Two of my Favourite Things

I sleep like a log and wake up feeling really refreshed. Now it’s time to get back to business! I spend the morning doing two of my favourite things; running and baking.

Sydney is an ace place to run – the scenery is spectacular but the hills are hard! What Lincoln lacks in beauty, it makes up for in running tracks. There are cycle paths and running tracks everywhere! It’s really neat and it seems the whole city is on it’s bike! David maps me out a tidy 8km run which sets me up for the day, even though I slack off the last 500m. It’s a great opportunity to pop on past all the local retail parks and superstores. I can feel my credit card warming up already!

When I return to Maison Mummy, I get started on the bake of the day – it’s one of my mum’s best bakes Walnut Cake. I’m quite excited as I’ve been meaning to try this at home for ages, and also it’s going to be baked in a virgin oven! The recipe is super quick, super easy and the cake comes out of the shiny new oven baked to perfection. We leave it to cool so we can ice it later.

While we wait for the cake to cool down, we hit the shops and check out some of the retail parks. Everywhere my mum goes, Sam the Dog goes too and to make him more shop friendly, we transport him in a little dog trolley. Retailers in these parts are uber-friendly and they’re more interested in pawing the dog than selling us anything! Sam is the star of the show! Even the customers in the sofa shop go potty for the pooch. One lady swears that Sam is the doppelganger of her dead dog, Wolfie, and has her photo taken with him! And then the rest of the family want photos too! It’s a hoot!

We’re pretty restrained really, I buy a bargain bucket dress from TK Maxx and a cake leveller – my eyes are out on sticks in the homeware departments! The sun is still shining and the locals are out in shorts and sundresses while I’m freezing my bits off in woollies and boots!

Mum has been brave enough to let me loose in her kitchen, and tonight we try Honeyed Ginger Fish Bundles. I can cope with cod but nothing beats barramundi! I finally get round to icing the cake which is a tasty after dinner treat!