Sunday, May 17, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
More New York
I can't download any photos from my camera at the moment, so here are a couple of shots I've taken on my phone over the last few days:
Late night pizza between pubs in the West Village
Broadway after seeing "West Side Story"
Late night pizza between pubs in the West Village
Broadway after seeing "West Side Story"
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The toe
Ah, about an hour before getting on our flight leaving Sydney I was packing a couple of good Aussie wines for Ben and Terri when one slipped out of my hands. I slapped my hand down to grab the bottle, but ended up striking it with downward pressure, slamming it hard into my big toe from about 10 centimetres away.
To say it was painful is not even approaching an understatement. Walking around has been a hobble. And I haven't been able to do any decent exercise (running) at all. I wonder why it hurts, it looks totally fine:
Let's call this "Ironman recovery"
To say it was painful is not even approaching an understatement. Walking around has been a hobble. And I haven't been able to do any decent exercise (running) at all. I wonder why it hurts, it looks totally fine:
Let's call this "Ironman recovery"
New York New York
We're about to start day 3 in New York and it feels like we've been here a month, we've been totally packing it in.
Arriving early morning Easter Sunday off the red-eye on no sleep, we found Jacquie's awesome apartment in the Lower East Side, chatted for a while and then absolutely crashed out for a couple of hours. As soon as we arose at midday, Jacquie took us out for the best New York City neighbourhood walking tour ever! We spent the next 5 hours crisscrossing every cool block in the Lower East, East Village, Nolita, Chinatown and Little Italy.
Amazingly Jacquie seems to know the history of every bar, cafe, restaurant and store on every street, which areas used to be cool and are now gentrified, which areas used to be dodgy and are now cool, and which areas are still dodgy but soon-to-be cool! I guess she's lived in half a dozen locations around the area over the last decade and a half, and it was amazing to get an insiders point of view on this part of the city.
Lunch at Katz (the massive Jewish deli which was home of the faked orgasm scene in "When Harry met Sally"), a new york bagel with vegan cream cheese and a homemade matzo ball at a traditional Kosher deli, a dessert agave gluten free vegan brownie at Babycakes.
Then later drinks at Sweet & Vicious then dinner at Barrio Chino - the modern mexican restaurant with chinese decor - such a cool spot and amazing food and cocktails.
I can't even begin to go into detail about Day 2 - Sarah and I walked across virtually the whole city it feels like! It was a gorgeous clear sunny day and even got warm (compared to the arctic 5 degree day the day before) and we hung out in Central Park and ate pretzels:
Last night involved drinks with Jacquie's awesome group of friends in some of the coolest bars we've ever been in, over in Washington Square. One (Minetta) that has been there for hundreds of years since the area outside was mainly farmland!
Another (The Rabbit Hole) that was in a basement down a set of stairs and through an unmarked door that you would never find, almost pitch black (no lights but half a dozen candels on the bar) about 5 feet wide and 15 feet long, but somehow managed to have 50 Belgian beers on the menu and pack in a little band in the corner!
Arriving early morning Easter Sunday off the red-eye on no sleep, we found Jacquie's awesome apartment in the Lower East Side, chatted for a while and then absolutely crashed out for a couple of hours. As soon as we arose at midday, Jacquie took us out for the best New York City neighbourhood walking tour ever! We spent the next 5 hours crisscrossing every cool block in the Lower East, East Village, Nolita, Chinatown and Little Italy.
Amazingly Jacquie seems to know the history of every bar, cafe, restaurant and store on every street, which areas used to be cool and are now gentrified, which areas used to be dodgy and are now cool, and which areas are still dodgy but soon-to-be cool! I guess she's lived in half a dozen locations around the area over the last decade and a half, and it was amazing to get an insiders point of view on this part of the city.
Lunch at Katz (the massive Jewish deli which was home of the faked orgasm scene in "When Harry met Sally"), a new york bagel with vegan cream cheese and a homemade matzo ball at a traditional Kosher deli, a dessert agave gluten free vegan brownie at Babycakes.
