My crazy wacky bestie Cath had her long awaited hens do last weekend. It was a Sex in the City theme held in an inner city hotel room in Sydney. The bridesmaids, me, Janie and Katie, and cousin Liss stayed at the hotel with Cath on the Friday night in preparation for the big day ahead. We woke up early and headed to the fantastic Bills restaurant in Surry Hills for breakfast. I had the signature scrambled eggs. Then it was onto the dress makers for dress fitting and general girliness. We got a sneak preview at Cath’s wedding dress (absolutely gorgeous and very Cath) and saw the bridesmaids dress’s next to each other for the first time. All very exciting. This allowed us enough time to race back to the apartment and get ready for the evening’s festivities. At 5.30pm the topless waiters arrived! 2 very hot young boys to serve us drinks and oysters throughout the night. It wasn’t long until the first girls started arriving, each of which were welcomed by our private topless waiters. 15 of Cath’s girlfriends came and drank champagne and cosmopolitans whilst we played party games. At 7.30 we moved on to a fantastic tappas restaurant on Oxford Street where I ate the best spinach, pumpkins and goats cheese salad amongst other things. I’m still thinking about that salad a week later. After dinner we headed to the Dome, a very cool bar with bed like lounges to sit / lay on. The music was great but no dancing so after awhile we moved onto the Burdekin, Janie’s favourite club, for 4 levels of dancing and continued drinking. I slipped out at around 3am and headed back to the hotel with Liss. A couple of hours later we were awoken by a fog horn / traffic cone in our ear. Thanks Jane! The girls stayed up chatting, skinning dipping and drinking until one by one they dropped off. Poor Cath’s hangover was not a pretty sight on Sunday. It was worth it though, right Cath?

Jem and I just got back from a fantastic 2 weeks in BC Canada. It’s been 5 years since we lived in Vancouver and we were anxious to return to our old haunts to see if they are as good as we remembered.

 

The flight over was long (25hrs door to door) but surprisingly quite pleasant. The first stop over in Auckland went without a hitch and the 12hr flight from NZ to San Francisco went quickly as the seats and leg room were roomy and the movies great (in particular Blades of Glory – hilarious!). The 5 hour layover in San Francisco allowed us enough time to leave the airport and explore the city so we drank coffee from extra large mugs whilst listening to a live jazz band, shopped in Macy’s and Sears department stores and looked through the window of the San Francisco Art Gallery.

 

One flight later we arrived in Vancouver. Moonie and Adam came through with the airport pickup and went beyond the call of duty by bringing an esky full of beer and Mike’s Cider. They drove us to our little rented cottage in Kitsilano where Jon and Zoe (our English mates) were excitedly waiting for us to arrive. After knocking on the door for 5 minutes they finally awoke from their jet lagged slumber and let us in. Here the party started and continued into the wee hours of the morning.

 

The following afternoon we awoke to rain! Not happy Jan!. Instead of sightseeing we decided to head to the pub for a hair of the dog. And so it began all over again. In between pints Jem and I were frantically trying to track down Missy and Grant’s phone number. There is a severe lack of internet café’s in Kitsilano and Jem forgot to write the number down before we left. Unbeknownst to us Missy and Grant had decided to wing it and drove all the way from White Rock to Vancouver (1 hr) in the vague hope that they would find us. They dropped by the cottage but we had already left so proceeded to walk the streets of Kitsilano looking for us. As we were drinking in the pool hall Missy was 2 blocks up the road at Gargoyles drinking on her own. At one stage Jem and I decided to leave the pub to use what turned out to be the only public phone within miles. Whilst using the only phone in existence a lonely man approached cursing because the phone was occupied. As he raised his head we realized it was GRANT. Random! He collected Missy and we were all together finally. Jon decided to celebrate by ordering many many rounds of Jagerbombs and in the process destroyed his wife who had to be escorted home shortly thereafter (Zoe I’ll spare you the embarrassment of elaborating any further).

 

Day 3 and it is still raining. Missy and Grant invited us to White Rock to check out their house and have dinner at the restaurant where Missy works. White Rock is a small town on the border of the US and Canada. We had a fantastic dinner where Jon got to eat his favourite soup – French Onion – which we later discovered contains beef stock. Not good for a vegetarian therefore it has turned into Jon’s last French Onion soup ever. After lots of wine and a good chat to the chef we all boarded a late night bus and headed back to Vancouver.

 

 

On Day 4 we decided to see some of Vancouver in particular Gastown. We stood by the old steam clock, wandered around the Inuit galleries and souvenir shops and somehow ended up at The Cambie. The Cambie is a seedy backpacker’s hostel with equally seedy pub attached. Jem and I shared many pints here 5 years ago and held the venue in high regards. Moonie on the other hand despises The Cambie. We managed to drag Moonie inside kicking and screaming for a few games of pool. After an hour or so we decided that Moonie was right, the pub was seedy and we are no longer backpackers therefore didn’t belong. Moonie decided to take us to a real pub nearby called …. where there are tables and chairs to sit at and clean glasses to drink out of.

