Mar 1 - Relaxing While I Can

  Mr Smart and I woke rather earlier than we'd planned due to a sudden urgent banging on my front door at 8:30am this morning.  What the hell, I thought, jumping from bed and throwing on my robe imagining all kinds of disasters.  To my muddled sleepy brain it was an 'open up, this is the police' kind of knock.  But no, a grinning wally courier greeted me, clearly ecstatic to be out and about on such a beautiful day.  How can you stay mad at someone that happy? Especially when they are bringing you your brand new awesome Radley handbag all the way from England!  Mr Smart was less enthused about the new handbag and felt that I should have exacted some sort of revenge on the fellow.  I'm pleased to say that everything I wanted in there fits, even my kindle.
  I got up and ready to head off to Frankston for my massage.  Before I left though, I quickly popped down to the Kebab Joint to get a coffee for Mr Smart.  He had decided to set up my new network drive today so I wanted to make sure he was appropriately fueled.  I went down to Frankston and had a lovely hour-long full-body massage and thirty minute dermatologica facial at Endota Spa.  It was lovely, though the exfoliant they used in the facial was a little bit abrasive for my liking.  I avoided being stung in the post-massage skin care products sales pitch and headed back to the car.
  When I reached the car, I experienced a very Frankston moment.  There was an empty car park two car spaces down from mine and in front of it two cars were involved in a stand off for possession of it.  A P-plated yob with a ute and a man in his fifties.  Both were behaving ridiculously and neither was backing down.  Four minutes later I managed to get my car out without being run into by either of them.  The person waiting for my park was able to get in without incident fortunately.  They were still at it as I drove off, their bumpers mere millimetres apart, yelling and screaming at the other for being childish.  You could cut the irony with a knife.
  I headed home and Mr Smart showed me how he'd gone with the setup and explained how it should work now and what I might like to do next.  I expect I will have a lot of questions for him next time he's over.  Gub arrived back from Geelong just as Mr Smart and I were heading out for lunch and so that he could catch a train to uni.  We both have a new start on Monday, I have the new role at QV and the uni semester starts for him.
  We had a nice lunch at PappaRich in Glen Waverley, I had they dry curry egg noodles with steamed chicken and one little vegetarian siew mai (dumpling) and Mr Smart had the Pappa char kuay taow.  After a quick lunch we then walked to the train station and said our goodbyes.  I wished that he'd let me drive him to uni as I have a sneaking suspicion he must've been late for his 3pm appointment as a result of catching the train.  I went back to the car via Bread Top and grabbed a treat for Gub and I, a cinnamon donut twist for her and a pineapple coconut bun for me, then headed home.

  Once home Gub and I had our snacks and then generally mucked about for a few hours.  Gub continued her decluttering of items not going back to England with her, I wrote up yesterday's blog and began this one.  I moved all of my personal items into my wonderful new handbag and played multiple games of Words With Friends.  Before long though, it was time for the sisters three to head off to dinner at East Empress.
  We all arrived, Bertie a smidge later than Gub and I.  We got a text from her saying she'd be a smidge late and how long was a smidge anyway.  It turns out a smidge is twenty minutes.  We started with a round of cocktails.  I had the Chow Che Hua which is a concoction of Midori, Cointreau, pineapple juice and pureed kiwi fruit.  It was really yummy!  After that my only non-water drinks were a lemon, lime and bitters and a chinese tea.
  We decided to be adventurous and try the deluxe banquet.  It's a little on the pricier side of their banquets but we really liked the sound of some of the dishes.  I won't put up all the photographs as it's an eight  course banquet but I ate my serves of everything, and well all chose deep fried ice cream for dessert.

Moreton Bay Bug San Choy Bao and Peking Duck Pancakes

Honey Pepper Fillet Steak and Green Curry Chicken

  The meal was lovely, and the service was great as always.  We had a lot of laughs and girl talk and listened to the conversations going on around us too.  At one point, while we were extremely full with the seven small courses preceding dessert, the waitstaff placed a birthday cake on their small preparation table.  'Awww..', I thought longingly, 'that looks just like the cake I wanted..'  And then Gub and Bertie burst into a chorus of Happy Birthday.  It was awesome and I was completely caught by surprise.  There's nothing quite as cool as sparklers for candles!
  We decided not to eat any cake as we still had dessert yet to come.  It's my nephews birthday on Sunday and tomorrow we are going to the zoo to celebrate, so we figured it would be best to have the cake then for his birthday as well.  A cake shared is calories shared!
It was an awesome cake.
  After dessert came the fortune cookies!  This brought on a lot of animated discussion and laughter.  Gub caught the waiter off guard by asking "If they are fortune cookies, why are the lotto numbers all different?".  Her fortune also provoked much confusion and ongoing discussion as to its meaning.  It said Those who admire the freedom of birds have never built a nest.  It took her quite a while to stop pondering it.  Mine said:

  So I did as the cookie told me...
  Jess