Zara!!

18. Visit a Zara store in Australia

When I was in Europe in 2006 my older sister introduced me to the wonderful world of Zara. I fell in love with their clothes and shoes and over that holiday I went to various stores, sometimes every day, and bought up as much as I could. When I went to Thailand, and again when I went to Malaysia, one of the things I was secretly most excited about was being able to visit Zara while I was there. It's kind of sad that that was one of the things I was most excited about but....it's true. You see we never had a Zara store in Australia so it wasn't a store I could usually visit...up until recently. Earlier in the year the first ever Zara store opened up in Sydney's new Westfield Shopping Centre, and just last week the second store was opened in Bourke St, Melbourne.

I decided that I would wait, and try to avoid the crazy first day crowds. I watched the news the night of the opening to see that people had been waiting all night for the shop to open and was glad of my choice. Finally by Saturday (the store opened on Wednesday) I couldn't wait any longer. I had to go and see if the store met my expectations. I wandered up Bourke St and found a 3 row line up outside the door. It's the first time I've lined up just to get into a store! But finally I was in...and man is that store huge! So many clothes and so many people. I loved all the bright clothes and there were some beautiful shoes. With all the people around, though, I felt a little rushed and felt like I didn't get to have a good look at everything. I ended up leaving with a long creamy coloured cardigan and a bright green cardigan which I was happy with, since I've been needing to buy more cardigans for my wardrobe.

So another goal out of the way! I'm slowly getting there. :)

Melbourne Good Food and Wine Show

16. Go to the Melbourne Good food and wine festival
I was able to tick my first goal off my list over the weekend! The Good Food and Wine show was on at Jeff's Shed - or the Exhibition buildings and I bought tickets for myself and my Mum to go. Included in the ticket was a reserved seat in the Celebrity Theatre so we could pick which chef we would like to see. As fans of the TV show Masterchef we selected to see George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan on the Sunday morning. I'm really glad we did choose Gary and George because they were fantastic to watch. They really complimented each other and were very funny to watch, as well as inspiring with their cooking. The theme for the day was seafood, which isn't a part of cooking I really love, but I still enjoyed watching them cook it, especially the caramalised onion and anchovy cigars (which is saying a lot for someone who gets squirmy over anchovies)

After seeing Gary and George we went back out into the main hall to have a look around. I couldn't believe how packed the place was - not only with stalls but people! We were able to taste lots of yummy foods - actually I wouldn't say there was anything I didn't like - and bought a few goodies for ourselves like passionfruit and lemon curd, lots of different spices, a peking duck pack etc etc. And, of course, there were so many good wines to try. I didn't get to try many myself because I was driving home, but I did try a couple which were beautiful, including a wine I tried while on holiday to Torquay with my friends earlier in the year and which I haven't been able to find since then. It was a great day, which I'm glad we went to - definitely worth the $30 entry fee!

My 101 in 1001 list

This afternoon I was meant to catch up with some friends for a book club I just started. Unfortunately though, two out of the four girls are sick, so they had to cancel. I figured it was a bit of a waste to still have the meeting, and that we could reschedule for another weekend, but the idea of having something I was looking so much forward to cancelled, got me down a bit. I started to think about some things that I could do by myself but couldn't come up with anything. So I started to look online. I found a blog created by a lady who had written down 101 goals she wanted to finish in 1001 days and I really liked the idea. So here I am, starting one of my own.

1. Spend a night or weekend in a hotel in Melbourne
2. Organise a girls night out with my friends - visit Spice Market and Emerald Peacock (Melbourne)
3. Visit the snow
4. Go to the Melbourne or Werribee Zoo
5. Work through every recipe from the cookbook 'Baked Explorations'
6. Hire a bike from Federation Square and go for a ride in Melbourne
7. Buy a new doona
8. Buy a KitchenAid Mixer
9. Go on the Ferris Wheel at Birrarung Marr in Melbourne
10. Visit Costco
11. Eat at a special restaurant like The Press Club or Hellenic Republic
12. Do a walking tour of Melbourne and take photos along the way
13. Visit Wilsons Prom
14. Kayak or Canoe on the Yarra River
15. Visit the Flemington Market
16. Go to the Melbourne Good food and wine festival
17. Visit Labossa (historic home) - open 3rd Sunday of each month
18. Visit a Zara store in Australia
19. Make up an 'Aussie box' and send it to the Stuff You Should Know podcast guys
20. Try Geocaching
21. Learn to run 5k - use couch to 5k podcast
22. Hold a proper picnic
23. Host a dinner for friends
24. Decorate some cupcakes the way I was taught in my cooking class
25. Try to make my own flower decorations for cupcakes
26. Stay on the protein diet and lose weight (at least 15kg)
27. Buy a set of special underwear
28. Book flights to New York
29. Be in the audience of the Martha Stewart Show
30. Go to Central Park
31. Visit Magnolia Cupcake Bakery
32. Go to the Beer Garden in St Kilda Rd with friends
33. Go to a music festival
34. Get car professionally cleaned
35. Get another job
36. Either move out of home or start house sitting
37. Finish 4 subjects for Advanced Diploma
38. Start saving for London
39. Clean out my wardrobe
40. Have a karaoke party with my friends
41. Have my first kiss
42. Go to a Trivia night at a bar/pub with friends
43. Buy a sex toy
44. Create a 'sister' blog for staff at work
45. Update student blog at work every week
46. Cook Paella
47. Cook a Moroccan dish
48. Read 201 books
49. Visit a Farmers Market
50. Watch a Star Wars movie
51. Buy a Martha Stewart Magazine
52. Attend a Renaissance Faire
53. Donate another $25 to Kiva
54. Compliment another person at least once a week for a month
55. Try Pilates
56. Attend a gym class
57. Read 5 books from ALA's banned books list
58. Go on a Zombie shuffle with my friends
59. Start and complete course on Photoshop
60. Watch Tudors Season 4
61. Watch Robin Hood Season 3
62. Do a sponsored walk in Melbourne
63. Start and keep up a food scrapbook
64. Buy a beanie and wear it
65. Watch a movie for every letter of the alphabet (2/26)
66. Take part in the Melbourne City Romp
67. Take part in the Million Paws Walk
68. Take part in and finish at least one history course
69. Finish playing The Sims Medieval at least once
70. Train myself to go to bed at 10.00 on weeknights
71. Visit Kryal Castle
71. Carve a pumpkin at Halloween
72. Buy a nespresso machine and stop buying coffee's at lunchtime (put $3.80 in a jar each time you have one and use for something you want to buy)
73. Try Zumba at least once
74. Fill change jar
75. Get fortune told (eg palm reading) at Spell Box in Melbourne
76. Buy the anniversary edition of The Sound of Music
77. Get the HPV vaccine
78. Read The Lady in the Tower by Alison Weir
79. Host a 2 or 3 course dinner for the family
80. Visit the beach 10 times (0/10)
81. Buy a bicycle
82. Buy flights to London
83. Visit The Fat Duck restaurant
84. Go to High Tea at Berkeley Hotel Kensington (pret-a-portea)
85. Go (back to) Hampton Court Palace
86. Do a special Tudor tour in England
87. Stay the night at a castle/palace
88. Give my room a good clean up - vaccuum, wash bedding, dust etc. once per term
89. Take part in Melbourne Open House
90. To be decided
91. TBD
92. TBD
93. TBD
94. TBD
95. TBD
96. TBD
97. TBD
98. TBD
99. TBD
100. TBD
101. Keep up with and complete all of these 101 goals