Almost done

My job for Christmas day lunch was to buy the plastic cutlery, plates, bowls and bon bons - plastic mean's no washing up and means a lot less stress!  So I did all that a week or so ago, but then because I have about 4kg's of potatoes from my vegie deliveries, I said I would also make a big dish of scalloped potatoes for lunch.
4 onions, 1/5kg of bacon, a few spoons of crushed garlic, 4 kg's of spuds, some chicken stock, almost a litre of cream and about 90 minutes later I had one of those MASSIVE throw away foil rosating dishes from coles full and in the oven!  Do you realise how long it takes to actually peel and cut that many potatoes - a long bloody time!  2 1/2 hours later and it is almost cooked!  It's sooooo big and it is far too much for lunch, but I will take the left overs with me to where I am going camping. 

Speaking of camping, my car is also now 95% packed!  I just need to pack all the fridge stuff tomorrow before actually heading down in the afternoon.  I got all my stuff in the car and then remembered I needed to put the Christmas presents in the car for tonight, shit!  Found room, but now I don't quite know where the scalloped potatoes are going to go.... I will find somewhere I am sure... I hope

I also chopped up a heap of older vegies, nuked them and then once cooled I put them in the worm farm, it should get them going for while I am away.  I also put all the potato peelings on top of that and then a number of wet sheets of newspaper.

I still have to put the lucern on the vegies, but that wont take me long and I can't go anywhere today until my vegie delivery turns up... hopefully before 5pm!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Holiday's but no rest... yet

What a busy day! 
Today I:

• Got woken up by my sister calling me
  
• Did all my dishes
  
• Vacuumed and mopped the floors
  
• Went food shopping for camping - OMG I never spend that much money on normal food shopping! -shock-
  
• Went to the nursery to get wetting crystals to plant around my tomatoes so they hopefully don't die
  
• I also got some lucern to mulch them with
  
• Put the crystals into the soil and tomorrow the lucern will go on my tomatoes
  
• Went to Uncle Dan's for some drinks for Christmas Eve and for some presents
  
• Wrapped a bazillion presents!  I really hate wrapping presents and of course I had to buy my niece a GIANT ball, it's so big my arms fully hug it and can't reach on the other side - you try wrapping a ball that big, it's NOT EASY! I also like to buy her lots of little things as she just loves unwrapping presents... I also wrapped a few in a few extra layers of news paper to trick her :D
  
• Have done a few loads of washing and still going
  

I have just been on the go all day it feels like.

Tomorrow I also need to sort out what clothes I am taking away, get all my camping equipment out and figure out what food from the house I am taking along with the food I bought today.  I also need to make a MASSIVE tray of scalloped potatoes for Christmas lunch and then be at my sisters so we can then all drive to my Dad's place for Christmas Eve dinner.

Busy busy times!

Merry Christmas to everyone and have a happy New Year!! :D

Almost holidays

Where to begin?  Monday night I had a really crappy nights sleep.  I spent from 2am to 4am wide awake on top of taking ages to get to sleep, meant that I only had about 3-4 hours sleep for the night - not good.  Tuesday afternoon I got home to find a car parked in my driveway.  Right smack bang at the start of the driveway, blocking access to the rear two units - wtf?!?  I ended up parking on the street, but I really wanted the car moved as I had to load a heap of stuff, about 5 boxes, into my car to take to the track racing that night.  After knocking on the door to unit 1 with no answer, unit 2 said it wasn't there car, so I decided to put a note on the windscreen nicely saying that where they parked isn't a car park and to please not block the driveway access.  I had never seen this car before, but it was a brand new car with a red P plate on it, so the driver has only had their licence a short time.  Anyway, after a few hours, I saw them come out, read the note and then drive away.  What really annoyed me about it is how rude they were to just block the entire driveway!  The street I live on is big and wide and not that busy and had HEAPS of parking... GRRRR!!  I almost parked my car behind them to block them in, but decided I would be nice instead, at least this time.

