2019 Has been an epic period of overseas adventures for me, so there’ve been plenty of travel diaries to write-up here. As this year draws to a close, I thought I’d pull together a final post with my stand out experiences from 12 months of just day-to-day living in Sydney.

HEALTH + FITNESS STUFF

Over the past couple of years, I’d been a bit slack with my health and fitness regime. A combination of my usual gym classes no longer fitting in with my work schedule and mindlessly consuming wine/junk food while Netflix bingeing. Consequently, I noticed that I’d put on a few extra kgs and wasn’t feeling great about it. In January, I went for a 1-week free trial at my local F45 studio to see if their training program could be a sustainable option for me.

After that initial trial, I somehow got talked into signing up for an 8-week challenge. Though slightly worried that I’d been indoctrinated into an expensive clean-eating workout-obsessed cult, I stuck with it. After the challenge, I’d lost my love handles and gained a bunch of new gym buddies. Cult or not, joining F45 was a brilliant decision – 12 months on I’m still exercising consistently, making better food choices and enjoying life more.

Continuing the health and fitness theme, I also achieved my red/6th belt in Kumdo (Korean sword) this year. Practicing Kumdo helps me to focus on my breathing, posture, balance and maintaining a more relaxed state of mind under pressure. Learning a martial art isn’t always easy, but it is rewarding and a lot of fun. I mean, I get to play around be a responsible adult with a deadly weapon. Too cool. Only 2 more gradings ’til black belt, yikes!

OUTDOORSY STUFF

Why oh why had I never been on a whale watching cruise in Sydney Harbour before?? This is one of those experiences that I’d definitely make time for if I was visiting somewhere new. But for whatever reason, I waited over a decade before thinking about doing this locally – duh.

This winter, JJ and I booked an ‘Express Whale Watch’ with Go Whale Watching Sydney. Cruises depart King Street Wharf daily during the annual humpback migration (May-November). We were pretty lucky to witness the full range of whale behaviour; breaching, tail slapping and spy-hopping. It was awesome!

Last month, my work colleagues and I spent another morning kayaking on the harbour to help clean up Sydney’s waterways. Altogether we collected just over 8kg of litter in 2 hours. This is an activity that I started regularly organising for our team in 2018 and wrote about in a bit more detail here.

ARTS + CULTURE STUFF

For our trip to Italy in September, I thought it’d be a good idea to refresh my Italian language skills. I’ve found Paul Noble’s audiobooks really helpful and also used his method to learn Spanish (from scratch) last year. Paul Noble audio language courses are available on pretty much all digital book platforms. Despite my best efforts, JJ’s nephew insisted that no Italian will ever understand my accent (thanks kiddo!), but hey, at least I tried.

The Art of Banksy exhibition was held at Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter September-November. It was supposedly the world’s largest collection of his work. The exhibit had all of Banksy’s iconic pieces on display, like ‘Flower Thrower’, ‘Laugh Now’, ‘Girl with Balloon’, ‘Pulp Fiction’, ‘Monkey Queen’, ‘Soup Can’, etc.

There was something quite ironic about a display of street art in a gallery with visitors being forced to exit through the gift shop. Whether or not that irony was intended, I’m not entirely sure. Apparently Banksy himself had zero involvement, so hmmm. Regardless, JJ and I thoroughly enjoyed spending an afternoon checking out the show.

Later this week we’re heading down the south coast of New South Wales on a camping trip, can’t wait! Whatever you get up to this festive season, I hope it’s amazing and here’s to 2020. PEACE✌️

Catch up on my 2019 overseas trips:

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