Winners are grinners

Oktoberfest!

4 days back in Australia and we were in the local community hall in Warragul drinking steins of beer and eating sauerkraut and sausages - Oktoberfest was being celebrated in big style and all the Germans had come out of the woodwork - there were at least 15 of them and they were dressed up for the occasion! Thigh slapping galore, live music and a best dressed competition with some physical challenges made for an interesting afternoon. Shame it was a Sunday, we were suffering from slightly sore heads Monday morning. Oops. Next year we'll need to get the sewing machine out and whip up a lederhosen costume for Bob....

First week back at work and we were fresh as daisies - I've never been so nice to my patients! Needless to say, the novelty of being back at work has now worn off although Bob seems to have managed to squeeze in a day of golf for which is work paid him for, and a Project Manager course, as well as a work lunch at Brandy Creek Winery. Taking it easy it would seem!

The past couple of weeks have been warmer and sunny, definitely hotting up for summertime, yeeha. One particularly hot day led us to wander to the local tapas bar in 28C heat at 6pm for a wee glass of wine and some nibbles - this is the life! We have both been out in the sunshine trying to get back into the swing of exercising...it's been hard after a couple of weeks of eating and drinking in Scotland but we're getting there slowly. Bob is currently sat with an ice pack on his hamstring that he pulled in the gym - not quite the spring chicken? No netball for me at the moment, although we are trying to put together a November cup, almost like a test series between Warragul Dusties and Drouin Hawks. Hopefully it will take off.

Instead, I am concentrating on my new sport - LAWN BOWLS! Awesome. Bob and I, along with Joe and Lauren, have created the team The Foreigners and we had our first win on Tuesday night. It was a close call, with a few bowls going haywire, before we found our stride towards the end. The less said about our intellectually disabled opponents the better...ahem.......

Bob is still playing lots of golf and has a big competition on Sunday, the Gippsland championships! The worst he could be is the 27th best golfer in the region - not bad! Sadly, this comes the day after his friend Matt's Melbourne Cup BBQ and therefore I'm sure one or two beers will be consumed. Watch this space for the final result, especially as he tees off at 7.38am

I attended the Dusties annual netball trip last Saturday - "Dusties Olympics" - whereby there were six teams (tennis, golf, athletics, lawn bowls, wrestling/boxing and gymnastics) who all competed against each other in various sports day challenges. The day started at 9am and the first beer was thrust upon me at approximately 9.17am. Yuk. I'm afraid to say I nursed it until 11am where I was feeling better able to drink it! First game up, 'create-a-team-mascot". This involved 6 teams lined up, in front of 6 buckets, each with different teddy bear parts. (we'll not mentioned how they were torn apart but Ruth and Jess must be evil!) I'll attach a photo of our rather swell looking mascot. The mascot was to stay with a team member for the whole day, points deducted for the mascot going missing. Needless to say, our team was deducted points although I wasn't happy as it was blatantly daylight robbery. Other games included balloon bursting, Goon of Fortune involving a whirlygig, waterballoon boat races, tug of war, mud wrestling and pyramid building. The beer bong was used frequently as a forfeit and there were buckets for the casualties on the bus. One team had to say ringadingding before speaking (thank goodness not us) and there were Winners are Grinners t-shirts passed around for various winners on the day. We were doing so well with our mascot before Stacey left her in a toilet near some random field. Ah well. All in all, a fun day out. Think I'll give my liver a rest for a wee while though!

And the best news ever - Bob and I went to the golf club Friday night mega raffle, with Gary and Chelsea, Joe and Lauren last Friday night and we won........a 32" plasma TV! Brilliant! This is the best raffle ever. We picked it up the following day and it's looking miles better than our ancient box of a telly. We are lucky, lucky, lucky!

Open mic night at Middels round the corner tomorrow evening, then BBQ on Saturday. We have the day off next Tuesday for the Melbourne Cup so we are having a cup party at ours. Think we'll maybe organise a wee sweepstake between us all.

