And we get slowly more insular as I scour ThePalace(OfLove) for stuff that makes me happy.

100 days of happiness: day fifty-one – finally being able to make pizza! New oven – FTW. Our technique needs a little refinement, but we welcome the chance to practice. #100daysofhappiness #100happydays #fiftyone #pizza #cooking #mess

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100 days of happiness: day fifty-two – wee treasures on the ground (hopefully the owner returned and retrieved it) #100happydays #100daysofhappiness #dayfiftytwo #ladybug #stuffontheground

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100 days of happiness: day fifty-three – favourite tea. Sadly discontinued – making it last. #100daysofhappiness #100happydays #fiftythree #t2 #coladaparadiso #infusion

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100 days of happiness: day fifty-four – Mardi Gras decorations! #100happydays #100daysofhappiness #dayfiftyfour #happymardigras #mardigras #sydney #sydneymardigras

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100 days of happiness: day fifty-five – still carrying my suica card around in my wallet after the Japan trip back in September. #100happydays #100daysofhappiness #dayfiftyfive #suica #wallet #souvenir

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100 days of happiness: day fifty-six – pretties (part of my relatively small necklace collection). #100daysofhappiness #dayfiftysix #100happydays #jewellery #necklaces #treasures

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100 days of happiness: day fifty-seven – fave souvenir from Hong Kong. We named him Chow Tai Fook after the ubiquitous jewellery stores. #100happydays #100daysofhappiness #treasures #dayfiftyseven #dragon #patina #brass #souvenir

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100 days of happiness: day fifty-eight – and that’s a wrap! (okay, it’s more of a scarf). Blocking my easy-as-pie scarf. 3 errors spotted, not too terrible. #knittersofinstagram #knitting #100happydays #100daysofhappiness #dayfiftyeight #easyaspiescarf

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100 days of happiness: day fifty-nine – unlike 99.9998979% of the inner west population, we kind of dig living under the flight path. #100daysofhappiness #100happydays #dayfiftynine #plane #innerwest #flightpath #aircraft #planedork

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100 days of happiness: day sixty – cold enough to roast vegetables! #autumn #cooking #100daysofhappiness #100happydays #daysixty #vegetables

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100 days of happiness: day sixty-one – when Joe/Frank’s rather late birthday present finally arrives! #siliconvalley #aviato #tshirt #100happydays #daysixtyone #happybirthday

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100 days of happiness: day sixty-two – Don and I now have matching work laptops ❤️ #100happydays #100daysofhappiness #daysixtytwo #matchymatchy

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100 days of happiness: day sixty-three – the ceiling innards at pilates. A day off is a very good thing indeed. #100daysofhappiness #100happydays #daysixtythree #airconditioning #ducting #industrial

Hey, hey – it’s my four month anniversary of giving up alcohol!

Yay me! 

The last couple of weeks, well, haven’t exactly been a struggle to resist drinking, but I would have probably enjoyed a relaxing wine or six on occasion. I really need to find something that has that immediate de-stressing, brain-numbing effect. I do sometimes become frustrated with myself that I can’t just be a normal drinker.

I’m a little daunted by the prospect of the impending alcohol-free overseas trip – so many things are accompanied by free booze (airport lounge, flight, hotel club lounge etc). The upside of this not drinking while travelling is that I’ll have boundless energy and will want to do All The Exercise.

Yikes – way behind on posting about this, so will complete in sets.

This has been quite a challenging undertaking as I’ve been in a bit of a funk (sadly not of the groovy, dance-y kind) and have tended to desperately cast about late at night for something to post. So far this approach seems to be working, but this has become much less of the seeking out of fabulous activities and more of the what do I have right-here, right-now that makes me happy. This is not necessarily a bad thing!

