Vending

During a tech conversation on a forum the topic turned to odd food / food habits (don't ask why, it just did), one person stated they would eat pizza pretty much constantly if only there were a vending machine that sold it, low and behold someone else produced this link . Thoughts turned to possibilities of vending machines and it turns out there is a whole world of weirdness (loads very slowly I'm afraid) out there, unsurprisingly the Japanese are responsible for most of it. The creme de la creme has to be this however, I'm speechless.

Renovation Fun.

Shari had put together some pics together for her parents so I'd thought I'd share them with you guys too.

The bedroom before we started
Carpets and floorboards up and laying down new yellowtounge (thanks for the help Matt)
Patching and paint the walls
Walls done, starting to laying the underlay for the floor.
Starting to lay the floor (thanks for the help Bron)
And late at night all done.
The hole is for the built in before you ask.

Monday washup - Hot and Oh So Underground!

This weekend was F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S Fabulous! After a rather exhausting start on Friday night pulling together all the last minute details for our 10 year reunion, it was definately firing on all cylindars by Saturday morning! Up early to finish food shopping and setting up for the day, and by Midday most of the girls had arrived. We had a great turn out and may I say a fantastic looking bunch too! 10 years has been very kind to the girls from the class of '96. There was much catching up, photos, chasing children and retelling scandalous stories from our school days....

Some of the class, kids and teachers at Tangara
The lads.

After the reunion, Flit very kindly drove Sarah and I into Surry Hills to meet up with Jackie and her Hen's day! Hilarious...they were all well and truly pissed, so we had some catching up to do!
of course there was the obligatory belly dance for the Hen...
...and a celebratory egg! and plenty of meerkats too!


Sunday lived up to its name and brought brilliant sunshine...perfect for our weekly Futsal training session! While most of the SRF decided to be slackarses...we found some other players from the Ultimo comp and had a good match against them. Hopefully we'll play well tonight and follow up last weeks brilliant effort with more of the same! Go the mighty SRF!!

Petering out

This is the 20th post in seven days.

And they weren't all from Gretta and me.

Trivia update

Haven't had a trivia post for a while, and after last nights effort, I thought it was about time! After a slow start with miss matched table heights and lack of chairs/room to move, we all settled in for a jolly good Q&A session at the good ol Kelly's on King.

I must admit, I don't really remember much about the actual trivia part as I was busy drinking in celebration of my NEW JOB! As of January 8th 2007 I will no longer be Margaret Flitcroft Sales Rep...oh no...my new title?...Recruitment Consultant for Hahn Healthcare !! They are based in North Sydney and seem to be a fun but frantic boutique agency who sepecialise in sales and marketing in the healthcare industry as well as Securing Scientific placements. That could be stretched to cover most of the SRF so you'll know who to call when your boss is too much or your salary is just not doing you justice!

...but anyhoo, I digress...

Whilst drinking in my joy we had an impromptue photo session with my lovely new camera...see how seamlessly I am co-selling previous posts!....



As you can see, some are better at this than others....not naming anyone in particular...John.
and then....(drum roll).....our number came up on the joker board and Richard had his chance to shine...and shine he did with a $500 win!

The Money Shot (boom boom) couldn't resist!

Congratulations Mrs F!

on the new job.

On a completely different Note.

Ok Ok. Hint taken.... How about the last weekend in Novemeber (24th/25th/26th)? The house is free for us to use. I was thinking of heading up Friday after work (should take about 2.5 hrs from the city). There are two bedrooms with beds (bags one), bathroom, large living room and a kitchen. There is also a large area of grass and a big undercover balcony. So you can
1) if your quick and share the bed with someone, bags the bed
2) Sleep in the lounge room with whatever you bring up with you
3) Camp under the balcony
4) Camp outside.
So there should be plenty of room for all.

I think a good plan would be to
Friday - night meal at the pub in Wollombi, we can all meet there for dinner and drive to the house together, as it is a little hard to find.
Saturday - The Hunter Valley for a bit of a drink and then dinner at the house Saturday night.
Sunday - Bit of a relax and head home.

Give me some feedback on the dates and I'll start to organise it.

BTW the last 6km is dirt track so if you are worried about driving on it, car pool with someone with a work car that they have to return soon anyway ;) Shari's car has made it OK, so everyone should be fine though.
BTW2 The place is on tank water and solar power. The powers not a big deal, we should be fine but you can't have 8 showers a day.

