I'm the gingerbread man!

Over the weekend, I had a little bit of a bright spark moment. One of those times when you're idly going about your business, not really thinking of anything in particular, when BAM, something goes off in your brain. I happened to be reading my daily horoscope, reading with interest about how best to woo lovers on the 19th between such and such a time, and then something that I would normally scoff at more than wooing lovers caught my eye a few lines down. It went a little something along the lines of "....and if you've been thinking of running a marathon, this is the time to commit to it". Well, whatdya know, I had been thinking of such things. Why, you might ask? Well, I ask myself the same question.

It came about when Cam decided he was flying off for a weekend to run a marathon. I mean, who randomly decides to do such things? Then, a few weeks ago, as he was busy training and I was busy deciding which side I prefer sleeping on in the early morning light, I had a thought. I mean, why shouldn't I do that? On re-awakening hours later to a sweating, staggering semi-corpse gagging for breath, I wasn't as put off as I imagined in the cold, harsh light of day - I mean, if he can do it, why can't I?

This is where the trouble starts. I think I may have mentioned in previous posts and vlogs that I have what might be described as a mild competitive streak. I mean, some who are close to me, such as any single person who has known me for longer than 18.7 seconds my mother, would suggest it might go further than that. I have been known, on some occasions, having not won a certain competition or failed to beat my way to the top via any means neccessary (cheating, biting and king hitting featuring highly on my list of 'means') to sulk so severely I wouldn't speak to or in fact leave my room for several days. When it comes to a boy 'beating' me? Don't even get me started. When asked yesterday why Tinkerbell made her own movie without Peter Pan, I carefully explained to the 3 year old inquisitor all about equal opportunity, womens rights, feminism and a nice little speech on never letting anyone keep you down, sister. Again, a small knot of panic gripped me when I realized all 9 males seated around me were clutching their beers to their chest in horror, openly staring with eyes filled with fear, before I put them at ease by letting 2 of them beat me at an arm wrestle. (See? I can handle defeat well some of the time!)

The more I thought about it, the more I want to do it. I googled some marathons and their running dates (no pun intended!) and think late July/mid August is a fairly good time frame to realistically be able to run. And when I say run, I mean to start off as small as possible, then consider the 14km City to Surf in Sydney, wherein lies another problem. I know Cam and his brother in law are considering signing up, and if so, I don't think I'll enter. This is where the competitive demon streak comes out - I know, theoretically, I wont be able to beat them. Ever. I mean, in all seriousness, I'd be lucky to make the entire thing without actually dying. But knowing someone will be running, I know myself well enough to know I'd take that as some kind of challenge. And if, as Cam horrifically suggested, he'd keep pace with me, I don't think I'd be in a mind state to be responsible for my actions. See, I already feel he's implying I'm never going to be good enough, and therfore he'll do worse to please me. Already! So, I've decided to do this on my own. I won't be training with him and his marathon boys, I will be slogging this out on my own, with Phoenix by my side and with Lady Gaga screaming in my ears, and with mental images of PT chasing me with a large whip urging me to run faster, longer and harder.

So, from today, I will be documenting my efforts to get this goal on its way to a reality. As from now? I'm about to tie up my laces and go on my first official run. Seriously, how hard can this be?


... Well, I mean, in theory. Now would probably be a good time to mention I could count on one hand the amount of times I have run in my life, most of which involve chasing a stray horse or missing a bus in the rain. Back to my mantra... anything you can do, I can do better!

Sunday Ramble

Um... woops!

So, that posting every day for a month thing? Fail.

Still, at least taking three days off means I've got an abundance of exciting things to blog about, right? Well, sort of.

Soaking up the sun @ The Nobbies on Sunday.

Thursday was spent getting my bottom kicked at a personal training session, followed by wielding the vacuum and a duster like a man-woman in an attempt to make the house vaguely presentable for Cam's mum to visit. I did good, too - I didn't hide anything flammable in the oven like I tend to do last minute, only to remember when acrid smoke billows forth when I attempt cooking a few days later, and technically only hid the three washing baskets of socks etc in a downstairs cupboard purely because I don't have enough wardrobe space*.

Friday? Friday I slogged away for 3 hours retyping resumes and cover letters for various roles with my Job Agency Representitive (who happens to be a good buddy, so it wasn't exactly tedious beyond belief) and then spent the afternoon in a blur of tiredness from the previous days activities.

Ista, Darcy, me and Altibo.

Saturday... Saturday was one of my favorite days for a long time. I spent about 6 hours with the horses, had a lesson on Darcy from a girl at my yard who made him look like a superstar dressage horse in a matter of minutes, and gave me more confidence in my riding than I have had in a long time. It was the first nice day of weather for a long time, and the only downsides were Cam's spectacluar disembark from Altibo, and the chiropractor confirmed Ista as being the 'worst horse I've seen in years' in regards to his back and muscle problems. He ended up having injection upon injection and manipulation of his neck, back and legs. Hopefully there'll be some improvement in the next few weeks. It breaks my heart to see him so sore and feeling sorry for himself.


One of my favorite places, The Nobbies @ Phillip Island

Sunday was gorrrrrgeous. Sunny, 28c, roof down road trip to Phillip Island, which ended up in an ice-cream eating, ocean-paddling, mini-golf-playing, sun-worshipping, tourist-sightseeing sort of way.
And then, dinner at my Mums, the first episode of The Amazing Race, and the long drive home singing along to Benny & The Jets etc. All in all, a good weekend... and it just occurred to me, that's four days off. Goodness, I've been naughty!

