Fitness Update

Well, Jo and I have been doing really well on our early morning fitness regime. We have diligently being getting up at 5:30 on Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's for either Tennis, a Jog or a good 50 minute walk.

This morning was no exception, as we walked for 50 minutes and we back home eating our Weetbix before you can say get-out-of-bed.

I had a health check (provided by my very generous company) on Wednesday to check my blood glucose, cholesterol, BMI, Waist/Hip ratio and blood pressure. All my results were either in the normal range or were even better so I was very happy with that, and it is definitely an incentive to keep up with the exercise rountine.

Unfortunately for us, Daylight Savings starts on Sunday so we will put our clocks forward 1 hour on Saturday night meaning by Monday morning it will start to get light at about 6am instead of 5am. This will be the biggest test to see if we can continue the early morning starts when it still feels like midnight. Wish us luck.

Lawn Bowls

Yesterday was my 'Team Building' afternoon at work. Usually this conjers up thoughts of corporate idiots in combats pretending they are commandos on an assault course. This however, is the 21st Century, and 21st Century post Secret Life of Us teams go Lawn Bowling!

There are 16 people in my team, and we all trudged up Miller Street on a cloudy and slightly chilly day up to North Sydney "Bowlo" for Rock 'n Bowl! An idea created by an ex Rugby Wallaby and self-title "Minister of Fun". The Bowling Club is in a great location, with a beautiful view over Sydney Harbour. It was a shame that the sun wasn't out and it was overcast but the view was still good.

Basically, they divide you into teams (we had 4 teams of 4) and then you play round-robin style against each other. Then there are semi-finals, and the winner of these play for the Winner's Trophy and the losers of the semi-finals playoff for "The Horse's Arse" cup. Our team played really well until the semi-final where we came unstuck. Ronald and Simon in my team but put in excellent performances and seem to be lawn bowl sharks from way back! Unfortunately, my team was the winner of said horse's arse, but still a trohpy is still a trophy!

Breeze, Coffee and Pride

Inspired by the "Three Beautiful Things" blog I discovered today, where everyday the blogger describes three beautiful things she has experienced, here are my three beautiful things for today.

1. Feeling the cool breeze wash over me as I lay down on the grass of Sydney Park at 6am this morning after an early morning jog. It was slightly muggy this morning and after finishing my run the breeze was so refreshing.

2. There is nothing like a well made fresh coffee and turkish toast and vegemite in the mornings! A fresh coffee everyday is one of my vices and I don't often get toast as I eat breakfast at home but this morning the smell of butter and vegemite on hot turkish toast was too much to resist.

3. The feeling of accomplishment and pride as a shiny new home owner today :)

Early Morning?

I bet you're all dying to know, did we manage to get our bums out of bed at 05:30 this morning.

And the answer is..........no we didn't. We were up at 05:20 instead!!!!

We were up bright and early and set off on a nice warm morning (it is supposed to hit 34 today!) for a half hour jog, followed by some weights at home, and we were eating our weetbix earlier than usual!!

The trick is now to try and do this a couple of times a week and keep it up - consistency is the key!

Getting Fit

Tomorrow morning sees the start of Jo and I's GOYA Plan (or Get Off Your Arse Plan) in an attempt to get fit for summer. The plan is to get up at 5:30am and go for a run. Yes, 5:30. Now, anyone that knows me should also know that for me there is usually only one 5:30 in the day and it is not of the AM variety. But we have to start somewhere and this exercising before work is one way of doing that as usually by the time I get home from work I can't be bothered. Jo can also break-in her new luxury runners.


It is part of a multi-pronged attack on our continuing lazieness, the other prongs being:

- Play tennis (although the council are demolishing our local courts - bastards)
- Go swimming
- Go to the beach (and run, swim, surf etc)

I will provide an update tomorrow to let you know if we actually went for a run, and if not I will try to come up with a good excuse :)

Google Docs

Google continues it's innovation in presenting Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets to us users.

I've had a play around this morning and while it's not going to give you all the functionality that Word and Excel offer (of which about 90% of it we never use anyway), it is what the online concept brings. The idea of a collaborative document that can be viewed and/or updated by invited guests may mean the end of sending huge documents and clogging up inboxes all over the world.

