Sydney

Another Day Trip

7 Comments Posted on June 24, 2019June 23, 2019 by Snoskred

Last week we took a train trip up to Sydney. While The Other half has been going to uni on the train, he never gets to make the full trip so this time we went right into Central together.

When I make a daytrip like this, I like to set goals otherwise I can easily get lost in looking at everything – whether it be shops, food, or landmarks. This time we had exactly four goals –

1. Visit Uniqlo for heat tech layers for me. Achievement unlocked. I got two things – this one you see below was especially great to buy on a super cold day.

I’ve been wearing regular and extra warm heat tech turtle necks for over a year now and they are brilliant in highly airconditioned environments where you are not the one in charge of the temperature. They are awesome in winter when you have to be outside, especially as layers under a Ghanda hoodie.

My goodness, they do an incredible trade in this place. Visit at lunch time at your personal peril. So many people, so little space, so many clothes, so much awesomeness. I do have a Uniqlo regret though – I wish I’d bought this fluffy thing above. It was fluffy on the inside as well and the price was pretty awesome.

2. Eat lunch with a friend who works in the city. Achievement unlocked. No photos because we went to a private dining room in a special building where they work. ;)

3. Drop into Sephora to explore their sale. Achievement unlocked.

4. Find new work shirts for The Other Half – when you’ve been wearing a uniform for over 10 years and suddenly you have to wear your own clothes there is a good chance you don’t have a big range of clothes to choose from. Especially so in the case of The Other Half who has lost about 10kg over those 10 years. Achievement denied. EPIC FAIL WHALE.

The Other Half was very specific with what he wanted – must be short sleeve – must be one of four or five colours he is happy to wear – must be 100% cotton (or 98% with 2% something else) – must not have checks, stripes, or a boring pattern – can have very random patterns.

This shirt from Zara would have been perfect if it were the right fabric. Especially the style of collar was appreciated. But the material was very thin and not quite right.

While some of the shirts were very funny – eg the prawn shirt seen below – most of them did not fit his criteria. Or when they did, they were in a wrong material, like this Kenji koi shirt which we found in black but it is rayon.

We went to all the possible places. Topman, Zara Man, H&M, Myer, David Jones, various random menswear places we found in our travels. We did find things to try on in a couple of these stores but the result was never a win. The cut was wrong, or the shape was off, or the fabric turned out to be thinner than The Other Half is ok with.

Admittedly, you likely will find a larger range of short sleeve shirts in the summer but FYI stores, some guys can’t tolerate long sleeves even in winter, some offices run quite warm and short sleeves are needed..

Anyway on the way home I suggested we hop off the train in Wollongong and see if we had more luck there. We checked TKMaxx – not one short sleeve collared shirt to be found. Then we checked Target and finally had a win – a couple of shirts and a pair of pants were purchased.

We had a lovely day out together, it was NICE TIME. :) Now that The Other Half has dropped back to working 2 days a week, it means we have a little more time together to do some things we’ve wanted to do for a while.

Sydney

A Day Trip

4 Comments Posted on June 3, 2019June 2, 2019 by Snoskred

Since February, twice a week The Other Half has been catching the train to University. While completely not envying the crack of dawn wakeup call he has been doing to achieve this, I have been envying the train trips. Especially as I have to get up quite a bit earlier on these days to enjoy my morning coffee which he makes for me before he leaves.

My schedule has not allowed me to join him for the most part but then came a week when I had the right day off, and I decided to make a day of it and head up to Sydney. I would have just over 5 hours there before I had to get on the train to return back home. Here are a selection of photos from my day out.

My very first stop was Starbucks but this was totally by accident. By the time I extricated myself from Town Hall station I was pointing in the wrong direction and ended up near World Square where I checked Google Maps to work out my way back to QVB. As I stood there I spotted Starbucks across the road.

I had the Cinnamon Dolce latte. I am a sucker for anything cinnamon and this was *very* cinnamon. Delightful! My nails are gold ombre glitter which lights up rainbow coloured in the right lighting.

Sufficiently caffeinated, I headed back towards QVB where I planned a general look around and wander. The first shop I spotted was Haighs and being a former Adelaide girl, I had to stop in for some dark chocolate frogs. I really wanted one of these dark Murray Cod with the beautiful foil wrapping too, but they were very large and a bit up money! The staff member gave me a couple of dark round discs for chocolate tasting as I left and they were most delicious.

