anyresemblance

Today I was supposed to be leisurely tending the gardening in this stifling heat, instead I am packing my coat to get on a plane a week earlier than planned as my father approaches end of life.

Museum of broken relationships

I was going down a circuitous route today trying to work out where someone was located and then trying to remember which country Zagreb was in (sorry Croatia) and having to resort to dr google. Anyway, about the highlights that popped up in connection with Zagreb was the Museum of Broken Relationshipshttp://brokenships.com/. It sounds like just the sort of quirky museum I like with an oddly curated collection including the axe someone used to chop their former partner's furniture up. Wonder what I would donate to their collection?

Long arm of the law

My eldest has been called for jury duty the last two weeks.  Week one was a wash out with lots of waiting around and no selection.  Monday this week the same, but Tuesday selected.  It was  a short trial.  She did not divulge but this is a small town and not hard to identify the case.   She went into it worrying she was not smart enough to make an assessment.  I said, sweetie, you know about people, you know what motivates them, you know how to listen to an argument and make an assessment on what you are hearing.  Just trust your instincts.

First thing that surprised me, she was totally ok with having her phone taken off her for the period of the trial.  Second thing that did not surprise me was she hated the lunch (too eggy).  Third, there were people there twice by age who did not say a word. " Seriously, how dumb are people that they want to make a judgement on what they think might have happened rather than what the evidence demonstrated" I rest my case

 

Hokey cokey

You put your right arm in....

Remember the "inside outside" lane debacle?  Still no link as I haven't put the archives back, but this was where we hit one of those two nations divided by a common language things.  I hit another the other night as I was making the puppy do the hokey cokey "you put your right paw in, your right paw out, in, out, shake it all about".  The puppy is used to being manhandled with no dignity in these matters.  The kids were howling with laughter "it's the hokey pokey, mama".  What! No way!  We resorted to wikipedia who confessed it was another instance of two nations using different terms.  Really,  and in NZ it is the hokey tokey.  I may never utter another word.

Yes, that is me.  Headshot and all.  What is the world coming to?

Padfoot

A week after I fell over and the skin at the base of my thumb is covered in a horrid scab which I keep knocking.  I am feeling very sorry for myself and about to investigate elle's remedies as the skin is puckering, red and sore.  Today I am thankful that is the minimum I have to worry about.  I am off to visit my dad shortly who is about to have a small medical procedure.  Sucks to be 89 and sitting around waiting for medical professionals so I am there to ask questions and check necessity.  My lovely sister bears this responsibility 70% of the time with no complaint so I am glad to do it.

The minutae of my life

I was in such a bad mood on Friday evening, sore wrist, sore knee, scraped palms, the sheets I wanted to put on my bed not clean, kids annoying the hell out of me for their inability to read my mind, you know.  Thank heavens it was a temporary glitch.

There was more rearranging of household effects on the weekend - the dvds relocated so the puppy can't casually lift them off the shelves, a bookcase moved to another room, my office stuff moved, a decision that since our years of school craft projects are over, we can probably dispose of those A1 sheets of card and ancient cans of spray mount glue.  It's still a work in progress but decluttering is so cathartic.

In between this I shopped for groceries, did mountains of laundry, put the pleasing sheets on my bed, made lasagne, took the puppy out and cleaned the house.  Oldest was working the late shift at her checkout chick job and we watched White Collar when she got home.

Sunday was rinse and repeat with added puppy school, cleaning out my friends' duck pens, a trip to Costco where I bought drawer lining stuff (like you get in ikea but cheaper) and a mega pack of cadbury's flakes so I can fashion a hedgehog birthday cake (even though we live in Australia, we keep those British mammals close to our hearts).  We had sausages, champ, onion gravy and peas for dinner followed by apple and raspberry crumble and two episodes of White Collar. 

Today is so cold I put the heating on. 

Pride comes before

Medal of honour*

This has been a week without end.  Three nights full of calls whcih did not end till 11pm have left me wrung out.  It is a particularly challenging time trying to plan in the middle of uncertainty but no more than the usual corporate strategy shenanigans.  Not being able to load excel without my laptop crashing is also hampering my style.

Last night I had no calls, my kids were out and I watched 5 episodes of the Good Wife on the ipad.  Perfect.

I have also done much dealing with tradesmen.  Firstly someone came to quote on replacing my ancient Westinghouse.  It seems that is not too tricky an enterprise and they also quoted on putting in a proper extractor fan instead of the faint puffy thing which is sucking up some grease into the roof.  I can't imagine how disgusting it is up there so am looking forward to removing a layer of grease from all the kitchen walls.

