Mmmm BBQ

I don't have much of a backyard, it is an all concrete L shape that is just a bit wider than my clothes line, one of those ones that is attached to the side of the house that folds out. There is also a LOT of leaf litter from my neighbours tree that is currently covering the concrete. I've never bothered to clean it up as I don't really use my back yard - well I've decided that I am going to change that!
I am going to clear out all the leaf litter, clean up my little round 4 seater outdoor table so I may be able to at least put two seats at it and buy myself a new BBQ that will actually fit in my backyard! I may even put up some fairy lights on the fence and clean my kitchen windows as well.

So on the weekend I visited a few places that sell bbq's. I can't believe how expensive the 2-3 burner bbq's can be. You can buy a nice 4 burner bbq for less. Not only do I not need a 4 burner bbq, it wont fit in my backyard. I want to buy one that I will be able to get through my home w/out having to pull it apart, ideally one with side tables that fold down. The only one that I have found that does this and comes with a roasting hood that can also do a rotisserie is this one from Ray's Outdoors. I'm going to go and have another look at Barbecues Galore, but I think that's the one I will end up getting *excited*

In other news, I have to go to the dentist tonight and I'm not really looking forward to it. I will either need to get a tooth pulled out or a big filling in it from where part of the tooth has broken away at the gum line. I know it's not great to just get teeth removed, but it is one of my wisdom teeth, so it's at the back and shouldn't be that much of an issue if it is removed. It actually isn't hurting, so I'm not sure how long ago it happened, but I've known about it for 2 weeks - it just took this long to get in to actually see my dentist.

Sydney

Whenever I have a really early morning, the tiredness generally hits me the next day - so today, I am feeling the effects of getting up at 4:45am yesterday morning for a 6:15am flight to Sydney. My flight was also the worst flight I have ever had. The turbulance was terrible and from about 10 minutes into the flight I thought I was going to be ill. I couldn't read, I couldn't listen to my iPod - all I could do was to focus on deep breathing and pretty much stare at the same spot ahead of me for the whole flight. I've never experienced this before on a flight and I don't think I want to again. I spose I should be thankful I wasn't ill, unlike someone else on the flight.

So I am in Sydney to be near the developers of the systems that I was meant to start testing yesterday. Yes, meant to start yesterday. So far I still haven't really started my testing which is extremely frustrating, especially since I've been in the office for over 3 hours already today. Combine that with the tiredness from the early morning yesterday and it's not a great combination - C'est la Vie! Shit happens. That's what coffee and V are for! :D The people I am working with are really nice which helps.

I also made sure I went for a walk this morning - ~30mins was great walking around Hyde Park in a nice fresh morning

Seeing as I am not just here for one night this visit, I might try to go exploring this afternoon/evening... maybe catch the ferry to Manly or something - if I have the time and/or energy.

It's been a year

Sometimes it's easy to forget that it is the basics that help keep the package together. You need to get the base everyday fundamentals working and in place and have a good structure in place or what you put on top of that or add around it will just come crumbling down around you and it all turns to shit.

So, I am going to try even harder to not have slip ups, to try to stay focussed on getting the fundamentals right and in place but still have some flexibility - but not every day!

Goddamnit I will eat properly, which means eating more vegies and fruit and I will feel better from doing that and I will get out on my bike and ride, because when I do ride I love it!

I think back to a year ago and I had done my first week of 300km's on the bike and was riding almost everyday. Riding to work, riding at track, riding on the weekends - I had done a 110km ride on the Saturday and came away from it with a sore knee which turned out to be a problem with my back. It was 1 year ago. I am now so far from this time last year I barely recognise myself - but I am going to change that. Only I can change it. Only I can do anything about it. No one else can do it for me.

I WILL DO IT! I will get back to where I was a year ago before my back injury!

First Harvest - Spinach

Today I picked the first lot of vegies from my vegie garden!! My spinach plants seem to have almost double in size over night so it was time to cut some off to eat



It's very exciting to be eating some vegies that I have grown myself! I have kept them watered and kept them fed with seasol and have not killed them - it has been a great way to end a shitty day.