 

We continued our sightseeing on Day 5 with a walk along the coast line from Kitsilano to Granville Island. The weather was still overcast but luckily the rain held off. We had a beer at the Granville Island Brewery and heading home mid afternoon for a jet lag induced nap.

 

On Day 6 we decided to stop drinking and do something healthy so we decided to hike up the very steep Grouse Mountain. It’s a 90 minute strenuous hike but very much worth the effort. The views from the top are amazing and there are 2 fully grown Grizzly bears living in an enclosure at the top. Jem and I originally saw the bears 5 years ago when they were cubs so it was amazing to see how much they had grown. We decided to catch the gondola down instead of hiking which suited all of us except Jon who is scared of heights. He clung onto Zoe the whole way down.

 

On our final day in town we decided to go shopping so we headed straight to Robson Street, Vancouver’s equivalent to Oxford Street. It was a long day of trawling through boutiques (painful for the boys) and outdoor / camping shops (painful for the girls). That evening we were able to catch up with Emily who I worked with at The Placement Group 5 years ago. She has been traveling the world since we saw her last so it was great to share traveling tales.

 

Time to leave Vancouver so we hired a sturdy sedan and started driving along the beautiful coastline towards Squamish. Squamish is the outdoor capital of Canada and one of Jem and my favourite places in the world. We stayed at the Brew Pub which is in my top 3 pub in the world and a place that we have been reminiscing about for 5 years. The following day Jem and I went rock-climbing and Zoe and Jon hiked The Chief. Jem was very happy to be climbing again and was looking forward to taking Moonie and Adam out in a few days time.

 

Onto Whistler and our luxury chalet located in the upper village. We had BBQ’s, played Frisbee, hiked to crystal clear lakes, sun baked on the beach / grass, played charades and generally relaxed for 7 days. It was a very relaxing and much needed break. Jem managed to take Adam and Moonie climbing in Squamish one day which was a great achievement as Adam is scared of heights. I’m pretty sure we have found 2 new rock climbing enthusiasts.

 

At this point our holiday is starting to come to an end with 24 hours left back in Vancouver. We caught up with Missy and Grant again as well as Emily and Mark. We managed to squeeze in a Roxy burger for old times sake as well as the typical drunken $1 slice (s) of pizza on Granville Street. Quick goodbyes ensured and we departed for home.

 

The End

With Hamish and Liv’s wedding rapidly approaching and Hamish’s bucks do long gone, the girls decided to throw Livie a hens do to remember. We decided to borrow Hamish’s family holiday house at Blairgowrie and make a weekend out of it. Liv’s best friends, Cath and Megan, from Brisbane flew down and joined Amy, Heidi, Paula, Emma, me and of course Liv for 2 days of mischief. We drove down on Saturday morning (well late morning) in a 2 car convoy which took way longer than planned leaving us, surprise, late as usual. By the time we arrived at the beach house we were ravenously hungry and desperate for a glass of champagne. The poor little old lady, Bev, who we had hired to drive us to lunch and back had been sitting out the front of the beach house for an hour waiting for us to arrive. Although she looks old Bev is not afraid to drive fast, very fast through the windy country roads around Mornington. Lunch was at Willow Creek a Vineyard where we ate top quality steak and drank bottle after bottle of champers. After a few bottles Liv became a bit naughty and was looking to do something sneaky. The best we came up with was a brief dash into the forbidden to enter Vineyard and a seat in a pot. Not very hard core! Bev arrived to chaperone us back to the house and keep us entertained (?) with stories about her family (ho hum). Now back at the house the girls changed into their tracky pants and the fun began. Courtesy of Amy we drank vodka soaked raspberries in out champagne and settled in for a long night of gossiping and stories and cocktails and shots. Liv got off lightly with a few funny games, a pack of 1970’s porno cards and an embarrassing confession about her sex life. Next the dancing started and Heidi rocked. Very funny indeed. Our hangovers the next morning were bearable due to the water monitor. a very responsible initiative from the night before but still I suffered. We walked along the beach, ate greasy egg and bacon rolls and all was good again. Great fun with a good bunch of girlies.

Jem and I have let our website fall into oblivion lately. We have no excuses, just sheer laziness. The crazy thing is that we have been soo busy so we have loads of things to write about and pictures to add. This is my first attempt to get us back on track.

The weather is starting to turn here in Melbourne so for the past couple of months we have been trying to make the most out of our Kombi. We dragged Jester, who isn't a fan of driving in the kombi, down to Philip Island recently for a weekend at the caravan park. I was nursing a serious hangover and have to admit that the fresh sea air did help eventually. We walked along the beach like a real family and cooked snags on our camping stove. Our fold out chairs with built in stubby holders were fantastic and we chilled out next to the Kombi for pretty much the whole time. We love convenience camping!

Liss and Chris got marries recently in Rye on the Mornington Penninsula. It was soo much fun and a great party.

It was my birthday about a month ago so we flew up to Sydney to celebrate with my family and Sydney friends. It was as usual a whirlwind visit. Adam and Bits threw a BBQ which was great and a bit scary as there were a lot of babies in attendance. I'm getting old!!!!!!!!

