Friday, August 30, 2013

Thursday 29 August – Up and down the coast


Current location: Eveleigh, Sydney
11.11am, Yawning in work! Last night we went up the coast to stay at Andy's parents' house (where we lived for a few months when we first arrived in Australia). We had such a nice night and a yummy dinner (even though I'm on a spesh healthy diet). The next morning, I really loved the train journey... But I forgot how tiring it all was!

(Picture taken from Accom Holidays)

Wednesday 28 August – Happy birthday amazing sister!



Current location: Eveleigh, Sydney
11.11am, Facebooking my sister Pippa, whose birthday it is today! Happy birthday Pippy! She's the mum of three amazing children (Vinny, Zac and Bea), and one of the funniest, silliest people I have ever met. So proud to have her as my big sis, and miss her lots. Luckily, they are coming out in November to visit, and we've been busily planning all the fun things to do in this awesome city. It will be fab to see Sydney from a different perspective too, as her children are six, four, and a few months old, so we'll be doing lots of family-friendly stuff. Can't wait!

Tuesday 27 August – It begins!


Current location: Eveleigh, Sydney
11.11pm, Asleep, in preparation for getting up early and going for a run. Today I signed up to a diet/exercise thing for work, and it is going to involve me exercising every day, and eating very healthily! It should be good, but I'm already wondering how good my willpower is going to be in the face of treats and wine! Time will tell...

Monday 26 August – Nice, normal night


Current location: Erskineville, Sydney
11.11pm, Reading in bed. Wild. It's actually really lovely to be settled now, in our beautiful new home, and just have time to read, drink tea and relax! Especially on a Monday...

(Pic taken from Celine Hendricx on Weheartit)

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Sunday 25 August – Summer in winter in Bondi!





















Current location: Bondi
11.11am, At Bondi Beach! Argh I'm excited even just writing about this! Today's excitement levels were at a pretty mega high, thanks to the amount of awesome things we did today. Early this morning we hopped on our bikes, and rose to Bondi. I was soooo excited to get to Bondi for multiple reasons:

1. I'm first and foremost a British tourist, and so places such as Bondi Beach will always get me excited!
2. We were meeting my friends from London – Robyn and Emily, and their boyf/husband. We were on the same Master's course and it's been years since I've seen Emily, and months since I've seen Robs, and now we're all in the same country again (albeit on the other side of the world).
3. I'm an avid fan of Bondi Rescue.

On the way to Bondi, we rode through Centennial Park, where The Colour Run was just finishing. It's a 5km run for charity, which involves the runners getting paint thrown at them at various points on the course. The park was pretty full and pretty colourful!

When we arrived at Bondi an hour later, we had a sweet reunion with Robyn, Josh, Emily and Dave, and then went to Trio for brunch. Oh my goodness. Possibly the best brunch I've ever had (and I've had a lot!) – and it looks right over Bondi, a tourist's dream! Seriously good, I would highly recommend it if you're ever in Sydney (and if you are, call me, and I'll come with you!). It was SO lovely to sit, eat and catch up with two such lovely women, and their equally lovely men. Time really doesn't affect anything when it comes to friendships... It felt like we'd seen each other only a week before. I feel very lucky to have so many good people in my life!

It was such beautiful weather so we made the most of it and went to the beach for a while. My excitement levels got even further when some of the lifeguards went past on the quad bike. Some of the Bondi Rescue lifeguards! The others laughed at me for a while, we did some star jumps, we marvelled at how it could possibly be winter, and then Robyn frog-marched me over to the lifeguards and asked for a picture. She's such a good friend! (Excitement levels now at an all-time high!)

After a gorgeous hour of sunshine, we said our goodbyes and Andy and I hopped back on our bikes to go and visit another friend, Elle, and her family. She is my sister Pippa's best friend, and she lives near Coogee (another beautiful beach), which is unfortunately a very hilly ride away! So we arrived with tired legs, but the perfect medicine for that was to sit in their garden with a big glass of water and have a good catch up with Elle and her husband Dan, and play with their beautiful daughter Poppy. The sun was still going strong so we walked down to the beach, where hundreds of people were enjoying the late afternoon sunshine (lots of bbqs going on!), and after debating it for about an hour, ended up jumping in the sea for a quick, refreshing, cold swim! I still can't believe it's winter.

Tearing ourselves away to cycle home before it got dark, we began the journey home, with salty, sun-wrinkled skin, tired legs and huge smiles on our faces. There is a LOT I miss about our life in England (especially the people), but this is exactly the kind of day I imagined when we thought about moving to Australia, and I'm so glad it's become a reality.

