the TV is freed from its box!!!

The tv cabinet arrived Friday afternoon, so we were finally able to remove the tv from its box and set it up!



Jaspa was a little impatient...



Friday night we all sat on the couch and enjoyed the new tv.....

isn't it lovely??? (its not blurry like that :-) )

On Saturday, we were able to move all the furniture around (the old massive tv corner unit is now in my room). Its like a new house! So much roomier!!!

And our new dvd shelf is just perfect!!! (although scarily, it is quite full already...)

Weekend Lunch @ the Coffee Club!

We had lunch at the Coffee Club at Grand Plaza.... we are slightly predictable with our selections. I belive we had the exact same lunch last time we ate here. And the exact same thing for breakfast the time before. When you are onto a good thing, stick to it!

(photos are from my phone)

Janet had Bacon, egg, tomato & toast without the tomato. And they actually remembered to leave off the tomato this time. You get to choose from poached or scrambled eggs. So poached it was.

My pick was the salad sandwich, although it has a much fancier name, like gourmet garden or something which failed to stick in my mind :-) Its a good sandwich. Toasted turkish bread with avocado, tomato, lettuce, carrot and swiss cheese. Oh, and cucumber, which I removed. I love this sandwich :-)

Out to dinner April - Mae Ploy Thai Restaurant Browns Plains

We tried to go to the "China Rose" but they had no spare tables and we had no booking, so we went instead to the Mae Ploy Thai Restaurant (shop 27 Village Fair Regants Park cnr Vansittart & Estramina Rd)



This is a very small restaurant which had only one other couple seated inside when we arrived. They fit us in no worries!



There is only room for 18 people inside. Its small and very green. The other couple left almost as soon as we were seated and we thought we would have the whole place to ourselves (although a family came in a bit later.)



The service in this place was great. When we were seated, the waitress lit the candle on our table and brought us a bottle of cold water, and even filled our glasses for us. She came back throughout the night and refilled our glasses many times.



We started with (as seems to be traditional for us) a serving of Vegetarian Spring Rolls ($5.90). (these are also available in a chicken variety). They were extremely hot and deliciously crunchy. Filled with mainly vermicelli noodles, they were very tasty!




At first we didn't order drinks, but the family at the other table ordered some Cokes and when we saw the big icy glasses they got, we caved and ordered some for ourselves too....





Janets meal was "Sweet Prawn Lovers" ($17.50) - crispy king prawns in sweet chilli sauce. They looked good, and were declared a winner. Large juicy prawns encased in a light crispy batter with sweet chilli sauce.

I went for the Tofu with Cashews ($12.50) This was a great mix of stir fried vegies and tofu in a yummy sauce sprinkled with crunchy cashews. Big thumbs up from me!

We also has a small serve of steamed rice, which was served in this shiny container...

We had a great meal and were well and truely stuffed! They also do takeaway, with the prices about $1 cheaper. I think dine in is the go, since you get the food much fresher! I hope more people discover this restaurant, because we wouldn't want it to disappear before our next visit!

Biscuits!!

Ever since we had Biscuits from KFC in the USA, we have been on a quest to make biscuits. So I tried this recipe for Feather light Drop biscuits from the "Everybody likes Sandwiches" Blog.

http://everybodylikessandwiches.blogspot.com/

They are gooooood!!

Stimulating the Economy & Ikea lunch!!

On the Easter long weekend we did a little bit of shopping..... On Sunday we saw an add on tv for Bali at Home - they had a big shelf for dvd's. A proper wooden shelf. With no plastic rack bits. Just what we have been looking for. So after calling them to see if they were open we went off to Underwood to have a look. And as is traditional, we bought it. YAY. To be delivered next Saturday. Bonus points to them for the bag of lollies they stapled to our reciept!!


Next stop was WOW, but it was shut. So off to Ikea. But it was shut also. So we went home!


Easter Monday however shops were OPEN and we went back to WOW and were deafened by their sound system display room. Then off to IKEA, and the Logan Mega centre. Along with everyone else onthe planet it seemed! There was even a queue of cars to get into the carpark. We headed to the far end and got a park easily. None of this stuffing around for a park close to the door for us!


We checked out the Mega Centre first, since we hadn't been there before. We were looking for a new cabinet to house our yet to be bought tv. THis is a good shopping centre for furniture. Heaps of different shops to look through, anbd they are all close together so you can go back and forth if you need to. There are also some electonic kind of shops for tvs and the like :-)



So we found a few cabinets we liked, then headed to IKEA to see if there was anything there. But first stop was for lunch in the Ikea cafeteria...





