10/30/2013

Despite how much time I spent on the poster yesterday it still didn't look the way I wanted it to this morning. With 3 more hours and some help from fabulous friends I got it looking the way I wanted it to at around 2:30. I dawdled a little too much on my way to get it printed so I didn't head to the store until almost 4. Even though it only took 10 minutes to print last time they weren't able to have it to me before it was due tomorrow morning. I then went to 4 more printing places before I found one. It was super expensive, almost 4 times as much but I took it just to be done with the hassle. Then I went for a much needed swim and run. I was supposed to meet friends for frisbee but I took too long on my run. I did make it for dinner and mahjong. We actually had 4 players tonight. It was cool. I also picked up supplies to go for my hike next week. Good evening now off to bed early for a change 

10/29/2013

Dookie farm presentation today. I think we did well. It was a cohesive presentation despite the fact that we were still changing things this morning. 

After our presentation my other group met for our chronic disease project. We practiced our presentation and prepared for the conference on Friday. On my way home I stopped to get out poster printed and it was pixelated :(. I resized too many images so that it looked bad. I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening/night trying to fix it with only a small break to make ice cream and another one to go bike riding around 7pm. 

10/29/2013

Dookie farm presentation today. I think we did well. It was a cohesive presentation despite the fact that we were still changing things this morning. 

After our presentation my other group met for our chronic disease project. We practiced our presentation and prepared for the conference on Friday. On my way home I stopped to get out poster printed and it was pixelated :(. I resized too many images so that it looked bad. I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening/night trying to fix it with only a small break to make ice cream and another one to go bike riding around 7pm. 

10/28/2013

We have our annual group presentation on Dookie farm tomorrow so our group spent most of the day putting the final touches on our project. We worked on it for a few hours on campus. Then we went home and continued to change and change back parts of the presentation till about 2 am. In the middle of our work I went out to dinner with some of the footsie boys to a place called bar humbug. It was pretty tasty.  

10/27/2013

I had a girls day today with Kat and Shivi. We went to go see About Time. It was a chick flick about a family of time travellers. I don't think I was the intended audience. I was a bit less than thrilled. After the movie we did a bit of shopping. It was a good day of just relaxing and being girly. I did my Sunday run right before dinner so that I could enjoy lamb and mahjong at Billy's we tried to get a 4th player but we're still only playing 3 person mahjong. Better than nothing I suppose. 

10/25/2013

Last day of class for the semester. The only thing that we have left is presentations, posters, and exams. After class we did a bit of group work. When we realise that I was just formatting we headed home for the weekend. I went out to dinner with friends and to another friend's concert. He and the show were brilliant! We laughed and cheered and really enjoyed it. Then I came home to finish my Halloween costume before bed. 

10/24/2013

I had an absolutely fantastic morning skyping with Heather Costigan. It totally brightened my day. I'm getting really excited to come home for a visit. I did a bit of work on my project, went for a bike ride, did a few Hebrew lessons. Not quite as productive as I wanted to be today but not bad either. I went rock climbing tonight with Sylvie. It was pretty good. We are both climbing much more cleanly. As we started to get tired, the quality dropped off a bit but we were still struggling up 21's. After climbing we went searching for a good burger. The first place that we tried looked good but was closed. We zig zagged back across the city and tried caboose cafe instead. It was good. A little pricy but a good burger. Not quite the fantastic burger that we were looking for but still good. 

10/26/2013

I was just a bit productive this morning so that I was free for a halloween party this evening. I finished designing my group poster for Monday. I sent it around to my group members as soon as I had finished and they each had stylistic changes to contribute but none of them know how to use illustrator so I got to fix the style of subscripts, the weight of the title, and the size of the captions.  Small changes but they seem to take forever. I listened to a bit too much Tracy Chapman while I was working so I started to get into a sad slump. To get me back into a better mood Kat and I went shopping for her Halloween costume. She dressed up as the female version of Where's Waldo. Then I did my Saturday bike ride a bit slower than I had meant to but I kept daydreaming and slowing down. I had a Halloween party this evening. I dressed up as a girl being eaten by a shark. It was a really good party and great to see friends that I haven't caught up with in a while. The best costumes of the night were Ned Kelly(The Australian bush ranger), minions, and google maps. It was tons of fun. Pictures to come soon.

