Elsja Down Under

101 Highlights January 4, 2011

Total completed goals: 70

Proudest achievement

To be honest, there isn’t just one goal that I’m most proud of. #90. Become a resident in Australia is a pretty big one but it doesn’t actually make me feel the proudest because although it was a pain in the ass, it wasn’t a challenge for myself. While #28. Donate blood seems easy enough, this was actually way tougher for me. After a traumatic experience donating blood years ago, this is a goal I really did not think I’d ever  get around to doing. The fact that I got off my butt and made the appointment makes me feel pretty good.

Most useful goal accomplished

#51. Create a master packing list to use on future trips. I’ve used this list SO many times over the last 1001 days, it is very helpful. Also I have to include #6. Read 10 books. Because of this goal, I got back into reading- something I had not done in a long time. Now I always have a book by my bed.

Biggest disappointment

There are a few but my biggest disappointment is pretty silly because it should have been so easy- #1. Drink at least 1 litre of water per day for a month. I just couldn’t keep up with it on the weekends.

A missed goal I’ll definitely add to my next list (yes, there will be another)

#105. Plan 3 special dates for Andrew and I. This should have been easy as well but it was only added a few months ago and with all the wedding chaos and then the holidays, it just didn’t happen.

A goal I don’t care about anymore

#52. Hike to Machu Pichu. I decided this actually sounds miserable since I absolutely hate climbing massive hills.

Most difficult goal I achieved

#92. Drive by myself in the city and/or to and from the airport. This may seem minor to most of you but I’m paranoid to drive here… STILL. I only just drove myself to the airport for the first time last week and I was nervous the entire way. My fear does not stem from being on the other  side of the road- I’m definitely used to that by now. The reason I panic is because I’m ALWAYS afraid I’ll get lost. Even with GPS I still manage to get turned around and a trip that should take 20 minutes usually takes me 40.

Most difficult goal I didn’t achieve

#40. Go without alcohol for 1 month. There is ALWAYS some party or big event every month that I want to enjoy. This one should have been  easier but I guess I just don’t want to give up wine for an entire month. I suppose I’ll have to wait until I’m pregnant one day in the far far future- then I’ll finally be forced to ditch the drinks.

What I’ll leave off of my next list

#95. Blog about each of my tasks as I complete them. Not every goal is worthy of a blog and being forced to write about each one was just a burden. I only want to write about the cool ones.

Goal that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside

#29. Find 3 charities that mean something to me and donate to them once per year. This one was easy to achieve and even giving a little each year makes me feel good. This is something I can easily keep up in years to come.

Missed goal that I was THISCLOSE to achieving

#38. Learn to scuba dive. I actually paid for the course, I just haven’t done it yet but I plan to soon.

Biggest thing I learned about making goals

Goals that require a weekly or monthly effort are definitely the hardest to achieve. One off goals or yearly goals are much easier.

What’s next?

I’ll start coming up with another 101 goals to achieve. I’ll aim to get it started in April. Anyone have any suggestions for me?

My 101 Wrap Up January 3, 2011

Hello everyone and welcome to 2011. Isn’t it crazy how we move forward one measly day from December 31st to January 1st and yet everything seems so new and exciting? 2011 will be the start of a new year full of highs and lows (hopefully mostly highs) as well as accomplished goals, fun times and hopefully an exciting vacation or two. 2011 also means that my 101 in 1001 list has finally come to a close. I can’t believe 1001 days have passed since I started my list. As I look at my goals that I achieved, I’m very proud. I honestly think there are many things that I accomplished that never would have been completed if it weren’t for this list. I’m also sad that there were so many things on my list that I wasn’t able to achieve. Some would have been so manageable but I guess time just passed me by and I missed out on many of the things that I would have liked to have done.

If you want to check out my entire list- click to view my 101 in 1001 goals. The blue items are things I was SO close to finishing but still missed out on before the deadline.

In order to complete # 95- blog about each of my tasks as I complete them – I need to mention that over the last few weeks, I was able to complete all of the following goals:

7. Go on 5 long walks in the Sydney area. I counted anything over 1.5 hours as a “long walk.”

50. For each task I complete, put $5 into a savings account and do something fun. I haven’t decided what to do with the money yet but I have definitely added $5 each time I’ve completed a goal.

