Such a stark contrast on last weekend.

Along with half of the internet it seemed, I traveled to Melbourne last Friday for the inaugural Nuffnang Blogopolis.

After a super early 7am flight. I arrived in Melbourne with plans of a few hours shopping waiting for my roomies Rah and Liz to arrive.

Of course one of the first things I did when I booked to go was search for the nearest cupcake shops. One that was just 5mins from our hotel was The Cupcake Family. We tried some macaroons  Friday with plans to come back to try more..but unfortunately we didn’t get there. The macaroons where pretty damn good!

Friday night saw the HelloEvents pre drinks. I never do Outfit of the day pics, but was playing my flash..and this is the only picture we have of our wonderful hotel room, what slack bloggers are we! I had planned on tacking a pic of the room Liz and I were sharing. Liz with her stuff all neatly in her bag, me with shiz strewn all over the place..bed all messy..just use your imagination.

This is the second time I have stayed in a Mantra and both times the service has rooms have been great. We were super close to everything and the room was awesome, and super cheap.

Weekends away are not complete without lots of noms. Foodies we are not. Simple girls, easily please. Firstly, we all sampled Grill’d for the first time. A little on the $$ but hands down, best burgers I’ve had. So much so we actually had it twice. We also came across this fab little dumpling take away, never seen coloured dumplings before.

Then, I think there was some kind of conference in between the festivities, on Saturday. You can read a better wrap of that here. I will admit to coming into it with low expectation, and I was pleasantly surprised. Certainly took a lot more away from this one, than the mummy bloggers conference that wasn’t but was in March.

The highlight for me was seeing Problogger in the flesh. Someone I have been following for many years. I’ve seen many pictures and videos of him but to see him in 3D and to hear him talk was very surreal. I would love to make it to his workshop in Melb in October, but not liking my chances on that

This is my shirt that I had made to wear for the day. Just to push my WordPress cult a little more. Little did I know the speakers on the day would do a pretty good job pushing the mighty WordPress and then some, so I got a few interesting comments.

After the conference we made our way to the venue for the after party. It was a bit of an effort to find it. Despite all the directions on Twitter, we all go lost. Wandering the Docklands of Melbourne, coming across other lost bloggers in dark alley ways till we’d amassed a crowd of lost bloggers. No amount of GPS devices or actual Melbourne residents could help us, and we were close to giving up, when we FINALLY found the venue.

Was totes worth the effort, this place was absolutely beautiful, and the party that followed..wow. Here is a selection of pics that were safe for internet viewing (There should be a slide show viewer, or you can view them on Flickr)

My fav tho I think would have to be Suger Coat It planking. And we weren’t even drunk yet! It just got crazier and messier after that!

It was a shame there was not more time to mingle and network during the day. I seemed to luck out with table selection, as no one at my table was really interested in networking, which was one of my main reasons for attending. So the after party was perfect to chat with old and new bloggy friends.

Sunday saw some much needed hangover food. We visited the Pancake Parlour, home of my favourite pancake packet mix. And guess what, they taste exactly the same! For $7 you can get a bag of Pancake Parlour mix at Woolies, a little expensive but they taste just as good as from scratch and so much easier!

The rest of the day was spent visiting some Melbourne craft markets, and more shopping before a super late flight home. Thankfully I asked for the Monday off as well, as I needed it to recover.

So guys, when and where are we doing this again?!?! And remember, the internet is for ever, so don’t do crazy shit around bloggers with cameras!

I’ve also been craving dumplings. Since venturing into the city to watch Mary Poppins with Rah, who introduced me to THE most awesome dumplings.

Add in the lure of Transformers in huge 3D and manpet is happy to travel anywhere for cupcakes.

Chinese Noodle Restaurant in Haymarket certainly is nothing pretty to look at. Manpet was a little unsure…”we’re eating here? Really, are you sure this is the right place…umm, there are grapes on the roof…where are the forks” But he was soon silenced when the first plate of dumplings arrived.

