Doug

Last Saturday Ben and I decided to walk a dog from the dog shelter. At first Ben wasn't too convinced but I practically made him come with me. When we got there the woman said: "Those two look quite calm, let's give them Douglas!" I immediately panicked inside because I thought we might get a dog that's aggressive or wild! But it was good, they handed us Doug, a cute little dog that just looked very shy. "So what's the story with Doug?" I asked one of the women. "Oh he is just a bit shy that's all, so we don't want excited, loud kids to walk him" I was relieved, nothing bad about that!
So we took Doug to a close park where we sat down with him and gave him some cuddles. He enjoyed it, and it felt good to just pet a dog even if only for a few hours. Doug was a bit scared in the beginning, turning around to the other dogs for about 5 minutes but after that he was fine. Even Ben liked Doug and got really proud when Douggie came up to him for some cuddles. "Look, he likes me better than you," he said, I just laughed, happy not to hear something like "ewww look at the hair he is losing" or "he smells like dog..." Who knows maybe I can convince Ben to get a dog soon? At the park kids came over to play with Doug and we had a chat with two local girls about their own dog Bailey. I was a bit sad when we took Douglas back, I liked that little fella. It's good that dog shelters offer services like that, I am always happy to cuddle their dogs, it's benefits for both parties, me and the dog. In a few weeks Ben and I will come back, definitely!

This isn't fun...

I am sick. Well my eye is. And it is sooo annoying! I woke up to a really red eye on Saturday morning, went to hospital and was there til 9 pm (!) only to get told they weren't sure what it is. And that's at an eye hospital.
Yesterday we were at Soundwave festival (I had to go with my glasses and felt a bit ashamed at times, when I had to take them off to do some head banging and then put them on after as if it was the most normal thing people do).
This morning - no improvement after taking about 8 anti-inflammatory pills a day including eye drops. Went to an eye specialist and she found out that I might have something with my thyroid. That's not really fun, my eye isn't better yet but I had a blood test, and will have a CT Scan in the next days. Not mentioning that I spent $450 in about 2h. Being sick in Australia isn't fun at all, especially when you have been saving up to buy some new clothes and have to spend it on doctors instead. I think I deserve some really nice messages now!
Hope you guys had a better weekend!

Source

PS: this is what my eye feels like.

Valentine's Day

This year's Valentine's Day was very special to me. Last year we did not celebrate at all, so I did not expect much this year either. Well how wrong I was! I woke up and saw these beautiful pink roses on the table!

When Ben was on his way home from work he called me and said: "Get ready, we are going out for dinner, we'll leave when I'm home, put on some lipstick!" That was all the information that I got. So I did as he said and waited nervously until I heard his keys in the lock. I tried hard but he wouldn't tell me where we were going. The drive was so long! We were driving out of the city and I began to wonder where he'd take me . Well after an hour's drive I knew - it was an Austrian Schnitzelhaus! "I know you have been homesick lately so I thought the Schnitzelhaus will cheer you up" he said.  It definitely did! It was a 4 course dinner and Ben and I were so full after I thought he might have to roll me to the carpark. The date wasn't finished then. "We have to be fast now we're having another stop!" I couldn't believe it! What happened to my unromantic boyfriend, that thought bringing home flowers is the most romantic he can ever do? It was like a dream. We just arrived on time to the movie "The Descendants", where we cuddled up at the best seats he possibly could have reserved.

It was a long Valentine's Day when we went to bed at about 11.30 but it was so good. I think it was the best one I have ever had! Thank you, Ben!

Chatting instead of dancing

We had it all planned: first drinks and a BBQ at our friends' place and then heading on to a club or bar. But then, when we had already been drinking for a while at their place it all felt so comfortable and nice chatting away that we decided to stay in. I haven't been out for a while but I didn't mind at all. Am I getting old? There was no way I would have wanted to stay at their place 2 years ago! Thinking of the cabs and lines and the money spent in the city just made us want to hang out in the living room with a nice bottle of wine and cards with questions about life experiences. I can tell you it was quite interesting to hear some of the answers!
When we ran out of drinks we decided to stop by the bottle shop and ended up in a pub just around the corner. So we stayed there for 2 drinks and headed home at 2AM. Even though I wasn't dancing all night, I still felt very exhausted the morning after!

