Random Things

Bit of a cliche post... but it's Friday and I feel like throwing some random things out there. What I've been doing, eating, whatever!

1. Kicking butt at Words with Friends with a 71 point word... yep, triple word, triple letter, using all my letters.... ok so I'm a nerd.. who cares ;)

2. Making amazing overnight oats... this was oats, vanilla soy milk, and half the banana cooked in the microwave for three minutes, heaps of cinnamon added... then extra banana added on top after. Pretty simple, but I think the vanilla soy milk really took it over the edge because it was AMAZING....

3. Taking gross pictures of my broken toe... this is after one month of injury... looking kinda angry, and still super fat :( I won't show you the pics I took closer to the injury... eww!

4. Getting up at 5 am to volunteer to take photos at the running club's weekend race - going again this weekend. I figure while I'm out of action, might as well help out! First actual "volunteer" work I've done. Felt good! I think a lot of people didn't like me taking multiple photos of them though... there was like 100 people in the race and I took 1000 photos (it was an out and back multiple times race) :S

This pic is just the view I had before the first runners got to me... that's my tiny little city across the other side of the river :)

One of the better shots I got... blurred the dude out coz I don't know him!

5. Uni starts back on the 27th of Feb! After sitting around on my butt for four months (well, not totally - I did work for a month of it) I'm wondering how I'm going to take being extremely busy again. I do love being busy, and routine, but I have (slowly!) gotten used to not having much to do.

6. Totally random, but I'm in a job which requires me to travel (sort of by choice, though), and have been debating whether to go away for six months at the end of this year. It means delaying the half-marathon I was going to run, as well as deferring uni in second semester, missing some of uni this semester, moving my exams around, quitting the gym & kickboxing, putting my stuff in storage, sorting out finances and bills, living in a foreign country, and STRESS STRESS STRESS... I'm so gonna do it though! Face the fear and do it anyway...

7. One other thing... I've installed intensedebate and I so don't get it. None of the comments that have been sent to me by email are showing up on the blog. I've checked on the moderation and all that and "accepted" all the comments, but none of them show up except my "testing" comment??! Anyone got any idea, or should I just can the stupid thing and return to blogger comments? Grrr arrrgh...

2011 in Pictures

Starting the positivity with a post of the fun things I did this year :)

This is really the only photo I have of me doing a fun run this year haha, and you can barely see me! I'm behind the dude with the white shirt and red bits - wearing blue shorts. But this year I ran in three - Bridges 10k, Run for a Reason 14k & City 2 Surf 12k. Next year, many many more races!

Hiked about 100 km of the Bibbulmun Track in Western Australia, in four days. It was stunning.

A sunset on the track.

Another evil hill, this is the part where I would always get separated from the group (That's me in the red jacket).

Looking exhausted on day four (me on the right)

Went to Vietnam, here is where I rode on the back of a motorbike up the Hoi Van Pass... it was about a four or five hour ride and with some amazing scenery.

A sunset on one of the small islands I stayed at overnight in Vietnam. This was one of my favourite nights there. After spending the day picking fruit, cycling around the island and chilling in a hammock... we watched the sunset and then had a traditional Vietnamese dinner. So relaxing.

I stayed in a five star hotel in Vietnam for my birthday, and when I had returned from the day's travelling, the hotel had left me a card, cake and a REAL bunch of roses!! It made me so happy to receive that when away from home :D

Did boot camp for a month. I LOVED it, but it was really inconvenient! 20 km from my home meant that on my busiest uni day I would be getting up at 5 am, driving there, doing the session, driving to uni - changing in the car!! (No showers at uni unless you pay!) and then being at uni from 7 am to 7 pm... driving home... which took another 40 mins. Was a REALLY long day... plus boot camp is super expensive and not feasible on a student budget. But I would love to do it again!

Got back into kickboxing and fought in a novice tournament after being back for one month :) I forgot how much I missed it till I got back, and can't wait to return after Christmas break.

One of the very few skydives I did this year - There was a Christmas themed party where we jumped in santa suits and elf suits, etc. I am the one I suppose you could say "facing" the camera. Was a fantastic day and so good to catch up with people I hadn't seen for months!

I wish I had more photos to share, but I think I got pretty slack with my camera... so there's not too many. I am not making new year's resolutions for 2012, but I hope to run the City 2 Surf half-marathon and to run as many 5k's as I can find. I also hope to adopt a more positive mindset in general, and to take more photos! :)

Progress!

It's really strange that the busier I am, the more posts I write. Since finishing exams, I have hardly written a thing in this blog! I guess because there is more to say when you're busy. I'm going to mix it up and write a post with random list type things, because lists are awesome.

I am, ever so slowly, increasing my running speed without trying. To be completely honest, although I've been "running" for a year... I've actually only been consistently running 3x a week for 16 weeks now. So I'm super happy that my pace has gone from roughly 6:50 to 6:00 in that time (KM paces), and who knows what it can improve to with time, maybe if I actually start doing intervals and tempo runs and all that kind of thing... all in good time though!! Too injury paranoid - plus I'm not training for anything in particular right now.

Well, that was point 1.... point 2.. I attempted to make the peanut butter protein cookies featured in my WIAW post. The batter was amazingly awesome. When it cooked, the texture came out strange, and the flavour wasn't quite the same. I haven't figured out where I went wrong yet, but I will give it another go at some point!! Would love to have some daily protein cookies mmmmmm....

OK, that's actually all I've got ;) My iPhone has stopped being able to import photos for some stupid reason, so I've got no photos and probably no WIAW tomorrow :(

Things that make me happy

I'm feeling pretty down... again... story of this week. So I decided on doing a post of things that make me happy to try to cheer myself up.

The fact that all the rooms in my house still have those awesome glow-in-the-dark star stickers on the ceilings, and they still work after 20+ years. I hardly remember to look at them these days, but when I do they cheer me up.

Skinny cow icecream cookies :)

Eating random dinners with all sorts of stuff. Like, vegetarian sausages wrapped in turkey, and mushrooms spread with vegemite.

Eating lunch in the form of brown gloop. 

Mixing stuff with raspberries up so it turns pink!

Taking stupid photos of myself, so then I can look at them and laugh at how dumb I look.

People who dress like this in races :D

Pretty flowers, and photography in general.

Sunsets, the beach.

Kicking some butt! (Or getting my butt kicked)

Chocolate, in all its variations.

Dumb jokes on the back of toilet doors. The bit I thought the funniest is: "Don't fight for femmenism, fight for equal rights!" to which someone has replied "Fight for spelling!"

And the most important? Friends.

Yes, I have sacrificed my friends for the sake of my study this year. And you know what? It was stupid. I've burnt myself out because I've had little to no time with my friends, I've spent every weekend studying and this semester I just couldn't hack it. The only me time I've had is watching TV and exercising. I have literally said no to EVERY SINGLE INVITATION this year. It has turned me into a recluse, brought back social anxiety symptoms, and made me focus even more on food and diet, something I want to get away from.

So having completed absolutely no study today because I just can't face it, I'm now going to drive 3.5 hours to a dropzone where there's currently a big party, and see the friends I've been neglecting for way too long. Some things should come before study, why did it take me so long to realise this?

Yes, I've got three exams this week. But I just can't take it anymore, I need relief!!!!

(I am kinda going to listen to lectures on the car stereo on the way, but still!!)