As I mentionedI had a heap of stuff to take to the racing for my cycling clubs Christmas Handicap races at DISC.  I had all the prizes that I had to take down there and I wanted to put up some deco's and just make things were organised.  The racing of the handicaps went really well, however there was a big accident in one of the scratch races.  A really nice guy, Frank, was a victim of a racing incident that wasn't his fault.  A guy in front of him came out of the sprinters lane on the bell lap, hit someone's wheel, came down and then Frank had no where to go and went over the top of him and did a super man impression.  Frank was in a LOT of pain when I got to him.  It was quickly evident that an ambulance was needed, so I called them and after about 5-10 mins they turned up and then about 40 minutes after the accident he was in the ambulance on the way to hospital with an IV in his arm for pain drugs and in a lot of pain whilst breathing.  It turns out Frank dislocated his shoulder, broke two ribs and punctured his lung which collapsed over night in hospital :(  Frank is such a lovely guy and I am really hoping he heals quickly and well.

Last night was Revolution 4 and I was so tired I nearly didn't go.  After two nights of hardly any sleep I wasn't in a great mood so I took 2 nurofen plus and drank a bottle of V and was soon feeling more in the mood.  Revo 4 was great!  So glad I turned up and it was awesome seeing Robbie McEwen on a track bike!  I think the highlight, other than the Madison, was seeing Robbie and Cooke miss time their 1km Time Trial Madison event and Robbie realising that Cooke didn't come down for the sling and then just waving his hand around looking for him and playing up to the crowd, it was fun :)

Today has been a thankfully quiet day.  I am sooooo tired it is not fun.  I really don't do well on less than normal sleep and today I was paying for now three nights of not enough sleep.  The coffee's helped, but in the end I think it is almost bed time as I am so tired.

I also cracked it a bit yesterday and today as at work yesterday, I found out in a general meeting that I now have a new manager and then today I found out that there is a new Test resource in our area... nice to find these out not from my current manager.  I think I just really need time away from work as I am getting grumpy and frustrated with some things at work and I think that it is a very good time for me to be taking three weeks holidays.  Hopefully my issues will be fixed in the new year and then everything will be well again.  I really do love my job and enjoy working where I do, but I just need to figure out what is really too much to put up with... like I said, I just need a holiday.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Rain rain come again!

This morning I decided to be brave and tackle some Christmas shopping at Northland. The plan of attack was to get there right on 10am when the shops open to try to avoid some of the crowds and parking chaos. I don't get road rage but I certainly get parking rage. The plan actually worked well. I got a good spot in the under cover parking, but then due to the construction works, the stairs down to the ground floor were blocked off so I had to go down the ramp in the rain! D'oh! I managed to get most of my shopping done, I just need to get a couple of little things and then I will be done.

Speaking of the rain, it has now stopped raining for the first time since early Friday afternoon. Melbourne hasn't had this kind of rain for years! It reminds me of being a kid when it would rain for days on end and we would be shut up inside the house because of it. It was so great listening to the rain fall, so nice and relaxing.

If only

Sometimes I would really like to live a simple life. Live off the land, know my neighbours, have a sense of community where we all help each other and just have a great life. Living off the land and living in a community that care's about each other. there wouldn't be as much disappointment, there wouldn't be as much greed and there certainly wouldn't be as much selfishness, I am sure there are places where this exits. I'm just so sick of how selfish everyone seems to be, how self involved they are and how they think that they are #1 and can override the rules and laws of society.
I would love to be on my own land, have my own vegie garden and be at least 75% self sufficient... one day maybe

Feeling good

This week I managed to reduce my water consumption even further!  My last water bill came in two weeks ago and it said my average daily use was 213 litres.  As previously mentioned with the whole Target 155 I exchanged my shower head and I got my daily usage down to 152 litres in the first week.  This past week, week 2, I put a water saving bag into the cistern of my toilet and continued to try to have no more than 4 minute showers and reduce my water usage around the house and I am happy to say that this past week my average water use was only 117 litres!! Amazing stuff :)

Other good news is that this week I have done exercise every day!  Monday I did a 15 minute walk, Tuesday I did a 32 minute bike ride, Wednesday I did another 15 minute walk and tonight I have pilates!  The really good news though is that the 15 minute walks haven't seemed to cause too much tightness or pain in my hip which is a big relief!  I've been a bit slack in my daily strengthening exercises, so I need to try to do them a bit more often.  I've also been eating quite well this week and I think the whole 2 fruit n 5 veg each day really is making a big difference, I just don't feel as lethargic, of course the increased exercise also helps.

