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January 31, 2008
Post Holiday Hello
I'm back from my SA holiday... and have a fair few diary entries that will eventually make its way here in the next day or 2. Right now I'm still trying to settle into work, but due to some person on the plane having a virus, I'm struck down and although at work, not in the mood to really do anything.
Time to grab a mug of coffee and enjoy lunch before going back to the office.
Posted by karinm at 12:47 PM | Comments (0)
January 30, 2008
Random Update
Still quiet at work.
Stomach upset.
Can't say more.
Posted by karinm at 7:36 PM | Comments (0)
January 29, 2008
Quiet Work Return
Well, work was quiet... it seems that I walked into the most quiet of offices this morning and that's the way it stayed. Unfortunately my stomach seems to have caught a bug somewhere... I can only hope tomorrow morning it'll be better.
Posted by karinm at 7:34 PM | Comments (0)
January 28, 2008
We saw Linkin Park
Linkin Park was awesome!
Now I need to sleep :s
Posted by karinm at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2008
I'm back!
The flight was long and I was seated next to the most talkative person in the world. He had the cutest little 2 year old, but oh my word... it was a NIGHT flight... and he would not stop talking.
At least by the time I woke up, we were nearly landing and little baby boy was screaming his head off because he had to be strapped into his seat.
Oh well.
Andy was there to greet me and we headed to the hotel...
A good 6 hour sleep later I was perfectly happy again. Tomorrow we're going to the Linkin Park concert!
Posted by karinm at 7:30 PM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2008
Almost Leaving
I'm sitting at Cape Town International and wishing I could get on the next plane back to PE. Even if I do miss Andy terribly. There's another girl a few steps away from me, crying. I guess she's also leaving a lot of people here.
My parents dropped me off at the airport and me and my mom burst into tears. I suspect my dad was a close step behind, but he would never show it :) We laughed, then cried, then laughed, then cried and then I had to be through the security checks.
Some friends came to meet me at CT Intl. to have some coffee. I really missed them in the past few years and I'm so glad that we've been able to get together. Then I had to check in... and I was a good 22 pounds over the weight limit. Urgh. R2660 later I was on my way though, as I couldn't leave ANYTHING behind.
Our gate just opened, so I guess I have to get on the plane for the next 12 hours :)
Posted by karinm at 7:24 PM | Comments (0)
January 25, 2008
Packed and Ready
Well, the books for Elizma is packed. My bag is packed... and it feels REALLY heavy.
The drive here took another 7 hours, but a few short hours after we got here, we went to the most fabulous buffet restaurant that allegedly has been here for nearly 3 years, but I didn't know about it :(
Myself and my mom spent some time in the portapool and right now its time to sleep :(
Posted by karinm at 7:19 PM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2008
Almost Over
Still more thunder... and tomorrow we're off to PE again. My long journey back starts again :(
I wish I could stay just another week... but that'd be wishful thinking :(
Posted by karinm at 7:16 PM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2008
Thunder!
I woke up to a thunderstorm this morning. Beautiful and it definitely cooled down the air a bit. Of course this means that most of the day will be spent indoors :)
Posted by karinm at 7:10 PM | Comments (0)
January 22, 2008
African Views
Wow. I did enjoy the heat today, even if it was a bit much.
My dad dragged me onto site and into the forest and it is absolutely spectacular! He also took me up to the top of the mountain and the views were absolutely great!
Posted by karinm at 7:09 PM | Comments (0)
January 21, 2008
Can It Please be Cooler?
Well, it seems that 38 degree weather is the norm. And somehow I'm still not used to it. I spent most of the day in the car (its a 7 hour drive from PE to Langeni) with the aircon on high! I couldn't wait until we reached the house so that I could grab a cool shower and then my dad made us some fabulous braai meat... oh, the flavours of home.
Posted by karinm at 6:59 PM | Comments (0)
January 20, 2008
Finally Here
I finally arrived in PE. My plane leaving from Heathrow left an hour late which made things a tad tense when I got to Cape Town. I only had an our to get my baggage, check-in for my next flight and get my behind on that plane. Had it not been for the fact that my next plane was late as well, I would probably not have gotten on it "in time".
Once I arrived in PE, my mom was quick to help me grab some cooler clothes (I was still stuck in all my layers from the UK and had very few clothes that fitted the 38 degree weather), some swimming clothes and dragging me home to jump into a temporary pool that they had setup especially for me!
Tomorrow morning early I'm having my hair cut and then we're heading to Langeni for the week!
Posted by karinm at 9:55 PM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2008
Waiting to Take Off
I'm sitting in the waiting area, firstly for my gate to be announced and secondly for my plane to just take off. It seems like everything here is chaos tonight because various flights have already been cancelled and delayed due to the plane that crashlanded here a few days ago.
