Author: Snoskred

A Quick Canberra Trip

8 Comments Posted on June 7, 2017June 6, 2017 by Snoskred

A small interruption to the Movie Catch Up files – it has been nearly a month since our Canberra visit and I have not managed to tell you about it yet! We left home super early on a Sunday morning to make it over to Canberra before lunchtime.
Canberra put on some gorgeous weather for us but it was very cold. Our plan was to visit the Old Bus Depot Markets, IKEA, Costco and the Canberra Outlet Centre. When we arrived at the markets it was 11:30am which is peak market time and the carparks were absolutely packed. We decided to head to the outlet centre instead of driving in circles trying to find a park and drop back into the markets later if we had time.

TK Maxx has opened at Canberra Outlet Centre and that happened to be the first shop we visited. I’d gone to the American version of this store on Oahu and loved it. However this is not a place you can just quickly drop in and visit. You need to allocate some time to flick through the racks and find the bargains.

As my main shopping task for Canberra was to find a pair of winter boots, I did not have the kind of time needed for TK Maxx today so we just had a quick look around. These sneakers were $600 or so and as much as I would love some crystals on my feet, I said heck no to that! ;) They have such a range of items at all kinds of prices. I took a leisurely trip to the Warrawong store the following weekend where I spent 2.5 hours browsing, but that is a story for another blog post.

There is now a Coffee Club at the Canberra Outlet Centre – we find the food to be reliable and tasty and the coffee is very good here. I had the smashed avo with feta just like a proper hipster doofus.

The official population of Canberra is less than 400,000 people and these lucky people have access to some of the best and least crowded shopping in Australia. They also have access to a lot of other great things – museums, a great zoo, gardens and nature reserves, and some of the best roads with decent speed limits in the country. It is a fairly short drive for us – around two and a half hours – and we have often gone for a day trip before but this time we chose to stay overnight.

We chose Grill’d for dinner as it was a short but very cold walk from our hotel. Grill’d, what are you doing to me? It was because of you I had to create zucchini fries at home, now you want me to create avocado fries at home? If you have a Grill’d nearby the zucchini & avocado fries are worth trying.

I will have to consider this carefully before attempting my own version. I was served deep fried avocado once at a wedding in the early 90’s, in the days before I ate avocado. Who knew avocado fries would become a thing and that I would love them? Who knows what vegetable will be next!

If and when you visit Canberra, do not waste your money on an expensive hotel breakfast. Head out to IKEA and grab their cheap offering (presently just under $6) which includes a hash brown and a sausage not seen here as I swapped it for the tomato on The Other Half’s plate, swedish meatballs, bacon and scrambled egg. They also have warm danish, if you are into that kind of thing, and the cafe serves excellent coffee as well as the cheap or free stuff you get if you are an IKEA member.

The restaurant opens half an hour before the store itself which is almost exactly the perfect amount of time to eat, caffeinate, and make a quick bathroom stop. Then you can do a quick run or a leisurely wander through the store without the crowds you might find at one of their Sydney locations. We went with leisurely wander and were still through the checkout before 11am. We picked up a couple of LAIVA bookcases for $29.99 along with some other regular items and our HODDE rug..

Just across the road from IKEA is Costco, we always make this our last stop before leaving Canberra because we like to purchase cold items like cheese and milk. They have 3 litre A2 milk for about a dollar more than 2 litres cost us at home. I grabbed a new rug for my chair, too.

Winter boot achievement unlocked! Very reasonable at $159 from the clearance outlet. These are Diana Ferrari Supersoft and they are the most comfortable boots I have ever put on my feet. In fact it feels like I have no shoes on at all, and yet it is like walking on air. They are also a size and a half smaller than my other shoes – I used to be size 11 but these are 9.5 – I think my feet have lost weight along with the rest of me.

Canberra may well be the best city in Australia especially when parliament is not sitting and therefore the accommodation is reasonably priced. We’ve stayed at a lot of different places over the years and my first choice here would be The Avenue however that is Up Money at the best of times. If you can get it at a good price I highly recommend it.

The second favourite is Vibe but that is out at the airport so you would need a car to get around if you stay here and parking can be a bit of an issue at this hotel if it is busy. I think Canberra is a place where a car is recommended and very useful.

We tried a new hotel this time – Rydges Capital Hill – and while it was mostly ok, we would not stay there again due to the shower going super hot and cold as a surprise while showering. So the hunt is still on for our perfect reasonably priced Canberra hotel. Aria is next on the list for us to try. I’ve read a lot of positive reviews for it.

