As avid fans of Jerry Seinfeld, we were stoked to spot an extra show go on sale right when it happened, so we were able to secure super seats to the extra Sydney show. We trained down and stayed at a nearby, very comfortable hotel, had a meal in Chinatown to remind us of Taipei days and had an awesome time at a very funny show. We've also been to various Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) and MusicaViva concerts in the last few months, or Cassy has accompanied her mum.
I went on a flying 4 day visit to Hobart to catch up with Wol and family while they were home for "summer" from Taipei. I stayed at their new place, we had a BBQ or two, visited with Sean, Katie and family as well and generally had a fantastic catchup. Hobart had reverted to type and was cold and dreary: it made us realise yet again how lucky we were with 18 days of perfect weather when we circumnavigated the island last November.
Cass and I decided to give the car a spin for a five day sojourn to some classic mid NSW country towns and stay in luxurious hotels and eat and drink with gay abandon! We'd always wanted to stay at Lillianfels in Katoomba after having a high tea experience there some years ago on a bike trip. The room was huge and fitted out beautifully and we wined and dined at "hatted" restaurant "Echoes" as well as reprising our high tea experience. Of course we also did a mini-hike and rode on all the railways, skyways and cable cars while soaking up the natural ambiance and peaceful bush scenes.
We departed after a couple of days for the equally impressive Byng St Hotel in Orange. Again a favourite of ours from motorbike trips in the past, Orange is a little gem of a country town, just big enough to show off, yet small enough to be quaint and relatively quiet. Our accommodation this time was ultra modern chic, and one of the best places we've stayed. We spent one day exploring the surprising find of the Borenore caves, just a short drive from town, headed to Lake Canobilis for a scenic walk and dined at the equally surprising "Raku" Japanese restaurant, a bustling and authentic "izakaya" just a few blocks from our hotel! We had a fantastic short break and apart from the car getting her bottom scraped on some shocking, pot-holed and uneven roads on the "scenic route" back home, everything worked out even better than we'd expected.
In the past month or two we've decided to institute an "adventure day" into our regular weekly schedule. There's nothing wrong with our almost daily routine, where we go on our 6 km walk along the Bather's Way, up the Memorial Walk and into King Edward Park and back, as well as catching a movie from time to time, Cass visiting her mum or going on a lunch date or me having a swim or surf....sometimes all of the above! We decided to dedicate one day in the week, usually mid-week, to a different adventure. It might be as tame as a lunch out at a nice restaurant or a movie in Gold Class, or may be as adventurous as indoor go-cart racing or ice skating or mini-golf, all of which we've tried recently.
We were both channelling our inner teenager at Hunter Ice Skating, and we remembered very quickly why we didn't continue with it....we were both pretty pathetic but at least we've got lots of room for improvement next time! I found the ice very unforgiving when I cartoon-like flailed my arms and fell on my bum a number of times, but managed to scramble up and keep going. A challenge!
Cass was very skilful at the mini golf and we both managed to get reasonable scores while having a lot of fun at a relatively new course at the old district park tennis complex called Rippit Golf.
The indoor go-kart track was even exciting to look at without the driving and after getting kitted out in our helmets and safety gear and watching an introductory video, we were let loose on the track for our first of two selected races. We had the track to ourselves mid week and midmorning, so we had fun orientating ourselves to the vagaries of the karts, adjusting to the power needed for various turns and hills and we got better as we went along. By the time we'd had a recovery time and started our second session, we were both shaving time off our best lap as we got used to the power and heavy steering. Great fun!
Cass and Valerie are away for 12 days visiting Western Australia. They flew over and are coming back on the famous, legendary train, the aptly named Indian-Pacific. I'm holding the fort here and have lots of time on my hands, partly why I carved out a little time to write this post: usually we're too busy having various adventures!