Exhausted. It’s been a long Sunday, top and tailed with cycle classes, and a BIG family BBQ thrown in the middle.
I was able to have my first real play with my new toy, a super-dooper-dooper digital SLR camera, taking awesome photos of the family. Still getting to know all the little settings. Can’t wait to use it on my holiday. So soon. Greece. 4 sleeps!!! A month of holiday in 4 sleeps!!!
What a fantastic morning it has been! Rode my bike to the gym before teaching a cycle class for the first time (usually I drive there) and it was great. Blood was pumping, legs were warm, adrenaline had kicked in, all before I’d started the warm up. I think the participants could tell I was buzzing, the energy through the class was great! Think I’ll do the same tomorrow morning.
Also, I just received a msg saying “thehealthyeverythingtarian is now following you on tumblr”…Really? I’m very new to the blog world and really I just write here for myself, another challenge, another way to encourage self awareness, life appreciation, etc. My partner reads this blog. A few friends too. But that’s about it.
I started reading quite a few blogs around the same time I started this one (228 days ago), mostly young American females not too disimilar from myself…but never really expected to actually connect with them.
So Holly, if you’re reading this - Hi from Sydney Australia! Thanks for reaching out. You’ve made my day!
Everyone else (all three or four of you), check out Holly’s blog: http://www.thehealthyeverythingtarian.com/
Day 225: I attended a surprise birthday dinner in Haberfield, a little part of Sydney I had not visited before. Can’t say I’d return to the same restaurant, but I did like the little strip of shops, I would visit the suburb again.
Day 226:Caught up for a coffee with an American friend and discovered the absolute extreme anxiety provoking procedures around VISA applications, extensions, temporary bridges. She has 8 weeks left on her current VISA and her manager is only now starting to take the need for action seriously. You know, it only impacts anything and everything that she does in her future life, no biggie…(!!!), not to mention she’s currently delivering university courses that she will need to walk out of halfway through semester if she doesn’t get approval in time - sorry about that students, it’s not like you’re wracking up a massive debt to pay for these courses so you’d expect a basic level of service or anything…(!!!).
Day 227: Speaking of students wracking up debt, I just discovered a new “Student Services and Amenities Fee” that came into a effect for the first time this semester. No announcement has been made to the students about this, the charge just pops up on their accounts and then they have to uncover what it is attached to (i.e. email me and ask WTF is going on). How embarrassing, such poor communication.
Damn you blog world..you baffle me. My posts from weeks ago are being published late despite showing in the correct publishing order on my dashboard…grrrr…I hate it when people, or technology in this case, make me look incompetent and I haven’t been. Don’t get me wrong, if I stuff up I’ll own it, but if I haven’t made a mistake and it looks like I have I get a bit defensive.
Anyway…
Day 222: I had a sore shoulder on Sunday morning, so instead of my usual 45 min total body resistance training prior to my cycle class I decided to do 45 mins legs only…it was only as I was hobbling down the stairs to the cycle studio to get ready to teach my class that it occurred to me that doing such intense leg training before teaching isn’t such a smart idea - don’t do again.
Day 223: I taught my regular morning and afternoon cycle classes and had great numbers in both (35 and 40) which was awesome. Had my group fitness coordinator tell me I was too fat to teach body attack which was less awesome. Got an extra day of leave approved for my trip to Greece because my flights had changed, again awesome. Had to deal with manager giving me cold disapproving looks and making tut-tut noises to get that extra day of leave approved, again less awesome. So this day was all about taking the good with the bad…and then just trying to focus on the good.
Day 224: Anyone who knows about delayed onset muscle soreness knows that I am in a world of pain today (refer to Day 222 above). In other news, channel 10 are about to launch a new TV reality show called ‘The Shire’ modeled on the US hit ‘Jersey Shore’. Seriously, it says so right here. Chief programming officer David Mott says “”The Shire is a glimpse behind the curtain into the heart of Australia as you have never seen it before.” Good god! The Sutherland Shire is the heart of Australia?!?!?!? AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Get me out of here! I’m moving to Canada! Thank goodness I don’t have TV reception anymore.
