This weekend Darryn, my family and I went to Melboure. With the wedding fast approaching it was time for Darryn to meet my Nana in Geelong. Nana (Dale Rollason) is my Dad’s mum. It was a great time!! We all met at Bridie’s house and the first thing Darryn did was fix Nana’s phone. Hungry as ever we went to lunch at the Little Creature Brewery *cough*hipsterville*cough* really good food though!

A few photos from the trip here!

A great weekend picking mushrooms and staying at George’s cabin (Native Dog Cabin) in Oberon. Absolutely beautiful place with tall, yellow poplar trees, old mines, neigh-bouring horses (see what I did there?) and roos bouncing around.

We tried our hand at camping and it was FREEEEZING! Apparently it can snow in Oberon, no arguments here! No matter how big the fire was it couldn’t have helped, although it did supply Michelle, Sampson, Darryn and I with makeshift s’mores.

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It was lovely to meet Angela Miller, straight away Darryn and I were ready to lock in the date with her.
Not only was she nice and funny, she was involved in the world record for the number of couples gathered in one place to renew their wedding vows.

Below is a snapshot from Angela’s website with details of the event.

We had an incredible evening with our friends and family, drinks, glowsticks and magic berries!

We also announced the wedding date to be 13th September 2014! Looking forward to seeing everyone 1 year and 3 weeks from now.

In the meantime, here are a few photos from the party.

 

Holding a small family BBQ around the corner from our house seemed like an easy task, however the wind and severe lack of heat in the park hot plate made things a little messy.

Despite this it was a great day, champagne was flowing and everyone seemed to get along. What more could you hope for?

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Quite early in our relationship, Darryn said to me “We can’t move in together until we have been together for six month”.

Well roughly nine months into our relationship we signed a lease and are preparing to move into the first house we will share together.

Darryn has told me that he was about to ask me to move in with him. Let the record show that it was I who asked him if he would live with me. This was quite momentous for me, not only because I was moving in with my fiancé, as of one week ago, I was moving out of my parent’s house and into a house of my own. Managing to avoid the awkward, tense and dirty housemate phase, I am grateful that Darryn said “yes”.

2/22 Palace Street, Ashfield.

To be honest in the beginning I thought it was an elaborate joke, it wasn’t until he started trying to pull the ring out of his jacket that I realised I was very wrong.

Let us start back at the beginning.
It was our 9 month anniversary, we were looking for a place to move in together and up until this point we had not had the luck we are renowned for. Darryn suggested going to Uchi Lounge for dinner, I believe his reasoning was to make us feel better for no luck with the house hunting, as well as celebrating our 9 months together.
It was a lovely dinner, a set menu that we have had before but never failed to be outstanding. This time however, roughly halfway through the courses the food stopped coming. I didn’t really notice too much as the last plate we had had was the Kingfish Sashimi w Shallot Umeboshi & Tamari Dressing (my favourite dish of anything ever) and the taste was lingering in my mouth, the longer they held off the next course, the longer I could hold on to it.
We were holding hands across the table and Darryn was saying wonderful things, all of which are a bit of a blur now. Then he got off of his chair and down on one knee. Using my full name, he asked me to marry him. As I said earlier, I thought he might be joking, to the point where I asked him if he was kidding. Chalk it up to total shock and surprise! He began to pull out the ring and that is when I knew it was real, at which point I said “yes”. I then proceeded to cry and shake as I put the ring on.
The tables either side of us clapped and congratulated us, one even bought us some champagne which I managed to accidentally tip over our next course of Kinoko Lover – Chargrilled King Mushrooms w Garlic Chilli Sautéed Japanese Mushrooms, which I maintain made the wonderful dish even nicer.
We messaged our families, Facebooked and Instagrammed the occasion and finished our meal, all the while crying, shaking and constantly looking down and my hand.

We left the restaurant, caught a taxi to Newtown, stopping in at Gelato Blue and proceeded to Midnight Special, as this was the place we became officially together. Finishing off the evening with a glass of red. Darryn may tell you different but I believe that by this point of had stopped crying and was just floating.

Pretty incredible evening.

When Darryn invited me to his family’s week long trip to Currarong I very much felt as though I was intruding. With a little convincing I went and had a great time. I spent a brief amount of time sending my resumé to Rachel Simpson in the hopes of securing a short-term contractor role at IAG Research Centre. The rest of the time was spent boogie boarding, bush walking and snorkelling.

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I had a great time in Europe with Deb. I did very much miss Darryn! Worry not, I carried with me, at all times, his representative.

#chewydoeseurope

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It’s not a selfie if there are two of you!

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Love in the Inner West.

I had only a couple of days earlier returned from a six month stint in America. My legs still sore and peeling from falling asleep on Venice Beach, CA.

It was Paul’s birthday party, Brodie and I had gone to Freaky Tiki (now Newtown Hotel) for $3.50 gin and tonics before joining the rest of the party at Courtie (Courthouse Hotel). Brodie and I continued the party spirit with a couple of jugs.

The clock struck midnight and like Cinderella the party stumbled their way, only a few metres, to Kelly’s. Everyone managed to get into Kelly’s without showing ID as they had the opportunity to get to know the bouncer whilst I was on exchange in New Paltz. Sitting out in the smoker’s lounge (talking to people as I am very much not a smoker!) I got to know a few of the new friends Paul, Fotini and Brodie had made in my absence.

FUN FACT: This was also the evening I met Emily Gray, though only briefly.

At some point in the evening I met a tall, curly haired character by the name of I-am-too-drunk-to-remember. And the rest is history. Not because this was the beginning of a romance but because I do not remember a thing that followed. Actually that isn’t true, I remember sitting next to Darryn and him telling me I was beautiful and I remember leaving with Brodie.

I have been told of a couple of things from that night:

1. Darryn and I made out, a lot
2. Girls I did not know, nor ever met, would come over to “save me” from Darryn

A few days later Darryn added me as a friend on Facebook, which I accepted.

Below are a few reference photos for those not familiar with Newtown.

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