CategoriesOff Topic

Day 2: Naplavka and Vysehrad Fortress

Day 2

After an amazing 12 hours of sleep, I was bright eyed and bushy tailed! I found the nearest open coffee shop, grabbed myself one, and brought one home for Dean. Tony was whipping up some eggs, and the boys were getting ready for Day 1 of “The Complete Hip and Shoulder Workshop” (available on DVD soon!).

Here’s Tony in our Rockin’ 1970’ European kitchen!

Tony making eggs in the kitchen

After the boys left, Lindsay and I headed out. Thanks to Zuzi and Jan at The Taste of Prague, I had many tips and guides for good food and sightseeing in the city!

Today’s itinerary was The Perfect Saturday itinerary, which is from their website. Making our way to The Vysehrad Fortress, we passed by the Philharmonic:

The Philharmonic

The Charles River Bridge

Bridge

And then my favorite, the Naplavka Farmer’s Market!

The Market 1

Crepes at the market

Farmer's Market Food

Filled with produce, meat, homemade food and drinks, and plenty of local wines and beers, the market also had clothing and jewelry from local artisans. We grabbed some extremely cheap produce for the fridge back at the apartment, and then hit up the fortress.

Atop a long set of stairs, we had lazy lunch next to the fortress. It was a warm and sunny day, and lots of locals were out for some coffee or beer. We walked back home along the river, to meet up with the boys and hear about Day 1 of the seminar.

Tony and Dean arrived back home around 6pm – just long enough to change clothes, freshen up, and head to dinner!

We ate at a local spot with “traditional Czech food.”

Not only did Tony have the Goulash – but he has a shot!

If you don’t know, Tony does not ever drink alcohol (he hates the taste). The Ex-Pat American next to me at dinner explained, “this is basically Czech moonshine”. I thought it tasted like tequila… Tony threw it back like a champ!

Tony's shot

And I had the pigs knee. It was delicious!

Pigs Knee

After some dessert we walked back home and couldn’t wait to get some sleep.

Good night and talk to you tomorrow! Lisa (and Tony).

CategoriesOff Topic

Day 1: The Gentilewis European Adventure Begins!

Friends,

Thank you for joining Tony and I on our European Adventure!

I am currently delirious and have been up since 4:15am Thursday… as I write this, it is 1:18pm Friday. But isn’t that how all European adventures begin??

If you’re just tuning in, thanks for reading about our trip! If you’re a friend or a family member who likes updates about how we’re doing and what you’re up to – you’ve come to the right place.

Our journey began after work on Thursday, when we headed to Logan airport in rush hour traffic. I was exited to fly on British Airways for the first time:

British Airways

I am sorry to say that the first time will most assuredly be the last time. Climbing aboard a 787 was cool – but that’s about it. If you have the cash for business class, the seats look amazing! (First class is upstairs, so I can only imagine it’s heaven on earth with bare chested servers and a harpist) but the minions sit in a horrible short, narrow little seat, and Tony and I were in the middle of four seats.

It was bad.

Tony didn’t have a place to put his backpack (no food or luggage room in front of him). I had a meanie on the end of the isle who was so mad about the first time that I got up to pee, that I didn’t get up to pee for the next 5 hours.

The good news?

Since it’s British Airways, TV included SEASON 6 of DOWNTOWN ABBEY!!!!! I believe it was the only thing that kept me from punching my grouchy end-of-the-isle neighbor in the side of the head.

Downton Abbey

6 hours and 3.5 episodes of Downton Abbey later, we arrived.

In flight, we were served bread for dinner, cheesecake for dessert, and then some more bread for breakfast.

How do people live this way?

Not sure, but buzzing from the lack of sleep and carbohydrate overload, Tony and I spent an hour meandering from one part of Heathrow international airport to the next, finding breakfast along the way, and this:

Marmite

The second leg of our British Airways flight was no better than the first. Right off the bat, the attendants insisted on checking our “international measurements approved” carry on luggage bag!

Second, we were seated in an exit row – great, right? NOPE! We had to let go of our backpacks, which meant no reading material or anything to keep me awake for the next several hours.

We made it to Prague (Praha), and as soon as we left customs, it was easy to spot our host! (Imagine Daniel Day-Lewis, but Jacked, tatted, and Czech).

