Last weekend was a quiet one, the first in a long, long, time.  It felt odd for us, but nice.  It was reminiscent of Bay Road, at home, when we used to have weekends of quilts, trashy TV and takeout.  It was relaxing.

Col joined me in the gym on Sunday afternoon, though, I couldn’t persuade him to join me in Body Attack, he did some cycling while watching Indy car racing.

There’s nothing I love more than a good bargain, and dinner that night was just that! I’d found some port roasts (normally $6.49) reduced to $3.49 and it made for a delicious and cheap dinner (the left overs made for great pork fajitas the following night too!)

Sunday, was a somewhat melancholy day, Sharon and Chris left for their big move to Norway.   A number of our friends all transferred to Houston in and around the same time two years ago (picture above), we’ve become a pretty good group of pals and Sunday brought with it a day, we all knew would come.

Sharon and Chris are the first of our group to leave and they will be missed, I think we all had a ‘moment’ of fearing that this is the beginning of the end.

Oh the revolving door life of an expat, eh?

Monday, insanity kicked in, I ended up cleaning and tidying the entire upstairs of the house, doing laundry, sorting through Christmas presents etc.

Tuesday, I didn’t do much of anything. I had chatted a little to a physiotherapist, and she recommended I rest my calf, no exercise – it was hard.  Instead, I took leave of my senses for a short time and emailed the UNAIC choir director and requested an audition.  They replied and we confirmed an audition time of 2.50pm Sunday.  I also did groceries and scrapbooked with Col in the craft-office room til 2am, I guess inspiration and creativity hit both of us!

Wednesday, Magz and I went to the lovely Crystals for a cuppa and some chit-chat, it’s hard for her to get out over the summer with four active kids in-tow.  That night, at home, while Col was in Pearland playing football (and a trip to HEB for some supplies) I did ‘some’ cooking for the fast approaching baby shower.

I did two dozen mini chicken pies, spinach and cheese swirls, lil smokies and a 12 person lasagne.  It was a fun night – though it left me knackered!

Thursday brought with it a fun and tasty lunch.  Julie suggested we have lunch at the Art Institute of Houston, she’d tried it before and said it was good.  The institute has a restaurant inside, where the chefs of tomorrow, cook for the hungry people of today.  Heather, Cindy, Magz and I enjoyed a yummy lunch and some good catch-up chat too.

After lunch, it was back to Magz and Sam’s house where Magz and I spent the afternoon watching trashy TV, ”What not to wear”, ”Say yes to the dress” and ”Cake Boss”.  When work was over, Col came to meet us and we had a yummy home made veggie mac and cheese before we all headed up to the cinema to meet Emily and Luke to go see our films! (The girls went to see The Help)

Friday, Magz and I took advantage of the fact that it was tax-free weekend here in Texas, meaning we save the grand ole sum of 8.25% on our purchases.  I picked up a few things for Christmas, ‘The Help’ in paperback and some baby stuff for a few of my soon-to-be-mother friends.

By the time I got home, Col was home, cleaning the kitchen (don’t I just have a great hubby?!) I put on some laundry, made dinner, cooked a little more for the baby shower (marinaded chicken to freeze and made a bunch of mini sausage rolls) and I was in bed by 9.30 – feeling a bit under the weather.

Saturday morning, in spite of my back having gone and feeling like crap, I took Theresa to the 8.30am Body Attack class, where I discovered that my calf was most definitely on the mend.  I was on the up and up – ok, so by the end of the hour (and for the rest of the day), my calf was back to hurting, but I was able to do the running tracks with no pain – score!

Back at home, turns out, Col was up early too, poor guy had a telesales call first thing that got him out of bed.  I made brunch for both of us and, after, only eating half of mine, I went to bed to have a nap.

”Just an hour”, I told Col.

Two and a half hours later, I woke up, with a thumping headache and an overwhelming urge to sleep more.

Instead, I got up, got showered, organised and headed up to Emily and Lukes for dinner with the Maddens.  We had a lovely evening, Miss Em had cooked a yummy veggie lasagne which we washed down with a cuppa and some ferrero rocher!

After a night of good craic with great friends, Col and I headed home to watch the X-Factor: UK’s season premier.  We weren’t sure what to expect, with an almost all-new judging panel, I was half expecting to watch a train wreck.  It wasn’t bad, I’m holding out hope that Gary Barlow will be this season’s judge-saviour!

Sunday came around fast, we got up fairly early, watched a few episodes of Lost before I headed up in to the city (Col drove) to my audition.  I won’t lie, I was nervous.  But as soon as the choral director said hi, I felt a lot better.

There were two parts to the audition, the first part, was to sing a pattern of notes that the director played to me (ascending/descending) to determine the range of my voice.  I found this interesting, I’ve always sang the Alto part, and upon hearing my voice, Phillip informed me that I was, quite possibly, more suited to a Soprano line – which came as quite the shock.  I’ve never, ever, been considered a soprano, though he seems to think I have an entire upper range to be tapped and worked on.

The second part of the evaluation was aural perception. He played patterns of four notes on the piano, and I had to sing back what I heard.

He asked me, ‘why are you getting back in to singing now?’, the question stumped me for a moment.  I’ve missed singing ever since I left Sacred Heart all those many years ago.  I love to sing, but I’ve never really had the faith in myself, nor the access or ‘go’ to find a choir to join.

My friend recently sent me info about the UNAIC and told me they were looking for singers and I guess, I figured it was fate.  I’d waited long enough to re-ignite my passion for singing.  It was time.

I guess I aced my audition, cause he told me that I was in!

I’m thrilled!!

Rehearsals start tomorrow night (Monday) and I can’t wait!

I’m so excited about singing again!

When we’d finished, Col insisted on celebrating, so we had a dinner of Buffalo Wild Wings at Magz and Sam’s, before heading home – stopping at the postbox, to discover that the season 7 boxset of NCIS I ordered FOREVER ago, had FINALLY arrived…we broke out the ice-cream (low fat of course)

You can guess what we’re watching this evening!