97. Write wills & manage life insurance with Andrew.

30. Give $2 to charity for every goal I don’t accomplish. Ok, I haven’t actually done this yet but I will- I just need to tally everything up and make sure I’ve crossed everything off before I do.

So that wraps it up! My 1001 days are over and all the goals that I am going to achieve in that time have now been completed. Now onto list # 2 so I can start the next 1001 days full of achievements. Stay tuned for my 101 wrap up where I will discuss the highlights of 1001 days of goals.

A New Tradition December 7, 2010

As my 101 goal time comes to a close, I’m in a mad dash to finish as many of them as I possibly can. So I was very pleased that Saturday night I was able to cross off lots of items! Andrew and I had our first annual Christmas party at our place and it was a big success. Andrew was never too fond of the idea of a party at our place because we don’t have the greatest entertaining layout here. It’s small and there’s no decent outdoor area. Andrew really preferred to wait until we had a bigger place to start having parties but it meant a lot to me to start now. When I thought about starting a tradition together (#24 on my list), having a yearly Christmas party was a natural idea. My parents had one every year when I was growing up and so I wanted to do the same. I figured now that we are married, this was a perfect time to start our annual event. So on Saturday we had a few friends over (unfortunately with a small place you can’t invite everyone) and we ate, drank and were merry! Here’s a few things I got to cross off my list this weekend:

101. Decorate for Christmas all 3 years… here we are on year 3 of my list and our house is festive once again!

24. Start a tradition with Andrew – hence, the “1st annual” Christmas party

77.  Bake and decorate fancy cupcakes – ok so they weren’t cupcakes, but the pumpkin spice frosty cake balls dipped in white chocolate were quite fancy, and quite delicious! Plus I was up ’til midnight on Thursday making them so I think they should count.

66. Make a mix-tape (CD) with some of my favorite songs and give to friends – I absolutely love making Christmas playlists (I have over 6 hours of Christmas music alone on my ipod), so I thought it would be a great idea to make a “Merry Mixtape” for the guests of our party. The CD includes roughly 15 of my favourite modern Christmas tunes.

107. Host a cocktail party. We finally got to put some of our booze to good use and I made a few fun cocktails and festive drinks for everyone to enjoy. We had a pomegranate, cranberry and vodka cocktail as well as my version of mulled wine (recipe to come soon) and homemade eggnog. Bez played bartender later in the night and made some delicious peachy concoctions.

70. Buy a fancy digital camera. Yes, we did buy this awhile back but Saturday was the first time we actually used it. I still should read the instruction manual because I have no idea what I’m doing yet- but at least it allowed us to take some nice photos of the party.

For more photos… click here.

Not only was Saturday night fun, it was also a great way to cross off lots of items before my December 31st deadline. How many more can I knock out in the next few weeks? We shall see!

My iPhone Makes me Happy October 18, 2010

It was a very happy happy day last week when my wonderful new iPhone came in the mail. I didn’t waste any time getting it all set up and I just can’t tell you how gitty this little piece of technology has made me. So far I definitely have some favourite apps. These include:

1.  Trip Planner – this little gem gives me all the ferry and bus schedules… amazing I tell you!
2. Google search – who doesn’t love the ability to search for things by simply taking a photo and/or asking a question? If you don’t have this app- get it! Asking a verbal question is SO much easier than typing it all out.
3. Foxtel- Ok so I haven’t actually used this yet but I absolutely love the fact that if I’m out for the night and realise I’ve forgotten to record my favourite show, I can just push a few buttons on my snazzy little phone and like magic, my show will be recorded and waiting for me when I get home.
4. Mobileme – yes, this is a ridiculously expensive program but I do believe it is worth it! Mail, calendar and contact syncing is pretty important to me so I’m loving this application.

What are your favourite apps??  Oh and speaking of contact syncing-  I’d also like to mention that while in the process of setting up my beautiful new phone, I was able to clean out all my contacts which just so happens to be # 15 on my 101 list. Who would have known that buying an iPhone would help me to achieve one of my goals? Win win!!

Stay tuned for more things that make me happy. There have been several over the last few weeks and I can’t wait to share them all with you!

I’m Back… and I’m Married! September 6, 2010

YAY! I am SO happy to inform you all that I am a married woman. I know my month long hiatus from blogging probably means no one will still be around to read this but now that I’m back to reality I plan to be blogging more. In the coming days/weeks I’ll be posting all about the bachelorette party, wedding pre-party and wedding as well as the post-wedding sadness. But for today – just to get my self acclimated back into the blogging world- I will post a quick little 101 in 1001 update of all the things that were fulfilled while I have been away. There’s lots to share!