10/23/2013

We had a full day of lectures today where ironically they told us how bad it is to sit.  There is actually a new campaign called "sitting is the new smoking" which aims to limit the amount of time that people sit on a daily basis.  

 I swam during lunch and ran when I got home from class which left me free to work on my halloween costume this evening. It is coming together. I just need some glue to finish it off.  I almost went out this evening but laziness overtook me and I decided to save it for another night. I just studied a bit of hebrew and made a graphic for the poster that I am presenting next week.  

10/22/2013

Today was another project day! We worked on our chronic disease poster and presentation all day. We worked for a bit, and had the quiche that I made for lunch, worked for a bit longer, had the cake that Kat made for snack, and continued working until dinner time. The projects are starting to look good. We have a poster, a presentation, and an abstract to put together. We have almost all of the information for both the presentation and the poster and have finished the abstract. Only a few more  hours of work and we'll have a top notch project.  Day 2 of ironman training went well. Fantastic workout, not so dedicated on the nutrition aspect today as I had quiche, cake, and a piece of lasagna that Kat made for dinner. I'll try to be better tomorrow.

10/21/2013

First day of Ironman training! It is really exciting. All I had today was a 2km swim. It felt surprisingly good considering how far I rode yesterday. We had no class today which meant that I had all day to work on one of my 3 up coming group projects.  We started at 10am and got done just after 3pm but luckily it is all done and the only thing left to do is practice speaking.
I got a bit done on my halloween costume this evening before deciding that it is a good night to go to bed early.  So sleepy!

10/20/2013

Ride around the bay! in a day! Today I woke up at 4:00am to leave by 4:20 so that I could be at the start line at 5:30am to do a 250km bike ride. It was an absolutely fantastic day. My friend Steph and I did it together. We started together and finished together and had lunch together but the majority of the day we ended up getting separated into different groups. We started in Melbourne and rode west to Geelong, then around the Bellarine Peninsula, then to Queenscliff where we stopped for lunch and waited for a ferry to take us across the bottom of the bay.  I would have swam but I didn't think that I would be able to swim and carry my bike. We hopped off the boat in Sorrento and rode up our normal side of the Peninsula through Rosebud.  Things were starting to look quite familiar as we rode though Mornington, Frankston, and took a rest in Mordialliac.  We made it back up to Melbourne around 4:30. 7:57 minutes of total riding time which puts us averaging over 30km/hour. It was a beautiful day and a fantastic ride.  I got home in time to shower and go to Emma's house for dinner.  She made a fantastic vegetable lasagna and had some very tasty ice cream. I was half falling asleep during dinner but I enjoyed every minute of it.

10/19/2013

Lazy Saturday. All I did all day was read, run and get ready for my bike race tomorrow.

10/18/2013

So sorry. I had a bit of a lazy weekend. So Friday....I had class in the morning. As a reward my friends and I went out for lunch afterward. I really really wanted a ruben because it is impossibly hard to find in Melbourne.  Every time I have come across a place that sells them they have been sold out. Well guess what they were sold out again! So instead I had a quinoa salad. It was tasty but didn't fulfil my ruben need. After lunch I had a lovely afternoon shopping with Ange. We shopped and talked for hours. Then I came home to take my operations management final. It didn't go as well as expected. I hope that it hasn't ruined my grade for the class:(

10/17/2013

The morning bike ride went well. I made it 40km. It was windy but my legs managed the effort. I got home and sorted out the details of my trip to Tasmania. Then I organised a few things for class before going climbing. Climbing tonight was quite a fair effort but it was definitely a good workout and I felt great afterward. Reward Japanese curry afterward. Yum! 

10/16/2013

Another 2 hours of class today. This time it was in the middle of the afternoon 2-4pm. Which meant that I had the morning free for productivity. If only I could work on my projects but they were all at a standstill this morning. Instead I practiced Hebrew, did laundry, and cleaned the kitchen.  I would not cut it as a house wife.  I most certainly do not have the skill set. The 2 hours of class that we did have was pretty dry and not all that helpful.  I did get some emails back while I was in class so I was able to do a bit on 3 of my ongoing projects.  This evening I decided to try my first post marathon run.  It wasn't great, I was really sluggish but I did make it 7miles so I was happy.  I'm going to try biking tomorrow which will hopefully go better since I have a 250km bike ride on Sunday.

