Wednesday, October 29, 2008

positive

Noddie is off on a Proper Kinder Excursion (in a bus!!), and not being one of the in-crowd mums (too tall, too cranky, not related to anyone, would rather stick my finger in my eye than wear visible lip-liner) I am sitting in a silent messy house with a mountain of jobs to do before 1pm. This is usually the time I go to pieces and get all gloomy, waste a lot of time on the internet, then hate myself the whole rest of the day for not taking advantage of this window of No Interruptions. But not today. Today I have a List! I love lists! Lists save me from my scatterbrained waftiness and make it all about getting stuff done. They bestow satisfying crossings-out and silence the it’s not fair I always have to do everything mumblings. Mmmmmmm…….lists……
Item 1. Write a blog post.
Sometimes my blog is about what I think (usually the whingeing bits) and sometimes it’s about what I want to think (the bits pinched from other people’s blogs). Well, today I’ll lock in ‘B’ for $25,000 please Eddie.
Iron Geekgrl Misty wrote about patience, how you’re going to be a year older next October anyway so you might as well get started on things that will make your life better even if they take a long time. What’s the point of training when I’m always going to be slow and heavy? The point is that summer will come whether I train or not. Patiently building up my fitness and whittling away my lard will mean I have much more fun in February. Misty made another point about patience that any of us who race can take with us (you well adjusted types probably do this already. Smart-arses): the finish line will still be there whether you beat yourself up about your performance or not. And if you miss the cutoff or get injured and they pull you off the course, there will be other finish lines. Patience. It’s really a mindset of abundance, isn’t it? I like that. There will be enough. There is enough. I am enough.
The mighty Duane reminded me of something else. This winter I’ve been getting more and more negative in my self-talk (lazy, don’t try hard, so slow I wonder why I bother, lurgis my own fault because I don't take proper care of myself, a tragic drunk, a bad mother, terrible taste in shoes etc etc). I wouldn’t let anyone else put me down the way I have been doing to myself! Not wanting to get all 0prah on you, but words are powerful. They can serve me or hinder me. It’s time to be like Duane and get some positive statements out there.
I like getting up early.
I work hard.
I am the best mum and wife I can manage
I don’t eat chips or chocolate, or drink during the week.
I am a swimmer and a runner and a triathlete.
Come on summer, I’m ready! This is right near my parents' place. See why we want to move there?
More anon, manipulators of cosmic forces!

I meant to tell you, I bought a book about how to hear angel messages because the hairdresser told me to (as you do), then I couldn't find it so I thought the angels must have hidden it because I was so skeptical about the whole thing. Then the Spousal Unit found it under the couch.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

duck broken

These are exciting times at Chateau LBTEPA. The RSPBEB* has cleared up at last; I've strung together a few weeks of consistent exercise and my word I am feeling better for it; and last but not least, I've finally overcome the siren lure of the doona and done an early morning workout. It was unfortunate that whiny LBTEPA came along for the ride:
I hate this, it's freezing
Be quiet, at least we got out of bed
but I'm reeeally collllllld
pedal harder. Isn't this envigorating?
Envigorating my lardy posterior. I wish I was still snuggled up warmly next to the Spousal Unit. We must be mental
No you don't. This is quite nice really....
no it isn't
...and we're half way there now, time to turn back
Holy smeg, this head wind! It's freezing!Since when do we have southerlies in October?
Please stop whingeing
(mutters sulkily) oh all right then.
I've broken my duck, and I can't wait to go out again.

More anon, keensters!
*Rotten Stinking Pig Bastard Everlasting Bronchitis

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Told

Given that it has been pointed out to me* that I 'should look at the big picture' because 'it's not the end of the world' to miss out on a bike ride, and also how 'silly' it is to be so sad about the bike ride when the 19y.o. sister of a friend has come out of remission with leukaemia and has only weeks to live, I don't have much to say today.

My gratitude blog has been unlocked, yay! And our computer is fixed! I was ready to throw it out the window but seeing as all my friends live in it I couldn't do that. It wasn't the modem either, it was some weird code thingo that took the sensationally helpful and patient support person an hour to work out. I really cannot recommend our ISP provider highly enough.
For the next couple of years I am going to plan and train for events but not actually cough up the shekels and hope involved in entering them until the last minute.
I'm going down to the ride expo site this afternoon to cheer in Secret Sara, who as we speak is making her way around the Bay. You go girl! It's mild today but I am wishing the wind away.
UPDATE: Secret Sara blitzed it, riding so fast she finished before we even got there! Huge congrats, mate

More anon, blessing-counters
*the Spousal Unit is a bit of a dickhead sometimes

Friday, October 17, 2008

stranded!