#3 Have a spa day with the works. I got a massage, manicure and pedicure the day before the wedding at a proper day spa. While I didn’t get EVERY treatment imaginable, I got all the ones I wanted and it was damn expensive so that’s all that matters right? I also did it with my bridesmaids, sisters and flower girl. It was wonderful.

#36- Go on a girls weekend away. Well my amazing bachelorette weekend cruise definitely counts for this one. I will post all (well, not ALL) of the exciting details in a future blog.

#53 – Go on a cruise. See above.

#59- Go home to CA at least 6 times. The trip out for our wedding was trip #6.  I might even top this one and go back 7 times by the end of the year. Time shall tell.

#64- Take photo booth pictures with Andrew. Here’s another one that was conveniently crossed out due to fun wedding festivities.

#78 – Be able to eat something cooked with beef. While in CA there was a delicious looking pizza placed in front of me. It was sausage and pepperoni and it looked delectable. I don’t know what got into me but I decided to willingly eat meat (albeit a combo of beef and pork, not just “beef” as the task calls for) for the first time since I was 15. Granted I did take one piece of pepperoni and one piece of sausage and break them into small pieces to sprinkle over the slice but the point is I ate it!! I willingly ate and enjoyed a piece of pepperoni and sausage pizza.

#89- Start a recipe book and write down all of my mom’s recipes that I like. I made sure to do this right when I arrived in CA since I have forgotten the last two times. My recipe book is is filling up quickly.

Over 50 tasks down, and many, many more to go. Better keep it up, I only have a few months before my time is up!

Trips and Lists and Updates July 2, 2010

I’ve finished off a few more of my 101 goals which is great because I’ve just reached the point where I only have 6 months left.

#19: Make a “Things we want to do/buy together” list with Andrew.

We finished this a few weeks ago, but this will obviously be an ongoing work in progress.  I won’t type out EVERYTHING we added but here are just a few of the things we want to do and buy together:

• Go to Kangaroo valley
• Go to the Powerhouse museum
• Go to Cairns for the weekend
• Plan a late honeymoon
• Buy a new couch
• Buy a new bed
• Get our African art framed

#57: Go on 3 spontaneous day/weekend trips with Andrew.

This week I had a totally random opportunity to go to the Gold Coast to help out my cousin’s company. I had planned to go for just one night but then it ended up being two nights and by complete chance, Andrew had the two days off. Since I didn’t have to work the entire time I was there, Andrew came with and we were able to enjoy a nice couple of days. We had a really delicious dinner, we went in the jacuzzi and went for a walk on the beach. It was a little random mid-week getaway, even if it did include a bit of work. This trip rounds out the 3 trips for # 57 on the 101 list. First there was Perth, then snowboarding in Threadbo and finally, Surfer’s Paradise.

# 96: Create 3 new goals each in 2009 and 2010.

Done. Check my updated list if you’re interested.

#103: Read 10 more books when I’m finished with the first 10

I have to say… this goal paid off and now reading is a regular part of my life. Prior to this list, I wasn’t a big reader. Now I’ve read over 20 books since I’ve started and I’ll continue to read even without these goals to reach.

To finish of this post I’d just like to point out that this last week I also was able to cross off a few of those nagging wedding tasks that I was dreading. Not too much left to plan now!! How crazy is it to be able to say our wedding is NEXT MONTH!?

Silver Linings- May 6th 2010 May 5, 2010

With all the incompetent, inept people we’ve had to deal with lately, I feel like I need to write one of these posts. Seriously, every day this week I feel like I’ve had to talk to another moron or chase up ANOTHER email response or follow-up with people *cough accountants cough* who just cannot seem to get back to me when I’ve been trying to get answers from them since April! UGH… ok I went off on a tangent there. I will now get back to the GOOD stuff.