After a ride to dead center of the city ,we checked in to our 2 bedroom apartment! (With living room and full kitchen, we’ll be sharing with Tony’s business partner and seminar co-ninja, Dean Somerset, and his wife Lindsay).

Then we walked around for a bit, found a table front and center of Old Town Center, and had a few beers, a salad, and a smile (just to clarify, I had the beers. Tony had the salad.).

Dinner View

Dinner view. Front row seat in Old Town Square

Dinner Beer

After some food we walked to the supermarket and carried a way-too-heavy amount of food and water home to stock our fridge for the week!

Then, we had to stay up.

Dean and Lindsay were taking the train in from Paris, and arriving around 9pm. But Tony and I were ready to sleep at 6:00pm!!

Zonked Out

So we tried and we tried.

Thank God Tony made it until 9:00pm!

Dean and Lindsay were exhausted from a 13 HOUR BUS RIDE from Paris, so we all hit the hey for a big night sleep!

Sending Love and talk to you tomorrow,

Lisa

CategoriesOff Topic

Movie Review: The Martian

Screw the conventional, formulaic approach to writing movie reviews.

You know those snazzy, buzzword filled headlines a lot of studios use from various magazine or newspaper reviewers to help promote their movie?

Examples include:

“4 Stars”

“Damon shines!”

“Best space drama since Apollo 13.”

Those are all fine and dandy, if not woefully lame. Here’s what mine would say:

The Martian is one hour and 44 minutes of Celias for your penis. I had a nerd boner the entire time. And, Damon shines.

Okay, okay…a bit crass. But I defy you to tell me you’re not 100% interested in going to see this movie now. And you should go see it. Because it very much is the best space drama (don’t worry, there still a bunch of action) since Apollo 13.

Based off the book written by author Andy Weir, it’s a miracle this book was ever published much less made into the latest Hollywood blockbuster starring Matt Damon and directed by Ridley mothereffing Scott.

The Martian was first published on Andy Weir’s blog…for free. Egged on by friends and fans of the story he then made the book available on Amazon which could then be downloaded for $1.

And it BLEW up from there.

The story follows astronaut, botanist, engineer, and seminal jokester, Mark Watney (Damon)1, as he attempts to “science the shit out of this planet” after a freak accident results in the rest of his crew leaving him behind thinking he was dead.

Oops.

And so the story unfolds as we follow Mark as he tries to solve a congested number of life threatening issues including but not limited to lack of food, water, any semblance of communication with NASA, and an infinite amount of disco music at his disposal.

Much of the fun is watching him solve each thing with a fervorous “huh, so that’s how you’d grow potatoes on planet with no soil, water, and an average temperature of -81 degrees Fahrenheit” enthusiasm; cool!

Equally as thrilling is watching the higher ups at NASA – Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean (SPOILER ALERT: who’s character doesn’t die for once), Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mackenzie Davis, Kristen Wiig, et. al – debate on how to get him home.

Can they get him home?

And least we forget the crew back on the Hermes – Chastain, Kate Mara, Michael Pena, Aksel Hennie, and the Winter Soldier himself, Sebastian Stan – who, to no fault of their own, left Watney behind. What the hell is going on through their heads?

It’s smart. It’s set in space. It’s directed, masterfully, by Ridley Scott.

What else needs to be said?

CategoriesOff Topic

Movie Review: Sicario

Three words: Sicario is sick.

 

And I don’t mean sick as in bad. I mean sick as in “holy shit balls this movie is fucking amazing.”

For those who need a minor brush up on their Spanish, the word ‘sicario’ can be translated to mean “hit man,” which I knew because 1) I remember all of like four words from taking Spanish in high school (biblioteca, dos, pollo, sicario. Oh, and Feliz Navidad), and 2) my wife and I just finished binge watching the first season of Narcos on Netflix.

Highly recommend it by the way.

Sicario begins by introducing us to Emily Blunt’s character, Kate, an FBI agent who’s tough as nails and as by the book as they come (as we learn later, and proves to be to her detriment).

I have slight issue with Emily Blunt being characterized as “tough as nails” because she’s all of 110 lbs (and has a cute British access in real life). But she pretty much is in this movie, plus she kicked some ass in Edge of Tomorrow so whatever, I’ll roll with it. It’s Hollywood.