It was super cold when we visited. Summer is the perfect time to visit Canberra weather wise in my opinion, any other time of year it has been my experience that you can expect the weather to be on the cold side especially at night, so BYO layers, gloves and hats are recommended too. We have been to visit so many times and yet we still have so much more to see. Canberra is a much under-rated destination and it has become one of our favourites.

Canberra, shopping

Manicure Fiesta

5 Comments Posted on June 5, 2017March 12, 2018 by Snoskred

I have never been a “girly” girl – there was never any nail polish in our house growing up. It wasn’t a thing we were into. I am terrible at nail painting due to a lack of experience, talent, and skill. I probably could become good at it with a lot of time, effort, and learning to use my left hand as well as I use my right hand. But realistically that is unlikely to happen.
In late 2016 I was having a Good Nail patch – thanks to my daily hair skin and nails vitamins, they were growing stronger and healthier than ever before. I was using Hard As Nails by Sally Hansen which I would paint on every few days to make the nails shiny and slightly more protected from breakage.
I had wanted to try getting a proper shellac – or gel – manicure for a while but I was very wary. I had heard tales of woe, of unsterilised equipment, of fungal nail infections UGH. I did some serious research and asked around, and one local place kept popping up in the conversations. After a bit of umm-ing and ahh-ing, I bit the bullet and made an appointment.

So what is a shellac manicure? This excellent post tells the story of shellac better than I probably could. The photos do not really do these justice, it is hard to get a good photo of these nails.

To summarize it quickly for you, after each coat of nail polish is applied, your nails “cure” with the help of a UV lamp. When you walk out of the salon you do not have to worry about wet nail polish.

The other benefits include much stronger nails and the polish lasts for 2-3 weeks – and sometimes 4 depending on what you get up to hand wise. Since I started getting the gel nails I have not had a single nail break, and I don’t baby them, they do what they have always done.

I have occasionally done a bit of damage to the manicure but you have to work pretty hard to damage it. Most times when I have damaged a nail it has involved metal coathangers, the ones you use to hang up jeans etc. Gel works for me but it does not work for everyone. In particular it would not work well if one had their hands in water a lot.

Until I did this, I never realised how having great looking nails can improve your mood. It makes sense now, given that during any day you look at your hands more than any other body part.

I prefer the French tip style manicure because if you have colour down to the bottom of the nail you notice a gap as your nails grow. But the French manicures are no longer just white tips, as you see from my many examples here. You can choose a colour, you can add some glitter on the top, and probably my favourite manicure so far was black tips with red holographic glitter.

I also loved the ones with electric blue and the pastel but very sparkly green. One appointment I arrived early and sat down with the colour charts and made a memo in my phone of all the colours I wanted for future manicures, so I usually know before I arrive what colour I want to try this time. I’m thinking gold is coming up this week but The Other Half loved the black with red glitter, so I see a repeat of that in my near future, as well.

My manicurist thinks I am strange because I always ask her to trim the nails back, she said everyone else wants to keep the length. I don’t need my nails to be long. I just want them to be neat, shiny, and sparkly. If I let them get too long I begin to have trouble typing.

Fashion, Nail Art, Vitamins

Ad Break

6 Comments Posted on June 2, 2017June 1, 2017 by Snoskred

I don’t normally love an ad but this one is very well done. If you have Foxtel or some form of cable you may have already seen it. I would never have thought of it. This is perhaps why I do not work in advertising. :)

So refreshing when you are swimming in a sea of funeral insurance ads.

television shows

Movie Catch Up 5

6 Comments Posted on May 31, 2017May 30, 2017 by Snoskred

Loved

The Light Between Oceans

“A lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia raise a baby they rescue from a drifting rowing boat.” IMDB

Prepare the kleenex, you will need them. Oh, what a magical yet deeply heart breaking story with a great cast many of whom you will recognise if you are Australian.

I did not realise going into it that this had people like Garry McDonald and Bryan Brown in it, though that is probably the reason it went onto my “movies I want to see” list. By the time I got to watch it I had forgotten who was in it. What a great surprise for me when the credits were playing at the start, to see those names appear. I am a huge Garry McDonald fan. Had I remembered, I would have watched this movie a lot sooner.

Also Jack Thompson was there as a crusty Aussie seaman, a role I believe he was born to play and should have played a lot more often instead of butchering the American accent as he has been known to do on occasion AKA that time he played the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff in Broken Arrow.

