Oscars countdown, A year ago today, Celine does Lady Gaga...

Oscar host in training

I am counting down the days to Oscar! I love them, its my version of the grand final.  I love seeing who gets the awards and if I think it is political or well deserved and apart from the red carpet I always enjoy seeing who pops up to present (who wouldn't present Hello - have you seen the gift baskets??!!!!)

It will be interesting to see how James Franco and Anne Hathaway do hosting, I love the little clips they have been posting on youtube like the one above.

I would like to see the awards go to:
Best Actress: Natalie Portman for Black Swan
Best Actor: James Franco for 127 Hours
Best Film: I am torn between Black Swan & 127 Hours

The Oscars being on reminded it was a year ago today since I fainted in the kitchen at 4am and broke my ankle which put me in hospital for 9 days with a plate & 8 pins. I remember watching last years Oscars in agony and gladly getting shots of morphine throughout!

Besides that we are all packed away besides a few last minute things (the computer is not getting packed up till the very last minute!) and all set to move out for 10 days on Sunday.

My poor girl Celine is going through a phase at the moment of ripping chunks of fur out so the vet has given us a collar to put on her to stop her from doing it, its not the hard plastic type its more like a cape and she is loving it!!  She is prancing around the house showing off and is extra affectionate.  We think she looks like a little Lady Gaga wannabe - what do you all think?

Moving out, packing up for now.....

This week so far has been spent packing alot of my life into boxes.  Some of you will remember I had a shower renovation back in December due to severe water leak damage. Phase 2 of this repair is abut to commence next week which entails replacing panelled walls & floorboards in the lounge room & office that the leak damaged.

Packing up our office is not an easy task, as well as an office it is the room we store many things including my huge book collection (2 ceiling high bookcases) when packing today I came across my huge collection of show programmes that I had not gone through in ages and remembered all the great performers I have been lucky enough to see.

Paris being a good girl decided to help her Mum pack up!

And no I did not place her in there for a photo op - she loves boxes and shopping bags and will play for hours in them!  Just one more bookcase to go and the office is done. We move out on the weekend to a house close by (only a few streets away) the only hassle is getting Celine & Paris settled in their new surroundings.

Not much happening on the IVF front as I am still waiting for good old AF to arrive, why is it when you cross your fingers for her not to show she comes early and when you are counting on her she does not want to co-operate!!

Belinda Carlisle Brisbane 19 Feb 2011

If you asked anyone waht music you would have found on my record player in the 80's they would more than likely name these 3 artists:

George Micahel
Madonna
Belinda Carlisle

I loved The Go-Go's as a kid but it was when Belinda went solo with Mad about you I went totally ga-ga for this former go-go!!

So it was with much excitement that I went to see her Saturday night, never having had the chance to see her perform live before.  It may sound silly but when she first hit the stage singing Runaway Horses it felt a bit overwhelming to see her in person after all the hours I have racked up over the years listening to her music.

I alwys thought she was gorgeous and in person she is and is ageing very nicely (although she does admit to the odd botox) I was surprised at how tiny she was. She was dressed in a plain black top & capri pants and removed her shoes after the first song so she could dance.

She really seems to enjoy performing live and her voice sounded amazing, even better than on cd. She sang everyone of her hits so I was not thinking 'Oh I wish she had done...'

The setlist was:

1.Runaway Horses

2.I Get Weak

3.In Too Deep 

4.California 

5.Mad About You

6.Circle In The Sand

7.Vision Of You

8.La Luna

9.Summer Rain 

10.Big Scary Animal 

11.(We Want) The Same Thing 

12.Leave A Light On

13.Live Your Life Be Free 

Encore:

14.Vacation Play 

(The Go-Go's cover)

15.Our Lips Are Sealed 

(The Go-Go's cover)

16.We Got the Beat

(The Go-Go's cover)

17.Heaven Is A Place On Earth

For her encore she came back and did some Go-Gos classics even announcing 'this next song is NOT called Eric the seal' before starting Our lips are sealed.

I am very surprised the promoter of this tour only had her play small venues like RSL clubs etc... She is a brilliant live performer with a lot of fans. She may not fill an entertainment centre but I can think of plenty of good mid size venues she would fill no problem.  It did not seem right her giving it her all underneath a dodgy mirrorball on this tiny stage.


I can't wait for her to tour again, however as per a previous post of mine I will be going elsewhere to see her even if it means driving to the Gold Coast.

