Lost

Sunday:

Last night we went to my cousin David's engagement party. It was held at a surf club on the beach at Narrabeen, which is one of Sydney's Northern beaches. We live in the south of the city. I think we've been north three times since we moved back to Sydney, and every time we have got lost on the way home.

This time the problems started when trying to get over the Sydney Harbour Bridge/ through the Harbour Tunnel. The thing is once you get onto the approach, you can't change lanes. There are big barriers between them. So by the time you realise you are in the wrong lane and, for instance, going over the Bridge into the heart of the city instead of into the Tunnel to go to the Southern suburbs, it's too late.

We thought we could deal with that, we don't generally drive in the city but we've walked around it and we just had to follow the GPS right? Yeah, except roadworks had closed off a lot of roads, and our GPS kept telling us to turn around and go down roads we couldn't go down. We eventually managed to work our way south a bit, away from the roadworks, to where we could join the Tunnel. But we couldn't find the entrance in the dark with Saturday night partygoers crowding over the roads and slow GPS and one-way streets, and we went round and round in circles until we finally found our way underground. The whole thing was so stressful! I think we were lost in the city for about an hour. Poor Tim was driving, I certainly don't blame him, I got lost last time I was driving too.

Aside from that we had a nice time at the party. I got to chat with my mum's side of the family who I don't see very often. It didn't have a sit-down dinner but caterers kept circulating with fresh pizza and there was also a lolly table which the kids loved! A lollipop tree, jars of marshmallows and chocolate and lollies, and lovely Ferraro Rocher chocolates.

I had two worries. Firstly my grandfather "Poppa" wasn't there, he is 98 and still lives in his own home and is doing fantastically well for his age but I guess events like this are getting a bit much for him. And secondly my Aunty Mandy. I suppose she is in her 60s but could pass for a fit attractive 40. Slender and always elegantly dressed. I didn't notice anything amiss at first but then a cousin mentioned that Mandy seemed "grumpy" tonight. Then Tim said he thought she was very pale, and indeed she was, a sort of unhealthy white like candle wax under her makeup. Pale and acting a bit unlike herself could both be attributed to some transient illness, no reason to think it was something serious. But then I realised her clothes were wrong.

Normally she wears lovely dresses that show off her figure. But last night at her son's engagement party she was wearing a sack with a belt. Almost shapeless, with arms and legs completely covered. Like someone hiding a dramatic change of shape. I remember my mother getting all puffy when she got cancer, and now I'm really worried. It was her son's party so there's no way she would have spoiled it talking about her health, and I don't like to ask. But I'm worried.

Twenty three: aquarium

Wednesday:

Today we went to the aquarium with Ping and little Emma. It's quite a long trip in, an hour and half to the city (drive to the station, train) and then a few blocks walk. The aquarium was nice, with glowing jellyfish:

and dugongs (how anyone ever mistook them for mermaids I can't understand! Sea cow is a better name):

and those huge tanks where the fish swim over and under and all around you.

The whole place was enormous and you can't leave halfway through, you have to follow the chain of interlocking rooms until the end. Quite tiring! 8700 steps today.

Food was a real challenge today. When we got to the city it was 11:30 and it was decided to have morning tea. Everyone else had pretzels (the big salty bread kind, not the cute little snacks) from a German bakery, I had some nuts left over from the movies the other day instead. I was a bit worried that everyone else was eating a lot so close to when I would normally have lunch, knowing they wouldn't be hungry again for a while but I would be. We went into the aquarium, and at 1:00 Ping suggested quietly to me that we get ice creams from a stall there but I said no we'd be having lunch soon (I wasn't going to have one either way, but I didn't want to let them fill up again and delay lunch more). I totally underestimated the size of the aquarium. We got out at nearly 2:00. I normally eat lunch at noon! And when you are restricting calories you are generally very ready for your next meal at your usual time.

We went to the first place that looked like it had kid-friendly food. I thought it would be ok for me too. Unfortunately it was either heavy on the carbs like burgers and pizza, or crumbed and deep fried. But it was so late and with three tired hungry children I didn't want to push to go elsewhere. I was still trying to decide what would be most adaptable to my low carb plan when Aiden said he would like pepperoni pizza. There was no way he would eat a whole pizza, even a small café one, so I decided to share it with him. There is nothing about pizza that goes with my food plan, but I ate and enjoyed it and it filled my tummy. I am not disappointed in myself, I think I negotiated some pretty tough challenges today, but I am disappointed that it didn't work out the way I would have liked. Especially since I got down to 79.9 kg again this morning and now I might bounce back up! And also the pizza was nice but it wasn't fantastic for something I was breaking my diet for! If I had my druthers I'd have a healthy lunch and a chocolate éclair! Or just the healthy lunch.

