Cycled 223 km (including 50 km on the trainer), with the longest individual ride being 100km
Swam 16,600 m, including 4000 in open water
Spent 500 minutes running, with a longest run of 10.8 mi, and a longest hill of 2.5 mi.
The totals aren't particularly impressive, but I think I've balanced exercise, fun and relaxation this summer. It's amazing, though not surprising, how much easier training is on my body when I'm not working!
I'm not quite down to my pre-Xmas weight yet, but I am down within my "acceptable" range and given that I stopped recording at 132.4 in early December, I'm hardly suprised that I'm not quite there yet.
Back to work tomorrow, so today is a rest. I will finish tying up loose ends and get ready for the first week back. Early morning workouts, here comes Kate.
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Monday, January 08, 2007
"Training" vacation styles
I started the holiday with high hopes for training, but my real goal was not about training as much as about lifestyle. I knew I would come away happy if I felt like I had been "active" every day. And, guess what? I nearly did it. I wish I could say I did it, but I'm not beating myself up too much!
On the first full day at P's parents place, we drove into Hamilton, the nearest city. While P checked out the shops at the scary huge hypermall (tiny by US standards), I swam 2000m in the local pool. I was a bit disappointed in the pool, to be honest- the outdoor 50m pool was closed (the weather wasn't great, but wasn't THAT bad) and the indoor 50m pool was split up. BO-ring. It was an OK workout though, and it felt good to check it off the list!
In the course of my swimming pool research, I discovered some hot pools located in the region that boasted the longest opn hot water hydroslide in the country. Perfect way to entice a boy to a swimming pool! We tossed up riding out there and back, but once I realised it was at least 65k in each direction I decided it wasn't so smart. As we drove, we breathed a HUUGE sigh of relief- it was another 23km of steep windy hill to get to the pools after you reached the town! That would have meant over 100m of pretty hard riding that day. The hot pools were fun- not the fanciest, but not too bad. I didn't do any particularly "active" swimming, but running up the steps to the hydroslide's got to count, right? I didn't take any pics, which was a little silly! After that P drove me out to Raglan, which boasts some of the most beautiful beaches in the country. I fell completely in love with the place and can't wait to go back there next time we're up in the area.
When we got home I was feeling antsy, so I persuaded P to run with me after dinner. The one problem with staying at P's parents' farm is that it's right on the state highway, so you can't just run from home. It's not really a big enough farm to run around either. Since I don't drive, I was kinda reliant on P. Excuses, excuses! We drove into the centre of town and ran for about 50 minutes around the streets and some lovely trails. It was great being able to run on trails after 8:30pm, and to be able to run on trails that weren't 90% vertical!
The last day before we left for the beach we rode. We didn't go far, and although it was high on P's list of "top holiday moments", I was feeling a little bit stressed out for some of it so it wasn't quite as fun for me. Having said that, the stress ended pretty early on and all in all it was AWESOME. I love love LOVE riding out there. It's mostly rolling and some medium sized climbs, and you can go off on country roads and just fly. So so fun and SO different to riding in Welly (where it's UP or DOWN or FLAT and if you want to do anything other than ride round the bays, you're in traffic. Yuck.
When we got home, we ran twice round the horse track. P needs to do some bricks to get ready for his du on the 22nd!
The drive to the beach from Cambridge was the MOST beautiful ever, absolutely breathtaking, and I am embarrassed to say that I do not have any pictures.
It's probably not necessary to spell out the details of my other workouts/"active" activities, but I ran for 30-45 minutes 2 of the mornings we were at the beach, fell in love with the swimming pool in New Plymouth (I didn't "train" as such- I probably did about 10 laps of the 50m pool- the rest of the time was spent playing, going down the hydroslides and mucking about in the wave pool), we went on a couple of walks (other than the one I talked about yesterday) and spent some time in the surf. I did some "proper" swimming in a lake on our way back, my guess is about 400m though, so nothing too flash!
