Adventure, baby!

Sydney Life

I Think I Have A Problem

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Hello everyone. My name is Christine and I’m a shopaholic.

I stopped by Alannah Hill today accidentally … and came out with a top, skirt and dress. The top and skirt were both drastically reduced to less than one third of their original prices, which I think makes up for buying the dress at full price – FULL PRICE! I can’t remember buying anything full price from AH in years.

I needed a dress to wear to the weddings in Prague however, and this one is perfect. Lace overlay with a removable slip, so I can roll it up and just shake it out when I get there. Plus, it’s also perfect for my work Xmas party.

The cute brown jersey top. A bargain and matches a lot of pieces I already have.

Sweet taupe skirt. Fits really well, lovely embroidery, perfect for work without being too corporate.


This photo doesn’t do my gorgeous new dress justice. Bless you Alannah Hill for making such gorgeous clothes.

Broom … What?

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Alec and I drove way out west to Penrith last night to watch Alec’s friend Brian play this odd sport called broomball.

Turns out it’s a game kind of like ice hockey, but without skates. So the players run on ice, looking like cartoon characters trying to get traction, then often slipping over – or pushing each other over.

See? It IS a real game.

Australia vs Canada.

NSW vs ACT.

The best thing about Penrith is the 24hr Krispy Kreme store. Producing a town of fatties.

Yuuuuuummmm …. faaaaaaat and suuugggaaarrrr …..

I Pod Therefore I Am

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I love my iPod. I know it’s badly designed, I hate iTunes, and I resent the way Apple makes it so hard to upload and download your own music. I am such a trend whore though that I can’t live without my iPod.

I broke my little nano while snowboarding in Thredbo. A lesson to all the kiddies out there. Unless you’re a rocking snowboard, not a novice like me, don’t be a fool and take your iPod up on the mountain.

It only took one spectacular belly flop to crack my iPod’s screen. Interestingly, my Canon camera was in my pocket too and came out without a scratch. Canon 1, Apple 0.

Old iPod meets its replacement.

Awesome cracked screen in close-up.

Hello hot new iPod! I know we’re going to be great friends.

Bourne is Back

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Tonight marked the final Bourne Fest, with part three, The Bourne Ultimatum. I joined 10 boys to watch the movie on opening night in Chatswood. The testosterone in the theatre was overwhelming.

I loved Bourne one, hated Bourne two, and loved Bourne three. It was a return to the themes of the first movie, with many very similar scenes marking a full circle.

There were a lot of extreme close-ups of Matt Damon, which made me see things I had never noticed before, like his funny slightly-raised eyebrow, and one eye slightly larger than the other, not to mention the mole on his lip. Interesting how even gorgeous people look odd when their face is several metres tall.

Bourne, as always, was a machine. No-one else except the terminator takes such a licking and keeps on ticking.

The only down side was the excessive use of “vomit cam” as Malcolm called it. Hand-held camera work throughout the action sequences made it hard to follow what was happening and left me with a bit of a headache. Or maybe I’m just getting too old for this much excitement.

A Day At Sydney Art Gallery

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Another full day on the agenda.

We started at the Art Gallery NSW to see the Islamic Arts exhibition.

I know nothing about Islam let alone Islamic arts, so was unsure of what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised to find it fascinating. The exhibition had a lot of versions of the Qur’an – all drawn with the most amazing calligraphy.

It was an educating experience. I learned a lot about Islam and their art. I appreciated the highly detailed drawings and manuscripts in particular, and loved seeing the links between Islam and Christianity and their common stories. Seeing Jesus depicted as a turban-wearing fighter was highly interesting.

We then checked out the Max Dupain photographic exhibition at the State Library.

I love Max Dupain. Seeing his photograph of the bather inspired me to take up black and white photography when I was a young teenager. The exhibition had some of his early work and later architectural photos, which, while exceptional, didn’t interest me as much as his portraits and social documentary of his early works.

Seeing Dupain’s early works amazed me as he took some stunning photos of things like bathers mid-dive from a high board, that are perfectly in focus. This is hard to capture now, with our new digital cameras, so imagine the skill it would have taken to snap such a shot in the ’40s. Completely inspiring.

ABC Garden Show

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Jan came down to visit so we went to the ABC garden Show at Homebush. As well as taking almost 300 photos with my awesome macro of the flowers, I came home with a beautiful orchid from Jan (fingers crossed I figure out how to keep it alive), some bulbs for exotic lilies and a bunch of tulips.



Tulips from Alec.


Bulbs that are going to become exquisite exotic lilies.

Snow Dreaming

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I was picked up at 3am on Thursday morning for our trip to Thredbo. It’s been seven years since my last trip to the snow. I decided to snowboard again – several runs and awesome stacks later, I was back linking turns and belly flopping in the ice all over again.

On my feet finally!

Oh-oh!

Splat!

Two days later, I was back, with plenty of bruises to show for my little adventure. Can’t wait for next season!

New Sunnies

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I’ve taken my love of pink to a new, disturbing level. I bought these gorgeous pink Oakleys to take to the snow. I called the store in Melbourne yesterday and they arrived on my desk this morning. Awesome service, awesome glasses.

Retail Therapy

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Here are a few of my recent fashion purchases. I went to the Birkinhead Point factory outlets today, which is where I picked up the FCUK and Alannah Hill items. The factory outlets are a bit hit and miss, but the Alannah Hill one always has awesome stock, heavily reduced. Their pieces are occasionally damaged, so be careful to check out the zippers and look for stains and tears. Who could damage such beautiful clothes? It breaks my heart!

Pretty Alannah Hill jumper. Love sale time!

FCUK singlets.

Sweet ballet flats from the Parisian Ballet sale – they took a while to arrive but it was worth the wait.

Very like the Chanel ones for a lot less.

Cute design.

Mimco bag – bought a few weeks ago during the Mimco sale. Do I have an addiction? I think it’s fair to say yes.

Close-up of the beautiful leather.

Gwen Stefani Concert

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Shelley and I saw Gwen at the Acer Arena on Monday night. Our seats were a bit in the nosebleed area, but still good enough for us to have a great time and enjoy the show.

Gwen looked amazing – so fit and toned! She gave quite a tame show, singing the songs off her most recent album. It would have been great to hear old favourites like “Just A Girl” and “Ex-Girlfriend”, but it wasn’t to be.

Shell and I realised we had been listening to Gwen for over 10 years now. Old!



This is what a full-house looks like!


End of the show.