She’s involved in a pretty intense raid/drug bust in the opening sequence which results in a rather disturbing and grotesque revelation that I won’t divulge here. Needless to say: it speaks to a higher, more nefarious plot point.

A plot point that results in her be “recruited” by what can only be described as an equally nefarious secret government task force – hello Josh Brolin and the almost always excellent Benicio del Toro – hell bent on not really telling what she’s being recruited for.

Just shut up and learn,” she’s repeatedly told.

And so the plot unfolds.

In one of the most intense, dark, and beautifully shot (huge props to cinematographer, Roger Deakins) films I’ve seen in recent memory

I love dark movies.

While I understand that many people use the movies as a way to escape the doom and gloom that surrounds us – Ebola, war, terrorism, Justin Bieber – and look forward to the same story line where the guy gets the girl in the end, Lassie makes it home, or to be immersed in a cornucopia of CGI eye candy where The Rock arm wrestles a T-Rex1, I for one appreciate when a movie is less butterfly kisses and rainbows (and CGI) and more of a punch in the throat that reminds us “yeah, this is real life, some shit out there is fucked up sometimes.”

I have to give a tip of the hat to director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Enemy) who’s quickly climbing the ladder as one of “new” great directors, and someone who doesn’t flinch when it comes to telling a dark story…much in the same vein as David Fincher.

Everything from the storyline itself to the ominous score to the really, really cool scenes involving a gun battle at the U.S./Mexican border and night vision goggles in a tunnel (WARNING: if you’re claustrophobic you may want to skip this part) is brilliantly handled.

And least we forget the acting performances themselves. Blunt and Brolin are fine in their roles, but it’s del Toro who shines.

Every scene he’s in makes you crave for more. There’s one scene involving him and a family eating together at dinner that more or less serves as the crescendo of the film. Sooooooo good.

Look for a Best Supporting Actor nod, and don’t be surprised if he wins for the second time (his first being Traffic).

Sicario, so far, is my favorite movie this year. Go see it.

CategoriesOff Topic

Movie Review: Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation wastes little time jumping straight into the action. Well, there’s also jumping, and running, and a sniper roll tossed in for good measure. All of which culminates with Tom Cruise’s character, IMF agent, Ethan Hunt, grabbing onto the side of an airplane as it takes off with a payload of nerve gas along with the terrorists hell bent on using it to do bad things.

You know, cause they’re a-holes.

It was an awesome opening scene and set the stage for an awesome, action-packed two hours.

Lets talk about Tom Cruise for a second.

That’s actually him dangling from the side of the airplane as it takes off1 No stunt double or special effects needed.

As is the case with every movie he does, Cruise is hell bent on performing all his own stunts. He famously hung from the side of a cliff in the opening scene of Mission Impossible II. Not to be outdone he upped the ante in Ghost Protocol (movie #4 in the series) and dangled from the side of the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

I think it’s safe to say Cruise isn’t scared of heights.

And while guys like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ahnuld, Vin Diesel, Sylvester Stallone, and Jason Statham get all the love for being the A-list action heroes at present – punching, kicking, shooting, and flexing their way to box office domination – no one ever mentions Cruise.

And yet there he is climbing buildings, hanging off planes, doing all of his own stunt driving, not to mention all his own fight stunts, including stuff like this:

It’s rather impressive to watch him do the things he does. At age 50. Motherfucker better get an invite to be in the next Expendables movie.

Personal life aside – trying really hard not to insert Scientology joke here – it’s perplexing to me that Cruise isn’t considered an action star, much less a “good” actor. True, outside of some of his earlier movies (Top Gun, The Firm) none of his movies outside of the MI franchise have been huge successes domestically.

It was announced recently that plans are in the works to make a Jack Reacher 2. 17 people saw that movie here in the States. I was one of them. It wasn’t a bad movie. Certainly not great. But a decent action thriller, and Cruise did his fair share of busting up some faces. It didn’t make a lot of money here in the U.S, but internationally it made a metric shit-ton (which, FYI, is a little more than a metric boat-load).

No question Cruise is a bonafide star in America. But he’s box office royalty around the world. Hence why movies like Jack Reacher 2 get green lit.

Personally I’m not one who places a lot of weight on how “good” or “bad” a movie is on how much money it makes at the box office. I mean, Paul Blart: Mall Cop hit #1 and made over $100 million back in the day. Movie studios keep allowing Adam Sandler to make movies. So, it’s clear we don’t give a fuck.