The entire cast was fantastic. Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander were especially amazing in this movie, as was Rachel Weisz. I might quietly be turning into a fan of the Fassbender. I also enjoyed Anthony Hayes who has been building up a repertoire of great roles over the years and every role I have seen him in I have enjoyed his performace, particularly memorable was the detective in Animal Kingdom.

I only disliked one thing about this movie and that was a couple of moments of lens flare – a thing that happens when you point a camera at the sun – which broke into the feeling that this was a real story and we were somehow magically taken back in time to the 1920s and suspended in space watching these people live their lives.

I do not mind lens flare on most occasions, in fact there are some times I truly love it, but a movie set in the 1920s before the modern world was a thing is not a good place for it in my opinion. Also pointing the camera at the sun makes it really hard for your audience to look at that shot. :) As you can see from that screenshot I took, my apologies but I wanted to be able to show you what I was talking about. You see the green stripe across the back of the actor there? That is lens flare.

This was not an easy movie to watch at times. It felt incredibly real. At all times minus the few lens flare moments it was beautifully done and the landscapes were haunting.

I would NOT recommend it to anyone who has experienced the loss of a child because this movie explores that subject quite thoroughly from several different angles and it was distressing to me who has not gone through that, I imagine it would be even more so to those who have.

Liked

To Walk Invisible: The Brontë Sisters

“A chronicle of the Brontë sisters’ battle to overcome obstacles and publish their novels, which would become some of the greatest in the English language.” IMDB

A couple of minutes into this movie, I very nearly decided to stop watching it. My hand was on the stop button on the remote. The beginning was very, very weird with what seemed to be a supernatural element, fiery halos above some children. I was thinking, what the heck is this?

Then it looked like it was going to turn into a normal movie with normal characters and I decided to keep watching it, only moments later to have another flashback with the same children who I now recognised as the main characters and they were DEEPLY annoying, screaming and yelling. I was just about to turn it off and say this movie is not for me when it went back to the adult characters and stayed there for a long while, and turned into a movie I really enjoyed. I am very glad I did not turn it off now.

One of my favourite books of all time is The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall. I am not such a fan of the other Brontë books to be honest, I am more a Jane Austen fan. Watching this movie and finding out about their brother Branwell now I completely understand why my favourite book was written.

Branwell had an alcohol and drug problem and all three sisters had to watch his decline via this disease and his eventual death with tuberculosis, which unfortunately took two of the other sisters within 6 months of his death, well before their time. It also robbed all of us of their further literary works.

I did not love the ending of this movie either, for unknown reasons it suddenly switched to present day and took us on a somewhat terrifying whirlwind tour of the museum made from the rectory, in particular the gift shop seemed to get quite a visit from a steadicam operator. BYO motion sickness tablets..

But the part in between was excellent and the costumes and locations were quite good also. You may realise by now that I am a great fan of movies that are set in the past especially anything English and from the Victorian times.

I would recommend it if you are a fan of this kind of movie. Just grit your teeth through the first 5 minutes or so, and you can stop the movie once you get to modern times if you like, nothing happens other than taking a nauseating spin through the museum and gift shop and then one final shot of the three sisters out on the moors.

Disliked

The 9th Life of Louis Drax

“A psychologist who begins working with a young boy who has suffered a near-fatal fall finds himself drawn into a mystery that tests the boundaries of fantasy and reality.” IMDB

Aaron Paul and Jamie Dornan together in a movie? Sign me up, I’m totally on board. Somewhat unfortunately, the two never appear together on screen at the same time in this one. This movie was not what I expected and I would not really recommend it to anyone else.

The ending of the movie and a moment of incredible acting on the part of Aaron Paul redeemed it somewhat magically in my eyes. Even so, it is not a movie I would watch again and I think that puts it on the disliked list for me. Which is bizarre seeing how much I love these two actors.

I was not a fan of the story at all, especially the cruelty to hamsters element. Had that happened earlier in the movie I might have switched it off. I really did not like Louis Drax as a character to begin with but when he began to explain his views on owning a pet, I actively started hating him which was troubling to me, as he was a child. I did enjoy Oliver Platt, but I have enjoyed him in so many things, the most favourite being Oliver Babish in The West Wing.

I think this movie proves that you need more than just great actors – the story overall needs to be something people can relate to. This movie had too much fantasy and at times it skewed to the supernatural or science fiction which I do not always enjoy unless it is done very well.. This was not.

I’ve mentioned before that I do not dislike a lot of movies and I was very surprised to find I disliked this one.

movies

Sale Sale!