Our modem has turned up its toes and shuffled off this mortal coil. See you when its replcement is installed :)

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Marathon Sunday*

aka if you can't join 'em, cheer for 'em
aka
it's far better form to hand out refreshments and yell encouragement than to sulk on the couch at home feeling jealous and disappointed
If I'd been running, which I really really wanted to do - and which I WILL be doing in 09 - then I wouldn't have been part of the great Coolrunning cheersquad - our motto: what we lack in numbers we make up for in enthusiasm - and wouldn't have spent the morning with the lovely Secret Sara (sign painter extraordinaire), Pink Lady, Kylie and Davo, waving our streamers and yelling at people to remember, you're a marathoner! and think of the medal! Noddie wouldn't have been doing thisor this(or this)I really really wanted to go the after-race do and catch up with some of my lovely imaginary internet friends but I couldn't, especially after Noddie behaved perfectly the whole five and a half hours we were there but was asleep in the car within minutes of setting off for home. I had a brief Pouty McSulkfest but am over it now. Huge HUGE congratulations to everyone who toed the line on such a hot windy day. I hope the jelly snakes and icypoles helped.

More anon, cheerers from the sidelines!

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Automaton

I started a new blog as a convenient spot to write down my 'ten things I'm grateful for' every couple of days - and blogger thinks it's a spam blog and has locked it until a real live person has reviewed it and decides that I am not a spambot!! I've never been perceived as a possible threat to the workings of the internet before. How thrilling.
Things have been a bit nuts here. Saturday really started when I worked until 11pm on Friday night - instead of leaping nimbly from the couch o' slumber to work out, cook, vacuum etc I slept in until eight o'clock (bliss) and then lingered over a cuppa and a magazine until nine, when it was time to pick Noddie up from her sleepover at Nanny's (see bliss, above) and go to J's Nan's 90th birthday brunch. The rose of the sleepover is not without thorns, however: Noddie always stays up late and is Over Excited, not the best for a crowded noisy gathering of rellies. The brunch dragged on and on and we got home again at quarter to three, giving me an hour and three quarters to transform the place from its usual squalor to a vision of loveliness in readiness for the gathering of the clan in honour of my Mum's 70th birthday. I also had to make and decorate a cake worthy of my esteemed mater, and tend to the horribly ill Spousal Unit (barking bronchitis. We expect to be quarantined by the Biosecurity Health Response team shortly. We are looking forward to it). It's a good thing daylight savings didn't start until Saturday night so no-one saw that I hadn't even vacuumed (shock horror). Guests: 12, including the in-laws. Drinks: several. Party: great fun.
On Sunday morning I hosed the place out, propped the Spousal Unit on his recliner in front of some car racing, and went out with Noddie to catch up with a friend of mine down from Sydney. After lunch and a bit of gazing at Art Deco masterpieces, Noddie hit the wall with a splat and slid down it with an ugly smear. To be fair, the exhibition should have been labelled "unsuitable for children": after all, what is a platform with a chair on it but an invitation to climb up? And there wasn't really any harm in her crawling under the jewellery cases, they looked perfectly sturdy.
Then it was Monday, and the work and kinder week began. I'm putting together the jigsaws of Masters applications for next year, which is taking a bit of time - I'm applying for three courses, which means getting certified copies of three sets of eight pages of academic transcripts plus my passport, plus three statements as to why I'm applying for these courses. Because I want to and you're near my house is about 291 words short. Good thing I'm an accomplished bumph-spouter, no? Then I had to line up academic and professional referees to sing my praises on multiple bits of paper (stamped addressed envelopes attached). Let's just say there's a lot of unfolded washing piling up. But I have been exercising. Every day. Go me!

More anon, folk in a flurry!