Box office notwithstanding, I find it odd more people haven’t watched Cruise’s performance in Magnolia (a role that won him a Golden Globe) and given him more props as a dramatic actor.

Or watched him in Tropic Thunder (that’s him playing the ostentatious movie exec, Less Grossman, another supporting role he was nominated a Golden Globe for) and were in awe of his comedic talent.

I feel Vanilla Sky is one of the most UNDER-rated movies he’s ever made. The same with Collateral. Both are amazing performances by Cruise. And, whatever, Eyes Wide Shut is good too. Because, boobies.

Which bring us, finally, to Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. The 5th iteration in the series, and frankly, going in, I felt it wouldn’t hold a candle to Ghost Protocol.

It did.

Written and directed by the series’ 5th director, Christopher McQuarrie2, who has an extensive history with Cruise having written Edge of Tomorrow (another VASTLY underrated movie), Valkyrie, and Jack Reacher (of which he also directed), Rogue Nation follows Ethan Hunt and his freshly minted disbanded team of IMF agents Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) as they try to identify and destroy the evil rogue organization, the Syndicate, lead by disavowed former MI6 agent, Solomon Lane (played by Sean Harris, pictured below).

To compound things, the CIA (led by Alec Baldwin) is after Ethan and his team to bring them in – shoot to kill! – to put a halt to their shenanigans and to answer for all the destruction they’ve caused. Moreover Ethan himself has to figure out whether or not he can trust double agent, Isla Faust (played by relative newcomer, badass, and scene stealer, Rebecca Ferguson) who, even though has helped save Ethan’s life multiple times, may or may not be in cahoots with the Syndicate.

Anyone who’s a fan of the franchise will appreciate the various locations (London, Morocco, Vienna, to name a few), the technology and gadgets (clarinets turned into guns), the smart dialogue, the impossibleness made possible, and of course the action.

In a more “realistic” nod to common sense, there’s a point in the movie where Hunt and Faust are trying to escape a precarious situation and are being chased by the police. She stops and takes off her high heels.

[Anyone who saw Jurassic World this past summer will note a point of contention and high ridicule when Bryce Dallas Howard’s character spent half the movie running away from T-Rex’s in high heels.]

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is everything who’d expect in a summer blockbuster. It’s smart, it’s sexy, and while there aren’t any zombies, there’s enough action to keep any action junky satisfied. More importantly the franchise itself doesn’t seem to be losing any ground or steam in terms of delivering. See you when round six comes out.

CategoriesOff Topic rant

Twitter Math

People on the internet crack me up. Trolls in particular.

Everyone is a tough guy (or girl) on the internet. The total lack of social filter or any semblance of decency seems to be non-existent when a select few sit behind their computer screens.

It can best be exemplified in this example.

Random guy to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on Twitter:

“Dude, my cat’s vomit could have made a better movie than San Andreas. It was that bad. Plus, your mom’s a whore. #smallbiceps.”

This behavior is analogous to the phenomenon of road rage (not so much the busting a cap in someone’s ass because they cut you off on I-95 type of road rage, which is a tad excessive to say the least; but more so the type of “rage” people project when they flip someone off in their car or yell any number of expletives through their car window and then immediately drive off.)

There’s no urgency to “get away” in a car, because, well, they’re in a car.

Someone can tell someone else to fuck off and before the recipient of said “fuck offedness” can respond (with a fist in the other person’s eye) the culprit is either two stop lights a head or illegally swerved into the car pool lane and high-tailed it out of there.

It’s a whole nother ball of wax when there’s less of a barrier.

People react and act much differently when the other person is face-t0-face.

Lets re-visit our random Twitter guy from before, but this time put him face-to-face with Dwayne.

“OMG, dude, I loooooooved your last movie. The way the lighting in the background made the sweat on your biceps glisten was amazeballs. Can I touch them?

No homo.”

When left with the alternative…a six foot, five inch, 270+ lb behemoth of a human being standing right smack dab in front of him, our internet tough guy changes his tune and turns into a giddy school girl at a One Direction concert.

I had a interaction with a troll recently, on Twitter.

The story begins with a completely random, inert, ho-hum, not-so-very-special Tweet on my end.

