a Beer, a Whine and The Spirit

A truly amazing mix of complete relaxation, delightful catch-ups, crazy toddler getting cabin fever in the car, yummy coffees and not-as-bad-as-you-might-think Victorian weather. Hubs is on his way back to Townsville in our "new" car (we bought Mum and Dad's land cruiser off them) and the kids and I are in Brisbane (Woody Pt) until the 11th of September. Might see you round :-)

Posted by Renae at 12:11 PM Comments

Hey y'all. I haven't forgotten!! I know I told you in this post that I would reveal what I bought for Hubs for his birthday this year, and I really and truly have been meaning to get around to taking photos of the gifts to show you, but it just hasn't happened. And our camera lens just broke. Yay. Not sure what that means for holiday snaps, but we'll figure something out.

So, here's the not-so-great reveal! Did you guess any of them correctly!?

• The Doctor is in: stethoscope cufflinks (I almost typed handcuffs instead of cufflinks! Oh dear...)
• A long cuddle: a body-length pillow. He was using 5 pillows at one stage. This is a time and space-saver :-)
• Pot of gold: I bought Hubs his very own Potjie Pot! (pronounced "poykee")
• A collection starter: his first big box of adult Lego (as opposed to Duplo)
• Just in case: I sewed a pillow case for his body pillow, using the logos and pictures from old t-shirts that he no longer wears but didn't want to part with.
• Instructions: a recipe book for Potjie (from his Mum!)
• A puzzling link: rubix cube cufflinks
• Go go gadget: Working USB cufflinks - so nerdy and cool!
• Rusky business: some rusks that I ordered when I bought the potjie pot. 

So yes, Hubs was very much spoilt this birthday. Seeing as how he didn't really get anything last year, it was fun to splurge a bit. That just means that Fathers Day might be a bit light on this year... :-)

Posted by Renae at 5:51 PM Comments

Yes she is. And so is Hubs. And Chanbe. And Quinnbe. We leave tomorrow night for Brisbane, then on Wednesday we are heading to Rainbow Beach for 4 nights, then the Gold Coast for a night, then back to Woody Point for a night before heading to Melbourne. We will spend a couple of nights there, then go to Wang for Thursday night, then back to Melbourne until the following Tuesday. We then head back to Brisbane for a couple of days before Hubs drives back up to T'ville. The kids and I will stay down at Woody Pt for another week or 2 after that.

What? I didn't say it was going to be a relaxing holiday! It's what we do. We don't mean to do it, but it always ends up this way. Hopefully there will be a few days here and there where we can take a deep breath and chill. The last 2 weeks have been quite relaxing a great, with a couple of visitors, some wine, some jazz, and lovely sleep-ins followed by cooked breakfasts. Yum!

Life is pretty damn sweet. Hope to see you in your home down during the next month. And hope to be here blogging about it too, but as always, this will depend on internet access.

26 hours til we leave! I should really start packing...

Posted by Renae at 4:10 PM Comments

I did it! It was hard going, but I ran (jogged) the whole way and didn't stop til I got to the end! It felt really amazing, even though I was in a world of pain by the end of it. My sciatica wasn't too bad during the run, but my hip was sore pretty much the whole time. And it was when I stopped that the sciatica pain flared up. But that doesn't matter!!! I did it!

As you can see, Beth hardly broke out in a sweat, but you would come to expect that of a personal trainer who completes triathlons and trains every day :-) It was so good having Beth there to cheer me on the whole way. Once I got to the half way mark, I knew I could do the whole thing. It was slow going (45min total) but I didn't stop. And I'm feeling really proud of myself right now. And even though I'm pretty sore still, I'm already looking forward to the next one in a month! Bridge to Brisbane, here I come!

Posted by Renae at 5:14 PM Comments

Well it was bound to happen. It's what I do. I was attempting my first 5k run last Sunday in the lead up to this Sunday's fun run, and at 3km, sciatica pain hit. At 4km I had to stop. I was quite sad and couldn't help being a little (very) frustrated. I came home, took some pain killers and have been hoping for the best ever since. I've been doing what all the articles are telling me to do - stretch, heat, cold, rest, pain killers. Today is the first day I've noticed a small improvement. I really have my heart set on running this Sunday, and I'm just trying to stay positive that it will happen.

I've never stuck to a plan like this before, and there's still a part of me that can't believe I actually made it (almost!) this far. I feel like, if I can do this, there are so many other things I can believe I'm capable of.

I just have to get through Sunday. Wish me luck!!!!!

Posted by Renae at 11:22 AM Comments