Anyway – on with the ordinary happiness pix:

100 days of happiness: day thirty-eight – Joan returns from her South American sojourn – brief interlude before China. #100daysofhappiness #daythirtyeight #sydneyairport #travellingdaughter #syd #100happydays #arrivals

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100 days of happiness: day thirty-nine – very glad we don’t go in for the Valentine’s Day thing! Our bank account is glad too – that’s $10 for a single supermarket rose. Yikes! #100happydays #daythirtynine #roses #valentinesday #100daysofhappiness #sensible

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100 days of happiness: day forty – I love a good Vietnamese beef noodle soup pun. #100daysofhappiness #dayforty #pho #fomo #fortheloveofsignage #100happydays #phomo #signs

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100 days of happiness: day forty-one – serendipitous brutalism. #100happydays #dayfortyone #brutalism #architecture #100daysofhappiness #concrete #architecturelovers #brutalist

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100 days of happiness: day forty-two – reflections in favourite water feature Darling Harbour. #100daysofhappiness #dayfortytwo #100happydays #fountain #reflection #darlingharbour #sydney #pyrmont #water

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100 days of happiness: day forty-three – rare appearance by BabyKitty in the bed. #100daysofhappiness #dayfortythree #100happydays #kitty #catsofinstagram #catsoftheinnerwest

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100 days of happiness: day forty-four – Saturday morning run. Trying walk / run intervals in an attempt to not injure self. #100happydays #dayfortyfour #running #100daysofhappiness #brooksrunning #keepleft

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100 days of happiness: day forty-five – finally getting through the gosh-darned mahjong layout I’ve been stuck on for months! #badphoto #100daysofhappiness #dayfortyfive #puzzle #mahjong #100happydays

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100 days of happiness: day forty-six (belated): ghost signs. #100daysofhappiness #100happydays #ghostsigns #dayfortysix #fortheloveofsignage

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100 days of happiness: day forty-seven – my favourite monsters. #100happydays #dayfortyseven #offspring #monsters #100daysofhappiness

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100 days of happiness: day forty-eight – favourite son’s 23rd birthday. 🎂❤💚💛💙 #100happydays #dayfortyeight #birthday #cake #100daysofhappiness #favouriteson

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100 days of happiness: day forty-nine – new oven! Can sustain temperatures over 180oC! #100happydays #dayfortynine #100daysofhappiness #miele #newtoy

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100 days of happiness: day fifty – great new music on Bandcamp! #100daysofhappiness #100happydays #dayfifty #fredthomas #music #bandcamp #halfway
You should go listen here

Recently a bike-mad colleague recommended M7 cycleway and we were very keen to give it a bash. We finally had a Sunday when no rain was forecast, so today was the day! It’s a fair hike to get there, but early on a Sunday morning we made it out in 30 minutes.

It’s a fabulous path in really fantastic condition – there are hills, but they are fairly rolling and I didn’t have too much trouble with them (though Don was much faster) – thankfully it wasn’t necessary to get off and push!

quite a few hills

You’re barely aware that you’re riding next to a very, very busy motorway – it’s very scenic – loads of bushland, lovely creeks and ponies! We were very sensible and packed sandwiches and an adequate amount of snacks. The weather was magnificent and we loved every second of it – best ride we’ve had for ages.

We didn’t do the whole 80km (40 out | 40 back), but we did manage a very respectable 61.78km! The furthest we’ve ridden in quite some time.

Next time – we’re definitely tackling the whole thing.

It’s been quite a while since the last update, but I finally reached the 200km mark (actually this happened mid-Feb, but I hadn’t updated the running log).

A combination of extreme summer heat, occasional unwellness, crazy-SML-busyness and lots of rain have really messed with my ability to find time to run and, let’s be honest, with my motivation. And my love-hate relationship with the garmin continues as it periodically seizes up and stops recording mid-run (if I run and it is not recorded, is it really a run?). But the cooler weather is upon us and I look forward to getting back on track. I may have to suck it up and just use my phone to track me – which will eliminate one frustration).

