Friday to Sunday

This is going to be a long one! That's what happens when I take a lot of pictures but wait 2-3 days to upload any of it. Silly me. 

FRIDAY

Friday for lunch, I went with some of my coworkers to City Zen on King William Street in the city. We usually get sushi, but we changed it up and got yam cha. I never had yam cha before, and I didn't know what to expect. As I just figured out from my web searches, "yam cha" is often called "diim sum" in the US and the UK. 

For me, an easy way to describe it is Chinese tapas. You order a whole bunch of small dishes for the table, and everybody shares. 

The meal started with jasmine-infused green tea. It was cold in the restaurant, so it really warmed me up. 

We also got a bottle of Geoff Merrill sauvignon blanc (from McLaren Vale) for our table. Why not? It was Friday, dudes!

We got a bunch of different sauces for the table. The one nearest to me was soy sauce, but I'm not sure what the others were. There were a few ones that tasted like sweet chili sauces. I didn't get to try all of them, so I'm not sure which ones would have been the best. 

Below: fried squid

Fried prawn sushi (all of these were taken with my iPhone camera, so forgive the blurriness)

Tofu in some sweet and sour sauce that I happily would have eaten, but the girl in our group who was ordering sent it back since we didn't order it. 

We all ordered some sort of dessert after the meal. I was curious about fried ice cream, so I ordered it with chocolate sauce on top. 

It tasted great. I enjoyed the crunchy exterior. It was unique. Still, I prefer my ice cream un-fried!

We had tons of other dishes that I didn't load onto here. There were some things that were like egg rolls and steamed dumplings, and then we had two bowls of Chinese broccoli. I'm glad that I tried it, but I'm not sure if I would go to yam cha again. A lot the food was fried, and I just didn't feel healthy after eating it. The food also tasted good, but it was nothing earth-shattering.

 I was also upset during the meal since I had a nasty confrontation with a coworker just before going to lunch, so that probably affected the experience. I guess not everybody in an office can be perfectly nice (but I'm lucky that most of the people in mine are just wonderful). 

SATURDAY

Saturday started by waiting on hold with Qantas in Australia for 45 minutes. Al, the problem-solver, used the international minutes on his phone to call Qantas in the US. There was no hold at all there, so I hung up with Australia. I changed my return ticket to the US to Monday, May 30. I also get to fly into Dallas this time. Qantas just moved their San Francisco hub to Dallas this month, which is fantastic for people who live in the Midwest and eastern regions of the US. I loathe LAX in Los Angeles. Actually, the only reason I am sad that I'm not going through LA is that I can't see Jess. 

While waiting on hold for 45 minutes and sandwiching the phone between my ear and my shoulder (I know that I could have put it on speaker, but my washing machine was on the loud spin cycle. I needed the phone at my ear.),  I prepared hot cross buns for breakfast. I'm actually not sure if we have these in the US or not. Does anybody want to share their wisdom? They are only available during the Easter period, and they are semi-sweet tasting buns. 

Al loves them so much that he bought several packages of them this year and put them in the freezer. I'm surprised he even let me eat them. 

Per his instructions, I cut them in half and spread a little bit of butter in between each bun. I put them in the microwave for 1.5 minutes and ate them...all while waiting on hold. 

After I changed my flights, I went to the gym and then came back to make lunch. It included this:

and this:

and three triangles of this:

Lunch came together very nicely. The fish is very lightly breaded and also doesn't taste too fishy. I also ate a mandarin orange. I'm almost positive that I call them clemintines in the US. 

I also had a dark chocolate Adora disk, which is a calcium supplement. I bought them with my mom at her favorite vitamin store, and I have been hooked ever since. Lately, I've been dipping it in peanut butter. 

After lunch, Al and I went to the city to hit the shops for a while. We then came back, and I fell asleep on the couch for a good two hours. I am an awesome napper sometimes. Al finally shook me awake and asked me if I wanted to go see "Thor". Of course I wanted to see "Thor"! 

We saw it, and I absolutely loved it. I want to go see it again. And again. It was my kind of movie. I love fantasy and science fiction, so I was in heaven. I also bought a regular-sized popcorn, which should really be a large popcorn, and Al and I finished the whole thing. I still wanted something to eat when I came home, so I ate cereal. Don't you ever just want cereal for dinner?

