Hello 2006 !

Saturday 31 December (continued) - New Years Eve

This Christmas/New Year period has been particularly important for my family as my brother's Canadian girlfriend, E, has been visiting Australia for the first time. My brother (my only sibling) will also be moving to Canada in 2006 to be with E so (while he will return for my wedding) I imagine it will be a few years before we are all together again which is sad because we are a v. close knit family. Anyhoo in an effort to show E our beautiful city we decided to watch the NYE fireworks from Lady Macquarie's Chair which is something that we have never done before. Lady Mac's chair - for those who don't know Sydney - sits just east of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.



Mr Jen & I arrived at about 3.30pm to discover my parents, my brother & E and my aunt and uncle all set up with their chairs, food, drink & blanket under one of the trees. A beautiful spot and a wonderful night. The fireworks were fantastic and the atmosphere amongst the crowd was amazing. A fantastic way to welcome in the new year and an amazing way to show E our beautiful harbour.

I must say that the award for 2005 quote of the year was awarded to a English tourist at about 11.30pm. There was a possum sitting in one of the trees surrounded by tourists taking a photo of it. An Englishman in the crowd said - and I quote - "is that a fair dinkum wombat?" LOL. Unfortunately it wasn't until about 5 mins later that it occurred to us that we should have told him it was a drop bear instead !

Sunday 1 January 2006 - bring it on :-)

I normally swim before breakfast but after crawling out of bed at 9am, I decided I need some food and water before even contemplating going for a swim. While I didn't drink much last night, the heat left me feeling dehydrated despite drinking litres of water.

Activity: LSD swim
Time: 11.30am
Duration: 50mins
Mood/energy: great
ITB: fine

Felt good today; strong and sitting high in the water. I also tried to focus on keeping my stroke long, particularly when I was getting tired.

Summary: 49.45mins; 2,250m
WTD: 6.6kms
MTD: 2.25kms

Today was the hottest day on record in Sydney in 60-something years. It reached 44C (111F) in the city - thankfully the humidity was lower than in recent days so it was somewhat bearable. So what does one do in a house that doesn't have air-con on such a hot day ? Absolutely nothing. Sat on the couch once I got home from my swim for 4 hours and watched Giant with Rock Hudson and James Dean before heading over to a friend's place at Rozelle (who has air-con) for dinner.

Last week - another week where I did all my planned sessions (though I changed an interval swim session to a lap session):

2 x weights sessions

4 x swims (total 6.6kms)

The week ahead - back to work and a return to Satan to work off some of my Christmas excesses...
Monday: rest
Tuesday: swim (30mins)
Wednesday: Satan
Thursday: Satan
Friday: swim (30mins) + appointment with chiro/osteo
Saturday: swim (40mins)
Sunday: swim (50mins)

My ITB has been niggle-free again this week (although I've done nothing which might aggrevate it). Maybe I'll go for a little walk next weekend...