Cocktails at Hippo

Drink, talk, stare at the flame, listen to the music, laugh with new friends. I love Hippo :) Don’t go there enough.
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Xmas Cocktail Party

Hosted a cocktail at our place last night. The idea behind it was to use up some of the spirits we’ve been acquiring… but after cleaning up this morning we have more than we started with, plus (yay!) heaps of fresh fruit for me to eat this week, plus foods like cakes that will be palmed off onto workmates this week :p

The spirits we provided (many other things arrived with our guests)

Plastic cocktail glasses. Awesome invention.

Cupcakes. Made using this recipe and covered in icing and balls. very very rich and sweet.

I only really got into the drinks late in the night, when Kat was in full flight making them, half the people had left and I relaxed a little.

Sleep? What Sleep?

Had a lovely weekend *grins*

I finally watched Fight Club on Friday night. Excellent movie (not partial to the beating in of heads, but you know, have to deal with it to get the rest of it). Can say that I’ve seen it :) And could return the DVD to a friend we’d borrowed it off way too long ago :p (Crush on Helena Bonham Carter has just grown)

Coming home to snuggle up and watch a DVD after gym, instead of hitting the Canberra Centre in search of the end of the sale bargains and to look for a new mobile phone for Rish.

Instead, we did that on Saturday… 4 hours worth of wandering later – I have a new pair of running shoes, Rish has the new Nokia 6220 to play with, and I had REALLY sore feet, and threw a little tanty *heh* Still managed to gym it up, though.

Was going to craash out for an early night but talked into heading out for coktails… I’m so easily persuaded! :) Nice to get out, though I was struggling to stay awake – not so good as I was the designated driver as Rish’s arm probably isn’t right yet for driving… 2:30 bed time.. :)

Had friends over for a BBQ lunch today, to catch up again before we head away. I lost both games of 500, with different partners :p WEll, we technically didn’t lose the last one, it never ended, so maybe we’ll rematch them when we get back from Europe :p (Do they still give out playing cards on airlines? I’d love another deck to add to my collection! I think I’ve heard of them being handed out on Emirates flights – I’ll have to ask :p)

And just now I’ve come back from the oval – sprints across the field with Rish *dies*

So, things hurt, haven’t had much sleep, but I’ve had a wonderful weekend (yes, I even got the washing done) and am ready to hit the four days I have remaining at wor before my holiday! *dances*

Steamboat

Last night we had Matt and Hannah over for a steamboat dinner… we’d brought the steamboat down from Newcastle last time we were there, and were itching to give it a try.

I spent an hour after the gym sourcing the ingredients … firstly to make my own stock – I’ve never made stock before, so went off to find a chicken carcass. 85cents! Bargain!

Then what to cook in the steamboat? Scallops, fish balls, baby octopus, callamari, chicken, tofu, and lotsa yummy veges like carrot, baby corn and bok choi. And some sauces for dipping into. The others seemed to like the oyster sauce best, while I stuck with the soy. The sweet chilli wasn’t touched, and the teriaki had a little bit of a look-in.

(There’s some nice picture’s of other people’s steamboats here. I have a few photos from last night, but I still haven’t managed to get the camera to download onto this computer, and if Rish’s laptop is here, I can’t login because he hs fingerscan access. Bah!)

So, we stuffed ourselves. Also some yummy steamed barbeque pork buns, nice wine, and my favourite home coucktail of the moment – shot of vodka, shot of frangelico, juice of a lime (they call it an Angel’s Kiss on the Frangelico website. ). Yums. And then Matt and I proceeded to beat Hannah and Rish in cards. Firstly Canasta (which Rish and I had been taught the night before) and then 500. Sweet :p

Something else great about yesterday – there was a top I bought maybe 6 weeks back, and I liked it in the shop… but then when I got it home and put it back on I realised that it looked disgusting on me, highlighting all the bulges exactly where I didn’t want them to be hightlighted! But I wore it yesterday. My tummy is getting flatter, but I swear my bottom is bigger. Or sticking out more. Or other thigns are getting smaller and it’s just getting more muscly or something. I don’t know. All I know it my body is gradually changing shape, so all the lumps and bumps are where they should be and less of them are the form of wobbly fat and more toned happy muscles. Yay! :) Now to keep this up!

Teresa is holding a new contest over at her personal blog. Those entering have a chance at winning a lovely and uniquely designed dandelion handbag by Rebecca Weis. Teresa is willing to ship this item anywhere, so anyone can participate. I’m a sucker for a new bag (if I ever when I make it to 68kg, I’m going to buy myself a new one!), so I know I’ll enter. She designed the blog theme I’m using :) Isn’t it sweet?

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