The Waiter

Tonight I made a discovery! A waiter can make or break a meal! Seriously its true… think about it. Tonight I had the pleasure of helping Brad celebrate his birthday by having dinner in the city. The meal was great, the company was great and the waiter was great. In fact the waiter was so good I think he made my night! But before I go much further, I think we need to go back to the basics…

There are 3 types of waiters/waitresses in the world:
1. Bad ones
2. Good ones and
3. Great ones

That’s it, there aren’t any in between ones or ones that fit into any other category, its just these 3. Everyone knows what a bad waiter is… they are the ones that forget what you order and don’t seem to care. The don’t go out of their way to assist, they leave you unattended at all the wrong times and they are just bad. Sometimes they are nice, sometimes they are not…but regardless, they are bad!

The good ones are generally the ones that go unnoticed. They are not fantastic, but they are not bad, they get the job done and at the end of the night you leave with out giving them too much more thought.

And then there is the great ones, the ones that are super helpful, without being in your face, they say all the right things, don’t forget anything and at the end of the night you want to leave them a tip. Sometimes its helps if they have a cool accent or are particularly good looking, but I think that one of the best things about the great ones is they take in the ‘vibe’ of the dinner and behave accordingly.

Tonight we had a great waiter! It did help that he was French and had a very sweet story about moving here to be with his girl friend, but even without that stuff, he was happy to have a laugh with us, to have a good time, but still do what he needed to do. I don’t really know how to describe it…he had a go at kitty for taking to long, which was very funny and super accurate, he made us sing happy birthday and found a biscuit he could put a candle in because we weren’t having dessert, he cracked some jokes, made us all smile and he even took a photo of out table all together!  He was just great and at the end of the night, all of us wanted to show him how much we appreciated him and his service. Anyway, I guess I just wanted to say kudos to that guy…thanks for making it a fun evening…

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Explaining Yesterday

You may have noticed that yesterday’s blog had no words… except for my little tagline that is, and I am thinking that I probably owe you a little explanation, because it is kind of rude to just do something like that without warning.

So here it is: yesterday was Wordless Wednesday, something new that I am trying. Its not something I have come up with, in fact its an idea that I stole from a other peoples blogs, but I don’t think they will mind, and I think that its kind of cool. In fact my cousin Bec, does something similar too, except she uses some words and calls it Snapshot Sunday, but basically the idea is that the blog on Wordless Wednesday tells you a story about my day or just something random without using words, after all, the do say that a picture is worth a thousand words. So take yesterday for example, my pictures are of Kat’s 24th Birthday Dinner where Miriam was missing in action for a significant proportion. There is her empty chair, everyone looking sad, (except Ben, and I am not sure why) and then everyone happy when we easily replaced her with a picture drawn on the Abercrombie bag.

So there you go… Wordless Wednesday... Oh and today is Kitty's actual birthday...so HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAT!  Hope you have had a ripper day. 

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Wordless Wednesday

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Thanks Jess

Tonight I had the pleasure of having Dusty, Jess and Brad up to visit. Last time they came up I got a little embaressed, because all around my house I have photos, but to my shock Jess brought to my attention the fact that there were no photos of her. Now some of you may say big deal...but it is, because I even had a picture of Jacob's ex girlfriend still up and they were only together for a short time, Jess has been part of our family for like 4 or 5 years or something crazy, so as you can imagine, I felt really bad, and of course Jess and Dusty didn't want me to forget.

So this time, when I knew they were coming, because I hadn't had anymore photos printed, I told Jess to bring a photo with her so that she could go on the wall. So today Dusty, Jess and Brad drove up from Melbourne during the day and made it to my place and made themselves at home before I got home from work. So being a good sister-in-dating I sent Jess and sms just to remind her that she should bring a photo with her... and this is the response I got in response...

"Oh u don't have to worry about that, I have it covered! Have a lovely day at work and we will c u later on!!!"

Being a little cheeky at times, Jess' text made me a little worried, I started to wonder what exactly she meant by the fact that she had it covered and what I would find when I got home. I thought that perhaps she would take down all the photos and replace them with ones of her, or maybe even just replace some of the photos, with the same photo of her and Dust, but what happened was definitley unexpected. This is what I found when I got home:

Yep lots of little photos everywhere, and one massive photo of jess right above the fire place. Classic, so thanks Jess, I think I have enough photos of you now, and yes you can stay on the mantle. Although Dave did tell me that he feels like you are watching him while he sits on the couch doing nothing now, I think it makes him feel guilty about being a slacker.

 

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Australia Day - # 41

Just like my last blog, today’s is filled with a number of super Australian things I have done today, which I guess is appropriate given that it is in fact Australia Day. So Happy Australia Day to you all!

Here is my super Australian Australia Day…

10:30am – woke up in Inverloch after a beautiful sleep in to find a fantastic summer day!

11:00am – 1:00pm – Dave, Kat and I were joined by Brad and Mim and together we watched some tennis and cricket on the telly

1:00pm – Had a sausage sizzle for lunch

2:30-5:00pm Soaked up the sun and surf at the beach

8:00-9:30pm Enjoyed a Australia Day spectacular at the Blackburn Sound Shell, were I caught up with Mum, dad and Jake and then completed my day quite nicely with fireworks, allowing me to cross #41 – see some fireworks, off the list.

So there you go, what better way is there to spend Australia day than with friends, family, sausages, beach, Australian tunes and fireworks…it just doesn’t get better than that.

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Dance like Dave's not watching

Confidence is not something that I have a lot of.  You may be a little surprised by this, but it is true,  I find it really difficult to really be myself, I am always worrying about what people with think or say and while I have become more confident in who I am over the last couple of years, it is something that I still need to work on.