Here is my boring test document for you all to view. Google assigns a unique URL to each of my new documents allowing me to easily send you the link, publish to my blog straight away (which I haven't tried yet) and either invite you to update it, doing away with Microsoft Words irritating Tracking feature :)

Victoria Pool

We have been very lazy for months now, so on this glorious Sunday morning we decided to drag our lazy butts to the pool for a dip, some laps and some sun.

We headed to the newly refurbished Victoria Park Pool and enjoyed a great hour of sun and relaxation. After about an hour though, from absolutely nowhere came a huge gale! The quickest southerly I have seen for a while, instant gale force winds and a drop of 10 degrees in about 20 minutes saw us only stay at the pool for about an hour and a half before we went in search of some good coffee to warm us up! The Varga Bar hasn't let me down so far, and they didn't again. God their coffee is good.

Pizza e Birra

We went out to try a new pizza place on Thursday in Surry Hills. Pizza e Birra had looked good went we went to for brunch a few weeks ago to a cafe next door so we thought we would give it a try.

We went with our neighbours Lisa & Christian and we put our names down before heading to The Clock pub for a nice glass of wine. We met up with friends of L & C and enjoyed the upstairs bar at the pub. The Clock used to be a local of mine when I was living in Surry Hills but I think I must have overdosed on it as I haven't been there for years. It had a nice cosy atmosphere upstairs and I barely had time to finish my drink before Christian's mobile was buzzing telling us our table was ready.

Eight of us sat around a long table in the dimly lit and noisy restaurant, we got our priorities right and ordered a great bottle of Shiraz to kick things off. Jo had to make a trip to the ladies before the long, I normally wouldn't mention her toilet habits, but bear with me. After about 10 minutes (which is long, even for Jo!) I was wonder where the hell she had got to. She eventually turns up after having to send a message for help as she had been stuck in the loo! Hahahahaha!

After we all stopped laughing, we decided we were happy to share our dishes so we ordered a garlic pizza to share and 5 very different pizza for main. The pizzas were excellent, light and crisp with some great toppings! My favourite was the one with peas! Very odd, but strangely the pick of the lot.

Cirque du Soleil

We went to see Cirque du Soleil's "Varekai" on Thursday night at Moore Park. We were there early as parking at Fox Studio's is usually a nightmare. Parking actually turned out to be very easy and as we walked around the "Entertainment Quarter" at Fox it wasn't hard to see why. It's gone to the utter shithouse. Fox Studios used to be ok, had a few good shops like Stussy, Beach Culture, General Pants etc. Now, it's full of cheap asian crap clothes shops and if it wasn't for Cirque I'm sure there would be no-one there.

We walked through the gates and took our seats under the Grand Chapiteau. Our seats were fantastic, on the side and close to the front. The show started slowly with the odd characters creeping out onto the stage.

The people behind Cirque du Soleil must be absolute nutters as their stories never make any sense to me but you can't question the talent of the performers. The show is a blend of gymnastics, theatrical dance, acrobatics, comedy and traditional circus skills (see the mad juggler below) with a twist.
Everytime a performers has finished their act, you think to yourself 'That's my favourite'. That is until the next act comes on! Every part of the show is just amazing, every performance is timed to perfection. We both really enjoyed all parts of the show, but if we had to choose the stand out acts we would go for:

1. The two guys on bungee ropes
2. The contortionist lady who could bend her body into any position possible
3. The three cute chinese boys (couldn't have been more than about 8years old)

I ache

This weekend was supposed to be peaceful and relaxing, just pottering around Sydney doing a few bits and pieces but all that was shattered as it turned out to be one of the busiest weekends in history!

Friday night saw us head to the Kirribilli Hotel after work for a few well deserved cold beers (that eventually turned into beers and pizza). Saturday morning saw us up and out to Guy's place by about 10:30 for Dale's birthday 'coffee and cake'. We then all headed into Chinatown for Yum Cha, Jo and I hadn't been for months and Dale had never been at all. We did well, sampling the best that the East Ocean had to offer and the bonus was that we didn't have to wait for a table as we were at their doors by 11:45! After Yum Cha, Jo and I treated ourselves to a goodie from the best Chinese bakery, while Philippe went for Cold Rock Ice-Cream and Dale and Guy went for Gelato!

