On Top of the World

I was officially abandoned at around 11am today because M had to go to work, and was then going to a friend’s place for a Party Pie Party. South Australia has two teams entered in our national Australian Rules Football competition - M supports one team, and his friend the other. When the two teams play each other, they have a Party Pie Party, where the only food on the menu is (you guessed it) Party Pies, and they watch the game and generally gloat when their team is winning.

So I was left to my own devices today. I went into the city and got my hair cut, then visited M at work, since it was only a small detour, and then went to the supermarket on the way home. Since it was a beautiful day, and I had a couple of hours of daylight left, I thought I’d go for a walk in the conservation park behind my house - beats a walk around the block!

So I set off, and after about 10-15 minutes, got to the section where it has the different marked trails that you can walk on. Since I only had 45 minutes until the park closed, I started off on the easiest one (which is the shortest), and thought that I’d walk for 10 minutes, and then come back so I’d have plenty of time to walk to the gates before they were locked for the day. So I walked along, and took some photos on the way back.

I was walking along the stretch of road that led to the front gates, and was thinking about the track that goes past the back of my house. I hadn’t walked back to my house that way before, and figured that now was not time to be experimenting with new routes, as the park would be closed soon, and it would be getting dark. So I kept walking.

I had the front gates in sight when I saw the aforementioned track. I thought, ‘what the hell’ and started walking up the track. And when I say ‘up’, I mean UP. It seemed to be a neverending uphill slope, and my legs were absolutely buggered. And still it went up. It seemed to be veering a little off to the left, away from the direction my house is in, but I figured that it would wind its way back in the right direction and all would be fine. In the meantime I was cursing myself for walking up the stupid track, thinking that if I’d just gone out through the gates and up my street, I would have been home by now.

The track finally levelled off (thank God for that), so I could catch my breath a little, but I didn’t want to slow down too much because it was past the park’s closing time (and I’d come too far up the track to go back), and I didn’t want to be stuck in there when it was dark. I kept walking and finally saw a house. HOORAY! I figured it was the one at the bottom of my street, but then noticed that it didn’t really look like that house, and the houses next to it looked a lot like other houses I’d seen further up my street when I’d gone on my walks around the block. I looked to the right and could see my street, and another street that came off it. Since my house isn’t near such a street, I knew I’d gone too far. D’oh.

So I thought I’d follow the fenceline, since I knew I had the right street, and I’d eventually have to end up at my house. So I followed the fenceline, down the hill, and down… and down… and down. This was no mean feat, as my legs were literally shaking from all the uphill walking, and I was getting a mild feeling of worry because my house is quite high on the hill, and the downward path of the fenceline was not looking promising. Have you ever got that feeling where you know you’re not actually lost, because logically you know how to get back, but even so, the surroundings are totally unfamiliar so you can’t help that little twinge of worry? That’s what I was feeling. All the while, I was still cursing myself for choosing to come this way, envisaging a night spent with the koalas and snakes.

Fortunately, however, I reached the lowest point of the fenceline, and it started going up again. I knew it would be a matter of time before I saw my house, and lo and behold, there it was. I have never been so glad to see my house. I climbed over the back fence (which was not easy because a. I’m short; and b. my legs were still shaking), and was finally home.

At least I got my exercise for the day. I so deserve the leftover pizza I’m having for tea tonight!

Like a lot of workplaces, mine has a ‘junk food’ area where you can buy cheap chocolates, chips and drinks, and after lunch today I was having a look through the chocolate box to see if there was anything worth getting. Since I’ve been trying to lose weight in the last 6 months, and just generally improve my diet, I usually (but not always) try to get chocolate bars now with relatively low fat content (I use this term very loosely when talking about chocolate).

So I was picking up various chocolates and looking at the nutritional information on the packet. Most of them were around 15 or 16 grams per serve, saying that there was one serve in the packet (as you would expect). Then I picked up an Aero and had a look. In the fat per serve column, it had only 2 grams, but when I looked for how many serves per packet there claimed to be, it said 7! SEVEN serves in one packet? An Aero only weighs around 50 g, and they think we’re going to break it up into 7 individual serves? Not bloody likely!