Tuesday night down at the track racing I got to use my newly acquired commissaires qualification.  I'm normally on the judges table anyway, but due to Alf not being well, Sheryl was running the night of racing and I gave her a hand, it was fun too :)  No one was yelling, no one was being grumpy and we all enjoyed it.  Some of the racers tried to push the limits a bit, kind of like with a replacement teacher steps in to take a class, but it was all done in good humour :)

My favourite columnist, Catherine Deveny, has a new book out of her columns and she is going to be in store today signing copies at around lunch time and I am _very_ tempted to be a fan girl and head down there and get a signed copy.  Each week I look forward to her columns in The Age.   As per this article, you do either love her or hate her and I really do love what she has to say - she is very forthright and it is refreshing.

Qualified!

I have just received word that I have successfully completed all the requirements to achieve my certificate of accreditation as a Level 1 Cycling Commissaire!

YaY! :D

It's time to move it

Even though I have been trying to talk myself into doing more exercise, it hasn't actually been happneing.  However, on the weekend I realised something really quite shocking, I have become so slack and lazy that I didn't want to exercise.  I didn't want to feel that sensation of sweating, that sensation of putting in the hard work.  I just couldn't be bothered with it all.  Thinking these thoughts was a bit of a shock.  In the past few years I have loved my exercise and loved doing it and loved working up a sweat and really enjoyed the whole aspect of it and to suddenly realise that I just didn't want to anymore... well that was enough to get me motivated again!  I really don't want to be a lazy person any more, I want to be fit and active and enjoying it all again.

After week of trying to eat 2 fruit and 5 veg every day and generally eating well (if you exclude the ice cream), I have been feeling pretty good and now I am throwing in the exercise.  I have decided that since I enjoy riding to work and I currently loathe riding home, I decided to get up an extra 20 minutes earlier in the morning and go for a ride before going to work. 
This morning when my alarm went off at 5:30am, I really didn't feel the love for getting up and out of bed, but I did!  I got ready, got the bike ready and 20 minutes later I was out the door heading towards the outdoor velo to cut some laps. 
I have come to the conclusion that seeing as though I hate it whenever the road heads skywards, even ever so slightly, I don't really want to ride on the road, I will ride laps of the outdoor velo instead and make it a bit more like a gym session.  Once I get there (yes I ride there), I stick the iPod in my ears and go round and around.  I did this for the first time recently last week and so I roughly knew how long it would take me to get home and as I only wanted to do about 30 minutes on the bike this morning, I only ended up spending about 10 minutes at the velo, but that's ok, because I did my target 30 minutes on the bike, well 32 minutes actually.

I will do this at least once again this week and then next week I will aim for 3 times and try to maintain 3-4 sessions a week for a few weeks.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

'Tis the season

This week I have been trying to eat 2 fruit and 5 veg every day and with the exception of yesterday, I have managed to achieve this! :D Nectarines are so great at the moment and so are banana's! Some of the apples I have are a bit so so, but still, even half an apple is better than no apple!

I haven't been doing so well on the exercise front, but the walk the other morning did put some strain on my hip, so I need to have a few days between walking and focus on using the physio ball to ease the tension. I haven't been on the bike either due to life just getting in the way, but I did manage to go to my pilates class tonight.

Yesterday I started to unpack the Christmas tree I got from my Dad last year. It's his old one and he was going to throw it out... I soon discovered why he was going to throw it out. I tired to unpack it and assemble it and fluff it out a bit and I ended up breaking all these bits on it so I decided that I should just bite the bullet and go buy a new tree, so I did. It's a fibre optic tree which changes colour and, I reckon looks great! I need to get a new Angel or a star though as the one I have is clearly too big. The pictures are also a bit blurry as I used my little camera and to get the colour of the lights I couldn't use the flash