My Week in Pictures #62

The week began with a very early morning appointment to the fracture clinic to have my cast removed! My bone was not fully healed, and my wrist was still a bit painful, so I was given a splint to wear. The long journey to recovery begins! 

We had a slight incident of mistrust at our household this past week. J brought in his backyard harvest - beans, sugar snap peas, tomatoes and some mini capsicums. Or so he told me. I was a bit dubious of this "mini capsicum" when J sliced it open and it was filled with little seeds; he tried a little bit and reassured me that it was kind of sweet, and it probably was just a small capsicum. All I can say, is I am thankful for my skeptical personality because I only touched the tip of my tongue to the inside fleshy bit of this "mini capsicum" and it burned like the fires of hell for a good half hour. I can not imagine how much it would have burned if I had eaten the whole thing! J was honestly shocked at my reaction - he tried again and felt the same heat as me. 

 

J and I spent last week in Canberra, visiting his family. We celebrated two birthdays whilst there, so many desserts were had. 

 

We went to Shaw Vineyard Estate for lunch - they had their own sheep and llamas. Watching the llamas jump up onto their hind legs to pull leaves off the tree was cause for endless entertainment. 

We started out with wine tasting, before sitting down to lunch. The food was really good - for entrees we shared an oven-baked camembert, and a dukkah mix. For mains I had the salmon. I don't eat seafood that often because I'm really fussy with it - but this was really delicious. I don't really feel like I'm that cut-out to eat fancy food though. Whilst the salmon and the polenta (and okay everything else) were amazing, I just can't help but be annoyed at the lack of "Extras" on the plate...one and a half heirloom tomatoes, two sprigs of asparagus...really? 

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Sydney Noodle Markets

Last Thursday I met up with Oishee at the Sydney Noodle Markets in Hyde Park. 

This was my first time (although I have walked through in previous years I've never "Attended" per se) so I was pretty keen to try some delicious food. 

Apparently almost every person in Sydney was there, because it was almost claustrophobia-inducing busy. The atmosphere overall wasn't too bad, despite the crowds. I loved all the Asian touches... the lanterns, the giant cat character, the pandas on the light globes, the ping pong! 

The food was amazing. Oishee got a Vietnamese prawn salad, and I went for some dumplings. 

When lining up for the dumplings I had an older Chinese woman approach me, desperate to find out if the dumplings were traditional, or "Sydney style". She was such a sweetheart, and asked to take a photo of me with my food - not with her and me...just me. So random, but flattering. 

 

Did you make it to the Noodle Markets this year? Have you been in years past? Is it weird that we went to a noodle market and yet neither of us ate noodles?



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My Week in Pictures #58

I put Rommy's kitty bed on the washing machine to be washed, and within the hour he had taken up napping on it. Oh well, I guess it can be washed later! 

Lots of handstand practice lately. Finally feel like I'm getting enough balance to control the descent of my legs into scorpion. If only I were flexible enough to make this look impressive! 

I am absolutely loving that it's sunny when I head home from work. The train views over the water always brighten up my afternoon. 

My fellow pole ninja, James

An absolute honour to clean the poles for this wonderful lady, Sergia Louise! 

Cynthia and Oryx are amazing performers, and I really hope I get to pole with them again!

After Lisa D's workshop

Kristy Sellars! 

Pole Evolution's production 'Elements' was on Saturday, at the Factory Theatre. My foot still aches from 8 hours of climbing up and down the pole, making sure it was cleaned and prepped with grip for each dancer. The entire day was so fun though, I would absolutely do it again - foot pain and all. There were so many amazing performers, and I am left feeling totally inspired. I also got to take a workshop with the amazing Lisa D, and learn lots of new and crazy things. 

Jen (who put together the Pole Evolution dance company, and the Elements show) put together little goodie bags for all the dancers and stage crew on the night. This was such a nice surprise! We each received a 'Pole Evolutions' shirt, some snacks and treats to keep our sugar levels and energy up throughout the day, and the cutest notebook, with beautiful hand-written messages inside. 

I just loved being part of the show so much, and cannot explain how wonderful it is to be involved with such an amazing group of women and men. 

See-through shirt is see-through. 