That's all our news for now - will update the blog soon, enjoy the photos! Love Mo and Bob x

Scotland! Part II

So.....we are now into our second week in bonnie Scotlandshire and Bob has now arrived in Kilbarchan to start the granny visiting that is Tuesday! First stop - Inverkip Hotel to meet with Dad and Gran F, enjoy some stories about missing earrings, tired and weary spiders and to eat a good portion of fish and chips. Gran was looking well and was full of chat. Next stop, Gran and Papa Macadam in Skelmorlie. Arriving unannounced was not a good idea with the first half hour a little bit hectic but once everything had calmed down, we had a wee cup of tea and a chinwag. Gran was especially keen to see my hen photo album and to hear about the hen night itself. Aunt Anne dropped in to contribute to such hen stories. Everyone was well, or as well as can be. Final stop, Granny Barr in Kilmarnock. A full on spread of sandwiches, cakes and Tunnocks Teacakes - oh how I missed them. Lots of wedding chat and general catching up. Grannies........done!

Wednesday was the day for wedding ring shopping! Off to Glasgow we toddled, to try on some rings in the Argyll Arcade. First stop, Mappin & Webb. We were greeted by a footman at the door and offered coffee before being ushered to a desk in the corner. Immediately knew we were never going to afford the rings in here but thought we'd go along with it anyway! Had a nice chat to the girl about her brother's 15 course chinese wedding dinner before making a sharp exit and heading to a more affordable jewellers! Lewis Grant it was. Perfect service, lovely rings chosen, off to the Rogano to celebrate. I'd never been to the Rogano before and so we were pleased to see it wasn't too pricey and the food was delicious. Wee glass of wine too just to top it off. It was superb, even if we did have to listen to wee Jeannie at the next table telling lots of terribly uninteresting stories! Got to love Glaswegian ladies who lunch....

Thursday we had to take another trip through to Edinburgh to hand in our documents to the marriage registrar - all done and dusted, the wedding is now official! Eek. Back to Glasgow to meet up with my aunt and uncle for a quick coffee - enjoyed hearing what my cousins were up to and happy to share our Australian and wedding stories with them. We headed to Ashton Lane later that evening, to catch up with Andy (running late as usual!) and Denise in the Ashoka, oh yes for curry, our favourite. We could've stayed out for a few cocktails etc but to be honest, by 9.30pm Bob and I were falling asleep at the table - poor effort! Plenty of stories shared and we asked Denise to do a reading at the wedding, which she accepted, hurrah.

Friday, we were off to Belfast for the Huggan/Hunter wedding, where Bob was best man. I think he was expecting to be in charge of the rings and present a funny speech but he was kept rather busy during the day!! I saw him for the odd sausage on a stick and a sip of fizz before he was whisked away for another task. His particular favourite was holding the umbrella above the photographer for the whole 2.5 hour long photo shoot......he was also particularly good at acting as compere for the day, as well as being the shout for the ceilidh. A grand job was done, well done Bob. Must admit, it was nice on the Friday before the wedding to have a few hours to myself while we was performing best man duties with Dave. Bliss! Even if I did get caught in the rain walking back from Belfast city centre to the apartments. Oops, didn't plan that very well.

Friday night, we were very kindly taken out for dinner by Dave's parents, Ian and Liz, along with Dave, his brother Paul and his new wife Caroline. Lovely company, a few laughs, and a small fit of road rage by a slightly stressed out groom (breathe, Dave, breathe). Off to the pub for a few drinks and to meet some family and friends before heading back to the apartments to meet up with Grant and Anna, and Brian and Polly for a nightcap.

Saturday - The Wedding Day - let the fun begin! Bob headed off to Dave's room for 11.45am and I caught the bus with the other 4 peeps to get us to the church for 1pm. A lovely service at which I nearly cried when Vicky walked down the aisle (this does not bode well for our wedding....oh dear) and Bob was looking rather dashing in his best man kilted atire. Despite the rain, we managed to make it to the bus without looking like drowned rats (I seem to remember getting squished by big girls Grant and Brian so they wouldn't get their hair wet) - we unfortunately had a lengthy wait on the bus so we sent Grant off to the bakery for a pie - fab!

