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Melbourne to Noosa Roadtrip: Port Stephens
Sunday morning, we left Sydney and drove to Bannisters Port Stephens. The hotel overlooks Port Stephens and is an old, remodelled hotel. ACTIVITIES We had a few activities planned here and got busy before we checked into our accommodation for the night. We had planned to do the Tomaree Head Summit Walk, which reportedly has impressive views, but when we arrived at the carpark, the walk was closed for maintenance. ☹️ The wind was blowing a gale across the water to the point where I just wanted to hop back in the car quickly. It also made me a bit nervous about what we had planned for the rest of…
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Melbourne to Noosa Roadtrip: Sydney
The first stop on our Noosa road trip was Sydney. We arrived on Friday at about 4:30 pm and left on Sunday at about 9:30 am. We’d been to Sydney for a week in 2021 with all the kids, so we had done some major sights, including kayaking on the Sydney Harbour from Manly, The Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb and the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk. This time we had a decent chunk of running to get done and also wanted to enjoy some good food. Running Saturday: Big South Head Loop I planned this approximately 17km route using a section of the Bondi to Manly Walk, then cutting back…
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Friday Thoughts #15
We have arrived in Noosa, not without a little bit of stress. Driving into the Gold Coast late Wednesday afternoon, the engine warning light on the car came on, and it was driving a bit rough. We devised a few different plans to handle it before settling on the best option. We postponed the client visit scheduled for Thursday morning and set off from Main Beach, hoping the car would make it 80km to the Brisbane dealership. Once there, we waited while they scanned the car to check the error, which pointed to a problem with the fuel pump. They were fully booked until next week to look at it…
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Friday Thoughts #14
Today’s post is coming to you from … Sydney! We left home at 6 am this morning and 889 km later, arrived at our accommodation at 4:30 pm. We had a couple of very short stops to pick up petrol, use the restrooms and change drivers, with a slightly longer stop for lunch in Gundagai at The Coffee Pedaler. It’s always a reliable place to stop for decent food. I’d made a reservation for dinner at Fabrica Pasta Shop. I think we may have had the best pappardelle with lamb ragu of our lives. Highly recommended for a casual dinner. We were sitting at their big marble counter in the…
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In the Garden May
I’m doing this early in May because we will be away on the 22nd. We leave this Friday, so I spent some time today tidying the garden and preparing it to look after itself for six weeks. I finished trimming my unruly herbs, mulched the broad beans, pulled a few weeds, and then swept the tiles. I also picked all the chillies which will go in the freezer and gave the plant a trim to help it survive the winter. Later today, I’ll pick and cook up some rhubarb as well. The maple tree suddenly changed colour in the last week and has almost dropped all its leaves. The strawberry…
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April’s Books
Human Croquet – Kate Atkinson ★★★ I picked this because it was in a list of recommended books with time travel. The writing is excellent, but I thought overall the plot was disjointed. Maybe there were too many moving parts? I enjoyed the main character and narrator, Isobel; she was weird and snarky in just the right measure. The resolution was disappointing. Legend Born: Tracy Deonn ★★★★ Fantasy YA. An exciting and unusual twist on the Arthurian legend. The main character Bree is a strong black female, and her experiences as she deals with grief, oppression and generational trauma are portrayed compellingly. I’m looking forward to the sequel. Recommended by…
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Friday Thoughts #13
I’ve been cutting back my overgrown herbs so the garden is neat before we go away. The lemon verbena was particularly unruly, so I gave it a good trim and put some branches inside. I’ve been picking leaves off each night to make fresh lemon verbena tea. I had these photo galleries on my list of things to complete, and the picture-hanging guy came in this week. The first big gallery is our professional photos of the kids and some wedding photos. Some of these hadn’t even been framed to hang until this year, and in the ten years of living in our last house, we never did get all…
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WITL: Sun, May 7th
7:05 Wake up. Wild.Ai check-in. I haven’t been doing Pilates as I get back to full health, but I think I’m ready now so I log on and book into a class for tomorrow morning. Lectio 365. 7:22 Get up. Have some toast with almond butter and banana. Get dressed. Drive to pick up our friend then park in Middle Park. 8:25 Grab a takeaway oat latte at Ned’s European Bakery. Walk to Albert Park to watch our running mates in the AV 10km road race. 9:04 We find a good place to watch where we can duck under cover if it gets too wet. Hubby was supposed to be…