Jan Powers Farmer's Market | Discover Brisbane

A couple of weekends ago, in fact the first weekend we were in Brisbane, Jack and I decided to check out a farmers market. Farmers markets are something we quite enjoy going to in the UK and our local area offers quite a few throughout the year but we hadn't discovered any in Australia until this point. I did some Googling and was happy to find one held locally to us, in Newfarm, every Saturday morning. So of course we had to go and check it out. 

There was loads of great fresh produce on offer to try and buy from fruit, flowers, cakes and homewares it had everything you could want from a farmers markets. Jack and I were mostly interested in the food, being massive foodies, so we spend most of our time hanging around the brownie, bread and cheese stalls pinching free tasters - all delicious I might add. 

It's a great way to spend a Saturday morning in the city because it doesn't have to cost you a penny, or a cent in this case, unless you decide to buy something. It's great just to wander around looking at the stalls and indulging in the relaxed atmosphere. It's easy to forget you're only down the road from the CBD. 

The location was awesome too and if you want you can go into the powerhouse and have a look around. I would recommend rocking up early, as it does get busy and if you're driving you might struggle for a park. However, the city cat terminal is literally down the path from the market and there are bus stops near by. 

So why not hop on the ferry this Saturday, grab a coffee and a pastry from one of the coffee retailers at the market and spend your morning relishing in all the beautiful fresh food and home ware stalls this farmers market offers?

Have you tried out a farmers market in Australia? What other fun things would you recommend I do whilst I'm in Brisbane? Don't forget to let me know in the comments,

Until next time,

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Eleanor & Park | A review

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Eleanor and Park is a young adult novel about two teenagers who find their first love in one another during their bus trips to school. Eleanor stands out from the crown with big, red hair and odd clothing where as Park is quite happy blending in and not being noticed by anyone. Despite their differences, among comic books, mix tapes and secret meetings they manage to find that all consuming first true love.

Let's start my saying Rowell is a brilliant writer and clearly has a good memory of what it's like to be a teenager in high school and fall in love for the first time, because this story is perfectly told and completely believable. The characters were really well developed and easy to connect with. I felt like I knew them and felt them both as individuals and as a couple. What really aided to this was the flaws that both characters had which as always helps to really round a character out and make them seem more human.

The story was both heart warming and heart wrenching and had all the qualities that young adult novel with a love story should have. It dealt with all the trials and tribulations of teenage years and find love. It all unfolded beautifully to create a really fulfilling read that had be grinning like a cheshire cat.

I will be honest it's not hugely original although there are some original elements, the story and concept in itself aren't ground breaking literary work. It's a young adult love story and it's the same at it's core as most other's. If you're into that, or want to try some of it this would be a good place to start but if you're looking for something deep and meaningful I'd look elsewhere.

I also felt the ending was a bit of a let down and a bit of a rush to get there. Overall I'd give this book 3 1/2 stars and I'd be interested to try more of Rowell's writing. 

Have any of you read Eleanor and Park? What did you think? Let me know in the comments along with any book recommendations you may have. Also don't forget to follow me on Goodreads to keep up with what I'm reading. 

Until next time

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A Brissy catch up | #TravelDiaries

So here we are with the first travel diaries. In case you missed my last post, this is a new little series that I'm going to do  during my at the end of every week as a little round up of what I've seen, done and experienced. I thought it would be a nice way for other's to get some ideas of things that are about in the area and also a good way for me to be able to look back at my travels. 

Jack and I have been in Brisbane a fair while now and whilst I haven't managed to secure any permanent work yet, as always, Jack has. So three days a week I sit in the apartment reading, writing, marathoning Pretty Little Liars and looking for a job and Jack goes to work. However, on the four days in between we've managed to squeeze in a few adventures and fun days out.

We're definitely lovers of nature and natural beauty rather than big bustling cities so we often try to get out of the city on the weekend. We took ourselves of to Somerset Dam earlier in the week. It was so peaceful and tranquil and also had some lunch from the cafe at one of the stops along the dam. It's definitely a great place to get out of the city as it's only a forty five minute drive. It doesn't even have to cost a penny because there's plenty of picnic benches around to enjoy a homemade picnic at. 

Midweek Jack decided he wanted to see the sea. It's craving both of us get every now and again. So Jack had a google and found Brighton beach. Well we couldn't exactly not go, could we? It wasn't the best day weather wise so the beach was a bit grey but it kinda felt like Brighton beach for real that way. We just enjoyed sitting by the sea and having a walk along the front. It was, again, a nice escape from the noise of the city but inexpensive and not as crowded as beaches such as Surfers Paradise.

Whilst on one of my Google hunts for things to do in Brisbane. I stumbled across the Jan Powers farmer's market which is held every Saturday at the Powerhouse in New Farm. Although it wasn't as big as the farmer's markets we're used to at home it was a really nice morning. I won't go too much into this as I have a whole blog post planned for it as I loved it so much.

We're living with friends of ours in Brisbane so it's always nice to get out and do things with them as well as 90% of the time it's just Jack and I. This past week we enjoyed a nice meal out at the Archive Beer Boutique in West End which was a great evening out accompanied by some awesome live music. We also got taken up to Mt Tambourine and the little village and waterfalls around it. It was a lovely day but again there's a whole blog post planned for this so more about that another time.

