Today -or rather yesterday, as it's now 12.11pm, and yes, what the hell am I doing up this late when it's back to school in the morning? - the car was ready to be picked up from the mechanics after its little visit late last week. and I decided that I'd walk up to get it, despite the fact that they offer the usual courtesy pick up service. It's a 45 minute walk, so it actually serves very conveniently as my dose of exercise for the day.

I've done this sort of thing numerous times in the past, and it never ceases to surprise me that people (like the mechanic's office person, or varied friends) seem to think it's some sort of amazing feat or extreme exercise choice that I have made.

As it happens, you couldn't ask for better scenery for 25 minutes of the 45 minute walk - right up this beach here:

And today (I took this photo the other day) it wasn't even as crowded as this!! I'm serious!!

After 25 minutes, I do have to cut left and back up to the highway, and yes, it's a less pleasant 12 minutes up the highway with trucks and cars whizzing past at 80kph. But still!

If I went out for a 45 minute walk - as is recommended one does on a thrice weekly basis at least - noone really blinks. If I went to the gym for 45 minutes, people wouldn't think that was odd either. But because I could have got a free courtesy lift, people seem to think it is rather odd that I would take the walking option.

Why wouldn't you gain yourself 45 minutes of exercise (and thinking!) time if you are physically capable of doing so (and I guess have the time) than get driven (in most likely one's own car!) by some young assistant mechanic who is not much of a conversationalist!

I guess I'm just an anti-social exercise-addicted crazy.

Labels: huh

Most mornings it's the news on the radio that gradually drags me into consciousness. Yesterday I groaned as I heard about the massacre in Virginia. A 'not another one' groan... mixed with that bewilderment that a human could do that. Other mornings I sigh sadly when they happen to mention how many more people have been killed in Iraq. More bewilderment, really, about the situation that is causing it.

This morning though, it was a "huh?! - wtf?!!" when I heard about this refugee swap deal with the US. (I thought I'd misheard, till Marc came out of the shower and said, basically, wtf? about it as well.)

"Defies logic" is right. I suppose nothing should surprise me anymore over what Howard and co will do as regards refugees. Who the hell dreamt that one up?

And don't start me on the spin that his Lordship tries to put on it in that news link.

Strangely enough I'm with Labor and the Greens on this one. And Magic Bellybutton I'm sure!

Labels: huh, opinion, political

Last night I had one of those 'duh!' moments over the cause of this back aggravation. (My back is better than it was yesterday, but still not conducive to doing much in the way of energetic movement.. which kind of rules out housework again today. What a shame.)

But, you know.. DUH! - it wasn't starting the mower at all! It was raking up these orange.. berries (I suppose you call them) that are currently dropping from the palm tree that some idiot of a previous owner of this house planted out on the footpath. Raking them up into a pile, then shovelling them into a bucket to go in the green waste bin. (Even though they are orange.) Shovelling! That'll do it to me. Every time. Lucky I don't live where it snows and you have to get out there and shovel your way out to the street. I'd be an invalid. Digging or shovelling are things I usually avoid in the garden for good reason. Necessity dictated doing it, and I'm paying for it.

This is what has dropped on the ground since Tuesday afternoon. Imagine how many were there since... well.. since they started ripening and dropping. Last year we hacked off the big bunches (one on each tree).. and the dead palm fronds (which are inconveniently getting higher and higher each year as the wretched tree grows.) We haven't got round to doing it this year. Really, this is so not the sort of tree we need. We need low to no maintenance trees! For heaven's sakes! One day, we'll cut the damn things down. It's just not something we need on The List.

Speaking of Lists.. well I was thinking about Lists.. because Jeanie over in Paradise had me cracking up with her M.O. for list writing. (Among other things!) I am quite enamoured of her tactic of having 'Write List' as the first item on the list, so that, once you've printed out your list, you can immediately tick one thing off and feel like you're already getting somewhere. I like her style.

I do try to write lists as a way of trying to get myself DOING THE THINGS I SHOULD BE DOING WOMAN!! I am ridiculously erratic with them though.. (which is hardly surprising, given that chaos theory was most likely coined with me in mind) and I have a tendency to lose them. My latest attempt at gaining some control is with this flexible magnetic whiteboard I have put on the fridge (where I am likely to see it.)

