Rockets and perming solution

It's amazing what a decent sleep can achieve. Throw a few quality Zzzz's into the air and your growly-bear personalty goes into hibernation. Thank god for that.

Husband and i just took the doggies to the oval for a walk, it's a beautiful day outside and they loved it. We must have worn them out because they're both now unconscious on their beds. There was a guy down the oval with his kids shooting off these rocket-parachute thingy's. I had no idea he was about to launch one when he did, it was so loud and i almost had to get a doggy-dumpage bag for myself - it scared the living beejeezers outta me! It was amazing how high these things went and how powerful they were. The kids loved it.

* * * * * *

In all my misery yesterday i forgot to mention my one exciting thing i did during the week.

I went down an underground mine! It was an awesome experience, we went down 680m underground, spent approx 2hrs having a look around different levels and at different machines. One of the Occ Health and Safety guys from the mine (Danny) took us on a guided tour... me, my boss (Elissa) and the visiting physio (Nat). I was a mine virgin.... had never set foot inside one before and knew next to nothing about about the whole process. I learnt so much, it was so interesting (and perhaps a little disturbing) learning about how they get to the gold, all the safety requirements, the future plans and costs (mega-gazillions of $$) and especially learning about how the 'old fella miners' did it all 100's of years ago, they must have been MAD! They're not even half way digging the declines yet, and it's amazing how hot, stuffy & humid it is down the bottom (not to mention it stinks like awful perming solution...i was having 80's flashbacks!)

At the bottom Danny took us on this very sloshy-muddy trek to find these groovy little crystals 'growing' from rocks...some mineral deposit thing that makes for quite a pretty little display of spikey 'crystals' growing upwards. Cool. We grabbed a couple to take home as souveniers (what we really wanted was some GOLD, but he was non-obliging... the crystal growths had to suffice!).

* * * * * *

Midget and I are off on a M'Bike ride this arvo. She got her 'Learners' the other day so we've been practicing riding on 'real' roads (wow). It makes life much easier - trying to get to good bush tracks without going on main roads was proving to be quite challenging, we had to sneak across a few roads in the past when we got stuck in the bush, so atleast we can do it guilt free now!

I'll report back later.

Seeya!

x

Ugh.

Oh my gawd, it's been like nearly a week since my last post. (oooh, that sounds like a confession).

I have worked a gazillion hours overtime because Nurses seem to be in HIDING and don't want to come and play with us here. It's been a nightmare trying to find any agency nurses, the whole process is exhausting - phoning, begging, emailing, more phoning, re-doing rosters, re-doing them again, 'n again, 'n again... trying to give some people a break and magically trying to cover shifts with nothing, all while you're physically and mentally exhausted yourself. Its times like this I want to be a gardener. Pottering outside all day in the sunshine with the birdies tweet'ing and the smell of freshly mowed lawn clippings. Mmmm sounds like a much better option. No poo, pus, rudeness or exhaustion. Sometimes i wonder why on earth i put myself through it. And to think the next 5 weeks I'm doing the D.O.N's job (because no other loser would take it on), that means dealing with not one, but TWO hospitals. Fuck, fuck, fuck, bum, boo, fuck, shit, bloody, crap, fuck, what was i thinking? crap, fuck, double fuck.

Ho hummmm, I just need a good sleep and some decent exercise. When I don't exercise or eat well & am tired, my brain turns to mush. After reading what i just wrote i think its pretty mushy right now.... I'm guessing about the consistency of Pal puppy food.

I'm going to bed before i make everyone miserable

xx

Big Reds

My folks rang tonight and asked if i wanted some more tomatoes sent. YEAH...course i do! My Father-bear grows the yummiest juiciest tomatoes ever, and he cutely packages them up in a post-pack box and sends them to me (They live down south in beautiful Walpole). The store-bought tomatoes are mega-dodgy (bland, floury ..blechh!) so i LOVE getting tomato-survival-packages. Dad has sent me Avocadoes, Mangoes, veges and Strawberry plants (the runners) thru the post, i swear he'd send me a bag of horse manure if he could find a post pack big enough. Surprisingly they always arrive in great condition, havent opened the parcel to find tomato-puree... yet.

* * * * * *

My exercise is going pretty good and my diet okay.

