Crazy huge oyster at Sunny restaurant in Hurstville. Never seen anything as massive!!!
Gee, me and John. Gee was absolutely hammered.
See?
Gorgeous huh?
Fathers Day pressie for Christina’s dad.
Tony put the Riedel decanter to use straight away with a lovely bottle of Wynns (my fave).
FUCK YES!!! It’s an absolute privilege to be totally immersed in a good film isn’t it?
I’ve been a Tarantino fan since True Romance (which he wrote but didn’t direct). Reservoir Dogs blew me away and Pulp Fiction was huge for me (opened my ears up to appreciating much more music outside my comfort zone). I’m still not 100% on Kill Bill but Inglourious Basterds takes the cake. The real Tarantino is back!
I was so immersed in this film that I felt like I was in the movie, in the room with them. So long as a film does that to me once a year I’m be a happy man!
There’s still a thick layer of dust on absolutely every single surface, it’s going to take a lot of TLC to polish everything up for the camera, but as promised, here are some new photos of where the house is at right now.
Our en-suite is done! It’s a huge bathroom twice as big as it used to be. Mmmm heated towel rails. :)
We designed a built in shelf to hold shampoo and soap and like the guest bathroom it’s a walk in shower (no glass to clean!).
Lots of storage space, a huge compartment under the sink, compartments behind the mirrors and all of it is soft close, even the toilet, which is great as you can just shut the lid/doors without making loud banging noises.
We had an issue with the steps in the house, they were actually sticking out from the floor in the wardrobe room so we had to raise the tub, looks great though we think!
Every single powerpoint in the house has been replaced with these new slim/stainless steel ones.
The guest bathroom is finished as well.
New door handles replace the old gold ones. Amazing how much difference new handles make, they just feel so solid, smooth and new.
New large entrance tiles replace the ugly old pink ones.
We’re painting the driveway a dark grey to match the roof of the house which we’ve also painted (it was a bright orange/terracotta roof before).
The roof of the garage used to be a porous concrete of some sort which used to crumble onto my car, that’s now been fixed with a faux ceiling.
There’s still quite a bit of work to be done outside (new gates, garden landscaping) and we’ve still got to find some new room lights, carpet the bedroom and other bits and pieces but I estimate another 2-3 weeks before I can move back in again.
Had a great catchup with Sean today and I mentioned I was staying at my Mum’s place. He hadn’t seen my Mum’s place since it was an old house which I was squatting in before it was demolished (rats in the kitchen, furry wallpaper, termites, you name it). The new house has been finished for a couple of years now, it’s brand new but the salt is eating away at everything, even the marine grade lights and all the stainless steel furniture but that’s the price you pay (and then some) for living right on the water.
I’ve seen pictures of my Mum’s house pop up on the net, one recently popped up on fffound (geez, it must be cool then…).
I thought I’d post the images up on here in any case. It’s a lovely house and one which my mother put a lot of blood sweat and tears into. She worked very close with her architect, builder and interior designers (pikewithers which are old clients of mine, their site is over 9 years old and still working!) and all the hard work has quite obviously paid itself off.
To design my own house from ground up is definitely still one of my missions in life (has been for some time now) but for now the rennovations on my own house have given me a taste. I’ve made some mistakes, lost the plot a few times, rushed things, settled for things which I shouldn’t have and blown a lot more time and money than I had planned but I’ve got a feeling that I’ll be rewarded once it’s finally finished, that reminds me, have got to take more pictures of the progress to show. Will do tomorrow :)
PS: Just got back from Unas (again!). My stomach is still very much digesting Chicken Jaeger. I was going to post up a group shot but thought I’d see if Charles has updated his blog (I saw him rattle off a few shots see) and sure enough he has, check his Unas review here.
PPS: Definitely check out the cake shop next door to Unas (the little shop looks and feels exactly like the patisseries in Paris). Go the little Petit Fours (I got the strawberry one) they’re great!
Grant with new 29’er.
Ash with new Glory.
Carbs!
New Faith.
Holy Bling Batman.
Do I have to wear spandex to ride that?
Last night I got to attend the Giant 2010 performance launch which was held at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Coogee Beach. Giant invited all their Sydney dealers along to check out the new range of bikes, dinner and drinks were served as well. Click here for my full write up and pics too.
My vent for today: I called Westpac/VISA up before I went overseas to let them know my card was meant to expire last month, the guy on the line said don’t worry, they send them out late. I let him know I had a problem with it going missing last time, again, no worries, you will get a letter which will let you know that your card is at your local branch at the end of the month. The letter never came so today I went into the local branch and hey presto it’s not there, it’s not at any branch so they’re ordering me a new one (5-10 business days). I wouldn’t whinge about it except that it’s connected to all my bills (RTA/cable/adsl/gas/electricity/web hosting and more) /vent.