An Exceptional Weekend

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm feeling very relaxed and content. It's been a great few days in our family, and on the heels of a lovely week too.

Peter and I dropped the kids off in Caloundra around 8am on Friday morning. The weather was foul, teeming rain, and not nice to be driving in. I don't know what it is about us going away, and rain lol.... Seems to happen with regular monotony. Thankfully by the time we got to Brisbane, the rain had gone away, actually it hadn't rained in Brisbane at all.

Of course we got lost. Well not lost as such, but dear Bunny stuffed up and we took a wrong turn. 'Oh no Barbi, Peter says he's fine once we get onto the bridge!!'. Thank God we had directions up until that point, but next year I'll make sure we have directions right to the hotel door!!! Of course he gets so peeved and cranky lol..... I don't even get cranky at him, he does it all to himself - hilarious. Gosh I wish I knew my way around the city, so it's not such a huge drama every single time we go there. I'm sure we'd go there more often if we felt more confident.

We checked into our hotel, and breathed a sigh of relief as we headed to the convention centre. I can't believe I was so naive though to think we would be amongst the first 100 so we could get a pack!!! There were 100s of people waiting, possibly thousands, the line was very long and wide...... Apparently there were some people at the doors already at 7am!!! Unbelievable. I was also astounded that they were all Mums. Mostly just groups of girlfriends. I wondered to myself how they would go picking up their children after school. It's not something I would do that's for sure. The atmosphere was fantastic and the wine exhibitors were happy to chat about their wine, and we're rapt we decided to go on the Friday. We definitely made the right decision there. Saturdays is for the yobboes and those intending to get drunk. Needless to say the wine stall holders are tired and have had enough by Saturday afternoon, and the tasters like us who are serious about finding new wine tastes feel a little overwhelmed by the ruckus.

We met some lovely people. The lady from Stefani's winery was just the sweetest person, even saying that if we're ever in the area we should pop in and visit. We tasted some really nice Pino Gris, which has never been something I've ever liked before. I even drank a mango sparkling wine, which I was reluctant to try as my taste buds have grown way past those kinds of lolly wines....but I was pleasantly surprised. It was delicious, fruity, fresh and not sickly sweet at all
At the Oxford Landing Restaurant, I had an entree of Tofu and buckwheat, a very interesting lunch, and very different from what I'd normally eat. Dessert was a walnut tart with a salty caramel sauce.

We had so much fun together. It's really special being able to walk around, hand in hand without a care in the world. We visited the Grinders stall three times, to drink their coffee. We had two short blacks during the afternoon to keep us going.

Six o'clock on the dot, we were kicked out. They're very strict about when it finishes. We walked back to our hotel with our bounty, of around 8 bottles of wine. We'd actually forgotten to go back to buy a Mango sparkling, nor did we go back and buy these really cool wine glasses. They're $10 more to buy from the website and when you include freight, so that was a shame to forget them. They'll be ideal for going where only plastic is allowed. I can't stand drinking wine out of a plastic cup, but these have been designed by a person who knows about wine. They're stemless and completely shatterproof.

Peter was hungry and eager to go out to dinner. I could have easily had room service and sat in my jammies. But, I showered, washed my hair, and donned a dress and heels and we walked over to Southbank and sat down in a Turkish restaurant. The food was awesome, but I had no hunger what so ever, so my entree platter of dips and turkish bread was largely untouched by me, and Peter ate all the bread and about half of the dips. The serving was huge, would have easily served 4 people for an entree.

I couldn't wait to go back to the hotel and go to bed. I was exhausted. We both had a pretty cruddy night's sleep, although I slept okay for about 3 hours!! Peter's snoring kept us both awake. Even a double dose of sleeping pills didn't help me. The buffet breakfast in the morning was awesome. I was actually hungry for that. The cereals, juices and breads were just delicious. We checked out at 11am and headed for home.

The kids had stayed with Peter's parents so we picked them up on the way home. They'd all had a lovely time too.

By 1pm I'd put on my jammies and was in my bed. I dozed for a couple of hours and then we headed out to pick up Izzy and to visit Rusty. My little kitten fell asleep on me yet again. Think I'll get my schmoozy cat yet!!

When we got home, I showered and got dressed and headed out to join Karen and Barbi at the retreat. I'm glad I went even though I was almost zombie like from fatigue. The food Barbi prepared was scrumptious, good simple fare, but I was ravenously hungry, making up for Friday I think. I was home and tucked back into bed at midnight. I'd decided I wasn't going back for the Sunday. I really needed and wanted a day at home.

Today I slept in, had a late breakfast and then did chores for most of the day. I cleaned some windows, did a heap of washing, and tidied. I feel good knowing I'm all organized for the week ahead.

I need to book an appointment with my counsellor. I don't want to end up with panic attacks again this year, and Christmas with all it's 'busyness' is starting to create havoc in my head. I've got a year 10 meeting to go to on Tuesday night, next week I'm taking photos for Julia's formal and also attending the pre formal 'do'. School is finished in only four weeks!! Can't believe the year is almost over again.

My Christmas list isn't done, and my budget is incredibly low. I'm going to contact my brother and suggest we do no gifts for each other. My presents to my girlfriends will be much less this year too, which is a shame, as I'd love to spend more on them, they are easy and fun to buy for. The Christmas album class is coming up and I was really tossing up whether or not to do it. I know Peter would have given me the money if I'd asked, as I don't have the money put aside for it this year. Alas fate has jumped in and taken that decision away from me as Sammy's IEP is on the same morning. I will think about it a bit more, but I don't think I'll get the kit either. Sad really, but I have to be practical and realistic. I have a little work coming up, so I'll hold off making the final decision and see how I'm travelling. Either way, I can't be at the class, and it's an annual tradition, something that Karen and I normally do together, although the last few years, she's left early to attend a school function, so perhaps it's just not meant to be.

I'm looking forward to Christmas. To hopefully having the family together, laughing, eating delicious food and drinking great wines. The only thing that would make it better, is if we could stay home on Christmas Day..... I know I shouldn't be like that. I always enjoy the day, but I'm so so weary, and quite frankly have had enough of the festivities for a few days anyway, so much so that I don't even want to do anything for my birthday, but a couple of days after Christmas Eve and I'm already thinking of what I can do. Tiredness is a pain in the butt, and takes away all motivation.

It's late afternoon, and I'm tired again. Looking forward to a nice night's sleep again tonight. I want to feel energized for the week ahead.