Online shopping

I'm not sure online shopping is a good thing for me. I love it way too much. It's bad for my health because I sit at my computer during lunchtime and shop instead of going for a walk and getting fresh air.  It's not great for my finances. That's not going to stop me online shopping though, no way. It gives me too much joy. I shop online because I can!

Recent purchases include:

Pearl and dove necklace, $3.50 delivered from Ebay:

 T2 mini mesh tea strainer. Using the free shipping coupon 'Chaddy', this only cost $5.50 delivered:

2 x 100% merino wool tunics from Glassons online, $40 NZD for both delivered (came to $32.60 AUD including credit card currency exchange fee):

Basque blouse, $5 incl postage from Ebay. Not a massive fan of this but it's a cheap work top for when I can't be bothered ironing:

Cute remote control holder pouch for my sofa, so I don’t keep loosing the remotes, $4 delivered from Ebay. In blue of course:

And finally, a new GPS system, after I left mine in the dashboard of my car which was parked in Perth’s hot summer sun for 5 months when I went overseas and it consequently died. This is exactly the same model that I had before, cheap and cheerful and does the job a lot better than a cheap one bought here, $55 incl postage from Ebay (sent from Hong kong/China).

In other fashion news, I have 2 items to add to my wishlist. The first is a pair of shoes that my cousin was wearing in a photo she posted on facebook. These shoes are amazing- the brand is J Renee and she bought them in San Francisco. Does anyone know anything about this brand? How comfy do they look:

And I've decided I really like this Olga Berg bag, it's so cute... pity Olga Berg doesn't do leather, I'm not a fan of faux. It's $70 at the moment, I might consider it if it's further discounted down the track:

DFO Delight

In shopping news, I have had some success at DFO recently (2 separate trips, approx. a month apart).
My haul:

• Two casual tops at Jacqui e, reduced to $20 each and with a further 30% off ($14 each) - reduced from $70 and $60 respectively
• Sheer tunic from Dotti, $10 - reduced from $70
• 5 pairs of cute underpants from Cotton on Body for $10 ($2 each!) - reduced from $5-$7 each
• Stainless steel drink bottle from Typo, $5 [On my 2nd visit, these same bottles were back at full price of $20 again?]
• Portmans stunning embroidered top, $30 with a further 30% off ($21) - reduced from $70
• Windsor Smith black leather ‘Louie’ ankle boots, $40 - reduced from $120:

Joanne Mercer nude strappy heels, my bridesmaid shoes- $25, reduced from $99-

Kids activity books from Angus & Robertson, $2.50 each (reduced from $15 and $20 respectively):

Which begs the question.... why pay full price??? I just can't justify it...

Simply brunching

My new living arrangement is going quite swimmingly. The family are lovely and I have so much space to myself. My little granny flat has wooden walls, making it look and feel like a cosy little log cabin. It’s actually brick with wooden slats over the top, so it’s well insulated- not sure I’d be happy living in a place made totally out of wood in Canberra’s winters. I can hear the little girl at night and it occassionally wakes me up, but I’m not expected to get up and go to her so I pop in some earplugs and fall straight back to sleep.

My ankle is healing slowly but surely. It still hurts and I am supposed to be doing physio exercises, but I am really sick of them so I’m being lazy. I think that within a few weeks I’ll be able to go jogging again, although I don’t know if I’ll be motivated enough to do that. I’ve been so busy- I now work fulltime, study fulltime and am a part time live in nanny. Any spare time I have I like to spend socialising or sleeping, and I guess that given the amount of stuff I have on I can justify skipping the exercise. Not good for me I know....

In other news, I have been making an effort to try out new brunch places. I have decided that I’m going to photograph and review the meals on here. On Sunday I went with a few girlfriends to Doubleshot Caffe in Deakin. The service was good- friendly and fast. The coffee was average, maybe slightly above. The food was simple but hearty. I wish they knew how to poach eggs properly though, mine were half hard boiled. I had the ‘Veg Delight’, which comprised of poached eggs, quinoa and soy bread, wilted spinach, sauteed mushrooms and roasted tomato. It was tasty and filling, a satisfying winter brunch:

I have also recently been to Pizzazz in Kingston a few times. They had some ‘Lemon Meringue Pancakes’ on their specials menu, which were amazing:

 

They looked and tasted divine, the best pancakes I have had anywhere. We returned several weeks later but alas the specials menu had changed. I ordered the ‘Orange and Semolina Pancakes’ but although nice, they didn’t compare to the LMPs:

Long weekend

I just got back from a blissful long weekend in Perth. It was so good to see family, friends and my beautiful dog.