10/15/2013

I am a bit aggravated with school at the moment. We have 2 hours of class a day that isn't really very informative. We have the remainder of the day to work on our projects but I have gotten a head start on all of my group members. So.... I have no school work to do. 

After class today I picked up my race packet for the race that I am doing on Sunday. It's a 250km bike ride around port Philip bay. https://www.bicyclenetwork.com.au/general/great-rides/20005/

Then I came home for lunch. Studied a bit of Hebrew. Then I went shopping. I took a 6km bike ride out to a craft shop for Halloween costume supplies. It was a good store. The material was expensive but everything else was cheap and high quality. On my way back I stopped at Katmandu, an outdoors store. They were having a 75% or so off sale. I got camping pots, hand warmers, mosquito bracelets, a toiletry bag, a GPS pedometer, and a skirt. I looked at packs and camping stoves but I didn't like what they had. I got home and told Kat about it and then we went back to get stuff for her too. 

I worked a bit on my costume but it's really not looking like much yet. 

10/14/2013

Today was a disappointingly unproductive day. It was the first day back to class and I just wasn't feeling it. The lecture was only partially helpful and I wasn't thrilled about talking to my classmates. I was just having a generally unfriendly day. I was going to get Halloween supplies after class but it was hailing so I change my mind and went home. I did a little bit of work while eating lunch but then found myself in a holding pattern for absolutely everything. All of my projects are at a point that I need other's input before continuing. How annoying. So I spent the afternoon planning. Lots of planning. Planning my trip home, planning my trip to Israel. I also made the decision to take a trip during study week. I have 14 days to study for a 2 hour exam. I already know everything on the exam and I have a pretty solid record of over studying and then doing the worst on which ever exam I study most for. No fail all 3 semesters. I get excited about everything I know and I word vomit an incomprehensible mess that doesn't reflect my actual level of knowledge. 

So....I'm going to take 7 days study trip to go to Tasmaina. That still leaves me more time than I need to study. I'm still trying to figure out the specifics but I am hiking, sightseeing, and going to art museums. 

10/11/2013

Tons and tons of productivity today. It was sunny and I sat outside to write my term paper and my section of the PowerPoint presentation. We also had a BBQ this evening so I made vegetables, potato salad, cucumber salad, and jalapeño cheese bread while Kat made pavlova and ice cream. I was so into doing work that I was actually a bit late. The BBQ was fun and I got to meet Billy's very loud brother who just got home from France. 

10/10/2013

More writing and projects today. Then climbing. It was a really good climb. We did some easy and some hard. Our favourite climb is coming down soon so we did all 3 climbs on that wall and then re-did the hardest. After climbing dinner was Korean. Delicious! Unfortunately I had bought a sports drink while climbing that gave me a stomach ache so I wasn't up for the traditional chocolate afterward. :(  

10/9/2013

Yes more productivity today! I completed 2 of my literature reviews. This just leaves me with 3 presentations, a case study, a poster and an abstract over the next two weeks! The literature reviews were interesting and I feel accomplished for doing them. Other than that I had lunch with Kat and Billy, went for a walk around ascot vale, and went on a tempo run. I was within 15 seconds of the pace I need to run on Sunday for the whole run. I was supposed to catch up with a friend for dinner but they stood me up(or rather they forgot) so I had dinner with homework instead. Day of productivity #2 complete! 

10/8/2013

Finally a day of productivity. I went to the bank, got my fancy bike cleaned, and started on 4 of the 8 large assignments due this month. I also went on a perfectly paced 8mile run. More practice and productivity tomorrow! 

10/7/2013

Happy Birthday Grumpy! 

Kat and I decided to go shopping this morning. I needed a new pillow and she needed a new wallet. We went to high point and did a nice circuit of the mall. I got my pillow(on sale!) she got a wallet, we also got a pizza cutter, a can opener, and endura gel. I studied a bit. Then I went on a 15.5km jog with my favourite interstate visitor before taking him back to the airport. 

