Tag Archives: Health

I am a Runner… kinda

Posted in Exercise, Family, Life, The List by

It is done… I made it… albeit very very slowly, but I have finished the 10km run as part of this years Melbourne Marathon, and despite the fact that I am a little bit underwhelmed because it doesn’t really compare to the 21.1km the halfers just ran or the 42 the Marathon runners conquered, I am still pretty proud of myself… and I am thinking that maybe my second half marathon won’t be as impossible as I originally thought… but maybe that’s just the excitement of finishing this morning that’s talking… anyway, these are some of my favourite pictures from today… please pay no attention to my red face… that’s normal… I hope…

Three Quarters Done

Posted in Family, Food, Life, The List by

It’s been a while since I did a list update, so if you are not interested in what is and isn’t crossed off the list then please continue to the next blog, but if you are here is what has happened since my last update here it is…

A lot has been happening since July and a few more things have been chipped off the list… So once again here is what I have done so far… click the links on the ones that have their own special blog for the full details if you wish…

2. Make my own ice cream

3. Read 6 books

8. Make a photo book with our wedding photos

13. Make breakfast muffins

16. Bake Meringues

19. See some fireworks

22. Watch a sunset with Dave

24. Finish watching Mcleod’s Daughters

25. Fix up super stuff

26. Ride a push bike at least once

28. Go and hear live music

30. Go Camping

31. Go to the museum

32. Stay at the Langham

33. Get our wedding pictures framed – completed 21/7/12

It is so nice to have our pictures framed and up and I think that they look amazing… very very very happy!

34. Have a bath

35. Make a mocktail

36. Do a fun run/walk – completed 26/8/12

I have officially crossed this off the list, although I am not done yet so I have broken it into two parts… so for now I have completed a fun walk… the Parkinson’s Walk with some work colleagues…. but next weekend I am doing a fun run as part of the Melbourne Marathon series so watch this space… that will be part 2.

37. Go on a Road trip

39. See a Musical

40. Have a rainbow paddlepop

42. Finish unpacking my stuff in the study

55. Clean the gunk off the little hav

56. Eat at 10 different breakfast places

58. Visit a country town I have never been to before

59. Go to a Wedding – completed 22/9/12

A couple of weeks ago I was privileged enough to witness some good friends of mine get married, it was a beautiful day and such a lovely wedding.  I am so thankful for both of these guys and that I could be part of this special day!

57. Bust a move in a random location

60. See the fire balls at crown

62. Learn a new joke

63. Visit Castlemaine

64. Visit Bendigo

65. Do my own washing once

68. Wash my own car – completed 7/7/12

This was actually more difficult than it sounds, I am actually quite week and the high pressure hose is not… therefore when washing my car I look like an idiot trying to control the hose enough to effectively wash my car… luckily Dave seems to be happy to help out!

70. Send 5 Cards just because – completed 2/7/12

Every one likes a random card…

71. Play with playdough

72. Have a hot jam donut

73. Go to a football game

76. Go a term without Maccas

77. Sing in the shower – completed 7/7/12

This one doesn’t get a picture… trust me, you’d thanks me

79. Go to the beach at least three times

80. Go up a look out and look over the city – completed: 7/7/12

Dave and I went up to the top of Mt Dandenong, had a lovely lunch and a little look out… on a beautiful winter day too I might add.

81. Have a pot of tea

83. Bake something for work

84. Do 3 exercise classes

86. Get and exercise piggy bank

89. Go to a concert of Dave’s – completed 4/8/12

This was probably the most extravagant school concert I have ever been to, complete with a 7 course dinner and my spunky husband doing his thing.

95. Check my car’s oil

96. Swim laps at the pool – completed 27/8/12

After deciding it would be bad taste to take a picture of either me or others actually swimming in the pool, I opted for a picture of my goggles instead… enjoy

97. Do a water areobics class

98. Play with sparklers

99. Try and espresso

So there you go… I’m now over three quarters of the way through, still a bit to go, but once again this is a nice reminder to get back on track with a couple of the longer term list items… I still need to be more deliberate about cooking dinner, exercising and doing my devotions, I still need to stop eating chocolate at breakfast, and I still need to keep focused on my weight loss, chores and date days… I can’t cross them off the list if they are not done, and they need to be done… But so far not too bad,  I am getting there and still having fun doing it.. only 49 to go.

