Twas a Happy Birthday!

A few weeks back, I celebrated my last "twentysomething" birthday. And what a week it was! It ended up being a four-day celebration, with friends and family spoiling me with food, and gracing me with their company!

The first night of celebration was spent at Cutler & Co, a two-hatted restaurant. I was keen to sample (read: wolf down) their suckling pig and we thought my birthday would be a special-enough an event to make a visit. I couldn't get a table for the evening of my birthday, so we settled for the day before my birthday.

Pre-birthday dinner [at] Cutler & Co

I decided to take my birthday as annual leave, as I could not bear the thought of being stuck inside at work on my birth-day (My husband would tell you I'm BIG on birthdays). The Husband uhmmed-and-aahed, but decided to take the day off as well (I wasn't expecting him to, but well done, well done *clap clap*).

I had already decided to (with or without The Husband) spend the day in the city; thankfully the weather was brilliant! Sunny, but not hot - days like this I love living in this city!

Caught up with my reciprocal bridesmaid (ie. I was hers and she was mine!) for brunch at Hardware Societe. She was going on holidays the very next day so we thought a catch-up would be great. Ah - the life of the stay-at-home-mums/dads..... Anyway, the catch-up was appreciated, however marred by a telephone call by the stupid builder (Thanks Porter Davis for ruining my birthday!) to inform us that we would have to fork out an additional $6000 for this-and-that. A hilarious incident with my birthday present ensued, which lightened up the mood, at the expense of the integrity of my dear friend at David Jones.



We slowly made our way (enjoying the sun!) to the National Gallery of Victoria, to both St Kilda Road and Fed Square sites. Spent quite a few hours at the gallery; it's amazing how much art can be seen and appreciated for free!!

Part of the "10 Ways to Look at the Past" exhibition [at] National Gallery of Victoria

The time finally came for us to head over to Chin Chin to try and get a table, but was told at 5:45pm that it was going to be a long wait, so we hung out at Go Go Bar downstairs. Eventually we were joined by one of our favouritest couples, and we gobbled/comsumed/inhaled whatever Chin Chin could offer us.

"We are soooo, like, kewl", 'cos we hang out [at] Chin Chin 

The next day, me and my work colleagues, with our partners, and our doggies, made our way to the Abbostford Convent, where the Suppermarket was held. There was a live band, food stalls, and other stalls selling what-not.We had decided to go out that evening in celebration of my birthday as well as my other colleague's, whose birthday was only 5 days after mine.

 

 Suppermarket [at] Abbotsford Convent

The next day, a dear friend shouted me lunch at Albert Street Food & Wine Bar in Brunswick. I don't  catch up often enough with her, so each time we do meet up, the time is treasured.

Albert Street Food & Wine Bar [at] Brunswick

The Husband had organised this little lunch date for me, so he could spend the day shopping and preparing a magnificent Chinese seafood dinner feast that night for me and a group of friends.On the menu were Charlie, Coco and Cameron:

Angus curious about the temporary pets...

The Seafood Feast! [at] home

Thus concluded my birthday almost-week long celebration. Many thanks to The Husband of Husbands (inside joke) for cooking up such an incredible spread and being an even more incredible husband.

I think back on my birthday, of the people I have journeyed and shared life with for at least a decade or two and realise once again I am so incredibly blessed with incredible relationships.

Dog-Friendly: Marriner Falls [at] Apollo Bay, VIC

Almost 2.5 months ago, we spent Cup Weekend down at Apollo Bay, and Angus came along! We went for a couple of walks, but Angus had to stay home as dogs are not allowed in the Otway Ranges (General rule - no dogs in National Parks). We did, however, take one walk to Marriner Falls and Angus had such a ball!

 

The walk wasn't too long; we took our own sweet time - probably took us, maybe, 90 minutes? I may be wrong. Either way, a very pleasant walk.

The interesting thing about this walk, is that, instead of bridges, the only way to cross streams were on stepping stones. Be prepared to get your shoes/feet wet!

When we got to the waterfall, we let Angus off-lead as the waterfall was pretty much enclosed. He had such a ball exploring!

 

I wasn't too impressed when he found himself a jellybean (!). But I'm sure he felt mighty pleased with himself!

