Salamander Bay

Went to Salamander Bay with the family for a sort of long weekend, we took the motorbike up and stayed at the Oaks Pacific Blue Resort which was really cool.

IMG_4651 IMG_4677 We stayed in a 3 bedroom townhouse which had a private plunge pool although the entire resort was surrounded by a man made lagoon with little spas and beaches around it, we’d highly recommend staying there if you ever go up near Port Stephens.

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We also hung out at the beach and found an awesome beach with dogs that chewy would have loved.

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The place was really very comfortable, it had laundry stuff so we could wash our towels during the day. Me and Andy got the bedroom with the TV and balcony which was nice. IMG_4693 IMG_4674

We had buffet dinner there the first night which wasn’t as nice as it should have been because they stopped making food while we were there and we had to keep asking for stuff and the dessert was all gone by the time we got to it. Word to the wise, never arrive late to a buffet.

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We took Putty Road on the way home which had heaps of motorbike danger signs, it’s nice and windy so it’s popular with the bike hoons. Thanks goes to Mala and Andrew for the awesome short break from work (and working on the house).

1 Comments:

  • pics look awesome guys!!! we should go there again. and somewhere else for dinner =p

    Comment by mal — September 28, 2009 @ 11:15 am

Fire!

  We had ourselves a fire in the back yard! The toasted marshmallows were schweet!

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Happy days

Happy mothers day for yesterday all the mummys out there (including Joanne whose birthday is today also, happy birthday Joanne!).

To celebrate the family went out to an Indo Lankan restaurant in Seven Hills where Andy had his Garlic Naan with butter chicken, I had my Beef Kotha Rotti and everybody else had a variation of Dosa, Curry and Vade’s. Probably should have taken photos because it looked great.

In the meantime we’re one step closer to getting the house, still need to get the first home buyers grant thing approved which might take a while. We’ll see.

We’ve decided to have our engagement and house warming party on the same day at our house (once it’s at a stage where we can have visitors) and just have one big celebration so if anyone who’s not in Sydney is planning to visit us that would be the ideal weekend to do so.

Happy Birthday Melly Belly

babymalandme Happy 20th birthday Malisha on the 28th of February from your big sister and big brother-from-another-mother.

We’re going out for dinner on Sunday night, watch this space for pics of those.

In the meantime here’s a pic of baby Malisha drooling and me looking all cute.

~smily

 

 

Who’s Your Santa?

Christmas pics are up!

IMG_3801This Christmas we drove to the Fernando’s and had Christmas there which was lovely. Dana and Rod’s present had arrived at the house by then so it was nice and convenient. Thanks Andrew and Mala for the awesome new printer and Dana and Rod for the games, DVDs, handbag and throw rug, Malisha for the egg boiler/poacher and the waffle maker, Amila and Khris for the griller, Jo, Wayne and Bob for the aquarium and everybody else who sent us cards and warm wishes they were well appreciated.

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Dana, Malisha loves her new bag and Mala and Andrew are hogging the almond biscuits but we’ll steal some when we go for dinner mwahahaha. Jo we’ve decided between two places for your pressy and settled on the bedhead so we can use it as a bedside lamp thing:

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The preparations for Christmas lunch was very efficient this year and all teh food was delicious. The company decided to give us a ham for Christmas this year and it turned out very nicely.

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Thank you everybody who celebrated Christmas with us this year. For New Years we’re chilling out at Amila and Khris’s place, stay tuned for pics/blog.

~smily

3 Comments:

  • So, I subscribed to your blog (finally) a couple of weeks ago, and this is the first post I’ve received through my viewer at it appears to be a week late…hmmm…not sure about that one.
    Anyway, I’m totally stoked to be able to reply!
    It looks like you had a really nice Christmas. Great to see the pics.
    Hope your New Years was good, and we should catch up again soon!

    Comment by Andi — January 10, 2009 @ 3:27 pm

  • doh that was my fault, i actually wrote this post a while ago but forgot to publish it until yesterday… Yeah we should totally catch up, this time of the year it seems we don’t see each other much. I’m going to get Andy to write his birthday blog now…

    Comment by Smily — January 11, 2009 @ 8:54 pm

  • Yay, glad you like the pressy. It looks good! Did I tell you I am using one of those fish thingies for the baby’s night light too! Not long now and you will have another niece. (four weeks to go) The girls back in Bordertown throw me a baby shower the other week which was awesome. Bloody long drive though.

    Comment by jo jo — January 19, 2009 @ 8:17 am

Terrigal was not too terrible at all

We were invited down to Terrigal recently to stay at a beach house with Simmy, Jonathon and some of their friends (including Eric from Ruse and Angela who works near where I do – small world!) Angela and Simmy were the organisers and the house they picked was pretty flash with a great kitchen, nice big TVs and plenty of beds.

Driving down to Terrigal Driving across a random bridge

The traffic wasn’t too bad – the drive down was far too short, it’s only an hour or so away from Syd but that’s perfect for a short trip.

Andy on the Beach Simmy and Jonathon cooking up some balls

Fun was had by all on the beach (Simmy and co made a…mountain!? with a…moat??) and in the town, mini golf in Mingara, Tumbi Umbi was great even when it started raining at the end and the pizza place we went to was delish. Hopefully we’ll get some pics from the mini golf later.

The ladies preparing to cook their Apple Crumble The main lounge room

Me and Andy (mostly Andy) made chicken schnitzel one night but we were under a lot of pressure to measure up to the other gourmet meals the others had made earlier! Speaking of which, Simmy and Jonathon’s Japanese Takoyaki balls were very nicely done. The mini-trip ended annoyingly when the car was bombed while we slept with flour and eggs. The gloop was really tough to remove as it had baked on pretty hard in the sun. Tip: use the pan from a plastic dust pan to scrape it off.

