So after many months of numbing my brain meats with 9 - 5 monkey work I am back at uni. Aw Yeah! The first week of uni is sweet, before the hard work and the deadlines and the stress actually kick in it's all free time and sunshine.
Today started with a breakfast burrito and Invader Zim. I also got in a 8.5km bike ride. I don't ride much, and I gotta say it was a struggle. But I made it and returned home tomato faced and panting but triumphant. And with four new nail polish colours to show for it. Why yes, I did have to bribe myself with gifts to get myself on the bike, but it did work...
I'm now off to get my hair done (I plan to ride there as well bringing me up to 13km for the day. oh yeah.) before I sit down for the night with pyjamas and the masses of readings I neglected in order to have this neat day. And tea... many cups of tea...
Life is good!
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Spring
Spring has been thawing my bones for a while now. It is simultaneously filling me full of enthusiasm whilst sapping away equal amounts of enthusiasm for sitting behind a computer and doing the study.
I allowed the garden to distract me long enough to document some of my spring garden. Mine because I live amidst it, not because I have any hand in it.
The very productive lemon tree.
Sweet little broad bean blossoms. Last season we had masses of beans but no recipes for them and alas they went to waste. I am intent to find ways to eat them this time around.
I think these guys are bluebells. more beans in the background.
It's so very hard to drag myself out of the perfect sunbeams and back to my masses of dark looming deadlines. I am thinking happy thoughts of warm nights, sangria and lashings of free time being little more than a month away.
I allowed the garden to distract me long enough to document some of my spring garden. Mine because I live amidst it, not because I have any hand in it.
The very productive lemon tree.
Sweet little broad bean blossoms. Last season we had masses of beans but no recipes for them and alas they went to waste. I am intent to find ways to eat them this time around.
I think these guys are bluebells. more beans in the background.
It's so very hard to drag myself out of the perfect sunbeams and back to my masses of dark looming deadlines. I am thinking happy thoughts of warm nights, sangria and lashings of free time being little more than a month away.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Almost there
Two exams down and two more to go...
Snacks
I find that I snack more during exams. Does that happen for everyone, or just me? Some of my snacks have been healthy options, mandarins are a great snack fruit, they come in their own wrapper and are already in bite sized portions AND they happen to be in season at the moment and so cheap and delicious to boot.
But I have been having lots of low nutritional value high salt, sugar, fat etc snacks as well. This exam period the snack of choice has been honey joys.
Reminiscent of childhood parties, these babies take about as long to cook a batch as it takes to eat (a batch).
Gym
Luckily I have been finding time to drag myself to the gym. Whilst there is no chance it balances out my compulsive snacking I'm sure it's better than nothing.... right? RIGHT??
Last weekend I tried the boxing class at my gym. OMG! It's now Tuesday and most of the pain has gone away. I might have to try and make it a regular dealio, except on weeks where I may need to be able to lift my arms on the following few day...
The class really brought home how rubbish my lungs are. I was tomato faced and panting by halfway through the class.
It also brought my diminishing flexibility to my attention. It seems someone hasn't been stretching as much as she should... Any suggestions of a yoga routine to start the day with?
Letters
Have I ever mentioned how much I love receiving mail? I used to have a pen pal, but when he got released from prison *cough* he stopped writing. I guess he had some competing priorities what with having a life and all... le sigh.
Today I got my first letter from a new pen pal who is the cousin of one of my friends. I am so very excited. I can't wait for my last two exams to be over so I can write my response on my awesome letter writing paper and send it off.
Snacks
I find that I snack more during exams. Does that happen for everyone, or just me? Some of my snacks have been healthy options, mandarins are a great snack fruit, they come in their own wrapper and are already in bite sized portions AND they happen to be in season at the moment and so cheap and delicious to boot.
But I have been having lots of low nutritional value high salt, sugar, fat etc snacks as well. This exam period the snack of choice has been honey joys.
Reminiscent of childhood parties, these babies take about as long to cook a batch as it takes to eat (a batch).
Gym
Luckily I have been finding time to drag myself to the gym. Whilst there is no chance it balances out my compulsive snacking I'm sure it's better than nothing.... right? RIGHT??
Last weekend I tried the boxing class at my gym. OMG! It's now Tuesday and most of the pain has gone away. I might have to try and make it a regular dealio, except on weeks where I may need to be able to lift my arms on the following few day...
The class really brought home how rubbish my lungs are. I was tomato faced and panting by halfway through the class.
