Eddie-V Henderson

Last Monday, on a whim (and after a lot of pushing from me) Leigh and I took a drive out to Northam which is about 1.25hrs out of Perth to meet with a poodle breeder. I could hardly contain my excitement in the car!! Following a highly successful visit we adopted a 6 week old little black miniature poodle who we've decided to call Eddie-V. Leigh said that if we have to get a 'girls dog' then it has to be a boy and have a cool name. For those that are still guessing, Eddie-V is named after Eddie Vedder, lead vocalist for Pearl Jam.

What was really cool about the visit is that we not only got to meet his parents but his grandad as well! So cool. Eddie comes home with us on October 13. He is so cute and I can't wait to add him to the family! Our home is now complete.

He looks just like this except black.

Where oh where

Hi! If you are wondering where I've been for the past couple of months, I have one word for you people...

FACEBOOK! It's brilliant...

Just need some sleep...

What a distant memory Melbourne seems... We had a great holiday spending time with family, eating and drinking too much, going to the footy to see one of Sheedy's final games as coach for Essendon, shopping, etc etc.

Since Melbourne it's been all go go go here - Basically, sleep when you're dead is the motto! Between the house, work, classes and the musical I've hardly had time to scratch my arse to be honest. I have no idea why I work so darn hard! Mum has been an amazing help with all things house - What a dream it is having her right around the corner. I came home last week from classes and rehearsal to very little food in the house and totally exhausted, called mum and had a salad and veal schnitzel whipped up in seconds! Seconds I tell you! She is wonder woman! You can't tell me that having family around is anything less that wonderful!

I attended a great breakfast this morning with the 2007 Young Australian of the Year Award winner and 2008 Australian of the year nominee, Tania Major (http://http://www.australianoftheyear.gov.au/pages/page310.asp). What an inspirational person! She just makes you want to get up off your butt and go for your dreams, speak your mind and feel 100% entitled to have an opinion. She's out there fighting the fight to ensure our Australian leaders don't forget that Aboriginals are people too and to remind them that indigenous issues can't be ignored. Many of the issues effecting Aboriginal communities today are similar to those effecting third world countries. Tania's message is that we need to focus on our own backyard before putting our hand up as a nation to help with issues further abroad. You might have guessed but I agree with her completely. Tania - You go girl!

Something else cool to note - Leigh and I have been together for 5 years today! 5 years and I still feel like the luckiest girl alive to be married to a man who loves me so much and is so damn handsome! We're having a celebratory dinner on Saturday night in Hillary's Boat Harbour which is on the beach (http://www.portofinos.com.au/). Can't wait!

That's all from me for now - Looking forward to some sleep tonight ready to tackle the weekend with as much energy as I can muster with more classes, housework and musical shenanigans!

It's snowing in Melbourne

Melbourne is having a cold snap! Typical timing for the Hendersons - seems whenever we take a 'winter break' we freeze to death! Pictured here is lovely country Victoria, specifically Daylesford, and it's covered in snow at the moment! Beautiful! Bring it on! Unsure if Daylesford could ever be as cold as NYC was however I'm willing to test the possibility! It's been a while since I last visited Melbourne and I can't begin to tell you how excited I am! WOOHOO!

Choose a moving buddy - we're off to Hocking!

It's been a couple of weeks since my last installment so here's an update.

We are on the countdown to moving into our new place now - Only a week and 4 days to go now! I can't wait. I really can't. The termite inspection happens this Friday and then our final inspection is on Wednesday the 25th of July. Pending all goes well - Choose a moving buddy because we are off to Hocking! Opening all the wedding gifts will be like Christmas!

To keep our minds off the countdown we are heading to Melbourne this weekend to visit with family and friends. Saturday will be my first MCG experience as we are going to see the AFL match between Collingwood and Essendon. Then, on Sunday, we are off to my Aunt Abbe's country house for some R&R. Boy do we need it before the big move...

Raining cats and dogs...

Perth received the loveliest shot of much needed rain yesterday. I love those days - Perfect for just bunking down indoors and indulging on Meatball Soup! It's also great for the garden at our new house which should be looking very lush and green when we move in three weeks from now. It's nice to be almost through the process which has been relatively stress free to this point. We're just one termite inspection away from officially being home owners!! Hooray!

In other news, my little pest of a sister is all grown up at hits the age of 21 next Monday! How did that happen?! From the days of dropping toothpaste on her head in the shower to make all her hair stick together and telling her it was God to watching her blow out 21 candles! She has blossomed into such a beautiful, strong and admirable young woman and I can't wait to watch her continue to grow as a person. Happy birthday for Monday Crystal - It's nice to be home to sip champagne with you! This Friday night will be a blast! Bring it on! (In the picture, she is on the right holding Milo the poodle).

We have a home amongst the gum trees!

We are so excited! We have a new home! We made an offer yesterday on a 4x2 house in Hocking and our offer was accepted. We are seriously over the moon. This also means we can begin the process to adopt our long awaited puppy/ies (how many is still in debate). Woohoo! In addition, all those wishing to visit Perth, you have no excuse as there is free accomodation available to you! Can't wait to see you... Settlement date is July 27.

The birthday weekend

Wow - what a weekend! I'm now 27 and Caroline is now 30. Can you believe it? It's was a whole nine years ago that we were celebrating out 18th and 21st! How did that happen? Where did time go? I think we both seemed quite content moving into a new chapter of our lives. Personally, I think this is a great age because I still have a little bit of youth on my side but also more wisdom than I had, at say, 21. When the youth is gone and the wisdom is all that stands, there's always botox.


