You would imagine after 14 days of quarantine that we would go crazy with our newfound freedom. We didn't. Here's how we spent it.
A different view
We picked up our car which as you can see is a sweet, sweet Audi (Also the official name we've given this car). Courtesy of a friend whom I'm helping do some work for his business in exchange for this. It's a sweet, sweet car and amazing that we're getting it for free. Also amazing that the Audi Service Centre where we picked it up from is in the same building as our apartment. I'm using amazing too frequently.
First stop: Cafe brunch. We decided on Paramount Coffee Project which was one of the more famous cafes. Interestingly enough the cafe was on the ground floor of Paramount Pictures office and there's have a Paramount Hotel as well.
Sydney is operating as if they've never heard of Covid. They have a Safe Entry equivalent on their Service NSW app which nobody in the cafe bothered with. There's zero social distancing because tables as our seats were half arms length from the couple beside us. Menus are still hardcopies whereas in Singapore they've done away with those and moved to QR codes. And of course, nobody wears masks unless you want to be a target of Asian hate #stopasianhate
So we end up beside an Asian couple who look like they're on their first date. We overhear that the girl likes sci-fi and not romance genres. We were that close to them where it's not considered eavesdropping. They left and another China rich couple (Big guy + slim girl) took over their seats. I say China rich because the girl was decked out in LV. The big guy tries to make conversation with us:
Wow. That dish looks good, I want to order everything on the menu. ~ Big guy beside us
We judge him silently. Paramount Coffee Project was alright. It doesn't live up to the hype and with the crowds and lack of any social distancing, they're more like Paramount Covid Project.
We head back to sweet sweet Audi and on to picking up essentials for our home:
It's strange that all Ikeas look and feel the same. Once you hit the children's section, some soft toys, then it's the Ikea cafe, down the stairs, kitchen stuff, etc.
We pick up a bunch of home stuff and cooking equipment. Not typically what we would select for our home back in Singapore but it'll do for survival here. We try to pay and I enter my PIN incorrectly twice because Australia cards run four digit instead of six digit PINs. The Aussie guy behind me gets visibly annoyed.
For some reason, we both end up feeling super tired. I feel that way every time I go to Ikea. I think it's because my eyes are constantly engaged in all directions with so many things to look at. It's exhausting. There's a huge Decathalon opposite Ikea but we were both too tired to even bother. Take us home sweet, sweet Audi.
We squeeze in our exercise routine in glorious sunset for Sarah while I went downstairs for a run in the outdoors. Finally. I do a breezy 3.5KM with much better split kilometre timings.
I am speed
And then we cook dinner for the first time in two weeks. Oyeah. Saving some money there.
Tastes better than it looks
Freedom is truly underrated. The ability to go anywhere, eat anything, sleep, exercise, cook. I've spent some time in Sydney before but everything now feels different because I have someone to share these experiences with. That is what I'm most thankful for in my newfound freedom.
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