10/6/2013

I did a bit more schoolwork but pretty much just had a really lazy day today catching up on all of my neglected Skype calls. The highlight was pizza for dinner with Kat and Billy. Yumm

10/5/2013

I had been complaining that I needed more brunch people in my life, so since he was in town Damien was in town he accompanied me to a lovely brunch spot just a few blocks away from where I live. I got a superfood smash with avocado, quinoa, and some other healthy stuff. Pretty good but I'll have to try the other places in the area too. I did just a bit of schoolwork and went for a run before going over to bird's for dinner and a game of settlers of Catan. I lost but it was still fun. 

10/4/2013

I spent the day catching up on all of the chores that I hadn't done before leaving. Cleaning, baking, laundry. I was all worth it when I was able to go out to dinner guilt free.  We went out to Yim Yam which I was super excited about but we go there just before they were about to close so we were a tad rushed. I was really excited about the tai chicken fried rice but I accidentally ordered the vegetarian one which had fish sauce and I couldn't even eat :( it was a total disappointment but I'll have to do better next time. 

10/2/2013

Last day in Rutherglen today. We started with a 40km bike ride to chiltern(chill-tin) and back. Then we had lunch and went to beechworth. Beechworth had several nice shops and some very good food. We finished off the day with lasagna for dinner and the end of the departed which we started on Monday evening. Tomorrow we are going to try to ride back. Steph is nervous but I am confident. 

10/3/2013

Today Steph and I rode from Rutherglen to Melbourne. We started the 292km ride at 4:30am. We rode a bit down the Hume(the big highway) and stopped for breakfast in Wangratta. We kept riding and took our next break in violet town. We kept going down the Hume until we reached longwood. There is a very nice smaller road that we took from Longwood to Avenel. We stopped in Avelel for a late lunch. Steph had food. I had a piece of toast. I had a bit of a stomach ache after ice cream a few hours back. From Avenel we had about 30km left on the Hume before getting off in Broadford. We took a normal road for a while before turning onto old Sydney road. Old Sydney road was unfortunately about 45km of gravel and pot holes. My bike did not like it in the slightest. I got a flat which I fixed as soon as I got back to a solid surface. We had 8km left before Steph turned off to take the train the last few kilometres home. Almost as soon as she turned off I got another flat. I was out of repair materials so I kept going. I got a second flat as I was passing the airport so I rode the last 10km on double flats. I was gonna stop and phone a friend but didn't want to get cold so I kept going. I made it home just after 10pm. My bike is not happy with me but I promised to get it serviced next week. 

10/1/2013

Happy October! I had another lazy day today. I was going to go for a bike ride or a run but both ideas were ruined when we had terrible winds again. Instead we watched the departed with breakfast, went to some more wineries this afternoon, had a lovely steak dinner and watched White House down. A very relaxing day but I have just a tad of cabin fever and really want to go for a run. Which could be interesting since I'm borrowing shoes and clothes that are too big for me. 

9/30/2013

I got up at 4am to ride to Rutherglen with Steph(it's her home town). It is a 300km journey that we planned to do in around 15 hours. In the first hour and a half we made it 22km. Riding into a headwind of 70km an hour with a gusting cross wind  we decided that it was a bit dangerous. We took the train and will try again on Thursday. With extra time in Rutherglen I saw the sites and went to a few of the wineries.

The region if famous for durifs and fortified wines. I don't mind tasting the topaques and the muscats but I feel that a sip is sufficient and a small glass would be too much.

My favourite winery didn't actually do wine tastings they only did cheese tastings which was perfect with me.

After a tour of the town we watched the "Thomas crown affair" and "world's end" Thomas crown affair is always good for music, planes, boats, and bowler hats but world's end was just a terrible movie in all areas. 

9/29/2013

The cockatoos woke me up around 5am. I went back to sleep and they woke me up again about an hour later. At 8:30 I gave up and just got up. They were very cute but with the dense trees it was a bit hard to get a picture. We stayed for lunch  and a few more games of 500 before heading home. What a peaceful relaxing weekend before my ride tomorrow.