We left the boys around 12:45 and decided to walk from Chinatown to Paddington via Oxford Street. We walked and walked and walked and practically made it to Centennial Park before we walked down the other side of Oxford Street back towards the city. Jo picked up a couple of really nice tops along the way. We made it all the way to Crown Street before diverting through Surry Hills. By the time we made it to Cleveland Street we thought we might as well walk home. We arrived home after about 4.5 hours of walking and about 20kms at about 5pm.

I spent the night on the lounge watching the NRL and the Dragons lose to the Storm and went to bed completely shot.

We were up early on Sunday as we were meeting Lisa & Christian for breakfast. We headed to 'Bird Cow Fish' on Crown Street and I enjoyed a fantastic cappucino and egg & bacon roll with homemade bbq sauce. Yummy! Jo went slightly healthier and opted for the bircher museli with yoghurt, apple and prunes!

We headed off to Manly in the afternoon to see Carl & Martinette, they are moving from Mosman to Manly and had offered us some furniture they are putting into storage. The furniture looked great so we said we'd look after it for them instead of them storing it. This saw us spend the rest of the day moving furniture and dismantling a bed as the movers were coming to put the stuff into storage on Tuesday so we didn't have another opportunity to move it!

We finally finished moving at about 7pm and we both had a 2 minute shower before heading over to Bo & Claire's for dinner. Claire arrived home on Thursday after a 3 month stint in the UK and Spain, we went with Bo to pick her up from the airport. She brought us back a huge back of PG Tips and some squeezy Marmite!!

Bo & Claire cooked the best pork roast I think I had ever eaten and we enjoyed it with a nice bottle of Taylors Shiraz. We left them at about 10pm and Jo was still on high when we got home and she wanted to move the furniture to clear the lounge. We finally hit the sack at about midnight and I was up at 6am for work. ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Swans & Dragons

This weekend saw two big footie games take place. Firstly the Dragons got beaten by the Storm in the NRL on Friday night dammit! So close but yet so far for the Dragons team that couldn't shake off the demons of their Grand Final loss to the Storm in 1999 despite being 14 points clear.

The Swannies did Sydney proud though by making their second AFL grand final apperance in as many years. They'll be hoping to back up their fantastic win last year against last years rivals West Coast this Saturday at the MCG.

Go the Swannies!

The coolest beanbag in the world

We re-arranged the loungeroom furniture on the weekend (getting ready for when we can buy new things as we will officially be 'homeowners') and we love the new look. The only thing wrong is that we really need another sofa or chair to fill up some space and provide some more seating. We don't really want to be spending a lot of money on a brand new lounge or chair so I thought I would do some research (god bless the internet) and I came up the most fantastic, the most genius idea ever. Are you ready? Sure? OK here it is....a bean bag. No, no wait you have to hear me out. Not any old beanbag, but the godfather of cool beanbags.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you....the MILANO!!!


I know, I know. It's the coolest thing you've ever seen, you don't have to tell me :) If you have beanbag envy, you can purchase one at www.beanbaglounge.com.au

Property

An update on our impending house purchase, we finally got the approvals that we needed and exchanged contracts last thursday. We now have about six weeks until settlement when we will be the proud owners of a mortgage and apartment :)

Jo's cousin came to visit from Coffs Harbour on the weekend, she and her partner Paul went to see Hugh Jackman in "The Boy from Oz" currently playing at the Entertainment Centre. Jo and I spent most of the weekend looking around for things that we want to get for the apartment, starting with replacing the ugly vertical blinds - yuk!

Will keep you posted on any further housey type updates.

iPod Death

My iPod sadly departed us on Monday. RIP.

Steve Irwin Dies

Crikey! Who would've predicted that one!! I was at work when a colleague told me the sad news. I had to admit, I was truely shocked and even upset to hear that this inspirational Australian had died in such a freak accident. He really did seem someone who was invincable and would be around forever.

