Floriade

Wednesday:

Today we went to Floriade, Canberra's annual spring flower/bulb festival. It seemed to be mainly tulips this year with pansies underneath, I don't think I saw any iris or hyacinths. Maybe those are already over as we are in the third week. It was pretty, if a little dull after the ninety-third field. Maybe I've been going too many years.

They had a huge mirror set up so that when the kids lay on the painting of a building, it looked like they were climbing up a vertical wall (here you can see both the reality and the reflection).

The baby animal petting zoo had already left this year as they are only there the first two weeks, but we went through the reptile petting zoo that replaced it and patted some lizards. One handler was holding a big lace monitor (very large lizard that likes to steal eggs from farmers, and probably the chickens too if it can catch them) and his arms were all scratched and bleeding from its claws as it climbed him like a tree.

Floriade also has an area with lots of stalls selling garden tools, mugs with pictures of tulips, floral scented soaps, lunch items, and bottles of water for $4.50. We always go around and taste test whatever food is on offer - some Indian butter chicken, chocolate fudge, herbal teas (Jasmine loves those for some reason), hot chilli sauces (Aiden's favourite), sugar-crusted almonds etc. I generally buy something each visit to justify all the free tasting, this time some mint rocky road.

We walked around slowly for about two hours.

We've been having more problems with our old car (which the kids decided to name "Nugget" because it is a gold colour and the word sounds funny when you say it, the new red car is called "Titan") and I took it back to the people that fixed it last week. I haven't driven it since then except to get it home and to move it a couple of times out of the way of Titan, but it was already making horrible noises again.

Getting home from the repair shop after dropping the car off this afternoon meant more walking (kids with their scooters) so I am feeling pretty tired. Lots of exercise today, but also too much sugar. It was a really warm sunny day, nice to get out in the spring sunshine. We put sunscreen on our faces and had long sleeves on, but I am feeling suspiciously warm around the back of the neck. I'll have to start being vigilant about that now that the weather has turned.

I've been having weird anxiety dreams, like I'd lost the new car, or when I couldn't remember if Tim and I were divorced or not! Everything with the new house is going smoothly - contracts exchanged, finance arranged etc, but we still have to sell this house. The auction is next week. If it doesn't sell straight away we'll be carrying a big debt until it does. The market has suddenly gone a bit quiet, in Sydney at least don't know about here. You'll remember we had to chose between three houses we liked, well the other two are still on the market. One is asking for offers, the other was up for auction last Saturday but didn't sell. So I hope the market is still strong here in Canberra!

I said a couple of weeks ago that Australia's version of Biggest Loser was pretty benign, well I have to take that back. They have temptation again (10 out 14 contestants ate junk), lots of drama between family members, and the show seems to be doing its best to create more conflict by making all the rewards controversial; for example instead of winning a 2 kg benefit for your team at the weigh-in you have to give a 2 kg penalty to another team. Of course this creates bad feeling. Clearly the producers think that seeing success stories of people conquering their demons and losing weight isn't enough. It is disappointing. I'm still watching it though.

Floriade Mk4

Saturday:

I had a good day today. Everyone else took the kids to their swimming lesson this morning so I had the house to myself for a little while, then we had a nice lunch and off to Floriade.

We found a dinosaur ...

And a mutant tulip with one stem but lots of flowers ...

And some pretty pansies ...

And walked 5 km during the 2.5 hours. It was a very warm sunny day, I was wishing I'd worn shorts instead of jeans.

When we got home I made dinner while everyone else had a nap or played on the computer, and now I am exhausted! But it was an enjoyable day. I've mostly been able to avoid hearing any political arguments by the simple tactic of leaving the room. Although there are some comments going on behind me right now. I will block my ears. It all other respects grandad is a great visitor, excellent with the kids and happy to eat any kind of food (unlike my own parents, who both have very specific diet preferences) and willing to go along with anything.

The kids are being put to bed, then no doubt there will be some games, maybe Trivial Pursuit. If I can stay awake.

Floriade again and some good news

Wednesday:

We took dad and his girlfriend to Floriade. A little cooler today, but still lovely. Another slow walk, at the speed of a elderly couple in a crowd (not breaking any records here), we did 4 km in 1 hr 40 min. But the map on RunKeeper shows a strange detour that we certainly didn't make. So it was probably more like 3 km. My pacer (steps per day app), on the other hand, is telling me I've only done 11 steps today. It's done that a couple of times lately, not that I bother to check it much, saying I haven't moved at all when I've had a fairly active day. So I deleted the silly thing.

