She's baaaack!

I can kick when I swim again! How good is that?! (Answer = "FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC".)It's been a bit tedious not being able to make the most of my adult swim squad classes over the last few weeks since stuffing my knee. While I could sense the knee was always improving slightly, the progress seemed snail-paced, and I was getting a bit frustrated having to hang back and just swim sedate laps up and back while everyone was doing the drills, getting the workout that is the whole reason for us doing the classes. (Classes I'd paid for - so, yes, there was a financial imperative in the mix!)

I'd never really thought about it before, but kicking yourself along in the water when you swim actually puts a pretty big stress on your knees - almost hyper-extending that joint - so while I've been able to ride a bike (a more controlled action), flinging my knee joint up and down wasn't the mildest kind of exercise I could have been doing.

Today, somehow, I finally reached the turning point, and, crazy as it might sound, I was over the moon when I found I could thrash up and down the pool doing the various drills, and laps of freestyle at a speed that gets your heart rate up.

I'm not sure what the difference was over the three days from Friday night's class, but 77km on the bike on Saturday (road tandem into town, community ride and back) and then 63km on the mountain bike yesterday, must have done something other than leave me with a bit of general muscle soreness over the rest of this creaky body...

Yes! We got a leave pass from the visiting grandparents, and so had the luxury of getting up and disappearing out of the house without having to organise children, and to enjoy an adults only day out. For some mad reason we agreed to join another couple riding an extra 15 km each way to the start of the BUG ride - 30 km that included a few ups along with the downs! Twice the distance we would have done otherwise!

The area we rode in was called the Promised Land. Perhaps that is significant! The promise of the 'better' knee, and the feeling that I am getting so much fitter from all the bike riding - aerobically I'm finding the swimming much easier you see!- has me feeling more alive and kicking than I have been for quite some time.

Now the challenge is to sustain that and turn it to other areas.

(Don't hold your breath!)

Labels: bike riding, daily, go me

I very unwisely hopped on the scales this morning, which burst my little bubble of rhetoric somewhat. With a *BANG*. My weight is going UP. How can that be? I wonder.

No I don't.

It's a simple equation to do with energy in and energy out. It's all too easy to get all smug and virtuous about the exercise you are doing. But what happens is you think you have the licence to eat whatever you damn well like. And to have a glass or three of wine empty calories each night.
Which leaves you with an unequal or unequitable equation? Or something like that.

Dammit.

Why does it have to be so hard?

No.. the solution is simple. And I know this. Decrease the energy in, and increase the energy out. How hard is that? And theoretically, the more you burn, the more you might be able to get away with consuming. Isn't that right?

While I ponder upon how to have my cake and eat it too... (and consequently sit on my backside at the computer instead of doing something about 'energy out') I'm going to pass forward this Inspirational Blogger award thingy. [These come originally from Writers Reviews.] I never feel comfortable doing these, because I hate leaving deserving people out. I could quite easily list a dozen bloggers who inspire me for different reasons, but I'll bite the bullet and give a gong to two bloggers that I read who I find inspirational in totally different ways. And if they want to add their award to their bloggy 'Atta Girl wall, they can click on over via the link above and choose the 'Inspirational Blogger' colour scheme to best match their decor.

Rootietoot is an inspiration because of what she achieves on a daily basis through the grinding pain of her hip, and for showing me that it is more than fine to make a career out of being a SAHM. I may not agree with everything that she rattles on about, and rattle on she does! But somehow she inspires an all encompassing non-judgemental tolerance for others. I never imagined I'd get caught up with the blog of someone with totally different views on religion, politics (and gun control!) (and she's American to boot!) so there you go. Rootie, you're an inspiration. There is also the fact that I can get away with using the term 'rootie'... given the Australian meaning of the word 'root'. !

And Drunk Mummy has got to get a gong - to add to all her others. I've only stumbled upon her blog recently (and then she up and went swanning off O.S. for a few weeks.) But how I relate to her 'you children drive me to drink' M.O. Drunk Mummy, however, does it in style. Not only is she a wine enthusiast, but she can actually bloody remember what she's drunk and then she blogs it. With a classic British wit that is a joy to read. Truly inspirational.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* So I am going to now try and do something "domestic" this morning, and then I am going to ride my bike via the forest roads to my weight training class. Energy out.*

[* Picture above is from Licence to Eat]

Labels: go me, linkety link

Somehow or other I've been called inspirational because of my bike riding (thanks BrissieMum..I'll pass it forward in the next post or two..) and I am equally chuffed and nonplussed about it. There are women out there who are far more into the fitness than me, and, sheesh - I don't even have the figure to complement the hype I seem to be perpetrating.

