2/28/2014

This morning we had a leadership and management exam. I feel like I had a pretty good handle on the subject so the exam seemed to go well for me. 

The undergraduate students finally start back to class next week so there is orientation stuff on campus this week. I talked to a few groups but I don't think I actually have time to join anything. Then I went for a awim, went grocery shopping, and went for a run. There was a scientist party this evening that Kat and I crashed. There wasn't much that I could eat but I suppose that's what I get when I crash a party. At about 9:30 we gave up and walked the hour home. It was a long but lovely walk. Now it's off to bed so that I can bike tomorrow. Yay!

2/24/2014-2/27/2014

It has been a pretty in eventful week until today. Just writing a paper that was due yesterday, studying for an exam Friday, and ironman training sessions. We went climbing Wednesday because of scheduling needs. I was deader than dead. My arms and legs just couldn't do some of the moves. Wednesday is hard swim/hard run day and climbing on top of that was pretty impossible. In case you're wondering my coach does want me to do strength training. And I say rock climbing is strength training....right?

Today I had no class, again. I'm really not minding. I'll take all the time I can get. On my day off I got a new bed. It's really nice and has drawers. Yay storage! I got the bed around 10:30 then spent a hour putting it together and another hour rearranging my house so that there is a guest bed in the study. 

This evening I went on a group bike ride. It's called tour de burbs. It's 30km of sprints around the area of the hospital where I work. It was so hard and so fast. I had great fun. Maybe next time I'll wait for the 2nd group instead of going with the pros that I have no hope of keeping up with. 

2/22/2014-2/23/2014

Let's try to get caught up again. I'm so sorry. I try to stay on top of blogging. I just get distracted and tired. 

Saturday I had a good ride. I did the king lake circuit again. It was a bit easier this time. The hard bits were easier than I remembered but the easy bits were more bumpy so it evened out I suppose. I also went a tad further and took a detour toward Healsville, which I've heard is amazing... But I still haven't been.

The route is fun and there are minion shaped hay bails on the way back. 

I went on my post bike run into the city for white night. The 12hour non-stop festival in the city. It was really good but so packed! I saw a viewmaster movie, a music video exhibition, a heart surgery exhibition, graffiti, and a light show in my 3 hours there. I also found maraschino cherries.... Ice cream here I come. At 10pm I decided that I was too exhausted for any more and headed home for sleep. 

Sunday I work up early with the intention of making ice cream and going back to white night. Instead I made ice cream and went back to bed. When I woke up a second time I went on a very fast 18km run that ended at the farmer's market. I bought some fresh fruit for my ice cream party. Then I went home made brownies and cleaned up before my friends arrived to eat ice cream at 3pm. It was just a small thing with 10 flavours of home made ice cream. We ate and relaxed until 7, which was plenty long enough for me. It was lovely and now I have left overs! 

2/21/2014

It has been nice having every other day off but as someone pointed out today. It also makes every day that we have class feel like a Monday. I had difficulty waking up so I didn't swim before class. Class was nice. We are making slow progress on our project which is a good feeling. After class I went to return the bike lock that I had borrowed last night but the store was in the middle of some construction so I went searching for Meracchino cherries before coming back to the bike store to return the lock. I have had absolutely no luck at all finding cherries. I have looked everywhere that the internet has suggested but can't seem to find them. I am trying to make whitehouse cherry ice cream, which is a bit hard without the proper supplies. I finally got to the pool around 3 and swam for an hour. Then went home ate a very late lunch and made vanilla ice cream. I finished a bit more homework. I have an awful lot to do and my motivation is so low. And then went out for a very late birthday dinner with Kat and Billy at Laksa king. I think it may be even better than my previous favourite laksa place. I meant to write a paper tonight. Instead I read my book. I absolutely must write my paper tomorrow. 

2/21/2013

No class again today. I think I like this. I was quite productive. I slept(very important) and had pancakes for breakfast. Then I mopped the whole house, it really needed it. I did a bit of studying, though not enough. Biked in the wind(yay training!) and went rock climbing. It may not sound like much but it was a full day. I barely had time for lunch which I ate at 4pm on my way to climbing. The goal is to be even more productive tomorrow. 