I have been lucky enough to visit Steve's "Australia Zoo" in Beerwah in Queensland, and he had created a truly great experience up there. An employer of 500 people and a father of 2 he leaves a lasting legacy behind him.

Community Day

Today was "Community Day" for me. The company I work for allows all employees two paid days a year to work as a volunteer for charities.

I volunteered to help the Cancer Council in Wolloomooloo for the day. I was told to arrive at 10am, which I dutifully did along with my 10 other co-volunteers (most of which I knew from work). Our role for the day was to help sort all the returns they had received since Daffodil Day.

All the merdandise that doesn't sell is posted back to the office as we had boxes and boxes to sort and then package up for storage until next year. They didn't have as much mail/merchandise as they thought they would have and the 11 volunteers from work and the volunteers already there made short work of the task and we were all finished by 12pm!

Painting & Decorating

We spent yesterday helping our neighbours (who are expecting twins in December) paint their spare room and turn it into a nursery. We started off the day in the usual way, with a nice fresh cappucino, then we met Christian and helped him upstairs with four hundred painting and decorating items he had just bought from Bunnings Warehouse. Christian started off sanding down some furniture while Jo and I had the fun task of painting the ceiling. What a nightmare job that is, we both had one of those rollers-on-a-long-stick type things and were smearing paint around for what seemed like hours! We had gone round the edges first to try to make life a little easier. While that was drying, we all had the task of painting the walls. They had chosen a light green colour as they are not 100% if they are having two girls or a boy and a girl.

The walls were done quite quickly in comparison to the ceiling. While they were drying we went to get a new light fitting so we all had a bite to eat and went to Moore Park. Christian picked a new light in like 2 minutes flat (Jo and I would've been there for hours debating like girls do) and we were back in a jiffy.

We gave the ceiling and walls a second coat before the first beer was opened (very well restrained I can tell you!) and then Christian installed the new light (after looking up what blue and brown wires meant - not filling me with confidence!) and hey-presto the room had been transformed 'Changing Rooms' style :)

We were all very proud of our efforts and Christian cooked us a great BBQ and Lisa gave us the most beautiful bunch of flowers to say thank you.

Reality TV

It's a bit shit isn't it? I mean it's cheap and easy programming and has a nasty habit of turning 'ordinary' folk into L grade celebs overnight.

Here is an overview of all the reality tv on tonight...

1. Border Patrol - Currently number one in the ratings for the Tuesday night timeslot can you believe! It's all about customs and quarantine at Sydney Airport. Mainly about clueless Chinese geriatricts bringing in all sorts of odd asian food like dried dogs ears and such like.

2. The Force - Backing up from Border Patrol (and shamelessly cashing in said programs success) it's about, you guessed it, the Australian Police Force. Right now, they have pulled over a young lad with a noisy exhaust. I kid you not.

3. Torvill & Dean's Dancing on Ice - Oh. My. God. Minor celebs, specifically a male model you've never heard of, a female model who has been on one advert and a rather unpopular breakfast show host battle it out on ice for the crown of who can look the least uncomfortable shuffling around on ice skakes. Riveting.

4. Star Portraits - Stolen from the UK and hosted by Rolf Harris and is about 3 artists painting some celebrity. Ground breaking stuff.

5. Real Crime - You guessed it, they've turned CSI into a reality tv "documentary". I can imagine the TV Executives rubbing their hands with glee.

All in one night, why Australian TV you are spoiling us...

Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains

This weekend we headed off to the Blue Mountains for a few days of fresh air and red wine :) We left after work on Friday night, picked up Guy and Dale and joined what seemed like every other person in Sydney along Parramatta Road. After we got on the freeway the traffic eased and we arrived at our cottage in Katoomba around 7:30. We got the keys from the letter box as instructed and proceeded to try to open up the wrong cottage - ours was the one next door!

Once in the correct cottage we were all pleasantly surprised, the place was spotless, had a nice pool table, pay-tv, two large bedrooms, a spa bath, a BBQ outside. Everything you could ask for was there. We flipped coins to pick rooms and then opened the bottle of complementary red wine.

