Running

This will be my running track. It doesn't look very inspiring, does it? But it's on top of a levee and if I head down this way I will have the river to my left and in about a kilometre I will hit the beach. The big green building is the marina. The sign on the right of the path advertises the new development so that will be going. It's possible to run down to the beach, over the river and back up the other side then across the river again and back down to where I started from. I must work out how far that is but I reckon it will be a decent distance for a morning run. If I'm feeling very energetic I could ride my bike somewhere as this path goes quite a way and is safe because it's not on roads anywhere.

This morning I ran three laps. I was planning for two but got into the swing and did three. It started to get quite crowded so I stopped and did some stretches and a bit of ab work. Still a little way to go to return to where I was before Christmas but it's happening.

A big week ahead.

Today Himself and I tidied the place up a bit. Not that it was really bad but it looks a bit more presentable for the bank person and the vendor's advocate who are coming tomorrow morning and evening respectively. We realise that there are some things that will have to be done before we can put the place on the market. Three's bedroom needs painting and there are bits and pieces that need patching throughout the place. The carpets are pretty tired. I don't know whether we should replace them with cheap ones or just get some rugs to cover the worst stains (a tip: don't put cream carpet in a house with bulimic cats or clumsy men or blokes who don't understand the concept of taking muddy boots OFF before walking on said carpet). This is why we are getting the advocate in. They will tell us what to do to maximise what we get without overcapitalising.

Tomorrow the agent managing the estate is back from holidays. I am expecting a call from him around lunch time tomorrow and we will work out a time to go down and sign things. After he has answered a loooong list of questions Himself has prepared.

Next Sunday is my mother's 80th birthday. Other Brother and Mrs Other are coming down and we are all going out for lunch on Saturday. Dr Teacher is organising it.

We had a look at furniture today. Realistically I'm not sure what we will be able to afford to replace. It will depend on what we get for this place. But it's fun to look and dream.

Running in the morning.

Now I'm off to read a while.

Have a good week.

This just might be ....

.... the view from my verandah.

Only the verandah (or balcony, depending on your persuasion) will be a foot or so higher than the path I was standing on and be about 10 metres further back. But you get the idea.

And it really doesn't do it justice. The grassland in the front? Crown land right on the river. It will never be built on. I'm not sure if it floods (it's only a foot or so above the current water line and we are in the middle of a drought) but even if it did the levee will protect us!

We have decided to get as much new furniture and fittings as possible. We will sell what we can of what we have at the moment. The furniture that my parents gave me looks really good in this house (and will hopefully help sell it) but it's not comfortable to use (don't tell my mother, please) and we want, above all, to be comfortable in the new house.

*For those of you who don't know the Story of the Furniture and might consider me an ungrateful sod ... my parents bought this furniture after the Ash Wednesday fires (see recent post). The way my mother tells the story is that they were walking around the store and she was tired and sat down and decided she had to have this furniture as it was soooo comfortable. And - SURPRISE - was the most expensive in the place. A fact of which we are continually reminded. It is large and heavy and looks really good in our house. It has been shoe-horned into every house they have owned since post fires. They decided to replace it with something lighter and smaller a couple of years ago and I asked how much they wanted for it as we might be interested in buying it. And, thus, it became my 50th birthday present from them. Very generous and it does, as I have said many times, look good. But it won't really go in the new place.*

Lisa left a comment on my last post suggesting that the black dog might be revisiting. I had thought this could have been the case. And it probably has been to some degree. As I have said before, I don't do this time of year very well, although now that we are well into January I feel much better. This morning I hopped on the cross trainer for 50 minutes, played 9 holes of golf in the middle of the day and went for a decent walk this evening. I think that I am learning to deal with depression with exercise. I know this is well known but it's a totally different thing to actually put this knowledge into practice, especially when depressed. But when I was on the cross trainer this morning I felt great and am looking forward to running next week.

Tomorrow we will tidy the place up (being valued on Monday) and maybe go and look at furniture. I don't want to buy something willy nilly at the last minute. The mid year sales will be on before we move so opportunity to stock up on new towels and sheets. I am so looking forward to tossing out all the crappy stuff we've held on to for years.

Enough

It's time to put the brakes on.

It's time to stop the self-destructive behaviour.

It's time to get back out there and move.

It's time to put the cork back in the bottle

It's time to get back to clean eating.

It's time to continue the amazing journey I started.

It's time to remember why I started that journey.

It's time to say "enough is enough".

25 years ago

Not to the day but near enough.

Ash Wednesday 1983.

My parents lived in this house:


It was their 'seachange' if you like. We had come to Australia in 1971 and lived in suburban Melbourne. My mother yearned for more of a village (ie English village) lifestyle and they moved to Cockatoo (on the outskirts of Melbourne in the Dandenongs) in 1980. This was the house they were going to retire in. Dad was due to retire in the November of '83 when he turned 65 but had planned to leave a smidge earlier.