How stupid do the chocolate companies think we are? Claiming to have 7 serves in a chocolate bar is stupid enough, but then to think that we’ll look at the fat content, see 2g and think we’re eating low-fat chocolate? If they’re going to do that, they may as well break it up into 28 serves and say that there’s only 0.5g of fat per serve! Duh.

I’ve tried skinning my site… not with any designs I’ve created (yet), but just ones I had already. So if you’re sick of the black template, you can always go back to the poppy one I used to have a while ago. If you find a problem, let me know. And then I’ll cry quietly for a couple of minutes. But after that I’ll try to fix it.

***

A few days ago we got home from work and there was a message on the answering machine. It was from a guy called Sam, thanking us for our help that day after the accident, and saying that even though we might have thought it wasn’t much, he really appreciated it.

As far as we could recall, we hadn’t come to the aid of anyone involved in an accident that day, so we figured it was just a wrong number and let it drift to the back of our minds.

Yesterday when M got home, there was a package that had been delivered via express post. It was a box of chocolates, with a card thanking us again for our help. Obviously the guy hadn’t called the wrong number, as the package had our names and address on it, but there was still a mistake somewhere.

M rang the guy today and found out that he wasn’t sure exactly who had helped him, so he’d made a guess based on where he had the accident. We thought it might have been the people up the road who helped (the ones whose mail we get all the time), so when we went for a walk today, we took the chocolates up there. Noone was home, so we still don’t know if they were the ones who helped, and in the meantime we”re stuck with a box of chocolates that we’re too paranoid to eat because we’re worried they’ve been poisoned (even though they’re still sealed in plastic). Mmmm forbidden chocolate.

Today M and I went for a drive to Clare. After taking a wrong turn and deciding on the scenic route to get there, we had lunch in a nice pub and went for a walk around before heading back home.

On the way to Clare is a town called Tarlee, and I quite like the signs marking the start and end - when you enter the town, you are greeted with the following sign:

Nothing really unusual there. But when you leave, you are farewelled with this sign, which I thought was cute (the sun was right behind it, so the photo’s not that good):

Right now I’m looking at images from various cameras around New York City. I think it’s really interesting to watch people go about their everyday lives. Voyeuristic, I know. I’m watching cars going through traffic lights, pedetrians crossing the street or milling about on different corners.

The camera I’m looking at at the moment is focussed on Central Park W @ 96th St. The location means absolutely nothing to me, but I like the fact that some of you will read that and think, “I know where that is!” Wouldn’t it be so cool if I were to tell one of you New Yorkers that that’s the camera I’d be looking at at a particular time, then you go there, stand on the corner and hold up a huge sign or wave frantically or something! Heh heh. I doubt anyone would pay attention - a friend of mine walked through NYC wearing nothing but a pair of boxers with the Australian flag on them and noone batted an eyelid.

Yesterday was my 2nd wedding anniversary - happy anniversary honey! *mwah*

M sent me some beautiful flowers - it’s pretty cool that we work together because he was able to give them to me in person when they were delivered. We didn’t have any vases here, so the cleaner gave us one of her buckets Hey, it holds water, and that was the main thing! I took some photos of the flowers with my phone, and I’ll put one up when I get a chance.

Last night we went out to a fancy restaurant for dinner. It’s always excellent, and hence is one of my favourites. We had two courses, and by the end of the main we were both absolutely STUFFED. I’m still feeling full now.

***

I finally put some mp3s on my phone! We tried once before to get bluetooth working, but didn’t have any luck, but M tried again when we got home and succeeded. I’ve only got about 15 tracks on there, but I might put a couple more on later. Today I finally figured out how to turn on silent mode - I’ve had the phone for months but didn’t know how to do it, and couldn’t find it in the manual. So I did a search and found out how - aaaah, hold down the # key… I guess that explains the huge mute icon on the # key - duh. There’s another vacuum cleaner moment*.