The last workout I wanted to talk about was on our last full day- the day of the Round the Mountain ride that we had originally intended to do. We planned some of our route during our drive to the mountain the day before, and were thinking we'd do a loop of about 70 km. The first 12 km looked easy, but oh my god, I was ready to stop at 12! That was the hardest "easy" 12km every. Basically, combine a loong false flat with strong headwinds and a really bumpy road and you get one tired and frustrated Kate. It got a bit better after that, though it was so cold I had to stop to put a polyprop on- the roads were better, we could mostly ride next to each other and we got to enjoy the undulations a little more (my speed was still only in the early 30s (km/h) on the downhills though!). P pushed me to keep off the brakes on the downhills, and I got much better at letting myself go, even with him cruising in front of me (it drives me CRAZY). Pretty much before we knew it we'd arrived in a smallish town a little further on than the one we'd originally planned to stop in, about 47k from the start. We had a late lunch in an Irish pub (yum), refilled some water bottles and then headed on. We also got to see some of the stragglers in the Round the Mountain race go past. The next part of the ride was hard but fun- riding hard into cold headwinds on the state highway. It's amazing how having cars speeding past you makes you push that much harder! My water bottle holder came loose, which was very distracting- it sounded as if some important part of my bike was making that odd clinking noise, so we stopped in the next town (where we'd planned originally to turn off) to fix it. As we slowed down, I noticed that we hadn't clipped my front brake on. Hmm.. only like 70km in!!
The last 25-30km were amazing. We both found a second wind, the wind was at our back and instead of a gradual uphill, we had a gradual downhill, with lots of super fun rollers. WOOHOO! My speed went below 30km/h ONCE for those last ks and that was on a short hill and it went down to 29.5. I was glowing, just loving it! My cadence improved, and we think we would have averaged over 35kph on that last bit. If only we could have a whole ride like that! When we got back into town, we were at about 97 km so we decided to be a bit pathetic and to zigzag back home for the next 3 km. I was also sitting at 2984 calories or something, so I was keen to kick those last 16 calories in the butt :-) We hit home at 100.31km, and 3031 calories burned. I am so proud of us- that's our longest ride to date by about 30km, and getting past that 100 mark is so cool. I know now that if we keep up with our training, we WILL be able to do some proper rides during 2007, and also that I will be able to ride with P stress free.
I'll probably post some more random pictures, but other than that, that's it for my holiday tales.
On the first full day at P's parents place, we drove into Hamilton, the nearest city. While P checked out the shops at the scary huge hypermall (tiny by US standards), I swam 2000m in the local pool. I was a bit disappointed in the pool, to be honest- the outdoor 50m pool was closed (the weather wasn't great, but wasn't THAT bad) and the indoor 50m pool was split up. BO-ring. It was an OK workout though, and it felt good to check it off the list!
In the course of my swimming pool research, I discovered some hot pools located in the region that boasted the longest opn hot water hydroslide in the country. Perfect way to entice a boy to a swimming pool! We tossed up riding out there and back, but once I realised it was at least 65k in each direction I decided it wasn't so smart. As we drove, we breathed a HUUGE sigh of relief- it was another 23km of steep windy hill to get to the pools after you reached the town! That would have meant over 100m of pretty hard riding that day. The hot pools were fun- not the fanciest, but not too bad. I didn't do any particularly "active" swimming, but running up the steps to the hydroslide's got to count, right? I didn't take any pics, which was a little silly! After that P drove me out to Raglan, which boasts some of the most beautiful beaches in the country. I fell completely in love with the place and can't wait to go back there next time we're up in the area.
When we got home I was feeling antsy, so I persuaded P to run with me after dinner. The one problem with staying at P's parents' farm is that it's right on the state highway, so you can't just run from home. It's not really a big enough farm to run around either. Since I don't drive, I was kinda reliant on P. Excuses, excuses! We drove into the centre of town and ran for about 50 minutes around the streets and some lovely trails. It was great being able to run on trails after 8:30pm, and to be able to run on trails that weren't 90% vertical!
The last day before we left for the beach we rode. We didn't go far, and although it was high on P's list of "top holiday moments", I was feeling a little bit stressed out for some of it so it wasn't quite as fun for me. Having said that, the stress ended pretty early on and all in all it was AWESOME. I love love LOVE riding out there. It's mostly rolling and some medium sized climbs, and you can go off on country roads and just fly. So so fun and SO different to riding in Welly (where it's UP or DOWN or FLAT and if you want to do anything other than ride round the bays, you're in traffic. Yuck.
When we got home, we ran twice round the horse track. P needs to do some bricks to get ready for his du on the 22nd!
The drive to the beach from Cambridge was the MOST beautiful ever, absolutely breathtaking, and I am embarrassed to say that I do not have any pictures.
It's probably not necessary to spell out the details of my other workouts/"active" activities, but I ran for 30-45 minutes 2 of the mornings we were at the beach, fell in love with the swimming pool in New Plymouth (I didn't "train" as such- I probably did about 10 laps of the 50m pool- the rest of the time was spent playing, going down the hydroslides and mucking about in the wave pool), we went on a couple of walks (other than the one I talked about yesterday) and spent some time in the surf. I did some "proper" swimming in a lake on our way back, my guess is about 400m though, so nothing too flash!