• This week we leased out our apartment to our first tenant!
• Two of our good friends (who shall remain nameless at this point in time) got engaged. I’m SO happy for them!!
• We got to see Julz and Leighton’s baby last week for the first time. Little Zara is precious!
• I’ve been working a few hours a week at a side job just up the street and I actually like it.
• I bought a recipe keeper/binder thing to help me reach my 101 goal #89 (Start a recipe book and copy all of mom’s recipes that I like). Now I just need to sit down when I’m in the US and copy all the good stuff from mom.
• I’m also working on # 79 (Create a cookbook with at least 20 personally created recipes). I don’t quite think I’ll reach 20 by the end of the year, but maybe I’ll reach 10! I just need to remember to write stuff down when I’m cooking stuff.
• I made not one but two types of delicious homemade pizza this week. I need to write down my recipe for the tandorri chicken one because it is GOOD (and it will help me with goal # 79 as well).
• I finally booked my hairstylist, makeup artist and the transportation for the wedding. Invites are almost complete and we’ll hopefully be able to get one of our personal couriers (aka Qantas pilots) to bring back the Aussie ones for us to save us from having to ship them all across the pacific.
• I finally found a use for the green wine bottles I’ve been saving for 2 years. Yes, 2 years. Andrew has wanted to throw them out numerous times and I always told him that I’d eventually find a purpose for them. Now three of them are sitting in a nice little row on our table acting as vases for 3 single red Gerber daisies. Lovely.

Now What? April 18, 2010

I’m really sad Africa week is over. It means that now I have to actually find other things to blog about. Africa gave me so much to write about and I had so many pictures to share as well. Such a shame that it is all over now. I could find more to write about- but I think all the main points were covered. I would like to sum it up by saying THANK YOU once again to Stu and Kimbo. You were so amazing to us while we were there and Kimbo, thanks for organizing all the amazing things we did. If you want to take a look at more pictures from our trip- click the following links:

Photos with the nice camera

Photos with our camera

Until I find something completely amazing to write about, I’ll fill this space with some updates on my 101 list. I have a fewitems I can check off my list, yay!

#65 – Create a black and white photo album. Ok, so it’s not an ALBUM, but I did make a black and white photo book. The book will act as our guest book for the wedding.

#35- Go on 3 picnics.  Hayley and I had a nice little picnic last week down at Kurraba point, so that rounds out my 3. Now I need to go on many many more.

I guess I’m back to semi-boring posts for now. I do have a new restaurant review to complete so you can keep an eye out for that soon.

Silver Linings March 9, 2010

I’ve been in a funk lately. I think if you’ve read my posts (or noticed the lack thereof), that fact is pretty clear. I have many reasons for the funk, but most of those reasons will not be going away any time soon so maybe it’s time for me to suck it up and just accept all the annoyances and frustrations in life. Andrew says I need to be more positive. My mom says I need to be more positive. I’m noticing a trend.

Tonight I read a thread in a forum and it was all about silver linings. Basically the whole point of the thread was for people to post one positive thing for the day. Something good that happened, something nice they enjoyed, etc. So since I don’t have much to post about lately and since everyone is on the “be positive” bandwagon, I’ll at least make a point to try and mention one “silver lining” of my day for each day that I have nothing else to blog about. Maybe if I feel really crazy, I’ll post more than one.

So lets see… here are my silver linings for today:

1. My friend Katie stopped by and we had some nice girl talk

2. Jen and I started looking into details for my bachelorette party

3. Gossip girl is finally back on! (please don’t judge me)

See, I stared off with three whole things! That’s a good first step, right?

So Boring I Don’t Even Have a Good Title March 4, 2010

How can one feel so overwhelmed, yet so bored at the same time? I have so much going on in my brain, yet nothing to write about. No cool stories to share, no interesting experiences. None, zip, nada. I’m really going to struggle to pull ANYTHING out of my hat to try to keep my few readers around… but I suppose I’ll try.

I got a new $370 suitcase for free. That probably translates to $100 US in value but who cares. Qantas dropped my bag when I flew back in November and broke one of the wheels. Since no parts were available to fix it, they just handed over a brand new bag. Pretty sweet I suppose although it doesn’t have the chrome rims on the wheels. I’ll miss my chrome wheels. A million people have red bags, but I rarely ever see shiny silver wheels rolling down the luggage belt.

I finished our wedding website. WOOHOO.

We’re going to Africa next week. I guess that’s pretty interesting but since we haven’t been yet I don’t have any stories to share. I’ll get back to you on that topic when we return in April.

I’m not really sick anymore. I still have a tiny bit of a cough but my stubbornness and refusal to go to the doctor paid off… the illness went away on its own without the assistance of antibiotics.

