Christmas with Ben's family

As if I wasn't already spoilt enough, I got many more gifts on Christmas Day at Ben's parents' house. It was such a nice day with food, chatting, drinking and more food. I have no idea how all these delicious meals fit into my stomach. Sea food, turkey, salads, christmas pudding, pavlovas, fruit salads and ham. So much to choose from. I am still not so sure about christmas pudding. Do you like it? It was the second time I tried it but moist cake with soggy fruit is just not my thing. Best christmas? No, not without MY family, but it was pretty good. Ben's family did a good job with making me feel welcome and gave me possibly the best christmas I could have had without my beloved ones Down Under.

Christmas Party Outfit

Big Christmas Concert in Town Hall

I like christmas music and I suggested to go to a concert (I kind of forced Ben to come with me). Before the event we went to Jamie Oliver's restaurant, the only one in town. People wait 30min in line to get a little ticker to wait for another 30min until seated. Crazy. I remember the same restaurant in London, where there was never a line and it was never booked out. It was quite nice food and was a good start into the christmassy evening. The concert was in Sydney's Town Hall. The line was so long, I don't think I have ever seen so many people waiting. Still, we got amazing seats and enjoyed the opera singer, choir and readings!

The day before christmas

..we went to the beach. It was fabulous weather and heaps of people were hanging out, swimming or just relaxing. Living so close to the beach definitely has its advantages, I feel amazing after a long walk on the sand watching the waves.

We also had kangaroo for dinner. I haven't had it for about five years and I liked it. For everyone of you feeling sorry for these cute animals don't look at the pictures ;)

Our first Christmas Eve in Australia

The 24th started up pretty good when I woke up and realised it was nice and warm outside. To begin with I had a coconut on the balcony, there couldn't have been a better start into the day. My famlily celebrates christmas on christmas eve and Ben knew I'd be homesick so he said we will celebrate on the 24th just like we used to in Austria.

In the afternoon Benny and I went to the beach and I got sunburnt immediately. Silly me forgot the sunscreen. So after 2 hours it was time for me to leave but ended up having prawns on our balcony as an afternoon snack. 

For dinner Ben and I made baked trouts and for dessert I made Chocolate Bread Pudding. You know I'm a sucker for dessert so as you can guess I was in love with it. It was this recipe. I really recommend it, it's easy and honestly delicious. I did not add the alcohol and it was still amazing. 

After dinner we opened our gifts, including my massive package I received from Austria and then we went to the midnight mass at St. Mary's, Sydney's biggest church. Coming home at 2.30AM we fell into our beds and slept like babies. What a good Christmas Eve!

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If I die...

If I ever die (hopefully NOT very soon) here in Australia then I wouldn't mind being buried here. A cemetery overlooking the ocean. It was a huge graveyard, in fact I have never seen one this big. Some of the graves were really old from the 1800's, so I reckon it was built far before this area became very popular for living. It still crossed my mind though that this would have been such a nice place to build houses. Why a cemetery? Or is that rude to say?

Sunday in Newtown and Clovelly

Buying the wrong size shoes for my boyfriend gave us the opportunity to have a nice Sunday in Newtown. Not that I had planned to buy the wrong size, but they only had his size in one store in Sydney. After doing some shopping we decided to get some lunch at an organic Café, stop by at Sydney University and ended up in Clovelly where we walked on the beach.

Come to Mama!

Just got myself a little christmas present! I can't wait til they are here! My new Diane von Fürstenberg shoes!

Source

Some Images from last week

• Ben surprised me with flowers. It's the small things that make your day.
• Santa in the shopping mall, the kids were so excited!
• Baby Octopus and the best roast chicken ever (used my mum's recipe)
• Steak for $0, yeah that's right - $0, now you know what we had for dinner and it was delish!
• Cupcakes (how amazing do they look!!)
• Homemade non-sugar cocoa cookies

Birthday Celebrations

His Birthday in pictures!

The tree is up!

Finally!

(And I love it!)

Today is my boyfriend's birthday

And I had to re-plan everything. I actually had it all planned out, he was supposed to go for drinks after work yesterday so I have enough time to bake him a cake. Well, that didn't work out and he came home straight away. Since I wanted it to be a surprise I got up at 7AM today (it's quite hard to get up so early on the weekend) and started baking the cake. I made it with spelt flour and sugar substitute so I could have some as well. Turned out he's loving it!

Here are 10 facts about my boyfriend:

1. He's got amazing hair. It's so thick and awesome. One tiny streak is probably as much as I have on my whole head.
2. He makes the best Shepherds Pie.
3. He goes to bed before me, but every night when I crawl into bed he subconsciously strokes my back and head.
4. He may have been double dating in his past (girls loved him). Well that's in the past.
5. On our first date we found out that we have the same favourite band and couldn't believe it.
6. He reads on Wikipedia every day, the most random stuff starting from religion to African countries. He is interested in everything, that's what I love about him.
7. He randomly dances with me on the street, in the living room or anywhere when he feels like it.
8. He eats so healthy, he makes me eat veggies and vitamins every day.
9. He says "You are so beautiful." to me every single day.
10. On our second date he tried to impress me with a home-made burger. It worked.

Happy Birthday, Ben! I hope you have the greatest day ever with me! 

5 things

I am bored and don't have anything to do, so I thought I'll answer an email I got a while ago from my friend.


5 favorite things:
boyfriend
lipstick
planning, I love to-do lists
collecting recipes out of magazines
baking

5 places I have lived:
Loidesthal, Austria
St. Poelten, Austria
Gold Coast, Australia
London, UK
Vienna, Austria
Sydney, Australia
(Whoops that's 6 now)

5 foods I love:
Pizza
Nutella
cereal (seriously, I am looking forward to cereal in the morning before I go to bed)
Ben's shepherds pie
Chips and chocolate together. (No, I am not pregnant...I have done that my whole life)

5 years ago I was:
living on the Gold Coast
surfing every morning
partying like there's no tomorrow
starting to get really into fashion
constantly sleepwalking

5 things most people don't know about me:
I could wear my PJ's all day.
I really get into movies and have the biggest emotions while watching them.
I love "Me Time" and don't mind being by myself sometimes.
I have books of American Houses and their floor plans, I can look at them for hours.
When I was 10 I wanted to become a fashion designer. I somehow forgot about that. After studying fashion and working in the fashion industry my friend reminded me that fashion was already my passion when I was little.

Whoops...

The health store close to my house was closing down and had all their products marked down (50% off). I guess I kinda went a bit crazy in there...but to be honest, their stuff is so expensive and all the special flours and groceries I need due to my diet usually cost me a fortune. So it was kind of perfect.

Oh and I got my hair done too...

Noosa

Everyone needs some time off once in a while and so did I over the weekend. A girls' weekend trip to Queensland let me forget my stress at uni and brought up old memories when I was living on the Gold Coast a few years ago. Staying at Noosa's Sheraton and getting upgraded to the hotel suite was the cherry on top. We had some nice weather, enough sun to get a little tan (and a sunburn) and I met up with an old friend from London. It was nice having some warm weather for a few days and enjoying the sun, let's hope it's going to be hot in Sydney soon!