Did anyone else get caught in tonight's storm? I was heading home from a physio appointment (yet another rib injury), which is about 3km from my house, when the skies went dark. All of a sudden the skies opened up and I got absolutely saturated. I still had a couple of km's to walk until I got home, and it was mostly an uphill struggle (literally). I stood at the lights waiting for them to change, getting absolutely drenched and feeling absolutely miserable. I turned up my music, and thought 'well, it's just water, just walk faster'. 

...And then the hail started. 

I was almost in tears...there was literally nowhere I could stand undercover, the rain and wind were really foreceful, my work clothes and my suede shoes were getting destroyed, there were ice rocks falling on me, and seriously, I was just over it. 

And then, this truck pulls up next to me, and this guy (Peter) opens the window and asks me if I need a lift. 

I quickly weighed up whether he was a predator, decided he wasn't, and gratefully accepted his offer. I told him I only needed to go to the end of the street... we got about half way there and then I noticed I couldn't find my phone. He starts freaking out for me, and asks me if I want him to turn around to go get it. But then I saw it on the floor of his truck (which was covered in tools and materials), it had obviously just fallen out of my pocket when I jumped in. 

I can't even explain how grateful I was for this guy pulling over - it was at least another 25 minute walk with another couple sets of lights on the way. I still got home drenched, but a lot quicker than I otherwise would have. 

It's just really nice to be reminded that there are lovely people out there.

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My Week in Pictures #44; the Theme Park Edition (part 2)

On Wednesday we braved Dreamworld, Australia's biggest theme park and famous for "the Big 8" extreme thrill rides. The timing of us going was perfect, because there were almost no lines for every ride and in the first hour and a half we'd already knocked over 5 rides. 

We hit the Tower of Terror II first. This was my first ever 'thrill' ride when I was a kid, going on it when I was about 7 years old. Back then, the original launched face first, and you descended backwards. Now they launch you backwards and you fall face first. Over the whole day, we went on this ride three times, and being in the first car is absolutely the best experience. 

This ride propels you at 161km/h, with a maximum of 4.5Gs and 6.5 seconds of weightlessness - eep! 

The drop is measured at 99.9m. 

I think it's awesome that they use the side of the 'Giant Drop' for this ride.

The Giant Drop is probably the ride I was looking forward to the most; the floorless platform ascends you to a height of 115m. There's no countdown at the top, and you're left dangling there for maybe 90 seconds before you plunge back to Earth in a free-fall, attaining a terminal velocity of 135km/h. This ride held the world record for being the tallest tower drop for an impressive 14 years! 

I loved this ride so much; the feeling of free-fall, and the suspense at the top is incredible. Waiting in line my heart was racing, and I was scared as hell but it's so worth facing those fears. 

The Claw is a swing ride, where you're seated on a circular platform that rotates as you swing. I really enjoyed this ride; it goes fast, and you get a feeling of weightlessness at the top of the full swing. 

We hit up Pandamonium, themed to the Kung Fu Panda movie, and the Motocaster. The thrill version of Pandamonium reaches G forces of 3.8, and you swing upside down at a height of 8m which is really fun. I love upside down rides (I guess all that pole dancing has trained me for it?)

The Motocoaster was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. The carts are motorbikes, and the harness straps around your back so you feel like you're riding a motorbike. You accelerate from 0 to 72km/h in two seconds, which is fun. Apart from that, the rollercoaster is quite tame and there are little sidecars for kids to ride with their parents. 

The Buzz Saw was one of those rides that looks and sounds seriously impressive, but was a little bit of a let-down. The Buzz Saw has the highest inversion of any ride in the Southern Hemisphere, and second in the world. I didn't really think much of it though, and it wasn't as scary as we thought it was going to be. That being said, we were in the second-to-last car. It probably would have been a very different experience in the front seat. 

We spent quite a bit of time in the Dreamworld Corroborree, where there was a lot of native animal displays and some animal shows. The tiger show was a definite highlight. This was great to break up the day a bit, and give our lunch some time to digest before we hit the crazy rides again. 

Dreamworld also has a fun zombie-themed laser tag arena, which we finished our day with. It was a great low-energy way to end the day, before the long drive back to my mum's place.



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