Friday, October 03, 2008

Doublethink

Now that the rotten stinking pig bastard everlasting bronchitis seems to have buggered off altogether touching anything wood within reach and I am back to regular exercise - yay! yay! - I'm having to manage a mad kind of doublethink. You see, I am currently as weak as an asthmatic kitten and as slow as a drunk slug. Let's not mention the Return of The Lard. All the gains from all that work last summer and autumn have evaporated. Gone. I'm frustrated and discouraged. *frowns/pouts/feels depressed*
ALERT! ALERT! Bleating and wallowing in self-pity imminent! Intiate evasive action! Activate doublethink!
But what is doublethink, you ask? Avoid those unsightly wrinkles, dear reader, and knit not your brow. Doublethink works like this:
1. Eradicate all memory of how effortless things used to be, how 2km or 40km or 15km were just ordinary swims, rides or runs. Pine no more for those dear dead days. That was then, this is now. Suck it up.
....while simultaneously.....
2. Remember how very good it felt to be that strong, and know, somewhere deep down, that I can get back there. Remember how consistent effort works. Remember that it does work.
See? Tooooo confusing - like a speeded-up game of table tennis that is only visible at the very corner of my eye. But it's helping me get out the door each day. Lumbering will change to ease, 17km/hr will become 25. 1000m will become a warmup. Patience, grasshopper.
Unrelated: the chappie who cut my hair today (whom I had not previously met, and who did a smashing job BTW) asked me if I believed in angels. He told me they have messages for me. He seemed otherwise perfectly normal. This is by no means the only angel-themed strangeness to happen lately. Hmmmmmm.
I've been writing a list every day of ten things I'm grateful for. It's changing me.
More anon, cherubim!

Monday, September 29, 2008

10 things I am grateful for

as I sit here after my first ride in weeks
(in no particular order)
- My new, extremely fetching hibiscus-patterned bike jersey
- Nice warm arm and leg warmers
- The wind I was riding in today, because it made me feel strong and brave
- The vivid red geraniums someone has planted along the bike path
- My darling Noddie and the Spousal Unit
- Pink painted nails Noddie and I did while we were having a picnic on the verandah
- Enough money to pay the bills (and buy pretty bike jerseys)
- The hilariously gratuitious key-change in the song "Love Really Hurts Without You"
- The dear, kind souls on the Coolrunning Depression thread who are so quick to rally around a mate having a rough day.
- My stinking rotten stupid pig bastard everlasting bronchitis seems to have finally buggered off (touch wood) so I can start to shed some lard and think about fun things to do this summer. More anon, keepers-at-it

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Hooray for holidays

We don't muck around here at Chez LBTEPA when it's school holiday time.
On Monday we got new shoes and took the train and the tram to the beach to paddle, eat icecream and make sandcastles. Yesterday we fulfilled Noddie's long-held ambition and rode on a purple train to Bendigo, to meet up with blogger Royalty - the magnificent Beckie! What pleasure to spend a day in the sunshine with her. Next time we will stay longer.

Tomorrow we are going to the Show. We love holidays.
This week I felt an unfamiliar and astonishing sensation - I had some perceptible energy. Energy! I tell you what, this stuff is ace! If this keeps up, next week I am going to start getting up early again. Maybe even think about some exercise! Oooooh!

More anon, gadabouts!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Lots of things

I can't really blog properly at the moment. My head is full of everything. It's bordering on overwhelming, yet far too boring to put out into the ether
Hope everyone is well. Take care and see you soon

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Party time

J had the day off yesterday and Noddie was home sick with him so they spent the day getting ready for a party! Just a party because Noddie thought it would be a good idea. Great fun! They made a cake and fairy bread and blew up balloons; we ate cheese and biscuits, and dip, grilled prawns and chocolate fondue, all by candlelight - how cool! Then we sang along to daggy 80s music (from Mummy's ipod) and played Noddie's instruments and danced and generally had a lovely time. Noddie decided she was having an upsy-down sleep, requiring her pillow to be placed at the foot of the bed - most disconcerting when I went in there later to check on her.
My darling Doggies did the right thing last night - goodbye Swans, mwahahahaha! So what if we get a shellacking from the Cats next week, they have been lay-down misere favourites for the flag since round one. My boys played sensationally and that's enough for me. Anyway, we might win!Severely undermining my belief in the power of vitamin C, zinc and wishing things away, I have awoken this morning still coughing and achy all over. Enough is enough - enough worrying, enough feeling ashamed and a failure, enough scoffing ibuprofen to get through workouts, enough bleating. Enough bloody everything: I am Officially Out of the bay ride. I am more unbearably disappointed than I can express, but enough of that too.
Now we are off to Noddie's swimming lesson where she will show her teacher that she has mastered the freestyle arm stroke (although it was funny watching her doing it all backwards), and then to buy some Dora sandals. I don't remember promising these but apparently I did.