The last workout I wanted to talk about was on our last full day- the day of the Round the Mountain ride that we had originally intended to do. We planned some of our route during our drive to the mountain the day before, and were thinking we'd do a loop of about 70 km. The first 12 km looked easy, but oh my god, I was ready to stop at 12! That was the hardest "easy" 12km every. Basically, combine a loong false flat with strong headwinds and a really bumpy road and you get one tired and frustrated Kate. It got a bit better after that, though it was so cold I had to stop to put a polyprop on- the roads were better, we could mostly ride next to each other and we got to enjoy the undulations a little more (my speed was still only in the early 30s (km/h) on the downhills though!). P pushed me to keep off the brakes on the downhills, and I got much better at letting myself go, even with him cruising in front of me (it drives me CRAZY). Pretty much before we knew it we'd arrived in a smallish town a little further on than the one we'd originally planned to stop in, about 47k from the start. We had a late lunch in an Irish pub (yum), refilled some water bottles and then headed on. We also got to see some of the stragglers in the Round the Mountain race go past. The next part of the ride was hard but fun- riding hard into cold headwinds on the state highway. It's amazing how having cars speeding past you makes you push that much harder! My water bottle holder came loose, which was very distracting- it sounded as if some important part of my bike was making that odd clinking noise, so we stopped in the next town (where we'd planned originally to turn off) to fix it. As we slowed down, I noticed that we hadn't clipped my front brake on. Hmm.. only like 70km in!!
The last 25-30km were amazing. We both found a second wind, the wind was at our back and instead of a gradual uphill, we had a gradual downhill, with lots of super fun rollers. WOOHOO! My speed went below 30km/h ONCE for those last ks and that was on a short hill and it went down to 29.5. I was glowing, just loving it! My cadence improved, and we think we would have averaged over 35kph on that last bit. If only we could have a whole ride like that! When we got back into town, we were at about 97 km so we decided to be a bit pathetic and to zigzag back home for the next 3 km. I was also sitting at 2984 calories or something, so I was keen to kick those last 16 calories in the butt :-) We hit home at 100.31km, and 3031 calories burned. I am so proud of us- that's our longest ride to date by about 30km, and getting past that 100 mark is so cool. I know now that if we keep up with our training, we WILL be able to do some proper rides during 2007, and also that I will be able to ride with P stress free.
I'll probably post some more random pictures, but other than that, that's it for my holiday tales.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
GYGO New Year's Day (Bikini) Tri (and our summertime polar bear plunge)
I woke up on New Year's day feeling somewhat hungover, quite full, very tired and extremely hoarse after a night of too much beer and tequila, too much barbequed "Mexican" food (I added those "" for you, Wes!), too little sleep and too much David Bowie/Nirvana/John Farnham on singstar...It was incredibly windy, the pool wasn't open and the sea was choppy and ice cold. So I did what any shamefully lazy, summer holidaying triathlete would do and decided to take an official DNS and convert my intended super sprint into a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious sprint bikini/beach tri (and slightly muddled too..)
So I changed into bikini and jandals (flipflops), covered up with a mini and headed down to the beach, with P (fellow competitor and official race photographer) in tow.
The water was cooold but I ran in baywatch styles and plunged under, swam a few strokes (maybe 20?) and then turned back.
T1 was, for once very quick as all I had to do was get back to the beach and run up and down a few times, probably doing about 300/400m in total.
T2 was located a little further away than T1 (i.e. "home") so we trotted back, I put the jandals and mini back on, grabbed a helmet and my sister's hybrid (so I could keep the jandals on). Rode along the road and around the cul-de-sac a couple of times before I got bored and we called it a day.
So, that was my new year's tri. A little pathetic and, to be honest, not much fun. I had hoped to get everyone involved but that didn't quite happen.
We made up for our lack of activity in the morning (sort of) by heading up Mt Taranaki in the afternoon. Mt Taranaki is one of the most beautiful mountains in NZ (in my opinion), but its peak is often covered in mist, so you always feel very lucky when you get a glimpse.
For a long time, it was known as Mt Egmont, but its Maori name was eventually reinstated. The Maori legend of Taranaki is quite well known and also kind of cute so I thought I'd share it:
Te Maunga o Taranaki (Mount Taranaki) once lived in the centre of New Zealand's North Island with other mountain gods: Tongariro, Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe. Nearby stood the lovely maid Pihanga with her cloak of deep green bush, and all the mountain gods were in love with her.