The venue for the reception was beautiful - all fairly lights and stable barns, bricked walls and a wedding cake tree! Very fairytale like. A few glasses of fizz and a sausage on a stick, and we were all set for the dinner. Speeches were first, with the father of the bride starting, followed by the father of the groom, Dave the groom and finishing with Bob, the best man. What a brilliant job he did - he started off a little nervously with the cards but once he had gotten his first laugh, there was no stopping him! Star of the show. The food was great, the company was good and the ceilidh dancing was a success with the Irish folks. Our rendition of "You're the one that I want" just showcased our talents, and the lovely slow dance by Bob and Brian was delightful. As usual, can't beat a good old knees up to Runrig Loch Lomond, followed by the Belle of Belfast City for Vicky. Much fun had by all - next wedding will be ours! Eek!

And that pretty much sums up our visit home. It was lovely to see everyone and we can't wait until we are back in 10 weeks time. I think my locum physio who was taking my place at the clinic while I was away, was a little bit of a character and so I was greeted by a big bunch of balloons and a welcome home banner on my first day back at work. Not sure whether they really missed me or whether the locum physio was just really really bad.......either way, I'll milk it for a few days! See you all soon xxxxx

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Scotland! Part I

I have never felt so excited as I was finishing up work at 4pm on Friday afternoon. 3 weeks off work and a visit back home to see all our friends and family. A-mazing. No news from Qantas about strikes, no news about any volcanic eruptions and with it being Autumn in the UK, no sign of snow (although we couldn't rule that out completely). Slightly disappointed to be leaving glorious sunshine and 24C on the Sunday to make our way to the airport but also nice to know we'll be returning to it in a few weeks time. Appointments had been made with various wedding suppliers etc and we knew we had a busy 4 days ahead following our landing in Edinburgh. The flight on the spaceship A380 was brilliant - no noise, no turbulence and even managed to get a good 5 hours sleep, bonus! I don't think Bob and I spoke to each other for the entire flight as we were distracted by the entertainment system, CD library, flight camera, TV docs and of course being fed every 2 hours! A 23 hour flight can sound tedious but when setting off on your holidays it is absolute bliss!

We were kindly met at the airport by Russell and Margaret, and the rain. Ah, to be back home. Back to the manse for some lunch, feeling pleased to be back but slightly strange at the same time. It had only been 16 months but it felt longer, I guess because we've managed to cram in so much during that period of time. Edinburgh and Cramond hadn't changed at all, which was nice to see. We decided to try and stay awake for as long as possible, and therefore opted for a trip to the Kilt shop before heading for gym and a swim at Westwoods. It was fab to get some blood circulating but my calves took a while to recover - they were like old granny puffy legs for a good 2 days! Managed to survive until 9pm before crashing out.

Tuesday was florist day then onto North Berwick for some food tasting. The florists had a tough time with us, purely because we didn't have a colour scheme, nor did we know what we wanted! Being indecisive was not very productive, however we managed to get a rought idea and we had tasks to do before coming back! A quick visit to see Brian and grab some lunch before heading to North Berwick. The sun was shining and, as we were early, we thought we'd go for a wee walk before heading to the Humble Pie catering school and meeting with Lisa who took us through some samples of our wedding buffet. I believe it was meant to be a "tasting" but Bob and I seemed to munch our way through everything... it would be a shame to waste it, would it not? Again, we were given our homework to do in terms of vegetarians, glasses required, table decor etc. Nae probs.

Wednesday was my mum's birthday - she took the day off work and came through to Edinburgh with Dad to meet with our event coordinators at the Kirk Hall before heading into town for lunch at Hamiltons. "Glass of wine mum?"....."Oh yes, well it would be cheaper to get a bottle".....Right oh! It is a special occasion after all. Good grub, nice wine before heading to Mellis round the corner for some cheese tasting. Yum. Wedding cheese cake sorted and some samples to take home too. Trip into the Sheraton hotel to check out the hotel rooms before heading for some wine tasting. Back to the manse for more wine tasting, cheese tasting, wedding discussion and a good meal! Phew. Bedtime.