It's working, at least, for phone messages that the kids take. (And providing an endless source of entertainment for them as they add stuff like "Buy 3 packets of Mars Bars and one chocolate cake.") And rather than ticking, or crossing out (my usual MO), I am getting some sort of sense of satisfaction using the felt tip on the pen to erase the list item once it is achieved.

Mind you, as soon as I decided to take a photo, I thought of a million and one other things that really should be on it, but I'd need a very big whiteboard for everything that needs to be done round here.

But let's not go on a 'woe is me' expedition right now. Sometimes, actually, all you need in a day to cheer you up is to see someone who makes you feel like you might actually have your shit together. (Or rather, someone to warn you to get your shit together, and keep it together.) Go over to Rockstar Mommy's blog and check out the video. I've just linked to it, because she does an introduction to this "pre-wedding" video better than I could!

Oh YouTube.. what brave new world have you wrought? There's a moral in there. Beware the "friend" with a video camera next time you're about to drop your bundle and behave like a three year old. Otherwise Worldwide Humiliation could be yours.

But, hey.. I'm feeling pretty ok about myself now.

Labels: doh, huh

Not that I saw that many people on my walk up the beach this morning (yes, I did walk, go me!) but I was kind of gobsmacked by a goodly percentage out there frying themselves! It wasn't a huge sample. Our beach is wonderfully unique in that, due to lack of holiday accommodation in our seaside 'village', we don't even get crowded out in the summer holidays. But it was very noticeable nonetheless.

Back when I was a child in the 60s and 70s, that was just what you did. But now we all know to slip, slop, slap. Don't we? (And cringe about how naively burnt we used to get?) If you must be out in the midday sun, wear a rash shirt at the very least. Surely? It was around 11am (with daylight saving I guess that's only 10am, but the sun was high, and had some bite in it.)

But, nup. Not many were covering up at all. There were girls and older women lying sprawled on towels in bikinis worshipping the sun. Kids frolicking in the shallows with no rashies. (Couldn't believe one family - Dad had the rashie, and the kids didn't!) The one that really had me shaking my (obviously middle-aged, 'countrified' and paranoid of sunburn) head, though, was the girl walking with her guy up the far end of the beach. He had the long boardies on, and a loose fitting short sleeved shirt. And cap I think. She was a contrast to say the least. She... wore... an.... incy wincy teeny weeny ... bikini. (Black, though, not yellow polka dot). It was so brief, I couldn't help but glance back as I passed them. G-string. I wonder if they heard me snort. And snort again: when you're strutting up the beach in pretty much your birthday suit, the point of the cap is what?

I suppose if you frequent trendy city or tourist beaches, you wouldn't think twice about it. Not that it was ever my thing, being always self-conscious about my less than sylph-like body. Maybe I've also gone all conservative living up here. Maybe I've gone prudish in my old age. There's a conservative 'not-real-keen-on-the-g-string-look' streak in me too. (Not real keen? I think it's an appalling look!) Yes, maybe I'm just jealous! (hah). But with the current spate of skin cancer TV ads echoing in my head as I noticed all these people out there burning themselves up, it did make me do a double take, and all I could imagine was the red raw buttocks she was going to end up with sooner than she'd realise.

And while I had my conservative specs on, I did humour myself with the wry observation that the briefness of the front part of her bikini bottoms - which could only be carried off with a Brazilian - from a distance (and because they were black) it looked exactly like she was going 'bottomless' with pubic hair intact.

Labels: huh

I'm pretty good at losing and misplacing things, I have to say. Take my swimming costume saga from last week for instance. Recently I also had to buy new sunglasses.. didn't have a clue where mine were.. they turned up about 6 weeks later at my hairdresser's house. (Yes, she could have rung me...)

My mum-in-law rang me the other morning to ask if we'd lost one of our tandems. Ha ha. Or perhaps we might want to buy one. (Yeah, why not, we already have 4!) She had heard this amusing item on the radio about the Railways Lost Property auction... and they had a tandem for sale.

I did a google, and found it... and a whole heap of other bikes as well. I ask you this.. how do you just accidentally leave your bike behind on a train?



(Just incidentally, I note that good spelling obviously isn't a prerequisite for auctioneering. )

Granted, also, that a lot of the items on the list (if you go to the link) are obviously Railway office or yard property that they are getting rid of. I can't think where a tandem bike would have been standard Railways issue though....

Labels: huh