the MJ Dot fragrance gift set which was sold out prior to Christmas.

Thank goodness for Myer's Christmas Eve online sale!
photo from sephora.com

After a quick 15 minute circle of the store I decided my time would be better spent checking whether Peter Alexander had opened.
Sadly they hadn't, but when they did I was the first in the door!

Score one! Mr Kittylove gave me the matching eye mask for my birthday.
photo from peteralexander.com.au

Score two! $10 cheaper than online as well!
photo from peteralexander.com.au

The only disappointment at PA was that I couldn't grab the teddy bear nightie at the top of my list and while I did stumble across the Alice in Wonderland nightie, it didn't make sense to pay $50 for it when it was only $37 awhile back and when I can buy other adorable nighties for $29!

With the high priority shopping behind me, I went back to Myer for a second look. I needed another sheet set as I hated the rough BigW one I had (brought late night when all other stores had closed and I realised I had no bed sheets to fit my new queen sized bed!)

Myer had 40% off Sheridan and 50% off Heritage and Vue, but the prices were still a little steep for me. So I wandered off to Target for a looksie just in case they had a sale on. They did! 50% off 1000 and 500 thread sheet sets. So I ended up with a 500 thread count sheet set for the price I would've paid for one 250 thread flat sheet at Myer. Anything's an improvement from the old Big W one, I purchased an Ikea flat sheet for less back in Melbourne a few weeks ago and it's luxurious in comparison.

By this time the crowds had started to pick up, so I decided it was time to leave the big stores and head to the smaller stores.

Forever new had 50% off the already reduced price for a few items. I picked up the last of the Karmen Biker jacket in porcelain.

Surprisingly comfy
photo from forevernew.com.au

I was ready to head home, but all the traffic in the car park intimidated me so naturally I walked into Country Road for some bargains. Thanks to an additional 25% off for members I ended up with a pair of stretch jeggings for $45. 

What's in the bags?

The haul

I left the shopping centre with an additional T by Bettina Liano dress and Essie Apricot Cuticle Oil, both from Myer.

I was pretty pleased with all my bargains today, almost everything had been 50% off or more. Then I made the mistake of adding up the amount of money I'd spent. *face-palm*

Oh well, I'd been pretty good up until now AND I'd refrained from buying this pack from Kit Cosmetics which has since sold out.

Limited Edition Power to the Pear Kit from Kitcosmetics
photo from kitcosmetics.com.au

Did you brave the crowds today?

Tis the season to be jolly!

Monday marks the start of my 8 day work week ending Christmas day. Boo!

Walking into work today bleary eyed and grumbling to myself about how wrong it feels to be at work at 7:30am on my RDO (rostered day off)-admittedly I'm a sook; when I came across a parcel that'd arrived late yesterday afternoon...




It was my KK gift!

GH Montego Bay Candle and PA nightgown

Thank you KK! How adorable is the kitty nightgown?? Coincidentally, the candle box matches my bedsheets quite well. Bonus!

I had finally had the chance to light my Rio De Janerio last night and can't wait to try out my Montego Bay candle. I think I'll light it on Thursday because I know I'll need a pick-me-up on Thursday night.

PS. If you're reading this KK, I gave Ninja some Christmas hugs on your behalf. He really enjoyed playing with the cute Santa wrapping paper. Happiness all around in the household!

Today I was given a last minute (V forgot to tell me) invite to a Christmas dinner tomorrow at a friend's house. The host had said not to bring anything, but etiquette dictates that I should never go empty handed. Keeping with the Christmas theme and last minute grocery shopping (found out at 2pm in the afternoon and going to dinner straight from work tomorrow) I decided that a White Christmas would be the easiest thing to whip up on the side while cooking dinner tonight.

Unfortunately I forgot to purchase some cupcake paper cups so I had to make two large spreads of it which I'm regretting now as it's not that easy to cut!

I'm not keen on dried fruits, particularly glace cherries (fresh cherries are the best!) so I replaced the dried fruit in the recipe with..mars bar. Hey, it was going to be unhealthy anyway given that there is 250g of Copha involved, I figured that the mars bar wasn't going to make it much more unhealthy.
It was disgustingly delicious.

Does everyone have the holidays off?

Back again

I will post about my recent trip home soon when I have some time. In short: it was great to be home, even for a few days!

It's been 24 hours since my flight landed back in QLD and I am getting homesick already. Award goes to the wonderful staff at Qantas who really did take care of me on my return flights.

I had a very embarrassing moment where I started crying like a baby when it was time to board at the airport. The staff quickly handed me some water and sat me aside while I got myself together and were very attentive during both my flights (same crew on both flights!). So 'thank you' to them, I can't believe how embarrassing I was...

On another note Ninja cat was ecstatic to see me again. Apparently he was an awful guest as soon as I was out of sight and was a nightmare to deal with. Thank goodness our staff are great and put up with him hissing and spitting at them! All they said was 'he's turned into a different cat as soon as he's with you!' as he sat in my arms and purred.

Work has been chaos again as expected and it doesn't look like I'm going to have much rest these next two days and nights.

Did everyone have a good weekend?