The weekend with a catch up with Jane and a race for Janine

 Hi,

Not sure I can capture all the weekend's fun. Mike, Janine and I got up early Saturday to get away by 7am so we could get to Nepean River for their parkrun. And how worth it was that? Such a good parkrun. Two loops. We did lose the car on the way back. Parked it a bit closer than we remembered so we walked past it. Hahah.

Nepean Parkrun

Mike's post parkrun selfie

Drive to Conservation Hut cafe in Blue Mountains

We then continued to Conservation Hut cafe for brekkie int he Blue Mountains. Such a good spot. Great views and walks. Mike and I had a granola with acai on top. Bit of banana too. Scoffed that down and left Janine to explore while we went to visit Jane.

She has lived here for close to 40 years. 37 maybe I think she said. We caught up with her news and she heard all about our news. This house she's been in for 17 years. We hadn't seen this one before - we have visited her once here and once in Bathurst.

Jane's house for a catch up

Showing photos

Out for lunch to a wee French cafe

We caught up with Karen, Scott and Abby here as they collected Janine on the way through. And off to a cafe in town. A French one near Coles. Very delicious galette, thank you. Everyone liked their food.

Back to get Jane her boots then off to Minnehaha Falls for a walk. It was flat for a bit then a steep down section to the valley floor where a waterfall squirted down a cliff and into a beautiful pool. People were jumping in.

Minnehaha Falls walk

Looking through the trees to the river

Banksia, maybe?

Abby negotiates the rocky path

At the waterfall with gorgeous pool

Me and Abby on the way back up

Almost there

Back up and dropped Jane off and headed back to Sydney. We were not up very late. Janine needed to be on the 5am Metro to start her half marathon by 6.48am.

We also had to pack because we needed to head directly to the airport in the afternoon. So come 4.45am Karen got up to say goodbye as did Abby and we climbed into the Uber for the $40 ride to Tallawong. Scott had sorted out a bag drop with a friend of his at Martin Place in town. Thank you for that Scott because Deb was a lifesaver. So much easier all day with only one day bag on us.

Race morning

In the chute

Perfect day for a run. Little wind. Light hazy cloud cover. Janine and 30,000 other people got lined up for the course around Sydney's waterfront. 

At 7:09am she crossed the start line. We tracked the same route I did last year following Mike around. 

With everyone else

Sunrise over the Opera House

Cityscape

Waiting for coffee in an old alleyway

Got a bit of brekkie and a coffee in The Rocks up behind the MCA. Ate it looking at the harbour. Then over to a turnaround point at about the 15km mark. We waited to see Janine there. So was looking strong.

Turnaround point

Back to the finish line where we lost her completely in the crowd. But eventually found each other. She picked up her special medal for completing 4 of the marathon/half marathon in this series.

To fill in time, we went to Cockatoo Island. A UNESCO heritage site. It was a former penal site for the convicts that offended after landing in Sydney. So it must have been a rough place. Caught the ferry from Circular Quay. And 15 mins later we stepped onto the island. Got a map and visited the highlights before catching a ferry back an hour later.

Ferry to Cockatoo Island

Entering the island

Rocky hole

Dog leg tunnel

Turbine shop

Look at that!

Dog leg tunnel

Dog leg tunnel

We loved poking around on this island. Lots of old buildings to peer at and guess what they were used for originally. Plenty to see as it is still a boat storage place with dockyards.

Back to the mainland and collected our bags from Deb with a small latte with 2 sugars as an appreciation. So good to have Deb lined up to do that for us. Thanks again.

Then off to the airport. Janine got off at the domestic terminal to fly to see her brother in Perth. We went to International and checked in and went through to airside to wait for our flight.

On our way to the airport

At the gate

Mike slept well on the plane. I watched a documentary or two. Jane Goodall was good except when the chimps had a fight it woke me up with all the noise. Hahahah.

Taxi from Wellington airport because Uber had nothing to offer. Cats were happy - thank you Ange. And off to bed. Hard to wake up after 5 hours sleep.

Working from home today. Hope no one asks me anything super hard.

Have a great week.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with a team lunch

 Hi,

I seem to be feeling fine after the leg day early morning session yesterday. Phew. It did set me up for a good day - thank you Abby.

Wednesday early morning gym session

Team lunch at Indo Lankan in Seven Hills

I got picked up at lunch time by Manjot and whisked away to Seven Hills for a team lunch. Vivek, Rihan, Manjot and Joel made it. So good to chat to them all. Vivek came from close to the airport. Wow. I enjoyed the taste of Sri Lanka. Had Kottu Roti - mine was with vegetables. So tasty - but a tad spicy for me. Got through about a third of it. Mind you, I was still full from the pasta the night before. Hahah.

Thank you Joel - lovely to meet people face to face. Thank you for the pick up Manjot. And organising.

Came back to finish off my working day. Then out for a walk with Karen and the boys around the block. Then a chill evening watching TV and reading. I was so sleepy by 8pm. Hahah.

Up this morning for a more leisurely start. But Mike and Janine arrive this evening. Yay! Super excited to see them once work finishes today.