Then later drinks at Sweet & Vicious then dinner at Barrio Chino - the modern mexican restaurant with chinese decor - such a cool spot and amazing food and cocktails.
I can't even begin to go into detail about Day 2 - Sarah and I walked across virtually the whole city it feels like! It was a gorgeous clear sunny day and even got warm (compared to the arctic 5 degree day the day before) and we hung out in Central Park and ate pretzels:
Last night involved drinks with Jacquie's awesome group of friends in some of the coolest bars we've ever been in, over in Washington Square. One (Minetta) that has been there for hundreds of years since the area outside was mainly farmland!
Another (The Rabbit Hole) that was in a basement down a set of stairs and through an unmarked door that you would never find, almost pitch black (no lights but half a dozen candels on the bar) about 5 feet wide and 15 feet long, but somehow managed to have 50 Belgian beers on the menu and pack in a little band in the corner!
San Francisco Easter
Our trip started with Easter weekend hanging out in San Francisco with Ben and Terri and it was a fantastic time.
Sarah and I have both been to San Fran many times so didn't need to do a lot of touristy things. After all my ironman training and recovering from the event I was was happy to just chill out, Sarah's had a busy term at school so felt very much the same way. Things worked out perfectly, we walked across the city and had lunch down on the waterfront with Ben, came back for a team nap (there wasn't a lot of sleep on the overnight flight) and then we all went out for Nick's Tacos (it's good to get decent mexican food finally) and ten pin bowling at the Presidio - a really fun first day of holidays and just what we needed!
Saturday we decided to drive north over the Golden Gate bridge, over Mount Tam, past Stinson Beach into Bolinas to visit Sarah's aunt Mary and Uncle Jack. What a fantastic day, the weather was perfect and the drive was beautiful, then we arrived at the dome house where the garden was in full spring bloom and spent the dya hanging out with Mary, Jack and their sons Joe and Nate as well as Nate's partner Erin and their 6 week old baby boy Atticus!
It was a day of painting Easter eggs, playing a mammoth game of croquet in the garden and a huge delicious Easter lunch, so much fun.
We spent the arvo hanging with B & T before they very sweetly drove us out to the airport for our red-eye overnight flight to New York (stopping for Nick's crispy tacos to eat on the flight). It was so good to spend time with Ben and Terri, what great hosts, and really great to see the family as well, we couldn't believe that it had only been two days into the holiday.
Sarah and I have both been to San Fran many times so didn't need to do a lot of touristy things. After all my ironman training and recovering from the event I was was happy to just chill out, Sarah's had a busy term at school so felt very much the same way. Things worked out perfectly, we walked across the city and had lunch down on the waterfront with Ben, came back for a team nap (there wasn't a lot of sleep on the overnight flight) and then we all went out for Nick's Tacos (it's good to get decent mexican food finally) and ten pin bowling at the Presidio - a really fun first day of holidays and just what we needed!
Saturday we decided to drive north over the Golden Gate bridge, over Mount Tam, past Stinson Beach into Bolinas to visit Sarah's aunt Mary and Uncle Jack. What a fantastic day, the weather was perfect and the drive was beautiful, then we arrived at the dome house where the garden was in full spring bloom and spent the dya hanging out with Mary, Jack and their sons Joe and Nate as well as Nate's partner Erin and their 6 week old baby boy Atticus!
It was a day of painting Easter eggs, playing a mammoth game of croquet in the garden and a huge delicious Easter lunch, so much fun.
We spent the arvo hanging with B & T before they very sweetly drove us out to the airport for our red-eye overnight flight to New York (stopping for Nick's crispy tacos to eat on the flight). It was so good to spend time with Ben and Terri, what great hosts, and really great to see the family as well, we couldn't believe that it had only been two days into the holiday.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Aussie Sarah Race
Today Sarah became an Australian citizen at North Sydney Council Chambers
We waved flags, sang the national anthem, ate lamingtons, admired Anzac cookies and sang to each other "I am...you are... we are Australian!"
We waved flags, sang the national anthem, ate lamingtons, admired Anzac cookies and sang to each other "I am...you are... we are Australian!"
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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