We spent the afternoon hours sinking champagne and oysters at Mead's in South Perth where I learnt that Caroline has developed an appitite for seafood! Who would have known? I guess was a case of you learn something new about your closest friends everyday! Following lunch, we headed to The Windsor Hotel for drinks with the lovely Skye, who is jetting off to her exciting new life in London (again) next week. Leigh collected me (off the Windsor Hotel floor) at around 6pm and we drove to Wanneroo for Thai with my folks. To finish, we enjoyed the sounds of Cherie and Chris Murphy at the Carine Hotel. What a way to spend a birthday... but the birthday weekend had just begun!



The following morning Caroline turned 30!! Yippee! We were off to ladies lunch at the Queen's followed by our gents, additional friends and Caroline's parent for... you guessed it... more drinks! We partied on in true style into the night with Leigh and I taking off home around 12.30am but that was nothing - The rest of the party didn't even sleep!

Sunday was spent on recovery with Leigh's friends and a good BBQ in Harvey, about a 1.5 hr drive south and the home of our countries best beef, oranges and milk! Could have been in much worse places! It was just fab. Anne and Hatham's new baby boy was also a total delight.

My beautiful, generous husband, Leigh, bought me a Christina Agulera ticket and a gorgeous birthday dress (although not worn yet). Mum bought me a fluffy white dressing gown which aided recovery from the weekend wonderfully! I have yet to get out of it...



So all in all, a great birthday weekend again. Different to past years in that it was not spent enjoying our 'UK family', the British sun and a local pub but certainly highly enjoyable none-the-less.

The long awaited wedding photos - The best weekend of our lives

Enjoy! We sure did...

http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=4p2t5drx.1cq5m7nh&Uy=6n3s4m&Ux=1&localeid=en_GB

Mrs Henderson really does present...

So you will never believe this... Just when I thought my dancing career was over, I score a part in a musical! HA! I am in the chorus of a musical called Crusin' which is a 50/60's era arrangement set to play at the Regal Theatre here in Perth in November 2007 (http://www.davidspicer.com/cruisin.htm). The scary part is that during the audition process I had to sing - in public!!! It's fair to say my singing is not a strong point and therefore doesn't make it beyond the shower and car but I guess you do you do what you gotta do! Hopefully there will be no more solo singing in the near future or ever!

As for everything else, Leigh is really well - working really hard. He leaves our flat at 7.30am every morning to head to work- so eager, so keen... personally I think he just can't wait to get into the new Mazda! He's also taken up basketball once a week and has begun playing tennis with a mate. I think he is really enjoying being back in the great outdoors.

In addition to my random musical part, I have found a couple of fitness clubs willing to take me on! One of them is situated in Kings Park which overlooks the city of Perth called Next Generation (http://www.nextgenerationclubs.com.au/kingsPark/home.html) and I am very excited to start with them on the week they open the new club to the public. I'll be teaching spin, cardio dance funk, aqua and ABT (abs, bums, thighs). Busy busy...

On the house hunt topic - we are still looking. It's not easy. I'll keep you all posted if there is any progress.

That's all for now... It's getting cooler here and we're still missing you all (they say it gets easier - yeah right!) - 5 days until winter kicks in, on the same day I turn 27 years old. Happy (rainy) birthday to me! haha

Moving day

What a chaotic past six weeks! I realise no one brought this on but myself and I have totally enjoyed it thus far but where is the light at the end of the tunnel?! I fear today's entry may be a somewhat random string so advance apologies...

So, the wedding is over, Abbe - you were my hero, our friends/family have flown home, we have the car and today we move to Rivervale. It's an exciting step as we're finally out from under 'the parental's' feet. Leigh's brother, Darren, has a beautiful flat in which he is so kindly letting us reside in for, well, however long it takes to find a place of our own. I tell you, it's so hard when all the elements of a country move are so dependant on each other. Can't have a car until someone can lend us one to go looking, can't get a place of our own until we a) know where we'll be working and b) until someone gives us jobs... It just goes on really. At times, it all just makes you want to go back bed but deep down you know how unproductive that would be and you serge on! Such is life.

The theme of the week will most certainly be 'carpe diem'. We must go out there and complete the job search. Leigh is deciding between three and I have a couple of second round interviews for some interesting roles. It'd most certainly be nice to begin searching for a place of our own too. We're particuarily keen on the Mount Hawthorn area after visiting our dear friends, Phil & Alan (pictured), for lunch this past Saturday, so we'll see how that pans out.

On a more personal note, absent friends, all this is much tougher without you. Come back soon, ok? Either that, or send me some power vibes sista's! I'm going to need them.

New blog, new car and, most wonderfully, a new husband!

Firstly - welcome to my new blog! I say 'my' however Leigh, my husband (can you believe it??) may make an appearance occasionally so let's say 'our'. It comes with the opening of a new chapter of life. I think the title of this entry says it all so let's get on with it.

The last 4 weeks have been challenging and wonderful, no doubt about that. Today was definitely a red letter day as Leigh and I purchased a new car! HOORAY! It's a shiny new Mazda3 MaxSport sedan. I'm so excited. It's Galaxy Grey in colour so I think there is no other name to call her but STAR! It feel a little different to own a sedan in comparison to owning a hatch, a little more grown up maybe... I have spent my life saying 'when we grow up...' Well, here we go!


Now that we have a car we can finally move out of our parent's houses!

Tomorrow we continue to hit the pavement looking jobs to pay for this new car! Wish us luck!