What I am most pleased about today is that I got through to 2:00 without having some kind of food-deprived meltdown. When I was eating junk regularly, there was no way I could have gone that long without panicking. I would have felt like I was starving, my blood sugar would have dropped making me cranky, I would have shovelled in whatever calorific food I could get my hands on. I would not have said no to pretzels or ice cream. Today I was hungry, but I was ok. I was more worried about finding food the kids would eat.

B: chicken, cucumber, tea.
S: raw mixed nuts.
L: pepperoni pizza.
S: tea.
D: veal in mushroom sauce, salad.

Excursion

Monday:

I've been needed to go into the city for a while to lodge some forms in person regarding our home purchase (the lawyers would have done it, for a fee! Tim works over the other side of the harbour, so it wasn't practical for him) but have delayed due to the heat, it is going to be cooler this week but also raining so I decided that heat was the lesser evil and went today before the storms started (and not a moment too soon, the clouds rolled in before I'd been back home an hour). I don't mind a bit of rain, but didn't relish the idea of walking around the city in storms and maybe hail.

At that time of morning (after getting the kids to school) there was no parking near the station so I had a bit of a walk, then a train ride of nearly an hour. Australian trains are pretty good, and air conditioned! And it was after peak hour so there was plenty of seats.

My excursion took me to the older part of the city which is rather attractive. Hyde Park:

St Mary's Cathedral (Gothic Architecture was all the rage in Sydney a couple of hundred years ago, I love it):

This is the building I had to go to, quite attractive for a government office:

It took nearly an hour of waiting my turn, but was otherwise easy. I then went to a rather more modern building and had lunch. This was my view upwards through the glass ceiling:

I chose Chinese food, as I often do, and quite often I'm disappointed! I really need to stop thinking it's the easy safe option. It was pretty bad, very greasy and I mainly ate the rice on the side. This seemed to justify trying - as I've wanted to since I heard of them - a cronut! This is a cross between a croissant and a donut. Mine had chocolate cream inside and a macaron on top. OMG it was great. The best pastry I've ever had. Flaky and fluffy and chocolately. Some things are just worth the calories (and the $8.50 price tag).

I did a bit of shopping - it's Tim's birthday next weekend and my sister-in-law Ping AND my niece! But didn't get much. I found the enormous shopping centre - 5 floors over two city blocks - rather overwhelming and I didn't know where anything was or what I wanted to buy anyway. I was tired and hot and wanted to go home. And I had to be home in time for the kids getting home from school.

Here is our Town Hall - more Gothic:

Some river or other we crossed on the train.

Then a hot trudge back to the car with a heavy bag - 10,000 steps today! And back home to collapse. I grew up here in Sydney but in the suburbs, I'm not really a city girl. But it's fun to visit sometimes.

Carols in the park

Monday:

Yesterday we did some unpacking in the morning and played World of Warcraft, then we had some visitors in the afternoon who we hadn't seen for ages. They moved from Canberra to Sydney about a year before we did. It was great to catch up. They rented for a year then bought a house recently, so we mainly talked about the housing market! They brought two big containers of home-made fudge with them to share. Unfortunately (or fortunately!) it wasn't great. The kids had some, Tim and I had one small piece each. They insisted we keep some (they wanted us to keep all) so to be polite I kept some then later shared with other people and tossed the rest out. Life is too short to waste on mediocre fudge, but I think we managed it without hurting any feelings.

In the evening we went to Christmas Carols at the local park. I was really apprehensive about this as it was a stinking hot day, and also the only other time I'd been to that park there had been a million flies, and we all know how I feel about them. But it turned out really nice.

The sun was heading below the trees so we were in the shade, and the temperature was ok at that time of day. There weren't many flies - probably hanging around the sausage sizzle. We had a nice picnic that I had prepared and sat with other family members who we'd arranged to meet. The singing and band from a local church wasn't great and we talked rather than singing along, but it was good to sit in the park and enjoy the festivities.

(I don't know any of these people, it was just a random photo towards the stage area.)

Jasmine and little Emma got their faces painted and Aiden got a pretend tattoo (and also two huge mosquito bites).

Today we went into the city. There were a couple of items people had asked for for Christmas that I couldn't get anywhere else. So we took a child each and did some shopping - the huge department store was pretty awesome - then met up for lunch. We got lucky with the weather, it wasn't as hot as the day before and the rain held off until we were back on the train going home. We came home and collapsed, Tim and I both having a nap. Only a few sleeps until Christmas!