We departed slightly from our usual Saturday morning routine to cross the tunnel and the ANZAC Bridge over to Broadway.  You technically don’t have to cross the bridge to get there but it’s the only way I know that gets me to the inner west.  Broadway is one of those typically Sydney shopping centres with the most complicated parking arrangements in the western world.  Coloured arrows siphon you from the entry point to wherever you want to park close to.  Then you go up a series of steep ramps to get to your chosen level, turn up some one way only lanes and hopefully after all of that, you’ll find yourself  a parking spot.  My tip is to get there as close to opening time as you can on the weekend.

It’s been years since I’ve last visited the shopping centre and its had a major facelift in the interim.  The cinema exits into a whole floor of eating and shopping options separate to the retailers of the main shopping centre.  Everything’s interconnected with escalators but the cinema level of shops has a distinct ‘entertainment’ feel to it with its dark tiled pillars, mood lighting, arty installations and dining areas decorated to match the food outlets they support.

I love these rose gold wire chairs at Passion Tree Velvet of the high tea and macaron fame.

www.sephora.com

I checked into the nearby Sephora.  It’s spacious and well stocked however I think my all time favourite Sephora Collection eyeliner, the 12 hour contour eye pencil is no longer stocked in the South East Asian arm of the chain.  There wasn’t even an empty portion of the display unit to give  me hope that they will be restocked.  It’s like they never even existed at Sephora, every last trace of them has been removed completely from the stores and they’re listed as ‘out of stock’ on the website.  As good a sign as any that I need to keep up my annual Stateside vacations.

The possible uses for disposable plastic cups are endless.  Here they are being used as single serve, refillable and unbreakable cinema snack holders.  They actually worked really well because Preschooler SSG and his friends found them easy to hold and they weren’t so big that it was difficult to find what they wanted to snack on next.  It was also a nice way to share some relatively healthy snacks from home.

Did you know that Hoyts Jr is a thing?  Selected Hoyts Cinemas run preschooler and toddler friendly new release films at family friendly times of the day with all tickets costing $9.  Even for parents.

www.wikia.com

 The three train mad friends were at the cinema to see the latest Thomas film, ‘The Great Race’.

www.wikia.com

Us mums where there for the novelty factor of trying to spot Shane the new Australian train created for the movie.  My friend spotted his small, non speaking cameo while I spent the whole movie trying to listen for the train with a Steve Irwin voice.  Don’t know why it was Steve Irwin in my mind, actually…

The boys had a great time at the movie but all that running up and down reading seat row letters and numbers was hungry work and we went straight to lunch after the film.  In Preschooler SSG’s opinion, you can’t catch a movie with friends without sharing a few baskets of dumplings for lunch afterwards.

I went next door for my classic pork Banh Mi with extra chilli and a dash of soy fix.

There was time for a quick walk past Target on the way to the pay station before heading for home.

Couldn’t resist coming back and editing today’s post to include a mention of our walk this afternoon.  I’ve come home relaxed, slightly sun kissed (as much as you can be through a scarf, sweater and jeans) and ready for the official start of spring in a mere 4 days.

The sun made the previously formidable flights of stairs that dot our suburb look more approachable.  We did them at a leisurely weekend pace to match the weather.

It also added some warm gold to the leaves of the creeper style ‘hedges’ that adorn quite a few walls in the area.  A special mention goes to the precisely trimmed leaves that border No. 1.

Are you a regular at Broadway?  What’s your favourite place for coffee there?  I saw an interesting looking cafe across from Target.  Forgotten the name already but it was grey and white and very minimalist in appearance.  Any idea what it’s called?