It’s been a busy couple of days. It all started on Thursday when I went to get my hair cut and coloured. My normal stylist Katherine at Broadway Hair Lounge was on vacation, so instead I got the lovely Ruth. Ruth was fantastic! We did a whole head of foils, most blonde but with some darker brown throw in as well (to help even it out closer to my natural colour). Then she gave me a great cut. I love it, and judging by the comments on Facebook, everybody else did too!
Friday was momentous. It was my last day at work at Mobile Embrace. Can you believe it’s been three years? Three years since I got laid off and then got a new job two days later. I don’t even look like my security pass anymore! My friend Kunaal organised a lovely lunch for me at Bibim to mix, a nice Korean restaurant on William Street. Fifteen of my co-workers came along, which was very touching. I managed to get all my work done and handed over, and then it was time to shut down for the last time! Sean even made me an artwork to commemorate the occasion. My new job starts Monday morning, and I’m looking forward to it…
Saturday morning we were up bright and early for the first ever official St. Peters Parkrun. This is a free weekly timed 5K run that takes place all over the world. The Snook and I rode over on our bicycles, which marked the first time we’d ridden to/through Newtown. There were 60+ runners all gathered for the run. I saw my friends Paul and Adina from Dailymile, and Fiona joined us as well. We took it very easy, doing 2:1 run/walk intervals around the course and finishing in 38:45. (My knee is still a bit dodgy.) It was great fun! We’re hoping to take part each week. Paul took some fantastic photos of us during and after the event. We then had a nice ride back to Chippendale to recover.
And today brought even more bike riding! We rode our bikes to St. Peters again for the free City of Sydney Cycling Confidence course. There were seven of us plus two instructors. We had a quick chat inside about “theory” (such as where to ride on the roads, how to communicate effectively with drivers, how to be a gracious cyclist) and then a basic skills check out in the parking lot (braking, signaling, changing gears, etc.). And then we were off on a tour of Sydney! We took back streets and bike lanes through Alexandria, Waterloo, Redfern, and Surry Hills. At various places we stopped to talk about traffic situations and to practice drills on the street. We also had a rest stop in a park, complete with snacks. I finished the course feeling a LOT more confident about riding in the city, and I definitely recommend the course to anybody in Sydney! We’re already booked into the Bike Maintenance course in three weeks.