Thursday morning we headed into Gorgie to see our photographer and check out his albums etc. He knows Cramond well and had lots of ideas for photos already. We were feeling quite pleased with his suggestions, be it rain, hail or shine and so paid our deposit and moved onto the next port of call - Bob to meet Brian for some golf, me to meet with my hairdresser for a hair trial. Slight moment of panic when the receptionist tells me he needs to change my hair appointment at 9.45am on the 28th December. "We're shut that day so can we make it the 29th?" Eh, NO! Oh dear. A good minute was spent with us all looking rather awkwardly at each other, before Robert, my hairdresser, tells me he'll come in just for that appointment and the receptionist then pipes up that he will come in to open up and he'll bring a bottle of fizz with him. Result! Whole salon to ourselves. Fab. On to meet Kate for a glass of wine and a catch up on Rose Street before heading to a make up trial. We got slightly lost but made it with 5 minutes to spare. Make up on, looked in the mirror and as expected I thought I looked like a clown close up. From a distance, it looked okay but Kate reassured me it looked lovely. Hmmm. I'd have to get used to it! Went back to Kate's to have dinner with Carls and Katie - Bob popped his head in for 5 minutes and gave the make up a thumbs up. Brill. Another thing ticked off the list!

Friday - bridesmaid dress shopping! Mum, Helen and I got the train to Glasgow and had a rather lovely breakfast in Cranachan in Princes Square. Love Princes Square : ) Met up with Heather for our personal shopper appointment in Coast and enjoyed a wee glass of fizz during the girls' catwalk session! 3 dresses tried on, and we had 'the one'. Not quite dark purple or chocolate, but navy was the next best colour! Pleased with the selection and also bought myself a wee faux fur cover up for my dress. No tears or tantrums and all done by 1130am! Lunch?

The rest of the day was spent shopping before meeting up with Aunt Anne and Alison in Jamie Oliver's restaurant off George Square. More fizz? Yes please! Absolutely delicious food, great company and the presentation of the hen night outfit - a onesy!!! Will need to try it on before the main event but not sure I have much say in the matter! Hilarious. Can't wait for the blue eyeshadow and pink tights to go on. 80's night, here we come!

Being the sensible people we are, we headed home for 10pm, to prepare ourselves for the Hen day/night! Back to Helen's for a trying on of the outfit and general malarky dancing to the 80's tunes, classics like Salt n Pepa. Brill. I think at this point, Bob had had a round of golf at the Royal Burgess followed by lunch, followed by a meeting up with all his pals at the Grand Cruz for "a few quiet drinks" which resulted in a few Jaegerbombs being consumed (soon to be called Jaeger Bobs) and everyone stumbling home at 3am a little worse for wear (including my brother in law heading for Leith rather than Haymarket.....taxi!)

Saturday - Hen and Stag!
Having heard from Brian what the costumes were for Bob to dress up in, I was sure he would love them both. England shirt, red plus fours, pink socks and a pink visor for golf during the day, followed by a Papa Smurf outfit for the evening! My onesy didn't look so bad after all.......Being the bride to be and all, I obviously don't have all the gossip from the stag and so you will have to rely on Bob to fill you in on that front. I do believe he was made to "Smurf up" to do smurfograms to any hen party or birthday party they found, and I have also seen photos of Papa Smurf hiding in the bushes, drinking out of buckets and planking in the street. 'nuff said really!

As for the hen, all local friends came to my sister's house for breakfast on Saturday morning, which was a lovely idea and allowed me to catch up properly with them before the mayhem began. Met little Emily, Alison's daughter, for the first time, absolutely adorable. She's starting early with her first hen party!

Off to.......Scot Kart! Yeeha! Not that I'm competitive at all, or have competitive friends, but it was absolutely brilliant and hilarous. We had 15 of us, and 3 boys. No surprise that the 3 boys zoomed off before we even had a chance to notice that the green light was on, but we had a great laugh, even if I did overtake the mother in law at one point (sorry Margaret). The grand final saw Denise, Eilidh, Sineag, Helen, Heather, myself and the 3 boys compete against each other. I couldn't help but be smug when my sister crashed at the first corner, only to crash out myself a few laps in and for Helen to zoom past me with a big smile on her face. Argh! Due to us all being big girls, we asked the chap for a second medal ceremony (clearly the 3 boys won 1st, 2nd and 3rd) so we had our own 1st = Eilidh, 2nd = Denise and 3rd = Heather. Well done girls! And well done to Lindsey Barr for having the fastest lap!