It also brought my diminishing flexibility to my attention. It seems someone hasn't been stretching as much as she should... Any suggestions of a yoga routine to start the day with?
Letters
Have I ever mentioned how much I love receiving mail? I used to have a pen pal, but when he got released from prison *cough* he stopped writing. I guess he had some competing priorities what with having a life and all... le sigh.
Today I got my first letter from a new pen pal who is the cousin of one of my friends. I am so very excited. I can't wait for my last two exams to be over so I can write my response on my awesome letter writing paper and send it off.
Monday, June 6, 2011
study blues
It's about this time of the year (days before my first exam) that it really hits home how slack I am and how much time I waste throughout the year.
Even in the last few weeks while I have been in 'exam lockdown' I have watched two seasons of house (which whilst a fantastic show is not very helpful for my exams), read the archives of a number of webcomics and managed to do a few social activities a week. I still have not completed my notes for my first exam which is in three days. Eek.
I would like to say that soon it will be a start of a new semester and with it comes a new opportunity to apply myself and manage my time wisely... but will I actually make use of it or will I be in this exact same position at the end of next semester?
It makes me wonder if I am just so incredibly lazy that I can't pick up a text book for most of the year or if I am getting some kind of psychological 'advantage' by putting myself in a position where I will stress and be in fear (or come very close) to failure.
Even in the last few weeks while I have been in 'exam lockdown' I have watched two seasons of house (which whilst a fantastic show is not very helpful for my exams), read the archives of a number of webcomics and managed to do a few social activities a week. I still have not completed my notes for my first exam which is in three days. Eek.
I would like to say that soon it will be a start of a new semester and with it comes a new opportunity to apply myself and manage my time wisely... but will I actually make use of it or will I be in this exact same position at the end of next semester?
It makes me wonder if I am just so incredibly lazy that I can't pick up a text book for most of the year or if I am getting some kind of psychological 'advantage' by putting myself in a position where I will stress and be in fear (or come very close) to failure.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Exam Lockdown
The time has come the walrus said to talk of many things...well actually the time has come to regurgitate all of the knowledge I have managed to retain from this semester of 'study'. So at the moment there is little time to do much other than cram.
I have ambitious plans for what little break I have between semesters, plans which I am trying not to distract myself with at the moment. See you then.
I have ambitious plans for what little break I have between semesters, plans which I am trying not to distract myself with at the moment. See you then.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
The tea is a-brewing in it's pot, the biscuits are fresh from the oven, sounds like it's time to catch up...
Well hello there. How are you? Sorry for my absence. It seems lots of things have been happening but not much forward motion in the goals department, I haven't even stepped on the scales since we last spoke... but I have been doing other things, crafty things! So lets talk about them shall we?
...And I stepped onto the scales for you my dear, so we can talk about that later too I guess...
Jam
I have a feijoa/pineapple guava tree in my front yard. It's been there about as long as we have lived here which is around 23 years, but we generally forget it exists. But this year for some reason it was making it's presence known and we have been collecting and eating its weird delicious fruit the whole time it has been producing it.
Now every year about Easter time the season finishes and it drops its green oval shaped fruit (which is great for hiding green oval shaped Easter eggs) This year we decided to do something with them. So Nani and I made them into Jam. Neither of us had ever made jam before so it was a bit of an adventure, but it turned out perfectly. It is delicious and jelled/set/whatever you call that thing that Jam does (jammed?) perfectly. We are both pretty proud of ourselves.
Walkies
After the eater gluttony my brother, Nani and enjoyed the perfect weather and I went for a walk around Kakarook Park, a big arsed water filtering wildlife filled park. Even though it's 10 minutes drive from my house I had never been there before.
We walked, talked rubbish and took some photos. Here are some friendly little fungi we met:
Health stuff
When I decided to write this post this morning I also decided to brave the scales. It came as a great, and pleasant surprise to see that they haven't moved. I haven't put on or lost any weight in my time off.
I am working my way back into the gym habit. To help me out Nani and I have made a pact that we can choose to either eat sweets and go to the gym or to do neither on any day. And let me just tell you, Nani is doing great. I on the other hand have been doing nothing. To be completely brutally honest, and I am amongst friends so why not, I bought 10 chocolate elegant rabbits. I will eat well all day and then not go to the gym, then the sun will go down, the heater and the pajamas will go on and then THE RABBIT WILL COME OUT!!! They are irresistible!
But I am getting myself to the gym on occasion (on three occasions so far this week) and other than the legion of chocolate bunnies I am starting to eat better again.