There is a baby penguin in there somewhere, I swear!

*Hi Cam. Yeah. See how good I was at putting the floordrobe away? I could put it ALL away if I had more room! Wink wink, nudge nudge..


Oh yeah...and I lost 3.6kg in the past two weeks. What did I do? Reward myself with a nice, yummy hot chocolate... Oops again!

Random Rambles

A) I don't know why this isn't stellar quality.
B) I don't know why I look like such a whale in these videos. Even when filming them, I don't look that big.
C) I need to go hide all those shoes before The Enforcer gets home.

Speaking of memes...

...I feel the need to ramble on in video form again - I actually quite enjoy it, minus the watching it back again and thinking "need to do more arm weights" and/or the constant "do I REALLY sound/look like that?!" - but it's quite therapeutic while I'm actually filming! So aside from the video, I thought I'd do a quick meme I found online today. In the mood to talk? Yes. In the mood to type? Not so much. I'm dopey from a bad night of sleep. I don't have a heap of time. Sahara is informing me she would dearly like to go out into the nasty, windy and cold day and gallavant around the neighborhood with me on the end of her leash. Excellent timing, as it's starting pouring rain with a vengeance.

So, to begin...

Are you a touchy person or do you prefer not to be touched by others?

Unless I truly and utterly trust someone beyond any shadow of a doubt - do NOT touch me. I literally freeze up and squirm - I truly detest it. Having said that, my massuer Glenn*, and my PT Dale are the only two fella's I let in my personal space without feeling the need to gounge their eyeballs out, which is generally handy.

*Unless he touches my toes. I despise having my toes touched, to the extent I will inadvertantly kick the daylights out of anyone who does it.

(side note: Glenn and Dale? Now referred to as Up Hill and Down Hill... what's with the topography names of my man servants?!)

What was your last conscious thought before dropping off to sleep last night?
The last thing I remember was without doubt unsuitable for general blog consumption. Mmm. Mmmmm....

What's your most outstanding virtue?
Right, this is something I need to work on: not being so self effacing. I notice especially on vlogs that I'm like 'Hi! I'm shit, let's deflect any positive attention away from self and focus on the negatives!" and I MUST stop this. I mean, I'm fairly awesome some days. Let's concentrate on that, Katie! So, outstanding virture. Uh... compassion. I like small animals.

How many different species of birds could you recognize on sight?
I was going to say, like maybe 5, and then I think about it, and I'm pretty good at this. Especially in Africa, when I had some time-zone differences I would sit and read the bird-spotting book (*cough* Geek! *cough*) and I learnt quite a few there, too. So I'd say...maybe 30? 50?

What are you avoiding?
Er. Putting my floordrobe away.

Look around you: list the first 5 things you see that bring back good memories.
1. Photos of my horses. They fill my heart with joy. 2. Sahara. We've had the best times together. Running through parks, swimming in the sea together, cuddling on the couch, moving houses 6 times. Uh...not that's she next to the bed, Cam, if you're reading this... 3. Positive sayings cards. Cam gave me these for my last birthday - one of the sweetest things I think he's ever given me. They say things like 'I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my own ship' (Louisa May Alcott) and 'Can you imagine what you would do if you could do all that you can?' (Sun Tzu). They are a little reminder to not dwell on negatives, realize how blessed I am and reflect a little bit when I'm down about how nice it was having my family here for my birthday last year. And they have really cute bird cartoons on them. 4. Big black pebble. I stole this from the bathroom in Fiji when I'd had one too many cocktails. There was some kind of flower arrangement with pebbles in it and I was busy concentrating on standing still without the world falling over and thought how lucky I was to be in such a gorgeous place after island hopping on a yacht all day, and took a pebble to remind me in future. It sits on my night stand. 5. Clothes/jewelry. I seriously struggle to throw anything out, simply because everything has memories for me. If I put on something I haven't worn in a while, I will actually stop and think "Ooh, I wore this at that fabulous restaraunt/on a gorgeous Summer day/snuggled up with movies" and it kind of sets the mood for the day. I LOVE getting dressed up, and knowing something is new makes it all the more exciting, but wearing something I love makes me feel really special.

How do you respond when someone says something unexpectedly kind to you?
Did I mention I needed to work on being nice to myself? Each night, Cam and I make a point of saying something nice to each other before bed, and getting it back in return so I can work on accepting compliments is not something I find easy. I truly believe 80% of the things he says are lies - how sad is that? I automatically assume the worst and look for ulterior motives when I get a compliment - unless it's about my leg length. I accept those ones, because I've learned to love them. Just gotta work on the rest!

If you could be any book character, who would it be?
I don't know about a book character, (Hermione! Hermione! Hermione!!) but if it were TV/Movie I would LOVE to be a cross between Samantha from Sex & The City, Karen Walker from Will and Grace, and Cameron Diaz in general. Hot, with balls.

Right, that small time frame I had is officially over. Breakfast time, salon time, dog walk time, horse feed time, shower time, boxing session time then dinner and bed... did I forget anything? Oh yeah, applying for another bunch of completely unsuitable jobs....joy! Have a great day, y'all!

Random Question Tag

I love that the first comment I got when Cameron walked through the door was not "hello, darling, how was your day?" but rather "Oh my f**k, please tell me you didn't show your slippers on your new vlog!"

Rude. Very rude.

Mock My Accent!

In response to the awesomeness of Melisa with One S from Suburban Scrawl, I thought I'd have a crack at this meme vlog. Hope you like it!