Pizza and juice to refuel before a couple of games of Lazerquest! At this point, I had a veil to wear which unfortunately glowed in the ultraviolet light making me a very obvious target - rubbish! And not very good for my team mates either. Hilarious though - I seemed to be doing a lot of screaming, along with my mum, and I seem to remember Polly shooting me at every available opportunity, so much so that she actually stood in front of me so that i could get her back. Thanks Polly! My aunt was scary, as was the mother in law, both of which were very accurate in their shooting stats and also very devious with their hiding places. I really hadn't gotten the hang of it at all! Lindsey was by far the best with 10000 points, with everyone else on 3000. More practice required!

Lots of sweaty people at the end of it, but good fun was had by all. We all went our separate ways at this point - some to the hotel and some back home. Swim and sauna, with some handstands, mushroom floats and roly polys thrown in for good measure with Mum, Helen, Alison M, Lindsey and Louise before getting ready for our night out on the town.

Onesy on, blue and pink eyeshadow on, loads of blusher on, bangles on, pink tights, shoes and earrings on, veil on, ready to go! Looking absolutely ridiculous but enjoying it all at the same time. Best outfits go to Heather for her white stilettos and shoulder pad jacket, Carlene for the hairdo, headband and ripped leggings, Sineag for the crimped hair and lace glove, and Denise for actually wearing her own dress and still looking 80's - is that a good thing?! Good effort from mum, aunt anne and margaret too. Special mention to Louise for dressing up 80's and still looking like she was out for a normal night out!! A wee glass of wine before disembarking for the Butterfly and the Pig - met up with a very pregnant but well looking Gillian, and Rachael for a glass of fizz before heading upstairs to the private tea room for dinner. Heather, Louisa and of course Helen had all done an amazing job of decorating the room with glo-sticks, glitter, confetti and hen party signs, as well as plugging in the 80's playlist and providing me with my very own Bride to Be sash and glow wand. I loved it! It was a perfect venue with all my favourite people. I was a very happy Hen!

Dinner was enjoyed and wine was flowing, ending in the presentation of my male stripper - a tiny little fella who had to be stuck in some water for him to....grow. He looked a bit dead for the first 3 minutes, at which point we decided to read the instructions "takes about 2 hours for anything to happen". Oh well, we shall just decant him into a glass and take him on our night out. (He subsequently got decanted into a plastic cup for the dancing and then got forgotten about - hopefully not swallowed, as that would have made for an interesting poo) My mum had bought some cards to give out to the boys in the night club, ranging from #1 Complete Minger to #10 Well Fit. Lindsey had #7 cute ass which she proceeded to smack a boy's bottom with on the dancefloor, so much so that he wouldn't leave us alone! Fun fun. The loveliest thing was when I opened up the photo album all the girls had contributed to, and my sister had made. There were a few shockers in there, along with some lovely ones. The girls all wrote a little comment at the back too. So nice. Finally, a Q&A session with some embarrassing moments, including the question "have I ever seen a future in-law naked?" um......not sure....margaret, have I seen you naked?!....oops no......OH OH! at which point the memory came flooding back. much embarrassment whenI revealed the time I walked in on Mr Barr in the toilet, only for Margaret to reveal she'd done the same to her father in law! Much hilarity. And so we ventured downstairs to dance the night away, have some jaeger bombs, bop a few people on the head with my glow wand, magic people through the crowds with my glow wand, and perform some lunges at 2am, infact I think we lunged across Sauchiehall St back to the hotel. Quality. An £11 poke of chips in the room for Lindsey and I before big ZZZZZ's. A perfect night.