I don't particularly like waiting like this...
Posted by karinm at 6:53 PM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2008
The last working day is always the worst
Working today was no fun. I didn't have a chance to breathe and I almost didn't think I was going to get out of the office. I ended up leaving just after 5 and if it wasn't for the project manager, I would probably not have gotten out of there until tomorrow morning.
Now for an early night so that I can get away with murder when I go to Heathrow tomorrow morning :)
Posted by karinm at 6:51 PM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2008
Packed and Ready
My bags are packed. My passport is in. I have forex. I'm so ready for that holiday, it isn't even funny.
Posted by karinm at 6:49 PM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2008
Oh Windows Live Writer!
Well, my husband has hijacked my laptop to play Everquest II and that left me no option but to hijack his and write my daily blog entry.
Firstly, my legs are still useless. I ran yesterday, it was hell. But today was beyond that. I tried running for a mile and then decided that today's workout was going to happen tomorrow. A strong 3 tablets of anti-inflammatory tablets, a hot bath with LOTS of salts in, multiple glasses of water... and I'm ready to go to bed and forget that Monday ever happened. As I said to Jeff earlier today - I made a HUGE mistake doing that workout on Monday.
On Saturday afternoon I'm off to South Africa - have I mentioned that? I haven't seen my dad since our wedding (October 2006) and I haven't seen my mom since beginning of April 2007 and I just want to see my family, get some sun, see a few friends, and then finally get a tan! It is supposed to be quite hot there at the moment, so I don't see why I won't get my wish. Andy is staying home this time, but he'll come over in December when I plan to go back there.
I'm quite sleepy now, so I'm going to say goodnight.
I had to write this from the MovableType Publishing Platform because my husband just won't allow me to install Windows Live Writer so that I can publish it from there :)
Posted by karinm at 10:02 PM | Comments (1)
January 15, 2008
I have a Butt
My backside hurts. The very same one that was given the workout of a lifetime last night. My legs are ok. My feet are ok. My brain is ok. Everything but my butt.
And the easy run tonight felt HARD because when I lifted my legs I wanted to groan. When my feet hit the pavement I wanted to groan. When I went up a hill I groaned, and when I went down the hill I grimaced... and then wanted to groan. All in all, I decided that since I didn't even come NEAR the pace I was supposed to, I was at least going to go the furthest I had to.
And when I finished. I hobbled home, took a hot shower and begged for a massage. Because I earned it.
Did I mention my backside hurts?
Posted by karinm at 8:14 PM | Comments (0)
January 14, 2008
Cruel and Senseless and Unnecessary
I can.
I can.
I can.
I had to repeat that to myself as I did squats, lunges and ab exercises tonight.
I walked into the gym with the fullest intention of just hitting the ab area and not doing too much otherwise. But as soon as I walked in the door, Charles, the physio that tortures people with personal training sessions in his spare time, spotted me and zoomed in.
"Karin! You want to do some work with me tonight!"
"Uhm... yeah, sure, why not...."
Beware cruel physios. They (a) know what they're doing (90% of the time) and (b) if they hurt you, they can fix it (90% of the time and (c) if you're stiff and sore tomorrow you're more likely to come in for one of those sports massages that they so willingly offer. So cruel and completely unnecessary punishment is inflicted on poor victims that dare to enter the cardio room to put their bags away when all the machines are occupied.
Wellllll..... I think I'm going to need one of those tomorrow. Because my legs don't work anymore. My legs have gone away... on holiday... or they're in hiding... or maybe I just managed to exhaust every single muscle in it. I just know that they didn't even feel this much like jelly after the marathon back in 2006. Yes. My legs are jelly.
PS. At least there is a new batch of Matisse & Jacks Brownies waiting for me downstairs....
Posted by karinm at 7:53 PM | Comments (2)
January 13, 2008
Lazy Sunday... check
Today was a quiet day. I lay back in the beanbag, played Lego Star Wars with Andy and had mugs and mugs of tea. It was one of those great lazy Sundays and it felt good to put my feet up. Only one more week and I have a week during which I can do it! I'm heading to South Africa on Saturday to see my parents and to get some sun.
I've had a lot of lack-lustre days in the past week and I think it is quite possibly because I have been working at 150% for nearly a month and my head is starting to say no more. We'll have to see how it goes this coming week... I just know that I can't wait for the end of it.
Time to go crawl in bed and read a little before I fall over and sleep until the week starts properly.
Posted by karinm at 8:04 PM | Comments (1)
January 12, 2008
I survived
The night out on the town was fun, but I was relatively tired and before midnight arrived, I wanted to come home. Andy was kind enough to pick me up and I came home to a nice amount of sleep.