A horrible end to a nice evening

I could not wait to get home and blog tonight, we went to see one of my all time favorite singers Belinda Carlisle and throughout the concert I had little things pop in my head for my post.

This however is not the post I intended to write as something happened to me tonight I have never experienced in my whole 38 years.

The concert was at a leagues club which I had never been to before and the venue was set up the old fashioned way of long tables with seats.  We were down the front and had a great position.  Half way through the show people started going up the front to dance and started to block our view. The crowd swelled and normally security only let a certain number stay at the front and cut off the rest but not tonight. As a result people started pushing there way through and I had to stand for a lot of the show - oh well never mind.

I was sitting back on my chair having a rest for a minute when this woman nearly pushed me off my chair trying to get past me, she rudely told me to get out of her way and becuase of where my chair was and teh size of the crowd now I had nowhere to go and I told her this. She said she wanted to get through and I again told her nicely I was jammed in and she would have to try another way (there were plenty of wy to get through to the front) I thought nothing more of it.

The show ended and the lights came on and Leigh and I were watching security escort Belinda out when the next thing I knew there was a thud between my shoulder blades and then I was soaking wet. I spun round to see the women from earlier bolting away. She had come back and smashed a glass into back. There was glass everywhere in my hair etc.. and as I was trying to grasp what had happened Leigh checked me out and thank god I had no cuts. I was so in shock. Leigh went to get security and there was no one around so once I got myself together we went to the front of the club and reported what had happened.

While we were there doing this another young girl came to report being punched in the eye and the description she gave matched the woman who had smashed the glass on me.  The girl who was punched said she was told she was being hit becuase she got in her way during the evening. (the girl that was hit was cute as a button and about 5ft tall and would not get in any ones way - the attacker was approx my height which is 5ft 7.)

I have a very sore back from where the glass was smashed against it and had to come home & shower and wash my hair to get the smell of alcohol off of me. As silly as it may sound it really shook me up but I know I am lucky I did not sustain a worse injury.

I have never experienced anything like this in my life.  I will never be going back there again no mater who plays as I would feel unsafe.

I can't believe this is the world we live in. It makes me very sad.

On a positive note the show was great and I will post about Belinda and her performance shortly. Unfortunately this has taineted the whole night for me.

Valentines trip away 2011

The few days away together was lovely but I would not go back to Novotel Twin Waters again after this stay.

For a four star resort I was surpised at a few things.  On arrival nothing was organised for us, it was a package which included breakfast & dinners and various other things and we had to go back to reception 3 times to get all the bits & pieces we needed for the stay as no one knew what was included in the package.  We asked what to do with our luggage and we were told we could take care of it ourselves. We were given a map to the room (the rooms are in groups like town houses) and a map.  To get us off to a good start the girl circled the wrong complex on the map so we had to go back to reception again as we could not find our room. Still no one offered to take us to the room. I have never stayed at any resort where somone has not accompanied you to the room, helped with your bags and done a quick room show (except dodgy motels you stay in for a night on road trips).

OK once settled we decided we would unwind with the champagne & chocolates on arrival that was part of the package but you guessed it they were not there.  We called reception and they advised they would bring them over so in the meantime we went to the spa as Leigh had arranged a surprise of a couples massage & champagne spa which was lovely and relaxing.

While getting ready to go to dinner I nearly had a bad fall in the bathroom on a puddle of water which I discovered was coming from a leak in the air con.  So we called up reception again to get them to come & fix it.  Dinner that night was at Noueau which is a buffet restaurant, I am not a big buffet fan but I usally enjoy the seafood.  Unfortunately tonight was roast night and they had every red meat under the sun but no chicken or turkey (I am not a vegetarian I just do not like Lamb, beef, pork etc...)  I was just going to have the roast veg but Leigh spoke to someone and they very kindly offered to grill me some barramundi which was divine.

On valentines day I pulled the curtians back to discover it was poruing rain and there was a Mum & bub kangaroo under our balcony.

Leigh surprised me with the full set of new Harajuku Lovers Wicked perfumes and the packaging is the cutest thing I have ever seen.