My main goals for the day were simple – there were two. Go to Daiso, try on lipstick at Sephora. I was sidetracked by Bath and Body Works, where I bought some stuff and asked them to keep it aside for me so I could grab it on my way back to catch the train. I got a couple of handwash pumps and some antibacterial hand sanitisers..

I’ve been wearing lipstick to my new job and enjoying it. I last bought lipstick around 17 years ago – Revlon Colourstay in Faithful Fawn – and would you believe it still works just fine. I only used it a couple of times a year for the next 10 years or so and always marvelled when it still worked but I had not touched it at all in 7 years, not even for job interviews or special occasions.

Perhaps as a result of lack of regular use the seal on the clear lipgloss section appears to have become less awesome. I can still use it but I need to wash my hands afterwards as the barrel is a little sticky now.

I’d bought one Revlon lipstick “Endless Spice” on our recent Canberra trip – because Faithful Fawn appears to be no longer available. I was lucky because the shade does work for me. I was feeling ready to experiment a little and see what new things are available, in 17 years technology has come a long way and so it seems has makeup.

For the most part the lipstick I buy – Revlon Colourstay and it does stay until you remove it with a special remover! – you can’t really try on in shops even though they have testers out. I’m not a put it on the back of my hand person, before I can tell if a shade will work for me I need to put it where it will go, on the lips. And it is an expensive exercise to buy one then find out I hate it.

My understanding was Sephora is different when it comes to this kind of thing but I had no idea just how much so. When I managed to snag myself a staff member, they showed me where the disposable lip brushes, cotton buds, tissues and makeup remover were and told me I was free to try on as many lipsticks as I liked. I’d heard very good things about the Kat Von D range and all the lipsticks had names my other half would love, but I did not find a shade I felt suited me.

I ended up buying two shades from the Sephora collection. They are a bit more bold than I would usually wear so they are reserved for the days when I am feeling super confident. Unlike the Colourstay ones which have a base colour and then a lip gloss that goes over the top, these are a one application deal and they do stay on extremely well.

I was in there for over an hour trying on shades and then grabbing the other stuff I wanted – the makeup remover was brilliant so I got that, lip liner, a lip scrub, a lip mask, and some hand masks for the winter as the ones I bought last year I have used over and over again many times. I’m definitely putting some cotton buds into my handbag for chemist visits in the future as I do want at least one more colourstay shade.

Next up was a wander down to Daiso where I picked up a few things including a gorgeous carp tote bag.

I wonder what this diffuser would smell like?

A quick stop for lunch, a wander around Zara and H&M – Zara had a gorgeous bright orange coat which I should have bought but I said no. I picked up my bath and body works, grabbed a Starbucks to go, and ventured back to the train station feeling like this was a successful day out in general.

Sydney

Recently In SnoskredLand

4 Comments Posted on October 29, 2018October 28, 2018 by Snoskred

Last week a work colleague and I went to a conference in Manly. We caught the train, meaning a very early wakeup at 5:30am, and a very early train at 6:43am, in order to get to Sydney in time to catch a ferry to Manly and then be at the hotel for a bus at 11:45am.

I’m sure reading that someone might say.. why didn’t you drive, Snoskred? All of our recent experiences with Sydney Traffic, the fact that it costs an arm and a leg to park the car, the sheer inconvenience of trying to get to Manly in a car are all reasons why driving was a big no.

My colleague was not feeling well and had only managed a few hours sleep the night before.. So on the way up we chose a quiet carriage so she could sleep and I could enjoy the views. The more I travel on the train the more I like it. I don’t use devices or headphones, I just enjoy the view.

On arrival at Manly wharf I suggested gelato and this was in fact a perfect start to my conference. They do not have Messina there, it was Gelatissimo and it was pretty good. We had no idea what the plan was for the day – unfortunately this was not a sign of a delightful surprise but a sign of a general lack of organisation overall.

Though they did thoughtfully schedule in dancing. Having been up since 5:30am, having walked quite a lot between different locations at Q Station plus up a very large hill to get back to the bus pickup point..

..having an ill colleague, having no scheduled “nap time” and having been fed mainly carbs since lunch time – the protein offered at lunch was Not Optimal and had also been sitting out on a balcony for who knew how long but I certainly was not going to risk food poisoning.. I was not exactly in the mood for dancing at 8:10pm.

What we really wanted was to get back to the hotel and get some sleep before yet another early wake up call the next morning. Unfortunately nobody had thought perhaps folks might be tired and wanting to get back, so there was no bus scheduled to take us back until 10:30pm. We did manage to talk the bus driver who dropped us off to come back a little bit earlier to collect us, and though he was running a little late we at least got back to the hotel before 10pm where we fell asleep very quickly.