But. Given that everything is relative... If I can inspire anyone of any age to get out and get active then that's all to the good. Maybe people might relate to me because I'm not what you'd call 'athletic'. I'm just 'some random' (as my daughter would say) - with no great sporting heritage and carrying around 10kg more weight than I should be.

As you might have picked up from my last post, I have finally (and somewhat belatedly one might say) realised that exercising is just so good for your health, AND your mind. The earlier you start making it a habit, the better - ie. as a child - but if you can, no matter how old you are, just get out there and start making your heart pump. We ride our bikes with people of all ages - and I am so inspired by the 'oldies'. When I am 75 I want to still be out there with the ability to ride a bike like some of them do. And we keep telling the kids to keep their 'motor' ticking over - and not to lose what they have - because as an adult it is so hard to get it back again once you've lost it.

I didn't do a lot of sport when I was a kid - basically just tennis. Somewhere along the line I played some squash, though not competition. (Too much of a tennis player.) At college I had a go at a few of the team sports I never learnt how to play as a child - a bit of soccer, a bit of softball. But I didn't get really active until around the time I met Marc... With him I started bushwalking, canyoning, rafting, cross country skiing and marathon canoeing. Oh, and I bought my first bike with gears, and we did a couple of mountain bike rides and a bike tour with camping gear in our panniers. I was finally getting my heart pumping - in more ways than one!

The problem with activities like that is that they are pretty hard to do when you have babies and young children. I didn't get round to doing much in the way of exercise (and porked on the weight a bit.) When my eldest was about 9 months old I did find my way into playing Ladies Midweek Tennis for a few years, but then that fell by the wayside (for 8 years!) when we moved here 10 years ago. Marc managed to keep more active - partly because of our 'division of labour', whereby it was easy for him to just leave work and go and play Touch, or volleyball. (He did have me playing volleyball with him, right up until I was pregnant with #1).

My mother disapproved. Because they made the 'sacrifice' of not playing sport when I was a kid. At times I admit I'd get a bit resentful that Marc could just walk out the door without worrying about what to do with the children! (or have to take them with him) ... but at some point I had this epiphany, where I realised how important fitness was for both of us. And if he wasn't leaving work to run up and down a Touch field, he'd still be in the office... And he was working how many hours a week as the sole income earner for the family... (And with all the overseas work he was doing, his fitness was suffering with the inability to get out and exercise for up to several weeks at a time.)

He realised the same about me, and stopped being quite so envious of me getting to play tennis all day, or swan off to a 1pm swimming class, and we've ever since supported each other pretty much wholeheartedly in anything that constitutes exercise. I want to be fitter and healthier (and trimmer) than our parents at 70 when I am that age.

When our older two were about 9 and 7 respectively, I realised that, due to their swimming squad sessions, they were much better swimmers than me! Giving them an hour of swimming up and down a pool each each week was, in fact, a gift to them in terms of giving them cross training/aerobic fitness for anything else they wanted to do. (And their health.)

So I started with an adult swimming squad, and, wow. I loved it. Loved that I was learning how to swim better, but I also loved being pushed to work harder.. because even though I might hate it when I was doing it, I'd feel alive and all 'zingy zing zing' afterwards. I think that's when I realised the concept of endorphins, and all their benefits. Who needs drugs when you can get that buzzy feeling from exercise?!!

While we've always had bikes, we didn't really start riding much, with the kids, until we got the tandems, and, as you know, now we're hooked. And we've found a whole community of bike riders out there.. and it's just great.

And you know what? I am riding at times with people who are around the same age as my parents - but my parents wouldn't have a hope of keeping up with them. I don't know the background of these people, but I do know that I don't think my parents did themselves any favours when we were little by being 'heroes' and not playing sport. Want to be a good role model for your kids? Get out there and get active, and let them see you doing it.

All that said, I still struggle, daily, with my inner sloth. We rode on Saturday - about 50-something km, because we drove half-way to town by which time it was light enough to feel ok riding on the highway.

