Tag Archives: The List – 2013

Catching the Trend

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As I have been working through my list for this year I have learnt something… well I suppose that’s kind of the point… but it was something unexpected… I have learnt that there is some benefit for jumping on a trend at the last minute.  Usually I am a little slow to get into things… or way too fast (as in before it is considered potentially cool… which by default, makes it uncool).  Either way, I usually want to let it be tested by others for a while first… for example, Wicked the musical had been playing for about a year in Melbourne before I went for the first time… then I loved it and went back at least 5 times.  Or fluro anything… I was convinced it would pass, but now that it’s been around for a while (I still know it will pass eventually), I have jumped in feet first… I have fluro sneakers which I am pretty proud of… and some most of my other work out gear also has a touch of fluro.

Well it turns out the same things go for books, as part of this years list I have challenged myself to read at least 12 books, that’s twice as many as last year and I am currently on my 6th book… so I need to lift my game a little… As a little extra challenge to myself, I also decided that I would try some different books, not just authors I knew, but some randoms… enter Marissa Meyer  and ‘The Lunar Chronicles’.  I choose the first book ‘Cinder’ because it intrigued me… it was the fairy-tale story of Cinderella, set in the future, in a world full of all things sci-fi… my Disney love and nerd interior rejoiced at the possible combination.  I noticed ‘The Lunar Chronicles’ written at the top of the page, but I didn’t think much of it, I didn’t really know all that much about the books… so I just assumed the whole series was available when ever I needed it…  At the end of book one it became clear that while some aspects of the story had finished the bigger story was just beginning, so I downloaded on to my kindle the next book… ‘Scarlet’… soon enough this was also finished and I need the next one… but I couldn’t find it on Amazon… a little perplexed I googled the author only to discover that series had only been half written, the 4 book chronicles was incomplete at the moment… the third and forth books were still to be written… planned but not available… so now I have had to move on… despite the fact that I feel a little incomplete myself… I wished I had not started the series until all the books had been written… I wished I had jumped on the ‘Cinder’ bandwagon much later… when I could have it all… I don’t want to wait to find out what happens… I want to no now… this is the down side of finding a good new series before its been finished… or even tested by others… If I had waited for it to be recommended I would have known about the wait,and the gap… I would have seen it coming, instead I pioneered something new and now I have to wait… until 2014… for the next book.

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Cleaned Out

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Earlier this year my faithful laptop died… it was unexpectedly painful because I didn’t realise how attached I had become to it, even though it was an inanimate object. In fact I wrote a little obituary for it back in January which you can read here if you like.

The day before my computer died, I finished my list for the year which had included two computer specific tasks…
No. 56 Clean out my computer properly and…
No. 73 Tidy up my iTunes library

The truth is, while I didn’t think my computer would die… I knew it needed a good clean up, it was like someone how had been living on fatty foods and had been clogging their arteries, with so much plaque and crap floating around it was only a matter of time before my poor little computer had a computer heart attack or stroke… little did I know it would be the next day. I had planned to give it some TLC and a massive purge of data so that it could once again live a healthy and I had hoped long life… but it was not to be… perhaps it was a case of too little too late.

Anyway, it is now June and earlier this semester I finally replaced my computer… I got my new laptop at the end of March and I have been very careful about what gets transferred across and what remains on the hard drive from my old mac, which now lives on like a brain in a jar… supplying information as I need… As part of this process I have had to choose which music I take and by default cleaned out my iTunes library. The hoarder in me is secretly happy that all the information is actually just sitting right there on another drive if I change my mind and what it back, but I still feel able to tick it off the list all the same. The same with no. 56 – my computer has well and truly been cleaned out… not the way I had imagined… but off the list all the same…

As part of this whole process, I feel like my new laptop has given me a new opportunity to keep the file situation down to a minimum from the beginning. And while it may have gotten a little file crazy during uni, now that my uni semester has finished… a long and painful semester… but that’s another story… I have stopped and taken the time to do another mini clean out… just to make sure everything stays organised and not just repeated piles of things I really didn’t need to keep in the first place. I have actually found this quite cathartic and I think I will have to sit down and do it regularly so that is stays neat and tidy… but I guess still a little by default these can come off the list…

Oh and here is a selfie with me and my computer… cos everyone does that right?

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No. 17… Camping… in Winter

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I survived… that’s probably the first thing I need to say… but the second is, it actually wasn’t that bad… seriously, it turns out I am not that bad at camping. This weekend Dave and I headed north to Echuca Moama for a spot of camping… now in fairness, it wasn’t as rough as it could have been, it was really just a warm up. We stayed at a caravan park… but still in a tent and it was still very very very cold.

Generally speaking I am a bit soft… well at least that’s the way I think of my self. I am not super good at things that require co-ordination or are outside, I am not really sure why this is… it just is, but for a long time I have wished this wasn’t the case. Recently I have had lots of blogs about wanting to be better, healthier, fitter and stronger… generally a better person, because when it comes down to it, even though I know they are good for me sports are not my strong point… in fact usually they don’t go well, it’s not that I don’t enjoy it, I am just not very good… and I had putting camping in this same boat. I have actually been camping more than I realized, a few school camps, lots of years at SYG and even a previous trip with Dave and his family. But between trips I always start to panic and convince myself that it isn’t a good idea, but it turns out I was wrong. I actually enjoy it, sure it would be nicer a little warmer, but I still enjoy it. My sleeping bag is warm, my tent is generally dry and I usually get to see a part of Australia that I haven’t seen before, plus it usually means getting away from the business of everyday life and spending some quality time with Davo… which I love and as a bonus he loves too… (camping that is… not always having constant attention from me).