I think I want to try to enjoy green tea as much as I enjoy wine. I seriously doubt that will ever happen, but I do think both beverages might have assisted in the eventual recovery from my nasty bug.

Only 177 days to go until the big day! It still seems so far away but I know it will come quickly.

I crossed off another item from my 101 list!  #2- Get a skin check is now complete. My skin is nice and healthy and evidently not as damaged as the skin of  Australians my age. Sweet.

Yeah- that’s all. I told you my life was pretty boring lately.

1 Year Left January 11, 2010

I have until the end of this year to finish my 101 goals.  I know for a fact I won’t accomplish them all but I’m not too worried. The fact that I will complete A LOT of my goals by 12/31/10 is still an achievement to me!  Here’s a little update of a few more things I have finished in the last few months.

#87. Buy a fondue set and use it. Although I did this, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. First of all, the brie in this country doesn’t melt. I don’t know why but the recipes that I made quite easily back in the US just don’t seem to turn out the same here. Secondly, we had to use liquid fuel stuff to light the burner and unfortunately some spilled on my hand and then my hand proceeded to catch on fire. I’m not joking, it was actually up in flames! It also caught the table on fire and now there is a big burn mark on Yorky and Brendan’s table. Luckily my hand is ok. Hurt like hell but no scars! Not surprisingly, I haven’t pulled the fondue pot out since.

#94. Go through my clothes and donate anything I don’t wear. I did this ages ago and I really need to do it again, but since I DID do this at least once, I’m marking it complete.

#9. Go to a yoga class once a month. While I did not go once a month from the beginning of the project, I ended up going to WAY more than the 33 classes I would need to fulfill this goal, so I’m marking it as complete.

#27. Buy cloth grocery bags and decline plastic bags. While I’ve only used them once (I’ve only been shopping once), at least I took the initiative and bought 5 of them. They are much easier to carry as well!

#6. Read 10 books. Not only have I finished this, I’ve almost finished # 103 (Read 10 more books). I won’t go into a full book review on each since  I’ve already blogged about a few but I’ll at least say if  I liked it or not. Here’s a list of the first 10 that I got through.

• Eat, Pray, Love – great- but i think I liked it so much because I hadn’t read ANY other books in years. Looking back I’ve read way better books since this one. I’d still recommend it.
• The Last Lecture- Everyone should read this, it’s really short and easy to read and puts your life into perspective
• Not Without my Sister -Depressing and not too spectacular. Don’t bother.
• Twilight  – xoxoxo
• New Moon- Not as good as twilight but still wonderful
• Eclipse – Even more wonderful
• Breaking Dawn – Fabulous
• Body Surfing – Lame, not worth your time.
• Why we Suck – Super funny and true, I love this kind of humor.
• The Host – Pretty good, but not as good as the twilight books

I’m looking forward to finishing many more items this year. I know quite a few will be checked off due to some of our wedding festivities so that makes things a bit easier. I have to admit though, having only 1 more year to complete this stuff doesn’t seem like nearly enough time!

I Live Here January 10, 2010

I don’t know about you but I love vacationing in tropical places with beautiful crystal clear water. When planning a trip I scope out pictures of the beaches to try to find the spot that looks the best. I’ve been to places like Cancun, Costa Rica, Maui and Fiji and the gorgeous clear oceans always make me so happy. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that I no longer have to take a vacation to enjoy these fine beaches. They are right in my own back yard!!

Yes… I live HERE:

This discovery took place on Saturday when Andrew, Mike, Hayley,  Ben and I went on the Bondi to Coogee walk (now I’ve completed 2/5 of#7 from my 101 list). It’s a 12km round trip trek with the most amazing views (clearly). I had heard a lot about the walk in the last 2 years that I’ve lived here but never quite made it past Tamarama.

I always knew Australia had beautiful beaches but come on… these are amazing! Look at that water! Why haven’t you all come to visit me yet? We could actually go to these beaches!

Unfortunately I did not get to go in the water since the purpose of our visit to paradise was to go on this long ass walk. So instead of a bikini, I was wearing tennis shoes and a sports bra. I think this beach is calling me back though… anyone up for a day in the sun in the next few weeks?

Check out a few more pictures if you want to see what else you are missing while you are all sitting in the cold US winter.