As soon as I arrived, Mum took me for an MRI of my ankle, and then to see a specialist. The fracture is healing well but there is a lot of edema in the bone and there is still a lot of fluid. The ligaments that I tore are only 1/4 of the size that they should be. The specialist said that trying to walk as I have been (and as the stupid physio recommended) is putting too much pressure on everything, so now I'm sporting a camwalker boot for 4 weeks.

The physio also told me to do the worst possible exercises, which were apparently just stretching ligaments that were trying to heal. I did tell the physio that the exercises were very painful and she told me to "push through it" because my recovery was going too slowly, and I should try to weight bare more etc. Stupid woman... this whole situation has taught me to listen to my gut feeling and body over what is said by those supposedly in the know- especially physios. I had a lot of trouble finding a physio who could help me with my hip. When I finally found an amazing guy who knew what he was doing and put a lot of effort into developing exercises for me (he was the 4th physio I saw), the progress and difference was fantastic.

It was good to have Mum and Dad fawning over me and now that I have had my ankle looked at properly I feel better about it. Thank goodness I have doctor parents, otherwise getting medical assistance would be so hard (as I found to be the case in Canberra). The specialist saw me at no notice, put me ahead of all the other patients and also made sure I got the last minute MRI. Obviously this is above and beyond what I would want and expect, but getting even basic care in Canberra was impossible- I was badly managed by everyone here at Canberra Hospital and then by the physio.

The next thing I did was go with my friend to look at bridesmaid dresses - I am a bridesmaid for her upcoming wedding. She had already picked one out, and the colour and material is really tacky. It's not particularly flattering or a nice dress either... a real pity that I'll be forking out over $500 for a dress that is worth $50, and that I'll never wear again. There is also so much potential to find a beautiful dress for that price, so settling on something that will make me look like a fairy floss stick is depressing. Oh well, the deposit has been paid and I really couldn't say anything - I am the 'inconvenient' bridesmaid being all the way in Canberra and the other 2 bridesmaids had apparently tried on the dress and liked it (or maybe they were too scared to say anything, like me). I can afford it. It's just money, and the friendship means more to me than that. It will be my first wedding as a bridesmaid so I am looking forward to it, and this girl has been my friend since primary school.

We had a lovely shabbat dinner with my grandparents, aunty, uncle and cousins. My grandma went out of her way to cook all of my favourite dishes for me and I had a fun night playing with the little cousins. It's so nice being part of a close and loving family, I really miss them being in Canberra.

In the midst of all this, Mum managed to find time to take me bra shopping as I desperately needed new bras, and Myer had 25% off almost every bra in the shop. I bought 2 Triumph bras and also scored 2 pairs of Davenport hipster briefs for $3 each (really good quality too, I would have bought more but they were the last set and I was lucky to find them!).

My final enjoyment was having brunch with my best girlfriend at our favourite brunch spot, Coode St Cafe. I always have the grilled peaches on fig and fennel toast with fresh ricotta- my favourite brekkie of all time. It was lovely to spend time with her, we just chat so easily and enjoy each others company so much. After breakfast we went to Mt Lawley and looked at the shops and boutiques there, which is always fun. *The* amazing breakfast:

Back in Canberra, I was so sad to leave Perth. Soon I will be moving house which is really good news though. I am sick of tired of my current living arrangement and not very nice housemate, who I don't like or feel comfortable around. My new arrangement is not a typical one, so I'm really hoping it will work out. I am moving in with a family who have a 3 year old daughter. I will be looking after her occasionally (mornings before work, getting her ready and dropping her at daycare...the occasional weekend care, and some evenings/afternoons). I might need to take some flex occasionally to do afternoon care but this will not be a common occurrence. In exchange, I live rent free in a great area and have my own bedroom, bathroom and lounge room with kitchenette. I can use their kitchen and laundry whenever I want too. I am pretty excited about the whole arrangement for the following reasons:

*1* I really miss working with kidlets... they bring so much joy to my life, and it has been hard moving from nannying to office work.

