on the weekend

Saw Janelle Monae at the Opera House last night and wow, what a show. If she's ever in your neck of the woods, definitely try and catch her her!

on the weekend

Lachlan and I were tourists for the day in the Blue Mountains which is a 2 hour train ride west of Sydney. We went on the scenic railway and cable car and walked around the rainforest at the base of the mountains where the temperature dropped significantly. On the walk back to the train station we encountered some neighbourhood chickens, picked up some delicious vegetable pies from Hominy bakery and settled in for the long journey back to the city (with a few games of Draw Something thrown in for good measure). 

 

The truth is, I don't stand a chance

Well this week has disappeared and all productivity went out the window thanks to the cold that finally took me down. There I was thinking I had managed to avoid the cursed bug that had people dropping like flies but no,  I just got it two weeks later. It means I have spent far too much time indoors and due to my sickness induced short attention span, I may have spent the last two days watching America's Next Top Model. Please don't judge me.

Besides that, this week...

...Lachlan and I treated ourselves to a fancy dinner at Momofuku last night. I'd been really looking forward to it and was very unhappy when I got sick and thought I might have to skip it. But, I got out of bed, made myself look decent (no easy task when your noise is raw and flaky from tissue overuse) and enjoyed the yummy food. I particularly liked sitting at the bar looking into the kitchen and the laid back vibe of the place. Might be eating two minute noodles for the rest of the month though.

...I found the perfect shampoo. I used to wash my hair every day, something that I wished I didn't have to do but my hair always looked oily if I didn't. Of course, part of the reason it was looking oily was because I was washing it every day so over the last 6 months I've managed to get it to every 4th day. I have no intention to stop using shampoo all together but my hair looks a lot better and this shampoo from Aesop doesn't coat your hair and treats your scalp instead. Highly recommended!

...I'm thinking about purchasing the Clarisonic. By no means a cheap purchase but I've only heard good things so I think I might take the plunge. Anyone use one?

....I love the new cards from Gracia and Louise. All their work is awesome but these ones really grab me.

And for all those who requested cushion covers, they'll be going out today or Monday at the latest as I wasn't able to get to the post office. Thanks for taking them off my hands!

autumn light

There's just something about the light at this time of the year that makes Sydney's buildings look special.

All photos taken with Instagram. 

everything must go!

Does anyone need some cushion covers? Strange question I know but we have a lot of them to get rid of! Thanks to Lachlan's sister Meagan, we made about 15 of them for our wedding to go with the picnic blankets we also made. While they were great on the day, our apartment is waaaaaay too small for this many pillows!

If any one wants one/some, I'll happily send them to you. I'd send the cushions as well but for the amount it will cost me to send them, you could just buy a new cushion. 

They were made for 400x400mm pillows (that's 15.7 x 15.7 inches) and they just slip on, there's no zip. They're a cotton mix and a really great print as you can see below. I will add that they're not the most perfect cushion covers in the world but I don't think you would notice the imperfections if they're propped on your couch anyway.

The best part is, they're free! If you're interested, just send me an email with your address details.

Sri Lanka: Galle

And so we reach our last stop, Galle! We stayed here for four nights at the beautiful Galle Fort Hotel. It was one of those places where you don't want to leave your room because it's so lovely (and the air conditioning was also a factor). We basically spent ours days wandering in the morning then hanging out by the pool and then more wandering once it cooled down. 

We befriended some kids who were in the pool as I can't really just swim back and forth without getting bored so Lachlan and I usually end up having competitions like 'how many laps can you swim under water before taking a breath?' or even handstand competitions where I teach Lachlan all the different poses that he didn't know about because apparently boys don't have handstand competitions when they're growing up.

Galle is divided into two towns so to speak, the part that's within an old fort and the part that well, isn't. We stayed in the fort where there are beautiful coloured art deco buildings and quiet streets all surrounded by the famous fort. On the last day we headed to a turtle hatchery where eggs are taken from the beach so poachers won't get them and then the newly hatched turtles are later released into the ocean. Needless to say, baby turtles are pretty much the cutest thing ever and I could easily have stayed there all day watching them swim about.

For some extra excitement, a tsunami warning was issued after the 8.9 earthquake in Indonesia (which we actually felt while sitting in our hotel room) and we had to think about whether it might be better to leave and head inland. There was a lot of panic in other coastal towns, especially as it was Sinhalese New Year and most people were out getting last minute supplies before the public holiday. We decided to stay put as the hotel manager said it was safer to be behind the fort than trying to get inland (and as mentioned, getting around this country is not quick at the best of times, let alone when a possible natural disaster is about to strike) so we put a few things in a backpack just in case and stuck around. In the end, the warning was lifted and all was well.

We traveled back to Colombo the next day to fly out but spent the day with a colleague and his family (he's Sri Lankan) before we headed to the airport. Being Sinhalese new year, it was a public holiday which meant everything was closed so it was nice to have somewhere to spend our last day rather than just killing time in a hotel. It also meant we had a very fast trip to the airport, which combined with our flight being moved two hours later, meant we had a lot of time to explore Colombo airport. At 1.30am, It was time to say goodbye to Sri Lanka before heading to Kuala Lumpur.

So that's the trip! While it took us a few days to get into it due to post wedding exhaustion, it was lovely to hang out with each other for three weeks and just relax, getting to feed baby elephants and hold tiny turtles was a bonus. More photos will be on Flickr shortly if you're bored at work and need a distraction. 

on the weekend

I'm interrupting my Sri Lanka posts with some photos of Sydney instead because a) the weather was stunning yesterday and it would have been crazy to stay indoors and b) we bought a new wide angle lens while we were in Kuala Lumpur so figured it would be a good time to test it out.

I've never used a wide angle lens before and it was a bit of a shock after using a 50mm prime lens, I wasn't expecting so much in my photo! I got back on my bike again after a bit of a hiatus and we rode to Observatory Hill and then over the bridge to Wendy's Garden. We had originally planned to have our wedding there, or at least our ceremony, and I saw two other couples scoping it out as a possible venue as well. It was sort of weird to know that we don't have to do that anymore and I felt relief but also a bit of sadness as I sometimes have to remind myself that we don't have to deal with that stuff anymore. Come to think of it, I do recall being rather stressed at that stage of the wedding planning since we didn't have a venue and everything was adding up very quickly (seriously, how do these things add up to 5 figured so quickly?!) so I think it's more relief than sadness.

In in all, it wasn't a super exciting weekend but that's what I was hoping for since the week ahead seems to be filling up quickly. I made cookies last night which is a rare event these days but I had bought a packet of Hershey's cinnamon choc chips when I was in KL while trying to spend our last ringgits and figured I might as well use them. When Lachlan asked what they tasted like I said 'America' which is a bit of a weird answer really but he knew exactly what I meant (though he didn't understand when I elaborated and said that it reminded me of some of the  candles from Yankee Candle, I guess I was pushing it a little expecting him to know what that even was).

I have one more Sri Lanka post tomorrow, in the meantime have a great Monday!