This site tells it better. I still get upset talking about it. What isn't clear to those that don't live in Melbourne is that the fires effectively ringed Melbourne. We were in suburbia but still had smouldering embers landing in our street.

I was unaware that Cockatoo and Upper Beaconsfield (a short distance away) had gone up and when a friend of my parents rang to ask if they were OK cos she couldn't get through on the phone I reassured her.

The first I knew of a problem was when my parents burst through my front door having escaped their home with the flames bearing down on them. They had to drive a very convoluted route to get to us and were, naturally, devastated. We sat up all night and watched the progress on telly. It was the moment where my parents ceased to be the carers and became those that needed caring for. I think we all experience that shift but I don't know if it's always quite so defined.

It was three days before my parents were allowed to go back to see if their house was OK. We knew that lives and property had been lost.

Their house was ash. The picket gate was pristine white in a charred hedge. The chooks were either dead or dying. Dr. Teacher was a student vet and spent an afternoon wringing the necks of those unfortunate chooks that survived. Two of the four cats returned. (The two dogs had been inside and were brought down with my parents ... the cats had been outside and had fled). The fire ball that had engulfed their property had been so intense that half the outside picnic table was ash and the other half didn't even have the paint blistered. A Waterford crystal champagne glass had melted and solidified so that it was literally half a glass! One side still had the intricate engraving. My father's reading glasses were still in their case. The frames had melted away to nothing but the lenses were still intact ... only opaque. And the case? No idea why that survived.

This was the car they left behind. The front (near where my father is standing) was almost untouched. Tyre rubber intact. Paint not damaged.






And the reason for this trip down an unpleasant memory lane?




We are experiencing extreme fire conditions. Today and tomorrow we will have temperatures over 40C with a cool change tomorrow. But cool changes are always accompanied by strong wind shifts and that makes the fire danger even higher. And there is no rain forecast.

A friend has a son who works for a department that Knows These Things. Conditions are worse now than they were 25 years ago. It's not a case of "if" it's a case of "where". And there are already fires burning. Including one in the very same street my parents were living in 25 years ago.

Still brewing

For those that could care less ... I am still brewing this cold. It could go either way. I have the sore itchy throat, itchy eyes and occasional sniffle. and a dull headache.

Because I have SOME fitness left I just might be able to shake it off. That is if I can get a decent night's sleep. Last night Tom played silly buggers at 3 in the morning and I finally managed to let him out and closed the bedroom door so he couldn't get back in. So he did whatever he wanted to do outside (no gifts from the mighty hunter this morning, thank gawd) and then sat and gently and persistently 'knocked' on the bedroom door until some time around 6 he managed to open it. Was THAT a proud cat or what. He jumped on the bed and purred and chirruped at me. Until I got up.

Today is going to be around 30C and tonight should get down to around 19 but then tomorrow and Friday will be in the low 40s. With a hot night tomorrow. Yuck.

We have a vendor's advocate coming to talk to us about selling this place on Monday evening. Not sure what a VA does but I'll be sure to let you know. Himself organised it.

And I shall now take my sore throat and snuffles off to work. I'm not looking for sympathy around this place!! As Fireman Sam says "If you want sympathy you can find it in the dictionary between shit and syphilis". Bloody men!

So THAT'S why I feel so cr*p

Into work feeling really bad about not exercising and stuff (and thankyou so much, MizS, for your comments ... I'm still at the stage where I feel that I'm doing this on my own and it's good to know that others feel the same). And feeling soooo tired.

Found out that the measles thing had been handled OK. This is good as it was the first thing I've done without my boss on hand. And the kid DOES have measles. Immunise, folks, OK? Please?

A day of paperwork and then my colleague offered to work back (she starts at 8 and finishes at 4.30 and I start at 8.30 and finish at 5 ... supposedly) so I could leave early to make up for last evening. Most appreciated. I came home and One, who has been home today because of nasty cold symptoms, and I went down to look at The Block of Land and for me to show him the house they prepared earlier. I still love it.

And as we were driving down my throat started to tickle, my sinuses started to feel full and I realised that the overwhelming tiredness I have experienced over the past few days is probably (especially going on One's symptoms) more than likely the beginning of a viral illness.

Thank you, Three, for being so caring and sharing with your bugs!!

So no exercise for me tomorrow morning. I'll see how I feel but I will take it easy for a couple of days and then get back into things. As I have said before, this is for ever so I need to be able to go with the flow and adjust my routine to suit where I happen to be at any given point. Yes, a kilo or three may be gained but they can easily be lost once the bug is beaten. Blindingly obvious to most, probably, but a new way of thinking for this motley cat.

I still feel fat and blobby but, hey, tomorrow's another day and next week's another week. And I still don't weigh anywhere near what I did 8 months ago. And my clothes still fit. Just ... but they fit!

When we have signed on the dotted line I will post a link to where we are looking to buy. Just so you know. Before then? Don't want to tempt fate. Superstition, thy name is Merlot.