This gift of a retro tin lunch box came with the set

Buffet breakfast was very nice but the rain did not ease so we stayed in our room, soaked inthe spa and jsut hung out with each other.  We went and ordered from the take away service for lunch and there was a 15 minute wait while it was cooked. I ordered the seafood basket as being on the sunshine coast I though the produce would be fab and it was $22 so I was expecting it to be delicious. We got the food back to our room and Leigh's butter chicken tiffin that we waited 15 mins for was ice cold (thank god there was a microwave in the room).  I dove into the seafood to discover the calamari was as tough as old tyres and the rest of the basket was made up of imitation seafood like bits of fake crab seafood extender, horrible seafood bites and a seafood stick - the sort of thing you might expect if you ordered seafood at a roadside diner somewhere but not at a resort on the sunshine coast.  I did not eat mine but that was ok as I was looking forward to dinner in the fine dining restaurant Lily's on the lagoon that night.

We arrived at Lily's for our reservation and handed them our vouchers and we were told to wait. The manager came back and told us very curtly we would not be dining there tonight as they were not accepting the couples package vouchers on Valentines day due to it being a special menu.  Leigh told her he checked this with the hotel when we made the reservation and to double check he actually rang the restaurant and spoke with someone who confirmed there was no problem using the couples package couchers on Valentines.  Again she rudely told us no and that we would have to leave.  I felt so embarrassed by the way she was speaking to us. Leigh asked her to check the reservation which she did in a huff and came back and said - I see a note here you spoke to someone and they have told you the wrong thing so I have no choice but to let you dine here tonight.  Great start to a romantic dinner.

The restaurant itself was lovely and when shown to the table there was long stem rose and a gift pack of body scrub and lotion by the fijian company that makes the spa's products. For the guys there was a bottle opener!  The 5 course dinner started with an Amuse which I did not like. For entree I had the panko crumbed soft shell crab and Leigh had the twice baked gorgonzola & goats cheese souffle.(sorry there are no photos of the food but it was not the sort of place you could whip your iphone out if you know what I mean!!)  He does not eat seafood and I do not eat cheese so we had to take each others word that the entrees were to die for.  After some watermelon sorbet I had the grilled barramundi with fennel & pink eye potato puree & moreton bay bug & prawn salad while Leigh had the grain fed beef tenderloin with blue cheese & parmesan potato gallette.  For dessert Leigh had the dark chocolate truffle tart with chilli creme fraiche and I had the white couveture chocolate mousse. The food and the service from the wait staff was 5 star.  When we received our bill for the drinks - you guessed it we had been charged for everything so poor Leigh had to go back to the charming manager and go through that whole ordeal again.

Overall we had a nice time together away from all our stresses for awhile, we were just disappointed with the bad service. I certainly will not be telling anyone to stay there.

I see red

Today was a nice relaxing day although another hot one, we wound up at Vanilla Pod this afternoon and they had my favorite - red velvet cake - yum!!

When we got home we kicked back and watched some movies and I decided to have another go at colouring my hair (see previous post for the comedy of errors that occurred when I tried this the first time on Wednesday!!)  All worked well tonight and here is the new colour (excuse the state of my hair but I am way overdue for a trim!)

It looks a lot brighter in the photo but I think I am happy with it (for now), I always have a desire to go red about every 4 years.

Apart from that we have just been getting things organised for the housesitter and getting ready to head off to Novotel Twin Waters tomorrow.


As I will be MIA for the next few days I hope everyone has a romantic valentines day!

Clarisonic report Week 1

After a week all is going great with the clarisonic.  I changed from the sensitive cleanser to the nourishing one and find it is far more suitable for my skin. I have also bumped the speed up by one. My ritual is to lie in bed under the air conditioner and do my face before I hop in the shower and every other day I do my neck & chest as well.

My skin is still super soft and the few blackheads I had round the crevice of my nose and chin have gone and so have a few little annoying bumps I could never seem to get rid of.  My neck & chest have never felt so smooth & clean either.  I have also noticed a reduction in pore size especially round the chin. The tiny amount of roseca I get has gone as well.

So far this has been the best beauty product I have ever invested in & I would tell anyone thinking of getting one to go for it.

These things must only happen to me....

I decided to buy some hair colour while out shopping and have a change.  I have lots of fair foils in my hair but I have not had the regrowth done in ages and every few years I make a change (although I usally go back to the fair highlights eventually) read on if you want to know why there are no pictures of the new colour....