More anon, Springtime frolickers!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Fed to the back teeth

with
- this constant sinus headache
- my footy team
- feeling tired and off colour all the time. For two months. WTF?
- getting exhausted by stupidly small amounts of exercise ( a 5km walk? taking Noddie to the pool? F#$% that for a joke)
- Noddie's cheek and defiance. We're going to have to have another family meeting. Sigh.
- Noddie's incessant coughing (oh come on, you knew I was a bad mother)
- Lance Armstrong
- broken sleep from getting up to Noddie two or three times a night.
- Noddie coughing herself to vomiting point every night, poor little bugger
- changing sheets at 3 am
- feeling disappointed that My Year Off Uni (aka the Year I did All Sorts of Cool Things) has turned out like this
- worrying I won't be able to do the Bay Ride, and having to decide whether I'll do it by next Wednesday because that's the last day for refunds
- my flabby bloated waist
- 'resting' when it seems to be doing F#$% all good.
- feeling undisciplined and greedy and lazy
- my own tiresome whingeingThanks for listening and not sending me a big can of HTFU and a spoon (unless you think I need some. Then go right ahead). Think of it as giving the Spousal Unit a break.

The other day I heard Noddie tell her swimming teacher I can't do it, it's too hard. I was horrified - it's just Not the Sort of Thing We Say here at Schloss LBTEPA . Stop laughing! Afterward we had A Talk about what to do when something is difficult and you feel discouraged. She has been practising saying it's hard, but I'll keep trying.
Better set a good example, hadn't I?

On a brighter note, I like my new job so much I'd almost do it for free.

More anon, back-molar grinders

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my Dad, to Noddie's Dad, and to all the Dads out there. You do a great job and we love you all!A 5km charity walk when lots of Dads would be sleeping in. J, you and Noddie are champs.
Now go and get your prostate checked.
I know I said this last year. Have you done it yet?

More anon, fish-and-chip picnic lunchers!

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Half cut

No, I am not inebriated. I sent this email this morning
Dear
I am unable to participate in
the half-marathon this year for medical reasons. Oh well, the MCG will still be standing next year!
Thanks again for organising such a great event
LBTEPA
Trying to build my running kms, and my bike kms, and not get injured, and get better from this Rotten Pig Bastard sinus infection was just doing my head in. Something had to give way; alas, it had to be my much-anticipated trot around the hallowed turf in 2008.
Speaking of the RPB sinus infection, I took Noddie to the doctor about her latest germ-o-rama and while I was there spoke to my doctor about how to manage this situation. He’s been away, and is a lot more sports-minded than the one who’s been looking after me in the interim. Following this visit, Secret Sara and my mum received the following sms
Crap crap crap dr says bay ride v unlikely. Going home now to cry, then work out a Plan to increase likelihood.
I did go home, but I didn’t cry. First I ate an entire box of those wonderful wonderful rice cracker thingos that taste exactly like salt-and-vinegar chips. Mmmmmmmmmmm. Then I put on some loud boppy music, did the dishes, vaccumed, put some washing on and cleaned the kitchen. Sara rang and was funny, supportive and gracious, coz that’s the kind of person she is - thanks mate!. Mum rang to tell me that the five times my Dad did the Bay ride, he never did further than 100km in training and I have the same endurance genes – thanks Mum!
I read some blogs and Commodore fired me up. I flicked onto an Age online article and was inspired. A Plan started to germinate. The Spousal Unit came home with a massive, unexpected pay rise. Yay for you, J! He liked the Plan.
Now the Plan is This: get to the start line.
Now now, don’t scoff. There’s genius in simplicity. I’m going to rest as directed and do what training I can after that, keep losing weight and staying off the grog, take my echinacea and zinc and vitamin C and eat my vegies. Subject to a fortnightly review, I’m going to believe I can get to the start line. If I can do that, I'll take the day as it comes.

This just started playing on the stereo. Time to put on my favourite t-shirt.More anon, possibly-deluded but cheerful!

