Monday 11 October 2010

Sugar and spice and all that’s nice...

.. that’s what little girls are made of! Aren’t they? Well that’s what our weekend was made of anyway..

Sugar

Friday was all about sugar, when I organised a cake sale at work in aid of the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Having October as breast cancer awareness month is a global theme, and so Australia is in full swing for fund raising and awareness. I wanted to do something here to continue our fundraising efforts from back in the UK, but don’t have the contacts or the team to put together anything the size of The Big Pink Ticket. What I do have however, is an army of willing cake-bakers amongst my colleagues!



Despite only 48 hours notice, I managed to rally eight willing bakers, register myself with the charity and get permission to sell cakes to a captive audience of 80 or so colleagues. I pitched the sale immediately after a two hour meeting, and at the 11am ‘munchies’ weak spot! Needless to say, the caramel slice, chocolate truffle muffins, lemon slice, chocolage hedgehog, rice krispies cakes, Anzac biscuits and everything else went down a STORM! We raised over $500 for breast cancer research, which testified that Australian’s are just as good at putting their hands in their pockets for a good cause at the Brits.. especially if there is food involved!

I was a bit cheeky when pitching the sale, and told my audience that our first cake had sold for $50 (this was not a lie) to encourage high donations. The facilities team were even cheekier back to me though, and complained that I had broken the rules by bringing 'external' food into a meeting room where only internal catering was permitted. “Erm.. excuse me? Can you see the big sign saying ‘cake sale for cancer research’?” Some people never cease to amaze...

Spice

On Saturday night, Tom, Tamara and I had girls night at our favourite brunch spot, St Ali! I know, I know, Tom isn’t a girl.... but just take a look at the cocktail he ordered, then you might think otherwise!


St Ali epitomises Melbourne – it’s located on a back street in an unmarked building and yet inside it’s lively, exciting and yummy! The best of Melbourne’s culture, vibe and atmosphere is hidden in places like this, and after many a successful Sunday morning brunch we thought we’d try their evening fayre – pan asian curries. It didn’t quite live up to expectations, but I needed to write about the fact that we went for a curry in order to include the ‘spice’ part of the rhyme in the blog!

And all that's nice....

Actually, this part isn’t just nice – it’s amazing! On Saturday afternoon Tamara took me wedding dress shopping and I found... THE ONE. I am very excited and relieved that I managed to find my perfect dress so quickly, as I will now not have to traipse around dress shops with bossy shop assistants telling me what they like and don’t like. THE ONE was located on only the third bridal shop visit, and after a total trying on time of about 2.79 hours. This might sound like a long time to some of you, but I think in the history of bridezilla’s, this is probably up at the quicker end of the scale. You will be relieved to hear and probably familiar with the fact that I spent considerably longer chosing my husband-to-be...

Obviously I can’t tell you too much about THE ONE – however Nab Nab approves, and if any of you would like advance warning so that you can plan your outfits to coordinate with me, purple pom-poms are the way to go!!

That’s what little girls are made of....

There had to be a lovely little girl at the end of all of this, didn’t there? This week our Melbourne-friends Neil and Sarah welcomed baby Amelie Grace into the world! Neil and Sarah are also English, and given the lack of family in town as a result, our visiting rights were elevated up the pecking order and we got to go and have a cuddle at the hospital yesterday.


Amelie Grace is the second Amelie to feature on our blog – Amelie number 1 was born to also-English friends Ella and Andy last September. I’m already considering a bulk Moonpig order for personalised birthday cards...

It was lovely holding a newborn again - not since Dora was born have I had a cuddle with a bub so small. The hospital visit definitely put the fear of God into Tom that I would be wanting one of our own very soon. Fortunately for me, Tom is an atheist, so God’s presence will not linger too long!

Congratulations to Neil and Sarah, and we hope you have a very happy time as a family.

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