Four

What I like about our anniversary is that it's just for us. It's not a family event and it's not about Audrey... We can do whatever we want, or we can do nothing.

I had to count it out but this year is 12 years together, 4 years married. You'd think I'd be able to remember that off the top of my head but really it's not something that's important to us. We know we've been together for a long fucking time so the exact number of years really doesn't matter.

BJ and I aren't your typical couple. We don't buy Anniversary presents, spend lots of money or go away for the weekend. We might go out to dinner or have takeaway but that's about it. I wouldn't care if I was cooking dinner, as long as it was just us (and now Audrey) hanging out together.

This year our Anniversary was pre-celebrated days earlier. When I say 'pre-celebrated' I mean we went out to lunch while BJ was off work sick and while at lunch I said 'This can be for our Anniversary!'.

We went to The Smokery in Lilydale for some delicious smoked meat. I highly recommend it. It was fucking delicious!

Now as some of you know BJ and my wedding Anniversary shares the same date as the day we started going out. And since our wedding each year BJ has created a 'mixed tape' for our Anniversary and we take an annual photo for the cover.

This years one has fallen a bit between the cracks with soo much other stuff going on this year so I only got it yesterday but like all the others, I love it!

A 1000 Times - Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam
Upon A Hill - Foxygen
Wedding in Finistere - Jens Lekman
City Music - Kevin Morby
One More Lone Song - Mac DeMarco
Wild Once - Laura Marling
Kids In The Street - Justin Townes Earle

Love Is All - The Tallest Man On Earth
Mamah Borthwick (A Sketch) - Conor Oberst
Could Never Be Heaven - Brand New
Paradise - John Prine

If you want to check out our previous playlists you can find them here

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Two

When we got married we made a wedding album which we gifted to our guests and since then BJ has made one every year for our anniversary. We go to the same place each time to take our cover photo. BJ then scrolls through his music collection and creates the perfect playlist. Often using songs that he's found and kept from me until the next album because he knows i'll love them.

It was a little late this year with everything else that's been going on so I finally got it off BJ this week.

He makes every album so special and unique. I look forward to it every year and it is always on regular rotation on my ipod.

I pressed play in the car as I drove to work for my last 'official' day in the office on Thursday and enjoyed every second of it.

This years album starts off with a beautiful song about having a newborn baby girl and I was instantly in tears listening to it. It continues with a lot of beautiful sounding songs and is a nice easy listen. I have listened to it a couple of times already.

Now he just needs to finish our 'labour playlist' ready for the big day.

The tracklist:
Just A Dream - Tobias Jesso Jr.
This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) - Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell
Beginners - The Tallest Man On Earth
Wastes Of Time - Elvis Depressedly
Slow Show - The National
If I Love You - The Brain Jonestown Massacre
West Virginia - The Front Bottoms
Depreston - Courtney Barnett
Against Pollution - The Mountain Goats
A Girl In Port - Okkervil River
I Went To The Store One Day - Father John Misty

xx
Smorgy

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Fork This 62 - A Flashback To The Dinosaur Age

This weekend BJ and i went away to Rosebud to celebrate our 7th Anniversary (Wow!).

We spent all day Saturday at the Peninsula Hot Springs and had a lovely relaxing day, followed by a beautiful Thai dinner. Sunday we did some wondering around some vintage and op shops and grabbed lunch before heading back to pick up the boy. We had planned to film some stuff this weekend but decided instead to just enjoy our weekend.

So we put together this video instead... A classic!

xx

Smorgy

PS: This was the moon Saturday night... It was HUGE!!

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Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy *No Spoilers*

BJ and I are both really excited about the final Batman this Thursday. BJ LOVES this trilogy and has been talking about it non-stop for 12 months, waiting it to be out... If you've spoken to him, im sure he's mentioned Batman... A LOT! I too love this trilogy but am excited for another reason. This Batman trilogy is the first new trilogy BJ and I have experienced together from start to finish and I am excited and sad for it to come to an end.

Batman Begins was the FIRST movie we ever saw together. We went to Reading Cinemas in Chirnside Park and it was before we were even dating and only the second time we'd hung out together. Batman Begins was the start of what was to become a very large (and expensive) addiction between BJ and I. We love going to the cinemas and if we could we'd go every week.

Dark Knight was viewed at a cinema in Seattle, WA. It was released just before our 3rd anniversary (Which we celebrated at Disneyland) and we were left with a whopper of a story from our adventure to the cinemas. The day had us walking 5 miles to a cinema only to find they weren't playing Dark Knight, then another mile to the next cinema, walking down the side of a busy road which wasn't pedestrian friendly, only to come out of the movie late at night, stranded, with no taxi's around and the fear of not knowing how we'd get back to our motel.