Have a lovely day everyone. Enjoy your weekend.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with work and a nice dinner out

 Hi,

Work was work. A few meetings. Chasing things. But I did get a run in and then when Karen got home, we walked the dogs.

Delicious mocktail

At Enzo's for anniversary dinner

After work, we watched some TV and then Abby arrived and we headed to Tallawong to go out for tea to Enzo's. The Italian food there is so good. I had the burrata penne. Mmmm. Our waitress was so chatty. 

Back home and off to bed. Abby and I had another gym session booked. This time it was a 5am leg class. OMG. Abby arrived at 4.30 to pick me up. And I met Brad again - and a new PT called Josh.

We did Spanish banded squats, and reverse lunge squats. Then deads and goblet squats. Then landmine squats and one legged squats.

I am now dead.

Hahahah.

Working again now. But my team here are meeting me for lunch in the burbs. A lot live out this way. How cool.

Hope your day is a good one.

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Sydney

 Hi,

Sydney is really turning on the weather. We had the smoothest flight over the Tasman - a huge high in the middle stretching over both countries made it super easy.

Flight over on Friday afternoon

At one point around halfway the plane banked to the right and I looked out the left side and saw a jet right there. By the time I fished out my phone to take a pic, it was much further away. How cool.

Close jet

Easy exit from the airport and onto the airport train. A change at Central to the Metro line (platform 26 and 27) and I was on the train heading to Tallawong. 

Karen met me at the station and it would have been 1945 by this stage. She whisked me home and we settled in. 

Up early Saturday for park run. Karen walked it (she only took 10 more mins than me). I did a good pace and would have been quite fast for 2026 if it wasn't for the slow first 400m.  There were 888 competitors. Wow.

Park run

Feet are ready

Post park run face

Almost post park run

Slightly weak iced latte

Grabbed an iced latte at Frankies. But frankly, it was a bit weak. Not burnt though. Then headed home to chill for a bit.

Hahah - awesome dog Christmas pic. See one with Toby bottom right?

At around 12, Mel picked us up. And after swapping to Noush's car at her house, we went to the netball at Ken Rosewell stadium.

I'm in Sydney

Found this awesome ring walk over an old brickpit

Brilliant green sludgey water

We had some lunch at a noodle place then went for a walk around the Olympic village complex. Found this awesome raised ring walk over an old brick pit. So cool.

Great walk

Would do again

Grace!

Okay - there is a height difference

The Swifts v the Giants was great fun. It was ANZAC day so they kicked it off with a ceremony. So good (but no NZ anthem!).

Swifts slowly pulled away from the Giants and got a handy win in the end. Good fun.

ANZAC ceremony

Next morning Karen made me a delicious brekkie. Yum!

Sunday brekkie from Karen

We took the boys for a walk. And I got to see the total debacle that is their landscaping. It is so disappointing to see ineptitude at that scale. Good luck to progressing this with another company to get it sorted. The vision Karen and Scott have is great - they just need someone that can help them with that. Not that original company, that is for sure.

View of their fence

Walks

Karen and I headed to town to enjoy the play, Cluedo, at the Royal Theatre just around the corner from Martin's Place. We went in with Scott as he had his shift starting at midday and our play started at 1pm. He showed me the cool hallway with the new art for the latest Star Wars movie coming out soon.

Karen and Scott and The Mandalorian

Me!

Yep - in Sydney for sure now

Bit of bubbles for the play

My mocktail

Karen had booked a cheese box with bubbles. I got a mojito mocktail. All lovely. And the play was such fun. Our seats had restricted views - but the set design was so good. I had never seen the movie, but the play seemed quite faithful to it, according to Karen.

A wee cheese box

The Royal theatre

Monday saw me up super early and I got picked up at 6am by Abby to head to a session at her gym at 6.30. Turns out she goes to a high altitude gym. So there I was, puffing my way through a huge cardio session. We were partners and we took turns on ERG machines and other equipment. Battle ropes. Burpees. Squats with weights. Super hard. But so happy I did it with Abby.

We got a very welcomed post session iced latte next door. Good coffee.

Post hi-brid conditioning session

Tyler's cat - this is Shaco

At around 11.30 we headed to Liverpool to meet Tyler. Her flat is so nice. 5th floor (I want to say #511) of a fairly new complex. 

She has two adorable cats. The wee girl just had been spayed so he had a beautiful sunflower on to protect her stitches.

Shaco is very handsome

This is Akali. She has stiches but is very beautiful despite the sunflower adornment

Tyler's kitchen

Tyler has also just started at an orthodontist as an assistant. We walked from her flat to her work. But being a public holiday, most things were shut. We did end up at a nice pub and had a lovely lunch.

Never been to this Liverpool

Scott St - Liverpool

Scott St

This is true, right Maureen?

Where are these snakes? In the letterboxes?

Cuddles

Back home and Karen and I watched some TV before I started feeling quite sleepy. And I had a great sleep before getting up at 5.30am Sydney time to start work.

I hope your short week is a good one.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela