Indeed.

Monday and Tuesday I shamefully wasted. Shame, shame , shamefully. I don't know what happens to each day. (Yes, I do, it's called THE COMPUTER). As usual it was the domestics that I excelled at avoiding, although I did have a quick go at fitted sheet folding. My attempt was rather underwhelming, although neater than my usual scrunch-up-and-shove-in-the-linen-press job. It all seems a bit pointless though when all the other sheets in there are a big mess. Yes, I know, I should clean out the linen press. But I didn't.

I didn't do any exercise either. Shame on me some more. Though, at least we rode on the weekend (it was just all downhill from Monday.)

So I will mention my weekend because at least I did something.

We did our usual early morning bike ride madness on Saturday. We also handed over our oldest tandem - it was bought by a family so that the Dad could ride with his daughter, so that is one more tandem convert we have made, and one less tandem in the back shed. Marc and I rode our singles, and it only emphasised why having a tandem is a good thing for us - as he gets frustrated with how slow I ride, and I get frustrated at how fast he would like me to ride. On a tandem you always arrive together, and a road tandem, even with me on the back, satisfies his Need for Speed.

On Sunday we went out on the triplet and new tandem with the kids - a short ride to the local township, fish 'n chips by the beach, and ride home again. Only 15km, which these days is "nothing".

We swapped stokers again, so that Caitlin could have a turn on the triplet. Everyone wants to ride the triplet. Riding with Mum is the consolation prize - like coming second in the Tour de France . (Go Cadel!) The triplet is the cool machine, as you can imagine. ("Wow, check out THAT bike!") Plus Dad rides faster, especially downhill. Yee ha.

So the kids work, like most second place getters, on the principle that there is always next year. And I suppose in terms of our family tandem riding it is the start of 'next season'; theoretically Cait has done her penance with Mum by doing the Big Ride with me earlier in the year, and now she has Earnt the Right to ride on the triplet.

From Mum and Dad's perspective, though, riding with Alison is second prize. Bloody hell, I felt like I was humping along a sack of potatoes. In theory we could be unstoppable if we could only get going, but we just couldn't seem to get going. By the time we got home I was ready to give up on riding tandems with the kids. We don't understand why it is so, as she is actually stronger and fitter than Caitlin, and we always would have classed her as a better (solo) bike rider. She just doesn't seem capable of riding.. um.. in tandem.. so to speak. She is jerky, and clocks off... So it looks like Marc (being the stronger out of us two, will have to ride with her) and Caitlin will be rewarded for her better stoking and teamwork skills by the consolation prize of riding with me. Something about that all kind of sucks, really. I suppose it involves Life Lessons in give and take and working together for the good of the 'team' and that sort of stuff.

Wednesday I sat on my butt in the car for about 5 hours - driving nearly 400 km - to Port and back for the gyno appointment. [All is fine there... nothing sinister... maybe I'm heading for menopause and my hormones are forgetting, occasionally, what their role is supposed to be in the second half of my cycle. Am going to see how things go and hopefully avoid having to take progesterone...]

I then drove Zoe to a tennis lesson, and then later, after dinner, had a wasted 45km return trip to town to pick eldest and a teammate up from netball. They got a lift with someone else who wasn't going to be there, despite the fact that they knew the arrangement was for me to pick them up. Don't get me started ranting about that - I would be unstoppable.

And around that time my body thought Well, you've kind of wasted the week so far.. Why not blow off another day... Marc was actually taking Thursday off, and we had made plans to go riding some distance on the tandem. (As training for your next crazy 100 miles in a day bike riding adventure coming up in a few weeks?)

Hmm, so .... How about some stomach cramps? (that you initially think are period cramps, even though they are coming at the end of your combined post-hysteroscopy bleeding and period... But then, because of being concentrated just to the right of centre of abdomen, and , coming in waves, and making you feel kind of nauseous, you start to wonder what the symptoms of appendicitis are. But then you realise it's probably gas/wind/constipation...

*ahem*.

So I'm ok. (Thanks for asking in last post's comments Jeanie!) I wasn't "ok" but there are degrees of "not ok", and in the scheme of things, it doesn't really rate, except to stop me from finally getting started this week.

And, well, Thursday, when we didn't ride, he did get to tinker with bikes, and put a new, shorter stem on the new tandem. And put new handlebar tape on my handlebars on the back of the road tandem. And change saddles around. And he got to have a go at going to the shops to buy stuff for dinner and then make it (with some assistance from children) while I played at being pathetic. And whenever he gets in the kitchen, for some reason he gets a bee in his bonnet about trying to dejunk the house, which is exactly what I need (NOT) when I am not feeling very well. (Because it means he wants to know What do I do with this? and Do you need this? and Did you know this was broken? and I'm not exactly in the frame of mind to give a shit stuff about it!)

A day in town this morning for an appointment and errands and some shopping, and I'm trying to get some netball handouts finished for tomorrow. Our weekend is written off with a netball carnival on Sunday, but we will go for our early morning bike ride tomorrow. And I'm about to go to my swimming squad - first time back after a 4 week break over mid-winter.

And hopefully next week I'll really get started.

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