The Curse of the Timbrel

Posted in Faith, Family, Life by

I have discovered something truly terrifying… My timbrel hands have crossed over to Zumba… don’t know what I am talking about? Well hold on your hats…

This is a timbrel:

Well a timbrel with a CD in it… you may recognise these from the Salvation Army… or the time those two old ladies played the timbrel on Britain’s got talent and argued with Simon about the difference between timbrels and tambourines… which if you happened to watch that, you will now know that timbrels have two rows of small cymbals and Tambourines have one… but I digress (but if you would like to continue this tangent here is the link…).

The timbrel is used kind of like rhythmic gymnastics… it’s a little weird and sometimes uncomfortable to watch, but if you do it right it can look very impressive.  As a younger girl in the Salvation Army I was in the timbrel brigade… that is the timbrel performance group, where we played rhythms on the timbrel with timed choreography to mostly brass band music, but occasionally something that was a little more out there… like worship music.

Now, even though I haven’t really given it much credit so far… I loved playing the timbrel, and I still do, although now I only really play at Christmas time to the Mariah Carey version of Joy to the world… again I digress… When learning to play the timbrel one of the most important things… as any timbrel leader (or sergeant, depends how army you want to be) will tell you (myself included) is that when playing the timbrel your must tuck the thumbs of your non-timbrel hand in otherwise it looks sloppy.  I will admit I learnt this the hard way, by having my uncontrollable thumbs bandaid’ed in place by my leader (who was also my aunty).  But since then as soon as I pick up a timbrel my left thumb automatically tucks.

I thought that this automatic tucking was specific to the timbrel but this is where I made my terrifying discovery.  At Zumba we did a dance… routine… fitness extravaganza… strange semi-co-ordinated movements, which required us to put our hands in the air and then back down… if I was a stick figure… I would look something like this:

It was during this that I made my terrifying discovery, unlike everyone else who just puts their open hand in the air… mine tucked…

And I looked like an idiot… the worst bit is I can’t do it the other way… with just an open hand it feels wrong… and it wasn’t just my non-timbrel hand that tucked… but both… yes both…

I am not really sure what I am going to do about this, but it appears for the time being I am stuck with timbrel hands… even at Zumba… no bandaids required anymore.

P.S  I just discovered that if you feel like you have missed the boat and you too really want timbrel hands… well you are in luck, there are some instructional videos… so you can learn in the comfort of your own home…just click here… seriously check them out… you know you want to.

Aquarobics – That Awkward Moment When…

Last night I crossed number 97 off the list… go to aquarobics… luckily I didn’t need to do this alone I got to go with my brother and two friends… As much as I loved it there were a few awkward moments…

There was the awkward moment when you get there and realise you bring the average age of the class down by half…

The awkward moment when you are busily doing the actions and you realise your bathers aren’t covering as much as they should be…

Or my favourite from last night, that awkward moment you leap out of the water to continue the actions to the chorus of the YMCA and no one else jumps… hilarious… but awkward.

I actually really enjoy aquarobics… it really is a lot of fun and a pretty good workout.. who knows perhaps it will become more regular in my life… I think I would like it if it did… I guess that’s actually up to me?

Anyway, it’s now off the list.

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Half Sick

Posted in Life, Work by

I hate being half sick… this is where I am at the moment… half sick, not really sick enough to stay home or stop doing anything, but not really functioning on all cylinders if you know what I mean and it sucks. I wish my body would just make up its mind… am I sick or not? Its been a little like this all week really, but yesterday I thought I had beat it, I felt great, but I think perhaps I have jinxed myself because now I am back to being half sick. I think that I am not alone though, there appears to be lots of half sick people around, either that our they actually are sick, but still coming into work and just making my half sickness worse.

The thing is though I want to just get it over and done with because if it stays as half sick it is not going to end well. In fact, what will probably happen if this continues is that Dave and I will enter the never ending circle of half sickness for the rest of the colder months, because I will pass on my half sickness to him and while I am getting better he is getting worse and then he will pass his half sickness to me and so on and so forth… we did this last year and I am not really interested in doing it again, but I guess that’s the joy of learning to live with some one. Is there are cure to half sickness or do I actually have to treat it like real sickness and just stop, give myself a chance to get over it and then start again?