A long day lies ahead though... a longer blog post to follow.
Posted by karinm at 8:50 AM | Comments (0)
January 11, 2008
Night Out
Tonight I have to head out the door and to the local Jongleurs for a night of merry-making cocktails and laughs. Our annual company kick-off took place today and they generally finish it off with a night on the town... It should be a fair amount of fun, even if I am going to come home earlier than most people that are going. I have an early morning planned!
Whoop-dee-doo!
Posted by karinm at 5:24 PM | Comments (0)
January 10, 2008
Z's
I'm very tired tonight. So tired, that I am in dire need of a lot sleep.
So I am going to bed now and I'll wake up tomorrow morning and feel like a whole new person.
Posted by karinm at 7:46 PM | Comments (0)
January 9, 2008
I *Think* I'm Better
I think the flu has left my chest. This is a good thing. My HR is a tad lower than it has been for a while this morning and I'm taking this as a sign that I'm finally getting on that horse again. I'm hoping to be on the treadmill tonight - missed last night's run due to coughing and spluttering and dying.
I had a rough night sleeping, waking up to my own coughs and hearing strange noises (just my own breathing) and then this morning I felt a ton better and ended up getting up at 6 and watching cartoons with Andy before he left for work. He's still rough as anything, but I think he'll start feeling better tomorrow. I can only hope that the rest of the people at work will feel better soon as well. Its quite an office to be in at the moment :)
So, treadmill tonight, dodging the sick at work so I can get better, early sleep tonight.
Posted by karinm at 7:50 AM | Comments (1)
January 8, 2008
Some Lovely Hail!
This evening we were quietly sitting in the lounge, and the next moment it sounded like someone was attacking our house with pebbles or something. At first I thought that it was just really intense rain, but then I realised that there were clicking sounds against the window.
It turned out to be hail. Small little balls of ice, kicking my house's butt.
And it was strange, because as soon as I knew that it was ice, I felt even colder than before. My blanket was almost not warm enough to keep me from shivering.
Its probably a good thing that it stopped then :)
Posted by karinm at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)
January 7, 2008
I'm Still Ill, but now I have Food!
Two issues this morning :
- I'm sitting in a house that is 10 degrees inside and sweating like a pig. Without having done a single step of exercise. This to me means that once in the office today, I'm going to infect everyone with my flu and make them take a day off. But not me. No, I'm going to be in the office.
- I received not one, but TWO parcels from the US this morning! I'm ultra happy :)
Firstly, there was the parcel with 12 boxes of Matisse & Jack's Goodness in it! I can't wait for the weekend to come so I can make one of them and take it out and about with me. How gorgeous! (Thanks for this Jeff!)
I would've taken the box to work, if I didn't know that one of the other guys that also does some form of running would steal it the first chance he got :) Of course I'll also have to hide it away from Andy and make sure that he can't get hold of it at any stage. I still remember how he made a box of the previous lot that I had and ate it before I could even get home from work!
The second box had 3 pairs of awesome Drymax socks in - courtesy of IronWil and the ThroughTh3WallChallenge.
I am in an uber mood right now, even if I am feeling like I am supplying heat that could heat up a small country. I think I might have an obscene amount of LemSip and see how I feel by tonight and maybe try out a tad of biking. The urge is there, the body just does not want to keep up right now.
PS. The socks fit like an absolute dream!
Posted by karinm at 8:20 AM | Comments (2)
January 6, 2008
A Relative Quiet Sunday
I am in a foul mood. A thick head, sneezing, sniffling and coughing was not what I had in mind for today. At least I have some shiny new pencils and pens to play with while I'm wrapped in my multi-coloured blanket and watching Andy play Lego Star Wars. Outside the weather has turned from sunny to cloudy and with that, the temperatures have dropped a few degrees. Yet another reason to stay wrapped under the blanket :)
Andy got a book for Christmas that is keeping me nice and occupied though. Its the last in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind and so far quite a good read. I read the other 6 books in the series and had to wait a good 2 years for this one to arrive here. It does not disappoint.
Other than that, its a regular Sunday in the Bassitt household. We've not had much to do - Andy's caught my bug and feels as sorry for himself as I do for myself. Thank heavens for hot drinks and general madness :)
Posted by karinm at 3:24 PM | Comments (0)
January 5, 2008
Sniffles, Coughs and Sneezes
While watching Night at the Museum, I'm having the time of my life sniffling and sneezing. If I can get flu out of my bones by tomorrow I'm be in heaven. Honestly.
