Sir Chinmoy 1/2 Marathon

Got up at 5:30 to chow down my usual pre race breakfast of half a bagel and strawberry cream cheese, Cari zombied out of bed a little while later and we hit the road to Williamstown. This was an important race for me, I've been training hard for it, going from 40km a week up to 55km a week over 5 weeks. It was worth it, I shaved 7 minutes off my 1/2 marathon time. I crossed the finish line in 1 hour 44 minutes 26 seconds. My goal for this race was to get around 1:45, so I was very happy with my time.

Lucky number 561!

Oh yes, I broke out my lucky shark pants, the ladies love them!

Me...cold....

I sense a camera....

Who would dare do such a thing?

Oh, hey babe...

On your mark.... get set....

Go!

Where's dad? I'm hungry....

I'm still hungry and now this crazy lady wont stop taking my picture....

Home stretch! the last few hundred meters were on this beautifully soft track. It was a nice change after running 20km on concrete.

Done like dinner. The course was awesome, pretty much flat the whole time, and it was all along the water and beaches of Williamstown. the fog never lifted so it was a really nice temp to run in after you warmed up. Good times!

Steve (pancakes after a race are awesome) Dickinson

Catching up with Kate...

Kate (my friend from Brisbane) is in Melbourne for the weekend and she came over to visit me yesterday. After sipping tea, eating cookies and banana bread and lots of girl talk, we headed out on a little adventure. Kate took to me to Brighton, an area where she spent some of her childhood and showed me her old stomping grounds. It was really nice to see bits of Melbourne through her memories.

Brighton is a very posh area. The homes are huge and even the landscape is massive! Very beautiful area!

I can see you!

Brighton Beach is the beach where there are a lot of the famous "beach boxes". I've seen them on postcards and heard of them but wasn't sure exactly where to find them. They are basically colorful sheds on the beach where people store their beach stuff. Word is they sell for about
$130 000 each! Can you imagine? Just to store your beach chairs!

They are pretty cool though!

Cari vs. Kangaroo. Round 1.

Just ridin' the wave dude.

Looks like Nova Scotia. Ahhh.

Photo break. Picture taking just makes everything more fun!

A very special spot for Kate and Morgan. Lots of love in this pretty little area!
Again, it reminded me of a tucked away little oasis you might stumble across while exploring the east coast of Canada. It's good and bad that so many things remind me of home. Good, in that it's familiar and feels more like what I love. Bad, in that it makes me terribly homesick for the real thing! I NEED to get a job soon, so I can put my plan of visiting Canada in October into action! I'll post more on the job thing in another post soon!

Thanks for the visit Kate and the tour!

Next weekend, Rej and Clo come to visit from Brisbane. We are so blessed to have friends that visit! Yeah...can't wait!

4 Years...an old married couple!

Yesterday, Steve and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. Thanks to everyone for remembering and all the warm wishes! It means a lot to have people in our life that are so wonderful, they go out of their way to remember our special day! You guys are awesome!

So as you know, or have heard from reading this blog, Steve and I take a photo every year on our anniversary and over time, we'll be able to flip through an album and see how we've changed and aged over the years. I think it was originally Steve's idea and I just love it! Annnnd since we've been married 4 years and not 40, I can still post all the pictures we've taken since our big day! It's a fun way to reminisce!Here's where it all started. One of the bestest days of my life. Perfect in every way and so much fun! Nothing but warm, happy memories surround this day. Even the pouring rain leading up the big day now makes me smile:) Notice how I said "now"?;)

First year anniversary. We lived in Montreal at the time and splurged on a very expensive and VERY filling dinner at 40 Westt. Wow, I can honestly say, I don't think we have ever eaten that much, not before or since that meal! I remember us chuckling at the couple sitting beside us who analysed every bite of food they put into their mouths!

Our second anniversary was in Brisbane and Steve and I went out for dinner downtown on the Brisbane waterfront. Sadly, I don't remember the name of the restaurant and I never wrote it down. The next time I'm in Brissy, I'll have to walk past and get the name (I'll need that for my anniversary photo album that I still need to put together!). I remember that the place was packed and they mixed up our reservation, but we still had a great time!

Our 3rd anniversary, we splurged on a $58 bottle of wine and dinner at watt, a pretty chic little place right on the Brisbane river. We forgot about the picture until after we had our pjs on (too much wine!) but I swear we cleaned up nice for the dinner!

And, that brings us to 4 years! I met Steve at work and surprised him with a Caffe Mocha. From there we went to a house inspection and Steve had made us a dinner reservation for 8:30 pm at a steakhouse that his co-workers recommended. Unfortunately, I had one of the worst headaches I've had in months and we had to cancel dinner and I was in bed by 8:30! Bit of a bummer, but we're going out for dinner and a drink tonight to make up for it!

Lastly, tulips were the flower I wanted at our wedding, as I think they really symbolize spring at home in Nova Scotia and since we had a spring wedding in May (my favorite month at home!), it just seemed fitting. So, to save some money, Steve and I bought a ton of tulip bulbs and my Mom planted them for us in her garden. We figured they could be the flowers that went in vases on the tables and all those extra little places you want to stick flowers at weddings.

