Before and After...

The last 3 days of my holidays have been spent cleaning and moving furniture and running from place to place buying stuff for tifs not-so-queer-eye mini makeover!
BIG BIG BIG thanks to Johanna for all his drilling and lifting and shopping expertise! Thanks to shar for giving us updates on the cricket! (teehee!)

Happy New Year to you all - I'm off to Fiji for 2 weeks! See you when i get back (with a tan! yay! and probably a bigger gut! boo!)

The images on the left are before and the images on the right are after.



The stunning entertainment area before and after.



The room had an ecletic feel... and now it's more ikea
non-descript but over time i know it will have more of
their character (hopefully less of their dirt!).



The old sofa and window...the new entertainment area!



Joe despairs during the clean-up...and then gives a sigh of
relief at the end!



The bad dirty sofa (on the right) during our lunch break
and after covered up with our amazing bargain sofa cover (left).


Let's hope it stays that clean for at least the first month or two...
I could do this for a living...heeheehee!

Photo Crime: Ikea day!
The un-Fab Four (Jo, Mel, Syl and I) went down to the HUGE new ikea store in Homebush on Sunday. They were helping me on my mission to mini-makeover Jpeg's living room (Yes, he knows about it). Yes that's me on the new PINK sofa. It's just like the Barbie one i owned when i was a little girl...tempting but no thanks! The green room is abit of inspiration for Jpeg's place...will keep you updated.

Photo Crime: Dog Day Afternoon!
Last Saturday, we went down to Bicentennial Park for Monty's (mandy and wayne's snobby dog who hates all other dogs!) 3rd birthday. After abit of inspiration from another blog, I baked him a dog cake with carrots, honey, eggs, peanut butter and all dogs favourite sneaky treat - cottage cheese! At first they were all growling at each other, but after a bit of butt sniffing they were all okay and just ignored each other... at least the humans had some fun.
From Top Left: Monty, Monty eating cake, my dog Coco hoes into a piece, fluffy 'Lucky', The friendly giant - Buddy, and Coco lovin' the cheesey icing.

Cookie Monster
Eeek! I just ate another cookie and I had yumcha only 1.5 hours ago. Baked a batch of �Top Secret� Mrs Fields cookies. They�re chewy and moist with chunks of dark chocolate in them. They aren�t as yummy as the last batch 6 months ago, I seriously think the hot weather does something to the cookies or our tastebuds or something � comfort food tastes better in the cold weather!

Cookies baked yesterday for office consumption: 20
Cookies I�ve consumed in the last 24 hours: 6

This entry is brought to you by an afternoon of office madness and the Donald Trump doll �you�re fired!�

Scene of the photo crime: PoPP Party at Chad's Place
Dodgy party theme: 'Naughty or Nice Christmas'
Mug Shot of Mars. Me getting 'attached' to Mars. Wayne "Vader" Lim.

First Gym Session in Two Months.

Yes, I finally bit the bullet and went to the gym this morning. It's been almost two months since my start of my trip to china and the last time I entered the oestrogen filled rooms of 'Natural Woman' gym. I felt abit lost because I didnt really want to follow my old gym program, since I'm not aiming to bulk up. But in the end it was kind of auto pilot mode - so i did the same exercises only not as heavy. Gotta get in shape if I'm going to be walking around most days in Fiji by the pool/waterfall/beach in a bikini! I can feel my muscles skrinking and my fat cells GROWING (must be all that pork crackling from the weekend!)

Fave things this week: Cherries!...Ikea website...new pink shoes...

Merry Sing Star!
Over the weekend I went to two Xmas parties � both were filled with the off key tunes of people (mostly me) in a song battle on SingStar. It�s a very cool game � like karaoke but so much harder because you get scored and so much more competitive! Oh So Asian! For a mini karaoke experience here's a link to Tiffany "I think we're alone now". And I just did a search and found out it was a cover of the original 1960s song by some boy band. *gasp*

The KK loots for $15 were really impressive! The funniest gift was the mini USB Christmas tree! Geeks! We played the game where you steal each other�s presents until everyone is satisfied with their present, so the gift giving continued for about 1 hour! I managed to score 1 pooping santa, and two new drink bottles! Which is quite timely � there was mould growing in my favourite Sydney Olympics bottle (I didn�t realise this until I was drinking out of it in china � eeeww!). One bottle is a very cute oversized Starbucks one from my good friend with lots of �potential� Johann. And the other was a very practical avanti one for hiking and sports from the now "officially on holidays" Dr. Goh (aka Mrs Leo junior).

Surfer Girl.
After watching Blue Crush like 3 years ago � Mel and I finally did a surfing lesson on the weekend. We trekked down to �The Shire� and find ourselves in a class with 15 year old girls who had also been lured by the free ripcurl tshirt promotion. After about 1 hour of learning, I finally managed to stand for about 2 seconds on a wave and that�s as close as I got to surfing! The illusion of looking cool like the surfer girls in Blue Crush was somewhat shattered when I kept tripping over my own board leash and dropping my cumbersome foam board.

Mmmm�.Hot Chocolate�
On Friday, Mel and I went to the Lindt Chocolate Caf� in Martin Place. The hot chocolate was divine!! Maybe it�s a good thing I work so far away from the city�the temptation would be too great.

This is our little piggy Coco. Well she's actually a Jack Russell Terrier and she recently lost some weight so she doesnt look as tubby. We've had her for about a year now and when we first got her she was so skinny! And then she got so fat that she started looking like a little suckling pig ready to be roasted! And no - just because I'm chinese doesn't mean I actually want to eat my dog! (no didnt see anyone eating dog in china either). Next weekend she's going to meet some of my friend's dogs at Monty's birthday party.

