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Good morning from The Shed
Good morning from The Shed in Paramatta. Yes this is where I am hanging out nowadays. Well, first time but yes..
We decided to drive today and due to lack of parking spaces in Paramatta, well in whole of damn Sydney, we asked Ambrose’s boss. She recommended a Motel (!?) nearby. We called to confirm and this grumpy yet husky voice told us the drill. You get in, park your car, visit “Nicoletta” at the reception and you pay 8 dollars. In Cash, she was very specific about the cash. We Could not stop laughing. This crappy Motel was the dodgiest place parking so far. And there was no normal way out of once you parked your car so we had to hunch and half crawl out from their “garden”.Now Ambrose left for work and I am finishing my almond latte with cinnamon at The Shed. Lovely staff, makes such a difference. And great coffee, very very important 🙂
Alrighty now, (internal joke for Jasmin) time to find my way out of this place back to the city. Today is volunteering day and I am really looking forward to it. You guys have a good morning.__________________________________
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Japanese Gardens
Ambrose…look at him hahaha He was as fascinated- if not more, than all the children there together.
They all had special fish food so I had to go to their little boutique and get him a bag.
I am not gonna pretend to be cool, I was very excited as well! If you find someone that share your enthusiasm for patting fishes at a Japanese Garden, I say you should stick to that person. hahaha
They had such big mouths and the children (and Ambrose of course) were all putting there feet in the water and let the fish suck on there toes. I draw the line there… super creepy.
These fishes were not shy at all, all they wanted was the food. Some of them were huge.Okey here you got (sorry) around 1 million pictures from yesterdays unplanned date at the Japanese Gardens.
This is a great place to visit if you are ever up the coast. Or if you are planing any special event, I saw that you can hire the venue for weddings and such.
Anyway, Sunday we woke up to more rain. We had a shower, went and got some take away breakfasts and went for a drive around the coast. Up to Terrigal, Erina, East Gosford and on the way back to the house, we Somersby. I like all of these places but if you only have a short amount of time, I would say pic Terrigal for sure.
My second suggestion would be this place – The Japanese Gardens located at East Gosford. I only took pictures of the colorful fishes but the whole place, even though it’s quite small, is really pretty.Other than the Japanese garden they do have an art gallery, a restaurant and a cafe’ at this place. All lovely if you are after something different. A Japanese Garden might not be the first thing you think of when you think Sydney’s coast.
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How to enjoy the weekend in Sydney
Saturday is here which is great, although it is raining, and they say that this is going to be a “wet” summer. But we decided to get out and make the most of and enjoy the weekend anyway. First stop, brunch – This Little Piggy’s.
This has now become a little enjoying the weekend tradition in our family. Family nowadays ⇒ me & Ambrose. Hahah smallest gang, but we do alright.Ambrose brother Leonard came by and joining us as we had our brunch under the rain. Luckily is not cold here in Sydney when it rains so perfectly fine to still sit outside. Quite cozy actually.
After running some errands we both went to do some exercise, I went to the gym to and Ambrose went for a long bike ride along the river.
The evening came and we ditched our original plans – Ice-skate Disco ( yep this is one way we do enjoy our weekend here haha) and went to see a movie instead. Blade Runner. Have you guys watched it yet? Soo good. We were both into it from beginning to end which is pretty hard because it went for 3 hours.
After watching this movie you will probobly appreciate nature and our planet more. Go see this movie and you understand what I mean.__________________________________
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4 little tips on what to choose to improve your day
There is so much power in focusing on the little things. If you really thing about it we might have, if we are lucky, around 70 years on this planet. If you are not careful and really conscious, you might just have life as something that just passed you by.
I don’t mean all this “be positive and fake happiness all the time” bullshit. I mean the only real power we have over our life is our ability to choose.
