Melbourne - Pictorial Pleasure

Warning! This post contains many, many photos. I promise that I have tried to downsize the number of images that I am sharing here, however whenever I travel I want to try and capture the feeling of a moment so that I can remember at a later date. Perhaps it is the thrill of discovery, or the comfort of rounding a corner to a familiar and loved spot that is already full of memories, or maybe just attempting to trap the beauty that can be found when you just stop to actually look where you are rather than just rushing past.
The beauty is in the journey, not just in the destination.

Introducing Melbourne:

The view from our hotel room

I'll take the top floor apartment thanks!

The Royal Exhibition Building

Maybe I'll take this apartment instead. I love the modern aesthetic and different textures.

The famous Melbourne trams. Nice, but I'd rather walk

The marina at St. Kilda - great part of Melbourne. Fantastic breakfast at Phamish.

Views of the city from Southbank precinct.

Restaurant under the bridge - on my list for next time



Old beauty and new beauty - St. Paul's Cathedral and Federation Square



More beauty - Jess and Mama Chickpea

Pretty lights inside the casino

One of the many arcades in Melbourne - shops and chocolate abound!



Street scape

Some food (more to come in following posts)

Local butter. Big slabs of creamy yellow buttery deliciousness.

Mangosteens. I've never tasted these. Probably nothing like mangos though.

Delicious breakfast number one from Kinfolk cafe - creamy oatmeal
with yoghurt and poached pear and rhubarb. So perfect.

Cupcakes at David Jones Food Hall.
Visual sugar coma.

 So there you have some of the highlights of Melbourne. There are more food pictures to come as Mum was in charge of digital caloric capture. I was far too busy enjoying the capture of calories in my mouth. There was not a bad meal, never a dull moment and I feel so lucky to have enjoyed a wonderful holiday with two of my best friends. We have never shared a holiday like this before and I hope we get a chance to repeat it very soon. Thank you ladies for your company, your assistance with doing a bit of damage to my credit card and for being two of the most beautiful people I have the pleasure of knowing.
Let's go somewhere warm next time though...

Day Three: A Day of Eats and Treats!

Hello to all my new readers! I promise when I get back home that I will be able read and enjoy all your wonderful comments, please don't think that I am ignoring you, I just haven't got access to quality technology this week.
Today we went to St. Kilda for breakfast. Phamish was the spot, Jessica and I discovered it last year whilst holidaying in Victoria and we loved it so much that we returned for breakfast three times in the one week. We decided that Mum's trip to Melbourne would not be complete without enjoying breakfast in this beach esplanade spot. I had delicious oatmeal with caramelised banana that was perfect for starting out this chilly morning.
We then headed down Acland St. for some retail enjoyment, passing by the gorgeous European cake and pastry shops and taking in the sight of the sugary confections displayed for passing customer's delight. I particularly liked the look of the white chocolate and hazelnut flourless cake and the towers of macarons in one shop window.
We caught a tram back to the city after making some purchases and headed to our high tea at the Langham Hotel. The atmosphere inside the hotel was beautiful; chandeliers, marble and sumptuous carpeting. The gluten free high tea was wonderful and Mum and Jess report that the classic high tea was just as lovely. I really enjoyed the almond and chocolate layer cake and the traditional scones with jam and clotted cream.
We then took a slow walk back to the city centre, stopping to marvel at Federation Square (pictures to come, I promise) and the city skyline. After some more coffee to brace ourselves against the cold we wandered through the laneways a little and picked up some bits and pieces for those at home and then made our way back to change for dinner.
Mum, Jess and I met some family friends at the RACV club for dinner, and everything was lovely. I had eggplant and ricotta involtini dressed with a tomato and capsicum puree for my main meal and a chocolate mousse for dessert which was so divine that it somehow all disappeared from my plate very quickly!
Tomorrow we are off to explore the laneways that define Melbourne, and do just a little more damage to our credit cards. No doubt there will be more delectable food tomorrow as well and I'm hoping to squeeze in a quick run in the afternoon, one of my favourite ways to see a city other than my own.
Goodnight!

