Bread and Circus

Last weekend we went to a new (to us) Cafe called Bread and Circus in Alexandria. It was uber cool. As is groovy these days, the cutlery was on the table to self serve and the ordering was at the counter and the cafe itself was located in an old open warehouse (perfect for running off the after affects of too much muffin bought from the coffee serving Campos at the front of the warehouse (Bread and Circus doesn't serve coffee). There was even a little table for the little folk which they sat at for a good 5 minutes before they started running around the empty warehouse.

The food at bread and circus was delicious though the menu was a bit limited and rather healthy. Right up my alley. There was also a box of toys and the staff were remarkably forgiving of the noisy children.

The day was still young so it was time to set out to our new favourite park, recently opened corner of Sutherland and King St, Mascot.  How cool are new parks these days? Check this out............

 

Loads of cool climbing stuff and soft big hill, sand and water. Every child's dream. And fully fenced in. Yay. There was even a Green "hanging bed" for Toby to rest in after a tough morning out.

 

 

Hong Kong Day 4 - the never ending holiday finishes

I think I haven't had the heart to finally stop writing about this holiday as it was just so damn good but with our next holiday to Queensland here at the end of this week, I guess I can finally finish it all off.  We had to be at the airport at around 3pm for our flight home but I still felt we had some time for a bit of sight seeing.
Next on the to do list was the double decker trams. We went for a ride with our yellow balloon. Who knows where that came from. Jake was so knackered from the day before and 9pm finish that he actually fell asleep on my lap so we got to go for quite a ride.

It all looked a bit the same after a while, not that you could complain at about 20cents a ride. So we cut short our trip and caught the Metro back. the one thing I hadn't really spent anytime researching was shopping and we most definately did not find many decent shops and the toys were all actually cheaper at good old Kmart.

Not content to be content with merely seeing a bit of Hong Kong on the tram, I decided that we needed to squeeze one last park in, one with FLAMINGOs in. i would never have found them unless I'd been very sure they were there before hand. There weren't exactly a lot of signs in the park and they were in the last place we looked. They were way cool though.

Next stop check in at the train station. How convenient is that? Checking in for your plane at the train station? Off we went home with just one more stop at the airport to buy yet one more soft toy for Toby (a panda).

Where to next? Well the day after we got home we went to Queensland for the week which was very awesome as our house was across the road from the beach and we were there the same time as Kerrie Lekso and boys.

Though I'm still dreaming of our next trip to Asia. Malaysia next perhaps? I do have long service leave coming up in a about a year after all......now if only I can convince Connah to take a plane flight with three little monkeys.

Hong Kong Day 3 - tourist sites

One of the attractions about our hotel apart from the general lushness of it was that it was within walking distance to the "Goldfish markets" where they have loads of shops selling fish in individual bags as well of lots in tanks like a conventional pet shop. Jake being a big Fish head (fisherman and keen interest in Connah's tank) was super keen to visit. It was pretty awesome. We had an excellent morning out looking at fish and markets followed by a dip in the pool before heading out in the afternoon.

We were obviously never going to see all of the sights of hong kong but we sure saw a lot of them this day. After our dip in the pool, it was off to the other main Hong Kong island to visit Hong Kong park which has a walk through bird avery and some not so shy birds as well as a nice park for the kids.

Right next to the park is the tram that goes at about 45 degrees up to the Peak for the famous views over much of the island. Back down onto a bus and straight onto the famous ferry for the same view from waterlevel on the other side.

By which stage it must have been at least 7.30 at night and Jake was still going strong which was good as we had to hike a way to the nearest metro to take us home. He's a good walker that one.

He wasn't done though. He had to go and buy Toby and Bianca another present in the form of a teddy bear which he'd bought for himself as well earlier in the week. How cool are all the scultpures littered around the hotel?

3.44

That's 3 hours and 44 minutes which is how long I ran for this morning (and above is where I went in my last hour after the first 2.45 being on bike paths as I tend to dawdle a bit on bush tracks). My golly, it was a long way.
That's my last long run before the marathon in 3 weekends time. I'm off to Melbourne (flying solo) to run the marathon.

I'd been kind of meaning to do a marathon for years. I was thinking maybe the year I turned 40. That's not till 2014 though so then I decided maybe try to do it the year before I turn 40. which is next year. Then Sarah Connor accidently took me for a 3 hour run the other week (well I had requested 2.5 hours in preparation for the Sydney half marathon) and I started thinking I was my training was a bit further along than I realised (I had been doing 2 hours plus for a month or more). So I was thinking Sydney next year but that is so far away so now I'm off to Melbourne.

So today was my 3rd 3 hour plus run in a month. Hopefully that will be enough to let me finish the marathon. I did the half last weekend and really enjoyed it. For the first time ever just ran to enjoy it, didn't want to wear myself out for this week and wasn't too stuffed at the end of it and did 1 hour 49, faster than the last time I tried to race it.

My retreat

I did it. I talked about it for a while beforehand. I felt guilty as on the day of, but I did it. I went away for 3 nights by myself to a cabin in the blue mountains and relaxed for three days. Scrumptious lunch n dinner were brought to my door each day and there was yoga every morning. Endless pots of tea, reading, movies and baths. Heavenly. So peaceful and relaxing. Yay!!!

I think it's the first time I've ever been away by myself so I was a bit worried that I'd get lonely. I didn't. Three nights was a good amount of time to be away. The cabin had a stack of dvds and it was sunny and glorious out on the front lawn for reading all day long. I read the Sat paper on Monday, the Sun paper on Tuesday and loads of books. I also did a 3 hour run which went up or down. Kinda tough. And every day there was 1 hour of yoga.

Yoga was one of the hopes for the break, to be able to have a little routine to do myself as I struggle to make it regularly to classes between work, family, sleep.... and on that front,there has been success, I have done yoga twice a week in the mornings since I got back.

I've also been getting up between 5am and 5.30am by choice. I blame Sarah Connor. Ever since we went for a 25km run starting at 6.30am, I've been getting up early, mainly because I'm so buggered at night.

For the first time ever though, I'm actually enjoying the mornings. Pity I didn't decide to like them about 5 years ago - would have made the last 5 years a lot easier. Arhhh well. It's still lovely to have time in the morning to myself. Even if it does make me a little on the anti-social side when it comes to dinner.

I want this chicken coup

This is the chicken coup at Grounds of Alexandria. Makes me want chickens. I like that the house is not a monster sized double storey display home proportioned bells and whistles style modern coup but a basic little hut. It also has a decent run but it's only a metre wide. Could fit nicely at the back of our garden. Currently we are toilet training the boys at night and little miss of a day so once we are successful at this, I figure I'll have 15 minutes less of washing a day and I can use that energy for chickens. Come on kids!!