I'm still alive. Caught up with just being and living.

I attended my friend's wedding ceremony last weekend. It was a gorgeous vintage themed wedding. The sky was blue, the sun warm and the atmosphere was just oh so elegant. I snapped the photo above while the professional photography was organising the bridal party and guests for the initial photo shoot.

We went to the Gold Coast for Alastair's 30th birthday over the Easter break, where we spent a wonderful week visiting the theme parks, dinner at Dracula, got some roaring 20's photos taken, and lots of time spent in the massive spa pool. It rained for much of the time that we were there, but that didn't put a damper on things. I had a bit of a incident with my back (which is still causing issues) but all in all, it was a great trip. We had a friend fly in from Perth to celebrate with us so it was really fun!While I'm terribly inactive on LJ, you have better luck keeping up to date with me via twitter (I'm @RuthEllison)!

As I walked between my client's offices, the wind cheekily chased me across the street, catching my big black portfolio like a sail. The slight chill in the air (in the shade) raised little goose bumps on my arms.

I think autumn is on its way.

Yes, I'm still alive. I've been neglecting my livejournal terribly this past few months for a number of reasons:

• Getting lost in the Twilight world and some how regressing to an obsessive teen-like state. I was at one stage madly reading up about Twilight, watching lots of Twilight related YouTube videos, obsessing over the young Robert Pattinson (who's dashingly cute in some photos but not others) but more about his character and the rest of the vampire family.
• Renovating our new investment property. I've been spending a few hours every night after work renovating. I have paint marks all over my body, and after yesterday, tile adhesive on various parts of the body.
• Started with a new client, which has been intensive.
• Trying to plan Canberra WSG meetings.
• Been up to Sydney to watch Top Gear Live.
• Various other stuff that has slipped my mind at the moment.

I've been very quiet on twitter as well (follow me @ruthellison) as I don't access it while on a client site. Plus renovations every night have meant no internet access!

I've also been neglecting all of your journals...I'll have to catch up one day, post renovations.

Christmas was quiet this year. I even felt a bit homesick for my usual family Christmas gatherings where it's large and noisy and filled with lots of good food.

Our friends Sharon and Craig were kind enough to invite us over to join them in their family Christmas, so we didn't have to spend Christmas alone. I cooked a Malaysian chicken curry and baked my signature dish, cointreau chocolate tart, to take along to the dinner. It went well with lots of food left over. We opened presents, with an overwhelming number of presents for Sharon and Craig's cute new-born baby, Caelan. There's something about buying lots of presents for babies - I was guilty of it too, although not quite as guilty as the rest of Sharon and Craig's families!

It was an early night. Hubby and I have been spending the rest of the days (boxing day and the weekend) relaxing around the house and watching lots of stuff. We're finally finished watching the anime series Death Note which is nice and twisty. We rewatched the Death Note movie sequel, Death Note: The Last Name which makes much more sense, now that we've watched the anime series. I'm quite taken with the L character and his quirkiness!

I've been watching a number of movies this weekend (Bond's Quantum of Solace, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) in between doing the laundry and organising stuff into the new kitchen.

It's been an extremely hectic few weeks that I'm having trouble remembering what I've been up to! Here's a quick summary in dot points.

• It was my birthday on Saturday. We spent it on the coast for a Raw Honey music weekend. Lots of rehearsals, good food and I got to try sailing for the first time! I even saw dolphins who came over to check out what we were doing!! One of my friends baked a very delicious apple and prune birthday cake. Everything was just so very cool.
• Work has been really flat out. I've been working on the one project which is drawing to a close, which meant that my workmate and I have been in report writing mode for the past week and a half.
• Flights to and from America has been booked. We're flying into and out of San Francisco. In between stuff hasn't been finalised but I'm looking forward to finally meeting bluesmoon.
• We're finally gone through settlement with our new townhouse in Watson. It all happened on Thursday and it's been a mad rush trying to organise carpets, window furnishings and furniture. The new townhouse looks absolutely fabulous and the outdoor entertainment area is just gorgeous. We met our new neighbours and they're such lovely people. I wish we were moving in now...Anyone know anyone that would like to rent a fully furnished 3 bedroom townhouse for a short term lease?
• Hubby got me another birthday present - a MSi Wind Notebook! He actually ordered the white version for me but we've only just noticed that they sent the wrong one - the Love Edition. It was meant to be white so we can both use it. LOL!
• I'm off to Perth this weekend for our friends' engagement party. Unfortunately we couldn't afford to both go so I'm representing us!

We took advantage of the long weekend to visit the National Zoo & Aquarium. Alastair and his parents treated me to an early birthday present...which meant that I got the opportunity to get up close and personal with a cheetah today! Alastair and I also managed to surprise his mum with a meet a cheetah experience too, which meant that we both got to visit the cheetah at the same time.

It was wonderful to get up close and personal with the cheetah. It was probably the quickest 15 minutes but it was oh-so-fun to pet them and hear their deep purring.

