Fist comes Enrie then comes Sugar....

This is the pecking order of our little birdie family. I don't know why but

Sugar is just a bit slow off the mark. Perhaps he was traumatised from getting a bit

caught in the blind when we transferred him into the cage. Either way it seems

that birdies have long memories.  Anyway we have made some progress , Lozz now otherwise known as 'Bird Whisperer' has been able to get up close to pat Enrie's tummy and also 

Enrie has perched on Loz's Finger on one occasion. Sugar does not so much like to be touched 

but did reluctantly place a toe on Loz's finger. From what i have read about budgies it will be another 3 weeks until they are really able to respond to training.

Otherwise things are going well , Enrie likes to play gymnastics and do 360 degree summersaults around his perch and Sugar , well , he likes to follow Enrie  around the cage like a bad smell. 

More updates shortly ..... 

Welcome Enrie and Sugar ....

So the day arrived this weekend where we acquired our additional family members! 

I have to say it was a pretty easy ordeal picking them out and getting their little cage set up. 

The only slight dilemma was transferring them from one cage to another . 

Enrie ( its french for Henri ) went with ease but Sugar flew away and into the blinds! After some very skillful maneuvering,  Lozzy was able to rescue Sugar and return him back to his cage. 

Thank god for Lozzy. As for me I wasn't so helpful , but alas time will tell and we will be able to train them so they don't get too upset by the giant people. (us)

Anyway its been lovely watching them play and chipper to each other , they are much more settled now they have had some time to adapt to their new home and parents. 

It makes such a difference having a animal presence in the house .

Anyway shall keep you posted on any updates especially as they grow ( they are only 4 weeks) . 

Canberra : fishbowl of Australia. 

So the plan was to take a day trip to Canberra to see the art exhibition 'Masterpieces of Paris'. Sounds pretty straight forward yes?

On arrival to Canberra we decided to take a chance to find the gallery ourselves. This turned out to be a bad idea firstly because the GPS was not able to recognise the address of the gallery (an omen perhaps?) and secondly , every road went around in circles and took us in the complete wrong direction.

 Regardless of attempts to try different things we seemed to continue to be lost. 

After an hour of circular driving an emergency call to the tourist information centre was in order. 

Moderately helpful but still not comforting enough so called my dad for a in-depth description of the most direct route. With grumbling tummies and drivers fatigue we finally reached the destination , phew the hard work was over and it was going to be easy from this point onwards. Or so we imagined....

Then we decided we needed some sustenance , so we ventured into town to again fail to find any cafe that was open , everything was a bar , and Canberra it seems stops at a halt after 2:30 pm. 

Another hour and we finally find some food. 

Now we headed back to the gallery only to be greeted by a 2km line with a 2.5-3 hour waiting time.

After lining up for about 5 minutes we were advised to leave and return on Sunday as the gallery would be closed by the time we were able to enter. Damn it . However we are a flexible unit and we thought fine... lets go make the most of it and find a skanky hotel . 

In short after again driving all over Canberra for another 2.5 hours - running into every single hotel,  we found out from a few hotel receptionists that Canberra was officially booked out , not one room left , nil, nothing . It was now 6:30pm. 

Now tired , fatigued and completely disillusioned by Canberra's non-accessibility  we decide to basically head home and hope we get lucky somewhere.... before we have to consider bunking down in the MacDonalds car park for the night - this was a very real option at this point. Caramel Sundae anyone?

So driving back to Sydney we see a road sign that points to a small town called Collector with a sign indicating accommodation. We turn left in hope of finding anything , stable , shack, caravan park ...we were willing! 

After about 1 minute we find The Bushranger's Hotel, it is here i begin to concoct a speech of desperation in my head , i was willing to beg for a room , wash dishes , pay  a large sum of money , show some cleavage  and so on....

Luckily i didn't have to stoop to this as there were rooms available !!!!!! The glory , the joy.....we were back. 

So this pub was/is amazing , in fact it was one of the coolest places we have stayed , friendly owners, pool table, chandeliers, red velvet, great food , and it was 150 years old so it had more history than you could poke a stick at - not too mention it was haunted . They had a dvd playing on the big plasma screen in the lounge showing a psychic medium going through the hotel talking about the ghosts and the criminal events of the past which had taken place in the rooms and grounds of the hotel  . Ok so we found a great place , but maybe sleep won't be high on the agenda tonight. eek. 

Next day ( 2 hours sleep for me , Lozzy just got drunk - very wise ) we headed off to the exhibition . 

Thats some commitment for you. 

And again we were greeted by the 3 hour line , and yes we waited 3 hours . But it was nice in some ways because we made friends with people and it made it seem like it was pretty special. 

All in all the exhibition was amazing and we felt very accomplished - and maybe we wouldn't of felt so proud and achieved if it had gone so smoothly

........so in retrospect i wouldn't of changed a thing. 

except i won't be going to Canberra anytime soon,   at least not without a Winnebago. 

Mango Chicken Wrap with Butter Lettuce and Roma Tomatoes 

Today i made a fabulous lunch . From being strictly vegetarian , over the past 2 years i have found myself evolving in my food choices to include both seafood and chicken and turkey. 

I think my philosophy about food has changed and i feel that moderation is more the key as well as sourcing produce which is quality. 

In my wrap i just pan fried some chicken breast , added a lovely mango chutney at the end stage of cooking and piled it all into a whole-meal wrap which you can find at any supermarket. 

Although be careful as the mango chutney really caramelises into very hot  toffee like substance. I burnt my hand to prove this point! ouch:( 

Kayaking redeemed! 

An interesting and controversial addition to 'my favourite things' blog but i will say that i have had a change in heart since having the chance to kayak in more survivable conditions. 

In order to understand what i mean last year Loz and i went kayaking in a fierce storm off byron bay beach - surf kayaking they call it . We were unprepared to say the least , unfit and both really sick with various viral /  flu like aliments however we decided to sign our lives away - literally ( there was a form for this of course) . 

Anyway to cut the story short (and many swear words later ) we did make it back to shore even in the midst of a shark alarm ...

Anyway i vowed not to inflict this trauma on myself again and to stand strong in the face of extreme sports..... until our holiday to the beautiful north coast of NSW - Hawks Nest. 

We again braced ourselves for another kayaking adventure , why? i don't know , but the pamphlet was very encouraging - especially with the senior citizen on the front page happily kayaking away .....surely i can do this if gran can! 

And we did and it was great . We explored mangroves weaving in and out of branches and learnt about shipwrecks and bird-life ...and there was no storm and no 3 m waves ! yay!