Birthday Weekend in Manly

Last week we celebrated the birthdays of two our closest friends here in Sydney. To do something different, we - or let's say the birthday girl decided to have a party in Manly. This is quite far away so we booked an apartment to stay overnight. I wasn't the luckiest with my hip problems and eye infection, but still came out to party for a while. Thank god I've got a boyfriend who walks me home early even though the others decide to party on. We went to a bar that served mainly cider, which would have been great for me if I wasn't on strong painkillers. I still had one (don't tell my mum).

Alyce and Potter had so many people attending their birthday party it was amazing to see how many friends they made in the short time they've been living in Sydney. We all chatted so much and got to know new interesting people. Only the weather was a bit miserable, but I guess after this horrible summer (can we even call it a summer?) we are all used to this anyways.
The next morning we went for breakfast to a nice grill across the beach. Funny that 5 of us ended up getting the same dish - eggs benedikt. It felt good to do something different and go out in a new area of Sydney especially with our close friends from London. I wish we could do that more often!

Rain, go away!

Yesterday was a day where I woke up and decided to stay in bed. It was pouring down and the rain was so loud, it gave me goosebumps. It had been pouring all night and there were floods all over Sydney. It took Ben over an hour to get to work as opposed to the usual 20 minutes. When I did some research for my school project my Internet suddenly turned off. I was thinking it broke when I realised that the electricity was down. Do you ever think about how important electricity is in our lives? You can't cook, watch TV, charge your phone, listen to the radio, nothing. I thought I'll look up if they announced anything on the Internet in case the floods were responsible for that breakdown but I couldn't even do that. When I went shopping instead I saw that all the shops on my street were closed. Thank god when I came back after 2 hours I was able to continue my research. Not for long though, because 3 hours later it was down again. So I decided to go for a walk, to do something good for my injured hip and get some fresh air. Down in Tamarama Beach I saw the craziest waves. I sat down on the cliffs and watched 3 crazy surfers that didn't show any fear in 5m waves. There was no way I would be in the water right now! I took some really nice pictures there:

Pretty quiet week!

As if my infected eye wasn't enough, I also got a hip pain that grew so much that I wasn't able to stand, lay down or sit. I saw 2 doctors and had an x-ray. The only good thing was that I got strong pain killers that knocked me out and let me sleep. I had cried in my sleep the days before, even Ben woke up. It was definitely the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. A week later I am feeling a lot better. It came out that my pain wasn't due to any nerve impingements but muscles. I never knew that muscles could cause so much pain. The best medicine is my boyfriend who gives me massages to relax those mean muscles and today I'm feeling so much better. I am so glad!
Here are some pictures from last week. There hasn't been happening that much here, since I had to lay down and rest a lot, but the weekend is coming and I am ready for some fun.

I visited Ben at work. Amazing pumpkin and feta cheese pizza on the right. 

The tag I got at the hospital, really weird I had never gotten anything like that before. Fruit with chocolate sauce, is there anything better than that?!

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!