Uncouched Potato

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." - Albert Camus Today was a lovely summer day in the middle of winter.   25 degrees in July, I could smell summer in the air already. Had an ice cream after lunch, this was all too good to be true. The smell of summer, at least for me, gave me a sense of happiness. It's as if good things will happen in summer. You feel more active, energetic and alive. I am pumped... I am ready for summer. Of course people feel differently and have different preference to each season. I don't know why I prefer summer. Maybe summer clothes are nicer, maybe I get cold more easily than getting warm, or maybe Aussie Christmas Day is in summer and I get a few days off work. The recent warm and windy weather created a "hairdryer effect" that melted part of the snow from the Aussie Alps in the past 3 days as shown in the pictures below. Probably not the best pl...

After an exhausting week, I was looking for a short walk and decided to do the Blue Gum Walk in Hornsby, also known as Joe's Mountain Circuit. We started from Hornsby station. Fought off the temptation of Westfield on one side of the station, I dragged myself to the other side of the station towards Dural St, then Quarry Rd, connecting to the Great North Walk. The walk went down a set of stone steps to Rosemead Rd picnic area, then continued to the bushland on the opposite side of the park. The first part of the Blue Gum Walk mainly consisted of fire trail through the blue gum forest. The track led to the fishpond. We relaxed at the fishpond to take a few photos and enjoy the peacefulness and the magnificent view of the reflection from the pond. After climbing up and down some big rocks, we got to the Waitara Creek crossing, passing some interesting rock formation and "the spa". ...

We started the walk from Girrakool Picnic area in this freezing morning. I was planning to bail on this walk due to the strong wind, cold temperature, and shower the day before. After a few threats from my friend, I thought I better turn up. First we did the Girrakool loop, a short and easy walk passing the Aboriginal rock engraving site, Illoura lookout, Andamira lookout, and waterfalls. The loop goes back to the picnic area. We started the walk again on the Piles Creek loop track, through the bushlands, down to the Phil Houghton Bridge. We had our picnic lunch next to Piles Creek, underneath the bridge. The view was very picturesque and the surrounding was very calm. There was a bit of a tiring climb up to Scopas Peak. Luckily the weather was pretty cool which didn't make the climb as strenuous or dehydrating.   The sun was breaking through the clouds by then, shinning on the views ...

It has been a year since I signed up for Meetup last July. Just want to share some of my thoughts and stories. http://www.meetup.com/ The first half of 2013 I was suffering from depression. Being an introvert, I have a small social circle. From that small circle, friends were getting married, having babies, or moving overseas to work. It felt like everyone was moving forward with their lives and I was stuck on the same spot. More and more people were becoming unavailable to me. I felt I have not achieved anything, nothing to look forward to, no motivation for anything. My only life outside of work and family was tennis and yoga. My little crush on a guy at tennis who never made eye contact with me was the highlight of my weeks. I was so unmotivated to even go out. Eating or coffee out was difficult even though I live 10 minutes away from the shops by foot. Crossing the Pacific Highway was just too much bother. My psychologist recommended me to go out and meet n...

From my experience of this walk a year ago, I remembered it to have numerous painful climbs up and down steep hills and rocks. Last time we walked from Cowan to Mt Kuring-gai, the station after Berowra. I thought if I managed to do that, this walk should be much easier. Although from memory, Cowan to Berowra Waters was the most difficult part. The rest wasn't as bad. Once the climb started, I realised the climb was as painful as I have remembered. I don't think I have become any fitter since the last time I attempted this walk. We caught the ferry from one side to the other side for lunch. It is a cable ferry that connects Berowra Waters and Berowra Heights. It take people and vehicles, and takes only about 2 minutes to get to the other side. After having lunch at Berowra Waters, and watched Cate Blanchett walked onto her boat, we continued our walk. I assured others that the second part of the walk is no...

The long waited Game of Thrones Exhibition hit Sydney on 1st of July to 5th July 2014, just in time to ease people's GoT withdrawal when season 4 ended 2 weeks ago. Took half a day off work so I can make it to the first day of the exhibition, before any of my friends has the chance to. It sounded like a good idea until I got there and lined up behind a sign that said "4 hours from this point".   Already took time off work and made an effort to get there, so I put my head down and stood in the line at 2pm.   4 hours wait became 5.5 hours wait. From daylight to freezing night fall we counted down the sign posts from 4 hr to 3 hr to 2 hr to 1 hr. Finally we are in at 7:30pm!   A very small exhibition showcased many artefacts, costumes and weapons from the production. It also highlighted the key characters, relationships and places from the show. The most exciting part of the exhibition was to experience the ...