The last weekend in September

If you are Australian (and follow REAL Aussie rules football - not Rugby or Soccer) the last weekend in September means only one thing - AFL GRAND FINAL DAY!

Which is always great fun. There are viewing parties and barbecues and much drinking and placing bets and good natured piss-taking of anyone unfortunate enough to support one of the two teams playing.

This year it is the mighty Geelong Cats versus the feral, toothless Collingwood Magpies.

No bias on my part in giving you those details. That be the truth.

As an aside - my father, much to my eternal shame, supports Collingwood and he recently disclosed to M and I  during a skype chat that he had purchased some Collingwood paraphernalia (I'm guessing a small beanie/cap) for our little bubba.
Ummm ..... thanks Dad ...... ??

M's (completely deadpan) response to this:

"Is it nappies? Because that's all Collingwood gear is for - collecting shit". 

hehe. Funny
(*Nappies = Diapers for you Americans)


Anyway, this is a long winded way of telling you that my, admittedly hilarious husband has Lost. The. Plot. 

He wants to watch the game live.
Fair enough.

Except that live in Australia means it's at 6.00am our time.
Again - ok, fair enough - he can get up and yell at the television to his heart's content. I'm used to sleeping through him watching various sports.

But no - he has gone one step further and invited 3 Frenchmen, 1 Italian and 1 Russian around to watch the game with him. And drink some beers.

AND THEY'VE AGREED!!!!

W.T.F? 

So I'll be getting up at 6.00 am to make a whole bunch of sports-mad eejits pancakes. And explaining the rules to confused viewers.
Madness, utter madness.

And that's all secondary really to the MOST exciting thing happening this weekend:
Sara Louise and The Husband  and Disco Gayle are coming to stay!! Wahooey! We've got a full weekend of fun activities and sightseeing planned and I'm so excited!

What a pity they wont arrive  in time to watch the Grand Final.
I bet they're devastated.......


Bon weekend a tous!

B
xxx

Masterchef

Even though I’m completely off actually eating food at the moment – other than for survival/fending off trips to the toilet to spew and feeding the person growing inside me – I’m still loving the latest series of Masterchef France.

It’s a great format and, bonus! - I can watch it in French (avec sous titres) and understand everything (I speak fluent foodie, indeed I am multi-lingual in food) and I love the wacky challenges they come up with.

I have one major problem with it though, and I’m blaming the douche-tards at TF1 (the television channel broadcasting Masterchef) for this one. They have enough footage to show an episode every night. But is this what they do? NO! They put it all on ONE night from 20.45 til after midnight!

WHY???? 

This drives me bonkers as I need to see what crazy-arse challenge they get thrown at them – last week: Go choose ingredients for whatever recipe you like that best represents you then BAM! You have to swap ingredients with your neighbour who may have picked brains and scampi! Ha! Then afterwards a 30 minute challenge to decorate a 3-tier wedding cake! Which would be awesome fun but not under such pressure! I also have to know which team wins the team challenge, blue or red. I then need to see what they have to do for the last-chance challenge. I. Cannot. Turn. Away.

Last week, Pierre Hermé, the macaron man HIMSELF was in da house and the contestants had to re-invent one of his world famous patisseries.

I’ll say this about Pierre Hermé  – he knows his shizz (and looks like he’s probably enjoyed an éclair or two in his time) and the contestants were crapping themselves. He is a Big. Deal.

They also showed (much later – like around midnight, grrr, see my above rantings and grumblings) he and his team making the incredible Mogador Macarons – which are dark chocolate and passionfruit flavoured and are M’s absolute favourite and my #2 behind Caramel au beurre sale). Awesome food porn.

It would be so amazing to be on a show like Masterchef, yes it’s contrived and heavily over-produced but the contestants must learn so much. So often they are given food to prepare and while I consider myself a decent cook, I would have NO IDEA how to cook most of what's thrown at them. And, of course, being that it’s a French show, things like Foie Gras, livers, kidneys, offal and the ubiquitous scallops St Jacques make frequent appearances.

Now, if only the idiots at TF1 didn’t see fit to disrupt my sleeping patterns by putting the whole thing on one night.

Good thing I’m taking lots naps at the moment because my 6.15am wake up the next day HURTS!

Grumble over. Peace out.


B
xxx

What to Expect.....

Hi all.

Sorry it has been so quiet around these parts. For once it’s not that there hasn’t been much going on or worth reporting, quite the contrary in fact.

You see, I’ve been busy growing a baby for 4 months.

Yes that’s right – I am officially up the duff. 

Most of our family and friends know by now so I thought it was about time I share the news in blogland. We are expecting our first little bundle of joy early March next year and couldn’t be more thrilled.

It has been fairly smooth sailing for us thus far except that I have been battling various incarnations of morning sickness. Firstly – the name is absurd because it should be “All-Day – yes even during the night” Sickness, and for me it’s evolved from weeks of nausea that had me virtually trapped on the couch watching the Tour de France eating crackers, to nausea plus vomiting that strikes whenever I don’t get enough food in my mouth.

In a slightly ironic twist of fate, I’ve gone from someone who had a mild obsession with food: cooking it, most definitely eating it even reading about to someone for whom food holds absolutely zero appeal and yet I have to eat super regularly or ...... spew-town. It’s a vicious cycle!

I have developed zero cravings but a pretty strong aversion to meat! I know! WTF?!? I love meat normally but at the moment, nuh-uh. Even chicken is a bit of a challenge.

Other than that – everything is peachy-keen.

We've had a couple of scans – the first at 8 weeks where we got to see and hear the heartbeat, which was awesome, and then at 12 weeks where we got to see our crazy baby jumping and flipping about like a little acrobat. M’s face when watching the screen was pretty priceless, he couldn't believe how much we could see and how developed the hand/feet/legs/head all were, it's pretty amazing. Our next appointment is in 2 weeks and I can’t wait to see our baby again.

I don't really look pregnant yet - well no more so than I usually do, but I can feel a hard bump under my layer of belly fat, which is cool.

Being back at school has been interesting. Having the vacation fall during my first trimester was incredibly fortunate as I can’t imagine how I would have gone working and feeling so ill. Everyone is so super nice and supportive – even though I’m the third member of staff who is pregnant creating quite the headache for my boss - and only 2 weeks behind one of my very good friends and colleagues Holly, which has been nice as we can talk pregnancy stuff to each other without driving everyone else batty!

I do find myself quite tired though and having lots of naps around 5.00 in the evening. (I like that I’m calling them "naps" when I’m often down for at least 3 hours, which I think is called a sleep, not a nap!!) But other than that, and having to pee and/or eat every 30min it’s all ok.

So that’s where we are at.

Again – I’m sorry for the lack of blogging, I’ll try to get on more regularly now that I’m feeling more human and I’ll try not to turn this into a pregnancy blog!



 Hoping you are all well

 xxx 
 B + bump