Our first year

27th May 2007 marks the day of our first year together as a couple. We took the Saturday the 26th to celebrate it as the 27th is a Sunday as well as our church Hope Sydney Christian church's 14th anniversary.

I went out early in the morning after staying up late to complete my 2 week project of making Mr Broc a magazine about our year together as a couple. I popped by my favourite Bourke Street bakery to pick up some yummy stuff for our day together though I didn't know what he was planning to surprise me with. All he told me was to dress comfy. Its funny how when you're queuing for something in demand you suddenly decide to buy a lot more than you wanted at first. I was planning coffee and brunch. Ended up with a pumpkin, feta and basil pizza, a chorizo and onion scroll, danish twist and a plum and almond tart and Parker's organic lemonade. Left: Plum and almond tart Had a yummy soy coffee from well-being cafe and walked around Broadway shopping centre before returning to Kinkos to pick up my book/magazine thing.
Left: The cover of the magazine

Mr Broc rocked up at 12, nice and on time with a beautiful bouquet and a card. He had given me my present 2 days early cos I wasn't feeling too good on thursday. He had returned to Rhodes shopping centre to find the cupcake tier plate which I had looked longingly at but didn't buy. I teased him like crazy about him getting me a "plate" for our anniversary present, not very romantic by the girlie heart in me.
Me: "Dear why did u get me a plate for an anniversary present?"

Mr Broc: " I thought you would like it, so I got it for you. You don't like my present." (sulk)

Me: " Yes I would like it any other time, but for our 1st year anniversary?"

Mr Broc: "Well, I wanted to be different. Instead of getting you jewellery like normal people do"

Me: "What's wrong with normal? Would you think its funny if someone asked you what you got for me and you said a plate?"

Mr Broc: " urh not really... PAISEH!" (ha ha he knows how to use this word now)

Me: " well... "

Mr Broc: "Ok... it seemed like a good idea at that time..."

Me: Smile... (I can't stay angry with him cos he's always so sincere)
Above: My bouquet and cupcake tier I gave him the magazine/book I made him of stories of our first year together and Peter alexander PJ pants. Mr Broc was so touched he teared and hugged me quickly so I couldn't see, was really happy that he liked it! It was fun making it but he's a graphic designer so I asked him not to pick on my design flaws!

Mr Broc planned a lovely day. First he took me on this picnic in Lane Cove National park.. He wanted to surprise me when we got there but needed my EXCELLENT navigation and GPS skills to find it! Got kinda lost again cos the main entrance was closed BUT we finally made it and he prepared a nice picnic of roast chicken, coleslaw, lebanese bread and Nudie juice. Left:Mr Broc and nudie juice I was happy to bring theyummy baked goods from Bourke Street bakery. Funny thing that happened when we were happily picnic-ing. Said grace and thanked God for our 1st year together. I saw this pretty little bird nearby and threw some bread over.. BAD IDEA cos more birds came around and this BIG FAT KOOKABURRA! After the initial feed, he just sat there staring me and Mr broc eat. Suddenly there was this brush of feathers and a scratch on my arm, I looked up to see Mr Broc with a piece of bread in his hand and the Kookaburra dangling there with his beak firmly around it!!!! ARGH!! Too bad it happened too fast for me to grab my camera in time, the look on Mr Broc's face was classic! We carried on picnicing and YES the bird came back the 2nd time! After Mr Broc's food again it was our yummy chorizo scroll, the last piece some more!! By this time I was laughing like crazy at Mr Broc's face and he was ranting stooopid bird hmph. A couple was rowing a boat nearby and yelled over at us " That happened to us too!! " and we all laughed together. The bird seemed to know that we only had the lebanese bread left and flew away to steal other picnics. Above: Yummy chorizo bread that was stolen After that we went to look for row-boats for hire..! It was going for $20/hour or $30 for half day's worth. Here I am getting all excited but realising that I was quite un-co and kept rowing the wrong direction, and after many attempts managed to contribute to our rowing progress with patient supervision from Mr Broc whom I was entertaining with my feeble attempts. We really enjoyed the afternoon, stopped under a nice shade mid-way to finish another yummy treat from Bourke St bakery with NO KOOKABURRAs around. We saw couples and families enjoying their day out with their own row-boats and rented ones. That's the life, Mr Broc commented that he'd like to get one of the row-boats and take the kids out on the weekends, have walks, biking and picnics instead of going to the shops. I had a great time, having yet another opportunity to appreciate the beauty of living in Sydney.
We spotted this very interesting fruit along the way back to the car, at first when we saw the whole lot of them on the ground, we thought it was blueberries or sugar plums. Upon looking at the tree, this was what we saw. We decided to be adventurous to pluck one off the tree to taste, very sweet and sticky like sugar plums.. hehe

Next stop: I couldn't believe Mr Broc actually knew how to book a restaurant, he did through an internet booking service at a restaurant in Mosman called Mino's. In all his sweet planning, one cannot fight with one's natural tendency to get lost, har har. Dear Mr Broc wrote down the wrong street number from 521 to 251... Took another 45min walk to reach after parking.. wanted to strangle him but was going to die laughing at his attempt to tell me a funny story, character voices included. Who would have thought this seemingly quiet guy would be so funny. Mino's was basically a high class exhorbitantly priced Japanese food... Food was delicate and yummy but not quite satisfying to fill my gi-normous apetite.. We ordered a beef sukiyaki and pan-fried swordfish.
The restaurant was too dimly lit for me to take good photos (to Mr broc's relief). Another long walk back to the car after dinner and we arrived home to help him finish preparing for praise and worship the next day for church. Really thank God for him and our first year together!