All I was trying to convey was that, for most trainees, there’s no need to worry about muscle fiber type, rate coding, neural firing patterns, inter and intramuscular coordination, or anything of that nature in order to get strong. While all enter the conversation, the ONE thing that’s most in our control is the size of our muscles.

A larger muscle with more cross-sectional area has a greater ability to produce more force.

KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid.

See, nothing special. But, you know, train-of-thought information.

Not long after I received a response from someone on Twitter. To the effect of:

“Do u actually train people or just tweet? Most guys I know who are any good, don’t have time for this. Just curious.”

[NOTE: I’d link to the actual response, but in the aftermath, the person BLOCKED ME from following HIM, which is funny, because, I’d rather masturbate with sandpaper than follow this jackass. But anyways].

In Fairness: he did catch me on a rather “aggressive” day with regards to my Tweeting prowess. I think it was my tenth of the day.

So I chimed back, rather innocuously, with:

His response (again, I can’t re-post verbatim):

“LOL, exactly. Tony, stop writing about stuff you never do. Must be in between clients, right? Time waster.”

What I wanted to do was respond with something like this:

And then reiterate to him that, “no, I wasn’t in between clients because…I WASN’T AT THE FACILITY IN THE FIRST PLACE!”

Side Note: Did I mention it was my day off and that I wasn’t training people?1

But I didn’t. I resisted the urge to get into an internet dick measuring contest.

Rather than play into what he inevitably wanted me to do – engage – I just shot back with:

And that’s when he blocked me (which, for the record, I’m not complaining about).

Which begs the question:

If I wasn’t “any good” or he saw no value in the information I provide, why was he following me in the first place?

Which also begs the question:

Why even write this post in the first place?

1. Understandably it serves no real purpose, and I could have just as easily spent this same time writing a training program for a client.

However, writing about it is cathartic in a way and makes it less likely I’ll want to stab someone in the throat.

2. I just wanted to write this afternoon.

Something fun.

Furthermore

Lets do some Twitter math.

According to my profile, I joined Twitter in December of 2010. That’s ~1,580 days. Up until the writing of this post I’ve Tweeted a total of 5,351 Tweets.

That’s an average of 3.3 Tweets per day (95% of which are either links to my own posts or various articles I come across I feel would benefit my followers). Only like 0.8% are LOLCat videos.

Lets say it takes 20 seconds to write each Tweet. That’s a total of 60 seconds out of my day spent Tweeting.

Clearly I need to re-evaluate my time management skills.

CategoriesOff Topic

Movie Review: Ex Machina

Ex Machina is considered a futuristic Sci-Fi movie, but I’d argue it’s about as non-futuristic a Sci-Fi movie as you’re ever going to see.

I forget where I read it originally, but I believe the director and writer of the movie, Alex Garland, stated in an interview recently that the movie takes place “10 minutes into the future.”

Because, really, would we be all that surprised if the likes of Google or Apple came out today and stated they’ve solved the A.I (Artificial Intelligence) riddle?

I think not.

The movies follows talented wiz-kid programmer Caleb (played by Domhnall Gleeson, Anna Karenina, About Time, and the upcoming Star Wars Episode VII1) as he’s seemingly the random winner of an inter-company (feel free to insert Google here) lottery to go and hang out and chill with the founder and CEO, a recluse genius named Nathan, played by Oscar Isaac (who’s quickly climbing the ladder as one of my new favorite actors).

So off Caleb goes via helicopter to the middle of nowhere. Alone. To hang out and hobnob with some guy he doesn’t know who happens to live in a half underground bunker/half technological fortress with “enough fiberoptic cabling within its walls to make the trek to the moon and back” for a week.

There better be Netflix available! Just sayin.

It doesn’t take long for Caleb to find out why he’s there. To test Ava (played by the talented Alicia Vikander), Nathan’s latest (and top secret) A.I creation, to see if she can pass the Turing Test and subsequently, pass as human.

I obviously don’t want to give away any particulars and ruin the fun, but needless to say some shenanigans starts going down. Caleb soon realizes that him being invited wasn’t all that random after all, and well, Nathan may or may have some ulterior motives up his sleeve.

And there’s no Netflix. WTF!

Also, Ava is hot. She’s a hot robot. She’s a hot robot with a killer body. [Thankfully the producers didn’t hire me to come up with the tagline for the movie.]

