food. (again!) and veeery long allan-style post... (AGAIN!!!) =P

we went to this cute little cafe/restaurant near my house, called top paddock... the lunch menu was pretty awesome! everything was $9.90, and there were quite a few dishes to choose from... there was also the option of choosing from the dinner menu, and those dishes were set at pretty average prices... we both chose the steak sandwiches...

which were really really good... especially considering the price!! lol the chips that came with them were the most awesome i'd had in a while also... probably because they were double or triple fried or something... eww yuck!

  

but WAIT! there's MORE!!! as if that wasn't enough food. next was john paul's 24th birthday. and unfortunately the first of his birthdays, out of the three we've spent together, that we actually celebrated it. (damn exams all those other years! GRR!!)

and how else would we celebrate?! with more food. of course. as if that question needed to be asked! we started it off with cakes, provided by my mother...

which you'll be glad to know we didn't actually eat straight away. instead, we headed off to balsamic in eastland for dinner... john paul started off with a mars bar milkshake... whilst it was very, very good, it tasted nothing like a mars bar!! and probably a bit too sweet for my liking. it was almost like just drinking honey through a straw. next for the food. i, of course, could not resist but to go for my usual garlic prawns.

and john paul wasn't really much more adventurous, with his porterhouse steak.

the food was alright... nothing special really... and the garlic prawns definitely didn't have enough sauce... but overall, wasn't a bad meal... and the place was really quite nice... i'd probably go back again, but not for the food so much as the atmosphere... they also have a really nice bar/lounge area where you can order light meals and just chill out with some drinks on the couches provided...

anyway. after dinner, we went to the cinemas opposite, and saw x-men 3 in la premiere - which is hoyts' version of gold class... we only went because we had a coupon for two tickets for the price of one... they have a nice lounge area you can sit in before the movie... and they provide free popcorn, soft drinks, and coffee and tea as well i think... they also offer you the option of having meals brought in for you during the movie, but it was fairly expensive... the seats aren't big couches like village gold class... instead it's still quite similar to a normal cinema seat, except it's in the shape of a two-seater couch type thing instead... weird. overall, not bad. but definitely not worth the money if you have to pay full price... hehe i loved the popcorn thingy though...

mmmmm... popcorny goodness!!! and as you walk through to the la premiere cinemas, they actually have the machines that play the movies set up on display... it was kind of cool! hehe

so. there ends our night, so to speak... so i shall end with a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge :

HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY, MY DARLING MONKEY!!!

i love you so very much. and i'm glad we finally got around to properly celebrating one of your birthdays. only took us three years. hehe. i hope you had a great one... I LOVE YOU!!!!!

ok! so. here's the story.

 the monkey and i are planning on travelling... we are leaving on the 16^th of august, and if we can find decent jobs, we hope to be away for up to a year??unfortunately, john paul still has 18 months left on his mobile phone contract, and we are going to have some serious expenses while we're away, and don't want this extra bill hanging over our heads... so we are desperate if anyone would like to buy over this contract.

 ok! so. here's what's on offer. (with more than a hundred dollars worth of FREE STUFF at the end!!)

 as I said before, there's roughly 18 months left on the plan... for any takers, the plan can be taken over immediately,  or in august, before we leave... as you wish! the phone on offer is a black motorola razr v3... definitely a good phone! it is as new, and will come with the charger, data cable, a hands free as well as a blue tooth headset...  i'm sure you all know the phone i mean... but here it is anyway...

now, the phone is on a $33 plan, which includes $33 of credit each month - but there is also the option to upgrade to a capped plan or whatever you wish!! it's with B mobile, so it has optus yes time included...

now for the good bit!!! as an incentive, i would like to also offer you a hamper of free cosmetics, which at the recommended retail price would add up to a hundred dollars (or more)... these are all brand new and have never been used before!! (i'm lucky enough to have received these from work) i do feel rather sad at having to part with these babies never having had the chance to try them out for myself, but i would like to offer these as a gift to any takers!!

