A great weekend
Week 22
Exciting things…
Saturday 26th May
Today I got up and headed over to the Eastern Suburbs (which I really like) to get some waxing at my cheapy place, which I will NOT be visiting again – just such a shabby job…but then again, you get what you pay for. Aaaaaaaaanyway. I had a wee wander around the shopping centre only to be confronted with a 50% sale in the Fossil leather bag shop. Now, since I have arrived in Sydney I have been hankering after a new bag, a leather bag and a Fossil bag; so I thought ‘This is your lucky day!’.
The bags are functional and not 100% delicious, but they are about 96% delicious and basically I reeeeeeally wanted one. So I looked, and touched, and imagined, and tried on, and asked questions, and I wanted, nay needed a new bag (I have been walking around since I got here with my ‘beach’ bag – suitable for beach and NOT the Eastern Suburbs!). However, my better sense came over me and I just couldn’t part with my money, seeing as it would mean no savings for this week and I just had to be good. Right now as I right this I feel sad because the were a mega TOTAL bargain, but at least this way it maybe means another couple of days on the road when Z and I travel. Send me your well wishes while I am in a gorgeous leather bag slump. On the up side, I have decided to make one – how much fun will that be and no doubt much more rewarding! Which brings me on to what Isla did next…I went shopping, well…window shopping. Since we arrived I have wanted to do the walk from Bondi Junction all the way along Oxford Street back into the CBD. Oxford Street is just like in London, but much more boutique-y and therefore, fun. So I jumped on a bus, which went the wrong way and I ended up in Woolaraha, which is a very posh part of town. It was just delightful. Lots of little shops and cafes and a really nice, almost European atmosphere in the air. It was super. Had a lovely wander through the area, looking at the houses and in the windows. Walked along Queen Street which is the main road for the area and which actually meets Oxford Street just at Paddington market which was a nice surprise for me as I thought I was a bit lost!
Last time I went to Paddington market when I went to get on the bus back into town, I noticed that at the bus stop there was a Max Brenner’s chocolate café. Ever since we got here Simon and Kag have gone on and on about how we must try the chocolate from MB as it is fabulous and is a really big thing in Sydney, so I thought to myself that this was a perfect opportunity to put it to the test. I thought it would be as simple as ordering a hot chocolate, but not so. From memory they had about 15 different varieties/regions of hot chocolate and the same again for chilled drinks. They also had all sorts of chocolatey type snacks and treats. I was in heaven. I opted to try the Venezuelan milk chocolate drink which comes in a Hug Mug (which is shaped to sit perfectly in your hand so you can ‘hug’ it as you drink. The chocolate was …gooooood, but not sensational, I had a better one when I visited my sister in Val. But of course I shall be going back to try out all the others, hot and chilled. After that, I ventured off on the rest of the walk into town. There are SO many shops on Oxford Street and they are all different. It’s not really like at home where you would mostly find chain stores, they tend to stick to the malls here, on the ‘Street’ it seems to be Aussie designers, little boutiques and then some random pubs and cafes. I enjoyed looking in the windows and then when I saw something good, going in to have a closer look and take notes for when I make my own creations – cut, fabric and pattern, all noted down in my little book. Whilst I was doing this, I happened to glance up and see someone I recognised….
I SAW RUSSELL CROWE!!!!!!!!!!! He is the most famous person I have ever seen in the flesh. He was just wandering along the street with his wife and son who he was pushing along in his push chair. He was wearing some shady clothes, and I decided not to rush over too him – too cool and too shy to do that! How exciting is that! I was dying to call someone, but the only person I know here is Z and I thought he would still be asleep, so I send a text instead – not quite the same thing! Anyway…Then I finished the walk into town which was really good and probably about 2/3 miles and headed to David Jones (department store, known as DJ’s) which is the very posh (think Jenners, but maybe a bit more stylish) to continue mental shopping. So I went down to the food hall as it is meant to be fabulous. It was very swish, but I didn’t think it was a patch on Harrods. I then had a look round the bags and accessories section and they had a guy playing piano which was pretty cool.
Then down to the Rocks market, back up the street to the magic bookshop and then home to get ready to go out for dinner with Z and his colleagues from work.
Had dinner in the area of Sydney called Liechart which is basically the little Italy of Sydney. We had booked for very early (in my book), 5.30pm due to the fact that there were going to be lots of children involved! They behaved inpecably in fact and I was most impressed, that and I probably had at least a bottle of delicious red wine to drink all to myself, so that didn’t hurt the dinner at all! We stayed until at least 10.30 and by then I was pretty shattered, but the oldies (led by Zain) were not to be put to bed yet, so we headed out to a hotel (which is basically the only place you can really get a drink around here, there are independent bars and clubs, but mostly you get drinks from ‘hotel’ bar lounges – a bit strange?). It was a bit weird to say they least. They are really big on gambling here too so there was a room attached to the main bar area where you could go and gamble and it had its own bouncer. And then there was the bar itself – people in flip flops, shorts and caps and the place was pretty empty too. Lots of sport on the big screens which kept the young men entertained and a DJ who actually played some good tunes that the girls danced to. Just a very surreal experience. By this time I was pretty shattered and good for nothing more than bed, but I did manage to put away another cocktail courtesy of one of the guys at Zain’s work who is a millionaire – so thanks!
Sunday
Definitely felt the excesses of food and booze this morning. Very sluggish and managed to sleep in until 11am! Which is absolutely not like me these days. Not to be outdone by my bloatedness (which is my utter own doing) I decided to head out for my run like a good girl. And boy did I feel it. At first I didn’t think I would make it all the way round, but I persevered and I made it. Another 12 miles to notch up on the metaphorical bed post.
I also had an interesting encounter with a cyclist. As I was on the last 1 and a half mile stretch I passed a guy on his bike who was wearing a pretty cool cycling top, and as I am a girl (and Zain likes cycling) I had a good look because at first I couldn’t really figure out what the top was (it was like those skeleton fancy dress outfits you wear). So after a good look, I ran round the corner and up the last (mega) hill of the run….only to be followed moments later by the cyclist! I was like, ‘hello, what’s all this?’ and he started a conversation (chatting me up) with me. He was actually pretty nice and not at all cheesy and his being there helped me up the hill as I didn’t want to look like I couldn’t do it! So thanks to him for that…gave him the brush off of course. After the run, I was shattered and Zain and I headed out for some lunch/dinner. Went to a place up in Crow’s Nest called Xeno’s which I think is Greek but seemed to be serving a lot of Italian food – strange, but very, very good. Had some yummy pasta and felt very smug seeing as I had just run 12 miles! Then on the way home, we got some DVD’s as seems to be our Sunday night ritual and sat down to watch…can’t remember what we got now…We got Cars and Tokyo drift. Cars, yes; Tokyo drift, no.
posted by Yogini @ 8:48 am
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home