My Mom tended to those flowers like they were made of gold, keeping snow on top of them so they wouldn't bloom too quickly and even hanging tarps over them so the rain wouldn't destroy their petals. They were just perfect by the time the 28th came and some even made their way into the bouquets!

What makes it even more special is that now the tulips bloom around our anniversary every year, marking our special day.

My niece, Sara took these photos and emailed them to me on our anniversary. It made me smile and of course, I passed the email onto Steve, who thought it was pretty cool too. Thanks Sara! You're the best!

What can I say, being married just gets better each year! And if I'm not mistaken, I think Steve might just get sexier each year! Shhhh...don't tell him I said that, he's a little shy;)

What a week!

It's been a bit of a rough week, but things are looking up, as they always do! Let's start with the happier, more cheerful bits of my week...

I made this little pin cushion. I figured my bad habit of sticking pins in chair cushions and the arms of the couch was bound to catch up with me one day and I didn't want to risk that! I found the directions on how to make this little cutie here. It was really easy to make! The worst part of the whole experience was choosing which baby food to eat! I used to LOVE baby food (I'm not talking when I was a baby, I'm talking when I lived in Canada, like...2 years ago!). Remember those strawberry and blueberry flavours? Yum! Well, since when did baby food get so...healthy?! I mean it's great for babies, but really bummed this 29 year old out!

In other news, my Nanny Gillmore has been sick in hospital. I want to wish her a speedy recovery. I really miss living closer to home when this sort of stuff is happening.

Lastly, the news that really bummed Steve and I both out at the beginning of the week...We're moving!

No, Steve has not lost his job (knock on wood!).

We've been having an ongoing struggle with our rental agency since we moved in about repairs on the things around the house, mainly the hot tub, but a few other minor things as well. We pay a lot of rent for these services and this week, we were informed that they will not be repairing them and they are not willing to lower our monthly rent to compensate for it. This is a breach in our lease with them, and while we have been told by the tenants board that we are completely in our right to take them to the Tribunal for compensation, Steve and I discussed it and decided to take the agency's offer to allow us to break our lease, without penalty, if we are unhappy. It was a tough decision, as the stubborn side of me did not want to let them off so easy, but in all honestly, I don't want to stay in a house and pay money to a landlord and rental agency that are so dishonest and unprofessional. Like I said to Steve, it's just a house and I don't want to go through this headache every time something needs repair in the coming months. Plus, it won't help now, that they really don't like us!
We have already put an application in on another house and we view another one tonight. One bonus is that there seems to be a lot of homes available right now and prices in rent seem to have dropped, just since we were looking 2 months ago. So, while it's been disappointing, I'm feel positive about moving overall! Hopefully, it will save us money in the long run and we have now learned our lessons about sneaky rental agencies! We've been warned that stuff like this happens a lot in Australia, but we've always been very lucky to rent from good landlords. Beware! The mean, dishonest and unprofessional ones really are out there!

Just to end on a happy note...Steve and I are celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary today:) Hard to believe it's been 4 years already! Of course, I'll post our annual anniversary photo once we've taken it!

Just another wonderful weekend...

We had a busy weekend, meeting up with old friends! On Saturday, we went to Gill's Diner for lunch with some ex-Pandemic employees (a.k.a ex-Pandemites) and their partners. Matt and his partner, Kylie were visiting Melbourne for the weekend and Rowan and Adam both live here. It was nice catching up with familiar faces and getting to know the ladies.

Anara was bracing herself for the flash!

I look a little bit like a rabbit here! That's okay, rabbits are cute, right?:)

After lunch, we went out for more food with the gang, because really, you could just eat and eat and eat in Melbourne! We went for dessert crepes at a tiny little cafe in the city, where the servers speak French and the crepes are made pretty much in front of you. Very good!

All dressed up...with somewhere to go! I met up with my ex-boss and friend (Sonya was my boss at the holistic centre in Brisbane) for drinks at a place called Society on Saturday night. It was a really cool little spot with private little tucked away rooms and great service!

Sonya was in town for work and her cousin, Nita came along for fun. We all had a great time!

Nita and Sonya. They look alike, eh?

On Sunday morning, we headed downtown for a coffee (well, I had an amazing hot chocolate!) at one of the many, many cafes they have tucked away in back alleys. Oh, how I love the alleys! They are always so busy with people sitting at little tables in the middle of the walkways, indulging in fabulous food, drinks and sweets. Blissful.

I've noticed that the leaves are falling in full force these days and look beautiful scattered all over the city streets and parks...

I really enjoy just wondering around the city. There is always something new to see and admire! Sometimes, I wonder if I'll ever feel I've seen all of Melbourne...it seems so big when you're exploring only one little area!

I look like a bug! Are bugs as cute as rabbits?

Now, this just seems like a nifty idea! I want some!

Of course, we ended our day downtown at the market. There isn't a single time that I don't visit the market and contemplate becoming a vegetarian. If it weren't for my already low iron, I think I would in a heartbeat!

Of course, we can't forget Jesse and headed to the park before it got dark. See the post below for more pics!

Hope everyone reading had a wonderful weekend too! xo