A Few Updates August 18, 2009

My life has suddenly become so exciting, and yet so boring at the same time. Exciting because I have all this wedding stuff swimming around in my brain and it’s exciting to plan and organize and browse websites looking for ideas. It’s boring, because other than that- I fee like I have hardly anything else to discuss!! So… I’ll just give a tiny brief wedding update and then I’ll try to find something else to talk about

• We’re 95% set on the location- just need to figure out a few logistics, but hopefully we’ll know for sure by Wednesday
• This means we’re also 95% sure on the date… if all goes well it will be 8.28.10
• I decided on a color scheme and hopefully bridesmaids dresses as well
• We’re pretty set on our guest list

Now on to other news…

This weekend was spectacular in terms of weather! Here’s what we did on Sunday:

Andrew, our friend Ben and I went down to Balmoral and had an impromptu picnic. It was such nice weather- we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sit in the sun for a bit. The beach was packed and we didn’t feel like getting sandy so we sat on the grass and ate our little picnic lunch. Sinead met us down there as well and it was great to catch up. Not bad for a winter’s day!!

Lastly I decided to finally update my 101 list seeing as how I haven’t updated it in FOREVER. Here are a few things I’ve accomplished over the last few weeks:

#20- Get engaged… YAY!!

#11- Got 5 people to create a 101 list

Here are a few of them but I apologize that I cannot remember them all – Daisy , Laura, Natasha (no more blog?), Ruthann and there’s one more… someone please remind me who you are

#76- create a signature cocktail… remember my Grapelberry Fizz? That counts, right?

#93- get renter’s insurance- FINALLY! Only took us nearly 2 years of living here!!

I’m well on my way with a few other tasks as well… so hopefully I should have a few more to cross off in the coming months!

A Taste of India May 24, 2009

Andrew and I joined a few of his friends on Friday night at an Indian restaurant in Crows Nest called Cumin. I was very skeptical to try this place since most of my experiences with Indian food had been quite bad. I’d go as far as saying that before I came to this place, I just flat out did not like Indian food. Well, that has changed. This place made me realize that not all Indian HAS to taste the same and be super oily and heavy. In fact, it reminded me more of Radio Cairo, which I blogged about previously. Our table got an array of things from the Beef Vindaloo and Chicken Murg Madrass to the vegetarian Cholay Masala and Palek Paneer.  I only ate the vegetarian dishes, and they were definitely tasty. The Cholay Masala was a typical chickpea curry thing but it was better than some I’ve had because it wasn’t super oily and runny. The Palek Paneer looked gross (think mushy green baby food), but was super delish! If you like spinach, you must try this. If you don’t like spinach, steer clear because it is pretty much made of a pureed spinach sauce with these little “cottage cheese” type squares. Both of these went extremely well with the light, fluffy rice. Oh and the garlic naan bread… you really can never go wrong with that delectable treat! It’s all pretty new to me, but I’m just happy that this restaurant restored my faith in Indian food!

Now for my review on a scale of 1 to 10 stars

Decor: 7 – nothing fancy but it was definitely nice, clean and comfortable. To be honest, the place was PACKED full of people so I really can’t even remember what it looked like other than the billions of people in there. We couldn’t even get a booking until 8:15 because it was so crowded (and a bit loud). I was told that it’s less crowded (and quieter) during the week.

Value: 8 - As always, I base this off of other restaurants in Sydney. We got 6 dishes, 2 things of rice, several orders of naan and pappadums and we all had corkage fees and it probably cost us about $30 bucks each if I remember correctly. While it’s not a super cheap night out, I’d say for what we got, it was good value!

Service: 9 – I really don’t have anything to complain about here. Servers were attentive and quick  and we didn’t have to wait too long for our food. I suppose they could have filled out water more often

Taste: 8- Yum. While I’m still not going to say that Indian is my favorite cuisine, I will say that this food was very enjoyable… to the point where I’ve already started having dilemmas on which vegetarian option I’d order of the two I tried if Andrew and I were to go there on our own.

We’ll definitely be going back.

To continue with the Indian theme, Andrew and I decided to watch Slumdog Millionaire on Saturday. I had heard so much about this movie and how great it was but I had a limited knowledge of the movie (which is the way I like it) so I really only knew it was about a poor Indian guy who goes on “Who wants to be a millionaire” and wins. I didn’t really see how it could be that great based on that plot, but now I understand.

