Eating live frogs

Wednesday:

Yesterday I finally got five stars on all the original dances for Just Dance 4! Achievement unlocked - Megastar! I bought myself a new charm, a little owl.

I'd been faffing around doing this and that, and read a blog post about how if you eat a live frog first thing in the morning nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day; it was about how procrastination drains energy but if you just eat the damn frog first thing then you'll get a sense of achievement and momentum. I identified my two frogs as exercise and editing (my paid freelance work). I don't hate either of those things, but they are what I procrastinate over. 'Cause I need to read my blog feed. And have a cup of tea. And put on a load of washing. And check how my iPhone virtual farm is going. And read my emails. And I'm sure something else needs doing before I settle down to work.

But I decided to buckle down and get my exercise done for the day and the result was flying through the last few dances: ones that I had only done once or maybe twice and hadn't achieved five stars in yet. Six of them crushed under my dancing heel in less than an hour. And I did indeed feel good.

I had two days of eating beautifully until last night's D&D supper when I had quite a few chips (even though I didn't like any of the three flavours people had brought, I ate them anyway) and some chocolate biscuits. Certainly not a full-blown binge, and straight back onto healthy food this morning.

I had a frustrating (first world problem alert!) morning today; it's my husband's birthday tomorrow and the kids finally decided what they wanted to give him so I set out to do some last minute shopping. But one thing was sold out and I couldn't find it anywhere. Then I did the grocery shopping and went to buy this yoghurt that I have found that I don't actually hate, and they didn't have any. And I asked, and they don't stock it anymore! It was only a couple of weeks ago that the shelves were empty of my breakfast cereal and I was told they don't make that anymore. I went to four shops but no one had any left. Now the yoghurt. Arg! I grabbed a couple of other brands to try, but they are the much higher fat Greek style. I just want plain unflavoured yoghurt to stir my fruit into.

So in a slightly put-upon mood I went to buy the birthday cake my husband asked for. And the shop wasn't there. Whole shop, just gone. Like one of those shops that sell you a weird magical harp or something and are gone when you try to return it the next day after playing it sent you into a fantasy land where everything tried to eat you.

At this point I realised I had exactly 10 minutes to drive home, put the perishable shopping in the fridge, change my shirt as the day had warmed up, pee (I'd needed to go for about an hour now), and have lunch before having to go out again. Dashed home, ate tuna straight out of a can and back out to pick up my husband from his work, watch my son's school assembly (his class sang and he also read his one-paragraph essay about why he loves Canberra), drive my husband back to his work, and then try a different set of shops in the city.

Present successfully found and purchased, I tried a supermarket to see if they had my yogurt. No luck there, but I checked the cereal aisle and what do you know; right up on top of the highest shelf -- where they put the spare stuff that won't fit -- I could see three boxes of my cereal. Possibly the last three in existence. But getting them was no easy matter, I am 5 foot tall (152 cm) and the boxes were way out of my reach. I could have gone and found help, and would have if needed, but thought I would try on my own. First I grabbed a clothes brush from a nearby display, still in its cardboard and plastic packaging, climbed onto the lowest shelf and held on to a sturdy post with my free hand, and used the clothes brush to swipe the first two boxes down onto the floor (somewhat to the surprise of a passer-by, but luckily I didn't brain her). The last box lurked up the back, too far even with my extended reach. I looked around some more and voila! A set of BBQ tongs! Luckily the packaging didn't stop me being able to open and close them. Back into my precarious position on the shelf, long reach with the tongs (careful not to push to box further back) and got it! Talk about sense of achievement.

So I have three boxes of cereal, with a use-by date in three months. I had a serve for afternoon tea when I got home, hungry after my inadequate lunch. Yummy.

While still in the shopping centre, I went to the duplicate of the other cake shop (it's a franchise or chain). Or tried to. Also disappeared. It's a conspiracy. So I had to get a different cake somewhere else. I should have just made one, but my husband wanted a particular type that I don't have a recipe for. Anyway, hopefully this one will be nice, we've had good things from that shop before.

I was glad to pick up the kids, get home, and relax. No exercise or editing today, but very busy all the same.