Can't remember how I came to know about this place, and that dogs are allowed. Not an easy walk to find online.


DIRECTIONS: At Apollo Bay from Great Ocean Road, turn onto Gambier St and follow along Barham Valley Road. Keep going; the road gets narrower and there aren't any signs until you are there. Doubt you would miss it once you're there.

Nuthin' on TV

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Dog-Friendly: Melton Christmas Tree Farm, Plumpton

After much year-round convincing from my work colleague, we finally decided to get a real tree this Christmas. We've uhmmed and aahed for ages about getting a real tree, as we often discussed the pros and cons of both real vs fake trees. You can generally argue both ways; about.com has an article on it, and earth911.com certainly advocates for real trees, but certainly there are others who can vouch for artificial trees. But the brief research of randomly clicking websites generated from the search terms "real vs fake christmas tree" on Google seem to indicate that most environmentalists advocate for the real thing.

ANYWHO, we decided to get the real thing, from Melton Christmas Tree Farm. My colleague wasn't too sure if we could bring Angus along, so I thought I'd give them a call to ask. I was so pleased to hear that dogs were not merely "allowed" but Angus was "more than welcomed" to come along and that they also have their dog roaming around the warehouse.

Plumpton is about a 40-minute drive from Melbourne; quite an easy drive. When we got there, there were a wide selection of trees in the warehouse ready to be taken home, but for the FULL experience, we decided that we had to find our own tree.

Eenie-meenie-minie-moe! Rows of Christmas trees!

Any tree with a price tag on is for sale. A tree about 5 ft tall will cost approximately $30-35. Angus had a fun time exploring and helping choose a tree.

 

Christmas tree elf?

After some debating between which tree to get (tall but skinny, or short and fat?), we finally settled on a tree, and the Husband showed off his lumberjack skills and cut the tree with the saw we picked up from the warehouse. Actually, turns out the trunk was very easy to saw (I sarcastically remarked to the Husband as he was sawing, "what are you doing? Filing my nails?") and was very light to carry. 

Tree tucked into the car boot, and ready to go!

Without much difficulty at all, we loaded our 5 ft tree into the boot of the car, with the back seats pulled down. 

We took it home, along with a $40 base that holds the tree upright, as well as a gaudy Christmas tree ornament to remember our first real Christmas tree experience. We slowly dressed it up over the course of a week, shopping for Christmas tree trim the week before Christmas (hurray for 50% discounts!). We had a star, but it kept falling off the top of our tree, so we settled for reindeer antlers. I kinda like the look of it actually!

 

Pretty tree!

The tree will probably remain where it is for as long as it stays green! Fingers crossed for a Chinese New Year tree!!!

Melton Christmas Tree Farm
319 Leakes Rd, Plumpton VIC

Ph: (03) 9747 1078

Merry Christmas!!!

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Dog-Friendly: Alfresco - Social Roasting Company, Flemington

Have been here many a-times for brunch, but it was the first time we've brought Angus. They have about 4 tables on the wide sidewalk, and there was ample space. Some places have tables crammed on the narrow sidewalk, and it can be really quite cumbersome to have dogs around, but this was fine - Angus seemed comfy, and wasn't being pesky to others!

They usually have the most amazing sweet muffins ever, but we were certainly after something way more substantial:


It wasn't an easy choice, as they have an awesome massive brekkie/lunch menu:


What I love about this place, apart from the great food, is their social conscience - in addition to aiming to provide work to the long-term unemployed, they also try to reduce their carbon footprint by delivering their roasted beans (coffee bean roaster seen below!) by bicycle.


Awesome food, good coffee, and wonderful conscience - what is there not to love? Plus, your furry friend is welcomed too!

Social Roasting Company
307 Racecourse Road, Flemington, VIC
Cash Only
Monday-Friday, 7am-3.30pm; Sat & Sun, 8am-4pm

Dog-Friendly: The Slow Food Farmers' Market, Abbotsford Convent, VIC

After searching hard online, I found that the Slow Food Farmers' Market held at the Abbotsford Convent welcomes (well-behaved) dogs (on lead)! I often do feel a bit hesitant bringing Angus anywhere as I don't often know what other people's reactions might be, but right at the St Heliers car park ($2 per entry) someone had already asked to pet him. When we got to the entrance of the market, the lady collecting the entrance fee remarked that Angus was going to have a great time as there were many other dogs at the market.