So that's it for the first #TravelDiaries. Let me know what you thought and if you like this idea? Have you got any ideas for places to go or things to do on a budget in Brisbane? If so let me know in the comments

Until next time,

Let's be honest, I failed

Blogging is a hobby for me and that's all it is. I don't get any form of payment for anything I write, I don't have an sponsorship deals and views really aren't that important to me. However, that doesn't mean I don't want to create the best blog I possibly can and it doesn't mean that I want posts to be irregular, without thought and lazy. Recently I've felt like I've been putting up posts and content that are exactly that.

I made a promise at the beginning of this year to be more regular with posts but that really hasn't happen and I can't even describe how frustrating that is for me and how much it makes me stress out when another week goes by and I haven't even written one blog post even though I've got a heap of post ideas written down in my notebook. 

Ever since I took a break to get ideas together and re-focus I've felt unmotivated to blog and in the last week I felt like I'd been away for too long and didn't know where to go next. Should I go straight back into blogging normal posts or should I write an explanatory post. I didn't want to do either. The first would seem odd after such a long break and the second feels like that's all I've been posting recently. What did this mean? More stressed about something that's meant to be a hobby. 

Of course I want the blog to be successful, I want people to read and enjoy which blogger doesn't? But when it comes down to it I have to enjoy blogging because apart from anything else this is a really cool way I can look back on some awesome things I've done. 

I want to create content that people want to read and share and will ultimately feel inspired by but at the same time I don't want to feel stressed out when I don't post.

So I've made a big decision. It's really not that big at all but one that I want to share. 

From now on, well at least while I'm travelling, there will be at least one weekly post. On a Sunday I will post a #TravelDiaries post. This will be a weekly round up of whatever I've done that week on my travels. I did this when I first started travelling at they seem to be the posts that people enjoyed most, I enjoyed most and also posts that consistently get views even now. So I figured why ignore the stats and my feelings? Let's go back to that. 

Additionally I'll post all the other things I like to post - bookish things, recipes, resolution reviews and all the other lifestyle things I post (after all this is a lifestyle blog). However, these will be posted when and if I have anything for such a post. I'm gonna quit this posting something just because I feel something needs to be posted. I'll also do feature posts on things that I've done on my travels that I've particularly enjoyed, a restaurant, a place anything. 

So I think that's it. One regular weekly post and other little lifestyle posts if and when. I hope you're all looking forward to this much more laid back blogging as I am. Hopefully it will result in better reading for and less crappy posts and also a less stressed version of me. I also want to point out that this format won't be forever, as travelling around Australia won't be forever but that doesn't matter now. 

As always I'd like to hear from you lovely readers what you'd like to see more of and what you like me to post most of all. Also let me know if there's anything you'd like to see over here on this little corner of the internet. You can comment below and as always tweet me or comment on the facebook page.

So until next time,

A little life update

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So, it's been a while. Sorry about that. After my week full of blog posts I was really hoping to get back into blogging on a more regular basis but as always life threw a bit of a curve ball. 

Due to the lack of work in Yamba we decided we'd head to Brisbane to try and get work and earn the money required to see some more of the things we want to see. We weren't sure about it at first because neither of us are really city people and we're both of the opinion that we could work in a city pretty much anywhere in the world and they're all really, pretty much the same once you've done all the little touristy things there are too. 

However, we realised it would be a different experience to the one we've had so far out here and it would be as close to real life as we could get. Proper jobs, paying rent etc, etc. So we figured why not give it a go. It was also our best chance for earning good money relatively close to where we already where. 

So yes, I'm writing this to you from Brisbane with the sound of city traffic rushing past my third floor apartment bedroom window. We're living with friends of ours that live, work and study here full time and I think it's working out really well so far. 

However, this doesn't explain why there was a lack of blog posts. Well when we arrived Connor and Laura had no wifi set up in the apartment. Of course I had 3G on my phone but I was saving that for looking for the much needed job that still hasn't arrived as of yet, but soon fingers crossed. So with no wifi I was unable to get on my laptop to get some new blog posts down on any sort of regular basis so I made the executive decision to leave blog posts alone until I could write them properly on my laptop with decent photos and be relatively regular about it. So that's that I hope you can forgive me.

On the relatively regular note however, there is another update point to make. I say relatively because I don't want to make promises to so many blog posts a week on certain days. In a recent blog post I mentioned how blogging for me is a hobby and is for fun and I don't want to take away from that by forcing myself to write something purely because I've said I'd post something on that day. I've done this in the past and can sometimes lead to poor, un-planned, disorganised blog posts. Therefore, all though posts will hopefully be relatively regular, there's no schedule and no promises so that if I don't have something to write you don't end up reading something rubbish. I want all posts to be posts I'm proud to put forward into the interwebs. 

And that's that. A little update on where I am, what I'm up to and all about relatively regular posts. 

I hope you're all well. And remember you can tweet at me, like the page on facebook or comment below to let me know what posts you like most and what you'd like to see more of on Lemon Pea lifestyle. 

So, until next time

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