We had taken enough food to feed an army and Jo created a platter to be proud off. We turned on all the heating and sat down for a night of pool, food, wine and fun. Guy made a great Oreo cheesecake and we all ate it in what seemed like one mouthful!

We woke up the next day with a slight hangover, but the BBQ egg & bacon breakfast soon sorted that out :) After yet more food we headed out for the day, our first stop was Leura, a small village about 5 minutes drive from Katoomba. I had never been there before and really enjoyed walking in and out of the many shops and cafes looking at all the yummy gormet food on offer!

That afternoon we headed to Echo Point for a look at the amazing view of Blue Mountains and the Three Sisters.

The Three Sisters

We walked part way down the Giant Staircase and took some pictures. It was the most beautiful sunny day that everything looked spectacular.

That night we had a BBQ dinner with some of the great food we bought in the deli at Leura. Earlier that day there was a cute black and white cat hanging around outside and she returned that night. Jo heard her outside and opened the door to say hello and the cheeky little bugger runs in! She was in luck and was treated to some left over BBQ steak and then curled up on my lap for about half an hour! We were all so tired we ended up watching a movie on TV before all hitting the hay at about 10:30! Such party animals!

Sunday morning started slowly but we all showered, packed, had breakfast and tidied up and we out only 15 minutes after our 10:30 check out time. We headed back to Leura for a wander around as we all preferred it to Katoomba. We checked out the Fairmont Hotel (part of the luxury Peppers chain) to see how the rich holiday and saw a sign to Sublime Point which sounded interesting. The views from Sublime Point were fantastic.

Dale and Guy at Sublime Point

We finally found somewhere to have lunch (we were planning on having High Tea at the Carrington Hotel but all decided against it) and my pumpkin, fetta and lentil pie was one of the best pies I have ever had. Yum!

Sydney Weekender

It was a glorious weekend in Sydney, back to how it should be for this time of year when it is slightly warm and brilliantly sunny.

Saturday saw us excited at the prospect of a sunny weekend so we were up at playing tennis at 8am to make sure we made the most of it! We both played well, and I think it ended up being one set all by the time we had to leave the courts. We had to do some dull tasks like clean the house before we headed out for the day, and had to endure the weekly food shopping trip.

We decided to head back to Bar Reggio for the first time since being back in Australia, so we met up with Nicci for dinner. We drove around for about 10 minutes trying to find a parking space near Stanley Street on a Saturday night (not an easy task) but eventually found one. We waited 30 minutes for a table but it was worth it. After 3 fantastic pizza's and a great bottle of red we were so full! Nicci came back to our place for drink and chat before heading home around 11:30.

Sunday morning was like how every Sunday morning should be, starting off with a bit of a lay in followed by meeting friends for brunch. We picked up Guy and Dale and decided to try a cafe that friends of ours had been telling us about in Waterloo. I spotted a table outside so practically jumped out of the car while it was still moving to commander it while Jo looked for a car space again (that damn Hillsong church had taken every available space in what seemed like a 10k radius). We ate at Wah Wah cafe, and we had prime position soaking up the morning sun outside. The food was pretty good (I had bacon and eggs - how hard can it be?), but the coffee was fairly average and service lacked somewhat. All in all, it was ok but I wouldn't rush back.

Wolloomooloo Wharf

After brunch, we decided to all go for a drive and see where we ended up. Who would've predicted a pub of all places :) We found ourselves in Woolloomooloo and took a walk up the Wharf before spotting the Tilbury Hotel and we went in just a for a quick peak - honest. While there though, the garden outside did look tempting and the nice cold Coopers I had made it a good choice of pub for a Sunday arvo.

In keeping with our busy theme, we dropped of Guy and Dale and headed for Mosman to catch up with Carl & Martinette. We took a stroll along the Cremorne walk, which takes you past some great views of the city, opera house and the bridge. Once back at their place, we had a great cuppa and slice of cake that Martinette had freshly made for us.

We had to leave around 6pm as we had arranged to have dinner with Guy and Dale so Jo dropped me off while she headed home to feed the poor, lonely and neglected-for-the-day cats. We were treated to a great BBQ and yet more red wine as a great weekend came to a close.