Journey to Slimsville ... again: Awesome!!

We're back and we had an absolutely wonderful time!!! It was go, go, go, from dawn till we crashed at night! We fitted so much into the five days we were there.

To give a rough guideline of what we did ...

Wednesday morning we arrived at 9am to scorching heat!! I couldn't believe it could be so hot in Sydney in OCTOBER!! 38 degrees!! The highest temp on record in October for Sydney. Even tho it was so hot it was such a nice change from the continuous wet and cold weather we've been having here.

The rest of wednesday we spent catching up with my sister in law ... just chatting and relaxing.

Then Thursday morning the kids woke up rearing to go .... at 3.30am!!!! Poor things, according to their body clocks it was 6.30am, time for breakfast!! At 5am, after 1.5hrs of trying to gety them back to sleep I gave up and took Jese (the noisiest) for a walk in the stroller. An hour and 5pts later I arrived home to the rest of the household getting out of bed. (staying at my brothers house) So that was a good start to the day and a great way to set the tone for the holiday.

I decided when we first arrived that I wasn't going to record my food but I was going to track on my points calculator. And I would wear my bonus buddy everywhere, measure my bonus points and eat them all!!

After breakfast we headed out to Toronga zoo. Chris (sister-in-law) gave us really good train instructions how to get there) But we thought we would short cut and walk from Central station round to the ferry. On the map it only looked a short walk, except we lost our direction at the start and walked the wrong way!! lol ... We ended up at Darling harbour and had to walk all the way round the waterfront, under the bridge to the ferry ... a 1.5hr walk!! lol

We made it to the zoo by midday and the kids just loved it!! I got this really cool close up of the tiger (my favourite animal!)

Isn't he adorable??? (well behind the glass he is lol) And my camera pushes everything back further so you can imagine how close we actually were to him.

By 4pm we were ready to come home (to SIL place that is) so we got on the train and then met up with my brother and his family at Hornsby Mall .. wahooo ... I was in heaven!!! lol ... so we spent the rest of the evening shop, shop, shopping!!!
My new top, hard to see but it has white embroidery and beading all over the front

All up at the end of that very tiring day I had walked 19kms!!! and earnt 15 bonus points! (of course I only ate my 4 bonus points allowed each day) I was tired!!!

Friday morning kids were up bright and early again so we headed off for Paddy's market via the monorail. At 11.30am Chris took our kids home and left Bill and I for a wonderful few hours alone together. We went to Chinatown and we found a Yum Cha restaurant. I'd always wanted to try it ... it's really good too, given almost everything is steamed not fried... but I still ate too much!! lol

Then we finished off our shopping and headed home ...another exhausting day and another 6 or 7 bonus points earnt! That night we went round to friend's for a BBQ. A wonderful night catching up (it had been 8yrs since we'd seen them) and we had yummy salad and steak! But I ate a few too many chips and dip ... oh and the alcohol was a little on the high side but still ok if I caught up a little on the bonus points.

Saturday Bill and I went for another early morning walk before the household got up. Then it was off to Darling Harbour and the Powerhouse (an interactive museum). What an amazing place!! The kids had a blast!! so did us adults too! lol

By the time we got home we were all too tired to cook dinner so we got takeaways. Chinese, the lesser of all evils but I ate a little too much ... oh well I was on holiday

Sunday Bill and I went off to do some final shopping at the mall and I got my nails done! wahoo!!! Also bought myself a gourgeous solid silver bracelet :D

Then we got some groceries for lunch (salad and chicken wraps) fed our faces and then it was off to the airport. We left at 3pm and got there finally at 4.45pm ... wow Sydney is so big!! Checked in, had a quick look through duty free, grabbed a bottle of perfume and couple of bottles of wine and raced through to the boarding lounge. Grabbed some chips on the way through (our flight didn't include meals)... it cost $15 for 3 measly plates of chips. I put them on the table, grabbed the tomato sauce and covered all three plates in sauce. The kids got stuck in and then they all started coughing, complaining they were sour! I tried one and my eyes popped out of my head!! I had just covered all three plates in CHILLI SAUCE!!!! LOL I have to laugh now, at the time I was so stressed I nearly exploded!! Meanwhile they were doing the final call for our flight! So we left the chips and ran. Of course Jese then started to throw a trantrum because he couldn't finish his chips! I tell ya, talk about stress ... if I lost 1gram for every second of stress that night I would be a skinny woman now lol.

We made it on the plane in time (actually we weren't the last, second to last, but not last! lol)

Then it was a 3hr flight home but given the time difference meant it was 1am NZ time. Grabbed our bags, did the 10min journey to mums to pick up our cat, to be told at mum's that Chino (the cat) was stuck in the roof and wouldn't come down. He had been there all 5 days we were away. So at 1.30am we were calling, yelling, coaxing him. Finally he gave in and came down.

Then it was off for the 1.5hr drive home ... home at 3am and finally in bed by 3.30am!! What a day!!! what a week!!! AWESOME!!!

Now for the great news!! I went on holiday, had a blast, ate yummy food, had a few eating splurges ... but watched what I ate, did loads of walking (around 40kms all up) .... and ....