Get Shoes (check)

I left this morning with one task.. Get new sneakers and maybe new sandals.. Well, I didn't get either sneakers or sandals but what I got are even better!

I left the hotel around noon so I decided some lunch was in order before I did anything else. What did I eat you ask? Movenpick ice cream! That's it you ask? No sir, I had a lactaid.. :P

Ok, so seriously.. I left and as you know I can never walk down the same street twice so I headed a different way to the shopping area on Pitt St. Now I know what you're thinking, if the hotel and the shopping area are both on Pitt St why didn't you just walk down Pitt St.. Well... Because I don't like to walk down the same street twice, that's why they call it exploring.. Anyway, so I decided to walk over a few streets before walking down and I saw this amazing castle looking thing in the distance so I walked over to that, it turns out it's the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.. Well, I'll be.. Anyway, so right next to the SCoM is the Royal Botanic Gardens which is free and very beautiful (pictures up on Flickr).. Speaking of pictures, so I got real creative with my camera phone today, I saw this really cool fountain that I wanted a picture of me at so I found a park bench and propped my camera on the top of the park bench using bark I found on the ground to wedge it into place so that the fountain was in view, set the timer and ran over to the fountain. I was amazed at how good it came out on the first shot. I ended up carrying around that bark for most of the day in case I found another use for it but I didn't.

By the way.. Wearing my sandals was a A+ idea, I was actually walking my normal speed today for the first time since surgery! There was no pressure on the blister because the sides of the sandals are open and the Achilles was not being bothered because of the way the strap sits on my leg does not touch either cut. To think I almost didn't bring them this trip. So, I'm not getting rid of those, I'm going to have someone redo the insides so I can wear them barefoot again. In the meantime I just have to get over my Cliff Claven picture.. I mention this now because it was when I was leaving the Gardens that I came to the realization that I was walking my normal speed and had no pain.

So, after the Gardens I walked down to Pitt St so that I would arrive at the beginning of the shopping district. The first store I went into was a outdoors type of store sorta like an EMS, I tried on a few sneakers and nothing was playing nice with my Achilles, she recommended I go over to Kent St by Town Hall because there are a few more outdoors stores over there that carry a few other brands. Well, Kent St would be next, after I Pitt St that is. So on I go into store after store after store looking at bunches of shitty sneakers. I went into this one mall and almost got lost, you go in at street level and go downstairs under the buildings like in Singapore and Montreal and just like there it's multiple malls combined with different directories. I did find a LUSH in that mall which was cool, it made me smile.. I've now seen LUSH in Canada, USA, England, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Singapore and Australia! Anyway, I ended up leaving the mall on George St because I got turned around inside the mall. I walked back to Pitt and continued my journey looking in store after store after store.. I got all the way to the end of Pitt St which by the way is far past the end of the official shopping area before heading over to Kent with my heart full of hopelessness.

I got to Kent and found the stores the lady was talking about, I went into the first one and BAM I found the best shoes ever! I'm not kidding either, these things friggin rock. They have an outer rubber part which comes off so when your shoes are all muddy and snowy you can take the rubber off and walk around inside without having to take the whole shoe off. The back is very low so it does not touch either cut so my Achilles is fine as well. They are made by Patagonia and called Toast & Jam, that link will bring you to them on Onlineshoes.com. I got the Velvet Brown color so I can wear them as work shoes as well. I left that store and continued to walk up Kent St back to Circular Quay before heading back here to type this blog and upload new pics.

It's about 5:30, I think I'm feeling steak tonight.. I'll keep you posted so until then, what.. You know maybe I need like a tag line.. Like "live long and prosper" but cooler, you know that way I can say till then "..."! Seriously I think that would be cool, post your ideas and we will see...

Sorry for no diversions of the day, I have not had time to "play" on the internet and find anything although Lynz did send me this really cool video of Obama slamming the heads of companies for giving themselves bonuses! Crap, where was that link...

OK, here it is.. Thanks to Google Chat log files..

---Diversion of the Day