We had another excellent day of mini-break. 

We woke to very, very wet weather and I was absolutely and completely soaked before, during and after the Mother’s Day classic (rarely has a hot shower felt so good). We had an wonderful lunch at bomba, a couple of glasses of very excellent chenin blanc at city wine shop, then an incredibly uneventful trip home.

Then after 40 minutes on the phone with support, we finally  have the internet back.

Can’t think of a better way to end the weekend, really!

We’ve been doing some rather excellent eating during our mini-break.

So far: Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, French.

Tomorrow, it’s the Mother’s Day Classic. It took all of my powers to resist saying I’m only doing the 4km. Oh wait. 

Anyway, I’m doing the 4km. Goal time is 25 min (what can I say, I’m a slow old lady). Super-stretch goal time is anything under 24 min.

Afterward another feast, then home – the whole weekend has passed way, way too quickly.

* it all worked out in the end.

It feels like somewhat of a tradition at this point – we’re in Melbourne for the Mother’s Day weekend.

There was a little drama involving horrific traffic, taking separate planes and very delayed take-off (for me), but we arrived safe and sound and all is peachy.

So far I’ve had barley water, sake and abalone for the very first time – though thankfully not together.

It’s quite excellent to be luxury-ing it up.

Yeah, so cooking doesn’t always work out the way you anticipate.

This is what happens when you walk away from a pan for 2 minutes (with 5 to go on one side & 15 on the other). Yipes!

Fortunately Joan saved us from starving with Lebanese food from menulog. 

After gorging ourselves on tabbouleh, kibbeh &etc, we watched the first episode of the really fantastic UnREAL on DVD. We’d caught a couple of episodes here and there on TV and just had to watch the whole thing. Quite bizarrely the DVD has words like  bitch, pussy and shit muted – which was not at all the case when it was on broadcast TV. This is much, much more annoying than you’d suppose. In feel like I should ask for a refund because of the lack of swearing.

This is definitely one of those phoning-it-in times.

One thing all of this posting on my phone has done is made me realise how very terrible my tablet is for, well, anything.

May have to rectify that, but not sure I can justify the spend (ha! we all know I can justify almost anything).

NewKitty: completely unrelated.

I’ve moved through charades and on past containers!

Containers were the most challenging (so far), but Don is now on board and two heads are definitely superior to one when it comes to attacking the clues.

This (very, very good) book is rather like being given the key to unravelling the most mysterious of mysteries!

It’s really very fun (up to this point), I’ve ordered the accompanying puzzle book so we can hone our very embryonic skills.

xxx

Still no internet. Wholesale provider advised ISP that the fault was fixed (twice) – it hasn’t been, either time. Now at least another week’s wait. GAH! This is getting ridiculous.

I’ve been so discombobulated by the lack of access to the InformationSuperhighway, that I completely forgot that this book arrived a couple of weeks ago and I could have been reading it in my downtime!

I re-discovered it this afternoon and completed my first cryptic crossword! 

Sure, it was VERY easy and consisted of only anagram clues (which I actually was the most afraid of) – but hurrah!

It’s actually a pretty great book and I feel very encouraged
(and I think I should buy the accompanying crossword book to get some practice in).

I’m not calling this item achieved until I can complete a non-practice, proper crossword.

xxx

Don and I had planned our usual bike ride this morning, but it was raining pretty heavily when we woke and we’re not quite ready for the riding in the rain type of challenge. So instead we decided to take in a pilates class together.

Thank goodness for all those pushups and situps because I think I would have been very much struggling! Lots of ab work. As it was I think I did pretty well – having some experience with yoga definitely helped. There is definitely a lot for me to work on – my glutes are like jelly and I cannot balance on one leg without falling.

It was fun – yoga-like, but much less earnest. I’d love to do this more, but it will be a challenge to try and slot anything regular in.

I’m calling this one done in a very real, non-half-arsed way.

Afterward I felt so good that I snuck in a quick 4km run. This will be my last opportunity before the Mother’s Day classic next weekend, which will be another 50before50 action item (though only an incremental one).

After stagnating a bit (okay, a lot), I’m back on the 50before50 train!

This afternoon I went to my first pilates class, which held at our old yoga studio in Glebe.

It ended up being more of a workshop, but I am still totally counting it.

I was kind of nervous because I had no idea what to expect, but of course there was nothing to worry about and I didn’t appear too silly / uncoordinated / incompetent. My SML colleagues would be completely blown away to learn that I am anything less than utterly fearless and supremely confident – I have them totally fooled.

It was the first time they’d run this class and it was a wee bit disorganised, but I actually got quite a lot out of it. It really reinforced a lot of the stuff RelentlesslyCheerfulPhysio has been telling me, but I think this made it stick a little more. I also picked up a few extra things and came away convinced that I need to incorporate drills into my life.

The instructor is a podiatrist, pilates and running coach and semi-professional runner. She has a completely enviable body and is really lovely and engaging.

At the end there was a little Q&A and someone asked what her distance she does. When she said 400m is the max there was an unspoken “is that all?”. Such is the current completely ridiculous obsession with distance in running. It’s all about the marathons and ultras – anything else seems to be considered really soft. I have, of course, bought into this and always feel like I have to apologise that I’m “only” doing 5kms right now (I’m trying to be better about this). This article puts it way better than I ever could. (link should now work, thanks to the excellent anyresemblance for catching it)

But back to the pilates – I’m not sure that I’d attend a class on the regular, but it definitely made me think I need the occasional yoga class back in my life.

penmanship at the hospital

No, we’re not at the hospital again, I’m just decluttering the drafts folder.

It has been one of those weeks – late evenings at our respective workplaces, background skirmish with consultants, lots of public transport travel (for me) and did I mention no internet?

Unusually, I have not prepared an extensive Action Items list for the weekend. I must get on that first thing, as if I don’t have a plan I will invariably futz around (ordinarily this would be on the InformationSuperhighway) and accomplish nothing.

Though I do have one activity planned – I’m off to a pilates for running class tomorrow afternoon. My first actual pilates class, which is one of those 50before50 items. I have no idea what to expect, but hope to come out of it with some core and glute stregthening ideas, discover how to pay more attention to my form, and not too horribly sore.

For Joan’s kitschy Italian birthday feast, I attempted grissini for the first time.

The recipe had one of my least favourite features – ingredients listed in the method that are not on the ingredients list – ARGH!

Don has turned me into a huge convert of the whole mise en place thing, so it’s crazy annoying to have everything measured out and find that you need something else in the midst of cooking. I can’t even fathom the rationale behind this.

Anyway, despite the unexpected drama of the day and interrupted cooking, they ended up very grissini-like. They’re probably a little over-crunchy, but everyone seems to enjoy snacking on them (the recipe made loads, so we could well be eating them for weeks).

May attempt again, let’s hope they’re not cursed.

xxx

Yep, still no internet. This is going to be an interesting weekend.