The kids also had a short play at the "castle" - that is what we call it, I have no idea if it has an official name. A collection of stone crawl tunnels with ladders up to slides.

I think we're halfway through this 50 km walking challenge and I've done about 13.5, so I need to pick up the pace a bit (if you'll pardon the pun). Actually I need to increase the distance, not the pace. It only counts formal walks, not random meandering around the house during the day.

Our visitors left straight after the morning outing so we had a quiet afternoon. I had a nap on the lounge. All this unaccustomed sunlight really makes me sleepy! Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?

I got some really good news tonight, the owner of the other car involved in my bingle yesterday texted me to say the scratch was minor and would buff out so the insurance company wasn't going to take any action. Yay! I'd hated to think of that money wasted. Very happy about that.

Petting Zoo

Sunday:

Today we had a family trip to Floriade. We parked some distance away so with walking there and a slow ramble around and back to the car it was 3.4 km (in 2 hours). Lovely afternoon.

There was a baby animal petting zoo...

And flowers...

And Nerang Pond (an offshoot of Lake Burley Griffin).

In the morning I watched some gardening being done. I was saving my energy for Floriade (lucky I did, I'm still not 100% and it was very tiring) so I just sat in the lovely sun while Tim dug manure into our vegetable bed ready for spring planting, and the kids did some weeding. Mostly of weeds. A few herbs may have suffered. Time to buy some seedlings!

A stroll through Floriade

Tuesday:

I went for a walk through Floriade, along the lake a bit and back again, sat and had my morning tea amongst the flowers, then home. It was sunny after rain, so very humid. Nice to get outside. Not including sitting time, I walked 4.5 km in an hour.

Not many tulips were out yet, but there were a few. Only yellow, they must be the earliest to flower.

Heartsease are one of my favourite flower. I suppose they are a kind of violet. Also known as Johnny Jump Up, and probably lots of other regional names.

Giant snails. Because, why not?

Weird giant balloon flowers that probably light up for Night Fest. Unless they are jellyfish. Probably flowers. Or jellyfish. Or flowers.

Pansies in wheelbarrows.

 

I didn't do much with the rest of my day because I came down with a horrible headache. I didn't mention it to anyone, just put up with it and doctored myself with Panadol when it got really bad which helped. But then at bedtime Jasmine came down with a bad headache. So it's not just me. Hopefully we'll both fight off whatever it is and be fine tomorrow.

 

We had Dungeons and Dragons tonight, so I had to negotiate that. I had a glass of wine and a couple of squares of chocolate.

 

I've signed up for a RunKeeper challenge to walk/run 50 km in a month, starting on the 18th. Is that a lot? 10 x 5k. 2 to 3 laps of the lake a week. That is do-able. You can win stuff. Spring is the perfect time to be outside in the not too cold/not too hot/just right weather. And (since I find I do worse if I put pressure on myself) if I don't finish the 50 km I will have still done something!

Even more steps

Tuesday:

It's only just past lunchtime and I'm nearly 13,000 steps! After picking up the kids from school later and incidental movement, I might even make 15,000 today. It is a big time commitment. But I'm enjoying it.

I did a similar routine to yesterday. Walked around the lake with a stop at Floriade about 3/4 of the way around. Yesterday was sunny and still, today was windy. A bit chilly beside the lake, and when I was walking over the long bridge the wind was whipping up from the water so hard that I not only had to hold my hat on, I also had to hold my t-shirt down or it would have been around my neck! My eyes were watering so much I could hardly see where I was going. But it was nice on the calmer side (is that the lee side?).

I sat at a café at Floriade, overlooking lovely tulip beds, and had a cup of tea and my banana while I read for a while. I am judging the Aurealis Awards again this year (fantasy short story section) and I am a bit behind with my reading. Then more walking. I tried to always take the long way round, on the interesting twisty paths.

Yesterday I'd forgotten to take my headphones so I couldn't listen to music or zombies and just had to immerse myself in the day, which was kind of nice, but it was even better today with my tunes and the zombie story to distract me from tired legs. My body was actually pretty tired this morning, but it will just have to get used to moving around again.