The past two weeks I have been struggling to get over flu and after my run today, I almost feel like I'm back at square one. Sniffles, sneezes, aches and pains. And no amount of medication wants to do it for me. I had the night-time tablets just now and I should probably nod off in a while.
I don't want to moan too much, so I'm going to head up to my bed and fall asleep.
Posted by karinm at 9:50 PM | Comments (0)
January 4, 2008
TGIF
I'm sitting on the edge of my bed, sniffling, massaging cold muscles and wondering whether the threats of snow that settles are going to realise. At the same time I'm hoping that it'll be hotter tomorrow when I head out for that 15 mile run that lurks in my diary.
Its been a really hectic day - there's been a project at work that kept me so busy that I couldn't really think about anything else. It ended today ... purely because it had to. Thankfully all the work got done and the demo can be done to the client on Tuesday, but to be honest, I wish I had more time to make sure things worked as they should.
At least I still get some joy from running and cycling about and getting myself into the right frame of mind (and fitness) for the upcoming year.
Ooer... snow just started falling. I have to assume the position at the window :)
Posted by karinm at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)
January 3, 2008
MotorTabs
I just have a short post today. And it consists of a question.
Have you heard of MotorTabs? Have you used MotorTabs? And if you have, what did you think of it?
Posted by karinm at 10:41 PM | Comments (2)
January 2, 2008
Ouchies
I learned some very valuable lessons today. I left work today and instead of going straight to the gym, instead went home to have pasta and wine with my husband. I figured that if I got to the gym around 7pm, there would be a treadmill open for me for more than an hour and that'd mean that I could finish my 6 miles without having to stop every 20 minutes and get to the back of the queue.
Well, not so. I got to the gym at 7:30pm and when I walked in there was a room full of people that has the 2008 resolution to go to gym 3 times a week on average. I applaud them for their effort, but 90% of them will try to get the 156 times in within the months of January and February and it generally means that the best time to get there would be around 7am when everyone is getting ready for work!
But on the bright side, there was a treadmill open and there was no queue!
So I hopped on and warmed up and then felt that I could now select a program to lead me through my session of pickups. I pressed the program button. Hrmmm... didn't respond. I pressed it again. Still no response.
Ok, so the treadmill didn't have the capability, or just didn't feel like, being programmed. Right enough. Last time I checked, my fingers could press 'faster' and 'slower' with ease and at least those buttons seemed to respond relatively quickly. I did my first pickup. I slowed down. I did my second pickup. I slowed down. I did my third pickup. I tried to slow down...OH JOY! The slower button seized to exist and I was on a good 6.5 mph. Lovely.
I was feeling okay and there wasn't any other treadmills open, so I carried on running. My heartrate went up, up and away! Well, it settled around 173bpm and I was starting to sound like a steam train that got overloaded with coal somewhere. But I had 3 miles to go and I was feeling okay except for a stinging pain developing somewhere in untold regions of my body.
Nevermind that.
So... carried on running. At a faster pace than I wanted to.
But the stinging wouldn't go away.
And then... there was a crippling pain.
The need to stop.
Immediately.
Throughout the run, I had developed 2 blisters ... and 1 had burst.
I stopped. I didn't care that there was only 4.2 miles on the clock, I was going to cry and say things I didn't mean.
So... lessons learnt :
- Get to the gym at 7am or 5pm... but not at 7pm.
- Don't get on the treadmill that stands all alone in the corner. It doesn't like me.
- Make sure the correct underwear is worn... or run the risk of developing a rather uncomfortable blister or 2.
Posted by karinm at 9:18 PM | Comments (0)
January 1, 2008
The Year of 'I Can'
This year is the year of 'I Can'. No more excuses. No negativity. No doubts. Simply : I CAN!!!
I was sitting in my chair today, preparing my spreadsheet for the year and considering my options as to what I am going to do this year. So far there are only 5 things that are certain.
- I am doing the Stamford Valentines 30K (2008/02/10) (sadly without a partner in tow)
- I am doing the Los Angeles Marathon (2008/03/02) (hopefully with someone pacing me ;) )
- I am doing the London Marathon (2008/04/13) (without anyone else, but hey, the atmosphere will be soaked up!)
- I am doing the London Triathlon (2008/08/10)
- I am doing the Great North Run (2008/10/05) (atmosphere!)
As for goals, I have 3 :
- Run 1500 miles
- Lose 2 stone
- Finish an Ironman
And all of those can be measured - publicly, you'll notice the mileage in my sidebar... I'll have to let you know about the weight loss thing... and the Ironman finish will be announced in the form of a race report sometime or another :)
I can do this. Because this is the year of I Can.
Posted by karinm at 5:58 PM | Comments (6)