The next day flew by and we were at Gelato Messina grabbing a quick gelato before we knew it. Then we were back on the train for the long journey home. I met a lot of very interesting people – our field is definitely one that attracts artistic and quirky people with a large range of skills – everything from photoshop to sales to copyright law to teaching people how to use technology they are not familiar with.

Back at home, nothing much had changed. My succulent wreath is growing up a storm –

Chooks were getting their treats..

Kitties were posing for photos..

But this one was happy that my lap returned, for her to sit on.

Sydney

Train Day

8 Comments Posted on September 24, 2018September 23, 2018 by Snoskred

When my Aunt arrived here in August we had talked about some things we would like to do while she was here. My Uncle had once caught the train down the coast after arriving at the airport and he enjoyed his train trip. I have always wanted to take the train just to experience it, and my Aunt was curious to see what it was like after hearing so much about it.

So we planned our train ride for a Sunday when Opal fares are a tiny $2.70 for everyone travelling. It is a great day to take long train rides. But perhaps 6 hours on the train may be too much for most people. It is 3 hours to Sydney and 3 hours back to the South Coast.

I had been researching possible lunches and we ended up meeting my training-to-be-a-pilot nephew at Din Tai Fung which is a lot of carefully made dumplings and wontons. I think we ordered too much, but we did manage to eat it all.

As we sat and ate we looked up to see the Sydney – whatever they are calling it now. Tower Eye? It will always be Centrepoint to me.

After that we had a lot of shops we wanted to see and very limited time – Uniqlo was first on the list because I wanted to look more closely at the puffer vests. I have become a big puffer vest person since finding a suedey one at W.Lane which I could wear to work – I need it there, because it is so dang cold all the time.

My Aunt found the color she wanted in her size and they were having a sale so BONUS.. It was around this time that my nephew chose to take his leave as perhaps puffer vest shopping is not the most exciting thing in the world. :)

I was not quite so lucky, but right next to where we were standing was a shelf of beige suedey vests with hoods. I did not want a hood, so I asked one of the staff to see if they could find the silver one in my size. She had to get a ladder and check the top shelf, then out the back. When she came back she could not find it in my size. I asked if she happened to have the suedey one in other colours or perhaps without a hood – she said no BUT then she showed me the hood comes off. Plus it was half price, so I was sold.

It is plush and not a colour I would usually pick. Then my Aunt tells me she is going to buy it for me as a gift and I said well in that case I can’t possibly wear it, I will have to put it into a glass case and hang it on the wall in order to treasure it forever. :) However I have worn it twice now, both times without ruining it forever by dropping food on it. I was very glad to have it in Canberra as it got super cold while we were there.

Next we went to Sephora – being not a makeup person this is a shop I had never been to in my life before. I was looking for their hand masks which are a glove filled with moisturiser. I found them, and bought two, one each for me and The Other Half to try. He is struggling with the cold weather causing his hands to dry out and crack. This was not perhaps the best choice of shop to visit for my Aunt, who went a little cuckoo picking out various awesome things. They do not have Sephora in Adelaide.

These hand masks turned out to be 100% fabulous and well worth the $$ – I highly recommend these though I believe in store they were $7 each. I found them to be reusable and have used the avocado one three times already. The Other Half finally tried his and he is a believer too, though he thinks having two weeks off from work might have helped his hands repair themselves somewhat.

Next we dropped into H&M for a quick wander about. I was fascinated by the earrings many of which seemed like they would be very heavy to wear, like this pair which are clip on earrings. I rarely see those anymore!

But it turns out these are made of a very light metal and actually are some of the lightest earrings I have ever experienced. Spoiler alert, I ended up getting a pair like this when we visited Canberra for Floriade. I could not resist them as they were flowers.

A quick walk through the Myer fragrance hall which was absolutely packed with people, we could barely move, which surprised me. It was Fathers Day, did everyone just leave their shopping a bit late, or is it normal for this to be so packed on a Sunday?

We grabbed a coffee and then went to the train station way too early, as those of us who have so far to travel and are a bit worried about missing the train home likely tend to do. Just over three hours later we arrived back at Bomaderry Station and then home to my parents for a Sunday Roast which was very delicious.

