Lovely Anniversary in O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat

It was good that I could sleep in a little in the last two and half weeks of school holidays though I miss some personal time in the day. The spring break had been an enjoyable one and we had a great time in O Reilly's rainforest retreat during our anniversary.

We booked a 2 nights stay at the one bedroom mountain villa and did lots of eco rainforest walks. It was a very outdoor celebration but we had good fun. Clayton enjoyed the bird feeding with the parrots and we loved the tree top walk. Being situated in the Lamington national park, O'Reilly's had lovely views of the mountains and valleys and our villa had a nice sunset view at dusk.

In order to make things easier, I prepare a chicken casserole to take with us and prepared the lamb leg roast for our anniversary night. With a fully self contained kitchen, it was easy to prepare our meals and dining with a valley view was a real treat. Our roast lamb turned out very nice and we had a very comfortable stay for the two nights.

The people at O'reilly's are helpful and there's even a business centre for those who are traveling for a conference. With well equipped computers and brother printers, the retreat is popular with teams and groups of visitors who are all excited with the eco walks and treks. I found myself loving this retreat and walking in the rainforest is nice with autumn's weather. Clayton was quite a trekker and he didn't complained abit of the long walks in the rainforest. He impressed me.

School has started today and he is happy to be back in school to see his friends. As for me, I'm happy to have some personal time but that means no more sleeping in! In fact, I was late in preparing his morning tea and lunch this mornning - that's how it is on the first day of term 2!

Cooking, Eating and Experimenting in Brisbane

Both hubby and myself love food and discovering a good place for dinner has become a real novelty since we moved to Brisbane. In the first couple of months, DH insisted that we go to Sunnybank for Asian meals at least once a week. But after a few disappointments, we decided to stop.

Like they always say, it's always good to ask the locals when in doubt. After speaking to more 'locals', we have discovered few good makan places in Brisbane. One of them is Pine and Bamboo who serves very good Peking duck which cost only $55 for two courses. We like the crispiness of the duck and its owner is a Hong Kong gentlemen name Bill Wong. You can see him cutting up the duck in most dinners esp weekends.

Last week, we had dinner in a Shanghainese restaurant after a friend told us about its yummy dumplings. We had the Mui Choy Kau Yok and it was heavenly! We agreed that it tasted better than the ones in Msia and it was very nicely done. Though it's made of fatty pork, it didn't make us feel 'yucky' after eating. But after eating all these good food, I might need to check out adapexin-p for my waist sake!

This week, I tried out a few new recipes - Mini bacon/cheese quiche with sweet potato, mini rack of lamb, cheese brownies and sambal tumis seafood. So far, all the cooking attempts turned out very well and it motivates me to want to cook more!

We are heading to Toowoomba tomorrow to spend some time with my cousin and the boys are going to have a nice time together. And yes, holidays for Clayton had begun!