Visiting Canberra

Monday:

We lived in Canberra for 15 years before we moved back to Sydney - I hadn't been back for a visit in the year and a half since we moved. Tim had taken Jasmine back to visit friends a couple of times, and he's been back there for work too. This past weekend Jasmine wanted to go to a friend's birthday party there - they've kept in touch this whole time - and Tim wasn't keen but I decided I was ready to return. I'd had no interest before this - when I move on I move on!

It's a three hour drive, we got there just before lunch time Saturday for the very end of the party - the time had been changed a couple of days before, too late for me to change all my plans and bookings even if I'd been willing to drive up Friday night which I wasn't - and left Jasmine with her friend for the weekend. My first item on the agenda was Kingsley's for lunch. It has fried chicken, much like KFC but not as greasy and I loved it the whole time we lived in Canberra. (Also nicest roast chickens, but I was craving the southern fried.) It was still tasty, but turns out 'not as greasy' is still very greasy! I ate most of two pieces and felt a bit nauseated. Oh well, maybe I'll stop craving it now!

There was a stationary store that sells my favourite pens a block away so I popped in there. I can get them in Sydney but not anywhere near where I usually shop. They are a bit more expensive than normal ball-point pens but I love them because they are 0.7mm instead of the usual 1.0mm, usually it's hard to find fine point like that other than felt tip. I've bought quite a few over the past few years but of course they keep mysteriously going missing from my desk. It's like teaspoons and socks. Some little gremlin somewhere likes to eat them. How often do you use up a pen before it disappears? Never?!

I drove past our old house. Apart from some pot plants by the front door I couldn't see any changes. It was the back of the house that really needed work, but I didn't dare creep around and look. It didn't feel like home at all, I got a cold grey vibe from it.

I drove down to the lake and went for a walk, it was always my favourite place for walking. As I had rather expected, there was a very cold wind off the water, chilling my hands, ears and nose. Winter in the mountains. I lasted for 20 minutes before I went and had a cup of tea at the library café.

Here we see the National Library from the vantage of my lake walk...

After my cup of tea I joined the library tour. It was only of the public spaces, unfortunately, but it included some interesting information. I knew that the book storage goes several stories underground, but I didn't know that that part of the building is much wider than the above ground part. It stretches out under the lawns and car parks. The tour guide lady also took us into the national treasures gallery, stuff like Captain Cook's writing desk from his ship and personal log (he "discovered" Australia for England, not counting the Aborigines who'd lived here for tens of thousands of years or the Dutch who visited the other side of Australia before Cook got here).

I did enjoy the tour but I was glad to go at my own pace around the other exhibition there, of Japanese woodcuts (illustrations) from traditional novels. The art was interesting but the best part was the little summaries of the books they were from. Like: a man falls in love with a peasant girl but his family forbids him to marry her because she's a nobody so he becomes a monk. Then he finds out that she is actually a noblewoman, but it's too late. So he commits suicide. So she commits suicide. Sounds a bit like Romeo and Juliet. Lots of moral tales, like the woman who leaves her husband for a rich lover then eventually comes back but her husband and son don't want her back and she learns the error of her ways. The pictures are apparently all full of symbolism; the pattern of her dress means this, surrounded by autumn leaves means that, two children in the background means something else. Fascinating.

Time to move on to my next appointment at the National Museum. I had time for a slice of chocolate raspberry cake - turned out to be the only really delicious food I had all weekend, and it was the only unplanned one! - before going to my Virtual Reality session. It was an underwater dive on the Great Barrier Reef narrated by David Attenborough, taken with a 360 degree camera. We were in swivel chairs so we could easily look around in every direction. Then there was a bit about earliest life in the sea, showing us trilobites and eight-foot long sea scorpions and stuff. Very enjoyable. When I took my feet off the floor it felt like I was floating around.