It was a good experience and useful for me as I have to go to a conference in Manly in October, and there is NO WAY I am driving anywhere near Sydney, so I intend to catch the train. That is overnight so at least it will be 3 hours travelling on the train each day and likely a work colleague will be travelling with me.

shopping, Sydney

One Night In Parramatta, Part 2

4 Comments Posted on July 30, 2018July 22, 2018 by Snoskred

A quick stop at L’Occitane in The Rocks to replace my two handbag hand creams. I’ve been out of my handbag Verbena for a few months now, and it was good to replenish this. The scent is unbelievable. As I am a member, and it was Bastille Day, you got an extra little bonus gift for saying a French word. Croissant was my choice. All those primary school french lessons paying off at last? Well no, because everyone knows Croissant. :)

We also visited the Rocks Markets which were so incredibly packed. I have never seen so many people try to navigate a small area like that before. It was essentially several single file queues moving slowly in between some market stalls. No photos, because it was insanity of the highest order. We were very glad to get out of there alive.

Back to Circular Quay then on the train to Central, then on the train to Parramatta. I was surprised at how easy Central was to navigate, considering it is a massive train station with lines going everywhere. 25 platforms is a bit more than I grew up with in Adelaide – where I think from memory we had 11 or 12, but really only the 4 lines and you couldn’t mess it up because they went in very different directions. Here, some of the lines cross over and a train might stop at the station you want to go to, or it might not.

The water fountain for kids to play in lights up at night. How pretty! Nobody was playing in it, because it was very very cold. The next morning it was a hangout birdbath for the local pigeons.

Back to our hotel and it was a lovely view of after-sunset from the windows.

We headed up to the club room for late afternoon coffee, canapes, cheese and crackers, and various other treats which were very filling. Not pictured are the butter chicken filo pastries, the arancini, the beetroot tartlets, and several other small treats. We were too busy enjoying the food to take many photos and these were an afterthought. One reason why it can sometimes be good value to pick a club room stay is because you can save money on eating out and drinks. By the time we’d spent an hour here we did not need dinner.

You can also save on drinks – alcoholic drinks were available if you wanted them, mostly wine and beer, but there was also a range of soft drinks available and you can take what you need back to your room. You can visit the room as often as you like during your stay, and the room itself is a lovely sanctuary to spend some time on very comfortable furniture.

There is always room in my stomach for Gelato Messina, though. Was it too cold for gelato? Is it ever too cold for gelato? My usual salted caramel and white chocolate teamed with chocolate sorbet. I’m faithful to that order, if they have those flavours I do not even have to take a moment to think.

The next morning we were up super early for breakfast. 7am start. There was a large conference of young religious people from America staying in the hotel. Apparently we need evangelism here in Australia, or something, but they team it up with lots of tourism and that is a win for these young folks, I think.

The reason I am mentioning this is because, the last time I was here, people were in their pyjamas getting breakfast. These people were some of the best dressed breakfast eaters I have ever seen. The men were mostly in suits, mainly floral dresses for the ladies. It was Sunday morning so these may have been going to church outfits. I enjoyed my breakfast, and the outfits, even the gingham little house on the prairie 3 layer ruffle skirt looks. Yes, I wish I had got a photo but I did not even take my phone with me, preferring the Pillow Safe.

The next stop for us was Westfield Parramatta. Mainly for a wander and explore. I wanted to check out Daiso because I knew that was there, but the rest of the stores were mostly a surprise. We spent time in Zara to see if they had a new jacket for The Other Half (no but we will find it one day) – Uniqlo and Kathmandu to find new warmer work clothing for me – in my Year Of Buying Nothing, I am not counting work clothing FYI, as it is a non-optional spend and some of it I do get reimbursed for.

We could have spent hours in Daiso just wandering about. Some useful items were found – mainly bulldog clips and lanyards. We probably could have spent hours in front of this particular section – the oil and water flip over thingies.

I had never seen a two colour one of these before. Perhaps we do not get this kind of thing on the South Coast of NSW, or maybe I just don’t spend enough time looking around. We must have stood there flipping these things over for 20 minutes or more. Yes we are easily amused.

One final stop at Bath and Body Works, where all this goodness cost me the not-very-huge sum of $92. They were having a sale, and these were bargains. The four orange bottles alone should have cost me $100 by themselves, but they were buy 3 get one free. I normally have to get Sephyroth to ship these in from the USA for me, as they used to be even more up money here and I love the scent. Orange and Ginger is my favourite, it is a real wake up smell.