We tried the friend Beef and onion, pork and chives and pork and cabbage. We also had some steam lamb and carrot and fried rice. The pork and cabbage were everyone’s fav and the rice was pretty awesome too. Manpet was very pleased to rub in my face the fact the rice has peas, corn and carrot in it just like his, I am for ever giving him shit about his weirdo rice.

Cupcakes!! I was a coupon virgin till I saw the Cupcake Bakery deal at Ouffer. I didn’t realise till we got there to collect them it was a mix of 6 regular and 6 deluxe..even better!. The Rocky Road and Custard Tumble were my fav.

I had planned on booking tickets at IMax, but..well. I forgot, and by the time I got around to it there were no decent seats left. Worried my cupcake plans would be dashed I searched around for something similar and came across the Events VMax in George Street. It has max in the name..surely it’s just as good? Booked ahead and got the pick of the best seats. The movie was fantastic, we have seen quite a few movies in 3D and it was so much better than regular 3D.

Kids are already asking when we can go back for dumplings at the grape shop. Suits me fine…more cupcakes!

Hayden has had an issue with bullies for most of his school life. It got to the point where we even had to change schools, because they were just beyond hopeless at dealing with the problem and we’d had enough. Not saying he asks for it, but he just seems to be a bit of a bully magnet. Things haven’t been as bad in the last few years.

But moving to high school this year, little fish in a big pond and all that..he has had some issue. But thanks to his training and advice from his trainer he has been able to deal with things a lot better.

He’s been loving his boxing and training. It has been a great boost to his confidence. He has picked it up really quickly. Getting a lot of praise from his trainer about how well he is doing, and the muscle he is putting on doesn’t hurt the confidence either

Just had his second grading today. Passed with all A’s and now moved to Orange. This week he is also moving into an adults class. He is a bit too big and powerful for the little kids.While many of the kids are his age, he towers over them. Some he is twice their size, which makes in near impossible to train properly with them. He’s 12.

Good work mate! You still can’t beat Mum though

For your birthday, you get your presents and you get to pick somewhere to go…movies and dinner or bowling etc. With Emily’s Birthday last week, it was her turn to pick. At first she wanted to see Pirates of the Caribbean. That was fine, I wouldn’t mind seeing that, till I realised the damn thing goes for nearly 2 1/1hrs!! No way I am sitting there for that long, so managed to gently persuade her into bowling and laser skirmish…and waffles!

Working fulltime, don’t get a chance for random noms anymore, so it has been 6mths or more since visiting Jas My Waffles. Forgot how a.mazing they are!

I had a full serve with cookies n cream, vanilla bean and mango ice cream.

The kids got half a serve with Chocolate Ecstasy ice cream.

And Jake went all out and had the big breakfast (for lunch)

Shame we have run out of birthdays now, will have to come up with another excuse to visit soon!

Jas My Waffles

Firstly, we do most of the shopping, so I think we are quite capable of buying our own PJs if we are so inclined. And they certainly aren’t going to be shit covered in bears and love hearts. Also, Mum doesn’t want a bloody iron, or a blender..unless it’s to be you over the head with!

So what is on my wish list?

I could replace my Mother’s Day present from 2yrs ago, but I am still quite attached to it. And it doesn’t do that random rebooting thing too often.

I’ve already bought myself one present, because honestly..if I left it up to this lot I’d get nothing!

Have been wanting one of these necklaces for ever, but could never really find the right design. Our list of personalised handstamped jewellery at That’s Noice was super handy. I received this beautiful piece from Heart on your Wrist just in time yesterday. My only gripe is I wish my children were born in a month with a nicer birthstone, inconsiderate of them wasn’t it?

This is what REALLY want, but allas..it is sold out EVERYWHERE and the backorder list is ginormous. So looks like I will be waiting awhile.

So maybe this could be a good substitute. I loves me some doof doof, only reason I like driving manpets car. Would love some of my own.

What’s on your Mother’s Day wish list?