Friday morning i did a gym workout before work, 50 minutes of intervals/circuit. JB came to the gym with me - thankgod she shares my enthusiasm (a.k.a stupidity) otherwise i'd never manage to go solo to the gym at that time of the morning. It was dark when we left (5am), and dark when we came home (6am). Although i used to be a staunch daylight savings fan, now that we have it i'd rather return to the old system. It doesnt get light here until 7am and its bloody dangerous jogging early in the morning-attempting to dodge big boulders, twigs and rocks on the path (oh and beer cans, broken glass, drunk bodies etc) I have nearly stacked it a kazillion times. I need to steal a headlamp off a local miner so i can see where i'm going. Actually i might just do that...
No exercise for me yesterday, just a motorbike ride with husband which was great fun. Why is it that flying through bush tracks on red dirt and rocks is so much fun? It makes me feel like a little excited kid. I put some new stickers on my bike, they're hibiscus flowers- i bought them in Hawaii. Wayne said my bike looks like a Hawaiin shirt now. Thats not quite the look i was hoping to achieve.

* * * * * *
This morning i jogged 7km with Tan. I still haven't reached that 'i'm really enjoying this' stage, its more like 'oh my gawd... this is kiiillliiing meeee' as i struggle to the end.
It gets a bit (tiny bit) better each time i go though.

* * * * * *
I think i'm going to have to do a 12 hour shift tomorrow, our agency nurse is a no-show. Ugh.

seeya x

Stolen Cows and conspiracy theories

I had IC today :-(

JB bought me one, so it's her fault!! I was most obliging and it was GREAT!! Yummmmmy.

Maybe i can have just one a week and thats it. Yeah maybe i'll try that, just the one. Yeah and maybe pigs can fly and Emu's can iceskate. I swear they put some addictive substance in them, i know so many people who share my problem, it's the next world issue i reckon. I can see the news headlines now...

"ICED COFFEE addiction rocks the nation as Cows unable to meet milk demands"
or this ...
"Cows stolen in attempt to maintain personal milk supplies"

Its udderly crazy....hah! Get it? Udder?? haaaaaarrr.

Well apart from that hiccup i had a great day. Oats for breaky, yoghurt thingy for mid morning, half an egg roll for lunch and steak & salad for dinner.

I got home from work and felt like going for a jog (?? WTF) so I bravely (and rather stupidly given it was bloody near 40 degrees outside) set off on a solo jog for 45 mins, puff puff, not sure on the distance - have always been terrible with estimations, but it was a reasonable run.

Tonight i had dinner with a friend from work which was great... lots of girly chit chat.

I'm off for a mega early gym session in the morning with JB before my early shift, so i'd better go to bed! seey'all

xx

up, down, see-saw

I went gyming early this morning (6am) with JB! Yay for me for actually dragging this hefty arse outta bed and into my joggers. Yay yay yay. puff puff puff.

I did a 50m moderate cardio session:
5km bike
20min run/walk intervals (3:2)
200 rows
Xtrainer

Hmmm, it doesn't look impressive at all when i write it down, but hey it's a start. I am in 'D' for drive... just maybe still in 1st gear. (going uphill... with the handbrake on...and four flat tyres...)

Eats today

• Oats with protein
• hot cross bun (hmmm, not part of my 'clean diet')
• Ham & salad roll
• Cottage Pie (healthy version) fresh corn & broccoli
• Smoothie of the banana kind (slurping it as i'm writing this to avoid any bad snack attacks) 1/3 cup hilo, 1/3 banana, tspn splenda, 5 iceblocks....whiizzzzzzzzed = yum!

I also managed to go and get some groceries & the mail, cook dinner, do the dishes and some washing, have a 30minute power-nap and go to the Shire to chat to JB about council restrictions etc for the fun run! Oh, AND i spent 45 minutes recalled to work to xray some poor dudes very squashed arm. All before I started work at 1:30pm. How can I have 2 days in a row that are soooo different?? Weird.

The fun run low down:

Tan got me all enthused again the other day (I was starting to think it would be too hard to organise) & JB also sounded pretty keen and thinks the shire will be okay with closing roads and permits etc...woo hoo, it looks like our own little Leo Mothers Day Classic fun run is going to happen! Just have to wait for an official 'okay' from them.

Am off to bed, goodnite x

Monday n Tuesday

Yesterday I worked a morning shift, and despite my 'bestest' intentions i didn't gym before work because i only had 1 (yes O N E !!) hours sleep. Can you believe that?? Faaarrr out, what is wrong with me?? i never ever ever ever have problems sleeping. Never ever. But now it seems i DO, because this seems to be a current common theme. Ugh, is that because i'm getting older??
So there i was still tossing and turning in bed, despite my efforts to relax by moving to the spare room (so i didn't have to worry about keeping W up) deep breathing, reading for a while and i couldn't stop thinking about world issues... and why Brit Spears shaved her head and if the dude lost in the bush was sitting at the bottom of an old mine shaft somewhere hungry & cold, and if Target 'Country' would be getting Stella McCartney's designs in or if it would only be city shops 'n id miss out, or if I'd be able to find another 2 nurses to fill our roster next week.... blah blah... i just wanted to turn my brain OFF!
I finally decided there was no chance i was ever gonna get enough snooze to justify getting up even earlier than i already had to. (Stubby i get up at 0445 to gym before an early shift..crazy eh?!)
So thats the reason i didn't go to the gym before work.

