The Rain, Oh, the Bloody Non-Stop Rain

The last few days here in Sydney have been pretty rainy. In fact, it's honest-to-goodness been raining for a full week, no breaks.

Unfortunately, it's not supposed to stop any time soon.

Rain has brought out the worst in me. On a good day, I spend most of my time squirreled away indoors, reading The Internet and watching too much TV. On days where it rains non-stop? All productivity grinds to a halt. Let me tell you, Steven's lucky I'm still showering (and I'm only doing so because it's the warmest place in the house! Humidity + no indoor heating = really cold house).

Yesterday, I fell to a new low.

I began watching Bachelor Pad 2012. That's right, I'm watching reality show RERUNS, and I'm hooked.

This morning, however, there was a break in the clouds.

Suddenly I got my mojo back! I was more active in these few hours of sunshine than in the past 5 days!

I took a homemade wrap down to Steven during his lunch hour.

We had some Starbucks until he had to go back to the office. Then, I went home, and decided I wasn't going to wait on my run this week. I had sunshine NOW, so I had better haul ass.

It was the muddiest run in my life.

That water was literally FLOWING down the steps, creating muddy puddles everywhere.

However, I don't think I've ever had so much fun on a run before. I was dodging puddles left and right, leaping, jumping, cross stepping like a pro. I loved the patches of sunshine and new green grass on lawns. I even loved the huge hills and massive downhills. I'm definitely going to miss these neighbourhood runs, especially those bush-walky / trail bits that are just so beautiful.

I'm lucky my Vibrams are lightweight, water-happy shoes because I got them soaked.

Post run, I did some stretching, drank about 3 glasses of juice, and showered. Does anyone know how to gracefully get out of sweaty, sticky work-out clothes without pulling a muscle? I need some sort of shoe horn for workout clothes.

My stats:
4.45 miles in 55:07
Average pace 12:22 min / mile

Shaking things up in Sydney

Since moving to Sydney last year, Steven and I have settled into a life of work, weekends, work and work.

That's one of the reasons we took our New Zealand trip so suddenly. The routine of life can really make this Australian working holiday feel more like work than holiday. It's the reason we're trying to do something new each weekend.

Today, we started the day with a walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

There were plenty of runners out, but the pollution from the traffic beside the pedestrian walkway was really too much. I wouldn't ever want to run the bridge mid-day, but I am thinking of taking an early morning run by the bridge.

Across the bridge, you walk into a suburb called The Rocks.

There was an open air market on today--food, clothes, souvenirs!

They built a temporary windmill here just for kicks.

They hold workshops, concerts, and demos here. Today they had a talk about how windmills do useful stuff like grind grain into wheat.

As we strolled around, I got this:

There was a fresh juicing stand and for some reason Steven let me "build" my own juice.

It was disgusting: apple, lemon, grapefruit, carrot, kale.

Still, I drank it all because it was healthy, and I didn't want to be sick again.

I also saw this:

The cone-shaped frostings were very interesting, but I didn't get any. I don't have much faith in Australian cupcake makers. No one can compare to my forever love: Prairie Girl Bakery in Toronto.

After we grabbed some lunch, Steven and I went to Sydney's Sea Life Aquarium and saw my new favourite animal: The Dugong!

He was chowing down on some delicious lettuce.

Steven thinks I like them because they eat the same meals I do:

But it's not true. Not the eating part...yes, I do eat a lot of lettuce, but the reason I like dugongs is because they're huge, gentle, cute and cuddly.

Steven wouldn't buy this for me because he says we should spend our money on silly things like vacations and food.

Great day in Sydney! What are you doing this weekend?

By the way, a new New Zealand post will be up soon! Stay tuned!