One thing I really love to do though is dance. I am not a very good dancer and this is mostly due to a 'co-ordination deficiency' which is a very seriously genetic disorder, that unfortunately has been passed down the Lewis family line, so as you can imagine, I don't do it very often, but when I do...oh when I do... I really let my hair down, so to speak.  I really like that quote that says 'Dance like no one is watching' however I think that in my case it's more like 'Dance like Dave's not watching' because even though we have been going out for so long, I don't like to make a fool of myself in front of him...at least not with my dancing anyway, not because he will love me less, but because I think that I could possibly be a little embarrassing, I know he will say he doesn't care and he just wanted me to be me...but I know its true deep down inside.

Anyway, tonight I attended Stobie's farewell shin dig and once the crowd had died down and I was there with a few close buddies of mine I decided that it was time for them to see me dancing...not just a little bit of dancing, but 'dancing like Dave's not watching' dancing.  They hadn't seen my full on dancing before because I normally leave that to parties where everyone else is drunk so that they won't remember the quality of my dancing (ironic, given my last blog), but I was feeling particularly comfortable, so I decided that tonight was the night (it probably helped that Dave wasn't there either).  Anyway, I guess I just wanted to say that I love it.  It really is very freeing and thankfully it all went down ok, no one thought I was super weird or anything...not even when I pulled out my favourite, and original, interpretive dance move...plastic bag in the wind.  

Perhaps I will need to start finding more situations to get my dance on, and to dance like Dave's not watching...even if he is...who knows, maybe one day he will even dance with me.  That would be nice (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Oh and that's a picture of me getting my groove on...while singing...pretty...I know. 

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Rawards

One of the other good things about December, other than summer and Christmas is Rawards.  What is Rawards you might ask?  Well its an interesting, when you look at it at the most basic level it is the Box Hill Salvos Youth Break-up Party, but it is so much more than that!  Its a dance party, its a great feed, its a chance for you to win something, its a fun time to hang out with your mates and most of all its a great chance to dress up. 

Now my friends and I pride ourselves on our Raward costumes and seeing as though it appears I have deprived you of these for my entire blogging history, here is a recap of the costumes thus far....

2005 - TV Logies - Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this one on my computer, but I can tell you it was good.  The team went as the cast of Chris lily's 'We can be Heroes'.  It was our first united front complete with:

Kat as Pat 'I am going to roll around Australia' Mullens
Brad as Phil 'I saved those kids from the jumping castle' Olivetti

Miriam as Ricky 'Supernerd and musical extraordinaire' Wong

Myself as Ja'mie 'I've got hundreds of sponsor kids' King

and Dave, who gets a special mention as he spent the night as both Daniel 'I donated my ear' and Nathan 'I'm a bit deaf' Sims.

2006 - TV Show theme - hence the 5 of us came as Grey's Anatomy, special mention goes out to Brad who was painted black to be just like Burke. (I feel in light of recent events I must also mention that this was not done with any racial intentions...we just needed a burke to go with our more natural Christina)

2007 - Disney - Is there a better Disney team than the Increadibles? Complete with Mr Incredible himself.  This time there is a dishonorable mention to Brad who was conveniently overseas for Rawards this year.  

2008 - Op Shop Formal - and while it was not a team effort there were some very special outfits.

and finally 2009 - Heroes and Villians themed - and I think one of our best efforts yet - the Ninja Turtles.  Complete with green and weapons. Oh and another dishonorable mention to Brad who once again managed to be overseas for Rawards...perhaps he is avoid us and our awesome costumes.

who knows what we will be in 2010!

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Beach Cricket

This weekend I have been lucky enough to have another fabulous weekend away, this time I have been down at Inverloch, and yes I went with the same crew, and yes there was another AMAZING cake(thanks Kitty), and yes, once again we participated in a great Australian pastime, however unlike the watching the Grand, this particular pastime, was for me a first time.

Today I played my first game of Beach Cricket and it was much better than I thought it would be. I made lots of runs, I caught someone out and I even bowled someone out. Now some of you may be reading this thinking that’s great em, everyone can do that its just beach cricket…but it is so much more than that! This is someone who: 1. Hates cricket… 2. Has poor hand eye co-ordination…. and 3. Doesn’t normally do things she won’t be good at. So for me, this was an incredible and super impressive day!

Anyway, here are some photos from the rest of the weekend.

Oh and just for the record I think I will try beach cricket again!

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Daylesford

So, as I said yesterday, this weekend I am in Daylesford with Brad, Kat, Mim and Dave…and today we after a massive cooked breaky, we celebrated Grand final day in true Australian Style… With a cake decorated to look like a footy (amazing work kitty), an open fire and a lunch fit for kings…sausage rolls, party pies, and chicken nuggets. I really like grand final day, it just makes me feel very patriotic, and the fact that Farnsey and Barnsey we both in the pre-game entertainment was even better.

I think that I have mentioned this a couple times before, but I really love just hanging out with my buddies…it’s just really nice, especially when you are away from all of life’s other distractions. It was so nice just to spend time together, not to go out and do special things but just spend time together, we played a few board games, shared some great food and watched some telly and it was just really nice. I am really beginning to think that I need to start doing things like this more often…

Oh and here are some pictures from out weekend…check out Kitty’s cake…amazing.

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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It's still relative

I know it was just yesterday that I said that distance was relative in the country...tonight I am heading to Daylesford for a weekend away with Dave, Kitty, Mim and Brad and I am loving the fact that its only half an hour away for me and the rest of them have to travel the full 2hrs... Even though I don't mind the travel anymore, its still nice when you don't have to do it. Especially when it means you can just relax and enjoy your night and then head out.


I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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