From Sydney to Hong Kong

1. (top left) Steven and I spent our last day in Sydney being the best tourists we could be: walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, shopping for souvenirs, and having our last Australian Starbucks!

2. I think Starbucks cards make pretty good souvenirs! They are printed with all those touristy things like the Sydney Bridge or kangaroos and stuff like that. They are also technically useable back home even though it would make no sense to use an Australian card to spend Canadian dollars in Canada...

3. Steven and I ordered a pizza from Crust for our last meal as we were busy packing and had no energy to go out and eat. I think I will miss this pizza: loaded with veggies and topped with a delicious pesto aioli. 

4. Skip ahead about 12 hours and BOOM we are waking up in Hong Kong! The flight was hard on my poor motion-sick stomach, but Steven seemed to have a great time watching all the movies and chowing down. I'm always so jealous of people that can so thoroughly enjoy themselves on flights. Don't they know I can barely move my eyeballs without wanting to throw up?!

5. (bottom left) This is Steven's new favourite Hong Kong thing: iced milk tea but with the ice on the outside so as not to dilute the precious tea on the inside. He had two in one sitting today, and I think he will have more later. If it were his choice, he probably would hook himself up to one of those beer helmets, but instead of beer, pipe HK milk tea straight into his mouth.

Arriving in Perth, Australia

It's been a long week, Blogger World. I finally made it through my last week of work, training my replacements (yes, my job is so important I've trained 2 people to do it), packing, and moving all our 7 months of Sydney living into 3 big luggages and 2 backpacks.

If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll know that Steven and I have wrapped up our working lives in Sydney and will be spending the next few months traveling and exploring Australia and Asia. This last week at work has been an emotional doozy. I guess I was pretty well-regarded and appreciated in my job, as I got a farewell dinner, a beautiful card, and the well wishes from all my co-workers and my employer. Farewells and "last time to do ---"s always make me emotional.

Like this: One of my last morning commutes over the Sydney Harbour Bridge with the opera house down below: (sigh)

My boss even took me out for one last lunch at Aboutlife, which is a popular health food shop in Bondi Junction. Like a true adult, I had this "healthy" tiramisu for my lunch. Made of nuts, cacao and all sorts of other healthy stuff, I was STUFFED by the time I scraped the bottom of the cup. Nuts and seeds are filling, guys, but not a true tiramisu do they make. Nothing can replace the soft, fluffy cream and cake of a true tiramisu.

On my last day, I left work a few hours early, confident that my replacement could handle everything, and went home to pack.

It is a LOT of work sorting through the items that would come with me for my 3 week trek through Australia, and the items that would stay in the luggage in Sydney, awaiting our onward journey to Asia. Especially since I had worked all the way up until the day before we would leave, there were a lot of things to be thrown away, donated, or wrapped up.

I finally filtered all the stuff that I didn't need from stuff that was really necessary and got this:

This is the backpack that I would be carrying for the next 3 weeks in Australia... I hope it's enough!

This morning, Steven and I got up at 3:30 AM to get to the airport for 6 AM. After an extremely smooth check-in, we boarded the plane. I took a Travelcalm (for motion sickness) "non-drowsy" and fell asleep immediately. The motion sickness drugs always make me feel like I'm weak and jello-y, and I never really knew why. The pharmacist this time explained it to me in a face-palm, obvious kind of way: Motion sickness drugs are muscle relaxants. Like DUH. No wonder I would feel jello-y, HELLO Bachelors in Science, I'm an idiot.

Before we knew it, we had arrived in Perth.

Let the Western Australia adventure begin!

My Last Week of Work

Next week, Steven and I are leaving Sydney to embark on a 3-week long trip to Perth, Adelaide, Uluru and the small opal mining town of Coober Pedy.

That means this is our last week of living and working in Sydney. 
:(

 
I will miss my job SO much!
I know that this is probably weird for most people. My job was possibly one of my favourite parts of my time here. 
I learned a lot and developed a huge appreciation for naturopathic medicine. I have also begun to really think about what i want to do when i return to Toronto in terms of a real adult person career and direction. 

I am going to miss the people in my office so much! And i am so grateful for all the opportunities they have given me. At the same time, I am excited to get home and put all of my plans for the future into action. 