Between us three, we got to hand feed a beautiful tiger, hold Betty the boa constrictor (which wasn't cold or slimy as I expected - she was actually quite smooth), feed a giraffe, feed a bear, admire the various sea creatures and reptiles in the aquarium section, take lots of photos, and listen to many zoo keeper talks. All in all, a very fun day!

My mother-in-law and I also pressed a few souvenir coins and she also bought me a very cute hand crafted necklace with a cheetah pendent to remind us of today's adventures. Very thoughtful gift and I love it!

The rest of the photos are available on my flickr zoo set.

Hubby and I are finally in Perth are an extremely hectic week (well, hectic on my side). The above picture was taken at the Canberra airport when we got dropped off by the taxi driver. I took a few moments to have a quiet moment as I had only just gotten back from Melbourne about an hour prior to the photo being taken.

It's good being home in Perth and seeing my family (my mum had only just flown in from Singapore where she attended my cousin's wedding). I keep forgetting how large Perth really is, yet it's still small in some ways. We flew in late last night. I could see the lights of Perth stretch over over a huge distance. So different to Canberra where you can easily see the boundaries that make up the Australian Capital Territory.

The plan for today is a quick lunch with my family before I head off to a hen's day involving wineries and chocolate factories I believe!

I also forgot to mention that hubby and I did go skiing last weekend and contrary to my initial expectations, it was a great day! A good way to end the Australian ski season. I've also spent the past week in Melbourne running a round of usability walkthroughs of some designs. I also caught up with my cousin ablazegal and her boyfriend over some delicious Italian food (a separate post to come).

Hope all is well with you. I'm weeks behind your journal entries as I'm doing a lot of travel at the moment (you should see my September calendar - I spend 1 night in Canberra!!!).

I got there late (but better late than never) to The Science of Coffee event, held at the Old Parliament House as part of the Australian Science Festival 2008. It was an interesting night looking at how coffee is made. We had a 'Traditional Viennese Tasting Plate', a demonstration of using an expresso machine, and tastings of various coffees.

As a tea drinker, it was such an experience trying different types of coffee. I really had nothing to compare it to, as I don't drink coffee. The tasting plate was lovely as well, with an interesting mix of meat and vegetable dishes. We finished fairly late (after 9pm), with each person walking away with a goody bag filled with organic fair trade coffee and hot chocolate, thanks to Belaroma.

All in all, a good night, although I still prefer to be a tea drinker!

Despite all intentions for knuckling down and doing some work this weekend (on a report and a presentation), I got distracted by:

• The weekly food shop
• Purchasing of bar stools
• returning a beautiful trenchcoat as it was just too small (and getting a skirt instead)
• trying my hand at Jamie Oliver's lamb shank dish (which was just delicious)
• doing a photoshoot for a friend's upcoming book
• trying out our newly acquired Lego Indiana Jones for our Xbox
• Baked a flourless orange cake (yum!)

I also discovered that I slept through the brief snowing event in Canberra yesterday. n2kaja has some photos. There's also a RiotACT blog post about snow with some photos, and the ABC confirms the snow falls in Canberra.

I managed to spend a few hours last night working on the presentation. The intention is to spend a few hours every day after work this week to finish it.

The following post is in response to gurdonark's wonderful post - I admire how he takes the time to come up with insightful questions for each and every player!

At times, Canberra and Perth feels worlds apart. Canberra may be the capital city of Australia, but at times it feels more like a large country town. Rather than the usual six degrees of separation, Canberra tends to be more like two to three degrees whilst Perth follows the six degrees model.

Canberra is the political hub - it's buzzing with gossip about different Ministers, departments and projects. Our lives here feel like it revolves around the machinery of Government. Yet Canberra sadly, and undeservedly, has a reputation of being "a hole". On the other hand, Perth has a totally different feel. It's such a large sprawling city that keeps growing. It feels way too suburbia but the Perth city itself is starting to feel more vibrant. It feels like an adolescent who's on the cusp of adulthood whilst Canberra tends to emulate an older mature academic.

The climate is vastly different. I thought it got cold in Perth but it's nothing compared to the frosty Canberra mornings where you know you're alive by the cold wind that cuts through you. Perth is "stinking hot" in summer but it has gorgeous beaches!

It's hard to compare the restaurant scenes in Perth and Canberra. When I'm in Perth, I go for the 'comfort' food of childhood. When we eat out, I'm always requesting for Singaporean and Malaysian food (which Perth has an abundant of good quality Singaporean and Malaysian food). Whilst Canberra is sadly lacking in authentic Malaysian and Singaporean food, the range of quality eating here is fantastic! I despair that I would never had enough money to try all the fine eating places here.

I was hardly an outdoorsy person in Perth - but nice things to do is to check out the amazing Kings Park in the city, rollerblade around the Swan River or check out the famous Freo Markets. In Canberra, there's heaps of bush walking to do, a drive to the coast (the nearest beach is about 1.5 hours away), take a drive out of Canberra, or there's always skiing ;)