I hope you all had a fantastic Easter weekend, hopefully with some time off from work/school! I definitely had a very enjoyable one and feel incredibly refreshed from it, apart from finally catching the cold that’s been going around. I spent the weekend, from Thursday evening until Monday afternoon, house-sitting for my brother and his partner. My boyfriend joined me on the Friday afternoon, but on Thursday night I had a sleepover with my four-year-old nephew, Romeo. He is awesome and we had loads of run watching cartoons in bed and eating popcorn. He thought it was brilliant that he got to watch Handy Manny right on bedtime, then Whinnie the Pooh. Handy Manny is actually a pretty cute kids show, and of course I can’t pass up Pooh Bear!

Friday morning Romeo and I awoke to discover one of the goldfish at my brother’s house had gotten its tail caught in the filter. I managed to free him but he was too injured and/or shocked and didn’t survive. I felt awful about it (duh – I was there less than 24 hours and already killed a fish!), but my brother said that it’s happened a couple of time before, so I didn’t feel it was quite so much my fault. Later in the morning Romeo went home and I chilled out watching a bit of TV before showering, and then Josh showed up.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out, watching TV, and then I made my first ever roast dinner, on my own. Roast beef with potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and gravy (made from scratch, I might add). It turned out pretty good, for a first attempt. I always hear about roasts being a super-easy meal to make, once you get the hang of it. I have so many fond memories of delicious roast dinners, including from when I was vegan (yeah, vegans can have yummy roasts too!), so perfecting them is something I really want to do. Possibly also because I have a huge soft spot (directly on my hips, I might add) for Yorkshire puddings and gravy. Nevermind anything else, just give me the puds and gravy! Hehe.

On Saturday Josh and I celebrated his birthday, which was actually not until Monday, but seeing as how he had to go home on Monday we decided it’d be easier to do it on the Saturday. Plus, we weren’t sure what would and wouldn’t be open on Eastern Sunday (not much, as it turns out). I took him to the movies, where we saw How To Train Your Dragon. It’s loosely based on some books Josh had read so he really wanted to go, and I gotta say, it was freakin’ awesome. I loved the storyline! It’s very different from the book, apparently, but Josh still reckons it was great. Plus, there are dragons, and they are cool. On a technical note, not that I know much about graphics, but I thought the animation was high quality. You know how back in the day you’d see animated movies and the characters’ hair looked totally…fake? Yeah well, the hair in this movie was fantastic. Obviously computer generated, but still worlds better than, say, Toy Story.

After the movie we went out for Indian food to Raviz. We ordered the banquet for two and got a yummy entree with samosas, chicken tikka, deep fried onion rings and seekh kebabs, plus dipping sauces (tamarind sauce is my fave). The main was a selection of meats: butter chicken, beef korma, rogan josh and vegetable of the day, with rice, two types of naan and sauces. It was a total feast and super yummy. I’m definitely planning on going back, but I’ll be leaving room for dessert.

Sunday was pretty chilled. I woke up sneezing though. Initially I thought it was just allergies, but by the late evening I was feeling pretty crappy. For lunch that day we went to my house for a family lunch. I stuffed myself full of just about everything and lived to regret it later on. I should have seen it as a warning sign because generally I want to eat loads when I have a cold. Josh and I were both pretty tired by early afternoon so we went back to my brother’s and I napped for a bit.

I didn’t have a great sleep that night and my throat was killing me throughout, so I woke up on Monday not the best. It was Josh’s birthday though, and we had to pack our things up for when my brother and his family got home later that day, so I banished feeling sick until later. Between chores we watched TV and cuddled and I sneezed and blew my nose a lot. I really hope I don’t give Josh this cold because he’s just got over one himself, really.

My goodness, this is a much longer post than I had planned! But I did want to document this weekend because I had such a lovely time. It was the beginning of my mid-semester break and I gave myself that weekend off completely from all university stuff. It was about recharging and spending quality time with my guy, celebrating his birthday and having fun, all of which I/we accomplished!

I shall leave you with a few photos of various things from the weekend. ♥

My niece Persia’s nickname is Rabbit (she used to bounce on her knees from a young age), so my mum got her this bunny puppet for Easter.

I picked up this dress from The Warehouse today. Love, love, love!

Close-up of the neckline. I love the pleats.