However... I DID somehow pull enough energy out of my reserves to do a 7km run with Midget yesterday arvo! (She MADE me do it) Un-bloody-believable! I do have to fess that it was a long slow plod and the last 3km were borderline torture, but i made it! Yeehaar. I haven't done our 7km track since before Hawaii-holiday.

Eats on Monday...

oats n splenda

yoghurt cottage cheese berry thing

1/2 egg sandwich

banana

fish n veges

* * * * * *
Today has been the opposite to yesterday. I have felt like i've been hit by a TRUCK. A BIG truck. I had an afternoon shift and stayed in bed until 1100 am this morning. ugh. Then i dragged my sorry, groggy butt out of bed and tried to do something constructive... but didnt, just lounged around like a big fat potato.

Food for Today..
toast with jam , banana & coffee
Pasta & stir through sauce
yoghurt & cott cheese thingy
Exercise...zilch.

I don't feel too bad though, i have resisted chocolate and am still IC-free. Tomorrow will be a better day!

xx

Serious neck damage

Okay, the time has come to get this porker body into 'D' for DRIVE. No more eating whatever i bloody-well feel like with no thought about the consequences whatsoever. The numbers on the scales are a risin' and the jeans are feeling 'squeezy'!



Monday is the day it changes.



Here is my plan...

• I'm on a morning shift so i plan to go to the work gym before i start (too spooky to go to the town gym at that time of the morning..its daaarrk!)


• I have made my breakfast & lunch ready for tomorrow & have my gym gear all set out waiting for me!


• I have a 5kg challenge with JB so that should help my motivation

This week I plan to exercise 5 days and eat clean EVERY day!

* * * * * *

(Clair, Tan & me at the Abba night)

Last night W & i went to a Abba & Beatles' disco (i hate that word..its so primary school like). It was cool fun, not too many people though a bit of a poor effort from the town, but those that went had fun. It's always good to have a boogie with the girls, even though the DJ was gawd-nasty-awful. He played 'achy breaky heart' for goodness sake. Yikes, is that scarey or what? I obviously still found some tunes i could dance to though because after a few wines i tend to dance like a freak- throwing my head around almost in a daggy head-banger-like fashion. Hmmm, today my neck is soooo sore. I feel like i need a neck brace on to hold my head up. I swear I'll never learn.

* * * * * *

My Ma is going in to have a tumour removed from her neck/cheek area tomorrow. She's had it biopsied and its apparently benign (not cancerous) but it's wrapped around glands and nerves and makes her look like she's sucking a giant boiled lolly on that side of her mouth! She's all worried she'll get nerve damage and end up with a droopy face...drooling everywhere for the rest of her life. I'm sure she'll pull through fine. Good luck Ma, may the force be with you. *big hug*

* * * * * *

They haven't found the lost dude yet. I still reckon he's hiding out snacking on bush tucker. He's now wrecked three hot dates i had planned! Geeeeez!

xx

My Boys and a Lost Boy

Aww...all my boys. Murph, husband and Diez.
The bottom right corner of this pic is blurry because Murphy decided to come up and lick the camera a few minutes before i took the pic... i didn't realise his tongue had 'connected' with the lense, oops. He could've atleast slobbered the rest of the edges to create that professional 'fogged' look.

Husband seems to have been working 20 hour days the last 3 days... searching for some old dude who wandered off into the bush a few days ago and hasn't been seen since. We were supposed to have a hot date (?) for dinner last night but had to postpone it till tonight. I've a feeling the date will be postponed again cause they're stiiiilll searching. Theres aa awful lotta bush out there, i reckon the 'lost dude' is probably fine... most likely living it up on char-grilled kangaroo with a side of honey ant-glazed grubs all washed down with a bit of billabong-water.
On a serious note i do hope he's okay, and if he could just let someone know so i can go on my date i'd be most appreciative.

Lazy Bones

I've just been blog-surfing to keep myself amused on this very quiet last nightshift.

I'm having a sudden burst of motivation after reading lots of fit-chicks blogs... I just want to go outside and run a lap of the hospital i'm that enthused!! I'd look like a complete idiot though and i'd probably get mugged by kangaroos.

I didn't exercise today before work and i should have. NO excuse, just pure utter laziness. i'm doubly kicking myself for it after reading about everyone elses enthusiastic efforts.