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Good signs

So far at least half a dozen people at my new work have told me you'll love it here, it's a great place to work.
Other good signs:
Freeway all the way so even though it's twice the distance it takes half the time.
Lots of windows
Nice (not grey) paint, lots of plants and paintings
Green tea, Earl Grey tea and capuccino machine supplied
Actual real meaningful work

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Enough

Warning: this post contains even more self-absorbed navel-gazing than usual

Yesterday Noddie and I were at the finish of the Hill Ride O’Doom to cheer in Secret Sara when we ran into a fellow Cool Runner, the charming M, and his lovely girlfriend. I find M intimidating, which is stupid, and unfair since he has never been anything but encouraging to me - in fact, I wouldn’t have the running goals I do if he and his friends hadn’t been so nice to me when I started. When he remarked that he thought I was supposed to have been riding I didn’t know what to say. Sick again? Not in it because my doctor told me I wasn’t to? It all sounded so lame, so ‘excuses’, so again she’s not doing something she said she would because of some pathetic made-up reason. It sounded like that to me. I hated the words coming out of my mouth, and what these two people I admire must be thinking of me (of course, it's highly unlikely they were thinking anything of the kind!!) The feeling of wimping out, and in particular letting Sara down, had been plaguing me all day. My mind was going in circles.
I shouldn’t have got sick.
There must have been something I could have done that would have prevented it.
Maybe if I just do some little exercise thing each day this infection won’t be such a train crash
I could have had a crack at it.
I’m a piker. I don’t try hard enough. I let people down
I shouldn’t have got sick.
Please note that no-one other than myself said any of these things to me! Stop it, me!
By mid-afternoon, Sara safely cheered across the line – Sara my friend, you are a LEGEND!!!! – I was getting myself really worked up. Confused, tired, sorry for herself LBTEPA needed a good snuggle in the logic blanket to feel better.
Here’s the talk we had. I have left out the ‘yes, buts’ as they were many and I am sure you can imagine them.
FACT: a dodgy thyroid, however well-managed, and recovery from chronic fatigue syndrome, mean my immune system is not 100%. It may never be (although I'm working on it). This is not an ‘excuse’. It is reality. It needs to be managed.
FACT: Noddie started kinder this year and as children do, has brought home every germ going around. This is not an ‘excuse’. It is reality. It needs to be managed.
FACT: My doctor forbade me from training to target the Hill Ride of Doom. This is not an ‘excuse’. It is reality. The last time I disobeyed medical advice went badly. Lesson learnt.
FACT: My ‘A’ event for the winter is the Bay in a Day. Consistent training will get me around. Gung-ho heroics like attempting a gruelling 110km while on antibiotics are counterproductive. This is not an ‘excuse’. It is reality. Suck it up.
FACT: I feel as though I let Sara down. She doesn’t think so. Suck it up. Move on.
FACT: Blaming myself and feeling ashamed for getting sick is predicated on two faulty premises: I am completely in control of everything that happens to me; and everything is about me. ENOUGH. LET IT GO.
I found these conclusions comforting.

Today Minerva and I went out for a bit of a spin that turned into a brain-shaking slog-fest straight into a howling headwind. Think 17km/hr in the small ring on the downhills. Ack. After 25km – about 20km after it first crossed my mind to pack it in, by the way - I cracked like a nut and took the first right-hand turn just to get away from the wind noise. The new road was nice, rolling uphills and zoomy curving downhills, but by the time I got to Whittlesea I was tired and it was starting to spit. You will be so proud of me: I thought, I could ride home, but I’ve done enough for today. I want to run tomorrow. That’s enough.
I found a warm coffee shop with nice magazines and rang the Spousal Unit to pick me up - right in the middle of prayers at church (ooops). He and Noddie drove out to meet me and we had a nice lunch together.

My friend Mary is doing her second Ironman as we speak, and I start my new job, my new career tomorrow.

More anon, strivers

Thursday, August 28, 2008

You're joking

Another sinus infection, with an extra helping of bronchitis-if-I'm-not-careful? More antibiotics? More "resting"? This is starting to become depressing.
*Insert litany of whingeing and lengthy wallow in self-pity pool here*
Now the Plan is this: take antibiotics. Continue eating lots o'veggies, sleeping, drinking green tea, and scoffing echinacea and vitamin C (fat lot of good it's doing, mutters bitter twisted LBTEPA, before being escorted out by the CheerTFU police). Swim ride and run like it's 2047. Eighty years old and still going strong.
Feel frightened about lack of fitness and upcoming events. Say nothing. Keep plugging away.
More anon, faux-phlegmatic friends.
Faux-phlegmatic friends.
...That's fun to say.....