Even though I had jumped in the car the moment I got the kids to school this morning, I still missed out on an all-day parking spot and had to settle for three hours again. This didn't give me enough time to sit in the library and write, so I'll have to do that at home now before I run out of kid-free day.

Tonight is our usual Tuesday night D&D game and supper. I am NOT going to binge this week. I am contributing a cheese platter and I am saving a dairy serving and a carb serving so I can have some. I know crackers are not a healthy carb but I got wholegrain ones. And I will have some chocolate as a planned indulgence.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I will mention that I have had some food samples at Floriade. A taste of sour candy, some "stupidly hot" chilli sauce on a cracker, sips of herbal tea. Yesterday I had a couple of Vienna almonds (with vanilla & sugar crust), toasted sunflower seeds on a morsel of buttered bread, and a smidgin of rocky road. I do know that a nibble here and a bite there can add up, but I am keeping my eye on my intake and I think I am ok so far. The servings are honestly teeny tiny. Nevertheless, I will continue to be conscious of how much I am having. I took my own banana for morning tea and came home for lunch.

12,000 steps!

more Monday:

I downloaded a pedometer app for my iPhone a couple of weeks ago. Apart from one day when I barely got out of bed (under 1000 steps!) my average has been around 3500 and I think that is pretty standard for me, sick or not, not counting any deliberate exercise. I work from home and only get out to move the kids from place to place or do the shopping. By far the highest number of steps recorded, around 7000, was the day my husband took my iPhone! He didn't even ride to work, he was on a bus for about 7 hours that day. But he still managed to get some walking in.

But today I parked at the lake then walked the long way around to Floriade, spent about an hour and a half looking at flowers etc, walked the rest of the 5 km lap of the lake back to my car, then did the grocery shopping. 12,000 steps! Woo hoo. And all it took was quite a lot of walking. Tired legs, tired feet. Looks like I have to do about 2 hours walking each day to get in that magic 10,000 steps.

Lovely spring weather for it.

Judging distances

Friday:

I did BodyPump this morning, kids in creche. My weights for Pump are around a quarter of those for similar movements when I am using the weights machines -- but on the machines I'm only doing about 3 x 20 seconds with short breaks -- in Pump I'm doing 3 or 4 minutes straight! It's a different animal entirely.

After a quick shower and putting together a picnic basket (and eating a banana and some cheese and a couple of squares of chocolate, as usual I was starving after exercise) we set off for the War Memorial which had school holiday activities. The kids made a bookmark and a red paper poppy (significant to our soliders) and explored a replica helicopter and a submarine. Then it was off to the lake where we met Tim for a picnic lunch -- his office is only a block away from the shore. It was a lovely sunny day. We tossed a couple of bread crusts to a lurking crow, and to our surprise it took each one to a different tree and apparently buried it at the base, tossing extra dried grass on top. Saving it for later? Surely ants or something would get it.

I'd decided that the kids and I would walk to Floriade from the picnic spot which was further down the lake than the area between the two bridges where I usually walk. I guesstimated that it would take us around half an hour. Tim walked with us for a while then turned back to return to work. It took us an hour to walk the 3 km. Although Aiden can beat me in a 400 m race he can't keep up that pace over the long haul. At one point I said we could turn back if they wanted but I had offered them an icecream at Floriade so we pushed on with only minor compliants of sore feet. I was more worried about sunburn in spite of our hats and sunscreen. Jasmine and I are so fair. As the song says: "One's like snow, the other's more like milk." Aiden had a bit of trouble with his hat, there was a strong wind off the lake and a couple of times he had to go running after it.

We eventually got there and enjoyed our icecreams. I accidentally jogged Aiden's arm and caused him to drop the last sixth of his, but he fought back the tears. I wasn't going to buy another one when he'd eaten most of it. We wandered around a bit and patted some reptiles -- a couple of pythons and a goanna which is a huge lizard, its handler said it was really very cuddly -- had a drink and taste-tested some things and I got the kids a sour lolly rope, they saved some for daddy, and gave the flowers themselves almost no attention. We also re-applied sunscreen at the Cancer Council stall.

