In the past few months, I’ve been doing my food and everyday shopping at the new and improved Fountain Gate. Everything I need is right next to each other at the Fountain Gate Fresh Food Section up on Level 2 of the shopping centre. Coles, Breadtop, Fish Pier, Fruit and Veg Shop.. and a plentiful of butchers in case I need to get some meat and can’t be bothered going to Tasman Meats. It is so convenient to just go to one place and get all the shopping done without hopping in and out of the car to get from one place to another for various things. It not only saves time and money, but also saves the energy of dealing with an 8 month old who is tagging along!

Yes, I can probably get everything I need from Coles. BUT the seafood, meat, fruit and veg are not the cheapest and freshest at Coles. Sorry, Coles. You can’t beat the real fresh food people no matter what you claim in your ads… sorry, sorry I still love you Coles! You guys make the best cookies :p

The fruit and veg shop at Fountain Gate offers a great range of fresh food, and when I say great range, I really do mean great range! I’ve been buying papayas and okras from them, and they are cheap! Ginger is an abundance there, and they only cost 1/3 of the price Coles sells them for. Plus, they have a whole back section dedicated to a selection of Asian condiments and sauces so I’m very happy!

My personal favorite is “Fish Pier” the seafood shop right outside of Coles. Not only do they sell a whole lot of beautiful fish and seafood, their prices are quite reasonable! I personally wouldn’t spend $30/kg on filleted fish, so I pay $8/kg for a whole Tilapia. Yes, they sell TILAPIA! Most Aussies would probably have no idea what to do with them, but they are so perfect for me to just steam for 20 minutes with ginger and mushrooms / black bean paste. Yummo!!

So this whole place is great for my weekly shopping… but there is a huge catch. It is FOUNTAIN GATE, only the biggest, busiest, craziest local shopping centre that EVERYONE in the area goes to, and there are A LOT of people in this area. So, it is almost impossible to find parking most days, it is total chaos and you cannot walk a straight line because people just seem to keep coming towards you!!!

That is why I do my shopping before 9am. It is the BEST time to be out shopping! Micah wakes up at 6am, has his feed, has his play, has his breakfast, and nappy changed, and then I go and have a quick shower.. and off we go! We do our shopping and then Micah comes home tired and ready for his morning nap. It is so perfect. Parking is never an issue, I always find a spot closest to the entrance quite easily. Feels like I have the entire shopping centre all to myself, although it’s technically not that empty.. some people seem to have the same idea… but we all respect each other. We all calmly stroll through the aisles, and we all walk nice and gently without seeming irritated or in a hurry on a normal busy day. We almost have a “secret code” amongst each other – where we give each other looks and smile and think “Good morning, great time to be here isn’t it?!” It is SO good, and all the shops I need to get to are open nice and early so it works out really well!!

Our Mums Group decided to go out and have a picnic out in the sun yesterday, instead of our usual play centre meet ups. It was a great sunny day! I am SO excited that winter is almost over.. I can’t wait for spring and summer and be able to enjoy the great outdoors and fresh air more often!! To be able to be out on our decking more often! To have people over for a BBQ! Ohh… and to have hay fever… boooo… but let’s not focus on the bad stuff. The GOOD stuff definitely outweighs hay fever, except on a really bad day.

Micah did a little Free Standing stunt… although it may not count because he was leaning against the activity table. Oh well, I will get a photo of him Free Standing eventually!! He’s been doing it a few times today already!

Later that day, Micah and I went back to Fountain Gate to see Timomatic perform. The place was packed with screaming teenage fans, but we got a good spot upstairs looking down from the cinema. Perfect for my big camera to zoom in, hehe. It was great to see him perform 3 songs, but then we had to leave because Micah started getting restless and started crying. Sad that I didn’t get to see the rest of the show but glad I saw him perform “Incredible” which is currently one of my favorite songs.

Here are the videos I manage to take while I was there! Sorry the videos are shaky, I had to hold the camera with just one hand while the other was holding Micah’s hand, trying to keep him from crying. Worked most of the time, although if you listen carefully you will hear Micah whinging in the background anyway! Oh well..

After such a big, busy day yesterday. Micah and I are going to be homebound these next two days! Just chill, relax, catch up on house chores, get lots of snoozes and cuddles together.