Australian Open

I took an annual leave day today and went to the tennis.  I love going to the tennis, I go every year.  This year was just okay.  We had great seats in Rod Laver Arena but the schedule of play was less than inspiring to say the least.

There were only 2 matches on today.

Soderling v Dolgopolov (this was actually a great match, really entertaining and 5 sets)

Murray v Melzer (borrrrrrrring)

Because Murray smashed Melzer off the court pretty quickly, they moved a mixed doubles match into Rod Laver.  I only stayed for the first set.

I really wanted to see Rafa.  Or Rog.  I got really angry when I saw the schedule of play and took it out on Channel 7, blaming them for scheduling matches according to what suits their TV ratings.  Then I just found out that Federer is playing during the day TOMORROW.  Plus two good women's matches.  Not happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I still had a good day.  I was a bit worried initially because we bought shade tickets and so I wore jeans and didn't bring a hat or sunscreen.  When we arrived our seats were in full sun... oh no.  I went to get coffee and A secretly went and bought me a visor and some sunscreen (sweet!)  Then the sun went away and I didn't even need the hat.  I still got really burnt too despite putting lots of (expensive tennis) sunscreen on.  Oh well.  It will tan eventually.

I spotted Matt Preston in the crowd.   Billy Connolly was also there during the Andy Murray game.

Have you seen Rafa's new campaign for Emporio Armani? 

I think these pictures speak for themselves!

High Tea at The Hotel Windsor, Melbourne

Last week was Mum's birthday... less than a week after Christmas.  Year after year I struggle to come up with gift ideas for Christmas, let alone a birthday a few days later!  Mum was in Singapore earlier this year and has reminded me numerous times since that she enjoyed a delicious High Tea at the Raffles Hotel.

Today we headed into the city for a morning of shopping at Myer and David Jones, followed by High Tea at the Hotel Windsor to celebrate Mum's birthday... the perfect gift!

Once seated in the beautiful restaurant, we were poured a glass of delightful Rose bubbly to start things off...

There were also two macarons on each plate in the restaurant.  Flavours are yet to be determined - I can take or leave macarons, so I filled up on the other (perishable) goodies and slipped these into my handbag to be enjoyed tomorrow (shhhh!)

Then came our tea stand, piled with deliciousness:

Scones, sandwiches, French pastries - oh my!

Delicious finger sandwiches - ham & dijon mustard, chicken apple & mayo, egg & watercress, cucumber, smoked salmon & cream cheese.

Vanilla and raisin scones with raspberry jam, strawberry jam and clotted cream...

Amazing desserts... passionfruit tart, peanut butter & jelly slice, white chocolate & raspberry, chocolate & caramel...

And finally, the famous Hotel Windsor blend tea...

Tea always tastes better out of silver teapots and fine china!

At $59 per person ($79 on weekends), High Tea at the Hotel Windsor is pricey but well worth a visit, in my opinion.  The service was impeccable and everything was delicious!

my goals for 2011...

1.  Buy a beautiful house with A that we can call our own.  This will involve some serious saving of cash for the first half of 2011, lots of bravery (you owe the bank how much??) and compromise - A wants to live in a house out in the 'burbs that has lots of room for his cars, while I want to be as close to the city as possible to shorten my commute to work - or at least be close to a train station.  We'll get there.

2.  SAVE MONEY for said house (and furniture, whitegoods, homewares etc!)

3.  Be the best lawyer I can be and provide the best possible service to my clients. 

4.  Exercise.  I'm not going to write "exercise more" because I rarely manage to find the time for exercise in my working life.  This needs to change.

5.  Look after myself - eat better, sleep more.  

What are your goals for 2011?

New Year's Eve...

New Year's Eve in Melbourne was ridiculously hot; 41 degrees in fact.  (I can't stand hot weather - any hotter than about 32 degrees, I melt).

I headed to the beach with some friends.  I was a bit apprehensive after noticing the forecast for 60km wind gusts on my iPhone!  It was okay to begin with - we enjoyed a lovely swim - but once the winds picked up it became unbearable on the sand and we had to abort our mission!  No photos as I left my camera at home in fear of the sand that would potentially have ruined it.

Instead, I'll share some photos from Dromana on NYE 2009 - a perfect beach day, on which I got ridiculously sunburnt (at least this time around I didn't get burnt!!)

After a refreshing cold shower which lasted about 20 minutes (it took that long to get all the sand off me!) I changed and prepped for NYE 2010.

This year A and I decided to go low-key and spend the evening with my parents.  We ate an early dinner at my favourite Vietnamese restaurant in Victoria Street and then headed into the city.  Realising we were too early for the 9.15pm fireworks, we walked from the top of Collins Street down to Crown (in 39 degree heat, ugh!)

Once we arrived in the glorious air-conditioned comfort of Crown, I made a beeline for the lobby of Crown Towers to see if the Christmas decorations were still up, and they were:

Pretty Christmas tree!!

After some time playing the pokies (and sulking because I lost my money) and a journey to Lygon Street for gelati (nearly everything in Lygon Street was closed on NYE, including the gelati shop!!) we headed 44 storeys up to watch the fireworks from the top of Collins Street.

We had such an amazing view of Melbourne's skyline and the fireworks - they were truly spectacular.

We had a fantastic night!  Wishing you all the best for 2011 x