In the end we got a lift from a very friendly fella who played talk back church radio the whole drive back to the motel and wouldn't accept any money from us. Good times!

And now here we are at The Dark Knight Rises which came out right before our anniversary once again. It will be our 7th anniversary... Oh my, how time flies. We have followed this Trilogy for our whole relationship and we were so excited for the final instalment of what has been a great trilogy.

BJ and I walked out of the cinemas opening night, gave each other a big hug and just smiled.

It's the end of an era.... But I look forward to many more trilogies in our future.

xx
Smorgy

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Fork This 46 & 47

I got slack and forgot to post last weeks episode of Fork This.... But that just means that this week, you get TWO!!!

In episode 46 BJ is very proud of his creation




In episode 47 we celebrate Coopers 1 year Nutaversary.



xx
Smorgy Pin It

Fork This - Episode 10

Can't believe we have been successful at getting an episode out every Sunday for 10 weeks... Go us!!!


In this episode BJ and I celebrate 6 years of our lives together with an adventure of sorts and we took the camera along to get some footage for you all.

Check it out:


Fork This - 010 from BJ Carter on Vimeo.


xx
Smorgy Pin It

The Gold Class Experience

Yesterday was BJ and my anniversary... 6 years... Wow!

I won't go into detail about that in this blog though as it's going to be about Village Gold Class.

I recently was given two gold class tickets and food vouchers and decided to use them on our anniversary to see Captain America.

(How awesome is that poster!!)

I have never been to Gold Class before. I don't see the point of spending soo much money to go to the movies. Normal cinemas are expensive enough. But hey, I'm not going to say no to a freebie.

We rocked up to Village Knox and got in the 'Gold Class' tickets line... Didn't make any difference as the staff still served 6 other people before we got served. It was early afternoon so they only had the grandma's working the counter and boy are they sloooooooooooooooow.

We finally got our tickets and went to kill some time.

Once it was closer to our movie session we headed up to Gold Class and was greeted by an overly happy gentleman. He gave us menus to look over.

We decided to spend all of our food vouchers and this was probably the only time I would ever got to Gold Class so we went a little crazy. Popcorn, drinks, Malteesers, mm's, snakes PLUS Wedges mid-movie and a sticky date pudding to share towards the end of the film.

They opened the doors and invited us into the cinema.
We sat down and naturally adjusted the seat so we were reclined and comfortable. Then just before the previews started our popcorn and drink were served... Followed up our confectionary... Elegantly displayed in martini glasses.

The looked fancy but all i could think was 'Im not planning to eat ALL of this... How the hell do i take it home?!'

This is my 'Look excited to be in Gold Class' face.


We got ourselves comfy, the lights dimmed and the trailers began.
Unfornately one of those trailers was for Green Lantern - Man that does NOT look good.

BUT fortunately one was for The Dark Knight Rises which were are very excited about.

Captain Amercia was very enjoyable. The affects were great. I loved how they made him bigger.

Stan Lee's cameo was funny as. We weren't expecting it to be such a long film and it certainly didn't feel like it was that long.

At the half way mark in came our wedges... They were extremely salty, to the point that after 4 they just tasted terrible and i couldn't eat any more. They came with some kind of relish which wasn't nice at all.

I went back to munching on my candy and popcorn but had to slow down on my drink as i was desperate for the bathroom and couldn't bring myself to run out during the movie because i didn't want to miss anything.

Then out came the sticky date pudding... The sauce was tasty but the pudding itself... Well, i've had better.
The base of the pudding was very chewy and the middle was like it wasn't entirely cooked through.

You'd think a $15 bowl of wedges which be the BEST wedges in the world and a $15 sticky date pudding would be orgazmic.... Food Fail by Village.

But the food wasn't going to ruin my experience because Captain A was going great.

The two things that i didn't like in the movie were
1/ Before Hugo Weaving took off his face, all i could picture was him saying 'Mr Anderson'
2/ When he did take off his face... I didn't know Voldermort was in Captain America!!

The movie finished up and i ran to the toilet, know i'd have time to get there any back before the credits ended.

There were maybe 10 of us in the cinema for the movie but when i came back it was just BJ and one guy cleaning.. They all LEFT!!
Don't these idiots know what comes after a Marvel film... WHY would you pay to go to Gold Class and see this movie if you weren't going to wait till the end of the credits for The Avengers teaser?!!?!


A teaser which was AWESOME!!!!
Sooo excited for that movie.

Once we finished viewing that we gathered our stuff and i headed out with my glasses of candy. 'Could i please have a small popcorn box to take my leftovers home?' I asked the guy behind the counter. 'Oh no... I can't give you a popcorn box' - WHAT THE FUCK!??!?!! Why Not????
Instead i was handed some freezer bags to put my candy in... Outraged I was!