SUNDAY

Today, there was the Million Paws Walk right by our place. Hundreds of people from all over the Adelaide area brought their dogs to the river and walked them to raise money for the RSPCA. The RSPCA does lots of wonderful things, but they most importantly work to prevent animal cruelty around Australia.

You would have to tie me up to keep me away from hundreds of dogs a block away from my apartment, so I wandered outside after breakfast to say hello to my furry friends. 

I got there just as they kicked off the walk. I have never seen such a large group of happy dogs! So many tails were wagging. 

I got to pet a few doggies, so I was happy. 

They also have adoption shelters. They have a huge one in the southern suburbs. I donated some toys to the pups for Christmas.

I didn't want to leave. I actually wanted to steal and/or borrow a dog so I could walk it, but I went back home so that I didn't feel too tempted. We had another exciting thing to do, so I wasn't quite as sad. 

We drove to the Waterfall Gully car park and hiked up Mt Lofty. 

Mt Lofty is the highest point in the Adelaide Hills. Al and I did the hike once before, right after I moved to Adelaide. 

Mt Lofty sounds like a cute little hill, but let me tell you something. The hike is HARD. 

We started, as we did before, at the Waterfall Gully. 

Below: Waterfall Gully

As you see, it's a beautiful hike up to the top. It's about 4 kilometers (about 2.5 miles) to the summit, but it feels much longer. For a lot of the time, especially when you get to the end, it is so steep. At certain points, I was breathing so hard that it sounded like I was hooked up to respirator. I was literally breathing with everything I had. It didn't help that I was trying to keep up with Mr. Athletic in front of me. 

Getting closer...

As we got closer to the end, it felt like hours until we got to the top. The trail is so steep that you have to balance your weight so that you don't fall forward. Al has issues with his achilles tendons, and he could barely put his heels down on the ground at certain points. It hurt him a lot. 

Please observe my swollen fingers (and nail polish that I STILL haven't taken off). They were so enlarged that I struggled enormously to take off my ring before getting in the shower later on. At its worst point, I couldn't make a fist with either hand. I wonder if this happens to anybody else. 

This was the last bit before the summit. I wish you could see just how steep the ground was. I was huffing and puffing, but I was so determined to get there. By the way, people RUN up this every day. 

I knew we made it to the top when I saw the familiar sign asking me to clean my shoes. 

That thing would be dirty. 

Mt Lofty summit!

The view is gorgeous. I'd love to be there on a clearer day, because then you can see Kangaroo Island from there. 

What goes up must come down, right? Going down Mt Lofty is also a challenge. It's not as tiring as it is potentially very rough on the joints. We struggled not to fall forward. Not only that, but since we are going down on such a steep incline, we step down harder and put stress on our knees and feet. I relieved the stress by taking my mom and her personal trainer's advice and walking with my feet parallel. Guys, I will tell you more about this when I talk in more detail about my leg recovering. For now, let me just tell you that changing my gait has significantly reduced the pain in my leg. Maybe it could help you, too! 

Here is some advice if you want to do the Waterfall Gully to Mt Lofty summit hike:

• Dress like you are going to the gym. Wear gym shoes or hiking boots, and please, please do not wear jeans. You will sweat and will be so uncomfortable in anything that is not workout pants or shorts. I've seen people in boots and jeans. Please do not do that to yourself. 
• Bring water. You will need it on the way up. There are no drinking fountains on the trail, and you can't buy anything until you get to the summit.
• We always bring a light and small backpack for our phones, keys and water.
• Be prepared for the fact that the hike up (and down) is not as easy as you think it will be. It's not an easy stroll through the woods. 
• Take your time going up. You may be in good shape, but you will still struggle unless you are used to steep hills. 

Afterwards, we went to Bunnings for a new heater and a sausage. I was so cold and hungry by the time we got there, and some lady cut in front of me while I was waiting in line for the sausages. I was livid. Now, I am well fed and feeling much better. 

I hope all of you had wonderful weekends! I can't believe I only have two more weeks of work. Crazy.