I think I’m getting old…
I have been dealing with various companies today, not sure if it’s a bad day, but the there is some seriously unprofessional people out there, representing big brands, making their businesses look ridiculous with very poor communication and/or business practices…I’m embarrassed for them.
The day when I’m not the green, fresh faced, naive employee, feeling my way around the business world trying to get things right, and instead I am the one counselling an external colleague about the appropriate way to approach the university about asking for assistance with research, how to structure a request and the various considerations about dealing with sensitive information…is the day when it is clear that I have become old.
I welcome the new young players in workforce…please call me back after you have picked up some basic business etiquette.
Day 207: Experienced some fine dining time at a fabulous Japanese restaurant called Sake with some very dear friends so that we could catch up and talk/dream about fun times ahead in Greece together. I am a bit of a scrooge so I don’t do fine dining often, but I always remember the first mouthful when I suddenly realise the taste that is associated with the cost…damn it’s good.
Day 208: Hosted a Sunday family dinner at our little pad out on the back deck. Thankfully the pergola sheltered everyone from the pouring rain, but only just! Nine of us were crowded around a table for 6. My partner’s mother is over from Greece for a while so she is queen of the kitchen. She of course felt it was necessary to cater for a small army, so there was food, so much food, and drinks, and smells, and plates, and sauces, and oil, and salt, and cinnamon, and bodies everywhere! I mostly tried to keep out of the way, but kept an eye out over her shoulder, learning the basics for making dolmadakia, stuffed zucchini flowers and loukoumades.
Day 209: Attended my first “budget meeting”. Conclusion: Budgets are boring. Particularly on a Monday. Unless the money is being directed into my bank account…which it is not, hence the boring-ness.
Gelato cake is awesome!
Went to a one year old’s birthday party today and tried gelato cake for the first time. At first it looked like 40 gelato cones stuck together but once it was sliced open you could see it was actually just solid gelato through and through. Yum.
Today, a lesson in famous German animals…
In 2006 there was Knut, a polar bear who was born in captivity at the Berlin Zoological Garden. Rejected by his mother at birth, he was raised by zookeepers. He was the first polar bear cub to survive past infancy at the Berlin Zoo in more than 30 years. Controversy surrounded the baby bear as animal rights activists argued the bear should have died after his mother’s rejection as would happen in nature. But the Berlin Zoo rallied in support of the baby polar bear, vowing not to harm him and rejecting the suggestion that it would be kinder to euthanise him. The publicity from media coverage of this case quickly raised Knut’s profile from national to international - a furry white star was born! Sadly, on 19 March 2011, Knut unexpectedly died at the age of four. His death was caused by drowning after he collapsed into his enclosure’s pool while suffering from encephalitis
In 2010 there was Paul, the prognosticating octopus, an eight legged oracle, enthralled millions of people by correctly predicting the outcome of eight World Cup matches. Paul’s caretakers would drape boxes in his tank with the national flags of teams that were set to play. The boxes contained octopus food, and the humans watched to see which box Paul would open first. He died of “natural causes” a few months later…one has to wonder whether the stress of his recent job had taken its toll.
And now Til, the very cute earless bunny. Check the little guy out HERE. Sadly, only 17 day old, Til’s life was brought to an abrupt end when a cameraman, who was filming a story on the unique bunny with a genetic defect, accidentally stepped on him…poor bunny.
So it turns out I get irrationally irritated when people use the word “literally” to emphasise something in their statement when they infact mean quite the opposite of the literal meaning. Mistaking their/there/they’re is annoying, but you know that it’s just a matter of spelling…using literally for emphasis is using a random word without knowing its meaning.
Today’s example: I’m standing in a line for lunch and the girl infront of me tells her friend ”she is literally in another world”. I don’t know this girl, I don’t know who she’s talking about, but I’m prepared to make a hefty wager that the person she is speaking about is not literally in another world….it continues… ”She is, like, literally over the moon” - no she’s fucking not!
I did start by saying this was an irrationally irritated reaction…it shouldn’t bother me this much…but it turns out it does.
A photo of my partner and I made the social “out and about” pages of the Tasmanian Mercury Newspaper today (does that give me E-grade celebrity status?)…so I’ve been told, I haven’t seen the paper myself, but I’m getting a copy delivered soon.