Meatballs with Mashed Potato for Janet ($7.50)

A garden salad for me ($1.50)

and also some organic pasta and vegie sauce for me ($3.95)

BARGAIN lunch :-) and yummy as well! We also had a breadroll and some butter which they neglected to charge us for, as well as a couple of beverages ($1.95 ea)

We had a wander around Ikea, but didn't find a tv cabinet that we liked as much as the ones out in the other centre, so we headed back there, buying a lazy susan for our dining table ($16) on the way out.....

We found a cabinet we liked and tried to buy it, but they had none in stock and wouldn't be able to deliver for 2 weeks. We are not that patient, so went to another shop and got a similar one that they could have delivered the next day. Too bad we had to work! SO we organised delivery for Friday afternoon. Yay!!

hmmmm did I mention that between lunch and cabinet buying, we also managed to purchase a lovely 32 inch full hd lcd tv. Which we were able to pick up immediately from the back dock in the rain. SO the lovely tv has to stay in its box until the furniture arrives.....

Janet & Ali's Big Adventure April 2008 - the end!!

We had a long trip home. We flew from Detroit to Toronto, Toronto to Vancouver, where we stayed overnight and flew out to LA the next afternoon, to Auckland, then to Brisbane.



On the way, we left our luggage in Toronto and had a last minute wait for it before we left Vancouver.



Whilst in Vancouver we savoured our last taste of Tim Hortons, and our last slices of Vancouver Pizza.

Janet & Ali's Big Adventure April 2008 Day 21 - a drive in the country

Yes, thats me driving.....




We went for an interesting day in the country with Ronda and her Grandma. We stopped by Grandma's house and saw some turkey buzzards on the barn roof. Then we visited Ronda's cousin's cows. There was an unidentified tail on the ground when we got out of the car. oh dear. Anyway, we got to see the baby calves and one of them sucked on our fingers!! Very slimy, very cool though!!


We went to Dairy Queen for lunch, and then went to Ronda's sisters place and fed the baby goats - so cute!!!!!

Janet & Ali's Big Adventure April 2008 Day 20 - bike ride & pie day!!

We went to Kensington Park for a bike ride with a big bike riding group. It was an 8 mile path around a lake - not too hilly and heaps of fun!!!

Unfortunately Janet got dizzy, so we had to stop for a while. But she was ok, so we could finish the route. Then we ate left over subway in a leaf filled park. Once we had gotten all the bikes back into the car (much better than on the way there - we all had a seat in the car this time even!) We headed back.

Then it was time for pie. We went to Bakers Square to try some pie. Janet chose Oreo, I got Cherry. Ronda's Grandma got Strawberry Rhubarb, Ronda's Aunt got Bread pudding, and Ronda got tasting slices of a million different pies for us to try. We were well and truely pied out! YUMMMMM!!!!

Janet & Ali's Big Adventure April 2008 Day 19 - Saturday

We were kept busy putting together a fire pit and a swinging chair. The fire was easy, the chair a bit more challenging. But we got it together eventually. And it actually stayed together when people sat on it.



We went to Subway and got about a million subs which I cut up and labelled when we got back. A bunch of Rondas friends came round and it was really great! We had a fantastic time!

Janet & Ali's Big Adventure April 2008 Day 18 - to Ronda's House

Off we went to Ronda's House. We stopped at Burger King for lunch, and checked out a supermarket next door. Then it was over the bridge and across the border back into the USA.



And we had Mexican for dinner....

Janet & Ali;s Big Adventure April 2008 Day 17 - Niagara Falls

We set off in the afternoon for Niagara Falls (some people wanted to have a nap in the morning).



The falls are amazing. So much water!

We did the walk behind the falls where you go down below the falls and also behind them in a tunnel for a different perspective. Then we walked along the top and took lots of pictures. We were waiting for it to get dark when we had a slight drama when Janet thought she had lost her wallet. Turns out it was in the car.

Anyway, we waited in the warm car for darkness to fall so we could see ths falls all lit up. Very cool!! Many more photos later we headed back to Toronto and into bed.

Happy Easter!!

Home made Pizza!!

Home made pizza is as good as the bought ones.... We have a vegie & a meaty version below...


here they are ready to go in the oven. On the vegie - zucchinni, pumpkin, tomato and roasted capsicum with homemade pizza sauce. On the meaty - Bacon, mince and bbq sauce.

cooked vegie

cooked meaty

mmmmm ready to eat!!!!