Monthly Archives: November 2012

Season of Lists

Posted in Christmas, Life by

The season of lists has started… the time of the year where you need to make lists of things to be done, lists of cards to send, lists of presents to buy, lists of food needed, lists of how to stay sane… seriously I have a list for everything… and it is only going to get worse. The thing is, without these lists life would be even more stressful, trying to randomly remember when I need to do things, what I need to get… I mean I have a very incredible brain… but it gets a little jumbled when you add a healthy dose of holiday madness. This is also the time of year that I start thinking about my list of things to do for next year… what I will put on it, perhaps what may need to be carried over from this year’s list… One day I think that I may in fact end up completely covered in lists… but regardless I declare the season of lists open…

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Life in Colour

Posted in Exercise, Life by

I have decided that I love fun runs… I love the atmosphere, I love the challenge and I love the support and this weekend I ran the very first ‘Color Run’ in the southern hemisphere… right here in good old Melbourne. And despite the fact that it wasn’t as well organised or as colourful as I had been led to believe from the advertising that preceded the event it was still a lot of fun…

To be honest I don’t really have a whole heap to say about the run… but I guess it needs a little explaining…  for those of you who are unfamiliar with the ‘Color Run’ (spelt like that because it’s a trademark from America… even though we are in Australia and it’s now wrong) it’s dubbed the happiest 5km in the world… and while it was not quite 5km… it was happy, at each kilometer mark runners and walkers alike were covered with a different coloured powder (coloured corn starch) so by the end you were a rainbow… which in real life was colourful, but the pictures don’t really do it justice… but just because I can below are some before and after pictures for you viewing pleasure:

Before:

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After:

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Dear Bird in the Chimney

Posted in Life by

Dear Bird in the chimney,

There are many things your could be doing if you weren’t stuck in the chimney, you could be flying, making new friends and generally much much happier… But at the present you are stuck and refusing the assistance that has been offered multiple times.  Dave has made enough room for you to get down, I know it’s true because one of your mates has done it before, unless it is you again, in which case you should know better… And to stay away from the chimney! There is also bread for you at the bottom which we hoped would tempt you to make the journey down, but apparently carbs aren’t your thing…

Here is the thing little bird, I have been told several times to just let you die as you and the rest of your Indian Minor friends are actually a national pest… But I don’t really want that, for two reasons… 1. You sound sad scratching on the pipe and unfortunately I have started to like you and 2. If you die in the pipe… You’ll stink and be much harder to get out.

So please, stop resisting, head towards the light at the bottom and once you are in the fire place we can let you out… And you’ll be free…

Thanks,

Em

I Love Weddings

Posted in Family, Love by

I love weddings… I love everything about them, the flowers, the dresses, the suits, the food, the fun… everything about them is fabulous… but I even more than general weddings, I love weddings of people who I love.

This weekend I super excited to see my brother Dustin get married to his girlfriend of 7 years, Jess.  I felt so privileged to witness such a beautiful event and to be able to share with them the beginning of the next chapter of their lives together.  Dust and Jess are perfect for each other, and this day was something that I had been waiting for, for a long time, and now it is all official.  The day was just lovely from beginning to end, and everything went perfectly.  The bridal party looked smashing and the Dust and Jess were incredible… and because I am a little overwhelmed by it all… I thought instead of rambling, I would just share a few pictures of this very special day, as a picture is worth 1000 words…

 

My prayer for them is that they continue to grow in their love for each other and their lives together are filled with joy, laughter, hope, grace and love.

Hair, Make-up and Super High Shoes

Posted in Life by

I know I have mentioned this before but I am a terrible girl… in fact you can read about it here and this week I have discovered another reason why this is true… well it’s not really a new discovery… but it’s a fact that has been confirmed… I cannot walk in high heels.  All last week I attempted to practice walking in my new shoes, shoes I wore on Saturday to my brother’s wedding… but they are really really high… and I am really bad at it.  By the wedding day I had started to get the hang of it, but I was still a little awkward and I couldn’t go all that far.  In the lead up to the wedding I decided to bake a cake in them, which was successful… so I took that to be a good sign, but weddings take longer than a cake… much longer than cakes!   I know it’s just a matter of perseverance… and that if I really wanted to I could learn to push through the pain barrier associated with such massive shoes, but I am not quite there yet.

Anyway, I am writing this blog because I have been quite proud of myself for committing to these shoes and practicing a little everyday around the house, although the cramps I got in my calves while watching TV is perhaps not the best sign… and the fact that my feet still hurt two days after the wedding and I can no longer stand on my tippy toes with any sense of stability…  But I have actually come a long way from where I was.  After reading my blog about the same issue from March in 2010, I have realised that I am no where near as bad as I used to be…

I now get my hair cut by a real hairdresser (not just a random shopping centre one I find at the last minute) regularly… and sometimes even coloured.

I now go to the same place to get my eyebrows waxed… so I guess that means I now have a regular beautician…

I now own more dresses… and am generally more interested in looking more ‘current’… we haven’t quite made it to fashionable yet.

I am still not that good at makeup and I can still only wear my hair in 3 styles, but that’s 3 steps in the right direction… maybe I am just getting older and now realise that it’s actually better if you are ‘booked in’ so that things actually happen rather than flying by the seat of your pants all the time.  Maybe I am actually more girly than before…. who knows… all I can tell you right now as I sit here typing with painted fingernails, make up on my face and a fresh hair colour, not wanting to put my feet on the ground in fear of the discomfort in the balls of my feet, is that I am pretty sure shoes shouldn’t hurt this much… especially when they look sooooo good… check them out below:

Fitness is Heartless

Posted in Exercise, Life by

It all fades pretty quick… this is something that I have learnt, and no this isn’t a morbid reflection on life, this is a reflection on my fitness…

Only a month ago I was at the peak of my fitness, and while it may have been only a small peak I was feeling pretty good about how far I had come. This time last month I ran (well ran/walked… in some slow rendition of interval training) 10km in the Melbourne Marathon Festival, which I was pretty happy about… well mostly, part of me feels like 10km isn’t that big a deal and I was so slow it’s probably not even worth writing about… but either way it’s better than where I was when I first started training again… Now a month later I feel like I am back at the beginning, I have had a week of being sick, a week of assignments, another week of being sick and a week of laziness and now I can’t run… it is a disaster! In only a week’s time I will be running the colour run (which will get a blog of its own once it’s done) and I am a little worried about how slow I will be. Luckily, I think it’s the kind of run which is best walked/danced/celebrated… and slowly enjoyed, but it really shocked me how quickly my fitness disappeared. It just seems cruel, you work so hard to build it up and then bam it’s gone… it all hurts again, you puff and pant and end up the colour of beetroot… and then just feel disappointed. I am determined not to let it beat me, I will run again, I will be fit, I will be good at exercising consistently… but I just needed to whinge about how heartless exercise is when you need a break…