What had been a long, peaceful existence for the mountain gods was disturbed when Taranaki could no longer keep his feelings in control and dared to make advances to Pihanga. A mighty conflict between Tongariro and Taranaki ensued, which shook the foundations of the earth. The mountains belched forth their anger and darkness clouded the sky.
When peace finally came to the land, Tongariro, considerably lowered in height, stood close by Pihanga's side. Taranaki, wild with grief and anger, tore himself from his roots with a mighty wrench and left his homeland.
Weeping, he plunged recklessly towards the setting sun, gouging out the Whanganui River as he went and, upon reaching the ocean, turned north. While he slumbered overnight, the Pouakai Range thrust out a spur and trapped Taranaki in the place he now rests.
According to some versions of Maori history, one day Taranaki will return to Pihanga and so it is unwise to live along the path between the two mountains.
When covered with a veil of mist and rain, Taranaki is said to be weeping for his lost Pihanga.
We chose a route that promised to take about 60-90 minutes and led to a series of beautiful mountain pools.
I have never been able to resist water. Such a water baby from way back (you'd think I'd be a better swimmer...) As a kid, I always seemed to find myself "just paddling" and "accidentally" falling in regardless of the water temperature and whether or not I had my swimsuit with me! On New Year's day, I proved I haven't changed much so I decided to strip down to my (fortunately quite decent) underwear to take the plunge. It was so fresh and invigorating that I coaxed P in too. Freezing but fun!
So I changed into bikini and jandals (flipflops), covered up with a mini and headed down to the beach, with P (fellow competitor and official race photographer) in tow.
The water was cooold but I ran in baywatch styles and plunged under, swam a few strokes (maybe 20?) and then turned back.
T1 was, for once very quick as all I had to do was get back to the beach and run up and down a few times, probably doing about 300/400m in total.
T2 was located a little further away than T1 (i.e. "home") so we trotted back, I put the jandals and mini back on, grabbed a helmet and my sister's hybrid (so I could keep the jandals on). Rode along the road and around the cul-de-sac a couple of times before I got bored and we called it a day.
So, that was my new year's tri. A little pathetic and, to be honest, not much fun. I had hoped to get everyone involved but that didn't quite happen.
We made up for our lack of activity in the morning (sort of) by heading up Mt Taranaki in the afternoon. Mt Taranaki is one of the most beautiful mountains in NZ (in my opinion), but its peak is often covered in mist, so you always feel very lucky when you get a glimpse.
For a long time, it was known as Mt Egmont, but its Maori name was eventually reinstated. The Maori legend of Taranaki is quite well known and also kind of cute so I thought I'd share it:
Te Maunga o Taranaki (Mount Taranaki) once lived in the centre of New Zealand's North Island with other mountain gods: Tongariro, Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe. Nearby stood the lovely maid Pihanga with her cloak of deep green bush, and all the mountain gods were in love with her.
What had been a long, peaceful existence for the mountain gods was disturbed when Taranaki could no longer keep his feelings in control and dared to make advances to Pihanga. A mighty conflict between Tongariro and Taranaki ensued, which shook the foundations of the earth. The mountains belched forth their anger and darkness clouded the sky.
When peace finally came to the land, Tongariro, considerably lowered in height, stood close by Pihanga's side. Taranaki, wild with grief and anger, tore himself from his roots with a mighty wrench and left his homeland.
Weeping, he plunged recklessly towards the setting sun, gouging out the Whanganui River as he went and, upon reaching the ocean, turned north. While he slumbered overnight, the Pouakai Range thrust out a spur and trapped Taranaki in the place he now rests.
According to some versions of Maori history, one day Taranaki will return to Pihanga and so it is unwise to live along the path between the two mountains.
When covered with a veil of mist and rain, Taranaki is said to be weeping for his lost Pihanga.
We chose a route that promised to take about 60-90 minutes and led to a series of beautiful mountain pools.
I have never been able to resist water. Such a water baby from way back (you'd think I'd be a better swimmer...) As a kid, I always seemed to find myself "just paddling" and "accidentally" falling in regardless of the water temperature and whether or not I had my swimsuit with me! On New Year's day, I proved I haven't changed much so I decided to strip down to my (fortunately quite decent) underwear to take the plunge. It was so fresh and invigorating that I coaxed P in too. Freezing but fun!