Then began the long walk back to the car. It wasn't too bad, both kids had tired feet (well, so did I) but they didn't complain much. I promised them some of the nougat I'd bought for myself when we got to the bridge at about the 2/3 point and that kept them going. They said it gave them a power boost and both did some sprints after they ate it! I wasn't boosted enough for that, but it did give me a hit of energy. Yay sugar! Tim had mentioned earlier that he often saw rabbits in one spot as he rode to work, and sure enough we saw eight or so there hopping around on our walk back. We also saw a guy on the lake, I don't know what you call the sport but he was on a surfboard-like contraption and was being pulled along by a parachute thing. Looked awesome fun, but also requiring a lot of upper body strength.

We got home after 5 pm after a long but very enjoyable day. Three hours of solid exercise plus extra strolling around, not bad. But I might not have attempted it if I'd known it was so far. I suck at judging things like that.

It's Friday night and Tim's home at a decent hour for once and has taken over kid-wrangling duties and I am looking forward to a relaxing evening in front of the TV/computer and maybe a hot bath to soothe those tired calves.

Oh, and the ankle is doing great. I think I'll stop wearing the support bandage now.

Another long weekend! Yay.

Walking and peeing

Tuesday:

I weigh myself every day, mostly because I would always rather know something than not know. I hate suspense of any kind. This morning I was 78.5 kg. 800 g (2 pounds) up from yesterday! I rarely get off and on the scale to check, but I did this morning. Nup, still that revolting number. After two and a half hours of exercise yesterday! Ok, I did have some twisties and chocolate. Maybe I was retaining water or something. It was really annoying and a bit discouraging but I didn't let it stop me getting on with an active day.

I walked for 1 hour and 45 mins, a lap of the lake and then briskly around Floriade. I had wanted to get an accurate reading of the distance around the lake (other people had posted it as anything from about 4.6 km to 5.2 km, possibly depending on which path they took and how many corners they cut). I wanted to know how far my official lake walk was. But it was not to be, my bladder refused to cooperate. I have no idea what was going on, I've been fine for the rest of the day and I had only had one drink prior to my walk. And I went to the toilet before the 10 min drive to get there. But I needed to pee almost straight away. I paused RunKeeper and diverted off to the park toilets. Went back to the same spot and restarted. About 2 mins later I needed to pee again. Floriade had a public toilet right next to my path, so I didn't stop RunKeeper that time. Continued on my way ... 5 mins later needed to pee again. Another public toilet luckily near the lake. A bit worrying really. Is it possible that I somehow retained so much water that it affected my weight by nearly a kg and then was all trying to get out this morning? I went again when I got back to the first toilet after a full lap, so including my original emptying at home that was five times in a bit over an hour.

RunKeeper got very confused and tried to tell me that the lake was actually nearly 6 km around, and I had been walking at a cracking pace. I'll check it again next time, hopefully when my bladder is behaving normally.

I did a tiny bit of taste testing at Floriade and then bought some Vienna macadamias -- a native Australian nut but I belive they also grow them comercially in Hawaii now.

I drove home and zoomed around the house tidying with only 10 mins before the guy came to give me a quote on new window coverings. I had to pick up a lot of toys in the kids rooms just so he could access the windows to measure them!

After lunch I got 15 mins gardening in. With the school walk, that is another two and a half hours of exercise today. I am actually a lot tireder than yesterday. All that walking! I have mostly eaten well today but still have D&D supper to get through. I wonder if we will have a bit more healthy food tonight? I say mostly. I cooked pork belly for dinner, the first time ever. It was very good too, but so fatty. I cooked it on a rack so all some of the fat dripped off, but still. Crackling. Eating is my weak point at the moment.

My legs are really tired and I have a bit of a headache. I wish I could go to bed right now instead of sitting up to play games. I'd even give up the junk food if I was allowed to just go to sleep.

photo by Stephan Jurgensen

A positive, active day

Friday:

I managed to put all my whiney feeling-sorry-for-myself behind me and just got on with it today. After walking the kids to school I bought an elastic ankle support at the chemist. I don't know if I need it or if it helps but I haven't re-injured myself today so maybe it is working. After doing some housework I went to the gym and spent an hour and a half using the weight machines. I avoided a few that seemed to put too much pressure on my ankle or my bad shoulder, but still ended up with fifteen different exercises on thirteen machines. There were a couple I only did one set of ten reps on but on the rest I did three sets of ten reps. I started with mainly the lightest possible weight, 10 kg, but was putting on a bit more by the end; and then when I had finished I went back and did another three sets of ten reps on the first five machines, but with heavier weights. So in total I did 20 exercises, 540 reps! I think I will be feeling it tomorrow.

