11/16/2015

 The first week of my new job was so exciting and terrifying. I was so nervous to be a expert. I really don't feel like an expert. My first day I treated 4 patients. 3 of my own and one that I borrowed from the other therapist for some practice. I came home ecstatic but tired. 

Tuesday I worked in Melton and then went climbing in the evening. We went to the new bouldering place again. I did some pretty good climbs so I was very excited there were 2 at the end that I just couldn't get but I was a bit tired. 

Wednesday was day two of the new job and it was even better than day 1. I am learning quickly. When I bought my new car, I got a free photo shoot. Damien and I spent have an hour and a half on Wednesday evening getting our picture taken. We got casual shots, running shots, biking shots, and formal shots. It was quite cool. After photos we went out for pinchos  at naked for satan. Yum.

Thursday I worked in Altona and then we had tickets for 'taste of Melbourne' In my opinion it is an extraordinarily expensive even that doesn't live up to the cost. The tickets are normally $35(we got them as prizes) and then dinner will cost you around $50 for a variety of sample size dishes. I left taste of Melbourne just as the rest of our friends were arriving to drive to Cann River for work tomorrow. It was a surprisingly easy drive though there was quite a bit of fog which slowed me down. 

Friday in Cann River was mainly uneventful. I needed to take an MBA exam post work so I stayed in and then went to bed early. 

The trip back was lovely as always. I had chai, more chai, and phone calls to keep me entertained. I stopped at my favourite orchard and got a 5-10kg box of apples for $5. They are the best :) My cafe was less impressive, they were out of asparagus so they substituted pancetta without asking me. I was unimpressed.

I got back around 2pm. It was Damien mum's birthday so she came over to spend the afternoon and evening with us.

First we went to the Flemmington race course craft market. They was heaps of really cool stuff but the only things I bought were cherries and gifts for my sisters. In the evening we went to free opera in the park. We took cheese, wine, fruit, and cupcakes to eat while listening to 3 hours of live opera in the botanical gardens. 

On Sunday, I ran the 15km city to sea race with Kat. It was her first ever race. She did really well. 

I came home and met Damien and his mum for a trip to the market. It was a fairly quiet market but I got a much needed marigold to help protect my plants a bit. From the market we went to the polish festival. I ate 10 perogies. I was so excited Australia does not usually have perogies. 

From there we went down to the beach to celebrate sylvie's birthday. There was quite a bit of Frisby and eating.

 Plus Sylvie and justin had gone hard rubbish shopping so they game me a pull up bar for sylvie's birthday! 

11/9/2015

The two day week was so long! I was super excited for the weekend to come again. In reality, it was a bit jam-packed trying to get 5 days of work into 2days. We had big plans for the weekend but after the long weekend away we just spent Saturday cleaning up and getting organised and playing board games. I also spent quite a bit of time on school work. 

On Sunday we went to the races. It was the last day of the Melbourne cup carnival, Stakes day. I got all dressed up in my puffy dress and pink hat.

We went out to brunch before heading to the race course.

When we got to the races we bet on 4 races. The first we won, the second we placed, getting our money back, the third one we got 4th, and the 4th one we were way back. Should have quit while we were ahead. All in all we ended up $35 ahead :)

11/5/2015

We had a long weekend this week for Melbourne cup. Most people had 3 days off. I had 6 because of my bonus Friday and because I am between jobs this week. Damien and I decided to use our long weekend to do a race up 4 mountains outside of Bright, Victoria in an event called the 4peaks challenge. If you want to find out more, look here: http://www.4peaks.com.au Damien had a big deadline on Friday so we drove up on Saturday morning at 4am. By the time we made it to the start line at 7:30 it was very wet and rainy. The first day was short but steep. On an 11km loop we climbed 500m to the first peak then 200m more to the second peak and then came back down. There were some stunning views but I left the phone in the car to avoid rain to no pictures. 

After the run we were ready for breakfast and we found a nice cafe in bright called coral lea. Mine was amazing!

After a quick change of clothes we hit the markets, wineries, apiaries, and cheese factories. We got so many sauces, wines, cheeses, honeys, meads, and gifts. We even bought a tree and a case of highly discounted white wine - all of this eventually returned with us in the car back to Melbourne!

Day two was Mt. Feathertop. (By Damo) Damo was slow getting out of bed and the weather was getting increasingly overcast by the time we commenced our ascent. Maddie kept to the back of the pack due to a tummy ache, but this eased off after a mile or so. The climb was gradual but unrelenting and the weather continued to threaten ominously. After 1.5 hours of climbing the heavens opened and the mother of all storms unleashed mercilessly on the defenseless athletes. Damo and Maddie quickly slipped on waterproof rain jacket but the torrents were so strong that we ended up soaked through. Adding to our woes were the thunder and lightening that was striking perilously close. A jovial competitor commented that Maddie would be saved as long as Maddie remained in the immediate vicinity of Damo since his extra height would divert the bolt in his direction. Unfazed we fearlessly continued our climb, even persevering as dozens of our competitors told us that the race organizers had closed the summit as lightening had been seen below the top. Eventually we were ourselves turned back after Maddie said "Noooooooooooooo, I'm not in the race" they didn't believe me. And Damo called me a bad liar. We did make the top of little feathertop. Look at our pretty pictures:

We stumbled back down. Maddie had a couple trips but no injuries. Back at the bottom was nice and sunny. 

