Geelong

1 vanilla slice, 1 hot pie, 1 coconut jam slice 1 whopper with onion rings

With the gymnastics competition over and Miss13 flying home to Brisbane I had to make my way back to Canberra. It was raining and cold when I left Geelong and it remained gloomy the whole drive to Wangaratta. 

My aim today was to take a leisurely drive through Kilmore, Euroa and Benalla stopping at each place and trying a bakery. 

This is the vanilla slice at Kemp’s Bakery in Kilmore. The bakery is really good. The range of products is large and for travellers the toilets are remarkable. They are so clean. The coffee is also pretty good. Unfortunately the icing on the vanilla slice was very thick making it difficult to break through with a fork. The icing though did have a discernable strawberry flavour. The custard had a nice flavour but it was too gelatinous. I’d happily eat vanilla slices there but they weren’t the best I’ve ever had. 

Vanilla slice from Kemp's Bakery in Kilmore Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/120sec, ISO 32
Vanilla slice from Kemp’s Bakery in Kilmore Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/120sec, ISO 32
Apple + Pro HDR iPhone with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/5000sec, ISO 32
Apple + Pro HDR iPhone with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/5000sec, ISO 32

I drove through to Euroa while listening to Trek.fm podcasts and stopped at Burkes Bakery. The pies they had on selection were the usual ones you’d see in a country bakery but the bloke serving behind the counter suggested the steak with bacon and egg pie. It was very good and served at perfect eating temperature. It wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t cold. The filling was thick enough that it didn’t fall out after the first bite. The pastry was light but not so flaky that I got it all over me. I’d say it was a perfect casing for what was a very good filling. 

Sunday lunch. Steak, bacon and egg pie from Burkes Bakery in Euroa Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/20sec, ISO 200
Sunday lunch. Steak, bacon and egg pie from Burkes Bakery in Euroa Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/20sec, ISO 200

Even though I’d been making good progress I was wanting to go to Hides Bakery in Benalla again for a coffee. I was feeling very tired after another poor sleep and thought a stop for some caffiene would help. When I arrived I noticed they’d sold out of vanilla slices but I did see a nice looking coconut and jam slice. I do like a coconut and jam slice. 

Coconut and jam slice from Hides Bakery in Benalla Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/40sec, ISO 40
Coconut and jam slice from Hides Bakery in Benalla Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/40sec, ISO 40

I’m spending the night at the Millers Cottage motor inn in Wangaratta. It’s a budget motel and my guess it has been in operation since at least the 1970s. The decor is 1970s.

I was thinking of finding a restaurant but I felt too tired so I went and found a fast food joint and bought a burger. Yep, Hungry Jacks whopper and onion rings. 

Sunday dinner. Hungry Jacks Whopper and onion rings in Wangaratta. SONY ILCE-7S with FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS at 70mm and f/8, 1/80sec, ISO 2500
Sunday dinner. Hungry Jacks Whopper and onion rings in Wangaratta. SONY ILCE-7S with FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS at 70mm and f/8, 1/80sec, ISO 2500

So how did you spend your Sunday? I hope it was a good one. Bye for now. 

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This is the route I took today.

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Check it out 🙂 

3 holes 2 holes too many and 0 vanilla slices

Wow 0 vanilla slices today

It’s day three of my holiday. I put on my jeans and felt the snugness that comes with eating too many vanilla slices (amongst other things).

I’m now on belt home 3, I had hoped not to revisit belt hole 3. Belt hole 3 signifies failure, a lack of discipline, a life of fun and games and not enough physical effort.

Belt holes

So what to do? Well I’m on holiday and I’m still going to enjoy myself, after all my Victorian friends have told me how good the food is here so it would be wrong not to enjoy myself. Discipline and hard work can wait for when I get home.

The deeper question is why have I let myself go after losing a few kilograms at the beginning of the year and keeping to belt hole 0 for so long.

The reasons are manifold and include a general lack of motivation to maintain discipline and a greater lack of motivation to exercise. In previous years I’ve got out and walked for about 40 minutes at least once a day even in the dead of a Canberra winter.

I’ve still been waking up early but this year I’ve just not felt motivated. I need to get back to getting out and walking. I also need to get better with portion control.

