Hanging with Lily

The plovers are angry.

Angry that this little grass-eating monster has invaded their space.

And me, of course, they're very upset about me.

It's quite a monster of a small dog that I've got here.  (and a terrible picture of me, but the sun was bright, and Lily is cute)

We're just out at the back of the complex, and like I said, the plovers are going crazy, fake-swooping in our general direction.  

And there's loads of space, so we're happy to share.

I think the small dog would spend the entire afternoon out here if I let her ! 

At the weekend, Kurt and I are going to Caloundra, where we got married, for our wedding anniversary.

Lily is going to stay with Kurt's parents on Bribie Island, which will be nice for her - I'm not sure whether it'll be nice for them...

This lying outside in the sun while the small dog plays is good.  I should do this more often.  (sans plovers). 

The RTCC

It was so cold this morning.

Wisely, I opted to wear my overcoat (from Ireland) rather than just a hoody, or maybe I could have died.  You never know.

Mind you, there were about a thousand cyclists wearing various combinations of very little, unless you include Lycra, of which there was a mind-numbing amount.

Maybe it's because I'm not involved in the sport, but I do struggle to understand the attraction of all this skin tight shiny madness.  I understand the reasoning behind the shaved legs (I've been told, so I know) and I understand the padded underside (I get sore on even a short ride) and I guess I understand that baggy clothing would cause more drag, but... it's all a little much to comprehend when you put it all together.

Anyway, where was I?  Oh yes, it was so very cold.  So so very cold that I felt like every one of my muscles was clenched together causing everything to get stiff and sore and OMG how much longer ????

Kurt looking positive and excited despite the conditions

Moving on from Lycra, the next thing I don't understand is why you have to turn up for an event 2 hours before it's actually going to start.  We arrived just after five, and "kick-off" wasn't until seven.  Apparently you "had" to be there by six or else, but nothing magically happened at six.  Nobody said "that's it, folks!  If you're not here, stay out, the gates are closing".

And I'm not saying that Kurt made it up - not at all, it said so on the website.  It said be there, or just don't come, or something like that, and one of Kurt's Very Experienced Cycling Friends said "I'll be there at five" and that just compounded the urgency of we must, or we will miss out.

Folks, I don't think we would have missed out.  Even I, the wise one, thought that we left at a sensible time, given the website's Decree, and the friend's Opinion.

Also, given that there were no gates, it was a bit of a free for all.  One of Kurt's cycling mates turned up, telling me "oh, I'm not doing the ride, I'm just going to join in for the first twenty k or so".  Okaaay then.  And the organisers didn't seem to mind.  Which begs the question, if anyone could turn up, and at any time, why, o why, did we have to be there so early when it was so bloody cold???!!!

My lovely husband wisely chose to wear sweatpants and a hoody over his sexy lycra, which made him somewhat warmer, although the bare feet and thongs (flip-flops, people, keep your minds out of the gutter) rather spoilt the "keeping warm" effect.  He did elect to wear socks for the ride, thank goodness.

Unfortunately, having pondered the meaning of life for the last few days, he decided to pack his leg-warmers and arm-warmers and wind-breaker and gloves into his bag for day 2 (forecast to be colder) which was then packed onto a coach to be delivered to where they camp tonight.  We didn't realise just how cold it was going to be this morning.  Did I mention how cold it actually was?

Okay, it probably wasn't colder than about seven degrees, but that's pretty cold, for two hours, especially (and I can't complain, I had an overcoat, like I said) when you have to strip down to 100% lycra short-sleeved cycling jersey and knicks.  Maybe the socks helped?

Someone told Kurt that the RTCC was super super organised.  They're so organised, Someone said, so much more organised than other rides.

For instance, when dropping the bag off, all of the trucks had coloured dots on them.  All you have to do is match the dot on your wrist band to the dot on the truck, and voila!  See?  We're organised.  Except that Kurt's wrist band had three dots on it.  Pink, green and black, and there was a pink truck, and a black truck (I guess the green truck didn't make it?) and he was in Tent Zone C and oh dear, the purple truck said Zone C on it...  Eventually we went with the purple truck, for want of a better idea - at least he knows which truck it's in !  (This issue came up again at the start line, where you were directed into Zones to start - blue, black or pink.  Whoopsie, same issue, folks!

After breakfast (supplied by the Ride, which was nice) Kurt had to go down to his Zone for start, and I went and stood on the nearby roundabout to watch him go past.  Half an hour later after interminable talking (did they not know it was cold?) they were off.  I tried to take a picture but was unable to distinguish him amongst the hoard of lycra-clad helmet-wearing blue-jerseyed cyclists.

They were through at 07:02, at 09:14 he messaged at the 40k mark, and at 11:11 after 66k he stopped for lunch... so I presume it won't be too much longer until day 1 is complete!