The black cherry merlot hand cream and hand wash were a last minute grab as they had all the flavours at the cash register without lids on and one sniff of this told me it was that fake cherry kool aid smell that I deeply love. The hand cream has joined the L’Occitane in my handbag, and my hands will be sufficiently moisturised and scenty for many future months.

One final stop on the way home – to Leichhardt for The Peanut Butter Bar! Maybe you heard of this on Facebook, the place with the peanut butter tap? We had a protein shake each and shared the protein peanut butter pancakes for lunch. They were amazing. The gelato has protein in it!

I am a big believer in what they are doing, which is essentially this “From gelato and pudding to slices and cookies, we’ve re-designed your favourite desserts by adding the power of natural protein and avoiding refined sugars and preservatives.” This has great worldwide franchise written all over it.

Parramatta, Sydney

One Night In Parramatta, Part 1

9 Comments Posted on July 23, 2018July 22, 2018 by Snoskred

When my friend and I went to see Take That in concert last November, we stayed at the Parkroyal Parramatta. As we walked to the train station and back again, I had the feeling this is an area I would like to explore some more, and secretly in my mind I was already planning to bring The Other Half back here for a stay sometime.

There are so many food options nearby, there is Westfield Parramatta, there is a quick train ride into Sydney if we want to travel there but the carparking is far cheaper in Parramatta (eg $20 overnight VS $50-60 overnight) and most importantly they have a Gelato Messina very close by.

I signed up for the Discovery rewards program when I made the booking at the Parkroyal, and when we last stayed overnight in Canberra I chose one of their partner hotels. Just by signing up you get some basic benefits but the best one in my opinion is the emails they send you with special offers. First they told us they would upgrade us to the Club level, which includes access to their club room where you have all day treats, canapes and drinks in the evening, and executive breakfast in the morning. This is normally around $250-280.

Then they told us we could have breakfast in Table 30 for free – which we paid for on our first visit and it was a really great breakfast, one of the best I’ve had in a while. The price was just $155 for everything, which we felt was super reasonable. So the booking was made a couple of months ago, and finally it was time to go.

I’ve been trying to visit the Sydney Harbour Pylon and the “new” food court at Gateway since.. well. 2016. My plans have never worked out thanks to other people putting the kibosh on them. Not this time, blog friends. This time I will go! The photo above is at Parramatta train station waiting for our train into Sydney. The Other Half finally got an Opal card on the way here, so now we can both navigate Sydney Transport easily.

On arrival at Circular Quay, we discovered that the Bastille Festival and school holidays had the place absolutely packed. I have never seen so many people here before. You can’t see it very well in my photo sadly, but this post from Sydney Shop Girl who was also here on the same day might give you a better idea of the crowds.

We headed straight to Gateway to check out the food offerings. There are a lot of things to choose here including Gelato Messina but I had that planned for dessert this evening, so we opted for The Burger Project – a Neil Perry creation which serves delicious burgers, shakes, fries, and you can even get your burger in a bowl and avoid the carbs of a bun if you so desire.

Neil Perry is a food genius and quite involved with in flight catering for Qantas. The best salad dressing I ever ate was served on a flight with his name on it. The food at the Burger Project is excellent but my heart belongs to the Salted Caramel shake which really brings the salt. We did not make it here until just after 2pm and we had places to be, so we ate quickly and headed off into the Circular Quay crowds towards the Bridge.

The Rocks is an area I am very unfamiliar with but it somehow feels burned into my DNA. While The Other Half had no idea where we were going, my inner compass led us to the right places while passing some of the most interesting places. There is a sense of enormous history here, teamed with an impression of just how small we are in the company of giants like the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

There are also many levels – here we are standing on a bridge looking at a lower level of road with a bridge above it and then a bridge above that too.

Our destination was the Pylon Lookout which is a MUCH cheaper option than Bridge Climb – $30 for the two of us vs $636!!! You can see the engraved ceremonial scissors used to open the bridge, which are set with opals. You can click on this photo for a larger view. This is a momentary stop in the 200 stairs one will climb to get to the top of the pylon. Sadly there is no lift option, it is stairs or nothing here. But there is a good reason to climb them all..

This amazing view. What a gorgeous day in the middle of winter. Sure, I was wearing many many layers plus a beanie, but it was worth it.

Here are some folks completing their expensive BridgeClimb, wearing the special outfits, without their cameras. That is another advantage to the Pylon – you can wear what you like and take your camera with you, and stay there for as long as you like taking as many photos as you like.