My back of the envelope calculations have me needing to log 13km per week to meet the 700km goal. I still don’t think this is entirely unachievable – it will definitely be a stretch, but I am not abandoning hope!

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And today I managed 7km! Sure it was 7km of 5min run | 2min walk intervals, but I will take every little thing I can get!

bad screenshot of route

I love the route along the greenway, the skies were sunny, the temperature was cool and I felt like queen of the world – which is something I’ve not experienced for quite some time!

Today I took the second of my annual leave days owing from January. My only intention was not to fall into some InformationSuperhighway vortex and emerge, dazed, several hours later – achievement achieved!

I also went to pilates (which my ipad wants to capitalise). New instructor this time and she was fabulous. This was the best class of the six(ish) I’ve taken, I’m now delightfully achey. I used to be mortified to have my positions adjusted at yoga, but being much older and hopefully slightly less crazy, I’m all about getting as much assistance as possible. My bridge is now all the better (back bend here I come)! This has really made me want to be one of those ladies who can drop into Friday morning pilates on the regular. 

I gardened a little and attended to the poor neglected worm farm. Future Action Item is to acquire replacement worms. I also learned that the empty teabags I was (formerly) using do not appear to be at all biodegradable. I also want to be one of those ladies who can indulge in a little light Friday gardening.

I cooked a pretty excellent chicken curry from scratch – including making paste and grinding spices. Yes, I want to be one of those ladies who can spend Friday afternoon cooking complicated meals.

And I FINALLY took the giant bag of discarded fabric and a pile of hardware bit and giant letters to Reverse Garbage and The Bower respectively. And of course I want to be a lady who can run decluttering errands on Fridays.

And most delightfully, I did not think of SML one little bit.

Why I feel terrible if when haven’t completed a lengthy Action Item list on my days off – even when those Actions mostly consist of pointless busy work.
And let’s face it most of my Action Items lists are full of pointless busy work.

Why I feel like I have to do stuff all the time, else I am – well I don’t even know. At this point it seems like productivity for the sake of productivity – which is kind of … well … unproductive.

What’s all that about?

And just like that, the lovely Joan departed for northern climes. 

She’ll return in a few weeks, rather much the poorer. And then back into wage slavery – until the next big trip.

Really not a bad way to spend one’s late-20s! 

scarf attacking monster looking adorable

For the last two mornings I’ve been waking up with a horrible headache (about a 9 on the pain scale) accompanied by nausea – fabulous! I’ve managed it so far with ibuprofen and paracetamol but it’s still lingering around the edges. I came home from SML mid-afternoon to sleep – which did some good.

Got my travel vaccinations this morning and received a stern warning from the doctor to come back ASAP if the head didn’t improve.

I’m assuming it is the result of too much (kindle) screen in the dark and not enough water. I need to take both things more seriously because this is No Fun.

A week or so ago, I was admiring this skirt on etsy and decided to pull the trigger on it (because I am worth all the pretty things).

Because it is custom, I thought it advisable to verify my measurements against the sizes and grabbed the tape-measure from my drawer – the tape measure which was included in a small collection of supplies bundled with my shamefully under-used overlocker.

I measured in inches because, well it is easier, and was confounded by the results it gave – on no planet am I smaller than a US size 0. Measured again, same result. Measured in cm – US size 4, which is correct. So I assumed there was something wrong with the size chart.

But with so many sales and great feedback how could the size chart be so wrong? I used a couple of online conversion tools to convert my cm to inches and got a higher number of inches and the correct size. So then I assumed my tape measure was just wildly wrong and wrote myself a reminder note on it.

A couple of days later I dragged out a tape measure I knew was accurate to check just how wrong my original was (see below). While I was doing that, I noticed the Chinese symbol just after the 1 on the white tape measure.

What if there are such things as Chinese inches?

And who knew? There are!

Clearly the lessons from this are – beware freebie tape measures and always use metric!