I also got someone in to quote on replacing the kitchen benchtop.  Ouchy.  All that money to stick on a layer of new faux granite?  I was starting to think, oh well, maybe I just have to when I thought what I really wanted was a timber surface.  How did I not know that there was a timber reclamation business not 2km from my old house?  They don't answer the phone but I went in there this morning and discovered they could give me a beautiful timber benchtop for 2/3 the price of a fake granite one.  I know it will take more looking after but I am all in.

Finally booked my UK flights and coordinated with sundry siblings.  Now I need to buy Christmas gifts this weekend so I can take them with me.

I'm enjoying my new workspace.  In fact, I am enjoying most things at the moment.   This weekend, duck sitting.  Quack.

*That's my medal I got for the run last week.  I laughed as the envelope came addressed to my email pseudonym.  I fell over this morning while running.  Hubris.

 

How it's really done

This is how you really run like the wind. 

He is in big trouble as he went in the stormwater drain.  Encouraged by one of his dog friends. Stinky.  Last night I bathed him but when he did it again today I just hosed him down.

Run With the Wind

Like ganching, I've been doing shauna's up and running course.  This is my second time around as I did the course originally a year ago, did a final run which was quietly uninspiring and then kind of lapsed.  This time has been both harder and easier.  Easier as I know what to expect but harder because I have to face up to some of my self-sabotaging excuse making.

The course encourages you to sign up for a 5k event to graduate.  You don't have to do anything formally organised and plenty of people do their self-managed 5km race but I wanted to do something organised.  Another participant mentioned she had signed up for the inaugural Run with the Wind run and I looked at the pictures and thought this was something I should like to do.  Partly it was the opportunity to take part in an organised race, partly to do with running out in the countryside but a big part was wanted to see the wind turbines up close.  I know there are plenty of people unhappy about their incursion on to their landscape but I always like coming over the crest of the hill on the road to Bungendore and seeing them marching over the distant hills like a faux Anthony Gormley.  The wind farms are not usually open to the public so this was a chance to get up close and personal.

Of course, I was smart enough to realise that wind turbines were, of necessity, likely to be located on high, windy places but I foolishly imagined there would be a short, steep hike up to the ridge followed by a brisk but bracing run along the top before descending back into the valley.  Hmm.  When an elite athlete and Olympian comments on twitter that his 8km version of the run was "unexpectedly challenging" then you can imagine it was no walk in the park.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. It was a beautiful drive out there with the pup and the youngest daughter.  We stopped for her and the dog to fuel at the bakery in Bungendore.  Then another 20km to the wind farm.  I was getting a bit anxious I had missed the turn but I was encouraged by other cars full of runners.  It was pretty crowded when we got there but registration was fine and the woman told me that they had an influx of late registrations. 

There was a huge queue for the loos but they promised they would stagger the start to make sure we all got a chance to go.  After I went to the loo, I walked up the first hill and seeing its incline decided I would probably walk that bit.  I walked back down in time for the minute's silence at 11am for Armistice Day.

The 8km runners went off first and the 5km runners and walkers left about 20 minutes later.  I jogged and walked up the hill and was then horrified to realise that the course in front of me was wildly undulating with lots of ups and downs.  Nothing for it but to do my best but I rapidly down graded my hopes of a sub-35 minute time.  The effort was not helped by new running tights which did not have very good elastic in the waist band and I found myself hauling them up every 400 metres.  The first 3km were not too bad but the fourth kilometre had a hideous slow and steep incline that I just had to walk.  I did rally for the last kilometre and made it to the finish line in official time of 44:41.  I was actually ecstatic to have finished it.  It turned out that I was second in my age category but that is not as impressive as it sounds since there were only 4 women in my age category.  If I'd stuck around at the end I'd have got a medal. 

Even though my time was incredibly slow I still felt an enormous joy from completing the run.  After a few years of sporadic gym attendance, I find my head is clearer from exercising outdoors.  I love the freedom of sticking my shoes on and walking out my front door.  In addition, I got to run in the most spectacular setting with the slow, magestic turbines turning above (and they were startling quiet).  I was also startled at the camaraderie of my fellow runners - and there were a hell of a lot of rangy iron men and women doing it as well as people just walking the thing with their kids in pushchairs but the whole thing felt very inclusive and encouraging.

I Think of You

I went to see searching for sugar man tonight. Quite possibly the most uplifting thing I have seen in years. I went with two South African friends. Before we went in one asked me if I had heard of Rodriguez. I said no but I had heard the film recommended and when I had looked at its subject matter I thought it would be something they would like. He said everyone he knew at university had a Rodriguez record. The documentary said exactly the same thing - everyone's record collection in the seventies would have bridge over troubled waters, abbey road and Rodriquez. I found the whole thing incredibly moving. The dignity of his daughters, the insight of his colleagues, the passion of the South African musicians, his serene simplicity. And his voice. Do go and see it.