What a terrible blogger I've been - it's a week since my last post! On the one hand, it's probably a good thing that we've settled into our lives here and there are less surprises and discoveries to share from our day-to-day life. On the other hand, it means that it's time to step up the activities. Toby, take note!

There are a few interesting things from last week, though:

Haircut/Thug life

Toby gave himself a haircut last week and brought the 'hawk back.

He's gotten generally positive responses to it, with the exception of his cubicle-mate Lorna. She said he looks like a thug now, and he has ruined her perception of him as a nice Southern gentleman. Well, you can't please everyone all the time!

A sad March

I joined a challenge at work to give up chocolate for the month of March as part of a fundraiser for the Australia Cancer Council. That would be hard enough for me, since chocolate is my second favorite food group after ice cream. But it's doubly hard with things like this at work:

Yes, that is a drawer full of ice cream sandwiches

Crate update

We've heard that our crate has arrived in port in Sydney and is set to go through customs this week! Obviously, we're not holding our breath, but we could actually get our stuff sometime really soon!

Being social

On Friday we went out with a girl we met on our tour last weekend. She just moved here from England 2 weeks ago and doesn't know anyone, so we exchanged numbers. We met up for dinner and swapped stories about settling into Sydney life. She's really interesting and personable, so hopefully we can find some more chances to meet up!

Weekend agenda

On Saturday, the weather was miserable (AGAIN!), and we stayed inside all day. So on Sunday, I had the fidgets like you wouldn't believe. Luckily, the sun was out so I headed out for some exploring.
First, I caught the train up to the the Eveleigh Markets. The Eveleigh Market had a lot of amazing local artisans and craftspeople there, and I had a really good time walking around and checking out all the stuff.

Almost as interesting as all the crafts was the building itself. The market was held in the previous blacksmith workshop of the old railway yards. It was open-air and full of character, with the original structure still intact. The old pneumatic hammers that were used as forge hammers were left in the building, too; it was pretty impressive to take in their size and imagine the workshop in its previous life.

After I saw all there was to see at the markets, I took the train up 2 more stops and explored Newtown a bit. Newtown is a little gritty/hipster area, so there are tons of shops with cool vintage and quirky stuff. It was really fun to walk around, and I spotted some cafes that we'll need to check out sometime.