Monday, August 25, 2008

Catch up

Long time, no post, eh?
To the woman who let her 3yo cry and beg for Mummy all the way through the 30min swimming class, who when I mentioned this to her answered, “I know, I’m happy with that”: well (as I said to you) Way to get your kid keen on swimming.
To the pool management who said it was policy that they couldn’t overrule the parents: your policy is wrong and you should be ashamed.

To the supermarket people: Thanks for finally giving me the $50 I got out on eftpos but the cashier forgot to give me as I was rushing Noddie away from the lollies. They weren't arguing about it or anything; it's a very small market that sometimes resembles a sheltered workshop and it took them five days to check the video footage.
Thanks a MILLION times to them as well for looking after Noddie's Teddy. We were all devastated when we couldn’t find him. At one stage Noddie told me she missed Teddy, and I said, when that bear comes back I’ll tell him he's a naughty bear for making us so worried. She answered, I won’t be mad at him, I’ll cuddle him and tell him I’m glad he’s back. We were so happy when he was waiting for us by the cash register four days later when we went in to buy some bread!

I was absolutely worried sick about the weekend’s long bike ride. You know how you get stuck on those righto-it’s-crunch-time-you-slackarse thought loops? I ‘knew’ it was now or never – if I didn’t do close to 100km, at least 4.5 hours, the Bay in a Day was just doomed. So melodramatic! I’d planned to ride with Secret Sara, aka suck her wheel the whole way as she’s been training so consistently, but she had to change from Saturday to Sunday morning and I had church. So Sunday afternoon it was. I was up a bit late watching the diving – congratulations Matthew Mitcham! and had had a few sherbets as it was J’s and my tenth anniversary and we had a big fight about how his habit of leaving everything to the last minute (in this case, arranging babysitting, the ONLY thing he’d been asked to do, not that I was ropeable about it no no no no no) meant that we were not, as planned, in a swish hotel with a spa, but at home eating takeaway chinese, which subsequently gave me food poisoning. Fun fun fun.
I had an absolutely Brilliant Plan for the oh-crap-I-have-to-do-this-hard-thing-and -I'm-scared ride. I expected it to be thoroughly horrid and that I would hate it! Then when it was horrid I said to myself, well, you knew it was going to be like this, so just calm down. It worked a treat! I have to say though, most of the time it was pretty nice. I mostly rode through paddocks and along country roads. It was nicely overcast and there was hardly any wind, and although there was one mofo steep hill that I had to walk the second half, the other side was so steep I hit 62km/hr! Wheeeeeeeeeee! I ended up doing 95km in 4 hours 12 minutes. A huge mental barrier has been smashed. As I smsd to Sara, with 8 weeks to go, I think I will be able to whinge my way around the bay now after all.

Then again, as one of J’s friends remarked when J told him what I was doing for the afternoon, that’s what cars were invented for. Note to self: investigate chamois butter
That's enough about me – pop straight over to SB’s blog and congratulate him on completing a ONE HUNDRED MILE RUN!!!! And also to Benson’s page to tell him very well done on his second Ironman. Don’t mention the platinum togs though

More anon, wearers of padded pants :P

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

I needed that

Left Friday 05.00, got home Monday 23.55. Hammered it - out every day by 8.30am, never home before 8.30pm. Mucho champagne. Tired. Content.
Ann and I have known each other since we were 18. So good to be just me for four days. Snigger. We went here twice. Gorgeous river views. Excellent salt and pepper squid.
Second-last stop on the 8-hour winery cruise. Fremantle maritime museum from the Rottnest Island Ferry. Rottnest IslandWesternmost point of Rottnest. Another beautiful beach. A quokka. Rottnest Island pub and the view from our table. Perth Carillon. You're not the only one concerned at its phallic symbolismCelebrity blogger meetup - the lovely Hannelie! What a pleasure.
Don't make me go home.............

More anon, not-all-that-enthused-about-unpacking types
Next: a Plan to get back into things. I can feel some stickers coming on

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Respect the distance

I've been a total crock the last couple of days. I had a migrainy-thingy yesterday. J got home late and I hadn't organised things well enough to fit in a run. I had an allergic reaction to something last night so I am weary and dopey from the drugs. The Olympics are on TV and although it's sunny, it's chilly and a bit windy. I have to pick Noddie up from kinder at 2pm. I'm going away for four days on Friday.
210km is a long way. I.Will. Ride. Today. Sometimes it's just about getting out the door.
LATER
Done. Home. Warm again.
:)