Tomorrow i'm off to do more swimming when i wake up. Thats my plan & i'm sticking to it.

I got the info on the 'Womens Day Classic' fun run today. It'll take a bit of work, but with some help from a few buddy's i'm sure we'll be able to pull it off. Its on May 13, so thats 2 months to organise it.

Well i really have zero of interest to blog about today. I have THREE whole days off to look forward to now...yahoooooo!
xx

Drunk Muppets

Another day another nightshift. Every time i do nights i vow never to roster myself on them again. Its not only that it makes you feel entirely crappy, it's difficult to sort out work related issues when you sleep during the day. I'm going to have to stay up today until atleast mid morning to sort a few of those issues out... or to atleast speak to people i can handball those issues onto! Hee hee. The whole regions email is down so thats not helping one little bit. What on earth did we do before email?? It seems we now can't survive without it.

Which makes me think of these funny things... blast from the past....
Remember when:

• The grocery bags at the shops were paper and the bottom always fell out of them?
• All phones had cords
• All soft drink bottles were glass
• Milk (in glass bottles) got delivered to the front door step and we fought to lick the cream off the foil top
• There was no such thing as unleaded petrol
• Computer screens were black with green writing?
• Seatbelts werent retractable and there was no such thing as an airbag!
• You rode your bike without a helmet?
• There was no such thing as a microwave and heating up left-overs meant putting it in the oven or putting it in a pot on the stove (or eating it COLD!)
• Movies had an intermission break? (wish they had that now for a wee break)
• Smoking was allowed on aeroplanes?? Yuk.
• Suitcases didn't have wheels.

Gawd... i could continue on my nostalgic path forever.

* * * * *

I slept great again today. The pool was open for evening laps so Tan and i went. I did my program, it felt a bit hard today, took me quite a while to get into it. Tan got a calf cramp (her first ever) and was flailing around in the water like a drunk muppet, it was quite humorous! Is that a bad thing to say? I wore my Polar HR monitor in the pool and was amazed that

a) it worked in the water (Tan was sure i was going to get electrocuted!!!)

and

b) how high my HR was doing laps. What a great workout! Ahh ha...thats the reason i am sooo starving when i get out the pool! yum yum

Seeya x

Melt down

Yuk night shift again.

Today I woke up after a fantastic sleep with a whole new attitude. THANK GOD!
I have spent the last 2 weeks in a quandary...questioning a lot of things... my life, my career, my relationship, my family and friendships. You name it, I thought it over and seemed to find some reason to doubt or question it. Heck I even had trouble sleeping... laying awake stewing over the ridiculous. Eventually i had a bit of a spack attack actually and 'lost it' momentarily. Saturday i confided in a close friend and also my brother (strange as i don't usually do that... but he was really helpful) & yesterday i had a long chat to W, and today i woke feeling like that enormous Mack truck that had been sitting on my shoulders had driven off! Thank fuck for that.
Soooo, to cut a long story short I'M BACK!!! Well for today at least.

I slept like a log today, I woke at 4pm when W finished work and asked if i wanted to go to the gym with him. Initially (in a very dozy frame of mind) i said no, but then changed my mind.

I had just done 10 mins warm-up on the bike when Tan walked into the gym and we decided to go for an 'easy' airport jog. Hmmmm. Should've kept my enthusiastic rather-unfit-blubbery-self indoors because it seemed like the longest, hottest, near-bloody-death experience ever. My HR was 180+ the entire time. I'm NOT kidding. I even wanted to walk the last little bit but Tan pushed me to the end. It wasn't fun, not at all, not even a tiny bit.

I've also eaten well today... had an Orange after gym, steak and salad for dinner and i'm going to have my oats here at work in an hour or so. Gawd... my diet has been rather shite lately.

* * * *

I miss my Mum. She left on Saturday to go back home.
She's been in Leo working for 7 weeks, and it was just nice having her around. Maybe that contributed to my meltdown??

* * * *
I'm looking in to organising a Mothers day classic Fun run here in Leo. I've requested some info on organising one off the website so hopefully it'll be feasible. Its perfect timing (May) and will give me an incentive to get running.... although i'm not exactly feeling super inspired after today's effort. There aren't a huge number of runners here, but there is a 4km walking option...plus if we get towns around us to join in we should be able to make it work. its kinda exciting thinking about it.

xx

Can you believe this?? IC in a can! I bought this from a vending machine (ohhh, only if they had vending machines with IC in Oz) at the Pearl Harbour memorial in Hawaii. I was soo excited, but i have to fess it was bloody disgusting! Even W couldn't drink it...we binned it after a few sips.