4 Comments Posted on May 30, 2017May 29, 2017 by Snoskred

The Long Sleeve Dressy Shirt Hem Sequin Knit is back on sale again at Rockmans for $29.99 as well as many other items. They sent me an SMS this afternoon to let me know nothing was over $40 and the website crashed for a couple of hours as a result..

The jackets are especially good value, many of them selling for $50-60 off RRP and one or two for nearly $90 off..

I might have to head into the local store and pick up a couple of these which are half price and a useful wardrobe item at $9.99.

No idea how long it will last. :)

shopping

Things I Know Now

12 Comments Posted on May 29, 2017May 28, 2017 by Snoskred

I have been on this eat less move more journey for almost a year and a half now.

Every human body is different, and we are not issued with instruction manuals for our bodies. What works for me will not always work for someone else. Some of the things I have learned only apply to me, but there are a couple of lessons which will be of interest and possibly work for most people. I’m putting those up front. :)

1. My portion size was too big.

I remember the days when I used to eat a whole pizza in one sitting. My pizza is 170 calories per slice and there are 6 slices. Eat all six, and that right there is 1020 calories. I now aim for 1200 calories a day spread out over 3 meals and one snack. I still have my pizza, but I have three slices which is 510 calories. The remaining slices go in the fridge for dinner the next night.

2. Protein shakes are important for me.

My lunchtime protein shake is so simple. I have updated the recipe as I now use almond milk and more protein. It removes thought from the equation and for me that is quite important and useful. I know what I’ll be having for lunch if I am at home, every day, forever.

I now buy my unflavoured protein online in bulk and I have switched to the Whey Protein Isolate from Bulk Nutrients. I buy 4kg at a time and it lasts me between 4-6 months depending on whether I am cooking other things with it. They do have some awesome treats you can create.

My protein shake tastes like a great milkshake that I would get from somewhere like Max Brenner or an upscale cafe. Who wouldn’t enjoy one of those every single day especially if one knows that it is giving you vital nutrients for your body? :)

3. Eating is the key.

If I eat right, I can do less and sometimes even no exercise and still lose or maintain my weight. I can still have the occasional calorific meal and it makes no difference in the long run. With that said, I have grown to love our new diet and generally prefer it to take away or eating out.

4. Some foods & medicines slow down my digestion.

This one might apply only to my body but I add it because it is worth trying to work out which foods work best for you. The one thing I really do not want to do above all other things is end up getting diverticulitis again. I’ve noticed that when I eat some foods my digestion slows to a crawl and I am bloated, gassy, and generally feel Not Great. Those foods are – potatoes – bread – pasta – anything containing a lot of flour.

I also know that codeine has a similar effect. This is a problem for me as that is my main heavy duty pain killer. It is ok if I have a once off headache, but I can no longer take cold and flu tablets with codeine in, as I take those for 4 days at a time.

5. I struggle with the cold weather.

This is likely related to my thyroid issues. I have antibodies which are attacking my thyroid and have to take a small dose of thyroxine daily to compensate. In summer I am fine but when the cool weather hits, I’ll be the one layering up to sometimes hilarious levels. Scarves, gloves, beanies, all the jackets, plus those super warm Ghanda hoodies are my best friends on a cold night now.

You might think I mean when going outside, but I have taken to wearing gloves and the occasional beanie in the house now. It just helps keep me warm without needing to put the gas heater on all the time.

2016 Goal, 2017 goal

Lap Time

5 Comments Posted on May 26, 2017May 25, 2017 by Snoskred

kitties

5 Much Loved Take That Songs

4 Comments Posted on May 24, 2017May 23, 2017 by Snoskred

Edited to add – I wrote this post last week. Take That are originally from Manchester and they are actually scheduled to play at Manchester Arena this upcoming weekend. They hold the record for the most concerts performed at that venue. Those concerts will likely be cancelled in light of the terror attack there and rightly so. I imagine security will be increased at concerts world wide as a result. What a horrible thing to happen, especially to children and teenagers who were likely to be fans of the musician playing there.

Since my recent Take That post, I have been thinking.. what do I consider my favourite Take That songs? The answer is not at all simple. There are so many songs over so many years. Take That music is generally very sing-a-long-able which is one reason why it is so popular in the UK where everyone goes to the pub and music plays and people sing along. Many of the songs have sections that do not have lyrics as we know them but things like oh oh oh oh oh (These Days) or ba ba ba ba (Portrait)

Two songs which have always been very popular as wedding first dance songs are – Greatest Day and Rule The World which also appeared in the movie Stardust. Rule the world is very popular for fireworks too because of the lyrics.

My current most favourite song is Let In The Sun – a catchy uplifting tune which is basically about picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and getting on with it when things are Not Great.