This morning, as I was working on statements to use on our social media for our Sister2Sister program, I thought of these little, but powerful tips :
– As you open your eyes in the morning, make sure to carefully choose your thoughts. Decide how you would like your day to be. What are your goals, not for your entire life (although also important) but only for this particular day. This goal includes things you want to have achieved, feeling you want to have and all the small progresses before you the end of the day. Mine for today is: to start a 7 day challenge with this , just to see if I can do it. Complete the 3 things on a “List of Importance” me and Ambrose promised to do for eachother. One hour at the gym.
– Use the fact that it is easy for us to trick our brain into a change of habit for ourselfs. Our brains can be divided into the conscious and the unconscious part if you will. Learn about this and put it to the test. Smile, even if you don’t feel like it. Change your body posture and your body movement to represent a posture and movement of pose, grace, confidence and joy. Do this enough and you be surprised how your thoughts and emotions follows whatever your body does. It is real “easy”. Whatever we do often enough, even if it is not “real” at that moment will cause our subconscious to actually believe we are just like that. This is not religion, this is not hokus pokus. This is a fact. Use it.
– Surround yourself with those who lift you up, those who want you to succeed. Positive people, hard working and genuine people. People who might not have alot but are always striving for more. People who believe in possibilities, in you, in themselves, in life. Again, we only live a short time on this planet, there is no room for anything less. Sometimes unfortunately, this means getting rid of people closest to you. I don’t mean hating anyone, blocking people out or never speaking to loved ones again. But I absolutely don’t believe you need to constantly hang out with a draining, negative and selfish person just because he or she is your close family member. Wish them the best from a distance. Christmas and birthdays are enough.
– Be open-minded. Be cool enough to try different things. Just because you don’t understand something or it sounds weird doesn’t mean it does not work. All this The more I read and learn about our brain, specially our subconscious mind, the more I think its crazy, bizarre and well, alot of ” I cant see it therefore I cant believe it” kind of stuff. But what if it is real? My biggest fear in life is that I am about to die and I then realize that it was all real, that I could have done a difference for myself, for my life on my own. That’s my biggest fear in life.
I mean can all these people be wrong about this: Jim Carry, David Lynch, Oprah, Mirranda Kerr,Tony Robbins, Jerry Seinfield, Deepak Chopra, Ray Dalio, Martin Scorsese, Dr Oz, Russel Brand, Ellen Degerenes, Gisele Bundchen, Hugh Jackman…….Really?
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Walking on Sydney beaches
Good evening beautiful people. We just finished dinner and are sitting down with some red wine and dark chocolate in front of David Attenburg’s lovely Planet Earth series. Right now its about polar bears, my absolute favorite animals!
Me and Ambrose dad agree that David Attenbourg’s has lived the ultimate life. Just imagine what he has seen and experienced.I picked Ambrose up from the station with our swimwear, we drove to Umina beach, hoping for a dip. But it was too cold in the water. Instead we took a walk on the beach. Oh Sydney beaches, walking on Sydney beaches must me on many peoples wish list. And I understand you. I remember all those travel shows always recommending all these amazing Sydney beaches, or Australian beaches I should say. They sure are beautiful.
If you have the opportunity, you should experience these Sydney beaches. Come visit us !
Yes, I say “us” now. Very close to my Visa 🙂Okey I need to say goodbye for .now. My show and chocolate are waiting. Have a great Thursday. xx
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Skincare
Photo credit: Pintrest
Good morning, or I would actually like to say good afternoon. I have already been up since 5:30 am so now that its almost 10 am it seams quite late into the day.
I have already been on the phone for a couple of hours. First my friend Suzie in Sweden and then both my sisters (on speakerphone) in Barcelona.
Topic has been skincare. I have for a couple of days now obsessed about skincare products and everything around this subject. Retinol, Cleansing, Glycolic Acid, Hyaluronic Acid, SPF, Toner …….