Snickers wasn't the answer

Sydney had a few hits of fog these past few days.

Source

Fog is much darker, and much less glamorous, when you're waiting for a delayed train on your way to work in the morning rush...

The fog work made me sad and tired so I ate a Snickers bar (totally breaking this no-sugar thing).

It made me feel bloated and overly excited during my yoga class that evening. I won't be seeing you again, Mr. Snickers. No, I won't.... (no promises).

Luckily, today dawned clear, blue, and beautiful. So I didn't have to shove my face in candy bars to make myself feel alive.

I went for a run! A glorious, sun-filled run!

I'm still recovering from whatever little bug I caught on Tuesday, so I stopped plenty along the way for pictures, and to gasp for air.

I ran/strolled down to Berry's Reserve, just about a 10/15 mins from our house.

My stats:
2.76 miles
35 minutes
average pace 12.46 min/mile

I came home and duckered around (oh, Internet, how do you make Time disappear?). Suddenly, I felt the great urge for a nap. This has never happened to me before! After a run, I'm usually pumped like a 9-year-old overdosing on Halloween candy. How did this happen?

I woke up to Steven calling me on his lunch break. He basically told me to get my shit together and do some yoga because it makes me a more tolerable person (not true, both that I'm incurably intolerable and he didn't say that. He said something like, "Hi, oh were you asleep?!" but that's no fun.)

So I did my practice like a grown up.

I ate this afterwards:

I call it the Irish diet--leftover potatoes with any random stuff you can find.

Annnd... I'm still hungry.

Off to make some real food!

How I'm managing to (sort of) not run

Autumn in Sydney packs some serious beauty. The eucalyptus is starting to turn reddish, and the morning and nights are chilly, but midday is still sunny and gorgeous.

I successfully took a week off running to help my knee heal, and it seemed to help a lot. Combined with a lot of yoga, I felt pretty good by Tuesday, so I went for a short run.

I took it really, REALLY slow...

It felt so good to romp among the trees, along the water, and under the sun.

I was meaning to go for another (longer) run today, but my knee has been acting up again, so it will have to be postponed. Worse of all, it's GORGEOUS outside, and I have tons of energy. Maybe I'll do pushups until my arms fall off instead.

In other news, Steven's co-workers gave him some books for me to look at.

I haven't really studied the walks yet, but there are lots of popular ones that are in my "Sydney Harbour Walks" book, too.

I really want to do a long, 4-hour-ish walk, but it may have to wait until late May or June as I'll probably be busy with work.

Until then, I'll be closely monitoring my knee before I hit the pavement again.

Highlights of the weekend: 13 Rooms!

This weekend, I heard that a cool art exhibition was going on at the wharves, so after my Saturday morning yoga class, I had Steven meet me there.

13 Rooms is a free public art exhibit, part of an art series that has been to Sydney in previous years.

The line-up was discouraging but it actually moved really quickly.

Twenty minutes later, we were in.

My favourite exhibition happened right at the start.

A greeter handed us some pamphlets and said, "Scientists study spread of new China bird flu." (or something to that general direction.)

It turns out this was a "piece of art" aiming to incite interesting social interactions from a piece of "current" news. This "piece of art" came from 2003 and was entitled "News".

I had a HOOT watching people ignore the poor girl (literally, I think I hooted several times). I think very few people realized that SHE one of the pieces of art work happening there!

Most of the art was moving, interactive, and human-based. There were line-ups to plenty of the popular exhibits like "Swap" where the artist sits in a chair at a table asking people to swap stuff (often rubbish...seriously, one girl swapped a piece of plastic wrap that once housed a cheese sandwich) for other stuff.

I swapped my hand sanitizer for a magazine!

But my hands-down favourite was Revolving Doors:

The dancers in grey formed the arms of the revolving door and walked around while people walked inside the spaces with them. Often, they would try to smoosh you, which is what's happening here to those people in the corner.

I think I spent 20 minutes in here alone just running around like a kid.

My other favourites were these two:

We left the exhibit in high spirits, feeling all artsy fartsy for free!

I had a really great time, and would have loved to go back to play with more revolving doors, but the exhibit closed that evening.

Definitely, public art FTW!

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!

We're back!

Just a quick post now that Steven and I are back in Sydney.