We discovered that cats used to live up here. This photo was quite terrifying but a google shows me even more scary cats on the bridge photos.

Next Monday – a quick stop in The Rocks, back to the hotel, Gelato Messina, and a day at Westfield Parramatta.

Parramatta, Sydney

Sydney to Gold Coast

4 Comments Posted on November 23, 2016November 23, 2016 by Snoskred

Monday 23rd October was another absolutely gorgeous day for travelling.

Officially on the road just after 8am, we wanted to go via the Sydney Harbour Bridge which none of us had ever driven over. Of course we picked the worst possible time of day to do this, but it did not add too much to the trip time when we checked it vs the other possible route.

Once we got over the bridge, we set the next waypoint for Heatherbrae Pies near Newcastle, and we were there by 10:30am. All the way to Newcastle, there was this white Hyundai i30 which would slow down so we would overtake it, then they would speed up and overtake us, then they would slow down and we would overtake them again..

It is actually pretty rare for any one vehicle to be near our car for longer than 10-15 minutes. We were sure they would stop at Heatherbrae too, but they did not and drove off never to be seen again by us. Overall the Hyundai i30 was the most overtaken vehicle during our trip. There are a lot of these out on the roads.

The boys chose the Ned Kelly pie and I had the bacon quiche which was very yummy. There was a slice of tomato hidden in the bottom, FYI those who do not like tomato. The boys had ordered milkshakes which seemed to take forever to arrive and when they did arrive, they were not in takeaway cups, so this extended our stop slightly.

Back on the road we set the next waypoint of The Big Banana at Coffs Harbour. I wanted me that chocolate covered frozen banana! We did also have to stop for fuel on the way. The banana was everything I hoped it would be. One fellow traveller chose the frozen banana as well, the other chose the banana bread. The kitchen was closed as it was about 3:30pm by the time we arrived.

On the way we saw some of the motorsport trucks heading back down the coast after the Gold Coast 600. Sephyroth always has the camera ready, and he got a shot of the Erebus convoy.

I had packed plenty of car snacks so we were all set for snacks and the pie/quiche was an early lunch. The boys got hungry again near Grafton and we stopped at the Transit Centre which I am not sure we would return to. I had heard great things but the reality did not live up and at the time we were there the restaurant was not open.

If we were planning this trip a second time, I would plan an overnight stop on this drive. We’ve done it before as a day drive, but it is a long day and my other half loves driving and truly enjoys it, plus we have a Ford Focus X-R5 turbo which makes it awesome. I would not suggest doing this trip in one day to anyone else. Especially not overseas tourists. :)

As the sun was setting we saw a lot of kangaroos in fields near the roads and I began to worry somewhat about that. Where we live, I know where the roos hang out and where to avoid, I did not know that for where we were at dusk and I think that is somewhat vital info.

Luckily no wildlife jumped in front of us, and we made it safely to the Gold Coast around 8:30pm – having lost an hour at the border. So 9:30pm AEDT. I think our American friend did pretty well this day, he did not fall asleep very much along the way. Around 7pm he took a nap for about an hour.

Next week – I will tell you about our apartment at Peninsula Apartments. The view was pretty awesome. The other stuff, not quite so great.

(Apologies this is late, I meant to finish this yesterday afternoon but obviously plans did not go as planned)

Gold Coast, Snoskred Travels 2016, Sydney

Our Trip Part 1 – Meriton Mascot

3 Comments Posted on November 16, 2016November 15, 2016 by Snoskred

We drove up to Sydney from the South Coast of NSW on an absolutely gorgeous day. We planned a stop at the new car wash at the airport – just near Krispy Kreme and the Maccas and KFC there, as the car had been camping the weekend before and was covered in possum footprints.

Yes, a member of the camping party who shall remain nameless left hotdog buns in their car with the window down. Consequently the possum decided to try and get into all the cars, in case other goodies lived there. Our car did not have a window down, but apparently the possum was unaware of this and kept trying to get in..

The car wash was excellent – and lucky I took a photo of the sign because now we know they have eftpos, which is handy as I have made a decision to go cash free. But that is a story for another post. :)

On arrival at the Meriton we drove into the carpark, which has some impressive gates that open automatically. We took a ticket and drove in, trying to work out where we could park. Many of the carparks had “SA” painted on them – it turned out these were the right parks to use, for serviced apartment.

We were staying in order to pick up Sephyroth who was flying in from the USA at the airport the next morning. We arrived around 12:30pm on Sunday and were surprised to be able to check in right away, thanks to the lovely Carmen who took excellent care of us.

