Sunday 19 April – Winning with wine!

Current location: Central Coast
11.11am, On the way to Olympic Park. Last night, Bree, Jess, Anita and I went up to the Central Coast for the evening, and so this morning they were dropping me to Olympic Park on the way back to Sydney, I was going to watch the Swifts v Mystics netball match – and Swifts needed a win after 2 losses and 2 draws. And win, they did! It was such a good game... So Emily and I felt the need to go and drink wine in the sunshine afterwards to celebrate :)

Saturday 18 April – Morning of motivation

Current location: Newtown
11.11am, Sitting on the floor of the gym. I've been going to F45 for the past six weeks, and am absolutely loving it. Part/most of the reason I love it is the people who run the F45 studio in Newtown; they're all so ace an encouraging, and I've found myself wanting to go almost every day.

This morning I was booked in for an 8am class, and then we had the 'Playoffs fitness testing'. I hung around watching people for about an hour, until my buddy turned up and then we did the testing together. She thrashed me, but it was pretty fun! It's only 10 minutes (10 stations, 45 seconds of working, 15 seconds rest) of rowing, kettle bells, bench hops etc, but it feels a lot harder than it sounds! Anyway, the atmosphere was great this morning, and we all ended up sitting around for another hour, having a coffee and brekkie picnic on the floor of the gym. What a fun morning (honestly!).

Saturday 11 April – Bree's hen do!

Current location: In the car, Sydney
11.11am, On the way to Bree's house. It's her bride-to-be hen do today! And what a beautiful bride-to-be she is! I got ready with her in Paddington, then a few others arrived and we cabbed over to Rose Bay, to have lunch in the fabulous Catalina. It was such a stunning place to be, right on the water, and the sun even came out for us. The food was absolutely exquisite (I had pork belly, scallops, beef tenderloin and chocolate mousse, although I'm doing it a disservice by calling it that! It was divine and very fancy!). Tatum, one of Bree's bridesmaids, had done an amazing job at making it look so beautiful, and we all felt very proud to be helping someone wonderful celebrate something so lovely.

After Catalina, and a fair amount of champagne, we hopped in an awaiting Party Bus, which was hilarious. It was so old and crappy, but so funny, and we handed out the G&Ts and pumped the tunes and partied under the very old disco lights. Amazing! Soon we were at the Champagne Room, above the Winery, where we drank more, and played some hilarious games. Breezer was just gorgeous all day, and totally embraced all the stuff we made her do (fun stuff!).

The evening was spent as only 18 dressed-up, champagne-fuelled women can spend an evening: at karaoke! Cue three hours of belting out 80s ballads, 90s tunes, Taylor Swift and everything in between. Hoarse throats, sore feet and grinning like madwomen. Love you Breezer.

Friday 10 April – Being English with my Englishwoman

Current location: Sydney
11.11pm, Going to bed, a bit later than intended. It's Bree's hen do tomorrow so I meant to have a nice early night. But Jess came round after work and so we had a glass or two of wine (still making up for Lent, when I gave up wine!) and then decided to go and watch Mitch plays footy (Aussie Rules) in Marrickville. It was drizzling so we got rugged up, cheered like superfans and felt very English!

Thursday 9 April – To the shops!

Current location: Eveleigh
11.11am, Buying some shoes for Bree's wedding. I still had a couple more bits to get before her hen do this weekend, so after work, I rode to Broadway to do a quite bit of late-night shopping, then met my lovely friend Chrystal for a glass of wine and some dinner. Impromptu and fun.

(Photo from Nattyz27 on Flickr)

Sunday 5 April – Lent is over (Happy Easter!)

Current location: Erskineville
11.11am, At Little Bay. This morning, I went to church, and it was really wonderful. I don't go very often anymore (sorry Mum/God!) and hadn't made it to the local church yet, but it was lovely to go on Easter Sunday, and it actually made me feel quite emotional! Just lovely to see all the families out and in their Sunday best, and made me miss my family, but in a good way. Hard to describe I guess.
After church, Andy and I decided to visit a beach we've never been to – there are so many to explore around Sydney so it's nice to find new ones. We ended up at a beautiful little cove called Little Bay, and it was exquisitely beautiful. Like paradise! We even saw a turtle!
After a couple of hours of swimming and sunbathing and reading and being blissed out, we headed to Circular Quay to meet some friends at Opera Bar. It was so hot and sunny, and we sat out for hours, drinking all the wine I didn't drink during Lent!
One of the best Sydney days I've had so far, for sure. Happy Easter indeed!

Saturday 4 April – Super Saturday

Current location: Newtown
11.11am, Exercising. I've joined an F45 gym, and I am bloody loving it, so today I went to do an hour's session... Then ended up staying for another session. So afterwards I was blinking exhausted, and came home and watched Grey's Anatomy/napped all afternoon! By the time I got myself moving again, Andy was a friend's BBQ in Glebe, so I rode over there in the rain, had a rad time with him and his soccer friends, and then we went to Newtown to meet some friends (including the lovely Anna Creegan, who I haven't seen since England!) for an evening drink.

Friday 3 April – Early Easter

Current location: Alexandria
11.11am, Burning biscuits. We're off to see Jess later for an Easter lunch at hers with all the family, so I decided to bake some biscuits. Sadly, I am a terrible baker so I ended up burning them all. Waaahhhh. After a bit of a paddy about it, Andy and I hopped on the ferry to Manly – and saw Nick and Bree on it! Not that much of a coincidence as they were going to Jess' house too, but still a nice semi-surprise.
We had such a nice dinner at Jess' house, then ended up playing card games into the evening, with some pretty comedy forfeits for the losers. Happy Easter and happy chocolate egg overload!

Thursday 2 April – Couch crash

Current location: Alexandria

11.11pm, On the couch. Trying not to fall asleep. It's been a bit of a full-on week, with work and a lot of exercise (4 gym classes and 3 netball matches, so far!) and when work finished tonight for a three-day Easter break, I had pretty much zero energy to do anything. So lovely Andy cooked, I Skyped my family (pictured), then we sat on the couch and watched a movie. Lazy and perfect.

Sunday 29 March – No cooking for me!

Current location: Newtown

11.11am, Having brunch with Chrystal. We had a lovely catch-up and brekkie, then I headed into the city to do some birthday present and bridesmaid shopping. Fun times!

Dinner at my friend Saman's tonight meant I've managed to get away with not cooking anything for the whole weekend! Saman and her husband Mustafa made us amazing Pakistani cuisine (she's definitely improved on her cooking skills since we used to live together and the most 'impressive' thing we made was rice and peas!). What a yummy, scrummy day.

Saturday 28 March – Happy birthday Fisherman's Wharf!

Current location: Woy Woy

11.11am, At the hairdressers, getting a bob! Woo! I've been wanting to cut my horribly knotty hair cut for a while, so it was nice to have the scissors taken to it! It was a beautiful day up the coast (where my hairdressers is) so I met Andy and his parents, and a friend of theirs, and we went to a festival that was happening by the water. It was to celebrate the Fisherman's Wharf's 40th birthday, so there were loads of yummy seafood stalls, market stands, winery booths, and lots of happy, smiley people. 

In the afternoon, once we were full of calamari, prawns and tuna steak, Andy and I headed back down to Sydney and had dinner at the home of our lovely friends, Colin and Christabel. We ended up staying super late playing Cards Against Humanity and Poker, and eating the most scrumptious dinner, washed down with whiskey sours. Amazing!