Yesterday I meant to go out by myself for a ride, but I didn't. So today, I cancelled another appointment I had, and met up with people from the BUG (Bicycle Users Group), and went on a mountain bike ride around a bit of a national park south of Coffs. Almost 30km, including some yee-ha downhills, but also some tough uphills that got the heart pumping alright. We have an aim, you see. On the 26th August, some of us from the BUG are doing a "Century" ride, in the old money. ie. 100 miles. Which is 160km. Madness indeed, but nothing like a bit of madness like that to make you get out to 'train'.

Tonight I feel tired, and a little bit guilty for getting to do what I did today - but dammit, I feel really good 'inside'.

I know that at the moment I am very fortunate to have the time to do this. It is a challenge enough as it is - I seriously don't know how I'd do if I was trying to work as well. (Hopefully by the time I sort myself out in that regard I will have got myself well and truly addicted.) I am also lucky that my body, despite a few little hiccups, is in relatively good working order, and so I can still do most things.

The least I can do is to make the most of what I have - in the hope that I'll have it for longer. And try and remember that I'm supposedly an inspiration to others:

Labels: bike riding, endorphins, go me

I've had a surprisingly good start to the day.

No dramas getting kids up for school. All kids ready for school in heaps of time! (Anyone would think they'd had a boring week last week and couldn't wait to get there!)

I said to Zoe, "Do you want to ride?" and she said "Um, I don't know", and I could see us spiralling out of control into the 'Maybe Tomorrow' scenario, so I said "Right. Let's do it. I'll get your bike out." And I did! And we rode. Go us! Go me! Another "first" box to tick - Zoe riding her bike to school! And I didn't feel too bad for a 4.6km jaunt to start the day either.

According to Trace's Theory (the one about endorphins), these feelings of virtuosity over the whole Zoe/bike thing, PLUS awakening those exercise endorphins BEFORE getting on the computer SHOULD have me zipping all over the house today in a positive-minded, positive-action cleaning frenzy. Exercise Endorphins are the battery charge I need. I think. And OK, well, frenzy is probably a huge exaggeration. If I can achieve what normal people do on a daily basis without going on and on and on and on about it, it will be an achievement.

It has worked to a point. So far I've rediscovered the kitchen bench (under all the crap that incessantly hangs about all over it), unloaded and begun reloading the dishwasher, and I'm just about to hang the last load of washing to hang out. I'm psyching up to attack some area of the house - I probably should wage war on the dust bunnies (they are real! I've seen them! they are in my house!) - but I'm not sure how long I'll last before I have to go put myself on charge again. The danger is I'll spend so long agonising over what, where, how I should activate these endorphins, that I'll wind down ever so slowly, like those bunnies in the ads that don't use Duracell or Energizer (depending on which country you've seen the ads aired in!)

~~
By 1.30 pm I've done a bit of vacuuming and, hey! I cleaned up the computer desk - which was so thick with dust it required vacuuming too. (My tired old comedic excuse 'I thought dust was a protective covering' just doesn't cut it, really) I tossed out a lot of crap that was lying around on it. Crap that even crossed Marc's desk-mess boundary; he had got to the point where he huffed and puffed and chucked things around in disgust if he ever had to get on this computer. He should notice. (If I can keep it this way till he gets home tomorrow.) He should even be mildly impressed.

I've also cleaned the inside of the microwave, and cleaned the leadlight windows on the front door and side panel. The door is still filthy, but at least the glass bit looks clean.

My biggest problem is that while I clean something, I only have to turn my head and I see a kazillion other things that need to be cleaned, sorted through, dejunked - to the point that it does my head in, and I feel like collapsing in a 'woe is me' heap.

Only an hour till I have to ride back to school to meet Zoe, so I had better get back to it. Haven't 'endorphinised' myself again yet.. I feel as if a 45 minute recharge will prevent me from achieving more - despite the fact that I've spent at least that long eating lunch and drinking a coffee while reading blogs. I need a logic rewiring.

Labels: bike riding, daily, endorphins, go me, housework

So it seems. Second month running... tennis day = that day = no crampiness as experienced in previous months!! Something to do with moving around instead of sitting at the computer sooking? Either that or Naprogesic rocks where Ponstan doesn't. And/or the evening primrose oil actually does something (no lead up PMS this time either... which makes a pleasant change!) Whatever the equation, we have one happier girl than usual for this time of the month.

Notes to self:

So don't make excuses for not doing the special 7am community ride tomorrow morning, because it's obviously of benefit to keep moving, despite the inconvenience factor that men will just never really get... (He works hard at being sympathetic.. but he'll never know what it's like.. really...)

Keep taking the evening primrose oil capsules, even if you feel like you're going to start rattling soon.

Naprogesic. Don't leave home without it.

****
Yesterday?! I wasn't here. (You noticed didn't you?! You even missed me, right?). I trashed myself, basically. I made myself tired!! But in a good way. I think. Let's see... I left home at 9.15 to ride to the netball courts to help with a schools netball gala day... then I made excuses to leave there early, and rode down the highway.. (chalked up 18km by then...) ... met up with a new cycling/training buddy and we rode pretty hard (for me anyway) 23km around the estate she lives in, in and out of all the cul-de-sacs. AND then did our weights/training session. And then I rode home. 52.27km total. And I felt totally trashed. Sat here writing to Marc on Skype over and over again "I'm rooted." (And then I had to do a netball taxi run into town...)

So my post-ride trashedness? It wasn't just the physical effort. I am so not planning on riding that stretch of highway again. A 2-foot wide shoulder between a B-Double doing 100kph and a barricade is just too effing-freak-me-out-effing-scary for me. It doesn't bother me quite as much on the tandem because we are a) going faster, and b) Marc has the ability to look around constantly keeping an eye on the traffic, and somehow times our run through the narrower bits. While I tend to steer the bike all over the place if I look behind me, and hence risk running myself accidentally into the path of said trucks or cars barrelling up behind me at 100kph.

So picture me swearing very VERY hard as this freaking long truck barrels past at what seems like inches away... and then fighting the urge to cry, because oh my god, that was just too freaking close for comfort. This happened twice before I got past the bad section and onto a wider shoulder. I then turned off the highway, and I think I might have been trembling a bit, maybe. With relief. Because I survived. I slowed down to take a drink, and I must have been still shaking, because I missed the bottle cage as I went to put the bike bottle back. Doh! One bike bottle to retrieve from the middle of the road. And then I swallowed a bug. Hmmm, yum. Not.

Ah well, but I am sure it must be doing me good, somehow. And this feeling of virtuosity from the total kilometres ridden (plus the Cycling Coach/Partner being "proud" of me for it) is ok as well.

And so I've backed up today with four sets of tennis, and somehow it all seems to have affected my brain, because I just stood vacantly in the supermarket just now trying to think of something 'easy' for dinner... and I finally came away with stuff to make a pumpkin, bacon and leek quiche or frittata or something, and as I got home I thought "That's not effing easy... I've got to chop stuff up! (The Guilt Factor stopped me from buying frozen pies for a second week in a row.)

And so I plan to have the kidlets' uniforms etc organised tonight so that they get themselves off to school... and we leave here at the relatively sane hour of 6.15 am (which sounds so much more civilised than 5.45am) to drive into town to do this bike ride. I'm sure the extra half hour in bed will make me feel so much better about it at the time.

And then of course, we will possibly follow it up with the usual Saturday morning ride.

Yep. I think we are both quite possibly insane, and also, quite possibly, at nearly 6pm, it would be an idea to do something about this supposedly easy dinner....

Labels: bike riding, daily, go me

I am still not totally convinced about this getting up at Ungodly Hours to go bike riding thing. I think I will probably always mutter away to myself, shaking my head as I stumble to the bathroom, and fumble for my bike clothes. For one thing it's still dark, and now that we are mid autumn, it's actually getting a tad cool. All relative, I know, but cool is cool, ok! A thermal (polypropolene) top under my bike jersey wasn't enough to keep me warm in the house, so hopping on the bike at 5.45am just as it is getting light, and cold morning air (around 11 degrees) plus moving through said air at 20-30 kph bringing in to play something called wind chill factor.. well it didn't seem like the most sane thing to be doing right then. Bit of cursing happening from the back of the bike and I kept telling myself "it's ok, you know, you could go back to bed some time during the day - as a reward for THIS". ...hmmm, how decadent would that be?!)

