Just do it!

This one time I googled Nike because I wanted to find out about the goddess but apparently that day a video of a man in a Nike jumper having sex with a woman on a footpath had got a lot of hits because a 'news' item about the video was at the top of my list. That's just by the by, really. The reason I was thinking about Nike was I wanted to know if she was a 'just do it' kinda gal. As the goddess of victory I guess she must have been somewhat that way inclined.

Anyway last night I went for a run. Last week my neighbour suggested we go running together one night a week and last night was that night. Guys, it was awesome. For so many reasons.

1) Physically I felt great!
2) Spiritually I felt great!
3) Dinner tasted so great afterwards!
4) It was so effing cold outside but it was invigorating!
5) It was totally legit to have a shower afterwards. A hot night time shower in winter is one of life's finest simple pleasures and it was great!

Have a great weekend y'all!

Into the fog (PM)

Sheesh, according to BOM it’s only 14.7 degrees outside right now. That is not cool. Although, literally it is very cool. I wouldn’t know, I’m at work but it looks pretty miserable outside.

I always find myself a little anxious before any kind of travel, even the minor kind, and an overseas trip is attended by a lot more pretravel anxiety. Throw in a baby and some really cold weather – total fog wandering. When Baby was 8 months we went to USA. I’ve probably told you this before, but as we waited in the dark cold night of a February NYC, very underdressed for the weather an apparently homeless man saw my bundle of baby (the warmest dressed of the three of us) strapped to me in a BabyBjorn and said, “You got a baby in there? Get that baby inside!” Believe me, I wanted to! But the guy who was meant to meet us and let us in to the Air B’n’B apartment we’d booked wasn’t answering his phone. Eventually we ended up in the same place as that homeless guy, a McDonalds around the corner, and not long after that we were let into the apartment. Oh, God, I remember how happy I felt, being in a warm apartment, with a couch and TV and bed and kitchenette. It  made me the happiest girl in the world.

I guess what I’m saying is that there’ll be times when a stranger yells at you on the street as you stand cold and homeless and there’ll be times when you are ensconced in a warm happy home. You know, like life. But better. And sometimes maybe worse.

The sweet scent of summer (AM)

Like most people I've been pretty damn cheesed off about this pathetic excuse for a spring. Maybe it's because all the rain has made life with this bullshit haircut more unbearable than I knew was possible. Maybe it's because I can't fit into my jeans and so have nothing to wear when the it is cold and wet. Maybe it's because it's been cold for the last 8 months and the reviving trip to North American summer only had reviving powers to last 6 to 8 weeks.Whatever it is I'm...cheesed off. I'm not saying this spring has been total bullshit. There have been nice days all over the place, I'll admit it. But there have also been so many bullshit cold wet days it's easy to forget the winners. And yesterday, yesterday was really the first taste of summer. Am I right?

 Like first in the morning I had to drive across town and it was hot and uncomfortable and I didn't like it much. But later in the day when I was at the pool I was pretty much loving the shit out of it.

After my swim (relax in the kids pool) I ran into a friend in the change room. She'd just arrived and complained about the heat "It's really hot. You know how you want it but then when it gets here you realise you are not prepared?" she said. I did know what she meant but after two hours in the pool I was pretty removed from that feeling. It wasn't long though until, waiting among a bunch of cu...people to be served some delicious ice cream at Messina I was hot and annoyed and I knew exactly what she meant. Hot hot heat can suck.

Tell that to the me that ate my dinner by the beach though as the sun set and boats sailed in.

Or the me that ate stone fruit salad for dessert.

The me that struggled to get comfortable for sleep due to heat would believe you though.

Summer, it makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you fall in love all over again.

Winter warmers (AM)

Last winter (or was it the winter before?) I remember K wanting to buy some pyjamas. I all but scoffed at her. Where the hell is the joy in pyjamas? In winter, it's tracksuit pants you want, fleecy and snug, this is where real joy comes from. I was vehement in my brain if not in my derision of her quest for jarmies. I know she found some and I know they brought her great joy. A joy I did not believe was real. Fleece track suit pants was the only way to find winter peace.

Well that is all well and good when one owns a good pair of tracksuit pants. Dare to dream, I used to say. Also, I used to own joy-bringing pants, a fleecy, warm pair. But time wearies all things of beauty, so too these pants and we had to part. Last year I was on a mission to find what I like to call BSMs, or Bella Swan maternity pants, the pants Kristen Stewart wears during Bella's entire pregnancy in Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1.