It was starting to get very cold. I booked into my modest hotel room then walked a few blocks to my favourite Chinese restaurant which we used to go to often and ordered my favourite dish (Shan Tung chicken). In the past it had varied from moderately spicy to very spicy. This time I think they forgot to put in any chilli at all. Bland bland bland. Walked back to my hotel in the freezing evening air and snuggled down for the night. Luckily The Fifth Element was on TV.

In the morning it was still hovering around freezing so I stayed in for a while and had leftover Chinese for breakfast. Bland is ok in the morning. I finished the book I had with me then checked out and went to Questacon, the interactive science and technology museum. Lots of interactive stuff to do. I used to take the kids there a lot, we had an annual pass. It was more a time-killer this time, somewhere inside in the warm.

Finally it was time to go and meet Caroline, my best friend from Canberra. We had lunch at the arboretum, I used to go there a lot to write as it has lovely views. Our lunch table was right by the window.

The view was great, the company was excellent, unfortunately the food (yet again) was a big disappointment. Oh well. I had two lovely hours chatting, I don't really care that I left most of the meat on my plate. Beef cheek that was gelatinous yet tough. Urg. I ate the vegetables and ignored the meat.

I picked up Jasmine from her sleepover then we had the three hour drive home. I was pretty tired by the end. Family was over at our house to play Dungeons and Dragons, just the boys, but also my four year old niece Emma who was bored out of her skull and latched on to me as soon as I walked in the door wanting attention I was too worn out to give. I just wanted everyone to go home so I could have a quick dinner and collapse. But they were there for another hour. I ended the weekend exhausted and grumpy. But otherwise it was a nice couple of days.

After weeks and weeks of 'finished by the end of the week' promises, our tiler turned up and finished putting the paving down in the narrow corner bit. He still has to finish the grouting and then seal it all. 'By the end of the week'. Sigh. It looks nice though.

Haven't heard any more about the heat pump issue or when the interior of the pool will be finished.

Jasmine is home sick today. Down with a cold or flu, she was starting to get sick yesterday. I always let her stay home when she asks because she so rarely asks - she loves school. Aiden would stay home every day if I let him.

Reluctant

Tuesday:

Well my mouth continued to be sore for four days after the dentist appointment, up to today when I'm finally able to chew (carefully) on both sides. Apparently this was normal after what I had done, they gave me a leaflet on how to deal with the discomfort. I've been feeling a bit miserable the past few days because I don't like pain (who does?), much better today. I'm not looking forward to the follow-up.

Last week my favourite person at TAFE, Cathy who looks like a young librarian already, said the library where she'd been doing some work with children (she's a music teacher) offered her some temporary work and she was trying to decide whether to take it or continue her studies or both... well she hasn't been in class this week and someone else said she took the job and has switched to online study. I've very glad for her to have this work experience but I'll miss her. I think the job is only for three months while someone else is on leave, so she might be back next term, but you never know. She seems like an ideal employee to me, one of the top students and very nice as well, they'd be mad to let her go.

I don't really want to look for work yet, I want to get my degree first. I couldn't juggle both.

We had lots of family gatherings on the weekend. Lunch after a christening (we didn't get to the service due to sport commitments), a birthday party dinner that night, and another family dinner the next night. I didn't have to cook all weekend! We have chosen a new oven to replace the broken one and it should be delivered on Thursday.

The pool tiler continues to show up occasionally, erratically, and do I don't know what. Preparing the surface. No actual tiles yet! I thought it would all be done last week, silly me. You'd think I'd have enough experience with tradesmen by now. He wants an interim payment but I'm feeling a bit reluctant.

Jumping over molehills

Tuesday:

I had a bit of dilemma this morning. Yesterday's rowing session had left sore patches under my arms again, and they weren't better by this morning. Even wearing a bra around the house hurt, let alone exercising in one. I don't believe in pushing through pain of this kind - I would likely only make it worse, tear the skin, make it even harder to exercise - but I couldn't not exercise today either!

