Neighborhood Walk - Kingston and Manuka

It turned out that the weather yesterday was as awesome as it was on Saturday, and I did manage to get my ass out of the house and go for a nice long walk. For something a little different, Tom and I drove over to the south side of town, and went for a walk around Kingston and Manuka.

The plan was to walk around the main street areas, but I cheaped out by parking at the Kingston Oval and walking a couple of extra blocks to avoid feeding a parking meter. I knew that there were a few spots there
because when we first moved to Canberra, we lived at the Oxley Court Apartments, which is directly across the street from the oval.
  We were only there for a month or so (until we could find a house to rent), and honestly, I've hardly been back anywhere near there since. There's a lot of upmarket shopping and cafes and boutiques and that sort of thing, which isn't exactly my scene. But I thought it might be nice for a change of scenery.




Just a couple of blocks up the road is the Kingston Hotel, but at 10 in the morning, there's not a lot of action, so we kept moving.


At that time of the day, a new bookstore was more my speed. But Tom wasn't impressed, and I definitely do NOT need to be bringing home more books, so I controlled myself, had a quick look at the books in the bins outside, then kept moving.


The gorgeous weather meant that plenty of people were out and about for a meal or a coffee.


Tom knows that coffee for me means a treat for him, so every time we went past a cafe, he'd start yelling "Coffee! Coffee! Coffeeeeeeee!" It's funny to see the looks on peoples' faces while they try to decide if they think it's cute, or if they're horrified at the sight of a caffeine-addicted three-year-old.


We skipped them all, and had some fresh-baked Italian bread and a Phoenix Organic Cola. The bread was free, given to me by a guy with a big box of bread as we walked by his apartment (no, I don't know why), and the cola was an impulse purchase when I went in to buy a newspaper (to get a free Sesame Street Christmas DVD for Tom). I'd read about Phoenix drinks a week or so ago, but I didn't know they sold them here, so when I saw them, I thought I'd give one a try. It was okay. Not as sweet as Coke. Not as bubbly. Not as acidic. Maybe more like R C Cola, but more lemony. Not bad, but I don't know if I'd go out of my way to buy more of the stuff.

We walked around for about three hours, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Then we went home and discovered that Karen and the boys hadn't finished their marathon cookie bake (end-of-year gifts for teachers and friends, plus more to share with the whole class). So whatever calories I walked off were quickly consumed in the form of warm-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies. I swear, she does this shit on purpose. :)