I Finally Joined Swan Lake

It’s been ten years since I last saw the Swan Lake, danced an excerpt of the legendary, poised ballet. By force, a bribe and much coaxing, I finally joined Swan Lake. I haven’t been dancing, I haven’t been exercising. Without realising, I had developed “love handles”, you know the extras on the hips that bulge out of your jeans that begs to be squeezed and “handled” by your loved ones?  That’s it. It’s past my 20′s that this started to happen. It’s a common thing. I can never be slim forever, beauty and fitness doesn’t last if I am not consistently keeping an eye on it. Very much displeased, I begged that the bulge would go away so I could maintain the slim body I once used to have with some muscles here and there. At least, nothing on me was seen wobbling at the least bit. Now something somewhere does. Not cool. There was no quick fix for me. I never considered liposuction. Dieting is not my thing. It doesn’t work that way. Dating a sportsman doesn’t help either. It either embarasses him or me, with my gentle facade, when I am supposed to be much fitter and stronger than that.

“Come on dear, just an hour of exercise daily can get you back into shape. You could do so much by going to Albert Park. It’s a beautiful park, about kilometres. Safe, with a lake in it. Just walk round the lake. You’d see many people exercising there. It should take you an hour to finish one lap. Then, I may sign you up for a marathon. We’ll start you off with the 3km race. If Kenny Sia can do it, so can you! You could blog about your experience. Take photos of the park and show me as proof that you finished one lap. Don’t be scared.”

First things first. He compared me to Kenny Sia? Kenny’s a blogger and has run many marathons! I’m no where compared to that. He couldn’t possibly compare me to Lynn from Pushmore Fitness or Anna Rina. That would be an overkill too. I stopped to ponder for abit and realised just how patient and motivating he was for someone who really isn’t used to exercising – me.

It’s not that I didn’t want to go to Albert Park, I just wanted to ensure that I had the right mind and motivation when I go to the park. The weather had to be good. Before I knew it, I was coming up with all sorts of excuses. Two days in a row, the weather was bad for me. It was too cold on one day, so I exercised in and went to the gym. It was too hot the following day, so I took a dip in the pool and swam a miserable ten laps. I still exercised, but I still had some kind of excuse of not seeing the park.

Alas, the sportsman said it wasn’t good enough because I refused to go to the park and I would never see the park at the end of the day. Maybe his coaching skills was prevaling and if I had this mentality, I would never go to the Olympics. No wonder I’m not a sportsman at the Olympics, right?

He bribed me with internet. The internet I was so fond of, where I find hours surfing the internet, replying e-mails, blogging, reading blogs, facebooking, MSN-ing and etc. He took the internet away from me by changing the internet password and bribed that I would get it back only when I return from Albert Park.

For some reason, it worked. I found myself walking to Albert Park (Swan Lake). So, here are the photos.

Albert Park boasts 225-hectares of beautiful park land including a picturesque lake and network of trails. It’s located in the City of Port Phillip, approximately three kilometres from the CBD of Melbourne and is the venue for many of Victoria’s popular public events. The park is a mecca for sporting and recreation enthusiasts with a superb 18 hole golf course, golf driving range, walking and cycling tracks and on water activities. Other facilities include picnic tables, barbecue areas, playgrounds, restaurants and toilets. Albert park is also an important sanctuary for wildlife and vegetation. (parkweb.vic.gov.au)

If Albert Park rings a bell, you may remember that it is the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit held annually. It is indeed a much sought-after park. Why shouldn’t I check it out?

If you don’t scroll down too quickly, you would enjoy Albert Park even more by taking a closer look of beauty at its best, mother nature.

Crossing the road. Serious look. My braces have changed the shape of my mouth drastically.

I told myself, “Okay dear, here’s Albert Park for you.” looking rather sceptical what it has to offer.

When I saw this, I was enthralled by the lake’s beauty.

I placed the camera on the exercise bar and posed. As you can see, I was looking rather happy and excited about what I was to see next.

I met so many wonderful friends – S87, P59, W10 and so many more! There were so many black swans in the lake.

Oh poor crow!

I was so afraid it was going to rain soon. Good motivation for me to walk even faster. My next goal was to walk towards the buildings I see ahead of me.

These little duckies cheered on for me.

And the flowers, the waved to me!

I see the buildings even much closer now. Good!

More snaps of the photo.

This was one of the few exercise benches myjojo was talking about.

It was jetty of some sort for some weekend activities like boating and so on. Lots of bird poo everywhere.

Evidence in case myjojo thinks I got those photos from the internet.

There was a cafe.

Cute little I-dunno-what-you-call this cycling-rowing boat.

Nice spiral staircase.

This was past the big buildings in the city (Omg, I was walking towards the city just now?)

White bird.

A playground for kids and benches were seen all over the park for lovers and friends to enjoy the scenery of the park.

As you can see from the sign above, you can do many things in the park.

Tables for picnic.

Nice. So I completed 3km already. Some websites say it’s 5km in total, some say 3km. I still don’t know for sure how many kms the walk is.

One duckie managed to cross before I walked past it.

How lovely it is.

I love trees that tell a story of how ancient it is.

A real Christmas tree, pointing up into the sky.

Black swans sunbathing, off-water.

You’d sometimes find poo everywhere, all around the park. Dogs, swans, birds, and etc. excluding human poo. What am I crapping.

Water dispenser for the thirsty.

More exercise benches.

This looks like where I initially started off from, a bit more to go!

An indication of that would be – white ducks. You start off with black swans and end with white ducks.

And the last building on the park would be the sailing and yachting club.

More ducks.

The end of the clubs.

I was to cross the street. This was the end of my walk around the park.

Tired but satisfied. That wasn’t too hard. I finally understood why myjojo insisted for me to visit this park.

1. He wanted me to exercise out of the gym.
2. He wanted me to see mother nature at its best. He’s right, “When I was at the park alone, all I could think of was – to imagine him with me enjoying mother nature by standing next to me. Made me miss him and love him even more while I got fitter. He was scheming.”

I received my internet password when I got home. The password was, “exercise”.

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