So I have a few more little crafty projects I have been up to to fill you in on, but I will save that for next time.
...And I stepped onto the scales for you my dear, so we can talk about that later too I guess...
Jam
I have a feijoa/pineapple guava tree in my front yard. It's been there about as long as we have lived here which is around 23 years, but we generally forget it exists. But this year for some reason it was making it's presence known and we have been collecting and eating its weird delicious fruit the whole time it has been producing it.
Now every year about Easter time the season finishes and it drops its green oval shaped fruit (which is great for hiding green oval shaped Easter eggs) This year we decided to do something with them. So Nani and I made them into Jam. Neither of us had ever made jam before so it was a bit of an adventure, but it turned out perfectly. It is delicious and jelled/set/whatever you call that thing that Jam does (jammed?) perfectly. We are both pretty proud of ourselves.
Walkies
After the eater gluttony my brother, Nani and enjoyed the perfect weather and I went for a walk around Kakarook Park, a big arsed water filtering wildlife filled park. Even though it's 10 minutes drive from my house I had never been there before.
We walked, talked rubbish and took some photos. Here are some friendly little fungi we met:
Health stuff
When I decided to write this post this morning I also decided to brave the scales. It came as a great, and pleasant surprise to see that they haven't moved. I haven't put on or lost any weight in my time off.
I am working my way back into the gym habit. To help me out Nani and I have made a pact that we can choose to either eat sweets and go to the gym or to do neither on any day. And let me just tell you, Nani is doing great. I on the other hand have been doing nothing. To be completely brutally honest, and I am amongst friends so why not, I bought 10 chocolate elegant rabbits. I will eat well all day and then not go to the gym, then the sun will go down, the heater and the pajamas will go on and then THE RABBIT WILL COME OUT!!! They are irresistible!
But I am getting myself to the gym on occasion (on three occasions so far this week) and other than the legion of chocolate bunnies I am starting to eat better again.
So I have a few more little crafty projects I have been up to to fill you in on, but I will save that for next time.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Life gets in the way
For the last few weeks some things in my life have been derailing my efforts at change and leaving me a doona coated blob on the couch. So I thought today to ease back into it and because I have hit the exciting milestone of having filled out my entire program card, I might have a look at my progress so far.
Weight
I love graphs. Here is my weight so far...this graph I love a little less than usual. It’s reassuring to see that even though it fluctuates I am actually getting lighter, or was until life happened. Now to get over this slump that is undoing all my hard work, get back into the gym and off the chocolate biscuits.
Cardio
I haven’t made much mention of my poor old deflated lungs since my initial posts. One reason was that I couldn’t think of any way to actually measure any improvement if indeed any was there to be measured.
Whilst I toyed with adding a peak flow meter to my collection of medical paraphernalia (I did get a suture kit today though. Score!) I decided for now to look at my times/distances on the paltry amount of cardio I do.
I was going to make some more pretty graphs, but my confidence in my cardio performance turned out to be premature. So I have some unpretty figures instead.
Rower: My limited amount of cardio involves two, two minute sets on the rower. On my first session I could only get 363 meters in the two minutes, my best result is currently 440meters.
X-trainer : I also do two sets on the cross trainer, this time for 500meters. My initial time, well the first one I recorded was 3.57mins, my best time2.55mins.
So the progress so far is scant. Time to up my weights, down the junk food... that is put down, not down my throat... and get this caboose into action.
Weight
I love graphs. Here is my weight so far...this graph I love a little less than usual. It’s reassuring to see that even though it fluctuates I am actually getting lighter, or was until life happened. Now to get over this slump that is undoing all my hard work, get back into the gym and off the chocolate biscuits.
Cardio
I haven’t made much mention of my poor old deflated lungs since my initial posts. One reason was that I couldn’t think of any way to actually measure any improvement if indeed any was there to be measured.
Whilst I toyed with adding a peak flow meter to my collection of medical paraphernalia (I did get a suture kit today though. Score!) I decided for now to look at my times/distances on the paltry amount of cardio I do.
I was going to make some more pretty graphs, but my confidence in my cardio performance turned out to be premature. So I have some unpretty figures instead.
Rower: My limited amount of cardio involves two, two minute sets on the rower. On my first session I could only get 363 meters in the two minutes, my best result is currently 440meters.
X-trainer : I also do two sets on the cross trainer, this time for 500meters. My initial time, well the first one I recorded was 3.57mins, my best time2.55mins.
So the progress so far is scant. Time to up my weights, down the junk food... that is put down, not down my throat... and get this caboose into action.
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