She may have some ulterior motives of her own. Particularly when she confides in Caleb to not trust anything Nathan says.

What could go wrong?

Compound that with Caleb, who isn’t what we’d call a traditional ladies man, and you can do the predictable movie math.

The “will they or won’t they” vibe was predictable2, I called it half way in!, however the writing is crisp (and well paced), and the last 15-20 minutes will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Definitely worth the viewing if your local theater is playing it. At the very least it will help curb your robot/A.I. fetish (you freak!) until The Avengers: Age of Ultron comes out this weekend.

I give this a solid B.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYGzRB4Pnq8

CategoriesOff Topic

Day 10: Sydney Seminar

Tony and I were up at 6:30 and headed down to the hotel breakfast. Cereal, toast, milk, vegemite. None of which was appealing to me. After we ate Tony got all ready and pretty, and off we went to iPT Australia, just up the block.

Note from TG: any aspiring fitness professionals in Australia should consider contacting iPT Australia. Without question it’s a place that best sets up future fitness professionals for success. While it’s much more than this, what you can expect is a 26 week course that prepares you with all the skills you’ll need – assessment, anatomy, exercise technique, programming – to become a bonafide personal trainer. You’ll basically become 007, except without the license to kill.

Soon we met Jess, one of the day’s attendees, and then James, accompanied by his girlfriend Gill, and Brendon. As Tony and the boys got set up, Gill, Jason and I talked about what I would do with my day, since Tony was gracious enough to encourage me to go out and enjoy Sydney, instead of staying at the seminar all day.

I was asking about the Market on the Rocks during the weekend, and when Gill heard Jason and I talking about this, one eyebrow went up, and she said, “I’ve never heard of that…” She pulled out her phone, and after a quick Google, she was reading about the where and what of the market. I started to say goodbye and excuse myself, and Gill said, “want some company?”. Yeah!

So Gill and I set off.

First to a big fancy mall, where I got myself some Uggs, which are Australian in case you didn’t know. Not big boots, but these super warm + cute moccasins that I will TOTALLY rock at work so that no longer will my feet be freezing while I sit and meet with patients every single day! Yay.

Australian autumn is just beginning, so lots of summer stuff was on sale, which of course made me want to buy up everything. But I controlled myself. Prices are higher, and I guess that’s either because we’re in a major city, because Aussies say everything is more expensive in Australia, or both.

Gill and I were fast friends. You may not know this about me, but I am a shopping Jedi. Bargain huntress. Clearance Ninja. I do not give out shopping prowess compliments easily, but I must say that Gill is equally skilled. I was lucky to have her company all day. Here we are together in front of Hyde Park:

 

The Open Market on The Rocks happens every Saturday and Sunday, and I was worried I would have to miss it, since we would be in seminar Saturday and flying home Sunday. But when Tony encouraged me to Carpe Diem, I was thrilled to get to check it out! Look, isn’t it wonderful?:

It reminded me of SOWA (South End Washington Street) market, in Boston during the summertime. I helped myself to some Australian souvenirs, and of course got a little gift for Tony (Which you’ll see later on).

After shopping Gill popped back into the seminar and I returned to the hotel to start packing. I took care of about half of it, and then went to the seminar to observe Tony wrap up the day. When I came in he was coaching a deadlift and answering some questions:

The day ended just shy of 5:00pm, and Tony was satisfied with how much material he covered. He was happy to have another attentive audience! Special thanks to all of the Sydney Seminar participants.

Here we are with James and Gill, just before saying goodbye:

Once back at the hotel, I presented Tony with his congratulations-on-two-Australian-seminars-completed gift:

As you can see, he put it right on, and we headed out for dinner.

Tony’s friend and colleague, Mike Cambell (and author of bestseller Unleash Your Alpha) recommended a nearby spot for dinner. Riley’s Garage is, in fact, a renovated garage.

It’s amazing! One of the most fabulous places I have ever been. We showed up without a reservation, but being the early birds we are, there was one more table we were able to snag. I’m not kidding you, the place was brimming with fabulous Australians.

I, on the other hand, was not looking Australian or fabulous. Today being my third-and-a-half day of not-feeling-so-hot, being under the weather has taken its toll on my appearance. So you will not be seeing a picture of Tony and I out to dinner at Riley’s Garage.