So what happened on day 3 of my holiday? I spent most of the day sitting on my well proportioned arse at the Geelong Arena watching women’s artistic gymnastics. For a portion of the day I enjoyed watching Miss13 compete for Delta Brisbane in the level 7 competition. Most years when I can get to this event it’s been Miss17 who I’ve watched but Miss17 is in grade 12 and in her last week of high school. Miss17 is as always carrying a reasonable injury at the moment too so she sensibly elected not to compete. For Miss13 though this is her first national club championships and it’s great to see her in competition.

For readers not familiar with gymnastics the event is broken up into two days of competition for each level. The first day it’s like heats of a race. On the second day the best clubs compete.

Watching gymnastics can be pretty boring, there’s a lot of warming up and for each apparatus a competitor may only spend a minute or so doing their thing. The vault is over in the few seconds but they get two goes. I find the beam the most nerve wracking to watch. Balance is such a fine thing. After losing my hearing in my left ear I find balance even more precious and watching these young competitors wobble and regain balance, occasionally performing flawlessly occasionally fighting gravity and losing, I am in awe of how the human body can with skill and training do amazing things. All hail the vestibular apparatus. 

The Geelong Arena is surprisingly small. Having watched the same competition at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra and having attended other competitions I’m surprised for a national championship such a small arena has been chosen.

For the spectators this is fantastic. You are very close to the floor and you get a much better appreciation of the competition. I’d happily come here again.

So what did I eat today. For breakfast I went for a bit of a walk and found a café close to the hotel. The Rio Café is a small friendly looking place that does a basic breakfast which is served all day as well as sandwiches and fairly good coffee. I asked for poached eggs and bacon and also enjoyed a couple of flat white coffees.

Bacon and poached eggs from the Rio Cafe Coffee Lounge, Geelong Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/40sec, ISO 32
Bacon and poached eggs from the Rio Cafe Coffee Lounge, Geelong Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/40sec, ISO 32

The eggs were poached nicely. The yolks we’re runny and there was no taste of vinegar in the egg white. The two bacon rashers were cooked well, not over cooked which is a cooking crime. The toast was white bread with butter. I elected not to eat the toast.

For lunch there is a tuck shop at the arena and they served potato gems with tomato sauce. It was very diffuse to go past them.

Potato gems Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/20sec, ISO 200
Potato gems Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/20sec, ISO 200

As I wrote above, I find watching the balance beam the most terrifying. Especially when there is a handstand involved or spinning. I watched some amazing ‘saves’ today, bodies on the edge, Gravity winning but human determination and strength winning. The emotions are high and low for the competitors and spectators alike. We all watched an amazing floor routine and at the end the gymnast fell. She cried, we cried.

Miss13 had a good first day. This is her leaping on the balance beam. She nailed the landing 🙂

Miss13 leaping from the balance beam NIKON D810 with 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 at 82mm and f/5, 1/500sec, ISO 8000
Miss13 leaping from the balance beam NIKON D810 with 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 at 82mm and f/5, 1/500sec, ISO 8000

 

After the afternoon session I went to get something for dinner. I found a greasy spoon called Scooby Sue and got a burger. It had lots of coleslaw and sour cream. It did the trick and hit the right spot!

Hamburger Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/20sec, ISO 80
Hamburger Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/20sec, ISO 80

I went back to watch the Level 10 competition and then returned to the hotel to write this post.

So do you enjoy watching sport? I think to get back to belt hole 0 I need to do more than just watch sport 😀

Here are some photographs of Miss13 going through her paces today.

 

1 Vanilla slice 1 Pie 1 laksa 0 dessert

It’s day two of my holiday adventure. Today I drove from Wangaratta to Geelong. I was expecting it to take about four hours but I ended up spending more than three hours in bumper to bumper traffic because of two major accidents on the Princess Highway just past the Melbourne airport.

I woke up at the Parkview Motor Inn in Wangaratta with welts on my skin because there were biting midges in the bed. I didn’t sleep well and missed having my CPAP machine. After two instant coffees and a shower I felt well enough to check out and head for Benalla. I found Hides Bakery and enjoyed a passion fruit iced vanilla slice and coffee for breakfast. 