The good old days

Hey, remember this old post? What a great post. That crazy John!

House of Fillet

Hey John, in the spirit of adding long strings of digits to names, here is the House of Fillet 202.7.166.169 please add us, we feel very annonymous and lonely!

I also thought I'd put this in a post rather than an email as I felt that after yesterdays effort, Thursday might be a bit quiet and lonely.

Teeth and Watermelons

John, can you please make bloggy recognise me/us at home? A little string of numbers doesn't make me feel loved. I think it's 82.247.15.121.

Thank you!

...

Finding that picture (from the Molvania guide, of course) reminded me of the REAL description in my Eastern Europe LP in the introduction to neighbouring country Moldova:

"Moldova is not exactly what one would call a press darling. If there are any reports at all from this land-locked country, they highlight intense poverty, illegal organ trading, human trafficking, civil war and communism.
Such reports of this rarely visited country fail to mention the sunflower fields and enormous watermelons."

What's a bit of organ trading when a country has enormous watermelons?

DVD technologies

Speaking of the latest dvd technologies... My new DVD writer.

Err

I don't actually have anything to post about, just thought I'd add to the veritable sunami that is todays wave of posting (I hope we're far enough on from the real sunami that I can use that simile)

DVD Jon does it again: Apple ipod code cracked

And now, for an impromptu nerdy post.

I thought this was pretty interesting:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/10/24/1161455702584.html

My new favourite quote

The only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of the immense inferiority of everybody else, and this is a feeling that I have always cultivated.
- Oscar Wilde

Le journal intime d'un glutton à Paris

With a liver still recovering from the bad influence of Penny from Brighton on Thursday night and a head suffering from a long and very entertaining Friday in the office, I grabbed up my duffle bag and headed for Waterloo. The French were very polite about letting me into their country and I elegantly boarded the train for Paris, wistfully gazing out to the platform hoping to catch a glimpse of a black-and-white Matt in a trench coat running along the platform to stop me leaving then waving good bye in a sad admission of romantic defeat.

Several average chapters of my trashy novel later, I found myself pulling into the far more lovely Gare du Nord. And there they were. The enigmatic Alex who vanished mysteriously from our lives a few months back, only to pop up in photos from France, and our long lost Jenny. And she looked HOT!

Ok. More chic. But also so warm and welcoming with a big grin and a lovely compliment at the ready.

In a bit of a haze I was escorted by my local hosts back to ‘Republique’, guided round piles of dog turd, over cobbledy paths through the PARIS(!) streets until we found the big doors that lead to the smaller door that lead to the old (read scungy) staircase that lead to four more flights that lead to the little door that lead to the delightfully fresh and cozy SRF Paris branch.

Let the eating begin!

Be it well past 11pm, there was no hesitation in popping a couple of bottles and tucking into some brilliant cheese and meat snacks. A good ol’ catch up with our favourite Frenchies and eventually I was treated to a demonstration of the click-clack bed I later enjoyed for many comfortable hours.

Saturday? Alex came in with pastries. Add coffee, more meat and cheese and some very interesting fishy paste and you have a breakfast of ‘champions’ - (French for Champions).

Some wandering down brilliant streets past chocolate shops and delis to aspire to and crepes were the next logical step. Savoury ones. With cidar.

More walking, then coffee at a café. More walking then beers at a pub. More walking (stopping at a bizarre supermarket selling only frozen foods, and not just your peas and pies, either) then it became rushing as Alex and I realised a very great need to pee.

Then more walking and dinner at a very charming little French restaurant where I feasted on Confit Canard and a darling little chocolate pudding with easy red.

Then more walking and mojitos next to a spewing man.

Then back to the apartment for wine.

Breakfast was a very delicate creation from Alex – figs with goats cheese wrapped in prosciutto (I think) green plumbs and a citrus fruit the name of which Jenny will leave for me in the comments of this post.

‘Light breakfast’ I imagine you thinking to yourself. Well we needed room for the savoury brunch that followed. Sweet crepes (and a waffle for Alex) on a roundabout. A very grand roundabout.

Sadly, this all left only enough time to admire some very raunchy cake decorations before it was time to escort the fatter and happier Aussie back to her train.

Leaving sucked.

A big thank you to Jenny and Alex for their wonderful hospitality. I hope its not too long before we see you again. A big apology to all readers for the over abundance of superlatives in this post. It really was that good.

Post Proliferation!!

