We shall walk

So our family goal of walking more is going ok. We do semi- regular laps of the block of an evening. Managed one Sat night after a day spent largely indoors due to a lot of rain. Bianca has picked up a bunny from cousin Collette which she found buried deep in a linen closet being cleaned out before she moves shortly. It came for a walk too.

 

Toby is keen for a bushwalk so must get on to that soon too. Bianca is a pretty good walker for a 2 year old but I'm not sure her range is good enough for too many bushwalks yet and she's really not that keen on hills. which is a shame seeing as Nana lives on top of a hill.

New 8 & 9

This one just scraped in but I think it's a good one... eat out in a posh restaurant alone. While I was in the habit of doing new things the other weekend when I was away, I decided to sample the food at Pepper's restaurant, Season's which I'd heard good things about. I had two courses and they were divine. Here is one of the courses above which probably is not done justice on my dodgy phone picture. It was fish and quinea and fried zuchinni and stuff. Don't think I'll pose a threat to food bloggers around the world with that review.

I dined alone on Sunday night at around 6pm so was the first one in and it didn't get too busy before I left about an hour or so later. I even treated myself to a glass of wine. It was actually rather relaxing. I've eaten the odd meal at a food court or cafe for breaky but haven't done a full proper dinner, with wine whilst alone before. Probably not my first choice of thing to do, but it was good for the soul never the less.

New 9 was a Reflexology massage/ treatment/ session. or is it just called reflexology? I was lucky enough to have quite a few massages whilst training hard for the marathon last year, which probably held me together but I've never had Reflexology before - it's all about the feet. Whilst after a massage I'd usually happily have a nap under a tree, reflexology left me energised and off for a walk along the beach. It was very refreshing - a bit like a weekend of yoga. It was no great hardship to endure but wasn't something I'd have tried but for my challenge. What do you know? I liked it!

How hard is it to do something new?

 

A couple of weeks ago I went to a yoga weekend in Kingscliff (far northern NSW) that I had been eyeing off for a while. It was at Peppers and was excellent. Connah will be away for the month of April, taking his Dad to Europe, Ken's first visit at 86 years old. I was thinking I might need a break after that but I'm so glad I took it before it was excellent.

The days started at sunrise with a bit of a jog, dip in the sea, followed by yoga. There were 5 yoga classes from Friday night to Sunday morning. It was a new style of yoga for me, called Rhoyo yoga. Elements of the usual yoga I do and a few different things. My favourite move was called the "double expresso". A move between down dog and up dog and repeat 10 times. Not quite as good as a double expresso but never the less impressive for a yoga move.

Before I went on the retreat I must admit to being a bit tired and my mojo seemed to be missing in action but afterwards, I was back baby. It finished Sunday morning and I jumped on a bike (resort had them) and cycled the couple of kilometeres into Kingscliff and hired a paddle board.

I've never ridden one of these sit upright retro kind of bikes and must say, they are FUN. Actually cycling is fun, haven't been on a bike since before Jake was born. Lots of fun, these bikes just make you smile.

 

Paddled along the river for an hour with views to Mount Warning. Blissful. Very relaxing. One hour of paddle boarding felt like about 3 hours of relaxation. So good.

 

Then after all this hard work it was back to the resort and the yoga girls convinced me to have a strawberry daiquiri. I must admit, it wasn't that hard to convince me. It was the first time I've ever had a strawberry daiquiri or ordered a cocktail by the pool, but it wasn't really that much of a challenge to do, so I'm thinking it may not count as a new thing.

 

Mind you, now that I've started this whole try new things, it's hard to stop. I'm now not really thinking about it anymore, I just can't help myself. Have a smoothie with lunch instead of water as per usual. Why not? See a box of teas with one I've never tried? Gotta try it. See something new in the supermarket, give it a go. It's really refreshing. I recommend it.

The family

Here are the little monkeys. They play so well together. Someone really should get Toby a haircut though....

It was so rough today that....

.....there were around 20 surfers surfing in Kiama harbour which is normally pretty much flat. Maybe the odd 5cm wave. What a lot of swell there was today. And a lot of rain.

Not new

we're at ikea again. But this time our celebratory meal is breakfast not the usual dinner. The occasion is jake getting an award at school.

Unfortunately dinner is still their first choice of meal to celebrate, unlike me who prefers breakfast but on this occasion dinner was cancelled due to poor behaviour. Breakfast is much friendlier on the budget though at $2.95 each for two pancakes. The boys now eat adult one adult size serve of dinner as well as a kids so dinner is costing up to $45 with all 5 of us.....

It is lovely to see Bianca in a tinker bell costume. It has wings.

No 7: New haircut

I have been growing my hair a bit longer of late and was planning to continue doing so until I went to the hairdresser and asked her if I could have a new style for my 40 new things. And what do you know, I could. Here it is after two weeks growth. Shorter than all the kids hair now. Ha ha!

Good to shake it up a bit :)