We headed straight up to our room (610) to check it out and drop off some items. The room was excellent – very clean, the bed was comfortable, everything was exactly how it should be. Someone else here said they found the lounge furniture to be hard, we actually found it to be about perfect for us. I especially liked the single stand alone lounge chair.

The day before I had been checking our route on RTA live traffic and I discovered there was a Mascot food festival on the Sunday we arrived. We had been thinking of going to the night noodle markets as the train is so convenient to the Meriton, but we decided to check out the food fair instead. It was very busy and the food was excellent. For lunch we chose chicken teriyaki from Tsuru which was served on a bed of seasoned french fries.

What a fantastic location this Meriton is in. You have everything you could possibly want nearby, a supermarket albeit Woolworths who I broke up with as you may recall, cafes, pizza places, a charcoal chicken place.. There are a lot of eateries some of which do have menus in the hotel book in the room.

The one downside of this location is wind related. Being near the airport sometimes the winds can be quite strong here and the way the buildings have been placed can create a bit of a wind tunnel effect.

You will probably want to bring a jacket for those times you are running out to the local shops etc. I’m not sure how much use the balconies would get on those especially windy days but if it was a calm day we would have sat out there and enjoyed the planes flying by.

(Photo credit Meriton Mascot)

After the food fair we decided to use the pool and spa. We went by to check it out first and discovered there is also a steam room. The facilities here are great, and there is a gym as well with all the things you could want. The pool was a bit on the cold side, so we sat in the spa for a while and then tried the steam room which was brilliant. Soooo hot in there, we actually got back in the pool afterwards to cool off. There are towels supplied so you don’t have to use the ones in the room to go to the pool.

The one improvement I would suggest to Meriton Mascot is to put at least two hooks on the back of the bathroom doors. There just needs to be slightly more hanging space in the bathroom and two hooks would do the trick. These mirrors you see hide cupboards where you can store items if you like, the hairdryer is in there as well.

We had afternoon coffee from the in room coffee machine. It is a pod machine which uses pods you can get at Woolworths (Vittorio). We are coffee drinkers who travel with our own Nespresso but we figured it was not worth unpacking it from the car for just one coffee. On tasting the coffee, we changed our minds somewhat but it was too late.

I had seen pizzas from Tavolino at the food fair and that is what we chose for dinner. It was expensive for what we got, but very nice.

After an early dinner we headed to bed early because we had to be up at 5:30. We slept very well, the beds were comfortable and the pillows were fairly decent. We did not have enough space in the car to pack our own, which we would usually do. We loved the “bed pod” – the room has sliding doors which seem to add a soundproof element to the room.

At around 4am my other half jumped out of bed to run out of the room and turn off what he thought was my phone alarm. It was actually a toilet flush from upstairs. Luckily he was able to go back to sleep fairly quickly and our actual alarm went off at the correct time, so we showered and got in the car ready for our trip to the airport, as our friend had landed and was on his way through customs.

The airport pickup went as planned, we returned to the hotel for Sephyroth to have a quick shower before setting off for our drive. While he was showering, I ran down to Oliver Brown which opened at 7am to grab a couple of mochas and a latte to start the morning off right. I chose the Belgium dark mocha and it was amazing. So much flavour in a cup!

We had already packed everything in the car ready to go before our airport trip, so it was just a quick sweep of the room to make sure we did not forget anything, a quick check out – we had already validated the carparking ticket on check in, so we did not have to spend much time there.

Recent just ok experiences at another airport hotel had us looking for a new place to stay near Sydney and we think we have found it here. We liked that the carpark had a lot of single car spaces – not such a fan of the $25 fee but that is actually cheap for Sydney car parking and it allows you to enter and exit as many times as you like for 24 hours.

I imagine though, if we brought our car for another visit, we would likely park it in the carpark and not take it out until it was time to leave, because everything you could want or need is within walking distance and catching the train into Sydney is a much better option than trying to park in Sydney.

We were only here for one night at the start of our trip so we did not make use of the in room laundry facilities, but it is great to know they are there for future trips.

I suspect this hotel would be an excellent location for Sydney visitors to base themselves for all – or the the latter part if they have an early flight out – of any stay, due to the self catering aspect, the close transport links and the airport shuttle bus.

Overall we loved the Meriton Mascot and would absolutely return for another stay.