Here are Bella and Sparkleface enjoying at tender moment as they await the birth of their vampiric progeny

They are sort of fitted, yet tracksuity and I thought they would answer my tracksuit prayers. But lo, like vampires, such a pant seems not to exist outside of the realm of fantasy. I found a poor approximation but they pilled to all git out, which really negated any softness and comfort they had, and they too had to go.

This year I started my search early but my usual go to, Bonds, do not even have a fleecy tracksuit pant in their range! The best they offer  is a terry loop, and where is the joy in that! There is none. American Apparel have fleece pants but I find it difficult to part with the kind of money they want for such an unflattering item.

Guys, I've been despondent. And then, last week it hit me: flannel pyjamas. Sure I felt a traitor to myself, but once it came to me I could think of nothing else. I left work on a lunch break and returned with the most joy bringing pyjamas.

Mate, I'm sorry I scoffed at your love of pyjamas. I know happiness and I know flannel can bring it.

Some things never change (PM)

First of all, sorry for the late post you guys. Being in the northern hemisphere is the the worst when you have a southern hemisphere deadline. Late at night is the best time to blog I think, but staying awake past 10pm is hard when you spend all day walking around, or when you are me. 

But enough excuses. We'll sort something out as the weeks progress. And right now we've got shit to talk about. Literally! Ha. Not really. But check it out: I am totally writing this from a very cold bathroom! Its 8am over here and i didn't want  to disturb the sleeping Appleheart so I snuck in to the bathroom to write this. I'm perched on a bath under an open window. Before I even read the AM, I was thinking sheesh, London, warm up why don't you because it was cold in there. And you can believe getting out of bed was no picnic. Which is what's waiting for all of us on the other side of dragging ourselves away from the heater, brushing our teeth and getting in to bed. Sleep, then getting out of bed in to the cold morning. Which is where I am right now! How do we break the cycle?!

I don't want to be negative because I am holidays and after I write this I am going to have a hot hot shower and then see this. So a little coldness between the bed and the shower is obviously not too much of a hardship. But you know. Heaters might be the way forward.

Also, maybe, just maybe, this is the way forward. It's a down puffer jacket in a pink gingham pattern I tried on yesterday and felt troubled by how much I liked it.
Would it be crazy to get it?
I am thinking more about the Melbourne winter, rather than walking from the bed to the bathroom.
Mate, what do you think?

Have I told doon lately that I love you (AM)

Did everyone in Melbourne have a beautiful reunion with their doona last night? Lord knows I did! In case I have not made myself clear in the past, I love bed and I really love my doona. It is really the icing on the cake.

Oh, sure when I got into bed last night I was looking forward to a night where I didn't have to lie in such a way where my limbs weren't touching and I was pretty confident I would sleep through, like the proverbial baby, but not like any real baby, who are notorious for not sleeping through. I wrapped myself in doona, knowing I may kick it off in the night but was unlikely to awaken, as I had the previous two nights, from a dream where I was looking for a blanket or jumper, freezing, obviously because the fan was working too well in real life only to wake and find that the cold in the dream had been nothing but a dream and it was still hot as a mutha! Capiche? Neither!

In truth I have found the famous March heatwave of 2013 entirely manageable. Saturday was kinda unbearable, but the other days have been fine. I could barely believe Monday and Tuesday were over 36, they felt like nothing more than a classic 32, and who can't handle that?! But the nights, oh brother, the nights have hurt a bit. And yet, they were ok, just knowing this too shall pass. But I guess what I liked most about the end of the heatwave was getting back under dooney. My sweet, sweet dooney. Distance truly does make the heart grow fonder.

It's cool (AM)

If you've been here before, I don't have to tell you that we have a pretty tenuous grasp on quality writing, and shit you guys it's been over 30 degrees for days now. That means that: a) my house is really hot; and b) I have not done any productive supermarket shopping because I can't figure out what to eat in this heat. Therefore, a+b=I am so hot and hungry. All I can think of is eating and cooling. In the interest of that, I have this for us all:

Just some shades I created using a really great program called Paint. HAHA. I hate you, Paint, but thanks for allowing me these cooling colours. Don't you think it is a little bit mind-bending how visuals can just change your feeling. Although I wish I'd thought about this yesterday when I went for a run in the stupid heat. I think thinking of things like this may have helped:

Oh yeah.

Don't thank me. Just enjoy it.