Japan - Niseko

A 3h bus trip from Sapporo brought us to the ski village of Hirafu in Niseko. We checked in to the gorgeous Freshwater apartment where the view of the powdery snow is spectacular.









We picked up our ski gear (mine was pinstripe yellow and green) and got ready for our first lesson on the family slope. Our ski instructor (James a.k.a Tyrone) took us through the basics, so while Kyle and Andrew were bored, I was busy being terrified out of my frozen mind. It was so hard! But we were all pretty damn good so after a quick intro we headed up the chair lift. The chair lift was even more petrifying, but I finally did get the hang of it. The shower after was miraculous, especially for my frozen butt.

I really enjoyed skiing, it's actually pretty similar to ice skating in the way you shift your weight to turn, but it's so much more scary because you're at the mercy of the slopes on the mountain. I think I've built up a bit of confidence so hopefully tomorrow some muscle memory will kick in and I'll be able to start strong.

Dinner at Bang Bang was our first Yakitori in Japan, yum! Also, the fruit here is amazing.

Japan - Cottesloe Beach and Sapporo

Yesterday we spent our last day in Perth making the most of the weather by visiting Sculptures by the Sea and having a swim at Cottesloe beach after breakfast at John St Cafe.

My favourite:


The most enjoyable:


And the giant vagina just has to get a mention:


We tried to pack in as much exercise as possible before we left, which for me included some cardio with Tammy and also checking out the progress on her new studio. It looks phenomenal and has so much personality, I cannot wait to see the finished thing and my god I can't wait to start training again.

Perth to Hong Kong to Sapporo was a long and pretty sleepless flight (my Fitbit reckoned 2h 29min). I think I went slightly mad in particular when on the first flight they brought around the coldest ice-cream I'd ever had. It was like a mango bar thing, and before I knew it my lips and tongue were completely stuck to it. I thought I was over reacting but a quick look around the cabin had some equally alarmed reactions.

After we arrived we took an excruciatingly expensive taxi to Hotel Aspen which is absolute luxury for the price we payed for the rooms. I was warned to expect tiny rooms, beds, and bathrooms, but it's really fine, great even!



It was 1 degree outside, probably less by the time we got to walking. I thought the boots I brought were a bit over the top, but after stepping outside I was wishing they were about 10 times more over the top. It is freezing! I've actually been in colder temperatures (in Kazakhstan) but I think the difference is that you wouldn't really wear your thermal underwear under your jeans for 1 degree, but wearing jeans alone is like wearing nothin at all, nothin at all, nothin at all… So glad I brought my silly ear muffs.




Ramen at Kyowakoku on Level 10 above the train station warmed us right up. We all got variations on the miso ramen theme and it was absolutely delicious. I traded ramen noodles for broth, and we even warmed up enough to enjoy a couple of Sapporo beers.





After dinner we checked out the other floors in the train station shopping mall and stumbled upon a pet shop, a giant arcade, and the longest row of those little machines you get knick knacks out of I've ever seen. One of the machines served up deep fried mining machines because why not Japan.




Kyle wanted to win an anime girl in food but picked the wrong machine by accident so won me a Gudetama (he didn't have such a good-a-time-ah). I don't know what this little egg thing is but it's popping up all over the place and now I have one attached to my handbag.



Tomorrow we're up early to head to Niseko for some skiing lessons!

Laneway 2016

Methyl Ethel, Majical Cloudz, DIIV, Health, The Smith Street Band, Violent Soho, Grimes, Beach House and Purity Ring. Yum.











Thank god for Old Faithful, fried brussel sprouts and baked potatoes. Later on the wait for food was 40 mins and everyone ran out of vegetarian!


Also, no door hook, no problem!

The Cooking Professor - Moroccan Tagine with Riki

I bought Andrew a voucher to The Cooking Professor which has just opened up pretty much across the road from our house. We decided to to go the Moroccan tagine class run by Riki (and her assistant chef Pepe who is of Nobu fame).



The class was brilliant! We really really loved it. Riki is lovely and her excitement is infectious. The class itself is actually pretty full on; you each have your tasks and you're quite pushed for time to finish them. Every now and then Riki would stop us to share some interesting things to learn from the other people in the class, or to demonstrate techniques to everyone.



