Indigo's the-good-stuff thread

[Circe]

Ok well I don't want to create some long thread of whinges and vents which take my focus away from celebrating, pondering on and appreciating the good things.

 

So.. good things thread:

 

1. First good thing is that today is the last day that I need to teach this Semester. Woohooo. On the one hand, I'll really miss my adorable uni students. They have been such a pleasure and a delight to teach. On the other hand it will be so awesome not to worry about class preparation getting in the way of my job and my weekends etc. YAY.

 

 

 

2. My awesome husband explained the entire middle eastern conflict to me over lunch today. I was shamefully ignorant of the details all my life and now I feel so much more enlightened about such an important thing and he explained it in such a great way. He was passionate and interesting, concise but right on the points. He's one awesome man and yay that I have him.

 

Gosh.. I'm actually quite happy today. Yay

[Circe]

Teaching my class was awesome yesterday. I'll miss them! They asked me if I'd be teaching anything next semester or any of the other subjects they are likely to do over the next couple years. And they all clapped at the very end. It was really touching. I had no idea back when I was a uni student myself just how much it takes (in terms of effort and all that) to teach a class and just how much of a difference the way a class responds to you can make. A positive response makes everything worth while x 10, while a negative or apathetic response can be demoralising.

 

Anyway, I will miss them verrrrrrry much.

[Circe]

I had a wonderful long weekend. I am now sitting here, chewing on one of the many pieces of wedding cake from 3 months ago that we are keeping until our anniversary. I can't believe they preserve so well and actually get yummier with age.

 

I'll write this while killing time, waiting for H to be done with some work so we can go to sleep.

 

Weekend was great. Saturday night we went to a very nice restaurant down by the wharf with my in-laws. The food was absolutely delicious, especially desert. My attention was caught though, by an absolutely stunning, (chinese? malaysian?) girl sitting at a nearby table. She was very tall and slim and her dress (despite it being a cold night) was barely long enough to cover her hips. I think it managed to cover a fraction of her thighs and that's it. She was having dinner with a far less attractive, shorter male. I can't help but admit I immediately jumped to conclusions about why they were togeter and then felt terrible for being so quick to jump to conclusions!

 

It did make me wonder though, for the tenth time or so, whether many men really care about why women are with them or whether, provided the woman is attractive and nice to them, they don't care why she's there? I wonder if this is an area where gender divide really comes into play. I know I personally would be terribly unhappy if I thought I had an attractive partner who was nice to me, but didnt really love and want me for me, but for my assets. I wonder if that's a feeling which is personal to me, or if it's a gender thing. Many women want to be loved for who they are.. many men want an attractive woman to be nice to them? Gosh I hope that's not the case.

 

On Sunday, I slept in very late. H and I then drove to a nearby suburb for brunch. He wanted to take me to a cafe which, about 9 years ago, the last time he went there, had been really nice. It was nice and we had a lovely time. We went from there to check out some furniture as in a few weeks, I think we'll need to buy quite a lot of it. We saw some nice stuff and didn't shop too long. I hate long periods of shopping for anything..

 

We then got ready and went out for dinner. I was feeling very full from brunch and Saturday night's massive dinner so I skipped dinner and went straight to red wine (cab sav) and desert - a massive slive of flourless chocolate cake, followed by a toblerone. I think the taste of the chocolate cake killed my wine though.

 

I have very bizare reactions to alcohol. Sometimes half a glass of wine is all it takes to make me quite tipsy and woosy. But on Sunday night I was perfectly sober following the wine and the cocktail. H had a massive meal and then felt horrible uncomfortable and full. He also got a tiny bit tipsy on one glass of wine, completely red in the face, and was acting very cute the whole time.

 

The place we went to was the lounge bar of a very, very nice hotel. Back when we used to work for someone else, H and I would frequent there ALL the time. It was under different management then and the staff all knew us and because H was good friends with the bar manager, we used to get huge discounts off our drinks/food. I miss those days! There used to be a piano in the room and often there would be live music. It's just not what it used to be anymore. But still, a very lovely experience.

 

After dinner, we walked up to another part of the city where we joined a couple of friends for a film festival show - "Winged creatures". It started off promising, ended well - but gosh, the middle was the longest 90 minutes I'd ever endured. There was a Q&A session with the director afterwards but we could only hack about 4 questions before things got all too pretentious and we had to leave!