Passionfruit vanilla slice from Hides Bakery in Benalla Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/30sec, ISO 40
Passionfruit vanilla slice from Hides Bakery in Benalla Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/30sec, ISO 40
Hides Bakery Benalla Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/150sec, ISO 32
Hides Bakery Benalla Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/150sec, ISO 32

After Benalla I made my way to Wallan expecting the Top of the Town Bakery to be a suitable place to find lunch. 

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Hands free selfie using the camera timer Apple iPhone 5 with iPhone 5 front camera 2.18mm f/2.4 at 2mm and f/2.4, 1/40sec, ISO 32
Hands free selfie using the camera timer Apple iPhone 5 with iPhone 5 front camera 2.18mm f/2.4 at 2mm and f/2.4, 1/40sec, ISO 32

What I found was a relatively small bakery with a couple of old warped tables. I bought a beef, bacon and cheese pie and found a park to eat lunch. 

Beef bacon and cheese pie from Top of the Town Bakery Wallan Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/400sec, ISO 32
Beef bacon and cheese pie from Top of the Town Bakery Wallan Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/400sec, ISO 32

It was still midday when I set off and I thought I’d make good progress getting to Geelong with the thought I might have an afternoon at the Geelong Arena. In the end I sat in traffic for more than three hours.

Princess Highway traffic Apple iPhone 5 with iPhone 5 back camera 4.12mm f/2.4 at 4mm and f/2.4, 1/1600sec, ISO 50
Princess Highway traffic Apple iPhone 5 with iPhone 5 back camera 4.12mm f/2.4 at 4mm and f/2.4, 1/1600sec, ISO 50

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On getting to Geelong I checked in and tried to relax a little.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk to Corio Wharf and then found a Thai restaurant to have dinner. 

Public art Corio Wharf Geelong SONY ILCE-7S with FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS at 24mm and f/8, 1/500sec, ISO 100
Public art Corio Wharf Geelong SONY ILCE-7S with FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS at 24mm and f/8, 1/500sec, ISO 100
Public art Corio Wharf Geelong. It looks like a shark tooth. SONY ILCE-7S with FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS at 35mm and f/4, 1/800sec, ISO 100
Public art Corio Wharf Geelong. It looks like a shark tooth. SONY ILCE-7S with FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS at 35mm and f/4, 1/800sec, ISO 100
Seagull Corio Wharf SONY ILCE-7S with FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS at 70mm and f/4, 1/1250sec, ISO 100
Seagull Corio Wharf SONY ILCE-7S with FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS at 70mm and f/4, 1/1250sec, ISO 100
Corio Wharf SONY ILCE-7S with FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS at 24mm and f/4, 1/2500sec, ISO 100
Corio Wharf SONY ILCE-7S with FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS at 24mm and f/4, 1/2500sec, ISO 100
Corio Wharf SONY ILCE-7S with FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS at 27mm and f/4, 1/160sec, ISO 100
Corio Wharf SONY ILCE-7S with FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS at 27mm and f/4, 1/160sec, ISO 100
Corio Wharf SONY ILCE-7S with FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS at 70mm and f/4, 1/2000sec, ISO 100
Corio Wharf SONY ILCE-7S with FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS at 70mm and f/4, 1/2000sec, ISO 100
A Touch of Thai Geelong Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/60sec, ISO 32
A Touch of Thai Geelong Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/60sec, ISO 32
A Touch of Thai Geelong Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/15sec, ISO 100
A Touch of Thai Geelong Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/15sec, ISO 100

I asked for the salt and chilli squid plus a BBQ pork laksa. Both were hot like fire from the chilli. The laksa was very spicy and the coconut milk wasn’t as creamy as I’ve had elsewhere. Overall both were really nice dishes. 

Salt and chilli squid at A Touch of Thai, Geelong Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/30sec, ISO 32
Salt and chilli squid at A Touch of Thai, Geelong Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/30sec, ISO 32
BBQ pork laksa at A Touch of Thai, Geelong Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/30sec, ISO 40
BBQ pork laksa at A Touch of Thai, Geelong Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/30sec, ISO 40