Wednesdays will be devoted to travel posts, for a little while. I have many things to share with you! ;)

Next week – our drive from Sydney to the Gold Coast. In one day. Because we are wacky like that. :)

Snoskred Travels 2016, Sydney

Sydney Aquarium

Leave a comment Posted on July 10, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

The Sydney Aquarium is one of my favourite places to visit. They have a special deal where if you visit after 6pm, you pay less than usual. We paid $26 each via booking on the website but prices can change from time to time.

We arrived just at 6, and headed in to wander about. They close at 8pm and we were there for most of that time, we were probably the slowest visitors there because we don’t just rush from one thing to the next, looking at things for seconds. We spent at least 20 minutes in the underwater tunnel where the fish swim next to and above you.

Unsurprisingly there are a lot of fish and fishtanks. These are two things that always relax me.

What will surprise any visitor to the Sydney Aquarium is the amazingness of the gift shop. Seriously if there is a zombie apocalypse, this is where you want to camp out and hide from the zombies. They have everything you can think of in there at really reasonable prices. And because I’m me, I took an awful lot of photos of the gift shop to share with you..

So, what can you buy?

Books.

Phone Covers

Hats

Belts, and Drizabone Style Coats.

Ugg boots

Tote bags, Handbags, Baseball Caps

Oven Mitts

Golfing items!

Aussie Souvenirs

Enormous Pens

Regular Size Pens

Paperweights

Create Your Own Pearl Necklace (with oyster to open)

Kids T-shirts

Placemats and Coasters

Not even exactly sure what these are

Can’t remember the word for what these are called. Like a snow globe except not.

Kids rash vests

Towel Outfits

And so much more, but this post has gone on for like ever. :) Trust me, go there, you will love it. :)

Australia, Sydney, travel

Sydney Trip Report

1 Comment Posted on February 11, 2013May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

Very interesting outcome of the Sydney Trip.

Darling Harbour right before heading to Sydney Aquarium at 6pm.

I was not as bad as I expected I would be. I had one gelato a day and I gravitated towards the more savory flavours in any case – salted caramel, salted coconut and mango. Even so I consumed more sugar than I had in a while.

It took 2 days before I felt hungry as a surprise. The amount of calories expended in those 2 days I could not even tell you. It was constant walking from the time we arrived in Sydney.

The gorgeous fish scale style ceramic wall at Sydney Aquarium

The first day we visited Chinatown and n2 extreme gelato, Paddys Markets, Sydney Aquarium, Pancakes On The Rocks for dinner, then off to Star City Casino for a look around there.

And what a look it was – they had mirrored crystal seating booths. I can’t even. The beauty of these cannot be shown in a photograph, I am sorry, you will just have to go and see it for yourself. :)

The second day was probably the most draining exercise wise as we prowled the shopping district during the day, walked from Westfield Sydney to Grilld at World Square for lunch (we shared a burger and fries as neither of us felt very hungry, it was such a hot day) then back to Paddys Markets, we walked around Darling Harbour multiple times, we liked Grilld so much for lunch we went to Grilld Harbourside for dinner, then to Star Casino for dessert at Gelato Messina.

Sydney City as seen from Darling Harbour.

The Sydney shopping district makes zero sense to me. I grew up in Adelaide where everything is laid out all neat like. Sydney is a mess of secret malls, overhead walkways that link shopping centres which come to you as a surprise, and underground corridors full of shops. It has a very short mall compared to Rundle Mall in Adelaide and the rest of the main shopping strip cars and pedestrians fight for space especially on a busy day.

Even the newest shopping centre – Westfield Sydney – has a dizzying layout which makes it impossible to see every shop without backtracking and walking in circles..

The third day we chilled out, had a lovely Paleo friendly breakfast at Darling Harbour, then I went wandering on my own via the monorail back to Westfield Sydney and the CBD while The Other Half met his friend for lunch. Then to Costco, then home via a Sushi Train..

I’m going to write up some reviews this week – including the longest photo review known to man thus far – and I also want to do some linking to Sydney food sites I read which inspired me to visit the places we visited.

So what did I learn?

For me, sugar, carbs like potatoes and rice, and grains, make me hungry. They also make me crash big time – on the third day I had a major blood sugar spike when I had a Starbucks coffee in the morning without any sugar added but it was a flavoured one and plenty sweet by itself. I then experienced a crash, a low blood sugar thing.

It was interesting to recognise that for what it was and see the symptoms it caused, and to look back and see where that has happened to me in the past and I have put it down to other things.

food, paleo, Sydney, travel