This weekend the stars aligned and I got to do three of my very favourite things.

The first was house dreaming … My sister Elise is looking to buy a house in Coburg, and so I went with her to check out the house she has put an offer on.  We didn’t have the keys, but the house is empty, and so with a trusty tape measure at hand we had a look around.

I am always thinking about houses and no matter how run down a house, I can always see the possibilities!  I can spend a whole day drawing and re-drawing house plans and imagining where wardrobes should be built, where furniture could be placed. etc. etc.

And I don’t even have to own the house or know anyone who will EVER own the place to feel satisfied when I come up with a great outcome.

Perhaps I should return to my first career as a planner at local government or have persisted with my architecture degree for longer than 3 days … I love house dreaming.

And then I got to go fossicking.   Coburg is in the throes of its annual hard rubbish collection … and what a treasure trove hard rubbish in Coburg is!

The great thing about this area is that there are lots of old people who live here who put out great old stuff AND there are lots of young families who live here who put out great new stuff.

So … Elise got some excellent white shelves that were relatively new and nicely packaged up in plastic with screws and numbered pieces.  She has already put them up!  They look like they were meant to be at her house.

She also got some of that square black foam floor matting that locks together.  She was just about to buy some for her caravan annex.  Now she doesn’t need to.

And, finally she picked up an old green painted sieve.  I saw it first, and by rights that makes it mine (although as I was driving at the time she got out to look at it and actually picked it up, which could make it by rights hers).  But anyway, she has claimed it and within 2 hours it was cleaned and hanging on the wall in her dining room.  It really looks fab.

And speaking of dining, my third thrill for the weekend was going out to dinner.

My Mum kindly offered to babysit the kids, but we didn’t get organised, and I didn’t book anything.  Saturday at about 4pm I started seriously thinking about where to go, and did a quick search on urbanspoon for Spanish restaurants (I have been attempting to master paella).

Naked for Satan on Brunswick Street caught my eye – primarily because  it said something along the lines of  ‘no need to book, simply rock up’ on the website.  Perfect for a disorganised soul like myself!

And it was great.  We got there about 7pm, caught the lift up to the 4th floor and put our names down for the restaurant (they estimated a 45 minute wait) and headed out onto the beautifully heated balcony for a glass (well 2 really) of champagne.

By 8pm  we were seated in the restaurant.  We then ate WAY TOO MUCH.  We tried the gildas, the grilled prawn skewers, the hazelnut and cracked wheat salad and the grilled octopus.  We also had the  special that was fish with mussels and chorizo.

My standouts were the gildas,  the prawns and the fish and chorizo.  The last was divine!  Oh, and for dessert the Crema Catalana was pretty good too!

By the time we left we were super full and had agreed to tackle the hour long walk home to try and burn off some the calories we had over-consumed,  swearing that next time we would order less!

Out on the street we were blown away by the huge queue of 20 year olds waiting patiently to go inside.  I felt like I was back out the front of Metro on the top of Bourke Street 20 years ago!  This queue explained the numerous bouncers on the premises that were somewhat incongruous with the 7pm dinner crowd.

Note to self – remember to get there early!