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.

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

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.

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.

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).

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.

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

This 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.

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:

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Last 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.

~smily

Andy.