 

Today was also lovely. Woke up at a leisurely pace (if only I could get H into proper sleeping in) and met my old uni friend and his fiance for lunch. We had a lovely 3 hour catch up and it would have been perfect, but towards the end I could not stop sneezing.. and I started to feel a bit sick.

 

I'm feeling a tiny bit better now but really do not feel 100%. Very sad the long weekend is over.. cannot WAIT until this week is over. Friday especially holds something quite stressful for me at work and I'll be so happy when it's done

[Circe]

Absolutely great weekend.

 

Friday night we went to my old favourite restaurant, just the two of us. It's what I'd call a true neighbourhood gem. It's a little italian restaurant that does the most amazing pasta dish Ive ever tasted. And the yummiest chocolate cake desert. I hear their whole menu is pretty good but I wouldn't know because every time we go I just have to have that pasta dish. Mmm-mmmm. I had a class of red wine as well and it really went to my head so I was quite tipsy all night and we had a really lovely time all up.

 

On saturday we went to have lunch with my in-laws at a pizza and ice cream place in one of the more young and hippy-ish parts of town. I can't believe what a conservative I've always been at heart in many ways because I stand out like a sore thumb in the hip and happening parts of this city!

 

But we had a lovely time and shared some delicious pizzas. We also shared a nutella and banana desert pizza which was very unusual!

 

After than my H and I watched three DVDs in a row before calling it a night.

 

Today was just brilliant. After sleeping in as late as I could manage, we decided to trek down to a very large shopping centre which is a few suburbs away and spend the day at Borders. We had KFC for lunch (which I have not had for years and was having a huge craving all week) which was nice - but ... not as nice as I thought it was going to be!!

 

Then we spent about 3 hours in Borders. H went off to look for books for the first half and I grabbed a handful of magazines, made my way to the coffee shop on the level above and bought some chocolate coated coffee beans, some tea, and sat down on the couch with my magazines. H eventually joined me and read next to me until it was time for our movie!

 

We saw "The Hangover" and it was literally the funniest movie I had seen all year - I was totally not expecting it to be anywhere near as good as it was.

 

And now here we are.. end of the weekend - how sad!

 

Still I suppose the weekends wouldnt be so awesome if you didnt have the weekdays in between..

[Circe]

I had a couple of past encounters yesterday and I thought I'd take note of them.

 

First I think I properly reconnected with one old friend I've lost touch with a bit. He has been overseas for two years and is returning to my home city soon enough.

 

The problem is, my husband hates him. And for good reason. This friend was totally against the idea of my H and I getting together and fed all sorts of demeaning crap about my H to me in the hope that I wouldn't date him. Why did he do that? Apparently he felt somewhat slighted by my H supposedly ignoring him at work, years ago, and decided from that moment that my H was to be the victim of his scorn and malicious backstabbing.

 

Anyway so I was left in the position where I had to pretty much end that friendship because I couldnt have a friend like that - it seemed incongruous to the relationship.

 

But years have passed and I think he's a changed person. I don't have many friends from the school days at all and I really miss having that in my life. It makes quite a difference. So I'd like to reconnect on a friendship level with this person provided they truly have grown up from those days. I think they have but only time will tell.

 

However, in the circumstances, I don't think I CAN reconnect the friendship without H's blessing. If it's going to upset H that I have this guy in my life again then he's out. It wouldnt be worth it. Especially since, if I were standing in my H's shoes I don't think I'd be particularly forgiving of this guy. So I'll have to see how he feels about that over the next few weeks.

 

Second blast from the past, I ran into an ex who I had a very, very traumatic past relationship with, yesterday. The previous times I've run into this man (it's absolutely unavoidable given our profession and work localities) I've either completely ignored him or walked into a traffic filled street just to avoid having to speak to him.

 

Yesterday I saw him at the traffic light waiting a few paces ahead of me, obviously heading in the same direction I was. I could have just lurked behind and waited for him to cross before crossing myself, but I thought to myself "this is silly, it's been years, I'm going to bump into him all the time and it just gets weirder and weirder and more uncomfortable the longer I keep ignoring him. Lets just be adults about this."

