A busy week and I'm a year older...

My computer went on the fritz last week so I'll go back to Sunday morning.... all peaceful and quiet - just me and my breakfast - 2 poached home grown googies and a cup of coffee in my Mum mug! Kirby came home from Uni later in the day and is here for the whole week. Yay!
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She travelled back via the Coorong so she picked up some Coorong Mullet from the road side stall (we call it the Roach Coach!). Angus cooked them 'en papillote' which means to encase in parchment to steam the contents. It worked beautifully and the fish was really tender and juicy...
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On Monday afternoon, we went to see Bridesmaids. Funny movie - see it if you like gross sillyness!
Butter chicken for dinner...
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On Tuesday morning, I got straight into making some cherry biscuits for my friend, Helen. It's her birthday! I received a text from another friend saying we were all going out to lunch so that's just what we did! Great to catch up with the girls!
Lamb steaks dusted in Moroccan seasoning, grated parmesan cheese and plain flour - fry in a little oil in a fry pan - Yummo!
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Wednesday was just work, work, work! Kirby picked up some lamb parcels in MtG so that's what we had for dinner.
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Thursday happened to be my birthday so I was totally spoiled with my favourite perfume from Angus and the girls bought me some Peter Alexander PJ's and lovely necklace. And Kirby made this awesome Donna Hay chocolate cake. Actually similar to last years but a different recipe. So rich!
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For dinner, we had pre-dinner champers then Gus put a spice rub on some nice steaks and the girls did a salad and potatoes...
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This is very standard fare at our house - a salad full of veggies and potato & sweet potato cubes, oven baked with a seasoning. So easy...
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Yum! This is just what I ordered for my birthday dinner!
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Friday morning we headed off to Melbourne by air. We had to pick up a vehicle that we had bought at auction then go get another vehicle we had transported over to Melbourne, have it washed and sparkling clean so we could deliver it to the gentleman who bought it. Once that was done, we went out to dinner at a Teppanyaki Japanese restaurant where they cook all the food in front of you, on big grills.
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(all pics in Melbourne via Nokia E71 phone - forgot my camera!)
We ordered Teriyaki scallops, Ginger Chicken and Wagyu steak, Kobe style with vegetables. The chef puts on a bit of a show in front of you, clacking the pepper and salt shakers and finely slicing the meats and flicking things about - very clever and entertaining.
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This is a rock lobster that some other gentlemen were having for their dinner. This poor critter was moving as he cut it in half then covered it with a lid. Two minutes later the chef removed the lid and its legs were still moving!
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Delicious, fresh scallops. At this point, the chef thought I was being a bit rude, taking photos so I stopped. :(
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Saturday morning, Gus went to check out some auction houses for vehicles and this gave me time to do a bit of shopping - only a bit, mind you!

I bought this Pandora charm for my bracelet - my Mum gave me some birthday money.
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I visited the Lindt shop and bought some chocolate balls for the girls - Kirby had Ultra Dark, Dark, Dark Peppermint, Cookies and cream and Raspberry and Brianna had Peppermint, Cookies and cream, milk and white and orange. They are total opposites when it comes to chocolate tastes.
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Then we were off to the footy at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to watch the Carlton Blues play the Collingwood magpies. We go for carlton but they played like tired school boys and lost! This the meat pie that I had for lunch. It was good.
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This is the MCG from the city end - it is a huge stadium and there were about 85,000 people there.
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Dinner on Saturday night was as Ecco Restaurant on Toorak Road. I had a Cappriciosa wood fired pizza...
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Angus had the Duck Risotto...
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I snuck a picture of the wood-fire oven just has the dude was putting another pizza in - it's a bit blurry! Lol!
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We drove back home on Sunday, through Victoria. We left Melbourne in sunshine but it was down to 9C when we got to Ballarat (Hi, Tatersmama!). When we got to Hamilton, it was 8C - we had a quick Subway lunch then onto home.
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We had 'Mexican Potato Casserole' for dinner - one of our all time favourites!
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Hope that has everyone caught up on what's been happening in my neck of the world - thanks for the comments about missing me! I was still reading your blogs even if I wasn't commenting much.
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Cheers - Joolz