Day Two: King Tut and Italian Delights

Here we are on the evening of our second day in Melbourne!
Today Mum, Jess and I braved the cold and headed up to the Queen Victoria Markets and were rewarded with fantastic coffee and beautiful fruit toast. The food halls are always my favourite part and there were so many delicious cheeses and antipasti (think mascarpone stuffed figs and apricots - yummy!), was a little too early for that though so I made do with some wonderful Greek yoghurt and muesli.
Then we headed to Lygon St., which is the Italian district, lined with restaurants, each offering a bounty of fresh and flavoursome food. I discovered a great spice shop which yielded some amazing flavours of salt and sugar to experiment with when I return to my home kitchen.
We had lunch at a wonderful family run Italian restaurant where we were the willing audience to some talented pizza tossing. The risotto con funghi was amazing too.
Then we headed to the museum and saw the Tutankhamun exhibit which was breathtaking. There is nothing that compares to the feeling of seeing something that truly is timeless, 3500 year old artifacts remind you how brief our time is here and how much we all want to be remembered when we are gone. Art is eternal culture. Looking at the pieces left behind by these people causes me to think about what I would like to leave behind, what would the pieces of my life cause people to think about how I lived, how I loved when I am no longer here?
Dinner was a quiet affair (more chocolate was involved) and tomorow we are off to breakfast at one of my favourite restaurants and to high tea for Mum's belated birthday surprise!

Coming to You Live from Melbourne!

Thank you everyone for all your congratulations and the wonderful comments on my last post.
I really enjoyed the half marathon and now I'm thinking of signing up for another one in October!
This morning my Mum and sister and I woke up early (3 a.m) again, this time to go to the airport and catch a flight to Melbourne.
Talk about a reward for crossing the finish line yesterday.
Today we took it pretty easy and just shopped the day away. Tomorrow we will be engaging in more cultural pursuits; checking out the local markets and seeing the Tutankhamun exhibit at the Melbourne Museum. I am really excited to see this as I am a massive ancient history nerd.
Now off to find some dinner, hopefully it will involve gelati!

Oops!

So it seems that my time was actually 2:13:50.
Must have been those oats this morning.

What Does 2:17:59 Really Mean?

2:17:59.
Two hours, seventeen minutes and fifty nine seconds.
I am officially a half marathon finisher as of about 8:30 this morning.

After much angst I toed up to the line this morning, looking a little something like this:

Note: fearful smile and lack of make up

It really was a perfect morning to go out for a run; the sun was just coming up, there was a slight breeze coming in across the bay and it was exactly the right temperature.

Mum took this picture of the marina while she and Dad were waiting for me.

We ran along the streets of the Gold Coast, winding through suburbs where people were just waking up ready to start their Sunday morning. It was so wonderful to see all the support that people showed each and every runner; family and friends had made signs for their loved ones, but no runner was left out, there was a cheer or a smile for every person out pounding the pavement this morning. 

I really can't remember every single kilometre, in fact I don't even own a Garmin or a sports watch for that matter so I couldn't tell you time splits or any other interesting technical stuff like that. I do however remember that whenever I thought that I couldn't keep going there was someone who crossed my mind and lifted me up, and made that next step possible.

I want to say that this 2:17:59 was only made possible because of all the support I have received over the past three months, and especially in the last week as the starting line has loomed closer and closer.

As I stood at the starting line I thought of the lovely emails, blog comments, text messages, hugs, pats on the back and phone calls I have received in the last week encouraging me and inspiring me.

My beloved emailed me this morning telling me to embrace the butterflies because I would want to remember the feeling of standing at the starting line and to savour every moment of the run. Thank you darling and I did. Every breath reminded me that it is wonderful to be alive, to be able to run and to have a gorgeous morning racing into breathlessness. 