To try to get maximum taste I am thinking of sautéing it with some garlic and bacon - yum! :D If anyone has any other suggestions let me know

Photo's - BCC Road Champs

I have finished the photo's I took from the BCC Club Road Champs that were run on Saturday - http://www.imagesbylisa.com.au/gallery/ClubRoadChamps08.

I have also uploaded a couple of photo's I took at DISC on Tuesday night, but it is so difficult to take photo's there due to the pulse lighting that is in the stadium http://www.imagesbylisa.com.au/gallery/track090908

Ahhh the sunshine!

What a nice weekend!! I spent yesterday out in the sun at Lancefield taking photo's of my cycling clubs (Brunswick) road champs - it was an awesome day to be outside in the sun on the first 25 degree day for the season, although we could have done w/out the wind. I haven't been through the photo's yet but hopefully I got a few good ones.

Today I spent learning some stuff, although it was at quite a basic level (gotta get the ground work in first though!) but I will leave comment till I have done all the reading and the workbook.

Just thinking about my work week ahead, I hate doing that on Sunday nights, and I think I am going to have a pretty busy and full on week - awesome, bring it on!

While I don't particularly like Peter Costello, I am thinking about buying his book - it could be an interesting read

That tingly feeling

Yesterday I saw the physio about my hip/upper thigh, it's been sore for over a month but I have mostly been managing it myself, but I knew I needed to get it seen to as it just wasn't getting any better. So she checks out my leg movements and the joint is fine, it turns out that it isn't the ITB as such but the two muscles that the ITB joins into, but as a result the ITB has tightness in it.

She was using her elbow to try to get deep into the muscle and after about 5 minutes of that she decided she was going to use an Acupuncture needle to get the tension out instead. I've never had Acupuncture before so it was all new to me. I didn't even feel the needle going in, but when she was moving the needle around I was getting a tingly sensation in my head which was really odd but somewhat plesant at the same time. She said that she could feel my muscle spasm'ing from the needle, which means it is working as the muscle is tensing and then relaxing with the overall aim that it gets the existing tension out when it relaxes. The needles are suprisingly long and quite bendy - very bizare. She also did some things to massage the ITB and showed me a few extra exercises to do in my pilates class to help ease the tension in my hip and leg. I also have yet another exercise that I have to do each day.

The physio also suggested I cut down on the walking I've been doing as it seems to aggravate it and if I go to the gym do the cardio bits gently so as to not aggravate it more :( She also suggested that I do some cycling if I have a bike (I was seeing a physio I hadn't seen before) and I mentioned I had a bike or two to choose from... So it looks like I have to try to get out on my bike a bit more instead of going for extra walks. I am considering getting up earlier a few days a week and driving to work and then riding along the Yarra Trail or something in the morning and then showering at work. That way I don't have to worry about riding home and carrying a back pack with my clothing!

Today my hip feels great! It doesn't hurt when driving or when standing or sitting or when walking or even when going up and down stairs - it just feels so much more normal!

I can move my head again

After still not being able to move my head properly this morning and my shoulder and neck area in quite a bit of pain and discomfort I decided to make a physio appointment and it was a good thing I did! Even though I had some extra movement as the day progressed, the muscles in my neck on that side were hard as bricks! The physio commented that if I hadn't come in, I probably would have started getting severe headaches due to how tight all the muscles were. She did a bit of massage which hurt quite a bit but after a bit my neck didn't show much improvement in movement so she decided to massage the nerves directly to try to get them to relax - OMFG! Talk about pain! They sure know the right spots to hit. The pain would shoot down my arm past my elbow, gawd it hurt, but I kept trying to tell myself that it was good pain and just tried to breathe through it all. After about 10 minutes of this I had so much extra pain free movement it was great! It is still sore when I do certain movements and I have some exercises to do, have to eat lots of nurofen + for a few days and I am regularly putting my heat bag on it and I have to go back on Wednesday, but hopefully it will be OK by then and I can use that appointment to get her to look at my hip/ITB.