After our game on Wednesday, Shar, Mars, Wayne and I went to the new chinese dumpling place in Chinatown. It's like a Up-market chinese maccas with nice fitout - Mars was impressed by the 'real ceramic' dishes, not plastic. Then i realised I had actually been to the same chain restaurant in Shanghai - only that one really was like maccas, with plastic stools and plastic plates.

OC12
Last night I went and saw OC12 (no not The OC). It wasn�t as good or as stylish as the first one. The plot was all over the place, Brad Pitt was sex on legs (oh the clothes), and Julia Roberts looked bloated and Catherine Zeta Jones� mammaries could have fed a family! Don�t get me wrong, it was still entertaining and there were some classic �bck film moments�!

Prognosis: sore thumb
I also played ball last night in a local women�s comp. The other team was really fast and probably about 18 years old running like energiser bunnies! There was only 4 of them and 7 of us! And we only pulled away with a win in the last 5 minutes of the game. Yes I was the slow, old girl � I seriously thought I was fitter then I�ve ever been when I�ve played bball, but I know I�m deluding myself since I haven�t done any exercise for the last hmm�2 months! GASP!!!! Anyhow during a hustle to get the ball, I sprained my left opposable thumb, which makes it hard for me to open bottle tops, use my mobile phone, change gears (even in an auto!), and put the handbrake down. On the upside, I have a good hitchhikers thumb and everyone gets a thumbs up today. Ha!

*sob*
This morning I bid farewell to my Jpeg (yes, 'my') at the airport, he's off on a HUGE holiday - 2 whole months! (And you all thought I was slack with my 5 weeks in china! ha!) Apparently he's been squirreling away his leave since forever. The only thing i manage to squirrel away is food and a messy room. Anyhow I'm glad he's going because he gets to see his mum and sister who live in fiji, and he gets to visit his island, Rotuma which is sufficiently far away enough from Fiji to be too inconvenient for me to go to! But the real reason I'm glad is because now i can make over his apartment, a la QUEER EYE! Except there will be no gay men, no BIG budgets, no fashion crisis makeovers (for now) and no blonde Carson, just me, maybe some help from my stylish friends and much anticipated trip to Ikea megastore in Homebush Bay. Can't wait! Will definately be doing some before and after pictures. Let's hope we can see the difference! hehe.

Survivor - Mangrove Island Series meets. Simple Life
Yesterday Kim and I got to re-enact our very own Paris and Nicole does Survivor episode. With the duties of Race Starter thrust upon us for the DB races, we were dumped on a little mangrove in teh middle of Woronora River down in The Shire. From nearly losing my thongs in the mangroves, to shifting position 3 times because of the tide coming in - we looked like a joke! We set up our little camp, with two beach chairs, mega phone, walkie talkie, snacks, sunscreen and mobile phone radio with loudspeaker (very important!). It was mega stressful being a starter, telling teams to go back and forth until the line was sort of straight and even, especially with currents and all! Kim and I hated it because we know the stress that goes through a paddler in those moments before a start. AFter each race call we would comment on whether that was an okay line up or just plain farked, oblivous to the fact that our walkies were ON and everyone on the channel could hear us going "OMG that was pathetic! If they're not going to listen to us then it's their own fault if the line isnt straight!" a rather 'nicole and paris' moment.

Domestic Appliance update.


Lately I've been dreaming of appliances. My electric handbeater broke the last time i made the Magnolia bakery cupcakes! So my new favourite lust object is the $700 Kitchenaid PINK mixmaster. I always wanted a bench top one where I dont have to hold on to the bowl! Unfortunately the only way i could justify such a big ticket item would be to win the lottery or get married. Yesterday, Mum bought me a new electric hand beater with detachable stand, so it looks like i wont have to get married for at least another 10 years...hahahha!

Medal Kissing.
See how passionate we all are - this is because we spent a considerable amount of time training for it. for some it was years in the making, for me it was 10 months!

Happenings.

Office Wardrobe Malfunction.
So today I couldn't find ANY of my work skirts - those sensible pencil skirts with pinstripes that almost reach my knees. So after frantic search for clothes in my wardrobe - I'm wearing a 'going out' skirt which i bought for nice occasions - NOT WORK. Anyhow, it's new so i've never worn it before (except when i tried it on) and as I am stepping out of the house (in the pouring rain - which i also didnt expect) I realise there is a huge split right up to the top of my thigh. The split is covered with a draping flap that incidently goes 'flap flapping' in the wind and reveals most of my leg. Luckily no one was there to witness my 'liz hurley' moment.

Back in the Game.
Last night was my first official game of basketball in dare I say a whole year? Anyways - any fitness that I gained during 6 months of intensive training of my ARMS and BACK does not equate to any fitness gains in my LEGS. And yes, my face still lights up like a beetroot when I play. We won, and yes we had sexy new uniforms - which i chose from a limited colour range in China, not bad for $10 bucks a set! I scored 4 points - i hope to score at least that many every game from now on....

Sydney Weather
What the?! One day a heat wave, the next it's like winter!

China Photos
Will be creating a link to these when I have time!

Dragonboat training.
training? What training?


Shout Outs.
Syl - Hope you are not sore from circuit.
Mars - hope you get rid of your pee stains on your new uniform
fUrban - has your banana split?
Gregan - where are u?
Chad - naughty or nice?