There is so much to learn in skincare. I actually find it all very interesting. It is for sure one of those things you wish you invested some time and money on later on in life.I am going to the gym for a class soon. Have been hiding in the bedroom for an hour or so because I saw a lizard in the living room and I’ve been in hiding ever since. The funny thing is that I was had just called my friend Suzie as I saw the lizard. I started screaming and Suzie thought I screamed out of excitement to speak with her so she is started raising her voice too, to match my excitement. What she did not know is that I was running around with her on the phone, kicking the sofa trying to get that lizard to run out of the house! hahaha I could not be bothered to tell her the lizard story so I just kept on talking. Guess she will find our her instead…
I know lizards cannot harm me, but just knowing that something is living underneath where I am sitting is just not my cup of tea.
I would run out but it is cold and raining, so I guess the gym is where you will find me today. Ciao!_____________________________________
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Volunteering in Sydney
Holy crap I’ve been tired today! waking up 5:45 in the morning to catch the train to the city. Today is Tuesday and that means volunteering with the Sister 2 Sister.
I have mentioned before how chocked I was that Sydney has made some of their train carriages “Silent carriage”. I used to hate that because I wanted to babble on to Ambrose for the whole hour of our train ride and it was forbidden….
This morning I have to say, for the first time, I got it. I really really would punch someone in the face if they would start talking. I just wanted to relax, lay on Ambrose shoulder and half sleep as I starred out the window. I did try to read the last chapters of my book by Joseph Murphy, but was way too sleepy.Luckily I got some energy while having my usual long back at my cafe’ on Elizabeth St. I always get in around 7:30 and we start working at 9:30, so it has become tradition now, coffee and calling back to someone back in Europe for a chat. Its a good time to call Europe around 7 or 8 in the morning Sydney time, they are still awake.
Today’s volunteering work, after our usual morning meeting was first the usual, researching grants. And then Jess asked me to find a appropriate venue for the yearly reunion we are starting. The plan is to reunite big and little sisters for an lunch. We will start with year 2005, that is when Jess started this whole thing. Amazing, now that I cannot work I am at least glad that this is the place I am volunteering.
Back at the house, could not be bothered to go to the gym so did around 25 min laps of running, HIIT style, or whatever you call it? And now: waiting for Ambrose to put his laptop down so I can, again, fall asleep in his arms. Goodnight everyone, sweet dreams! Zzzzzzzz
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spontaneous date night
I have not been in here for a couple of days now. Sorry! I have to be better at this, I will, promise 🙂I don’t have alot of pictures from this weekend, we have just been spending time with eachother and chilling out really. Its nice to have some weekends with no plans at all. To do what you feel like at the moment. One of the things I put on my “Daily Rituals List”, wich you can read about here, was to spend less time on social media. I wont say I am spending too much time on it, (some people are just crazy) but I still want to keep that to a minimum.
Anyway, lets jump back to Saturday, out unplanned date night. We slept until waking up with no alarms, had breakfast at Little Piggy’s and then drove to Leonard’s house. Their cousin Rebecka was coming to visit and we had a family lunch date with her and her kids. Last time I saw her was just in the beginning of me and Ambrose dating, so 4 years ago. Crazy. Ambrose brother, his partner came as well and they brought little Xavier. This kid seriously gives me energy, I cant get enough of him <3
So nice to see Rebecka again. Would have liked to have her living more closely so I could get to hang out with her more.
Afterwards on our drive back we saw that there was a football game on, or a soccer game as they called it over here.
Most streets was cut off, people were cheering and walking everywhere. The positive energy from big sports events are so contagious I think. We parked the car to go watch if there were any tickets available. But instead we found a random man just giving us 2 tickets for free! hahaha, long story…
This stadium is amazing! You have the national park on once side, and the waterfront on the other side and surrounded with palm trees. Beautiful Australia.The last pictures you see is us ice skating. Or Ambrose ice skates and I am literately Bambi on ice. But this time he actually thought me how to do it! I think I am finally getting somewhere.
After the soccer game Ambrose suddenly was in the mood to ice skate?! Probably because he was high on sugar from the giant Melon Slurpee’s we had earlier…
So we ended our night with a spontaneous date down at the ice skater place, they had a “Disco Night” specials. But that clearly did not stop us haha. xx__________________________________