Jonathon and Shaun playing some driving game Chilling out on the sofa with Angela

It would have been nice to stay for longer as we were having a lot of fun (even with the people we’d never met before! Those of you that know how socially awkward me and Andy are will be amazed by this) but yeah we had to get back for the Fernando Family Christmas Party and help prepare. Stay tuned for pics of the Christmas festivities and possibly New Years pics if we remember to take them.

~Andy and Smily

2 Comments:

  • Wow that looks like a great little break. I’m jealous. All I have been doing lately is working working and more working.
    Hey I wanna see a pic of where you put your chrissy present!
    Have a great new year,
    love and miss ya MWAH

    Comment by jo jo — December 31, 2008 @ 7:59 am

  • Pics are up :) Yeah its good to take a short break every now and then if you can but soon you’ll be having a huge long one!

    Comment by Smily — January 10, 2009 @ 2:44 pm

Luna Park IBM Christmas

IBM had it’s Christmas party at Luna park this year (again!) so Andy stayed at home this time while me, the folks, Malisha and Nadine went to enjoy the rides that Andy hates hehe. It was open from morning until 9pm so we went after dinner. Fun fun:

 

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above left: Nadine and Malisha freaking out on the Ferris Wheel of Doom, also known as the Ferris Wheel. above right: the view from the top

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above: me, Malisha and Nadine on the ride that goes around and around really fast…let’s just say centrifugal forces = squished and sore Smily. I seriously thought I was going to be crushed to death by the girls.

Anyways that was fun, IBM christmas parties usually are, no party bags for us now though we’re all grown up. Looking fwd to the next one.

~smily

Happy 35th Anniversary Mala and Andrew

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group_photo_480Last weekend we celebrated my parents 35th Anniversary at the Epping RSL which was a nice place.

The food was ok, Andy had the chicken and I had the beef, we sat on the ‘kids’ table and shared a bottle of wine with them. I helped Andy resist the urge to go play on the pokies. We took many photos (will upload soon!) and all in all had a pleasant evening.

Continue for more pics

2 Comments:

  • heeyyy i just read this to mum :p she laughed. hehe. still waiting for photos!

    Comment by mal — June 20, 2008 @ 8:27 pm

  • :p yeh the pics are up now, tell them to leave a comment or something, why is our family so technologically retarded?!? (except us two of course)…

    Comment by smily — June 22, 2008 @ 4:54 pm

Family Engagement Dinner

We celebrated the engagement family-style by going to the Fook Yuan restaurant in Chatswood. We didn’t manage to take a single nice photo everybody looks terrible so here are some terrible pics:

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Alert! Bells! Woots!

Toooooday, I asked Smily to marry me. She said yes :)

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Andy.

click here for close-up pics of the ring

12 Comments:

  • YAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! congratz mAh BroThaHhhHz.

    Comment by mal — May 25, 2008 @ 10:44 pm

  • Congratulations! rug rats next?

    Comment by noodle — May 26, 2008 @ 8:18 am

  • CONGRATULATIONS SMILY AND ANDY!! =D

    Comment by Sarah — May 26, 2008 @ 8:55 am

  • Heya!!

    Congratulations!!! I’m cheering for you here at work.. it’s making me look disruptive, i better go do some work!

    Happy for you both!

    Catch up soon… i wanna see the ring in person!
    Cheers

    Comment by Annabelle — May 26, 2008 @ 9:14 am

  • Congratulations, you guys!!! I did wonder… YAY!!!!!

    Comment by Andi — May 26, 2008 @ 9:43 am

  • Omigosh ~ Congrats Sumali and Andy!!

    This is wonderful news! Those are gorgeous photos – Doesn’t Sumali look adorable in that bottom middle pic.. (not that she’s showing off her bling or anything…) =)

    Aww.. Sumali my longest childhood friend is all grown up now! =) (About time! hehe.)

    Comment by Simmy — May 26, 2008 @ 9:58 am

  • Congrats dear!!! The ring looks fab :D . So when’s the wedding ;P

    Comment by Oli — May 26, 2008 @ 10:19 am

  • CONGRATZ Smily and Andy! :)
    CHEERZzz!!!! Thats great news!!!!
    xoxo

    Comment by Alicia — May 26, 2008 @ 10:28 am

  • Congratulations guys. MWAH. love the ring very pretty! Now Smily you do realise when you marry the man you marry the whole family!!!!!!!

    Comment by jo jo — May 27, 2008 @ 7:34 am

  • LOL thanks everybody!!! I’m heaps excited.

    Nigel no rugrats til we at least have a house with a rug in it :p

    Annabelle I’m sure your workplace knows by now how disruptive you are :p Yes you have to come over, I might have some more news to share later. Maybe. I dont know. We’ll see.

    Thanks Simmy :) I wouldn’t say i’m ‘grown up’ yet though!

    Hehe thanks Oli, it’ll be a little while yet like at least a year away.

    Jojo marrying the whole family doesnt sound too bad! I’m glad you’re all nice although Rod’s a wee bit scary hehe…

    Comment by smily — May 27, 2008 @ 10:07 am

  • heeey! congrats to you both!! so happy for you guys. make some babies already please :)

    Comment by rhea — May 27, 2008 @ 4:18 pm

  • Grats guys!

    So happy for both of you.

    Everyone’s getting engaged lately is great!

    =D

    Comment by Aaron — May 29, 2008 @ 10:30 pm