 

So I walked up and said hello. We had a bit of a chit chat about work stuff. It was civil and pleasant enough and then we parted ways. I am really glad that happened because it was just plain uncomfortable bumping into him beforehand and now that discomfort has been diffused. It also made me wonder what I ever saw in him all those years ago. He's just a man.. and I elevated him into something else. It's truly amazing what a few years and perspective can do.

 

 

[Circe]

H is awesome and absolutely the world's no.1 H in my eyes and may I never forget it, not even for a moment.

 

He keeps me strong when I feel week. He believes in me with all his heart. He made a huge concession when we had to board with one of our respective families until our home was finished and agreed to mine without any debate and has not complained once since we've been there. He's had a beautiful attitude about it even though there are plenty of reasons why his family was the practical choice.

 

He see's it as his job to keep me safe in every way and I feel safe. I feel emotionall safe which is the most important sense of safety of all (to me).

 

He warms and gladdens my heart all the time with his big warm hugs and kisses and I am thankful that I was born and thus able to experience loving him and being loved by him.

 

May I never, ever forget this, even for a moment.

 

 

[Circe]

One of our friends gave us a gift voucher for a restaurant called Marque (wedding gift), so on Friday night, we decided to check it out.

 

It's a three hat restaurant so it was meant to be one of the best in Sydney. I'll say I had a lovely time, because dinner with my H is always a lovely time. The restaurant had a really nice interior. Thoughtful but subtle and quite romantic.

 

But, I have to say, they went overboard with food experimentation. Now I love inventiveness and the intelligent combination of unexpected flavours .. but I just felt they went too far, especially with the desert menu.

 

However the wine the sommilier suggested for me (when I told him I'm a wine novice and only know that I enjoy cab savs) was brilliant.

 

On Saturday we spent some time in front of the tele. H then went to do some work on his laptop and I watched "Becoming Jane", which was nice but it had a sad ending and I started crying at the end. I'm a complete baby when it comes to sad movies. I usually avoid them like the plague. It's pathetic - when I saw Nights in Rodanthea I was a sobbing mess.

 

Anyway so H gave me a big hug and was very comforting, although of course, he couldn't help laughing that I was upset about Becoming Jane.

 

We then drove to his parents' for dinner. It was nice but it's always freezing cold inside their house! BIL is back from a trip and it was nice to catch up with him. We had a lovely home cooked dinner.

 

The next day we both drove into work for a couple of hours to finish some stuff off. Then we drove to one of my favourite little neighbourhood restaurants because they had brought back their famous chocolate fandante (I'd been begging the cheff for months to bring it back).

 

And yummmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyy!! It was DELICIOUS. God.. so delicious.

 

It's interesting.. sometimes.. the classiest fine dining restaurants just cannot compare to your favourite dish at the local neighbourhood gem.

 

 

[Circe]

Here I am, at the end of another week and I'm surprised and happy to say, it hasn't been a bad one, work-wise! I've generally been in good work spirits

 

I now have to look forward to:

> Dinner with an old uni friend tonight at one of my favourite restaurants; and

> My cousin's 25th birthday celebrations on Saturday night; and

> Our friend's farewell celebrations on Sunday night;

> Transformers; and

> A couple of episodes from my Felicity DVDs (if I can fit them in) which arrived yesterday. Wooohooooo

 

 

[Circe]

Alright so the weekend is shaping up nicely!

 

My H had to work today so he kissed me good-morning and good-bye at 8am and went off. I knew I'd be having the bigger part of the day to myself so I had it all planned out.

 

First, I would sleep in. Check!

 

Second, I would make my long awaited, much talked-about, gym come-back! I used to be a gym addict and then I just stopped cold turkey and have missed it very much since. Ive been talking about going back for ages. Well today was the day. Check!!

 

It was awesome. I spent 60 mins on the eliptical trainer at a fairly low intensity (which would have been easy back in the gym-freak days) but was hard today! But I absolutely loved it. Just loved being back there, loved improving my fitness. Loved stretching and cooling down afterwards. Just loved it.

 

Then the plan was to watch Marley & Me on DVD. Check!