So far this week we have had 6 posts, with this being the 7th! That has to be some kind of record!

Anyway, to finish off my "catch up post" duties I thought I'd post some photos from our housewarming.

For those who didn't make it, The House of Fillet was officially warmed on Saturday night. This marked the end of unpacking and the set up of our first place together!



The rest simply are not fit for publishing!

Chinese hospitals

Our BEST EVER score

It was a stormer! We had a late kick off (9pm) but that did not dampen the fearless spirit of the mighty SRF team!
The mighty SRF before kick off

With Flit leading the team and Jen playing a magnificent tackling game at the rear, we were in for a sweet victory! Noodle broke the seal with our first ever goooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The team went wild......

Then the opposition unleashed their secret weapon....a 30 year old bloke who appears to have once played for the Brazilian National Football team....or so one would think! He dribbled, he taunted, he scored...again...and again...and again. Our goalies did their best and we even discovered a natural talent in our very own G'Nick as goalie. But alas we were not able to close him down. Bryan certainly tried to maime the poor guy first with a full body roll to knock him over, then a boot in the arse and finally a ball to the shoulder...nothing seemed to stop him! Jen ran far and wide and got stuck in at every opportunity, Noodle used those noodley legs to cause much havoc and John consistently kept the pressure up from his position up front.

Mattes caused more joy when he booted in a goal from the halfway mark and Flit followed this example with another nicley placed shot!

Still the brazilian kept coming

A few accidental handballs gave the opposition a few free kicks....luckily they were a nice bunch and allowed the girls to take them....both went wide and didn't score.

Our girls were far superior to the oppositions girls with Jen taking our player of the match and Bron and Shari giving them hell down the wings. If only the brazilian had not been on board (he isn't a regular player, they were down and he was just helping out) we would have walked away with a mighty fine score. As it happened we came away with 4 goals (Flit scored the fourth), not quite enough to beat the oppositions 24, but at least it gave us a 1 in 6 ratio which is better by far than anything to date.

The team played well and with great energy. Onwards and upwards for the mighty SRF!!!!

So London, 'ere we come eh

Next came London and I really had the greatest time.

My hotel was absolutely beautiful, very deserving of its *****. I stayed in the 'Sir Carol Reed' room and was utterly charmed.

At last, a destination where you can get a great cup of tea. From a china tea pot. With a silver strainer.
I had the first day (Sunday) to explore London. I dragged my sorry jet lagged self from one landmark to another on a mission of sleep resistance, stopping in every patch of sun for another chapter of Aldous Huxley’s very different London.

Then it was straight to work. Hours into my first working day they had me at a client meeting and boy was it European - a Swedish girl, a German guy, a Dutch girl and little old Aussie me.

I absolutley loved my time in the London office. Loads of funny people to meet - dodgy poms in the back office, crazy Europeans in the front office. They took me out for beers and dinners and swept me off my feet with 'big office' glee.

I also took the opportunity to catch up with old friends. Here, Alyssa, Ingrid and Sabrina from Tangara:

Here, Penny Best from Brighton (my dodgy roommate extraordinaire from Vietnam):

And of course there were the many ECA sponsored beers.

(An assortment of fabulous people from Client Services and Business Development at my farewell drinks on Friday night.)

The weekend in between entailed fabulousness of another kind altogether. Stay tuned for the crowd pleaser tomorrow - tales from Paris!

Tumut

Last year the October long weekend saw a number of SRF members tucking up their toes by a camp fire on the Tumut river and launching themselves at poor helpless sheep. This year, as previously mentioned, it was a wedding working bee. There was surveying and earthmoving and gardening and a lot of scratching and talking. My car threw a tanty (and consequently got left behind) and we had lots of drinking and eating and making merry.

Now if it could just RAIN down there...

Miss Me? - Tahiti

Ok, so I'm not sure if you remember me but I'm Noodle's girlfriend. I used to hang out with you quite a bit, slouching around at parties and trying to organise other alcohol related events. I'm the one that got chucked up on the SR lecture theatre to retrieve a tennis ball.

It's been a crazy few months for me, the last of which has been spread across four different countries - French Polynesia, Australia, England, France. (That doesn’t include my stops in Thailand and Hong Kong but I’m pretty sure they count as countries…)

Today - a quick run down, starting with Tahiti.

It was a week in Paradise doing unheavenly things. By day I trotted about in the heat trying to make my highschool french understood and interpreting labels and signs while I priced my 125 items.