below is my starting offer on the free gift, and if any more incentive is needed, it would be possible to have a few more items thrown into the bargain!!

so, for the price of the contract, you could have $33 of free calls each month, as well as an as-new motorola razr, charger, data cable, hands free, bluetooth headset, AND brand new skincare and cosmetics range!! please spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested, as it would be greatly appreciated!!

warning : long (allan style ) post! not 56k friendly! best viewed with internet explorer for easy scrolling

so! my 21^st birthday got off to a not-so-exciting start, when i had to get up at 9:30 to go to uni for group assignment work... yuck! but at least i got two free boost juices!!!

 after meeting up with john paul later that afternoon, we headed on home... and i was so ready to collect some presents!  haha! amongst what i received were : a new jacket to wear to the gym from one of my cousins, a little magnetic kangaroo from another, an old jade bracelet from my grandmother, and as per usual - glorious money! some other presents i also got were :

from my parents, the canon ixus 60 - a six megapixel "dummy" camera, to take with me on my travels to england later this year, hopefully!! despite not really needing it, since i already had an old ixus 2, it's a funky little machine, and i have now decided it's awesome! hehe we now have five digital cameras for a family of four... anyhoo... i love my new camera!! and i also got...

this necklace, with various pendants... the three-set anchor, cross and heart meaning faith, hope and charity... i think... i don't know... i forget! and the 21st key actually a hand-me-down, which my grandparents gave to my mother for her 21st... yaay! i love it!
before dashing off to dinner, i shared a little cake with my family...

mmm.... chocolatey goodness!!
anyway... the monkey and i had decided not to go to the glencoe after all, since my mum said the food wasn't all that good, and we didn't have the entertainment discount anymore... instead we headed off to the lobster cove, which was this place with the tackiest decorations yet somehow looked so gorgeous and cosy at the same time!! we thought we'd try to give the three-course meal thing a go anyway, and bravely battled our way through two courses before giving in...

entrees before :

smoked salmon, avacado and mixed greens served with horseradish cream

lightly fried calamari with tartare sauce

entrees after :

mains before :

"pan fried prawn tails cooked in a sauce of garlic and cream, served with vegetables over a bed of rice"

grilled sirloin steak over roasted potatoes and vegetables, topped with seared prawns and a hollandaise sauce

they tasted soo much better than they looked, and we polished off the whole lot! hehe!!

mains after :

i was hoping to fit in some raspberry cheesecake also, but after that meal i could barely breathe, let alone fit in some more food! so instead, john paul and i went to visit my best friend, sally...

and. she even had a cake waiting for me. so much for no more eating! lol
cake before :

cake after :

so. that's how i spent my 21st birthday. good food, good friends. ha! was an ideal way to spend it, if you ask me!! in addition to that, last night i got together with some family and friends for some more gorgeous food and cakes... pictures of that soon to come! my third cake was sooo yummy i'm drooling just thinking about it!

more get togethers soon hopefully to celebrate my birthday with some other friends... hehe you only turn 21 once, so why not make the most of it?!
and we're going to see danny bhoy this thursday as part of the comedy festival! woohoo! so you'll all be hearing from me soon! xoxoxo 

so very annoyed.

 it's my 21^st birthday tomorrow(except xanga says it's today), and the monkey and i spent all morning trying to decide on a place to go to for dinner out of the entertainment book... we finally settled on a three-course menu at the glencoe restaurant, seeing as the price wasn't too bad after discount, and the choice of food seemed to be pretty decent also...

 so i get home and get the entertainment gold card off my mother... and just my luck. out of 187 restaurants on the card, only one has been used. can anyone guess which one?!?! one in a hundred and eighty seven! i mean, come on!! what are the odds?!?!

 just my darned luck. i hope this isn't a sign of things to come in the following year. because that would be just perfect. not.