The perks of being a corporate whore

Dave is most definitely a corporate whore (or bore, more like). One of the perks of this is invitations to free events. Our plans for dinner and supermarket shopping were put on hold last night as he rang me to ask whether I wanted to go to a presentation by LANDesk with drinks and canapes followed by a screening of Shutter Island. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth I, of course, agreed.

The event started at 6:15 with the film showing at 7:30. Dave said it would be full of boring IT people so we decided to get something to eat in town first (canapes never fill me up) and head over for about 7pm so we didn't have to spend too much time mingling. On arrival we were given various freebies including a USB stick which according to Dave was "very cool" and of course, our free drinks. We managed one canape: the waiters were crap only ever going in the same direction so by the time they got round to us the trays were empty. Good job we did have dinner before.

The presentation was held in one of the cinema screens, which was quite novel. They handed out free popcorn and drinks too. The next half an hour, for me, was spent wondering what the hell was going on - I couldn't tell you what LANDesk do or what they were trying to sell, surely a sign that the presentation was really bad?! Eventually it was time for the film, not before free choctops had been handed around though! My review of Shutter Island: not bad, a bit too long, and quite weird at times but definitely worth seeing. Lucky for us we even got four free cinema tickets for any film for filling out feedback forms - a nice cheap (well, completely free) evening out.

The Australian supermarket experience

Being such a sunny country, you would think that Australia had an abundance of lovely fruit and veg in the supermarket: you would be very wrong. Our local supermarket is Woolworths (nothing to do with the English Woolies) and some of the crap they sell in there is unbelievable; often the fruit is swarming with flies, or bruised, and the vegetables leave little to be desired. It can be quite a depressing experience! Luckily though today Harris Farm Markets is opening in Potts Point woooo! We first discovered this family run fruit and veg shop when we were living in our last house - it's an absolute god-send, selling delicious, cheap and seasonal fruit and veg. It also has a yummy deli and cheese counter, and a bakery plus it stocks other posh goodies which you can't buy in normal supermarkets. So tonight, sad as this might be for two 24 year olds, we have decided to make an evening of it: we're going out to a pizzeria near our house for dinner and then we're going are going to indulge in some delicious goods from Harris. Very exciting!

Boxing fitness classes

Dave and I have started going to boxing fitness classes with a slightly scary, ginger Scottish guy called Colin, in Rushcutters Bay Park, about a 5 minute walk from our house.

Our first class was last week - Dave has done boxing before so it was easy for him, but I never have and learning the moves was quite hard to begin with as it requires a lot of co-ordination and concentration too. Colin warned us that we would ache the next day however I was totally unprepared for the pain I felt...I woke up on Thursday morning feeling surprisingly fine, I even managed my usual bodypump class before work, but as the day went on the aching just got worse and worse. All down my arms, my back, my shoulders - I emailed Dave at work and he was suffering too!

Yesterday we decided to go again (although as we were walking to the class and remembering the pain afterwards we almost decided to turn around and go back home!). I felt like I had fully recovered but, as soon as I started punching, I could feel the same muscles hurting. Luckily this morning I don't feel bad at all but it's no doubt going to follow last weeks pattern...! Despite the aches and pains, it's great fun, a good way to get some aggression out and makes a pleasant change from the monotony of the gym: I'll have good guns in no time!

Update

I've just realised that I haven't published a post in quite some time! I'm not entirely sure why - we haven't really done anything bloggable recently. We are planning some exciting trips though. At the end of April we're going to Perth for just over a week. Dave bought me tickets to see Cats there so we would use it as an excuse for a proper holiday (it is a 5 hour flight afterall). We're going to hire a car and drive up the coast stopping at Freemantle, Rottnest Island, and ending up in Monkey Mia where you can swim with dolphins. We're also planning a trip over the Easter break to Adelaide: we're going to hire a car there too and drive the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne. A trip to New Zealand with Skins, who is coming over soon, is in the pipeline too.

Other news...Dave got a pay rise and bonus at work, which is brilliant. He's doing very well at Amex here and everyone is very fond of him: my boy will go far! He was given a lovely compliment the other day by a colleague saying he can easily see himself working underneath Dave in the not too distant future. My temp job was extended last week so I'm at TP3 (a company which provides desktop training and other business courses) for another two weeks until the end of February. After that, who knows where I'll be!

The next few weekends are fairly quiet: this weekend we're going to the grand opening of Harris Farm Markets in Potts Point (yes, we lead an exciting life) and then next weekend is Sydney Mardi Gras so hopefully I'll have some interesting things to blog about soon! Love to you all x

Our herb garden

We regularly buy a variety of herbs from the supermarket and it is beginning to turn into an expensive affair because before we've had the chance to use them all up, they've wilted and died. What to do? Well, we decided to invest in some living herbs being sold at the fortnightly market near our house. We bought a selection: parsley, thyme, rosemary and oregano and Dave has made them a little home outside of the window in our dining room where they can get lots of sunlight and rain. And they sure have had a lot of watering this weekend - all it's done is rain! Don't they look lovely though?

Choc tops

I just had to write a post about choc tops because they are possibly mine and Dave's favourite Australian invention (in fact they are mine and Dave's favourite Australian invention seeing as the Australian's have invented little else....). According to Wikipedia the traditional choc top is one scoop of vanilla ice-cream covered in a hard milk chocolate shell, sitting atop an ice-cream cone. Today however there are many variations, including different flavour ice-creams and chocolate tops studded with confectionary. Apparently, they are an "Australian institution" at the cinema.

And indeed they should be because they are absolutely delicious. Our first foray into them was at our local cinema where they sell many delicious variations including maple and walnut and mint choc chip flavours. The most recent one we experienced was rhubarb flavour and my, it was scrumptious! A cinema trip is now not complete without a choc top. When we come back to England, I'm not quite sure how the incredible choc-top is going to be replaced - a Ben & Jerry's sundae just isn't comparable.

Big Day Out 2010

Last Saturday, we went to the Big Day Out music festival at the Olympic Park in Sydney. We bought our tickets for the day in October last year so it had been a while coming. Acts playing included Lily Allen, Kasabian, Dizzee Rascal, Muse, Ladyhawke, Calvin Harris, and Groove Armada, to name a few that you might know. It was a very, very hot day - about 40 degrees I think - so we arrived already sweaty from the train journey (and also with soy sauce all down my white t-shirt having squirted it all over myself whilst trying to eat sushi on the go!) and a bit grumpy. Hence the first thing on the agenda was to get an ice lolly in an attempt to cool down.

First up on the list we wanted to see was Kasabian. They were really good, and luckily the heat was made more bearable by security men with water sprays willingly drenching everyone with water! Dizzee Rascal followed and, as much as I love him, I have to say that he was a bit of a disappointment. Still at least I got to see his pretty face. We caught the end of Lily Allen, having decided food was more important than seeing her (I hate her) and then headed off to watch Calvin Harris, who was surprisingly awesome. The big act of the night was Muse and the stadium was absolutely packed out for them. We ended the night with Groove Armada and their amazing light show.

I have to say I'm not a big festival go-er and I don't think I would repeat the experience. As always, the best part of the day for me was the food part: we found a vegetarian hare krishna stall where we had a delicious dinner of vegetable koftas, vegetable curry and rice, and date halva. The halva stuff (made from semolina, butter, condensed milk and dates) was an absolute revelation. Full of calories I'm sure but absolutely delicious. So delicious in fact that I found a recipe and recreated it last night for dessert!