After going home for lunch and a shower, I drove to Floriade. As usual when we go to that area I parked some distance away, a little hidden carpark further along the lake that is never full even during festivals, and then I walked briskly to Commonwealth Park and wandered among the tulips. With that and the school pick up I did a total of an hour walking today, so that is two and a half hours of exercise. Go me! And it was a really lovely sunny day, a little cool with the lake breeze but perfect once in the park.

While at Floriade I went to the exhibition stalls (pausing RunKeeper) and taste-tested everything available. I love free stuff! I tried five different flavours of fudge and then bought some of the raspberry flavour. I'm not even all that keen on fudge, I just felt obscurely guilty for trying so much. But the kids loved it and we saved some for Tim so that is ok. Also, carrying a bar of fudge around proved I was a genuine buyer not just a taster! I also had four or five kinds of exotic herbal tea -- I rather liked the Turkish green apple which tasted a lot like apple juice but it only came in a big $20 cannister -- a sour watermelon lolly which I didn't like much, some really hot chilli that left my lips burning for a while, and nuts encusted in various things like chilli/lime and toffee. Next time I am going to buy some Vienna macadamias, they were really yummy. Not sure what was on them, vanilla sugar? Despite casually wandering past the better nut stall several times (there was another one that wasn't as good), I didn't really eat that much and it was nice afternoon snack made up of a multitude of different tastes.

There were plenty of other stalls with gardening tools and handmade soaps and jewellery and silk scarves and things, sometimes I look at that stuff but not today. I really go to Floriade to look at the flowers, but I didn't look closely at those today either, I walked around briskly and got a general overview. I'll be going again, several times I hope. I haven't looked at the dresses-made-of-flowers exhibition or sat in the cafe overlooking the gardens or done the wine tasting or anything yet! And there is a petting zoo for the kids, they love that every year.

Feeling so much more positive today.

photo by sallysetsforth

Punyness exposed

Thursday:

I went to Zumba on Tuesday morning and spent an hour at the gym today while mum babysat. There is no suitable class on Thursdays until 12.30, which was too late for my purposes, so I did 20 mins on the elliptical, 25 mins lifting weights in some approximation of BodyPump moves, and 15 mins on the bike. I miss proper BodyPump, it just hasn't worked out this week.

Oh, speaking of which, I mentioned to a friend that I lift 5 kg (total), mainly restricted by my dodgy shoulders but I do find my legs trembling at the end of the squats track. And do you know how much he lifts? Guess. You'll never guess. 140 kg. OMFG. 140 kg. I don't know if that is for a whole hour, but he did mention doing squats and bench presses with that weight. I couldn't even lift that. He has been lifting weight for 15 years or something, but he is not at all bulky.

Mum then took me and the kids out to lunch, and then we went to Floriade (the patting paddock was gone but they had a reptile area which was interesting) and on a lake cruise. It was a cool grey day with intermittant rain -- luckily mostly while we were on the boat which had a roof. We had to walk back to the car in the rain, which didn't bother me at all but mum didn't like it much. Unless it is a really cold day, I would rather walk through light rain than be hot and sweaty on a summer day. Much rather! But different people hate different things. I noticed when we were in China I complained about the heat, but on the rainy days there was a huge kerfuffle about buying umbrellas (which you have to hold up constantly) and raincoats (which is like wearing your own personal sauna). I just walked in the rain, and stopped complaining about the horrible heat for a few minutes!

I am really trying to get back on track with the exercise. I admit that I feel much better when I do it.

photo by popoever

Sunday weigh-in: 79.2 kg; down 0.1 kg

Sunday:

I am absolutely gobsmacked that I haven't put on weight this week. This is my sixth day in a row with no exercise, and for most of those days I also ate an unnecessary amount of junk food. I was sick during the week and then have had houseguests all weekend. It was lovely having visitors, but I am now tired and cranky and have a mouth ulcer from too much sugar, so it hurts to eat. Maybe that will stop me. Ha!

Although I didn't do any formal exercise, I probably did burn quite a few calories this weekend. I spent several hours yesterday morning housecleaning, and then today we went to annual spring Canberra flower festival, Floriade, and walked around for three hours.

My father-in-law and his girlfriend are still here tonight, but I am going to go and watch Junior Masterchef now. They can entertain themselves.

photo by Sallysets