*2* The amount of money I'll be able to save up will be phenomenal, and my goal is to be able to afford a deposit on a house sooner rather than later. At the moment I am paying $880 per month in rent and bills on top of that!

*3*  They have a dog. I miss my beautiful pooch in Perth so much, I am hoping that getting unconditional love from another canine might soften the yearning to see her.

*4* I can't imagine how it won't be an improvement on my current living arrangements, with an unfriendly and moody housemate who brings me down and who I hate being around. At least in the new place I'll have space, privacy and the family seem lovely and upbeat.

That's all for now, I'll report soon on how my moving goes (it will be a struggle with my ankle, but I think I can do it;)

God is testing my strength!

Many things have gone wrong for me since moving to Canberra, and it has been hard to deal with these things without my close friends and family around me. The latest saga is that I broke my ankle during a netball game! Thankfully I don't have to get a cast, as the break is only at the side of my ankle (I somehow managed to crack the talus bone).

I am hobbling around on crutches and still in a significant amount of pain 2 weeks post injury. The most annoying thing is that I can't drive, so am relying on lifts from workmates and friends who I haven't known for very long. The second most annoying thing (actually, this ties with being the most annoying) is that I may have to postpone my hip operation which is scheduled for the end of June, until December. This is because I have not been using my hip (ankle and hip are both right side) and so it will be significantly weakened pre op. This will impact on my recovery and rehab, as will the fact that I'll be rehabbing my ankle at the same time as the hip! There are pros and cons to this, but neither option is ideal.

I have been struggling a lot with living on the top floor of an old apartment block with no lifts... I even fell down once while trying to get up. Four flights of stairs on crutches kills your arms and is a great workout. My poor Dad had to fly over from Perth for 3 days to help me out, because I was finding things to difficult and I was in such agony. Now that I can put a very small amount of weight on the ankle while still using the crutches, the stairs have gotten a lot easier. I think my arms have gotten a lot more muscular over these past weeks!

I cancelled my gym membership and with my constant cravings for junk food, my incapacity has the potential to result in significant weight gain... It's a hard gig because I am not particularly happy here and junk food makes me temporarily happy! At this point I'm just eating whatever I want because I feel sorry for myself, but it will have to stop (and be reversed) at some point if I want to avoid buying a whole new wardrobe... I already have 8kg to loose to get me back to my pre-traveling weight and I already can't fit into half of my clothes, so this is a dangerous situation!

Asos purchases

I have gone a little crazy on Asos lately, but my spends have not been overly expensive- so it's win-win!

Firstly, the ASOS drape ruffle pussybow blouse in chocolate brown, size 8. I hope size 8 isn't too small- usually I go down a size if the fit is 'oversized' on Asos, but it's hard to know. Price - 9 pounds. 

 

Next, this cute pom pom bear ears beanie. At 2 pounds, I couldn't resist!

Then, these cute ASOS Lilac lace shorts for 12 pounds. I plan to wear them this winter with black stockings underneath:

Asos lace tiered back top for 10 pounds:

 And finally, the Asos lace front collar, which will dress up any work blouse or top:

Fingers crossed these items will look as lovely on me as they do the models! This week has been extra boring at work, since my manager was away... so I spent a lot of time online shopping. The above, and a few ebay purchases are the result. Ebay purchases will be photographed by me and uploaded soon!

Much deserved update

It has been too long, but hopefully this "slack" blogging will soon end. It has not really been slackness, but rather, I moved to Canberra and left my lovely powerful desktop computer in Perth. My only internet access has been at work (where writing a blog is definitely a no-no) and at home using my 7 year old laptop. It really is so slow and useless that it's less irritating if I just forgo internet, rather than try to use it.

Today I bought a brand spankin' new Toshiba Satellite L650/0K5 Laptop from Officeworks.

At $998, it fell within my preferred price range of  less than $1000. I don't think it was an amazing deal, but rather an okay price for a sufficiently powerful laptop. As we speak, my lovely laptop is being charged and installing Windows into itself :-)

Good bye 7 year old dinosaur laptop, hello pearly white Toshiba!