The Wedding

2 weeks ago we were invited to Ben's brother's wedding. It was really different for me as Australia has different rules at a wedding than Austria. Ben was part of the bridal party a thing we don't have in Austria. It doesn't matter what kind of dress you are wearing in Austria, the maid of honor or the bridesmaids can wear whatever they feel like. Well here it is different. You have the bridal party which means the groom has the best man and 3 other friends he chooses to be his groomsmen. They all wear the same suit. The bride has her maid of honor and 3 bridesmaids who all wear the same dress provided by the bride. These 8 people will stand next to the bride and the groom during the ceremony.

Since Ben was a groomsman we didn't go to the church together. He was there way before I was. It was kind of a difficult situation for me because I don't know many people in his family. So I was just sitting by myself during the ceremony. The service was really short and over in only 30 minutes. The bride was just stunning and I adored her dress. Afterwards I did not get a chance to be with Ben either. He had to leave with the bridal party for photos for about 2 hours. Until I saw him again I went to a pub with Ben's uncle and his cousins. It was a good 2 hours, where we had a few drinks and chatted about all my experiences in Australia. Finally at 6 pm it was time to go to the restaurant. The view was amazing and the food was outstanding. I enjoyed the speeches as we don't have anything like that in my home country. It is a good way to get to know the bridal pair and it was really funny at times. What I did not like as much was that I wasn't even sitting next to my partner. He was seated at the bridal table with his brother and his new wife. He came over as much as he could, but I would have rather sat next to him. I don't really like the rule of having the bridal party which obviously had an advantage on some things (they were able to choose their food out of a menu, got food between the photoshoot and the reception). Because then you have the partners of the people in the bridal party that most of the times don't know anyone at the wedding and are left on their own devices (and sit by themselves with people they have never seen before). I had the advantage that I knew Ben's cousins and was sitting with them. So if I ever have a wedding some time then I will exclude that rule and just have Austrian customs.

New for me was also that the wedding finished at 11.30pm. In Austria you celebrate until the next day, no one goes home before 4am. You have lots of games and where everyone can take part and you dance to a band that plays everything starting from rockn'roll, modern music over to polka and waltz. In this case we danced to Britney Spears and LMFAO. The older people did obviously not really know how to dance to "I'm sexy and I know it". So it was more entertaining for the younger crowd. I really enjoyed my night and I had lots of fun. I wish I was with my boy a lot more times but we did the best we could.

Real Life Princesses

Have you ever wondered what Disney's Cinderella, Rapunzel or Belle would look like in real life? Well here is the answer! I found this blog and I was so stunned by Jirka Väätäinen's work I had to share it here on my blog. The graphic design student used Photoshop to imagine what the princesses would look like if they were human.
Here are the pictures:

Cinderella & Snow White

Arielle & Jasmine

Belle & Pocahontas

All pictures are from the student's website.

In Australia...

...you see this here: 

... and then you drive 5 kilometers and see this here:

It's like a combination of the Austrian mountains and the Australian beach. Now tell me that this isn't fabulous!

Peach Cake

Last week I made this really light peach cake. It is a perfect afternoon snack in these warm days and it turned out so amazing that I want to share the recipe!

4 eggs separated
150g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
150g caster sugar
120g unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
500g ripe peaches, peeled and cut into thick wedges

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 23cm spring-form cake tin.
In a bowl, beat the egg whites using electric beaters until soft peaks form. Sift the flower baking powder into another bowl, then add the sugar. Stir to combine, then make a well in the centre.

In another bowl, whisk together the melted butter, egg yolks and lemon zest. Stir the liquid ingredients and one-third of the egg whites into the dry ingredients to form a smooth batter, then fold the remaining egg whites through.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin. Arrange the peach slices in a single layer over the top and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and the tip of a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool, then turn the cake out of the tin.