The food was delicious. Tapas style with shared-everything, we had some beetroot salad, and I actually got Tony to say yes to ordering the whole fish! It’s a favorite of mine, but if it’s not pristine, boneless, and lacking all semblance of an animal, Tony’s disgusted by it. But tonight, he decided to live on the edge, and I was so glad!

After dinner we needed to head back down Victoria Street in search of an ice cream place that colleagues of Tony’s told him he must have before leaving. Messina was a happening ice cream joint, with sexy music and customers. Actually, the entire neighborhood was happening and sexy.

At this point I turned into a pumpkin. But not just any pumpkin; a tired, chills-ridden, angry-tummied, I-am-sick-of-being-sick, irritable, cranky pumpkin. Poor, poor Tony. So we weren’t happening, fabulous, sexy young Australians on our last night in town. But we did our best. Hopefully whatever this is will be all gone tomorrow so that I am not dealing with any illness on a 13-hour flight!

Good night and talk to you tomorrow,

Lisa and Tony

CategoriesOff Topic

Day 9: Skippy: The Bush Kangaroo.

12 hours of sleep! I was a new woman this morning. I did need to hatch though, and not do my normal catapult out of bed (I am a morning person). So Tony and I searched Australian TV, which is slim pickings (who needs TV when you have all of this amazing weather?!). But, we came upon a gem this morning. Something so special.

Friends, please say hello to Skippy: The Bush Kangaroo:

Skippy is Australia’s answer to Lassie. Created and released upon happy Aussie boys and girls everywhere, and then syndicated in the US in the early 70’s, Skippy: The Bush Kangaroo is an amazing friend, pet, and detective.

He is ready to help at all times, and can hop like nobody’s business. I don’t know what you have to do, but whatever it is, do that in order to watch this show!

While chanting the theme song to Skippy: The Bush Kangaroo, Tony and I hit the hotel gym. (Here it is:

Skippyyyyyy,

Skippyyyyyyyyy,

Skippy, The Bush Kangarooooooo!)

 

Actually, it was more like we tapped the gym. Or gently spooned it. My calves are wrecked from the last few days, and overall I think our bodies are just tired! We followed that up with a nice big breakfast at the hotel, and we had a great view from our table, where we could see the rain start to fall.

After packing and checking out of the hotel, we took advantage of the free wifi in the lobby. Unfortunately, my bug has not run its course yet, so I also took lots of medicine and availed myself of the hotel lobby bathroom a conspicuous and embarrassing amount of times.

But still an improvement from yesterday. BTW, we love the Sir Stamford Hotel! Jarrod and Troy, the concierges (is that the plural?), were mega-accommodating, and locked away our luggage so we could go to the Taronga Zoo.

Unfortunately, it was raining. We left with water, wallets, and shorts on, and that’s it. Not smart.

We realized the extent of our lack of preparedness (which we can mostly blame on not being parents) when we were freezing and in need of an umbrella!

Here I am waiting for the ferry to take us across the Harbour from the Quay to the zoo itself:

And when we arrived, we took a quick picture of the entrance:

Despite the “bad” weather, it was still amazing. Overall we lucked out, and ducked in and out of coverage when it really came down. I was not feeling good, but when there are giraffes, and wallabies, and Skippy: The Bush Kangaroo, who can complain? See some pics:

That’s a Wallaby in the forefront, and a female kangaroo in the back.

Also, the zoo is in a prime location, so you get amazing views of the city:

My favorite, naturally, were the kangaroos. I think I was taking kangaroos for granted all this time. Look how gorgeous they are!:

And see how big and muscular they are!:

Amazing. They are now rivaling the giraffe as my favorite animal. We also sang to them:

Skippyyyyyyy,

Skippyyyyyyyyy,

Skippy, the Bush Kangarooooooooo!

Tony and I hopped the ferry back to the Quay, and sadly, checked out of our fancy-assed Sir Stamford Spot. Jarrod, the fabulous concierge, offered us some keys to the locker room in the gym, so that we could change, and even shower if we wanted.

We hopped a cab over to our final hotel, the Ibis Budget in East Sydney. Here is our room:

It is the same size as the bathroom at the Sir Stamford. There are no drawers, no hangers, and not even a hook. It was… interesting. However, it did have amazing view!