Saturday 24 August – New friends, new games, new parts of the city


Current location: Camperdown, Sydney
11.11pm, At our friends' house. They are new friends (Jade and Sam, we actually only met them last week) but super fun and already I think they'll be a fab part of our Sydney life. They invited eight of us over for the evening, so we cycled to their apartment and had a yummy barbecue on the balcony, accompanied by wine, chats and games. Earlier in the day we had ridden to Jess' new apartment to help her unpack (I wasn't much help!) and then cycled home again so I was pretty leg-achy by the time we finally got home tonight!

Friday 23 August – Work friends!






Current location: Erskineville, Sydney
11.11pm, At a house party. Not ours though, Jess and I gatecrashed one around the corner, which was full of students who didn't seem to mind that we'd just walked in! The evening had started pretty awesomely, with a few glasses of wine with my friends from work. It was the first time I'd seen most of them socially, outside of work, and we had such a giggle! There were probably a few too many wines to be honest, which led to the house party, but it was definitely a fun Friday!

Thursday 22 August – Just one more game?!


Current location: Erskineville
11.11pm, Playing Scattergories. Jess and Mitch own it so, while they've been visitig this week, we decided to have a game or two. Turns out it's pretty addictive (and we're pretty competitive!), so it was a late night after a few too many games. It was also their last night here before they move into their new flat...Going to miss them!

Wednesday 21 August – Still unpacking


Current location: Erskineville, Sydney
11.11pm, Still unpacking. We've pretty much moved everything in and unpacked the last few bits but I bought a new chest of drawers this week so I was doing some rearranging. I LOVE our new house! And I love the little street it's on, and the little suburb it's in. Home sweet home!

Tuesday 20 August – Aching


Current location: Eveleigh
11.11am, At work, a bit achy, thanks to a run before work with Jess. She is a good influence on me, getting up to go out for runs in the mornings but it's definitely showing me how unfit I am! Beautiful to run around Sydney Park though, even if it is full of hills. The view of the city from the top is pretty awesome though.

(Pic taken from Doggo.com)

Monday 19 August – Succumbed to the onesie


Current location: Erskineville
11.11pm, In bed, asleep. In a onesie. I thought I would be one of those people who never bought a onesie, but then I got a bit drunk with my friend Skip, and we saw animal onesies on Groupon, and that was the end of that. It arrived today, I tried it on...and haven't managed to take it off. Now I see why people love them so much!

Sunday 18 August – Getting to know our 'hood



Current location: Erskineville
11.11am, Having a cup of tea with David and Val. They've come to visit for the day, and so Andy and I went with them to meet Bree and Nick, who are off to Bali this afternoon! We had coffee and cake, then we came back to our (lovely) home in the sunshine and set off to explore more of Erskineville. We're pretty much all unpacked and sorted now, so after a bit more lazing around this afternoon, we went for a lovely late lunch in the sunshine, in the main street. It's a small little place, kind of like a little village with one main street, but it's also so close to the city. I love it!

The evening consisted of...blogging. I haven't updated the blog in almost three weeks, so lots of memories and pictures to look back on.

Saturday 17 August – What a winter!











Current location: Erskineville
11.11am, Having breakfast in the courtyard. The sun came out majorly this morning so we cooked up a big scrambled egg feast with orange juice and coffee, and made the most of having a little garden! I had so many boring things to do today but decided to sack them all off to go to the beach. Me, Jess, Mitch and Andy headed to Coogee (near Bondi) and it was honestly like a summer's day. It was so hot! I tried to go for a run but changed my mind and went in the sea then sat on the beach with a book instead!

After a yummy late lunch, we all came home and had a lovely afternoon nap, ready to go out for the evening. We met some friends in Hive Bar (a fave of ours before we even moved to this area) then went a pizza place in Erskineville, which was BYO and had the best pizzas. Fuelled by the cheap wine we'd been drinking, we went out dancing in Newtown. What an amazing first Sydney Saturday!

Friday 16 August – Lovely Sydney day!





Current location: Erskineville, Sydney
11.11pm, At our house, having some housewarming drinks with the Paddo house (Nick, Bree, Sha, Tristan) and Jess and Mitch. What a day! I loved today. It started with a 5km around Sydney park with Jess in the beautiful sunshine. The run wasn't too fun but the feeling afterwards was great!

Work was pretty chilled out today (thanks to Thursday press days), and we had a gorgeous subs' lunch under the blue skies. A bit more work in the afternoon, then we all stopped for some drinks in the office, as it was lovely Kim's last day. A few wines down, I headed home to meet the others, who came for our 'soft launch' of the house. Andy cooked up a yummy dinner and we managed to get through most of a case of wine while warming the house! Think I'm going to love it here.