A few k's down the highway I warmed up enough - one of the advantages of being on the back of a tandem. My fingers were tingly warm, but Marc's were still freezing. (Another term for tandem captain is 'Windbreak'). We didn't take our thermals off the whole time, despite riding up 3km of winding road in the morning sun. (After that there was more downhill through shady bits, and our toes got even colder!) We have a new cluster on that tandem too, with a higher and lower gear (same amount of gears, just spread out), and so we could really belt down the hills (higher wind chill factor?!) and we could wind up the steeper bits with the low gear. The speed we can get up to on the downhill is a hoot, and beating our single bike friend UP the hill today was also quite satisfying, given tandems are usually overtaken by singles going up. (We won't mention the fact that he hasn't been on his bike for about 6 weeks!)

Of course by the time I got home I felt oh so virtuous for having ridden around 40km before the time I normally drag my butt out of bed. This morning that clammy feeling you get from sweating when it's cool stayed with me even through my hot shower; I threw on long tracky pants, and a polar fleece top, got a cup of coffee and sat on the back doorstep worshipping the sun. Certainly marks the transition from summer to winter when you're seeking the sun instead of avoiding it.

The younger two kids were up when we got home at 7.35 - (fairly normal) - and I had to wake Her Highness (also normal). Everyone was packed and ready to go with heaps of time to catch their respective buses - it all felt so .. civilised! So I suppose, other than the 'cold', and the insane wake up time, I therefore have no reason to knock back the suggestion that we do it again on Wednesday morning. Iron uniforms the night before, and it's all quite doable.

So, theoretically, I am feeling energised! And ready to attack a range of domestic chores today. Hey ho.

Or I could sit here and look online for long sleeved cycling jerseys and long leg nix. It's only going to get colder before it gets warm again, and if we're stupid enough to be doing this early morning riding thing we need to not get hypothermia from it!

It looks like we're getting even more serious about this bike riding. Marc took my desire to get a single road bike seriously and spent a lot of time on Saturday and Sunday researching women's road bikes online, and then asking me difficult questions that I didn't know the answer to. I've had to mull over whether I want to ride drops, or to get a flat bar style. A women's frame? we think yes, for optimum position and comfort. And a whole heap of other bike-techo stuff, like carbon forks, carbon seat posts, and the 'level' of gear brand - ranging from base, through ok, good, to heaps good, but ridiculously expensive. Womens' road bikes are harder to come by second hand, so we are looking new for me, while he has decided on a mens road bike on ebay. It will be a pick up in Brisbane, so he's decided we find a bike shop in Brisbane to buy my bike. (He's found one online as well where they will meet you on Sundays by appointment - a Sunday being the only day we would have to drive to Brissy and back - and all their testimonials say they spend a lot of time helping you set up the bike to the right 'fit'.) I am a bit freaked by the price; what if I don't like it, or I am not good at it?

I suppose, like anything, you usually don't realise what you can do till you try.

Labels: bike riding, daily, endorphins, go me

82.7 km this morning (already), thank you very much. On the bike (the tandem) that is. We left home at 5.30am. It's not really light at that time now. Marc has invested in a super duper bike headlight, and a flashing red light that you'd have to be blind to miss, but it was still a bit disconcerting riding down the highway.. I don't know where all the traffic was coming from this morning compared to three weeks ago. (Perhaps people returning from school holidays, but being on the road at dawn is pretty keen. Says me, who is on the road at that time on a bloody bike!)

The community ride was more enjoyable than usual - we rode in a group that broke away and went a bit faster, further, and a varied route. The change of scenery was good, and riding faster was good too.

With, by the end of that, about 60km under our belts before 8am, I was feeling a bit peckish! After the ride we sit and have coffee and a bite to eat at a cafe in the city centre square, and this morning I wolfed down my half of the BLAT (bacon/lettuce/avocado/tomato), then paid for it all the way home, with a gut ache. Ech. That didn't stop Marc aiming to crack the 30kph average speed mark by the time we got home. (I wondered why we were really pushing it, even once we turned off the highway! - but I wasn't game to complain.) We did crack it, but I staggered off the bike once we arrived home, and then collapsed on the front lawn for about 20 minutes. Next time, hopefully without pain, we should do it with ease. Nothing like a setting yourself a challenge to make you work hard. And nothing like riding on the back of a tandem to make you put in, when on your own bike you might just slacken off because "ohmigod, my gut hurts"!