We ran out for dinner, and discovered Sydney’s answer to Bare Burger (<— Tony’s favorite burger joint when he visits NYC)! Grill’d offered all grass fed meat, fresh produce, and yummy everything. I was very hungry, but feeling nervous to eat. What would the sensible person do? Get some broth and a ginger ale and play it safe. What did Dr. Lewis do? Order a lamb & hummus burger with a ginger beer!

As you can see: Tony is ready to pounce on his burger. The “claws” are out.

The ginger beer was amazing. It was water, ginger, sugar, and alcohol. How could that not be good for your tummy? As for my burger, I hoped for the best, and was able to eat most of it. For the rest of the night, we’ll just keep our fingers crossed….

So, tomorrow, Tony’s off for Seminar #2, taking place nearby, and I’ll do a Tony pick-up and drop-off with some exploring and shopping in between! Tonight, we’ll serenade ourselves to sleep, with “Skippyyyyy, Skippyyyyyyyyy, Skippy, the Bush Kangaroooooooo…..”

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned!

Lisa and Tony

CategoriesOff Topic

Day 8: I Refuse to Chuck a Sickie!

Dammit. I was up most of the night with an angry tummy, and when Tony got up a little after 6:00am he needed to go out and get me some Tylenol, Imodium, and water. I was having shakes and chills, and feeling crappy.

Note from Tony: Lisa will kill me for putting this up, but the picture says a thousand words.

Dammit! Who wants a bug on vacation?!

I felt sorry for myself for a few minutes while Tony was out, and once I took a bunch of medicine, I decided NOT to chuck a sickie (Australian for calling out sick from work).

My best friend Leslie is a trooper when it comes to travel, and also of being a sport when she’s sick, so I decided to channel my inner Leslie and not miss out on any of the fun scheduled for today! Off Tony and I went, to spend the day with our Sydney host, James (Garland).

We met James at the same gym we trained at yesterday. I tagged along with Tony on his bench day, since my legs were shot from yesterday’s leg day + bridge climb. After our workout, we jumped in the car with James and headed north. First we had some brekkie at The Bent Spoon in Ja Freshwater, then got back in the car and checked out Freshwater beach:

Then back in the car again headed a little farther north to Avalon beach and took a hike up to Barrenjoey lighthouse. Here are some pics:

 


It was great to be able to see such amazing sites! James knew where all the good photo ops were. Don’t you love this one, where Tony is totally striking a pose?:

I always find the decent is tougher on my legs than the assent, and as we walked down I could feel the leg day + the bridge climb (and descent) making my legs shake! We found a different route back down, and here are a few more pictures:

We jumped back in the car again, and James dropped us off at Manly beach! One of the “must sees”, Manly was recommended to us by almost everyone who knows anything about the Sydney area.

Unfortunately, the Tylenol I took had worn off, and I was freezing in the 82 degree weather, and ready for a nap! Tony and I lay right down in the sand and passed out for a good half hour. I am not kidding.

For lookers-on, it probably looked like we had been up for two days and had 35 shots of tequila. After sleeping soundly like a pair of hobos for 30 minutes, my plan was to jump in the ocean, but I was cold and feeling so weird (is there another way to describe what a fever feels like?) that I couldn’t do it! I did give it a try though:

Thank goodness Tony was tired too, because I felt like a buzz-kill. Eventually we walked up Manly beach and down a street lined with shops to the ferry.

The ferry from Manly to the Quay was also highly recommended to us, and reminded me of the Staten Island Ferry – except for its not being free.

Now I was full-blown lame, and fell asleep on the Ferry. But Tony took some pictures:

Luckily our hotel is a 5-minute walk from the Quay, so we were back at the hotel in a jiff. I fell asleep again, but not before taking some more Tylenol. Tony was in the mood for pizza, so we ended up at a cute little place called Zia Pina on the rocks, and then we got Tony an ice cream cone afterward.

When returned to the hotel at 7:00pm, I got in bed and really couldn’t get back out! Mega-lame. I tried to catch up on my writing, but was kind of a waste of space. Every 5-7 minutes I needed a mini-nap-break. Tony was down in the lobby using the free wifi, but I still felt bad about our boring night. I am praying that it’s just a little 24-hour bug, and that I’ll be as good as new tomorrow!

Fingers Crossed and talk to you then,

Lisa and Tony