I remembered every other person who has trod these 21.1 kilometres before me, their footfalls chanted in my mind 'you can do it', 'you are doing it', 'you really are doing it'. Thank you to all of my darling blog buddies who have sent me messages of support in the past couple of days. You were right, it was worth it!

Thank you to my wonderful Casey and Matt who helped me carb load last weekend. Especially Casey who nursed me through my first ever real run (5 minutes on the treadmill in 2005) - thanks for starting me on the journey.

Thank you to Lauren who helped me keep going with training when we would both turn up to work blistered and sore.

Thank you to my patients who supported me in achieving my goals, especially some of my breast cancer survivors. This road was nothing compared to what you have been through.

My beautiful sister who wrote a huge note on the bathroom mirror this morning wishing me luck and never doubted that I would cross the finish line.

Thanks to my Mum and Dad who drove me down the coast in the pre-dawn light, waited for me, and gave me huge hugs as I crossed the finishing line and always taught their daughters that they could do anything they put their minds to.

That's me all in black with the red hat. 

Thank you also to this brave and wonderful girl. My Molly. This one was for you.

Brave and Beautiful - how does she do it?

So now, sitting back with my coffee and banana bread with raspberry jam, 21.0975km behind me this morning I wonder what I have learnt from this experience. Allow me some nostalgia, I'm just like that sometimes.

I have learnt: you should never underestimate yourself. You are greater than the sum of your parts, just when you think there isn't any more, there is, so much.

I have learnt: no matter what road you walk, run, wheel, hop or crawl; you are never alone. All those who love you are never really far, they are carrying you more than you know.

I have learnt: to embrace my fear. There is learning there, and pride, and uncharted parts of Amy left to discover.

Lauren and I, sweaty and happy! (She did it in an awesome 2:07!)

So thank you everyone who believed in me. Every step of every mile I felt you there.

Here's to the next 13.1 miles.

Running for Molly

This Friday is one of tumultuous emotions, in fact if someone could find the elephant that seems to have taken up residence in my stomach and return him to the wild I would be most appreciative.

I am a talker so I’m just going to use this space today to air a few of these emotions and hopefully this pesky pachyderm will leave me alone.

Firstly, my nerves are a little on edge because of the half marathon on Sunday. My poor loved ones are probably sick of hearing about how nervous I am, and I am possibly making it worse for myself by focusing on the nerves but that is just how I am reacting to the anticipation of that starting line. Once I start out I know that I will be okay, it’s just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other, and repeat, for 21 kilometers. So on Sunday at 9am when it’s all over, expect a blog post on how silly I am feeling for being nervous.

Then this afternoon after having sushi for lunch with my half marathon buddy, the gorgeous Lauren, I received a call that Molly has had to go back into surgery. After being hit by a car on my Mum’s birthday and breaking her leg we thought she was on the mend and dealing quite well with the plate the vet had attached to her broken femur. However, somehow last night she twisted and the plate has come undone inside her leg and her leg is re-broken. So this afternoon they are removing her leg. Molly will officially now be an amputee athlete. I know that it is all for the best and in about a week and a half the vet has told us that she will be running around like she is training for the Iditarod and outrunning me again.

It’s just a little sudden, that’s all and I hate seeing her suffer. It's hard because you can't explain to her why these things are happening and that everything will be okay.

Seeing this all in writing now has really put everything into perspective. A few little nerves are nothing compared to what Molly is going through.  

Molly I’m going to do those 21 kilometers for you on Sunday.

Then I’m going to come home and we can recovery eat together.

Yoghurt and granola for me, honey on toast for you.

Yes, you can have extra honey.

Speaking of honey, today is my beloved’s birthday.

Happy Birthday Darling!

I wish I could be there to celebrate, but it won’t be long now until I am over the other side of the Pacific Ocean watching the sunset with you.

I apologise for the lack of Fallen in Love With…Friday and for using the blog as a therapy couch today, but this has really helped put everything in perspective.