Wednesday, April 01, 2009

holiday in brisbane and sunshine coast

Well, since pics are in the order of back to front, shall start with the end(tonite)

Day 5, wed- Newcastle
after coming back from the airport, told chara and hilda that we shld cook something tog. opened the cook book and decided on Indian Lamb with spinach curry(see above pic)

corriander i chopped


in the pan


this morn was spent at Uni of Queensland running with Renuka, Riz, Chara and Hilda. so cool. took at ferry to her school from Riz's home.


Day 4, tue- Brisbane


had dinner with May's family. her mum brought us to the top of mt ku-ta for iced choc....thats ice-cream plus choc. omg. choc/ice-cream overload.



Pris- may's brother is in red. He is the same age as u!

may's dad cooked us LAKSA!!! although i am not a laksa fan, just loved the hospitality and the copious amt of food


the the day, we sat on the hop on and off bus city tour. so went to mt ku-ta as well.....where i went to toilet, and the bus left cos of me, then we had to wait for the next bus 30min later. yes, its always me in the toilet that delyas things. my good friends learnt on this trip of my incontinence problems. well, actually hilda learnt 2 years ago when te 4 hour car trip to tamworth became 5 hrs cos i needed to go to toilet every hour:(


we stopped by south bank in the day- this is the fake beach. looked to me very much like a hotel swimming pool, except this is open to the public


stopped by the queensland museum. guess what was an exhibit!!!!!! totally amusing. i was viewing this boat exhibit and at the same time, children from a particular school, were on an excusrsion with a worksheet. so happened the boat i was looking at was an answer to one of the questions in the worksheet. so when 1 kid found out, before i knew it, 20 kids were pushing and shoving around me to read the explanation of the exhibit that i was trying to read.

Day 3, mon- Brisbane/sunshine coast

at nite, after dinner, took a ferry from Too Wong to south bank. viewed the city lights. the purple building in the centre is the casino.

Upon arriving Riz's cosy apartment in Too Wong, we decided to bake Pizza for the whole house....thats 7 people in total. this pic is AFTER eating so much pizza. baked 6 pizzas that was more than enough.


left: seafood , right: spinach. used mozarella cheese

and its the first time baking pizza. so it was interesting how we all had diff opinions of how to bake one and what ingredients go on one. yes, we had some fights over that, similar to tonite's curry. but i am glad we did it



Cos we couldnt find halal meat nearby, had to make seafood and vego pizzas only. my fav was the spinach

other ingredients: pineapple, tuna, spinach, mushroom, tomato, onion, capsicum


chara and I in riz's kitchen

Day 2, Sun- Mooloolaba, sunshine coast. COMPETITION DAY



At nite, desert of 1/2 litre gelato ice cream. yum! chara had guava, hilda had rum and raisin while I had choc hazelnut. then after chara bought another sccop cone while i bought a cone with guava. Gelato OVERLOAD man...


for dinner, i stumbled on this fresh local fish market.


I had calamari rings and grilled tuna, chara had her yummy grilled red snapper which she cont to rave about the whole nite(that plus the gelato ice-cream!!) hilda tried a new local fish called mahi-mahi. yup, not enough for us, so ordered more....salmon with chips. yum again.


evening, chara and I went for a run/walk to the spit

this is mooloolaba beach, in aust, we have to swim between the 2 red/yellow flags cos thats where the lifeguards patrol. the arvo was spent playing with the 4m waves. yes, dangerous if we get dumped so didnt go too far out.

I got a pic with Emma Snowsill who sat out this race cos she was injured
From left: Emma, Kris, Courtney, Kirsten, Brad, Daneila.
Kirsten was giving a speech abt how her race went. Brad looked so so sad. i think 2 years ago, he won. last year,Javier Gomez won the men's category.
ITU world cup winners
ELite wmn
1 Sweetland, Kirsten CAN, 02:01:59

2 Moffatt, Emma AUS, 02:02:55

3 Ryf, Daniela SUI, 02:03:02

Elite Men

1Atkinson, Courtney AUS, 01:52:05

2 Gemmell, Kris NZL, 01:52:15

3 Kahlefeldt, Brad AUS, 01:52:50
oh so what abt my race?
did 11mins faster than last year(on the same course). the transition was also longer this yr cos the swim was moved from ocean to river, which we had to run 800m on the road- painful!!!
and my supporters hilda and chara kept missing me cos i was 10min faster than my estimated time. felt so bad that they didnt manage to see me. weather was pretty bad too. heavy rain on the bike really got me low to think that when i finish with a bad time, i will BLAME to rain and the long run up to transition. Yes, i always come up with all these excuses during the boring segments of the race, such as the bike. We had our names on the number tags, so kept going to and fro with this much bigger sized lady called michelle on the bike leg. i was so so emabarrased that she finally was faster than me on the bike!!! seriously, she was prob close to 80kg, and yet cycling faster than me. something that would put alot of pple out there to shame. in the end, overtook her on the run, and met her at the finish line to congragulate each other.
run felt good cos it was raining and cool. overtook lotsa pple so boosted my morale. 2nd half faster than first,which was goos as well. was more worried and sad that i didnt catch my 2 supporters. kept wondering where they were and if they were ok cos it kept raining.
but once crossing the finish line, i started crying. tears of joy and relief. that I did an unbelievable time with sub-par training. and with what maz said, "alot of chocolate". yes, I was just in shock and really thankful for God, training partners(when i went for the occasional training), and friends for the amazing journey. i felt good at the end, and could have cont running for another 10km.
its a first. never cried after a race from happiness. normally its cos of a screwed up race and frustration from all my hard work in training not paying off. guess thats why now its more dont train and dont expect much attitude. But really, i believe its God's work and all the prayers that my friends did for me.
Day 1 sat, Sunshine coast/Newcastle
bike check in, rego and had this expo with emma snowsill signing autographs at the asics and triumph booth, her 2 major sponsors. u know, she even has her own shoe made by asics?
at newcstle airport

day 0- newcastle
went for a morning run. brought them to killer steps, then run past the beaches. picnic bfast on this lookout that i discovered some time ago on the random run.

Conclusion
i will always remember the wonderful times we had together. will miss u guys when we go our separate ways.

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