We drove straight to Wangaratta, by way of cafe in myrtleford because Maddie was getting hungryloopy. Wang was abuzz with jazz enthusiasts, as half of the streets downtown were shut for outdoor stages and food/drink stalls. We were particularly excited to be there as we were meeting friends from Melbourne who were also there for the weekend, and a Wang friend who was unimpressed by the transformation of her local streets in order to promote what she perceived to be a very mediocre genre of music. As fate would have it, the festival did come to an abrupt end as the next front of the mother of all storms hit Wang that afternoon. We sprinted off the street just as water came gushing down the sidewalk and left us helplessly huddling in a front door alcove. We then wished our friends a snorkellingly fond farewell and trekked back to our beautiful chalet next to the golf course. Wiped out physically and spiritually, we headed to the local pizzeria for a large pizza each.(plus a salad) 

Day 3 mt. Feathertop try 2. Because so many of us didn't make it up to the top of Mt. Feathertop yesterday, the race organisers gave us a second try at climbing up. This time we went up the steep side. It was still the same elevation of ascent but over 9km instead instead of 12. When the race started with 4km's of flat rolling path I knew that it was going to be a hard climb. Eventually the uphill started and it was quite steep. We trudged along in a group of 5 people no one wanting to take the lead. Occasionally a very fast runner would amaze us while running past. 

We made it to the top in 3 hours. The view was only slightly better from the top. 

When we got to the summit Dan called us to tell us that he was in Bright and that we should hurry down. We ran as fast as we could and got back down to the base 2 hours later. We got some ice cream and went to meet Dan. We took a tour of Bright brewery and got some lunch. Then we went back to our Chalet and played pandemic all afternoon. For dinner we went to a delicious restaurant called 13 steps.

I liked it but Damo thought that it was very overpriced. 

Day 4: Mt. Buffalo somehow we managed to talk Dan into climbing up the mountain with us.

Dan complained about how hard the climb was, so we carried his gear for him. We went slowly and chatted all the way up. 2km from the end Dan decided that he felt good so he sprinted off. After 4 days of climbing mountains, my legs were a bit tired so I couldn't quite keep up. The boys just got around a corner, I made a wrong turn and added an extra 500m to my run. In the end Damien just beat Dan and I came in just a few minutes behind. 

We had a bit of trouble getting a ride back to the foot of the mountain and my car but did eventually get a ride from some fellow runners. 

For lunch we ate at a cafe in Bright before packing up to leave. We headed to Benalla by way of milawa so that Dan could try some cheese and wine. We stayed at a guest house that Olivia's mum rents. It was huge and beautiful. Dan came along for an hour and we had a few games of carcassone before getting the train back to Melbourne. Damien and I tried to find dinner but nothing in Benalla was open so we went to the store and bought ingredients to make noodles. 

On Wednesday we started with an art, bakery and bookshop tour of Benalla some of the street art was very cool but Damo has the pictures. Then we headed down toward lake eildon 

It was a slight detour but very worth the time. We were going to go for a bit of a hike but the tire pressure light came on and we freaked out so we headed back toward civilisation. When we checked the tires the pressure was fine so we continued with the tour by car. 

The lake is dammed and they have minimal hydroelectric operations. Damien was excited, I was unimpressed. We stopped for some pretty terrible burgers and got back to Melbourne so that I could get a bit of school work done before work Thursday. 

And that was our awesome 5 day weekend. 

10/30/2015

We had a Halloween party a week early because many people were away for actual Halloween. Damien and I were a few supplies short on costumes so we went shopping in the morning. We started at a fate which is apparently a British word for a community yard sale typically held in a community centre or church. Then we got brunch. Damien had breakfast while I had baked eggplant. 

After that we finally made it to the supermarket and picked up the supplies I needed. I spent the afternoon making food and costumes for the party. 

I ended up with pumpkin devilled eggs, spider devilled eggs, pumpkin rice crispy treats, and cupcakes. They were great :) a few touches on the costumes and we were off to the party. 

I dressed as a pumpkin and Damien dressed as a pie 😃. Our friends were skeletons and dancing robots. Note the minion pumpkin in the background :) Halloween is always fun with my American support group.

Sunday Damien and I went to the market. While we were there one of the vendors told us about the cake bake and sweets show which took up most of the rest of our day. So many beautiful cakes and delicious samples to try. 

Monday night we went to a fundraiser called "the dinner project" where 4 local chefs made us wonderful food and 100% of the proceeds went to feeding the hungry and making sustainable community gardens. 

Tuesday was quiet with a chance to catch up on our house work. 

Wednesday was my last day at the private practice in Croydon! 

After work we went over to see a friend in the area who just had a baby. We brought food and babysitting so that Katherine could relax for a bit. 

Thursday was climbing day and Friday I had off. It was much needed so that I could prepare for the weekend...

10/23/2015

I flew back to Melbourne to do the Melbourne marathon. I was the 4:10 pacer. I had a pacer's meeting on Saturday. It let me get some gear for Damien. On race day I ran really well. I got a little bit tired around the 35km mark but I held the pace and finished in 4:09:52. 

After the race I met Damien who ran the marathon in just under 4hours. We had an incredible breakfast in hardware lane.

Speaking of which, if you are sick of not hearing from me and would like to see what I am eating, I have a food blog on tumblr. It is Tubbythefoodie.

After lunch we went home and took naps until dinner and then went back to sleep.

On Monday I went into work and Susanne the massage therapist worked on me for a while. It helped in the short term but I was back to my baseline post marathon soreness after a few hours.

The rest of the week was fairly quiet aside from the usual climbing, as Damien worked late and I caught up on house work. The only other excitement was that I went to a lymphoedema seminar on Wednesday and got heaps of garment samples.