2008-09 highlights

I haven't touched this blog for a year and a half! Actually, I thought I'd only written a couple of posts but have way more than I remember. Discovering new things around Sydney has become a regular part of my life which is great. I'll try to go through some of the highlights from where I left off up until the end of 2009.

Jervis Bay
A bunch of friends rented a couple of houses in Hyam's Beach. It's a beautiful spot and on the Friday afternoon I arrived I was swimming with dolphins. Green Point is near by and a good place to get back to natures. It's a beach with wallabies with many camp sites. Having lunch in Berry Wood-Fired Sourdough Bakery on the way home was enjoyable.

Fitzroy Falls fire trail fun run
I camped at Bendeela in the southern highlands for a night, and went for a 10km fun run at Fitzroy Falls in the mist the next morning. It's a beautiful trail. I stopped at Bowral on the way home. There are bicycle tours from Bendeela, which looks like a lot of fun. Brunch at Bendeela was really nice, and inexpensive. Bendeela is the town famous for banning bottled water.

City 2 Surf
It was cold to begin with but now I'm experienced enough to know to wear some old clothes, well, my sister's old clothes, and strip them off. I really enjoyed this run, especially since I could start in a faster <100 minutes group this year. I finished and waited for pizza place Pompei's to open. After polishing off I pizza, I shared a rack of takeaway ribs from Hurricanes on the beach with the boyfriend.

Sydney Spring Cycle
This is a cycle from North Sydney to Homebush that's 40km. It was an extremely windy day which made it quite challenging. I'll admit it was very challenging - I was very tired by the end. Worth doing though as I would never have otherwise ridden my bike across the Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Glebe Island Bridge.

Trishave women's triathlon festival
I participated in another triathlon. It felt pretty hard going. I did the midi Distance - 350m Swim, 15km Cycle, 3.5km Run. The cycle was very hard, and I will not be doing a cycle with a bike on the mountain-bike end of the spectrum I think. It was also a very hot day. I had the chance to swim at the lake at the Regatta Centre used for the Olympics. The water was filthily warm - 28 degrees. Consistent with the other triathlon, the run was the best relatively, then the swim, then the bike. I'll need to work on the bike next time, because time-wise, it puts me much behind. Not a comfortable experience, but I'd do it again.

White water rafting at Penrith
I had a go on the white water rafting on the course for the Sydney Olympics and had a great time. It's not cheap,$89 for 90 minutes. It was fun to stick the raft against a bump and have water push it nearly vertically. They dubbed this 'surfing' and I fell out twice. You need a bit of guts to do this, because you are under the raft for a split second before surfacing. One guy in our raft fell out, lost his shoe at some point, and decided that he couldn't go on after about half an hour. I saw a group of Asian students having fun, and the army practicing water rescue. Surprisingly great coffee there - after a year I haven't forgotten.

Penrith Panthers is great by the way. Looks great, and the food was not too bad either. Singaporeans pay a lot to sit around in places that look like this. Here the pokie players pay for me.

Melbourne Comedy festival
What fun times! I had never seen comedy before, and there was a play in there, stand up and a bunch of comedians in the pub. There has been plenty of comedy since then.

Sydney Theatre Company
I had season tickets to the Sydney Theatre Company and saw the following plays:
The Removalists - a snapshot of the Police force in the 1970s
Travesties - not sure I understood this one
When the Rain Stops Falling
Elling - a couple of guys move out from a mental institution on their own
Poor Boy - Matt Newton in a play where a young boy is the reincarnation of his dead character
A Streetcar Named Desire - Cate Blanchett was amazing in this play, I will not forget her voice!

Tender
My sister's friend wrote this play, and we saw it at the Nimrod Theatre. A girl is living with with a shocking memory from the past.

The Importance of Being Earnest
Performed by NIDA students this is a great play! It was long though, around 4 hours in three sections. Liked the costumes.