After an early shop I fulfilled my civic duties as an elector in Wollongong. The election is on Saturday but I always pre-poll because usually it is quicker with no queues. Alas everybody and his dog has the same idea these days, there were half a dozen people in front of me. In fact there were less people handing out the “How to Vote” leaflets than queuing
Not much choice except for Lord Mayor so I numbered all the boxes there. (remember the Liberal Party forgot to nominate candidates so it is just a contest between Labor, the Greens and a few Independents). Local elections are optional preferential so you don’t need to number every box.
I feel better than I have for the past week or so - hopefully I have recovered from whatever sort of bug I had
Going into town this morning to post a parcel, and buy a load of stamps while I’m at it - there are 3 birthdays of friends & relations soon, and Christmas isn’t that far off
So I’ll be buying some birthday cards as well; I already have a stack of Christmas cards
I think that 2025 calendars are already in the shops so I’ll get some of those to send to friends & relations in Canada & USA
Good morning - Summer has left us I think. Grey skies, breezy and 14C at 8.00 a.m.
Supermarket shopping this morning.
We’ll be taking a bus ride to somewhere this afternoon. Anywhere will do. It’s just to make sure Mrs mart can manoeuvre the new powerchair into the space provided. She sometimes takes bus trips on her own and we need to know this will go smoothly. All chairs of this type look the same but handle a little differently.
Morning all – grey skies with rain forecast for later
Now back on cat servant duties for the next 5 weeks – before they left my neighbours “forced” 2 bottles of wine on me! I am beginning to worry about how much they think I drink!
Despite it being damp beastie went out straight after breakfast, I promised I would let her back in if it rains
Glad you are feeling better zuludog - best buy those stamps before the price goes up next month!
Had a lovely meeting with my friend yesterday, the bus was on time and the traffic not too bad. We went to a café attached to a small chapel, very clean and the coffee was good. Spent 3 hours just chatting and catching up, I think the staff thought we were taking up residence! Unfortunately, when I left to come home I was across a very busy road when I saw the bus I was going to catch pulling away so had to wait 30 minutes for the next one.
Need to catch up on laundry and housework today, plus some grocery shopping
Fierce weather this morning with a strong north westerly blowing light rain onto the kitchen window. I went out anyway, and while walking across the edge of the field where I usually do a bit of jogging I thought ‘You know what? I’m enjoying walking so much this morning I’ll not do my usual jog’…I jogged a bit through the second wood, and along the footpath next to the busy road to get it over with quickly, but instead of my 2 minute steady jog, I sprinted for as long as I could (less than one minute) and it felt good to extend the quads, something you never do when jogging.
So as the walk/run progressed I did a few faster pace runs but for a shorter duration and created somewhat of an anomaly. I’ve noticed this before, by running faster but shorter and less, the cumulative time at the end of the run/walk is sometimes faster than if I had run for long steady periods…
To feel the quads actually doing some work for a change is so satisfying, and the runners high at the end is worth the effort. I will include these faster paced runs once a week in future…
The sun came out on the last couple of mile while on the lane and it highlighted the angry black clouds that would soon end this little oasis of warm sunshine…Hopefully, I will be home…
The faster paced running reminded me of a story I read when I first started running 45 years ago…
An American bloke who lived in an apartment in New York had serious heart trouble and could no longer continue in his strenuous job… He was well insured, so in order to provide for his wife and kids he decided to commit suicide…But his insurance would not pay out if they suspected suicide, so he hatched a plan that would look like natural death…
Later that night he walked into central park and ran as fast as he could, for as long as he could, hoping that his heart would fail…
He collapsed on the floor gasping for breath…But his heart did not fail…
Every night he would go out and run as fast as he could, but something strange happened…
He became able to run further and faster before he collapsed, but still he continued…
At his next heart appointment it was found that his heart had become stronger and more efficient and the cardiologist was shocked by his improvement…
He got to enjoy running so much that he eventually became good enough to complete the New York Marathon, and managed to keep his job…
went out straight after breakfast, I promised I would let her back in if it rains