 

Next step was to catch the train to the city (as my H has the car) and join H in his office, before we made our way to visit his dad and bro and then go to dinner at a really lovely Indian restaurant. Foiled!!

 

When I made it to the train station I saw that there was track work and no trains! I called H and he has said that as he'd nearly done with work, he'll drive over here and pick me up from here. Yay. Much better than the train ;-)

 

Really looking forward to dinner.

 

The plan for tomorrow is for the two of us to have a nice glass of wine and a relaxing lunch at a bar/cafe/restaurant by the wharf which H picked out on Friday.. then to watch Bruno! And then have a nice quiet dinner at home.

 

Very much glad its the weekend. I feel sooooo much happier on the weekend, it's ridiculous.

[Circe]

Well I had a fantastic Sunday - and I hope it will get me through the working week ahead.

 

I slept in.. awoke to hugs and kisses. It's an absolutely lovely way to wake up on a sunday morning.

 

Then we headed off to a really lovely restaurant called Venturo which is right by the wharf. Now it was a cloudy and cold day and we were both very full from a big dinner last night but we decided not to let any of that stop us. And a good thing too because lunch was just amazing.

 

They had a selection of italian wines and I definitely picked the right one because it was amazing. I had a pizza with eggplant and italian sausage and a very nice cheese on it. H had a risotto with veal which I also tried - delicious! And we couldnt help but top it off with a tiramissu desert which was just perfect.

 

The wine must have been quite strong because I was certainly a bit tipsy for a while there, but I really enjoyed it. The restaurant itself was just gorgeous. Very chic but warm and friendly at the same time.. so a perfect vibe.

 

Then we headed to the movies to watch Bruno with choc top ice creams. Bruno was hilarious. I don't think anyone else in the cinema lauged as hard as H and I did though

 

And we've been having a lovely lazy night in curled up by the TV with books and the laptop and the heater to finish it off.

 

I just could not have had a better Sunday.

[Circe]

Ok. Phew. At the risk of sounding like I have a split personality.. things are looking a bit better.

 

After lunch, I managed to find some motivation inside me to finalise the things I've been working on (and could have finalised yesterday but not for the total absence of drive).

 

Ive also spent some time with two friends of mine and I'm starting to see that I do have plenty of friends in my life so even though I don't have those childhood ties anymore, and I don't have one person in particular.. there's heaps I do have.

 

So I'm not all there yet but I'm getting there.

 

Hubs has been fantastic as usual. And today I have a dinner to look forward to that is sort of work related. I'll be able to catch up with some people that I'm looking forward to.. and the food should be nice.. and then the weekend awaits!

[Circe]

And it was, another great weekend.

 

Friday night was a work-related dinner that I had a very good time at. The food was mostly yum, the speeches were good, the company was excellent and the wine was free-flowing.

 

There was someone I was worried might be there.. and he was there, but he kept well away from me and it was no issue in the end.

 

I got escorted to the venue and escorted back by my H and had a lovely time with no difficulties at all.

 

Saturday was also lovely. We went and watched Harry Potter in the morning, which we both enjoyed. Then we went to check out beds in two separate furniture shops. We found a favourite but decided not to commit until we can check out the apartment again next week.

 

Then we went to visit my in-laws for dinner. My MIL is back from overseas and it was lovely to see her. She really brightens up that house in many ways. She had some problems with a lump her throad a while back which turned out to be no big deal.. but now something else is going on .. there's another lump of sorts near her thyroid. She's getting it checked out properly on Wednesday. It's a bit scary. I hope to God she'll be just fine .. I don't think those boys (my H, BIL and FIL) could handle it otherwise.

 

Especially my H who finds it very difficult to express emotion where his mum is concerned (even though I knoooow how much he loves her inside).

 

So cross-fingers about that.

 

Anyway we took them all out to dinner at a lovely restaurant called Foveaux to celebrate MIL's birthday and it was just awesome food. We had the six course tasting menu and it was really yum. H and I have vowed to go back there and do it again but with matching wines next time!

 

On Sunday we checked out one last furniture store and then went to lunch at a place called Cafe Julia's. It was written up in the papers as the best place for breakfast. I dunno about that.. perhaps if you are into bohemian living (which I always thought was way too cool for me).. but at least it was wholesome food at very good prices so I can't complain.