We would have done our lazy man exit down the escalator but it was out of order... So we had to tackle the stairs.

So my Gold Class experience was complete. The seats were great, the food, not so much.
The movie was awesome but still would have been in a normal cinema or VMax so Gold Class doesn't get points for that.

One other thing i would like to mention is that the toilets in Gold Class suck... The door to the cubicle opens and literally scraps along the toilet seat is sooo small. You have to walk in and squeeze yourself down the side of the toilet next to the toilet roll holder to get the door closed... Would hate to be a large person trying to go pee that's for sure.

Captain America 3.5/5
Gold Class - 2/5 (hahahaha)

xx
Smorgy Pin It

When 10 years still only feels like a day

I've tried to make my blogging, tweeting and facebooking more positive lately. And I will try to make this blog as positive as i can.


For a lot of people who know me, many of you don't know what I've been though and had to live with. Even though it was in the papers, on the news etc there are still people out there who aren't aware of my story.
Today i'm going to share it with you all as I feel it's the right thing to do.

Beanca's 1st Birthday

10 years ago my 18 month old niece Beanca was murdered by her mother. Beanca and her brother Chris were taken by there mother one day while my brother was at work and 6 months went without us know where they were until we recieved a call with terrible news.

My mum and brother flew up to Queensland which is where she'd taken the kids and brought Chris back home with them.

Their mother was hog tying them at night so they wouldn't get up and bother her. The night that Beanca died, she had been tied up for 16 hours and during this time she'd rolled over and suffocated in her bed.

Mother and boyfriend were sentenced to 6 years for manslaughter and she was out in 3. Free to live her life as if nothing had happened.
I don't believe 6 years was a fair sentence at all. 10 years have passed and my family are still trying to put our lives back together.

Chris - Back in Melbourne with us

This women got to leave prison, then straight away, got pregnant and god only knows what's happening to that poor child.

Since that day my mum has been full time guardian to my nephew Chris who is severely autistic and due to the trauma he suffered he does not speak. Not only does she care for him but she's put everything she's got into protecting him and making sure he is surrounded by love and support.

And she has achieved that 10 fold. I hate to think what Chris' life would be like had she not saved him for the hell he was in.

At 15 my world was turned up side down. I can't begin to explain what it was like to live with something like this. I didn't have a childhood like the other kids my age did. I was a full time Aunty and my nights and weekends were spent looking after Chris.

Now, I'm nearly 25. I still live with and look after Chris daily and enjoy every second of it. He is the most amazing boy and I love to watch him achieve the things he has. He is living his life for two and making the most of every second of every day.

Warrandyte Cemetery

Yesterday my family had to stay strong and get through the hardest day we've ever had to live, and continue to be reminded about on the 30th of July every year.
We all had our own little way of remembering her, did our own special little thing.

The weather was nice in Warrandyte this Saturday. It always seems to be a nice day when I go to visit her. BJ and I planned to spend the day out together in Warrandyte and do whatever we wanted.


We went to visit Beanca's grave with some trinkets and flowers and then went and wondered the shops and had a nice quiet lunch together. After that I took BJ somewhere special.. Somewhere that i haven't been for 10 and 1/2 years. The place we took Beanca the last time we saw her. Pound Bend.

My rock - BJ

I don't know why but I felt I needed to go back that and it's a place I wanted to share with BJ. He's been there for me the past 7 years. Holding my hand and supporting me through it all.

I would never wish a tragedy like this on anyone ever.
I will never be able to move past this as it's changed my life in so many ways.

I'm thankful for all our family and friends who have stuck by us and supported us through days like this. It means so much to us to have so many who care about Chris and are looking out for his future.


The things I've remembered coming up to the 10th anniversary of Beanca's death amaze me. I can remember every little thing about her funeral, What i was planning to wear and what i ended up wearing. I remember who was there. I remember the tv show i was watching that night before mum sat us down to tell us what had happened. It's all soo clear like it was only yesterday.


I could go on for hours going into detail about the trails, hearings, appeals, newspaper articles, news reports, our experience with The Australian Story, and a million other things that came from this but I don't want to overload you all. I'm sure in the future i will probably do some others on this but for now... This is enough.

Chris and I - 2011

I'm happy to talk about it with anyone who wants to, or answer questions if you have them.
I learnt very young that I needed to just be open about it all. If people couldn't handle it, that was there problem. But if we didn't speak out about it, we would never have gotten sooo much support from people.

So there is an insight to my world.

xx
Smorgy

Fly free with the Butterflies Beanca xo

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