I'm sure my sister was delighted when I woke up at 730am, reporting that I needed a shower as I had a massive clump of green glitter on my head and that I was wide awake anyway, to which she replied "Still sleepytime". Yeah, whatever! Time to get up. Breakfast was not filled with much chat and Heather was looking decidedly hungover, managing to eat one slice of melon and not at all enjoying me slopping the ladel of porridge around. Oh dear. A quick swim for Lou, Polly and I before heading home to spend the remainder of the day on the sofa with Helen, Steven, Louisa and Meg Dog for approximately 8 hours of rubbish TV and a can of coke (or red ambulance as Louisa called it). Curry! Then a battle to stay awake until 9pm where we all thought this was a respectable time to go to bed, without being soft.

Up early to see Louisa off on her trip up north with a dodgy car, and to stage whisper to Meg dog to get back down the stairs, only to be rescued by Helen who was finding the whole thing rather entertaining. Off to Alison Renfrew's house for tea and scones and to play with Amy,Ewan and Emily, and catch up with Heather and Alison Sharp. Lovely to see my best mates again.

Braehead in the afternoon, lunch with Helen and Steph then a dinner date with Gillian and Rachael at Amaretto in Bridge of Weir. Fab.

Think that's enough news for now - tune in for Part II!! xxx

August and September in a nutshell...

I'm back! After 2 months of nothing, I decided I'd better put Warragul, Drouin, Bob and myself back on the map. The prime reason for not having written the blog was because we really hadn't been up to much! The 8 weeks or so leading up to our trip back to Scotland was filled with wedding planning, staying in and saving money, not really the most exciting of things to report!

Having said that, we did have a rather lovely visit from Miss Newlove at the beginning of August, which included a Brandy Creek visit for all you can eat meat feast ( I seem to remember Denise having to unbutton her trousers at the end of round 2, with 5 more rounds to go!) and a netball and footie trip on the Saturday for (you guessed it) a beer and a pie. The comments from Denise and Bob from the sidelines were less than constructive however I couldn't have expected anything more! A trip to the Downtowner for tequila shots followed by a night of cheesy dancing in the Commercial Hotel was enjoyed by all - well probably enjoyed more by Den and I as a rather weary looking Bob headed homeward before we did. A wise decision! Day trip to the beach at Inverloch on the Sunday was required for some fresh air.

The netball comp was still ongoing during the months of August and September, resulting in the Dusties reaching the preliminary finals at Koo Wee Rup. We succumbed to the curse of Koo Wee Rup for the 4th time in 4 years - there is definitely a psychological barrier here!! Fingers crossed finals aren't played there next year. B graders made the Grand Final at Nar Nar Goon and should have won the trophy however injuries and illness caused a bit of a frantic game of netball and we lost by 12 goals. Bummer. Still decided to go out on the town anyway to make ourselves feel better.....

Curry club has begun! Joe and Lauren came round to ours before we headed home for Scotland, for a night of curry and beer tasting. Deee licious. Beef Rendang, Lamb and Spinach Korma and Tomato and Coriander chicken curry were on the menu, with homemade naan bread and pakora. We were rather pleased with ourselves and were most grateful to our Good Food magazine for having a Curry Special as the centrefold! Coincidence but much needed. As for the beer tasting, marks out of 10 and placings from 1st - 3rd were given. All very serious!! (not really) Looking forward to the next curry night....

Back to the netball where Dusties Netball and Footie club held their senior presentation night on the 17th September. I managed to give a speech as A grade captain and I think everyone managed to understand me! I now have a Best and Fairest Runner Up trophy on the mantlepiece - I need a winning trophy soon as Bob is taking over!!! (he likes to remind me of this often) Discussions about the upcoming Dusties day trip were held, with 6 teams being sorted for the "Dusties Olympics". I'm in the athletics team which shouldn't prove too difficult to come up with an outfit. Maybe I should think "outside the box" and dress up as an anabolic steroid.....Liza is in the gymnastics team, I shall look forward to her leotard!!

On the work front, just before we set off for Scotland, Bob had an interview for the team coordinator position as his work.....and got it! He is pleased with his promotion and is looking forward to starting his managerial duties in January 2012.

Think that is all from Australia during the August and September months. Look out for the next installment of September Scottish antics..............xxx