The other songs guaranteed to get me moving and singing along at the moment are –

These Days – Upbeat and uplifting, like a freshly carbonated bottle of Soda Water. :)

Portrait – This song was performed in concert while the trio rode a bike above the audience and when you listen to it you can see why – this song is perfect for riding your air bike above a stadium of people. Or, the air bikes at Magic Mountain, if they still existed. That one is especially for the Adelaidians. :)

Giants – One of the newly released songs from Wonderland – I knew the guys were “back” in Australia when I heard this playing in a shop at Stockland.

I Like It – Sometimes the boys write a song with a specific purpose in mind – this song was the kick off song for their tour in 2015 so the lyrics are kind of specific to that. But I like it, anyway. :)

The one song I have never been a fan of is probably one of their most well known in Australia which is Back For Good. Over time the newer music has become more loved by me than the original music ever was. In particular I loved the albums Progress when Robbie Williams rejoined the band for an album and tour after a 15 year separation and I especially loved III which was the band with just Gary, Howard and Mark.

There was a documentary that went along with the making of Progress called Look Back, Don’t Stare, which was a really special moment for long time fans of the band, featuring behind the scenes footage of recording the Progress album and the band sorting out some of their long time personal issues with each other.

Take That have a new album out now called Wonderland and they will be touring Australia later this year.

Take That

The Clothing Chronicles – Part 3

9 Comments Posted on May 22, 2017May 21, 2017 by Snoskred

I mentioned in my first post how sizes are never the same across stores and how I always pick up the wrong size automatically – this time I am going to talk some more about the mental change that you need to make once you have lost some weight.

A few weeks ago I let the chooks out, and Rosie took off like all the foxes in Australia were chasing her. It was so funny, I took note of the time – it was dead on midday. I said to the other half when he got home he should look at our cameras so he could see Rosie, and what I saw actually shocked me. I could not believe that person on the camera was me.

The “I’m much larger than I actually am” mentality is part of the reason why I reach for the larger size automatically. I’m now less than one kilo from my goal weight of 70kg but in my mind I am at least 10kg heavier than that.

I went to Rockmans recently specifically to look at the “Long Sleeve Dressy Shirt Hem Sequin Knit” you see above. I’d been looking for a top with some sparkle that I could wear under my leather jacket. I love mixed media pieces and this chiffon hem thing seems to be a big trend here this year, though I bought several pieces like this on my Hawaii trip in 2013.

This chiffon hem is just that, literally a hem added on to the bottom of the jumper. The jumper itself can be a little scratchy because of the sequins in the knit, just so you know. But it was exactly what I was looking for and there is such little sparkly out there in the shops this year.

Recent experiences have taught me to take more than one size into the fitting room and in this case I took in the small and the medium. I tried on the small first and was shocked when it fit perfectly.

The small size.

The medium size was just too big this time, especially as I wanted to wear it under a jacket. But my mind tried so hard to convince me to get the medium. It said quite clearly –

“Won’t you be more comfortable in the medium?”

“You like having room to move in your clothes, I think you should get the medium”

“If you get the medium you can wear another top underneath”

To all of this I said SHUT UP I am getting the small because it fits better. And so I did, plus BONUS it was half price so I got it for $30 and here it is in an outfit.

That inner voice trying to tell me incorrect things is one reason why shopping can be an exhausting experience. In this case I had specifically gone to try on this one thing so it was a little easier and this was the only shop I went to, so it was less tiring than usual.

Picking out things you want to try on before you even leave the house is a great way to go about this task, I have discovered. The obvious problem can be it might not be in stock at your store in your size but some stores now have the ability to tell you whether an item is in stock at your store.

Rockmans is one of the stores that can do this.

After my recent shopping adventures I now have quite a few new loyalty cards and some of these shops now send me daily emails which can be great if you are wanting to get something specific when it is on sale like I did with this top. I have a number of items bookmarked for future purchase when they are on sale or on clearance, if I miss out on them in my size then it is not meant to be.

Fashion

Box Kitty

2 Comments Posted on May 19, 2017May 15, 2017 by Snoskred

Our kitties love a good box, especially in colder weather. It is therefore a happy thing that we always use the spare empty boxes at Aldi to carry home our shopping. Some of the boxes we bring home get used for other, more useful purposes. The ones that see a lot of kitty love often have a towel or rug thrown into them and they become a kitty bed.

The kitties would say a kitty bed is the most useful purpose for a box, the more of them, the better. Humans, don’t use these boxes for other things, just for us!

kitties