Afternoons I spent by the pool with a book, ipod and poolside drinks and snack service. I have resisted the urge to publish photos of me enjoying yet another island paradise.

At night, lounged around my room with room service and movies.
It was my first trip that I did not meet anyone to speak of. The resort ws full of young American couples obsessed with each other or much older French groups with disdain for my lame French.

Tahiti was a pretty strange place compared to the other Pacific islands I've visited. Firstly, the food was wonderful - trust the French to bring delightful cholesterol laiden foods when they colonise a place! Not a patch on the NZ influence in Cook Islands or the American influences in Palau.
The street scapes were totally different too - quite built up with a more European feel to the architecture and a more Asian feel to the layout. All still with that distinctly tropical island feel.

My new Camera!

As you know, Friday was my birthday...thus starting the Festival of Margaret's Birthday!

Flit gave me this beautiful new little camera. It is a Canon Ixus60...and it is amazing. The photos are 6 megapixel and it has every feature under the sun!
From the ability to take mega close ups which actually look like something...

to being able to isolate a single colour in an otherwise black and white shot!


Anyway, there is still much to learn, but loads of fun trying things out!

Football training homework

Here's a video for all the futsal players to watch featuring the one and only George Best, if you have 4 minutes spare (and ADSL) please go and watch it. In particular concentrate on how he dribbles the ball and how and where he moves into position once he's passed it. There's some other bits thrown in as well in case your attention is wandering.

Of course I expect everyone to play just like him come training on Sunday, just try not to drink like him. And for those of you who may ask why I'm requesting you watch a video of a famous Man Utd player may I remind you that he's the one who once said...

"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered."

Genius indeed.

Other George quotations can be found here

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARGS!

Hope you've been having plenty of "waters" to celebrate!

Night Noodle Markets

Wednesday night is Dancing night for most of the SRF on the Northern side of the bridge.....funny how we have to cross the bridge to get to it! Anyway, after dancing it has become a bit of a ritual to head over to Starbucks for a bevvie of some sort and sit in the cool night air to laugh over our dancing escapades and generally cool down before we get in the car to go home. This Wednesday night brought a slight twist to our usual routine. "Starbucks is not for tonight" came the cry and off we bolted (literally with G'Nick dragging me down the street) to find an alternative....this was when we stumbled upon the wonderful Night Noodle Markets held in Hyde park during October for Good Food Month.

The dancing party in the thick of it all.

Now when I say stumbled, I mean "Bolted" towards after I revealed that they do proffertjes with loads of yummy toppings!

We're not sure how to pronounce it, so we just say "proffertijesesjeses"

These are what the little gourmet delights are: a dozen small fluffy dutch pancakes covered in hot chocolate fudge with fresh strawberries and whipped cream with a generous dusting of sweet icing sugar. Or you could go the maple syrup and strawberry option, or you could have mixed berries, or Caramel fudge or banannas or other wonderful sweet things!

To eat them, one is given a few toothpicks! odd I know, but once we were all ensconced on the low wall of the main fountain we tucked in and covered ourselves with sweet sticky fudge, syrup and icing sugar! YUM!

Just as a side note, year 12 have now finished for the year and it was time for the annual detergent-ing of the fountain.
very surreal!

Monday Wash up

I finally got my camera back, so I'm going to do what I promised and show you photos from Nick's Sweet and Savoury afternoon tea...




...for some reason they came out really small....eh what ya gonna do?

Now on to this weekend....damn it was busy! We broke the Summer seal and went to the beach for the first time this season...the weather was great! 35 degrees, but as soon as we touched the water we froze! it must have been 15 degrees in there...we soldiered on and eventually settled into it. After we dropped Mattes and G'Nick back at HOC, we headed off to buy our new scanner. I could honestly put up a post just about how great this piece of technology is! I know you all want me to, but we can't have everything we want! let's just leave it at Woohoo!

We managed to fit in some footy training on Sunday afternoon in the rain...I swear this weekend was like Melbourne...it went from boiling hot, to windy as hell, to cold and wet within the space of 24 hours!

Anyway, Soccor is on tonight and we're gonna knock 'em dead...well....maybe. GO the Mighty SRF!

I guess I should really have put in some photos that were relevant to this weekend, but the one of me blowing that trumpet was appalling, and the HOC ones don't do your plight justice. Maybe next Monday we'll get some up to date relevant shots of something...I know...Our housewarming!!! Woohoo!