Last week, we took a trip to the South Island of New Zealand. We road-tripped from Christchurch to Queenstown, kayaked in Milford Sound, and plenty of other cool stuff.

I'll have a New Zealand post up as soon as I get time!

Why can't I have bionic knees?

Last Friday night, I inhaled these two beauties from The Cupcake Bakery:

That's Peppermint Chocolate and some sort of delicious Chocolate Explosion that cost 0.80 more than normal cupcakes, but was worth every last drop.

I've been gaining a few pounds these days as a result of my sugar addiction, so I've made it a goal for myself to cut back.

I went for a run Saturday morning while Steven got to hog the bed for once (apparently I sleep in strange kicking yoga poses. But without any proof, I don't buy it).

Balls Head Reserve is quickly becoming my favourite part of my runs.

Sydney is absolutely beautiful in the morning!

By the time I got home, I literally collapsed into a heap on the ground. The last hills of the run were killer.

The picture really doesn't do this hill justice, because it is 45 degrees straight up. It levels off into a gentle little incline the rest of the way, which just adds to the burn.

My details:

Elevation kills me.

A few hours after the run, my right knee started feeling really sore.

Steven and I grabbed some lunch, walked around a bit, and my knee just kept hurting.

Until I plugged in my Garmin, I didn't really realize why:

That puny little 3.4 mile run had been my longest run since having my Garmin, which means my longest run in at least 3 months.

I've been steadily increasing my weekly mileage, but I guess 3.4 miles was just too much, too fast.

I'll have to make it a conscious effort to run slower, and run less. Alas. The life of a runner with a meniscus tear.

Saturday night was a big one for Steven and I. We went to the Sydney FC game against the Melbourne Wanderers. I am now a huge fan of soccer, even if it means random sweaty males falling all over the place and beer rain.

"Jump up! Jump up! Jump up! In the cove!" the chant went.

"Jump up! Jump up! Jump up! Feed a goat!" I heard.

Maybe I have a secret desire for a pet goat.

The blackest, bloodiest blister ever

I'm on a hurt-myself-while-running kick lately.

I'd previously subjected you to the ugly pavement burns I got from my fall last Wednesday. 

I won't do that to you now.

All you need to know is, I was ready to conquer the hills yesterday morning, like I conquered the laundry. 

I already had a massive blister on my left big toe due to all the walking this weekend around Sydney. 

So halfway through Mile 2, I noticed that the blister started hurting.  

I got home, peeled off the Vibrams, and my toe was BLACK. 

It's so gross I had to put a Band Aid over it so it wouldn't freak out my yoga classes yesterday afternoon. 

Luckily, my black toe is not for naught! I am so proud of my stats:

That's 4.6 km in 32 minutes, and considering the monster hills I climbed, I'm pretty damn proud! 

V-day in the Haus

So it turns out my boyfriend doesn't just sit around, eat fried chicken, and scratch his armpit hairs, eh? 

Because isn't that what men do on Valentine's Day?

Not mine! He got me a bag of coffee.

A pack of Caramel Tim Tams (by far the best version).

And a scrunched up face of joy.

The best part may have been the water bottle EXACTLY LIKE THE ONE I LEFT IN CANADA.

No wait, the best part may have been this:

Unfortunately, these turned out nowhere as good as Prairie Girl Bakery back in Toronto. Why is it so hard to find really good fresh cupcakes in Sydney? And can someone ship me a Prairie Girl to bake me some awesomely soft and fresh red velvet with cream cheese frosting please? Or ship me this girl. That's cool too.

Anyway, I got Steven a couple of ties because all the moving had ruined one of his nicer ones.

Not sure if he likes them...seeing as how they're kind of hard to match with shirts. Who knew that ties would be that hard to buy?

Steven wrote me a wonderful card: 

"Dearest Sandy, 

Roses are red & violets are blue

These are the givens that we take to be true

But not our relationship,that I don't take for granted

Just like a strong tree, it's not enough to be planted

It must be cared for and nourished and given plenty of food

So on this Valentine's,

If you're keen we'll go for some curry, possibly green

Be my date and you'll be in for a treat

Desserts are a-plenty if they survive this heat."

And then we went out for curry. 

And it was green.

How was your Valentine's Day?