I opened the colour and saw the applicator bottle and the colour tube and noticed my box was missing the after care conditioner they supply.  Anyway I mixed it up & applied no problem and waited for my 30 minutes to be up to rinse.  When the timer went off I went to the bathroom to rinse BUT when I looked in the mirror my hair was exactly the same - not one ounce of colour? I was totally perplexed and checked the instructions again (I had done everything right). I looked at the applicator and colour tube again to find out it was not the conditioner missing from the box it was the colour tube - so I had mixed the conditioner in with the component in the applicator bottle.  I went back to the chemist and they checked several boxes and they were all mising the colour tube.  Anyway they have given me a new full kit and I will try again in a few days time.  This really would only happen to me.

Snapshot Seaworld San Diego 6th October 2005

In effort to cheer myself up I thought I would make another snapshot entry, I started these to help me remember good times.

During our few months living in LA we drove to San Diego for a week mainly to visit Seaworld and the zoo.  San Diego Seaworld is home to the famous whale Shamu.  When watching The bachelorette years ago Trista & Ryan had their first date there and had dinner with Shamu (you dine next to his pool) I thought that looked so cool.

It was a gorgeous sunny day perfect for being outdoors. When we got there the first thing we did was stop at the dolphin pool, you can actually touch the dolphins and feed them. This was so nice to do and we spent ages there.  We love dolphins and many years ago we were lucky to go swimmng with them.  After awhile Leigh excused himself to the bathroom and proceeded to go missing for 30 mins (I started to panic thinking he must be sick).  He comes back all grins and presents me with a VIP pass to have lunch with Shamu! He remembered from all that time ago that I said I would love to do that.

Patting dolphin

We went to several of the animal shows then it was off to lunch.  They have tables set up around Shamu's pool (there are several Shamu's!!) the food was lovely and while you are dining the trainers come in and get the whales to do special tricks and things. You are so close and it was one of the coolest things I have ever done. I even got a plush Shamu to take back home (had to carry him with me on the plane but he made a good cuddle buddy!) I think of that day whenever I see him.

Shamu doing his tricks at lunch

Lunch with Shamu

We loved watching the polar bears and one of my other favorite parts was the penguin encounter.

Polar bear encounter

 They have this amazing set up of 300 penguins of all different breeds behind glass with ice and pools (looks just like there natural habitat) and it is really huge. You jump on a moving walkway and watch them all ( I went through about 10 times!)

It really was a perfect day.

Something good & something funny!

During the flood crisis Leigh and his colleagues racked up about 120 hours that week, as a thank you for all their hard work at keeping the company systems going they were all given a wotif.com voucher.  So that means we spent the past 2 days looking at places online for a mini vacation.  We have not had a getaway in a few years so we decided to go away next weekend and have a long weekend for Valentines day.

We found a great deal on offer at Novotel Twin Waters on the Sunshine Coast

Lagoon view at Twin Waters

We get a king spa room, champagne & chocolates, buffet breakfast each morning and dinner in either the a la carte or buffet restaurant each night.  We stayed there about 14 years ago and it was lovely so we are really looking forward to this break. I can envision lots of time by the pool and a massage at the spa......

Lots of time to be spent by & in this pool

Aerial view of resort


On a funny note when we were unpacking the groceries today Paris was jumping in & out of all the bags like she usually does but then she went quiet for awhile.  We found out why, she had chewed her way through the plastic bag and the wrapping to help herself to a hot cross bun, lucky I saw her or I would think we had mice by the bite marks.

I hope everyone has had a great weekend and that it cools down soon as it sounds like it is not just Brisbane that is sweltering in the heat.

Clarisonic - My first report

On Tuesday my good friend Arthur delivered my Clarisonic Pro, impatiently I had to wait 24 hours for it to charge before I could use it.

Once fully charged Wednesday night I had my first Clarisonic cleanse.  I decided to try one of the Clarisonic brand cleansers that come with it and chose the gentle hydro cleanser. You wet your face and the brush head and apply your cleanser, the brush has a one minute timer and beeps every 20 seconds so you know to move to another part of your face. Seeing it was my first time I decided to use the low setting but I will be interested to try out the various speeds in time.  The brush head is very soft and vibrates so gently, it feels like a lovely light massage and the minute is up in no time.

 

After rinsing off the cleanser and applying my moisturiser my face felt even softer then when I have been for a facial. I used it again today and as a treat moisturised with some Creme de LaMer. I am officially in love with this product and the way it makes my skin feel. I am lucky in that I do not have problem skin but I love the idea of something that can improve skin quality, reduce pores and fine lines plus I love that soft, fresh, clean feeling.
I will keep you updated on my progress and the changes I see in my skin over time.