With no bra I couldn't go to the gym or out in public (um, headlights) and I couldn't do any jumping (overweight 44 year old who has breastfed two children, bouncing is not a comfortable option) so I procrastinated for a while but with no intention of avoiding exercise altogether. A bit of abraded skin wasn't going to stop me.

I ended up doing an hour of Just Dance 4 and really enjoyed it. I had to modify some moves a bit but not as much as I'd expected. I avoided tracks I knew included a lot of jumping around. JD4 is a couple of years old and contains such gems as "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen and golden oldies like "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. Lots of fun, actually. Cheerful. In the past I'd earned 5 stars on every dance on this disc and I still remember a lot of it so I didn't have to concentrate on learning the steps. I just danced along and enjoyed myself.

I'll have to cut out or cut back on the rowing for the moment.

My other perceived "molehill" today was that I had a terrible sleep last night. For some reason I tossed and turned for several hours (with my CPAP on for a couple of hours then without it, unfortunately taking it off didn't seem to help). And then I woke at dawn, also for no reason I'm aware of. I think I got 4 hours sleep. So I fully expected to be exhausted and sleepy all day. But as usual my perception of how my night went has no relationship - or perhaps an inverse relationship! - to how I feel the next day. I was fine. Didn't need a nap.

A friend of mine, whose kids are also close friends with mine, came over this afternoon. They have been overseas for a month so we had a lot to talk about. So that was lovely. And aside from the general catch-up, there were several other good things. I had a chocolate bar before they came (that's not the good thing) and I wasn't at all hungry so I didn't eat any of the snacks we put out for us and the kids. I could easily have eaten some snacks, it was all right in front of me the whole time we were chatting. But I had nothing other than my cup of tea. I was proud of myself for keeping the calorie damage limited to the chocolate and not make it worse.

Another good thing is she can probably babysit for an upcoming event, which will be very convenient for us. And thirdly, she asked me a question about the name of something that she said she'd asked a couple of people about and they didn't know. I did know. She said she knew I would. And I felt all warm and fuzzy inside, not just that I knew something but that my friend had confidence that I would.

Tuesdays are our busiest day, we still have dance class and dinner (chicken casserole already in the oven) then Dungeons and Dragons to get through. D&D is the trickiest, health-wise. I am offering grapes. But other people will bring junk. And I think I've had as much as my calorie budget can allow for the day, unless I spend my daughter's dance class doing calisthenics on the sidelines! Maybe I can do surreptitious isometrics.

Wholemeal bread and sore feet

Thursday:

This morning I did the shopping I couldn't do yesterday. At Bakers' Delight (a bread shop, obviously), buying my usual hi-fibre low-GI white loaf, I looked over at the wholegrain bread. "But I don't like wholegrain," I whined to myself. "But they have a half-size loaf," I told myself. "You could just try it." "It will still be a waste," I insisted. Then I saw that, of course, they have rolls. So I was forced into the decision by my roving eye. I bought a Country Grain roll, just to try.

Back at home; I cut it in half to make a single-slice equivalent, put a scrape of butter on it, and had a nibble. Actually not too horrible. Rather than the sponge-cake experience of white bread; it was denser and kind of nutty. The seeds/grains/whatever they are -- detested as a child, like little crunchy bugs in the bread -- were surprisingly ok. So I put my cheese ration on top (camembert today) and ate it up. And enjoyed it. Satisfying and yummy. I can't believe it. Am I sick or something? Me, eating wholegrain bread?

Then I went on my walk around the lake. Today I decided to be wacky and different and walked around the lake clockwise instead of the other way. I'm full of surprises today. But I didn't like it so much. Firstly, when crossing bridges I was now next to the traffic rather than on the outside so I got more noise and pollution. Secondly; as Australians walk/drive/cycle to the left, I was now walking that little bit further! When counter-clockwise I was right next to the lake, on a fractionally tighter circle. Every step counts, people! Thirdly; which is completely pyschological but/therefore important, it felt further. Where I park is close to one of the bridges, so usually when I cross the second bridge I am nearly "home". Walking the other way, after crossing my second bridge I still had a long way to go.