I thought it was a really good movie that I would definitely watch again. The actors were great (I love the little kid above), the script was funny at times and definitely kept my interest, the music was awesome and it was such a touching story which really makes you appreciate living in an advanced country with access to  food, money, good jobs and good governments (and toilets) .  I also thought it was a really interesting idea for a movie in the way that they show how people come to have knowledge based on life experiences, not just from books and education alone.

If you haven’t seen it… see it. If you are in the area and you haven’t been to Cumin…go!

More reviews and the short but funny tale of revenge are coming tomorrow!

1 Year of 101 April 4, 2009

So this is the 1 year mark of the start of my 101 in 1001 days goal list. If you don’t know what I’m talking about… Read MY LIST. So seeing as how one year has passed, I thought I’d give a little update on where I am with my list and where I’m going. Some of my goals have been a big success, some little successes and some just flat out need to be changed. I don’t feel right just changing my goals midway; however, it’s already evident that I just will not be accomplishing some that required consistent monthly work. So I’ve decided that rather than letting those spots go to waste for things I cannot achieve, I’ll cross them off, donate $5 to charity for each one I’ve failed at and add some new ones. Note to self: monthly goals are NOT easy to keep up with!

So what HAVE I accomplished?

• 4. Get a massage with Andrew
• 5. Create a “101 things that  make me happy” list
• 6. Read 10 books. Technically I’ve got a few hundred pages of my 9th book- but that will be finished this month so I’m marking that off as done! Haven’t blogged about this yet, so this will count as my blog post for this goal. Here’s a list of the books I read: Eat Pray Love, The Last Lecture, Not Without my Sister, Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, Body Surfing, Why We Suck, The Host.
• 13. Complete a list of 20 tasks I’ve already accomplished that I am proud of
• 23. Get in touch with someone I haven’t talked to in years
• 25. Plant a chili pepper plant (I’ve done this twice now)
• 31. Research presidential candidates
• 32. Vote in the 2008 election
• 33. Do the Harbour Bridge climb
• 40. Go kayaking
• 45. Add 3 new board games to our collection
• 46. Watch the fireworks over Sydney Harbour on New Year’s Eve
• 48. Save at least $5000- here’s another one I haven’t blogged about, because I didn’t realized I reached this goal until compiling this list! woohoo!
• 51. Create a master “packing list”
• 56. Fly business class
• 62. Take a Spanish class
• 69. Clean out all the old stuff I don’t want from my itunes (although I should probably do this again)
• 72. Buy a Wii
• 73. Buy new pillows for the bed
• 74. Buy a dehumidifier to help alleviate mold/allergy problems
• 80. Write down my recipe for chili
• 84. Make Sangria
• 87. Buy a “how-to” cooking book and read it cover to cover
• 90. Become a resident in Australia
• 94. Go through old clothes and donate things I don’t wear (another thing I never blogged about… so consider it blogged)!
• 99. Buy a filing system and organize all paperwork
• 100. Create a special calendar to track all my tasks

Here are the ones I’ll be changing and donating to charity for.

• 16. Write at least 1 email to friends/family each month. Ok, so I WAS doing this and I was doing it well! But I hardly ever got responses back. It’s pretty hard to stay motivated to write to people EVERY month when I don’t get much response. So this one is going away.
• 17. Talk to my niece and nephew on the webcam once per month. It’s sad because I do want to do this- but I realize my goals cant really be dependent on other people’s schedules. It’s hard to find a good time to talk to the kids let alone to schedule a call with them on the computer.
• 36. Go on at least one planned date each month with Andrew. This one is just too hard to track. We go out to dinner and stuff, but I wouldn’t always call it a date. We don’t really plan “dates” that often, so sadly, this one is going.
• 68. Read the Aussie citizenship book a few times. This I just have no interest in. At least not now. I’m not even eligible for citizenship for at least 4 years- so I’ll think about this later.
• 91. Get an Aussie driver’s license. This one is just not possible. I either have to be a permanent resident or I have to be in the country 6 months (without leaving). Seeing as how I go home often, it looks like I won’t be able to get a license for a long time!
• 97. Buy fresh flowers once a month. Like number 16, this one started out well but just fizzled from there. I still want to do this, but I won’t freak if I don’t- so this one is getting replaced!

So that’s 30 bucks that I need to donate to charity and 6 more goals that I need to come up with fairly quickly. Oh, and I’m still looking for people to help me reach #11- get 5 people to create a list. I think I only know of 2 or 3 that did initially… so let me know if you do!