2/19/2014

I had a heavily stacked early part of the day and a fairly lazy evening. I swam 4km this morning. Then went to lecture for 3 hours. After class I had 2 group meetings an hour each. I feel like we are moving forward on our projects. Slowly. 

I came home and did a bit of work on my homework. Then went for a run and spent the remainder of the day being lazy. I think that I have been playing too much plague because I'm turning into a hypochondriac. I stressed about a sore lymph node for 20 minutes or so. Dr. Google told me it was cancer(of course). Then I realised that it wasn't the lymph node that hurt it was the pimple on top of the lymph node that hurt. Oops. 

2/18/2014

We had another day off. Really I don't know why I'm in school, I get a day off for every day I'm there. It's good I'm busy and the time off gives me a chance to catch up. I got a new mattress today. It's great. It's so soft and squish and I don't have to worry about falling through my bed anymore. While waiting for my bed to get delivered I did a bit of cleaning I still need to do a bit more but it was a solid start. Tuesday was once again Bike/Run day where I had to do 2x10minute sprints(running) in the middle of my bike ride. I didn't hate it quite as much as I did last week and I think that it may actually be helping me to transition better…maybe.
This evening I had a career expo. It was far away and public transport was a tad annoying but I enjoyed getting to dress up and look professional. I tried to network and talk to people. Some of it was good. A bit of it was awkward. I'm working on it. I will be good one day.

2/14/2014-2/17/2014

Oops seems that I got behind again. 

Friday was valentines day the school was very nice and gave us the day off to study and organise projects. I swam, ran, and probably did some school work...

I went out for a romantic Sri Lankan dinner with Kat, Ayumi, Shivanti, and Leila(all females, most of whom are in relationships). It was amazing as always. We ate until we hurt. Or everyone else did. I ate just as much but actually felt better. I think I've been under eating. 

Saturday, I had a 5 hour bike ride. I was trying to avoid it so I didn't start till almost noon. It was a good ride a bit cooler than it has been. It was casual on the way out and a bit quicker coming back. I had an after bike run which Kat joined me for. Somehow it felt better than my Friday run. Then I had a lazy night of watch the Olympics. I so miss being able to watch hockey on TV.

Sunday was my long run day. I decided that I was going to do the Capitol City trail, which I haven't run in a while, and that I wasn't going to run slowly. 18miles in 2:30 wasn't too bad. In the afternoon I had an ikea date with Ayumi. She needed furniture and I need a new bed. I have been promising people that they can stay but I don't actually have anywhere for then to stay. So... We went to ikea and spent a couple hundred dollars on small things but I left without a bed and she left without furniture. Ikea was somewhat uninspiring. I ordered a bed online and she is continuing to look for a dining room set. 

Monday-back to class. We had 3 hours of leadership and management. Somehow even 3 hours feels long. We compared some personality tests and he told stories about building rapport. After class I had a swim. Then I managed to procrastinate the rest of the evening away. No idea how. I did manage to submit a homework assignment and make ice cream but I didn't get much else accomplished. 

2/13/2014

This morning we had class. We discussed the personality test that we completed last night. It seems that I'm in a group that all has the same leadership style. Hopefully it works out alright for us. We had the afternoon off so I did a double bike workout and went climbing this evening. I am getting better at climbing again, well until my feet start hurting then there is a dramatic drop off in my ability. I had a busy day organising and doing projects. I have assignments, readings, and papers coming up so plenty of work to be done.

3/12/2014

We had the day off of classes. I always feel like I need the day off when I get it. I worked on both business and physio homework today. For physio we are doing personality quizzes to determine our leadership style. I apparently have no social skills. Not a surprise but I didn't realise just how bad I was. I also ran and swam today. Both were intensely hard workouts. I think Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays are my hard days but sometimes I really can't tell. I talked to Abbie today and she mentioned that I have been rather vague about Ironman training…. I am training for the Melbourne Ironman on March 23. I have 2 friends coming over from the states to do it with me so I am training and planning their travel for while they are here. I started training at the end of November but took a bit of time off while I was away so that it has gotten quite hard now. It's taking a good deal of effort to get to where I need to be for the race next month. So.. That's why I'm whining so much. In addition to homework and training I also had 2 meetings today, both of which I missed because of breakdown of communication and change of location. But it still took time to get to both of the meetings even though I went to the wrong place. Sign. I also made dairy free Pina Colada ice cream. It's quite good. I am having an ice cream party for a very belated birthday celebration next weekend so I am making all sorts of flavours to prepare. Right now I'm up to 5 types. I promise to publish the list and pictures when I'm done. Also, Abbie requested a picture. I can't seem to get rid of the wonky bit :(

