I had this plan where I would run every other day for 4 weeks and be super fit for a 14 km run. Then I caught a cold and got lazy.

Early Sunday morning, I waited at the start line with a few friends. We were in the back of the pack, with priority given to real runners. By the time we crossed the start line, they made an announcement that the first guy and girl just crossed the finish line - in 41 minutes and 47 minutes.

As for me, I made it to the finish line in 119.1 minutes, in 42460th position. :)

Not bad for someone who ran in flat sole shoes. Though my feet hate me now.

Would I do it again? Yes. But I’ll start in the earlier pack and shave time off by minimizing the amount of crowd weaving. And I would keep a better pace, rather than the run, walk, trot, jog that I did.

For my effort, I got a medal that says “I finished!”, a refreshing lunch hosted by the uni and my name in the newspapers!

Oh and a video of me crossing the finish line, as well as a photo ($29.95!!!). I look like I’m floating.

I’ve always wanted to go here just because of the name. I brought my camera and was all prepared to take massively yummy shots of my food, but when it arrived, I was so hungry I tucked right in.

The scrambled eggs on turkish bread was good. We had 4 sides - mushrooms, baked beans, sausage and smoked salmon. The baked beans were homemade and quite tasty. The salmon however, ordinary and slightly tasteless. Also, they don’t have pancakes or french toast on their menu, which is quite disappointing.

They only serve breakfast on weekends and since their breakfast menu isn’t extensive, I doubt I’ll be back.

Strangers With Candy
96 Kepos Street (corner Phillip Street), East Redfern, 9698 6000.

Is my last semester. Perhaps the last few months of my student life.

It is also my last semester to play Frisbee at uni level. Second and last uni games. Last semester to make use of the library’s awesome DVD collection.

But this semester I am also taking not one, but two classes with weekly screenings. This should be fairly exciting, although I have seen some of the films already. I anticipate final essays to be extremely interesting.

And final projects will probably be camera operating a few productions - potentially tiring, but usually a few days long. I might have a slack semester so I can fit Frisbee tournaments and other touristy things around uni work.

I spent my weekend on a music video shoot - my first ever, and first ever professional shoot in Sydney.

While it wasn’t much to write home about, I noticed they fed their crew very well - breakfast, fruits, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea. I suppose it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but on the professional film shoots I’ve been on in Singapore, catering is a department not many spend much on. Oh, the number of times that I’ve had chicken rice from a packet.

They also had a female camera assistant. Respect.

It also took me a while to figure out what everyone’s role was as there were no formal introductions. It was pretty shit for me because no one introduced me to anyone or tell them, or me, what my role was. So I looked busy the whole day and waited ’til the end of the night to help with the packing up.

I am also always amazed at how quickly people strike a set as opposed to setting up for a shoot.

All day breakfast cafes are my best friends. We headed there for lunch and there was a good crowd while we were there.

Ordered the Farmhouse Breakfast which was scrambled eggs with cheese, roasted mushrooms, fried potato, ham and spinach with homemade tomato chutney. The eggs were too cheesy for my liking, but all in all, it was huge portions and great taste for $16. Possibly their most expensive dish. I kind of wish I tried the poached eggs with hollandaise sauce as well as their pancakes. Round 2?

The bowl of hot chocolate was delish, although it filled me up quite well before our food arrived. Very yummy. Possibly better with marshmallows and cream, which I declined because it seemed too rich for the arvo.

Big Brekky Cafe
316 Stanmore Road, Petersham, 9569 8588.