I start the day in my favourite way… with a bit of a bake off. Today I try my hand at Orange and Poppyseed Cake. I’ve got a few recipes for this little beauty, all slightly different and being Little Miss Lazy, I choose the one that looks the easiest and with the shortest list of ingredients. It’s my boss Agata’s birthday tomorrow, any excuse for a bit of baking and besides, my colleagues must be craving cake and feeling hungry, I haven’t shared any for at least a week! Agata doesn’t eat chocolate (she’s one of a kind!) so I had to think outside of the box for this one. I hope it tastes as good as it looks!
The sun is shining which is quite a rarity these days so once the cake has cooked we head out into the city to make the most of the day. First stop are the Rocks Markets, which are far and away my favourite Sydney markets, full of arts, crafts and a myriad of Australiana. Our shopping expedition is a roaring success and we get all the gifts that we wanted.
We take a stroll into the city, have lunch at the classiest food court in town, and then work through the rest of our list. We’re done and dusted by mid-afternoon and come home for some R and R and to get bang up to date with The Biggest Loser. It’s really hotting up now.
A few days ago when I was out and about, I saw an ad on a bus shelter for a Nike womens only night run called She Runs the Night. It’s 13km, only for girls, and the route is right round Centennial Park, one of Sydney’s prettiest spots. This is an opportunity too good to resist. It’s the furthest I’ve ever run, but it’s more than a quarter of a marathon, which would be the perfect preparation for the half marathon in September. Best of all, Nike provide a training programme to follow, and a running club I can join in the lead up to the race. How cool is that? I enter and am so excited, I think I could jive with a jelly baby.
There’ s no time like the present to start training so I put on my runners and off I go. I feel the need for speed today and remind myself of the inspirational quote I read on the Nike site “Dig deep. Don’t give up. Everything you need is already inside.” With that, I power on home and knock another minute off my personal best! I’m on fire!
Seeing as I have burnt off a whole heap of calories, I set about acquiring some more at our local Chinese restaurant. Dinner is Szechuan which is spicy and our absolute best! It’s a bit weird to think that our last visit was a post-operative treat. That seems like a lifetime ago now. However, we don’t dwell on the past, we live for the moment and eat drink and get very merry. Dinner is delicious but we eat so much chilli, it’s quite possible that we might overheat and spontaneously combust! The heat is on!