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Christmas
Christmas was great- mostly unmarred by stress and drama, and full of great food, fun times and my fabulous family. There were a couple of tanties (NOT me!) and some tension concerning the paternal side of the equation, but on the whole, the three days (24-26) were what Christmas should be.
Christmas Eve dawned bright, clear and cloudless. When I say dawned, I pretty much literally do mean dawned. I was up at 5:30 to squeeze in a (fabulous) run before heading down to meet my sisters J and R, and J's boyfriend D (together with me and P, hereon the "Famous Five") at the local fruit and vege market at 7am to collect supplies for the nest 8 meals.
The market was buzzing- much busier than usual. Because of my "freakish" (in the world of normals.. "slobbish" in the world of triathletes) workout schedule, I have fairly frequently been at the market before the stalls are completely set up, but I'd never seen it like this. Having Christmas Eve on a Sunday must have been great for all the sellers!
After the market, we braved the supermarket. It was so fabulous to be done with the last pre-Xmas errands and able to relax by 9! While P went riding with a friend of his, the rest of us spent the day walking around my mountain and playing some silly games in the park. We followed this with Monopoly and the Sound of Music (of course!) and then baked some chocolate chip cookies for Santa (poor guy didn't get many after we'd finished!). Then we headed into town for a midnight carol service, which was (despite an odd sermon) beautiful, traditional and incredibly moving, in that way that only church can be. The candelight in the church was amazing and we sang all my favourite carols, and singing the sacred verse in O Come all Ye faithful was as wonderful as always. The only downside was the fact that I could barely stay standing for the carols, it was so stuffy and hot!
I woke early on Christmas morning and headed out for a much less enjoyable run than I had had the day before- foggy humid air, tired legs, tired Kate (starts before 6 for the last 7 days). We then opened our stockings and eventually gathered the strength to head into Dad's for Xmas lunch. The highlights of the lunch were the food (prepared by dad's foodie friends) and the two adorable puppies (a springer spaniel and a miniature dachsund, aged 10 and 11 weeks) that were there. I had waaay too much summer berry trifle (YUMMY!) Then it was home to prepare for Mum's arrival (she's a Minister so Xmas day is a work day for her, and she had to travel for hours to get from the South Island to us).
Once mum arrived we got more stockings (obviously we're way too old, but we love it, and there are no grandkids yet!) and then (finally!!) started in on the real presents (Dad's soaps and gu's certainly cannot count as "real"...) By this time we felt like we were up to our 4th Christmas! Anyway- I was SOOO spoilt by my wonderful honey. Not only did a get a zoot tri-suit (2-piece.. it fit better), but also a new bike computer (one of 2 I received, so we'll have to sell it), a bento box, some Clif bars (peanut butter and iced gingerbread- how well does this guy know me!) and TWO spinervals DVDs.. Amazing! It is particularly amazing, as most of this stuff you can't get here and spending $US is quite a big deal. I haven't been able to play with all of my new treats yet, although I am already completely in heart with the bento box and clif bars, as well as the visibility vest from Mum and the new computer (finally- cadence and a back wheel sensor). I also finally got to open my Christmas presents from Kate to Kate. The new swimsuit's had its first run, but the skins are waiting for marathon training and the jersey may find itself going back to the store..Hmm.. I am already lusting after some cute Pearl Izumi gear!)
Our "secret santa" scheme worked well, and we had a great time guessing who got what for whom! My presents for P were pretty boring and practical and I felt a little bad. We're going to have a lot of fun with the presents that are really for both of us- like the spinervals, the new singstar game which even features "our" song (in fact, we've all already had lots of fun with the singstar) and the new fancy blender. My best surprise was from Mum and it was a year's supply of school supplies for a child somewhere (eek, I can't remember where).
On Boxing Day we gathered again at our place for brunch- including my breakfast trifle, scrambled eggs, bacon, bagels and lox, fruit salad and yogurt (and some GOOOOD coffee). We couldn't hang around for long, unfortunately, so we packed up the car while the others busted out some singstar (Mum's first time, and it had Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield) and then started our looong long drive (doncha looove holiday traffic on sunny days?) to P's parents'. When we finally got there, we had even more food and even more presents. And I had even more chocolate.
And there, my friends, ends Kate's Christmas.
Christmas Eve dawned bright, clear and cloudless. When I say dawned, I pretty much literally do mean dawned. I was up at 5:30 to squeeze in a (fabulous) run before heading down to meet my sisters J and R, and J's boyfriend D (together with me and P, hereon the "Famous Five") at the local fruit and vege market at 7am to collect supplies for the nest 8 meals.