We all sat down to a big share plate (or share-tagine) dinner made of all the dishes cooked by the students. I have to say, we all nailed it. Yum! After dinner Riki fried us some doughnuts (one of the stations had the job of making the dough and setting it to rise). I ate two, to hell with the gluten consequences.



I will be spreading the good word!

Bali for Amy and Megan's 30th

It's Andrew and I's first time in Bali for Amy and Megan's 30th birthday, and I think we've been a tad spoiled by the experience. A group of 12 of us stayed at the hidden paradise of Villa Simpatico. The villa itself was absolutely incredible, the staff were lovely, and the pool was exactly what we needed to get out of the heat and humidity.





We arrived on Friday and after getting settled in had a wander around Seminyak. We stopped into a cuban themed bar to have a drink which turned into two for the boys while Amy, Megan and I went to get an amazing $6 massage at Nabila Beauty. That night Megan organised a surprise dinner at Barbacoa, the new tapas place in town. The food was incredible, my favourite was the chickpea and  cauliflower salad, and the 8h pork was a hit. We ate and drank until we had to hobble out of there and the bill was only $75! Andrew and I thought that was really cheap but apparently that's really expensive for Bali standards even thought something like that would have easily gone over $100 a head in Perth.



After a cooked breakfast at our villa, Amy and Megan kicked everyone out so they could begin the secret party preparations. Andrew, Kyle and I went to Waterbom Park and were surprised to find that there were barely any lines so we managed to collect all of the slides, including 3 of those drop type slides where you stand on a platform that gets whipped out from under you for a close to vertical fall. It was a really great water park, we thought it beat Wet n Wild and Costa Caribe (in Spain), and it had a great system where you preload money onto a waterproof bracelet that you can use around the park so you don't have to keep going back to your water (or stuff money in your bather tops).



Amy and Megan (and the villa team) did a wonderful job decorating the place. We lasted in our pretty dresses for about 1h and then it was "one more! one more!" time on the blow up flamingo (the record was 8). There were bar staff, cocktails, a magician, fire twirlers, and Andrew was the first (and only after some stern but also impressed yelling) to jump off the balcony into the pool. Definitely a 30th to remember although I think that's not going to be possible for most of us.





Everyone woke up  feeling a bit sorry for themselves, but the massages at the villa were a great way to start the day. Andrew and I went for a walk and got coffees at Grain Cafe, and then went back to Nabila for another $6 massage. That day Andrew had his first (and second) massage ever! He still thinks knots are a made up thing, but he really enjoyed it. Everyone was having a lazy day either in the pool or getting spa treatments so Andrew and I decided to go to Motel Mexicola for lunch and for a walk along the beach. Motel Mexicola was really beautifully decorated, and despite not having air con we still thoroughly enjoyed it (especially the fish tacos). The walk along the beach was another pleasant surprise; everyone had warned us that it was dirty and lots of people would try and sell us stuff, but it was very clean and the few people selling things were lovely and not pushy at all. I guess nothing can be grosser than Barcalonetta though!







Dinner was at Hog Wild for ribs and a Bintang tower.



So we didn't get to barter for anything (I was looking forward to bartering for a Bintang shirt to sleep in and Andrew wanted some Ray Bans), and we didn't get to see much other than the city, but it definitely gave us some ideas for next time!

The end of 2015

Happy new year! This has been a great last month of 2015.

Flying High Christmas party at Twilight Trapeze
Along with some pole fun before we started, this was an awesome Christmas party put on by Tammy. I have to say though, I was very surprised that all of the pole girls (except for Tammy of course!) failed so badly at trapeze! They definitely made trapeze look trap-hard. We got some amazing photos of Aleisha's face





Christmas!

Lunch at my parents, dinner at Andrew's parent's, spoiled by everyone.












 
Feral with Greg
Greg is over from Melbourne so of course we went to Feral.



This is our "we won a sock" pose. 



New Years Eve at The Garden Mardigras Party
This was much much better than we expected it to be. The 4 venus were fantastic (our favourite was the Blue Flamingo), and we managed to have a great group of people all together at the same place which rarely happens for NYE!