Tuesday 30 September 2014

Back Running .............. Sort Of


Thank you to everyone for the condolence messages you sent.  I really appreciate them.  I am really happy that I could make my aunt's funeral and even more so that I managed to get up and speak - until the last two sentences when I sort of lost it a little and had to take a little longer than a moment to regroup and get those last two sentences out - but I did it and, for me, given how much I hate public speaking - or any speaking involving more than a group of about 5 or 6 people, I was very happy - or at least as happy as you can be at the funeral of a favourite aunt !

Going back to South Africa was an eye-opener for me as well as confirmation that, when we made the decision and left nearly 15 years ago, it was the right decision for our family.  I phoned A when we had got to where we were staying and said "If there had ever been any teeny tiny inclination about whether we made the right decision to leave - we did."  Not that there has been ANY moments when we questioned our decision but it was good to know that we had made the right decision.

I was going to post about my 4 days in SA but, out of respect for the people who still live there, I'm not.  While I loved the country when I lived there, for me, my 4 day trip was 3 days too long.  And, as much as I LOVED catching up with my 'adopted' sister and seeing friends and neighbours I haven't seen for 15-20 years, I couldn't wait to get home.  Australia is definitely my home and to those people who don't like it here, there are plenty of airports - go somewhere else - and, once you are there, maybe you will appreciate just how good we have it here.

But, back to my running.  It starts.  And stops.  And starts again.  And stops again.  And this is doing my head in.  I am a few weeks behind other ladies in our LTR group but I'm not the only one who isn't keeping up (pun intended) with everyone else.  Between the trip to SA where I thought I would go for at least 1 or 2 runs and didn't go for any, and head colds and coughs, it's not going as well as I want it to but I am committed to keep on with what I can do.  I had thought I would enter a 5km run this Sunday but, having woken up with another head cold on Saturday and, despite stuffing armmo force and cold and flu tablets down my throat, I'm still feeling yucky, I may save my $35 and enter another one after I have actually managed to keep going for 5km !!!!!!

I am loving my Garmin 220 for keeping track of what I am doing - although it would be heaps better if I could figure out exactly how it works before I start my intervals so that they are all recorded instead of only part of them being recorded !!!!  Last night I read that it could sync it to my phone so I am going to try to do that tonight - even if I don't manage to get out and run myself given I am barking worse than all the dogs in our neighbourhood put together and my chest is soooooooo sore.

I have another appointment with my hormone fairy later this week so that will be good because (a) my toche taking has been iffy at best which is probably the reason I am suffering with hot flushes, the itches and sleeping badly although, to be fair to menopause, I probably can't blame the poor sleep on it, I have been a bad sleeper for a lot longer than I have been going through menopause and (b) I have run out of medication so even on the nights I did remember to take it, I didn't have any to take.

Thankfully the renovation of the bathroom and WIR are FINISHED !!!!!  The only thing left to do in the house is - carpets in the other rooms bar the study and security screens if we decide to change those.  There is heaps that A wants to do outside but it will all depend on how much money we have available.  We think we are getting closer to finalising a builder and getting council approval for 'the little house' - I just wish there was a step by step guide somewhere about how to go about building a granny flat so we would know that before we go to council we have to get the waster management system guy in or the soil tests done etc etc.  The delays in moving forward because 'Oh, have you got XYZ or have you done ABC - no ? - oh well you need to do this or that before you come to us' is doing my head in !!!!

On that note - I am off to read other blogs joining in with Jess for #IBOT.

Have a fantastic week !

TFTD : Nobody who ever gave their very best regretted it.


Thursday 4 September 2014

Quick Post

To all those amazing people who left comments on my last post - THANK YOU !!!!!  I will try to get to answer your questions as soon as I can.

Life has got in the way of blogging and, unfortunately, after this post, life is going to get in the way again causing another lack of posts.

This evening my folks and I are flying to South Africa as my aunt died on Sunday.  While she was incredibly sick 6 years ago and spent 9 months in intensive care, she pulled through and has been doing really well.

She was admitted to hospital on Saturday with a blood infection and died early on Sunday morning.  I feel really sorry for my folks, they already had their tickets booked to go there to visit next month.  On Saturday after we got the news she had been admitted to hospital, I asked if they were going to see if they could change their tickets (without having to pay a fortune to do so) and they said they would see how she progressed.  We certainly never expected to hear that she had passed away the next day - she wasn't that sick !!!!  (or maybe that is just my brain that doesn't want to accept that she isn't here anymore.)

I am flying home on Wednesday night and my folks arrive about 10 days later.

The stresses this week of trying to get a passport renewed in quicksmart time all the while waiting to hear about funeral arrangements to ensure we get flights booked that see us arriving before the funeral has been awful.  I do want to give a whole hand of high fives to DFAT - 90mins after dropping my renewal form with them, my passport was ready.  The only thing that would have improved the service is if they had told me there was a person at the back, anxiously waiting for my paperwork to cross their desk.  Had I known that someone would pounce on my renewal and get it processed that quickly, I would have taken my folks to lunch, picked up my passport and driven back down to the coast !!

And riddle me this - why, oh why, are passport photos so awful ????????????????????????

On to happier news - my interval running is going really well.  On Tuesday night I was doing a 5min warm up, 5 x 3 min run 90 sec walk, 5 min warm down.  During the run intervals of 2, 3 and 4 - I felt like I could run forever - it was amazing.  And then I started the 5th interval and I realised that, while I would love to run forever, I still need to work a little bit harder on that.

I have packed two sets of running clothes, my runners and my Garmin because I would hate to want to run and not be able to because I don't have the right equipment !!!!  A suggested taking the charger etc for my Garmin because if my 'sister' doesn't have a 'running' watch, I could leave that with her and buy another one when I get home.  I will see what she has and whether or not she likes it.

I caught up with some beautiful people at the QT Hotel on Sunday - it was so good to meet fellow bloggers for real.  It sounds like most people had a great time at ProBlogger and certainly a lot was learned by those who attended if the tweets and FB posts are anything to go by.

I promise to be back as soon as I can !

Have the best day everyone !!

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