Janet came to Melbourne recently and caught up with us. She is a true travel buddy and so far we have hung out in Vancouver, London and Melbourne. Where next Janet???

We have spent loads of time hanging out with friends here in Melbourne and getting ready for Hamish and Liv's wedding which is only a couple of months away. Work is work and never ends.

Till next time.........

 

Adam sent me some new photos of Alysha at 5 months and they are so cute that I had no choice but to add them to the website.

Missy and Grant flew down to Melbourne for New Years  as it has become a traditional for us to celebrate every 2 years (remember Hogmanay Edinburgh 2004). Our friend Amy threw a White themed house party at her new beautiful house in Brunswick (very cool location). Being a Baxter, Missy got well and truly carried away by the White theme and dragged us all out to op shops and $2 shops to get costumes. It was hilarious and we came back with a set of shells designed to cover a pair of boobs, a faceless mask, swimming cap, bowler hat, feather boa & white gloves. Just enough stuff to kit us all out in white. I suspected that no one else would be putting in the effort that we did but you can’t say no to Missy when it comes to dressing up (she owns a dress up box!). We started the night at a pub on Brunswick Street fully decked out in our costume. We got a few strange looks and even a few heckles along the way. Amy’s house is literally around the corner so we quickly moved on to the real party. We quickly realized that apart from a few white shirts and dresses we were infact the only group to dress up but everyone seems to enjoy the effort we made. Missy was in charge of drinks and made sure that Jem, Grant, Mel, Jem and Ads all had at least 2 drinks at any one time. Grant also decided to go as his alter ego Grak from a Nordic country (sorry Grak I can’t remember the name) with his swimming cap on his head and bizarre Canadian / Scottish / Australian accent. It’s easy to understand why people were so easily convinced. Anyway the night was a bit of a blur and before we knew it the 5 of us had consumed 2 cases of beer and a bottle of Canadian Club. It was at this time we decided it was time to begin the long and windey trip home. Windey because no one could walk straight. Luckily the trams were running at 5am so we jumped on and made it home within 10 minutes. Another excellent New years with Missy and Grak. Can’t wait for 2008!

Liss and Chris have taken the plunge and opened their own Organic Fruit and Veg shop in Elwood Melbourne called Box My Bunch. The Grand Opening was last weekend and Jem and I headed down to check out the action. The shop looks fantastic thanks to Liss and Chris' hard work and Cath's signage. There was a good buzz and heaps of locals stopped by to check out the shop. Jem and I bought our weekly supply of fruit and veg and for the record the grapes and mangoes are the best I have ever eaten. YUM!

To celebrate I have added some more photos of her on our website. Click on Alysha Jaynn Thomas in the galleries section to check them out.

I was very fortunate recently to be invited to Darby Day which is one of the big days of the Spring Racing Carnival here in Melbourne. My bosses, Clair and Neil, booked us a table in the Makyabe Diva Marque which included a 3 course meal, all the booze we could drink and a view that looked out over the finish line. We started the day with breakfast at Clair and Neil’s apartment in South Melbourne. It didn’t take long for the celebrations to begin so my first but certainly not last glass of champagne was consumed at 9am.

 

Lucky for Jem we had a spare ticket so he was asked to join us at the racecourse ASAP. Being from Melbourne he knew he was onto a good thing so had no problem cancelling all his plans for the day, finding puppy sitters for Jester (thanks Hamish and Liv!) and rushing home to change into his suit and tie. Meanwhile we all piled into the stretch limo waiting to drive us in style to the venue. More champagne was consumed and Neil surprised us all by putting $20 on each race for each and every one of us. Earlier in the week he had asked us to pick a horse from each race for what we thought was the office pool. Not knowing much about horse racing I went with the horses whose names I liked the most. In hindsight I realized I should have done a lot more research. Having a stake in the results certainly made it a lot more exciting and I found myself getting right into it.

 

With free booze and an endless supply we all got very smashed very quickly. Particular mention should be given to Sarah, Andrew and of course Jem. All 3 were by far the drunkest out of the lot. I managed to win 2 races so took home $200 but the biggest winner of the day was Sarah who ended up with about $1000. Unfortunately due to her intoxicated state she wasn’t actually aware she won until a few days later.

 

The races finished at around 6pm and we all started the difficult walk back to our limo. There were thousands of very drunk people everywhere and it was difficult to find our way through the crowd. We eventually found the limo but we lost Andrew on the way. Jem and I said our goodbyes at this stage and continue on foot to Hamish and Liv’s. We entered their house like a whirlwind and I’m sure made fools out of ourselves. 2 very very drunk people who have been boozing since 9am are not really on the same level as completely sober Hamish, Liv and Jeremy. I passed out soon after on the couch and slept through to the next morning.

 

Great day!

Yesterday Jem and I bought a brand new puppy called Jester. He's a Ridgeback cross black Labrador and 8 weeks old. He's gorgeous and very smart. We love him!