We spent about $60 (Gulp - more than we had expected), but the produce was amazing.
Purchases:
$14 on 2 tubs of pate (Duck & Grand Marnier, Venison & Muscat)
$ 7 on 160g broken blue cheese
$ 8.5 on a jar of roast pumpkin relish (yum!)
$ 8 on chestnuts
$18.5 on an amazing steak sandwich and snag roll with the works - cous cous, relish, beetroot etc etc etc!

The convent had some lovely, lovely grounds to walk about and have a picnic; we fumbled about our ginormous juicy sandwich and roll on a bench overlooking the grounds - very pretty (the grounds, that is. We were not a pretty sight!)

The market, the convent, and its grounds proved to be an ultra sensory experience for Angus- possibly overwhelmingly so:

Details: Slow Food Farmers' Market

When	4th Saturday of every month, 8am - 1pm
Where	Abbotsford Convent 1 St Heliers St Abbotsford VIC 3067
Entry	$2 entry goes to the Abbotsford Convent Foundation maintenance fund
Booking/Enquiries	www.mfm.com.au

Dog-obsessed

Angus Day 1 and 2

For quite a while now we've been deliberating if we should get a dog, but when H's brother got his girlfriend a miniature dachschund, H became more open to the idea. We had a look at different breeds and finally decided on the crossbreed Cavalier King Charles Spaniel x Miniature Poodle

We actually first started looking around at shelters, with the intention of adopting a dog that was similar(-ish) to a 'cavoodle' (small, furry, not dumb-dumb, good with children, not too active and exciteable), but realised that the only dogs that remain in shelters for more than a week, are either:

1. old (>7 years old)
2. large (there were 2 Bull Arabs who, at 4 months' old, were already massive, with their heads reaching about 70cm off the ground. And the info card stated something like, "Major is going to grow up to be a very large dog" - Duh!)
3. Jack Russells (i was wondering why there were SO MANY Jack Russells being given up until a friend said that they're like dogs with ADHD)

In the process of searching rescue/shelters, we were also just browsing breeder websites and came across a 'cavoodle' for sale a a heavily reduced price, simply because he was no longer puppy-cute. The breeder had decided to keep him for herself (naming him Gus, hence our name choice of Angus), but no longer had room for him as they own a boarding kennel and that they were in the process of moving. Or so she (the breeder) says-lah. But anywho, he still comes with a 12 month health guarantee for genetic disorders, so I do feel better about it.

We were prepared to drive up to Swan Hill (approx 400km north-west) to get him, but so happen the breeder's husband was driving down to Melbourne to visit his kids over Christmas/New year so it was convenient for him to drop him off.

We were so nervous as we waited for him yesterday (Monday) morning, and he was certainly very stressed out and nervous when we first met him. He had never been on a leash before, and REFUSED to walk on leash. Towards the end of the night, we took him for a walk and H was adamant that he learns to heel and walk on a leash, which he quickly learnt.

Our biggest worry so far has been the lack of wee-ing and pooping; we were a bit stressed that he had gotten into the car at 8am, but didn't even wee until 5.30pm, and then didn't do it again even when H took him out for a walk at 5.30am.

H is never one to lose sleep stressing - it can be armageddon the next day and he'd still have sound sleep; but he had woken up at 4.30-5.00am because he was stressing out about Angus. We've been worried about his health, but on some dog forums some people have noted that their dogs hold toileting when they're in a new place.

Finally at about 8.00am today, I took him out to his potty spot, and he did a massive wee. Mum and Dad are now pleased, proud and relieved (possibly more so than he is!).

Some websites say that it takes dogs a couple of weeks before they really settle and their 'true' self shows. But so far, things I've discovered about Angus:

1. He does like his crate (den/cage) hence, I'm pro-"crate training"
2. He loves a cuddle and to sleep
3. He doesn't get fazed by cats or noisy children (my neighbours)
4. He's attentive, but seems to take a chill pill every morning

Angus - Mummy's boy