First post of 2009 and only 6 days late. Shocking. In my defence, I have worked every single day except for one.

New Years Eve was fun. I had finished nights that day (and would be working the next!) so I slept until just after lunch. Fi returned home from her early shift with John at around 18:30 got changed and then we headed to Anit's via Good Life Pizza. We brought takeout to eat at Anit's before the rest of the rabble arrived at 21:00. Anit has a beautiful one bedroom apartment overlooking Glenelg marina and the view of the sunset is gorgeous from his balcony.

Plenty of people came round to celebrate the New Year and to drink Anit's (large) selection of Australian wines including Derek, Jerry, Leigh, Bec (obviously), Holly, Murray, Lynda, Thomaz and Bjorn. We walked down to the jetty on the beach to watch the (crap) fireworks and then stumbled back to Anit's for a final glass. Fi and I walked home and were in bed by 01:00.

Being in bed by 01:00 was a good thing because both of us had to work late shifts on New Years Day! I woke up at 13:00 and had to start at 15:00 so you can imagine the mood I was in. To be fair, I didn't feel too bad and work wasn't as awful as as I had expected it would be. The blow was cushioned by the fact that I was earning 2.5x my hourly rate (although I have yet to be paid so we will see).

I had Friday off work which was spent doing very little indeed as Fiona was working. Saturday was nice as after work (yes I was at work again) Fi and I headed to the city to a popular restaurant in the city called Mesa Lunga. It's currently tenth in the top ten Adelaide restaurants on Gourmet Traveller and we had to book well in advance to secure a table. I was a little annoyed in that we pitched up to be told we had made a booking for five people (clearly we hadn't as the evening was to celebrate our third month wedding anniversary) and that we would have to be sat outside. We eventually complained and were moved inside but I couldn't help but think they were frustrated with us. To be frank - I don't think it was top ten material. The atmosphere was bustling, the food was good and the service was alright but I have definitely eaten in better restaurants in Adelaide. I would certainly dine there again I just think it was a little bit overrated. I had quail to start (a little tribute to Anit and went for paella for my main course whereas Fiona had panna cotta followed by duck. We shared some churros for desert. We enjoyed one our favourite Cabernet Sauvignons; the Majella from the Coonawarra. We bumped into Ang, one of the nurses that Fi works with and had a little chat. She's a rather interesting character. She trained as a nurse but became a little disheartened and so retrained as a lawyer. She seems to be very successful in the law profession and just does the occasional nursing shift for interests sake only. Even I reckon I could work in the ED longterm if I could pick and choose when I worked!

Sunday was a bit of a write-off as Fi and I didn't get up until late morning and we were both working late shifts. We did manage to cook a fabulous meatball dish from one of our Bill Granger books, which was great.

Yesterday was better. We set an alarm and were at the cafe by the beach at the end of our road by 09:30 having coffee and scrambled eggs (plus bacon for me!). We then strolled into Glenelg along the beach and walked to the marina to admire the boats. When we got back home we made a tasty Moroccan tagine dish before heading off to work for another late shift - I was a little reticent as I had my first job interview that evening...