I was wearing my new joggers, and actually did two short jogs of about 50 metres each. My feet were just as hot and tired and sore by the end as they were in my cross-trainers.

Now here is the possible deal-breaker. Every (i.e. all three) times I have done this long walk, after sitting for a while at the end (library or even just driving home) my feet are horribly painful when I stand up again. It isn't the muscles or tendons; it feels like the soles of my feet have been sandpapered and I can literally hardly walk. It is worst initially, but still sore for the whole rest of the day. I hobble out to my car, trying to stand on the sides of my feet rather than the soles; hobble around the school getting the kids, trying not to look like I just had an enema that went wrong; and collapse at home. This cannot continue. I can accept muscle stiffness from exercise (my thighs are sore right now) but this pain just feels really wrong. I assume that my feet get sweaty and rub against my socks, even though I wear sports socks. I have tried different socks, and now different shoes, with the same result. I exercise for just as long and more sweatily at the gym without even a hint of this problem. I might try once more next week, taking a change of shoes and socks in the car to see if that helps, but otherwise I will have to give up my walks which would be a shame.

My feet get a bit sore while I'm walking, but the pain doesn't really hit until I have been sitting for a while and then get up.

After school pick-up we went to a friend's house and I had a cup of tea with Jodie while the kids played. She put out some food for us -- with things I liked including camembert and the rice crackers I had brought -- but I had no difficultly saying no. I had actually brought a piece of fruit with me, as that was my allotted afternoon tea, but I didn't eat it. I was happy with my cup of tea. I still felt full from lunch (is this the wholegrains kicking in?). One thing we chatted about -- for just about the whole visit actually -- was dieting and exercise. She had the book I am dieting from and loaned it to me which was lovely. I had looked at it again at Caroline's house on Tuesday and found something I was doing wrong, and looking at it again today I found something else. So it's good to actually have a copy to read carefully, and it has lots of recipes in it too. I am getting a copy from the library but I was about 4th on the waiting list.

The things I was doing wrong were 1. you can only swap out one of your slices of wholegrain bread for pasta/potato/etc, not both, you have to keep one slice of bread -- presumably for the graininess -- and 2. my protein at lunchtime is up to 100g. I don't have to force down the whole 100g, which turns out to be quite a lot of meat. I do still have to eat a whole 200g at dinner.

Jodie had tried this diet and said she liked the recipes and still uses them and that she lost 3 kg in the first week she went on it. Trying not to get my hopes up. Hmm, didn't ask why she isn't still on it, if it works so well.

Because she is about to start a new diet. Our Biggest Loser trainer, Michelle Bridges, has a book called "Crunch Time" and now has an online program to go with it. You sign up for a twelve week course and get menu plans and exercises and chat to other people on it and watch little videos from Michelle. A whole lot of people start at the same time. She had registered and paid without really checking it out, so we looked at it together this afternoon. The exercises looked alright, for week 1 at least, 6 days a week and a good variety. But the menu plan! OMFG! I was heavily critisized for going on a 1000 calorie per day diet, but this is lower! Most days were around 900 calories, one day was 805. Saturday you got to splurge on 1200. Jodie is going to lose her 6-8 kilos in about 2 weeks, I reckon, but she will be fainting at work every day. And cranky and miserable. How is she supposed to exercise on that?

I should say that I haven't seen the whole plan or read it carefully and maybe there are snacks that you get to add in every day or something. But it didn't look like it. I will keep you posted. Jodie said that a friend of hers did it last year and it was "hard" but she lost a lot of weight.

Don't you lose a lot of muscle with weight-loss that dramatic? It sounds unhealthy to me. Caroline, my dietician friend, would have a fit. The funny thing is that Jodie actually works for dieticians, I wonder what they will think of it.

I am very happy with my CSIRO diet. Oh, but if I don't lose weight in this first week it will kill me.