The market was buzzing- much busier than usual. Because of my "freakish" (in the world of normals.. "slobbish" in the world of triathletes) workout schedule, I have fairly frequently been at the market before the stalls are completely set up, but I'd never seen it like this. Having Christmas Eve on a Sunday must have been great for all the sellers!
After the market, we braved the supermarket. It was so fabulous to be done with the last pre-Xmas errands and able to relax by 9! While P went riding with a friend of his, the rest of us spent the day walking around my mountain and playing some silly games in the park. We followed this with Monopoly and the Sound of Music (of course!) and then baked some chocolate chip cookies for Santa (poor guy didn't get many after we'd finished!). Then we headed into town for a midnight carol service, which was (despite an odd sermon) beautiful, traditional and incredibly moving, in that way that only church can be. The candelight in the church was amazing and we sang all my favourite carols, and singing the sacred verse in O Come all Ye faithful was as wonderful as always. The only downside was the fact that I could barely stay standing for the carols, it was so stuffy and hot!
I woke early on Christmas morning and headed out for a much less enjoyable run than I had had the day before- foggy humid air, tired legs, tired Kate (starts before 6 for the last 7 days). We then opened our stockings and eventually gathered the strength to head into Dad's for Xmas lunch. The highlights of the lunch were the food (prepared by dad's foodie friends) and the two adorable puppies (a springer spaniel and a miniature dachsund, aged 10 and 11 weeks) that were there. I had waaay too much summer berry trifle (YUMMY!) Then it was home to prepare for Mum's arrival (she's a Minister so Xmas day is a work day for her, and she had to travel for hours to get from the South Island to us).
Once mum arrived we got more stockings (obviously we're way too old, but we love it, and there are no grandkids yet!) and then (finally!!) started in on the real presents (Dad's soaps and gu's certainly cannot count as "real"...) By this time we felt like we were up to our 4th Christmas! Anyway- I was SOOO spoilt by my wonderful honey. Not only did a get a zoot tri-suit (2-piece.. it fit better), but also a new bike computer (one of 2 I received, so we'll have to sell it), a bento box, some Clif bars (peanut butter and iced gingerbread- how well does this guy know me!) and TWO spinervals DVDs.. Amazing! It is particularly amazing, as most of this stuff you can't get here and spending $US is quite a big deal. I haven't been able to play with all of my new treats yet, although I am already completely in heart with the bento box and clif bars, as well as the visibility vest from Mum and the new computer (finally- cadence and a back wheel sensor). I also finally got to open my Christmas presents from Kate to Kate. The new swimsuit's had its first run, but the skins are waiting for marathon training and the jersey may find itself going back to the store..Hmm.. I am already lusting after some cute Pearl Izumi gear!)
Our "secret santa" scheme worked well, and we had a great time guessing who got what for whom! My presents for P were pretty boring and practical and I felt a little bad. We're going to have a lot of fun with the presents that are really for both of us- like the spinervals, the new singstar game which even features "our" song (in fact, we've all already had lots of fun with the singstar) and the new fancy blender. My best surprise was from Mum and it was a year's supply of school supplies for a child somewhere (eek, I can't remember where).
On Boxing Day we gathered again at our place for brunch- including my breakfast trifle, scrambled eggs, bacon, bagels and lox, fruit salad and yogurt (and some GOOOOD coffee). We couldn't hang around for long, unfortunately, so we packed up the car while the others busted out some singstar (Mum's first time, and it had Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield) and then started our looong long drive (doncha looove holiday traffic on sunny days?) to P's parents'. When we finally got there, we had even more food and even more presents. And I had even more chocolate.
And there, my friends, ends Kate's Christmas.
I don't know where to start...
I am sitting back at P's parents' place catching up on some blog reading and trying to think of something post, but there's just too much! No major news or anything, just sorting out my Christmas/vacation/training/our veryown polar bear swim (plunge)/New Year's Bikini-Tri stories and trying to decide where to start, and what's worth posting!
So rather than doing anything half-assed, I hereby promise to supply posts covering all of the above topics upon my return. We have to come back earlier than expected, so I have over a week between getting home and starting work. This means while I have less lounging in the sun time left, I have plenty of time to catch up on sea swims and posting!
Happy New Year folks!
So rather than doing anything half-assed, I hereby promise to supply posts covering all of the above topics upon my return. We have to come back earlier than expected, so I have over a week between getting home and starting work. This means while I have less lounging in the sun time left, I have plenty of time to catch up on sea swims and posting!
Happy New Year folks!
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