And then he has to camp in the very-very cold - I do hope he is warm enough with the stuff he brought.  And I went home to eat leftover Chinese Takeaway for breakfast, feed Lily and then go back to bed :)

Tomorrow, another 100k to the Finish Line, where hopefully I will be waving and cheering him on :)  

In hospital

Isn't she the cutest?

She was admitted yesterday due to dehydration and has been on an IV since then - hence the pink leg, it's not broken, I promise!

Hopefully I get to pick her up in an hour - I really miss having her here, it is so weird walking past her empty crate.

Sick puppy

I took this naughty little thing to the dog park this morning with H and her chocolate labrador puppy, Milo.

Milo is recovering well from his recent spinal surgery, but still not 100% so Lily  was easily able to run circles around her.

Sadly, though, shortly after arriving home, Lily started vomiting, and ever since then has been a rather sad small dog.  I took her to the emergency vet (it's a public holiday) and they gave her some medicine, but she is very definitely unhappy and is refusing to eat and drink.

(picture of a sad puppy)

If she's not happier in the morning, it's back to the vet with the small dog!

She is not usually a loud or whingy dog but she has been whining and crying a lot since we got home :(

I think I forgot how much I enjoyed running.

Today we did a 10k run (Southern Cross University 10k, part of the Gold Coast Marathon) down the Gold Coast, which involved waking up at 0330 to drive down there, having to be there at 0530 for a 0630 start.  I’m not quite sure why we had to be there an hour early – there was nothing to do except freeze – but I guess it avoided the chaos there was by the time the race started.

It didn’t take long to defrost once we started running.  We chose a comfortable pace of six and a half minute kilometres and got underway.

Having run 5k on Wednesday, and struggled to complete – at six minute kilometres, I was really surprised how much easier the extra thirty seconds was!

Other than a few niggles along the way, I found it quite a pleasant run – so pleasant in fact that it has reinforce my goal of running three times a week from now on. 

I’m still tired, obviously.  My legs are aching and I’m beginning to stiffen up a little (I didn’t really train for this), but I feel good.   I feel like I accomplished something today.  We both finished with a time of 1:04:23 which we are both very happy with!

Our next goal is the Bridge to Brisbane 10k run on 30 August, which I aim to do in an hour – and Kurt wants to run a marathon – so we will keep training! 

It will take awhile – but I am determined to get fit!

Especially as they give us a t-shirt every time we run - this way I'll never need to go shopping again.

All of the colours are for all of the people

I met a little girl today.

I was sitting in the shopping centre, reading my book, when an old lady sat down beside me, a little girl sitting at her feet.

She proceeded to put on shiny Spiderman trainers, and the grandmother looked at me knowingly.

"It's her birthday," she said.  "So she gets to choose whatever she wants - and she chose Spiderman shoes.  She's a girl."

I smiled at them.  "I think they're very nice shoes," I replied - and to the girl: "I think you made a very good choice."

The grandmother tutted.  She reached for the glittery sandals the girl had been wearing, saying: "Here, give me your girly shoes."

And the little girl looked at me, almost anxiously, so I added "Spiderman is definitely for girls too, I think they're lovely."

It reminded me a lot of this post:

http://bethwoolsey.com/2013/09/im-ecstatic-schools-starting-except-when-im-not/

almost at the end.

Because, all of the colours are for all of the people, and Spiderman shoes are for boys and for girls, and indeed, for anyone who chooses to like them.

I mean, I'm a girl, and I fly aeroplanes, so there.

It's done!

Apparently, I haven't been blogging.  Don't you know that it's not always that easy?  Strangely, I haven't even wanted to blog.  Once or twice I've considered it and then come to the conclusion that I just can't be bothered.

There's been a lot of that lately.  The whole training for command thing sort of took over my universe, and pretty much everything got put on the back burner.  Even things that technically I had time for haven't been done because, I was doing my command so NOTHING CAN BE DONE, FOLKS!  

And now that's over.

I'm not training for my command any more.  I'm finished.  Done.  Dusted.  And I feel like I never want to study for anything again ever in my life.  My whole life.  NEVER.  Of course, I am well aware that I've only just started, that I need to consolidate, and keep looking at the books!

However, not today.  Today, I'm all finished training for my command, and I can go on Facebook (which I did anyway) without guilt because no, I shouldn't be doing anything else.  This apartment does not need to be cleaned today (it does, but it won't be).   Priorities, folks, and let's face it, nothing productive is high on that list.

Actually, I couldn't clean the apartment even if I tried, because I am in Rockhampton.  Today was my first day officially flying as a captain, and despite my pre-flight jitters, it went really smoothly and I had a good day.  

I managed to land the aircraft safely, three times, and came away from the duty with no aircraft faults, no weather dilemmas, and no reports to be filed - and, most importantly, in one piece!

And that, as they say, is that!