I spent the weekend doing what I do best – lazing around and eating good food.

After months of hearing about it, we finally got our butts to Victor Churchill. God that place is amazing! We settled on the wagyu beef patties and pork and apple cider sausages.

The sausages were really juicy and tasty (slightly on the salty side, but that could be because it’s pork). The wagyu beef patty – amazing! Best home BBQed burgers ever! And if you know me, you’ll know that I love my sauces. The fact that I didn’t put any sauce (or butter) on this burger’s gotta say something.

Charles got us tickets to the Need for Speed Hot Pursuit launch event last week and even though I’m not all that into cars anymore it was still fun seeing all the shiny cars. If you’re interested in pictures of all the shiny fast cars, check out Speedhunters.

They had this really cool photo booth where you could wear props like side burns, police helmets, guns, sunglasses and all sorts of gangster-like bling. The photos came out really fast and turned out really well.

After the car show there was a free concert with Boy Boi (from Outkast). Didn’t really know many of his songs but totally loved it when he whipped out Sorry Miss Jackson and I like the way you move.

I lost my little Canon camera a couple of weeks ago so it was time to do my tax returns and go shopping. As much as I loved my old camera I wasn’t too fussed about losing it, after it copped some water damage at the slopes, it was never the same again.

After a bit of research and hunting around I found my new toy: Canon S95. It looks exactly the same as my old camera but it’s slightly bigger and takes much better shots.

I got it just in time for my trip to Melbourne so I was able to take it out for a test run. Here’s a couple of random shots (totally unedited):

There’s a neat little fish-eye function on the camera. It’s not a true fish-eye, it just distorts the shot.

Trippy fish-eye

Like most Canon point-n-shot cameras it has the Colour accent feature.

I hadn’t seen this function before, it’s called miniature. Basically it blurs the top and bottom bits to make the object appear miniature. Pretty cool huh?

All up it’s a neat little camera – with a full range of manual controls – that I can take with me everywhere, which is great for catching little moments like this.

After a great weekend we were all set to head home until …

The Tiger airways terminal was packed! And this was why:

Yes, our flight was canceled! Stupid Tiger airways! There was no warning and no help available, we just joined the giant line and waited to see what would happen (and maybe chuck a tantrum so we could be on TV).

We eventually found one of the airport staff to ask what was going to happen, they said we could stay the night and Tiger would pay for our accommodation and maybe they could get us on a flight the next day, or we could get a refund on the ‘flight fare’ and make our own way back to Sydney. How very unhelpful. There was no guarantee that we’d actually get on a Tiger flight the next day so we all jumped on our phones to find the next cheapest available flight home.

Instead of paying just $70 for the Tiger flight, we all had to fork out $327 each for a Qantas flight back home. Gr Tiger airways!

And it doesn’t end there. Even though we paid $70, I’m not sure if we’re going to get a full refund. The $70 we paid is actually broken down to several parts. As it turns out, the fare was $37.17, airport charges $25.51, gst $6.27 and service fees $7.20. I think we’re only going to get a refund for the flight fare. Gr! If we don’t get a full refund of $70 I’m going to be pretty darn annoyed!

Note to self: Never fly Tiger Airways ever again!

The plan for Melbourne was shopping, eating and clubbing. With the shopping and eating boxes ticked, we had only one thing left to do – hit the clubs. I’m not one for clubs so I had to make sure I was well hydrated before going out.

We headed to this club called Blue Diamond and much to my surprise, I really like it! It’s on the 15th floor of this building on Queen Street and has a great view of Melbourne. Wish I had some photos of the place but with my recent track record of nights out, I decided not to bring my camera.

Blue Diamond is one of the coolest clubs I’ve ever been to, all the guys were dressed with ties, vest and suspenders, and looked really swanky. The best thing about the place was the awesome live jazz band. Here’s a photo that Lisa took.

Loved the live music and the overall classiness of the place. They even had a cigar cabinet if you felt like a puff. When the band finished up the DJ played some great hits from the 90s. Everything from Vanilla Ice, Everybody dance now, Cut ‘n’ Move and my favourite – Love Shack. Wish there was a place like this in Sydney!

Lisa saw this Indian restaurant on Hamish and Andy and with a name like Gaylord, we knew we had to go there.

Loved the cheesiness of the restaurant.

And the menu.

There was also live music. The drummer looks like he’s really into it aye?

Okay, time for the food.

We were so hungry by the time we got there that we just went with the set menu. Couldn’t be stuffed reading the whole menu. While we waited we got ’sticky papadums’, they kept getting stuck on everyone’s teeth.

Entree: Lamb Tikka and Tandoori Chicken
Main: Fish curry, chicken curry, rogan josh, riata, rice and nan.

Way too much food.

It felt like we were back in high school again when Liz dared Hayden to eat the “mystery dish” which was a mixture of all the dishes put together. I recorded Hayden downing it so I’ll upload the video soon.

Good effort Hayden, but you seriously have to ask for more than $5.

A bunch of us headed to Melbourne for the weekend for a quick weekend away. The last time I was there was about 7 years ago so it’s been a while and I’d forgotten just how much I love the place (But don’t tell any Melbournians that).

We flew down with Tiger airways and it was a pretty safe and smooth flight. At this stage I was thinking ‘There’s nothing wrong with Tiger airways, what’s all the fuss about’. Well, that all changed in a few days (but I’ll get to that later).

This was our accommodation – Darling Tower on Collins Street. It’s pretty good if you’re on a budget. Decent size rooms, kitchen, balcony, and the best part – the location. It’s pretty awesome having a tram stop right in front of your door.

One of the stand out memories from my previous trip to Melbourne was Lygon Street. Seriously the best Italian food I’ve ever eaten!

After this trip my memory remains unchanged. Still the best Italian ever! If you’re heading to Lygon Street I’d highly recommend this place.

I’m not really sure if it’s called University Cafe or Universita Restaurant. I didn’t notice at the time, but there’s 2 different signs.

As usual I ordered the marinara. Man it was huge! I kept trying to share my food so I’d have room for dessert but I failed. I don’t have a separate stomach for dessert.

All up, great food and decently priced. Love Lygon Street!

Lisa got free tickets to the Home Buyers and Property Investors Expo so we thought we’d check it out. At the least I thought I would leave with a few free pens but I actually picked up quite a few good tips here and there, and a handful of free property magazines. Nice!

With the early morning start (well, early for me) and the required use of my brain on the weekend, we were both up for a good feed. Hurricanes seemed like the perfect fit.

Rainy weekends are perfect for staying in, and with G’s basil plant going nuts, pesto-making was the perfect fit for the Sunday afternoon. It’s actually really easy to make, it’s just a bit of banging and mixing in the mortar and pestle, and you’re done. The hardest part of the process was finding a jar to put it in.

I sort of went a little camera happy with Lily when I was in Byron. Couldn’t help it, she’s just so cute! G took the photo above. Cute huh?

Here’s a few shots.

All you have to do is look at her and she smiles.

Love the faces she pulls.

Wish you guys lived in Sydney. I miss the little one!