The paralympics have started and these folk are awesome! Seriously! Check out the telecast on abc2. These are the guys that really provide inspiration! Their smiles, their hardwork their dedication - they are the people to admire and who should have the sponsorship to help guide school kids instead of having to work full time (if able) and training part time!

I'm getting old

This morning I was woken from my sleep by a massive pain in my neck - I could barely move my head without a sharp stabbing pain. I managed to sit up enough in bed to reach my bedside table to take some nurofen + and then tried lying down again but I just couldn't get comfy in any position - it all hurt! I have no idea what I've done, probably a pinched nerve but how - who knows!?! It's still really quite sore now and I have been applying deep heat and heat bag all day along with taking nurofen +. It isn't as bad, but it's still quite sore so I am now trying some liquid muscle relaxant in a bid to get some sleep tonight.
Combine this with my hip/ITB/whatever and my cold I am feeling quite old today.

I finally got around to making the tipi's for my snow pea's to climb... they are going nuts its great, in fact, all of my vegies are! I just hope the tipi's don't fall over in the wind.

While I have had a rather lazy day today due to my neck/shoulder, I have overall had a very productive weekend! :D

Oh and a massive congratulations to Chris Scott and Kieran Modra winning Gold in the track cycling at the Paralympics!! Chris Scott was so emotional after his win - it was awesome to see how much it meant to him! GO AUSSIES!!

What a lovely Saturday

This weekend is the first one since footy season started that I didn't have a footy match to go and watch so I decided to make the most of it by sleeping in! When I finally got up I went for a walk and then started cleaning! It wasn't that bad, but things like cleaning up some surface clutter and vacuuming had been ignored for too long. I even partially sorted out my bike room so that all my bikes are now in there!!



So after dusting, doing the dishes, cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming and mopping the floors I was done! It feels so good to just have a cleaner home! It also wasn't that painful to do because there wasn't a huge amount to actually do - with my iPod shuffle playing through the stereo and the doors and windows open with the sun shining it, it was a great morning to be cleaning up. I even ended up having to go to the shops for a some stuff and ended up buying some flowers to put in a vase!

Tomorrow I need to make a tipi out of garden stakes for my snow peas to grow up so they stop trying to strangle my carrots and cauliflower- should be interesting to see how that turns out!

I also still need to clean and sort out my bedroom wardrobe, but that's behind doors so is easy to forget ;)

Frustration

Right, I am frustrated! I am frustrated with being so unfit and the only way to fix it is to get out there and do it, it doesn't make it less frustrating though. I am also frustrated because I have been sick for over a week now. This means that I haven't been able to go to the gym since monday last week - that's over a week and a half of 'not getting fit' and in fact going backwards (if that's possible). When I am inactive like this, I find it very difficult to eat properly which just again makes everything worse. Everything is delayed and it is frustrating!!

My Hip is still sore too, I think its my ITB, so I have been trying to attack it with the tennis ball to massage it a bit to get the tension out of it and decrease the pain and get me walking w/out a limp, it hurts a LOT but if I can manage it on my own I would prefer that to paying physio bills - I've done enough of that over the past 12 months.

I have a new toy!

If that makes no sense - http://mobilecodes.nokia.com/index.htm

Short update

I've been sick for the past week or so and haven't been doing much of anything other than eating foods I shouldn't be. I'm still a bit snotty from this cold, but I am not feeling as tired and generally exhausted as I was. It's not looking good for me to head to the gym today, but if I don't then I will do my best to at least do a 25-30 min walk after work.

I am still trying to adjust to my new glasses - the whole world is in focus which has made it feel kind of surreal but it is getting better.

I've got lots of work to do, which is great, but my PC is going to be rebuilt this afternoon and have more ram put in it which will make tomorrow morning lots of fun when I try to set everything back up again... not!

Might be time to start backing everything up to my ext HDD - I don't trust the processes used, even though they say my d:\ wont be wiped.