 

I also had my first shot at cheap wine during the lunch! It tasted like blackberry juice with panadol syrup

 

And we have since come back home and have relaxed with DVDs.. waiting for the MasterChef finals to come on tonight

[Circe]

I had a MASSIVE victory in Court today when the odds were stacked against me. I feel elated. I know what it feels to walk on clouds.

 

Wow. Can I really turn my back on this profession if I can do things like that?

 

Are these moments worth the rest?

[Circe]

For once I've had a very busy few weeks at work. Interesting times. My poor H has been experiencing another down patch in attitude/mood/feelings about work. I've been trying to figure out how best to help him. I even spoke to my old psychologist about it and he gave me some really good approaches.

 

I also dragged my H to see a doctor last week. Because he has been reporting feeling tired practically every day for 18 months.. I thought it was time for a check up. He needed a bit of pushing but as he told the doctor.. he usually differs to my better judgment so he went along. The doctor got it all out of him (which was awesome) and determined that it was important to have a blood test (to rule out thyroid problems etc) and that if it wasnt a physical thing then he could benefit from some scheduled/structured counselling.

 

My H really doesn't want to do the counselling again (and from what he says about how he feels when he's down.. I don't feel like its imperitive to try and talk him into it either.. but I did tell him (and he agrees) that if we have the doctor's referral (which entitles us to partial rebates off the cost) then at least he knows he can go talk to someone if it ever does get bad enough for him to want to.

 

We did the blood test on friday and will get results on Tuesday (tomorrow).

 

 

But.. funnily enough.. since we went and did that.. he seems to have taken a turn for the better, which is great.

 

So.. we had a really good weekend. On friday night we went to see Beautiful Kate which was amazingly good. I'm amazed because I usually hate aussie movies but I was just spell bound by this one. The people who made it did a fantastic job. We then had dinner at a place near by which used to be good but no more! Both our meals were totally undercooked and not very nice! We decided to comfort ourselves by going for cake elswhere.. and we found an amazing place. H had a newyork cheese cake and I had the "mars bar cake" which was this very rich belgian chocolate filled caramel cake.

 

On saturday - we both had to work so we came in to the city to do that. As annoying as that was, we did have a lovely break in the middle at the Lindt Cafe where I had a yummy hot fudge chocolate sundae and he had an ice chocolate and that was lovely.. we should do the Lindt cafe more often.

 

In the evening we went to my in-laws and went out to dinner at a new place in town which was a very nice experience.

 

On Sunday... gosh we were so busy. We started off the morning going housework. I mopped the floor and cleaned the kitchen bench. H vacuumed upstairs and cleaned the bathroom.

 

Then we shopped for a TV..and a TV stand.. and brought the TV back home. Man that was heavy! Then we decided to explore our new neighbourhood for a good cafe for lunch. We found a lovely place called the WahWah bar.. where I had a choc mud cake and potato chips with diet coke (healthy lunch - not!! I'm veeerry careful with what I eat on weekdays but always indulge on weekends) and H had what looked like a mouth watering beef burger. The staff at the cafe were so friendly, although I got teased a lot (for not sharing the choc cake and for eating such an unhealthy meal!) - but in a very nice way. And then they managed to set their fire alarm off and a fireman and woman turned up!

 

 

Next step was to go shopping for a rug. Which we did. And success! We found the perfect rug. Initially we found a great rug but I thought (and H agreed) the price was ridiculously high. Then we found a much cheaper rug (half the price) which I loved but I could tell H wasn't so sure about it.. but then H spotted the perfect rug. Woohoo.

 

And then we went and got the perfect coffee table. So that's a lot of the furniture shopping out of the way. The enitre bottom half of the apartment practically..

 

Then we went and did the grocery shopping.. and bought our first tools together - a philips head screw driver.. for the TV.

 

Then we came back.. totally exhausted.. and attached the stand to the TV.. only to find.. there was no antenna cable provided!! So we couldnt watch it. We stared in dismay at the blank screen for a while.. and eventually resigned ourselves to no TV and went upstairs.. where we sat near the heater and my H prepared for Monday's hearing while I surfed the net, munching on moon cake and cadbury caramello and sipping hot tea.

 

It was a really good, productive, happy weekend