Prior to the trip Dave decided that he would encourage me with getting me some gear to making camping easier… earlier this year I go a new sleeping bag… which was awesome, and just last week I got some new walking/hiking shoes so that I didn’t have to wreck my nice purple runners out in the bush… and now that he knows we can do it… camp that is… the list of potential purchases is growing. One thing I will be looking into before our next trip though is how to cook on a trangia (camp cooker) properly. I think we did a pretty good job for rookies but I am sure we can do it better… Maybe even perfect our new favourite dish ‘Peachy Keeny Custard’.

Anyway, here are a few of my favourite photos from the trip… oh and some of my new favourite tradition, photos using the camera timer with the town sign.

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Oh and I got to cross number 47. ‘Lie on the ground and look at the stars off the list too… win!

No. 28 – Try Yoga or Pilates

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So this year, all year, not just since the revelation of my last blog, I have been making an effort to exercise regularly… and while the last couple of weeks have been a little poor, on the whole I think I am doing pretty well.  Earlier this year I tried yoga for the first time, this was something that I had put on my list (no. 28) because I thought it was about time I gave it a go… well actually I put either yoga or Pilates on the list, and I was secretly hoping for Pilates because I thought that might have been easier, but when I had an offer to attend a yoga class, it was one I couldn’t refuse.

To be honest, one of the reasons I hadn’t attempted yoga in the past was because I was a little afraid of it, I had put it in the spiritual basket of crystals and energies, some thing I wasn’t sure if the rules I had made for myself regarding my own spirituality.  I had it tangled up, and probably fairly so in the traditional view of yoga, one which is deeply embedded in religions which are not my own.  I have learnt however that modern yoga is not this… its an adaption, there are certainly elements that still reflect this deeper connection with inner self and spirituality as other wise you would just be standing in a room pulling strange stances with a group of strangers, but it is only as deep as you allow it to be, you choose the meditation, you choose the focus of your thoughts… or lack there of and attempt to reach the peaceful state it strives for.

As I don’t often do things by halves, rather than just attempting regular run of mill yoga at the local gym, I found myself signing up for a Bikram Yoga class… that’s the yoga you do in a 40degree room with a humidity of 40%… it’s hot and sweaty and intense, it was an interesting experience, not one that I think I would run back to… I think I might need to try just regular yoga first, but I was glad I did it and it crossed it off the list… but here are 3 things I learnt at my yoga experience…

1.       If you have a cold… don’t to bikram yoga… in fact don’t do any yoga with others!  During my class there was a man in the row behind me who brought his own tissues with him… that’s not cool.  You are in a hot room with lots and lots of other people… breathing the same thick air and sharing a confined, contained space… I don’t want your germs… so please don’t come.

2.       I am too fat for yoga… My friends of course say this isn’t true… apparently I am just not that flexible yet… but I know they are just being kind… there were a number of poses which I found impossible… while my flexibility was an issue… sometimes there was just thigh or boobs in the way… there is nothing you can do about that once the yoga class has started… although hopefully all the sweating I did will have shifted that weight in the right direction, even if it is just dehydration.

3.       Bikram yoga makes you sweat in places you didn’t know you could sweat… that’s probably a little too much information I know, but it is true… at one stage we were lying on the floor (on our own towels and mats) and when I lifted my head there was a decent sized puddle left on the floor from my ear… seriously my ear… gross… bring a change of everything!

So there you go… yoga is done… maybe I will try it again… but maybe just regular normal temperature yoga where you can breathe and your other class mates will be encouraged to wear more than just the necessities for the class.

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Surprise Attack

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Yesterday I was surprise attacked by my running plan… Seriously, it happened and I was not happy… But let me give you some background.

Because I am a sucker for punishment, this year on my list I have included at spot no. 9 complete a half marathon… Now one of the reasons I have popped it on the list is because I have done it before and I want to do it better this time… Last time I was slow… And I walked a lot… And so now when I say to people oh yeah I’ve done a half marathon, I feel like a bit of a fraud, it’s true I entered, started and finished the event, but not they way people imagine when you tell them… So this time around even though it will still be slow I want to give it a better crack, I want to actually run the majority of the event, not just the first bit and then the odd minute here and there.

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So this time, because I am a list and rules kinda girl I have come up with a plan… And until last Thursday it was working really well… I decided that I should start with the basics… So I have started with a couch to 10km program on my trusty iPhone… Once I have done that, the same company has a 10km to half marathon for me to continue on with… so I have my plan of attack sorted… Anyway, I am now up to week 5… So far so good… Until Thursday… To date the program has had 3runs a week, and each week the intensity got harder… Bit by bit teaching me how to run… the runs within the week were all the same, so by the end you felt good and ready for the next challenge.

At the beginning of week 5 I wasn’t expecting any different, run 1 asked me to run for 5mins, walk for 3mins and repeat a couple of times… Now even though it doesn’t sound that hard… To be honest I was nervous about this week… For me, 5mins was a long time… Multiple lots of 5mins was a daunting task… After run 1 I was feeling pretty flat, but in my mind that was ok because I thought I had two more runs to master it before I had to step it up… Turns out I didn’t.

On Thursday I started my run, did my warm up and then braced myself for my first lot of 5mins… But when I got to it… This is what I saw…

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I was not happy… 5mins was about to be tough enough.. But 8… Up the hill, without any warning… Needless to say I whinged the whole way… But I did do it. I just didn’t appreciate the nasty surprise during the run… I will now be looking much closer at all the runs in the week just to get my head ready… My running plan will not get away with a second surprise attack!