2/10/2014-2/11/2014

Monday: Second week of class is all about Leadership and Management. With my MBA classes on top of it… I am loving this class. I actually really enjoy learning this type of information and they even tie it back to health care once in a while. Monday was only 3 hours of class so that I had time to swim, do homework, do some of the pre-readings, go shopping, go for a run, make dinner, make ice cream, make lunch for tomorrow and watch a bit of the olympics before catching up on all the blogging I've missed. I feel so productive. I really needed a day to catch up.
Tuesday: Today was a full day of class. It was dry but I knew all of the information so I planned ironman stuff while listening to the lectures. He is giving a very simplified version of many things which is driving me crazy. He also gives incorrect comparisons to show profit strategies. I'm just happy that I notice the errors. After class I had a 2 hour bike/run. It was tough and I got a flat but I hope it made me faster. I made Kale and ricotta ravioli for diner. The whole thing from the dough, to the filling, and the sauce. It was delicious but they stuck together and ripped. I was able to save them but they lost some of their aesthetic value.

2/4/2014-2/9/2014

Alright so here's my problem. I get behind and then it's extra effort to catch up. I should just do my blog every day like I mean to. So… I have been back in class. Last week the 4th-7th we had a health care and context conference where we heard from a variety of professionals most of whom are very active in  health promotion and public health. The conference ran daily from 9am to 5pm which meant that I was trying my hardest to squeeze in my workouts in the evening. I still haven't missed one since January 28th. I'm impressed with my commitment.
Thursday night Kat and I went out for Parmas at the pub at the end of the street they have parmas of all varieties. We have been meaning to go for about a year and finally took the time to go this week.

Over the weekend I went on a new bike ride. I have been getting bored with my same route especially since I'm up to doing it 2-3x per week. A friend suggested a new route to me which ended up being hard but beautiful. But it was really hot 108F and I ran out of water 10km from home so I was miserably hot by the time I hit the door. Saturday evening I went to poker night at

Billy's cricket club. I was lured there under the promise of pizza. When the pizza finally came I was allergic to every single one. I turned super grumpy but then I won 3rd place which was $40 which made me much happier.

Sunday I ran down to St. Kilda and went for a swim. Then I walked back through the St. Kilda festival which was taking place. It was fun with cool performances everywhere. I stopped at the market on my way home and picked up some goodies for the week. I had a bit of time to do some chores before running over to Bird's for dinner. Leila made pizzas which totally made up for me not getting any Saturday night. We also played ticket to ride which is a fantastic game.

2/1/2014-2/3/2014

Sorry 3 days and I’m missing Blogs again. I’m back to class and have been really tired.  Saturday I had a 2-hour run, it was really warm and I could have used a few more water fountains but it nice. I worked on homework and did an operational behavior project. I did my afternoon at an outdoor community pool. It’s a 50m pool so the 2k flew by. Kat and I went for a walk and then I fell asleep.

Sunday I went on a long bike ride with Steph. I needed a 4.5 hour ride. Our normal ride was blocked so there were a few detours, Steph turned back at 1.5 hours(for 3 total) and I tried to find a route without fallowing the detour signs. I got a tad lost and ended up in south Dandanong when I was trying to pass Frankston. I was straight off my bike and out for a run. 4 minute transition area that included reapplying sunscreen. The run was quite hot. I ran down to queen victoria market and bought a few veggies and a slurpee. I got home at 3pm and the rest of the day was moderately productive. I made ice cream, grilled vegetables, and discussed bike routes. The new bike routes were really useful. I am starting to get bored with my usual one especially since I need 3-4rides a week. Early to bed again because I was super tired.

Monday was the first class. We are having a conference for the first week, discussing things that will help with health care promotion. I  was supposed to swim before class but didn’t quite wake up in time so I only got to do half of my workout. To make class seem a little more bearable we decided to have a pub lunch. It was amazing but gave me a stomachache for the rest of the day. After class I finished my workout, ran home, made peach guacamole and headed to Ange’s for the Superbowl. Great fun!