We had a few compliments on our tandem riding today, which is nice, as the hyper-sensitive part of me (yes really!) usually feels like other cyclists don't think much of them, basically because they have had no experience of them. (Like they think the one on the back - me in this case - is just luggage, and I always get the "vibe" from women 'roadies' in particular that riding stoker on a tandem is second rate. And - like - why would you relinquish control - to a male! - and not having control of the steering, braking etc.) Someone today, though, told us we looked really professional! LOL. Well, it is easy to look good on a tandem, as you have no choice but to pedal in synch, but, hell, I'll take any praise and bask in it. We blow the single bikes away on the flats and downhills. Yee ha. Yes, perhaps I am a speed junkie. Certainly the speed factor is what attracted Marc to tandems in the first place. And, given that tandems are not as abundant in Australia as they appear to be in the US, for example (where they have tandem rallies of several hundred tandems at once!), then it is a process of educating our bike riding community. And I can take every chance I can to explain the team process involved in tandeming.

I wish we had a photo of us riding it - but so far I guess we've not ridden it where other people have cameras. (And we're going so fast, we'd just be a blur... ha!)

Yesterday afternoon I was true to my re-resolution, and bolted out for a half hour/40min walk up the beach and back as soon as I'd 'got rid of' the kids' friends who came to play for the day. How lucky am I to live where I do - where going for a walk is such a delight to the senses. 150 metres from my front door and I am on the sand and striding up the beach. It is a flattish beach, so at half to low tide, the sand is hard enough to walk on easily, and you can walk half an hour (to the north) without getting to the next headland.

Last night there was an awesome cloud formation which I realised was a storm cell. The top of the cloud was illuminated in a reddish/pinkish glow from the light of the setting sun, and with lightning flashes within, I felt privileged to be witnessing one of nature's light shows. Oh to have had a camera with me, although I know it wouldn't have captured it fully - certainly not the lightning.

On the way back, just as it was getting dark, I even found something in me to break into a jog. I am cautious about attempting to run, as last year when I was determinedly thumping my way around a 2.5 km cross country course I gave myself a lot of hip 'issues'. So I tried 10 jogging steps, 10 walking, 20 jogging, 20 walking.. and increased it by 10 each time till I got up to 70 jogging steps. It felt good. So I will see how I go. It did occur to me last night that if I avoided throwing my back/hips out by attempting to run, the money I'd save per month on chiropractic sessions would help fund my private trainer sessions, which are probably better for me in the long run.

I know, I must sound obsessed with the exercise thing at the moment. Plenty of woman out there way more hard core than me though. I am just determined, this time, to keep doing it enough to reap the benefits, and I am chuffed with myself that this year (after the Big Ride) we are not losing our bike riding fitness, but continuing to push the envelope. The weight loss is only part of it. The zingy-zing-zing endorphins you have jumping around the rest of the day are a more immediate reward - just as long as you don't scoff your BLATs.

Labels: bike riding, endorphins, go me, losing weight, Resolution

I am a loser! But this post is not a grumble. (Which makes a pleasant change!!)

I am a happy loser! I have to share... I got measured at the trainers today, and compared to measurements taken my first day with her at the end of January.

Lost: 3.5 cm off chest/boobs... 9 cm off waist!!, 8 cm off hips!! around 3 cm off each thigh, and 3-4 cm off each upper arm. And around 3kg.

Seeing my aim was to lose 1 kg per month, I am on target and more.

And the centimetres?!! I had no particular aim, except to be a bit slimmer, thanks.. so I AM STOKED!

And boy does it give me the impetus I need to keep going. Not only to be able to take my pick of women's cycling jerseys, but maybe I might even feel like dressing up and going out.

Labels: go me, losing weight

Me? A thinking blogger? Well fracas thinks so, and so who am I to quibble? Particularly when I think she makes me think far more than I can imagine I make her think... But, thank you fracas! I'm thorougly chuffed!

So, now, the rules of this meme started by Thinking Blogger Awards are as follows

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (there is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).

Now for the hard part. Finding 5 who haven't been tagged already.. and then stressing about leaving people out! (At least you can still find most of the blogs I read for many reasons over there on my sidebar... though I must update it someday soon!)

So. Here are 5 bloggers that I have been reading for a while now, and who regularly have posts which really get me thinking about life, the universe and everything. (And, yes, who are likely to read my blog so that they know I've tagged them anyway!)

The Brave

Jeanie in Paradise

shishyboo

Miscellaneous Mum

Because it's personal

Labels: go me, linkety link