The day after....

Today, the day after the 12km run …. I am SOOOOO sore!!! I don’t walk anymore – it is more a hobbling or limping ;-) But I am proud of that!! It is a hard earned soreness :-)

City to Surf - I DID IT!!

We got up really early at 6.30am on Sunday morning and drove into the city. There was lots of traffic and people in running shoes everywhere – on motorbikes, on bicycles, in cars and even people running from their home to the start.

The start area was very crowded. About 25.000 people were about to do the 12km run, 12km walk, 11km wheelchair or 4km walk. We lined up in group D (more than 70min.) for the 12km run. The starter’s gun went off at 8am and…. we stood where stood. It took about 5min for all the faster guys in front to get going. So we literately walked across the start line and it took about 500m until we could run properly.

It was a very good run and I felt quite good the whole time. But I must admit that I was a little bit doped :-) I drank some MuscleEase in the morning and put some herbal muscle relaxing gel on my legs just before the start. That really helped a lot!! Because usually my legs get really tight after 2-3km but this time they were just fine – no cramps, no tightness, nothing! But I got 2 blisters on my feet because I was not used to run that far in my running shoes. I never ran 12km before! I did 5km maybe 4 times in the last couple of weeks.

And I nearly ran the whole course. I only walked up the 3 steepest hills but I never stopped or paused!! Crossing the finish line in the end felt really really good!! We finished in about 1h 20min.

The City to Surf 12km run was really good fun and I will do it again next year. And I will probably train a little bit more this time :-)

Today is Daffodil Day!
Various Cancer Societies around the world use the Daffodil as fundraising symbol. "Daffodil Days" are organised to raise funds by offering the flowers in return for a donation. (wikipedia)
(picture source)

I did it!!!

I really did it! Last night!! I registered for “City to Surf” this Sunday.

This is a charity run from the city of Perth to the beach. Last year more than 25.000 people took part in this 12km run.

I actually hated running! But for some reason (which I can’t remember anymore) I gave it ago when I’ve been to Perth for the first time. I just started to run literally 500m to the beach (I was living close to UWA at this time) and back. I felt so exhausted after this short distance, it was embarrassing. But the good thing about running is that your endurance is getting better and better every time.

So I started running again when I came back to Perth in March this year. Again I slowly increased my distance every time I ran. Now I am able to run 5km in just over half an hour and I am actually really proud of this :-) I never ran 12km before but my aim for the “City to Surf” is just to finish without walking in-between too much.

Ian is coming with me and he promised to run slowly so we can run together and he can cheer me up every time I am down :-) Really looking forward to Sunday! I am excited ;-)

No sleep…

Our neighbour is going through a divorce. So far so good, I mean I accept that he is feeling bad and often isn’t in a good mood but I don’t accept his favour for loud music in the middle of the night!! This happens about once a month and last night was one of these nights…

Suddenly at 1am in the middle of the night, when our neighbour is finally really, really pissed, he turns on the stereo and listens to LOUD music. And because he is already really drunk he accompanies the music with his loud drunken singing.

Our sleeping room and his living room are kind of wall-to-wall so we probably gain most of his entertainment :-(

Supervising

Every Tuesday morning I have a meeting with “my” Honours student and Tele. And I have to say that I really like supervision! I mean… he just started his thesis and I saw him today for the 3^rd time but…. I really like supervising, it is really good fun!

The weekend in short…

Video night at a friends place - “Much ado about nothing”. It is quite a old movie (1993) but it had surprisingly many stars in it like Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton or Keanu Reeves. But let me tell you: understanding Shakespeare English is already difficult for native English and I am German…

And apparently the actor Ben Elton (playing Verges in “Much ado about nothing”) lives just across the street from our house – he is not there very often…

Using “Minnie the Mulcher“ to give the tree in our front yard a huge hair cut – I hope it will grow like crazy this spring!

Dinner up in the hills at Ian’s Mum and Dad’s place – traditional English food.

Finishing the trestle for the plants to grow up on, so hopefully our neighbour will not be able to watch us having breakfast in our front yard anymore. It is ok at the moment but some more privacy would be nice.

Celebrating Jon’s Birthday (Ian’s younger brother) in a nice Italian restaurant north of Perth.

In memory of a duck

This little duck was accidentally killed on the road yesterday - poor little thing! We have really stormy weather at the moment and Ian rides his bike along the coast at about 50km/h due to tailwind. And well… this was just to fast for this little duck…

Peter alias geriatric1927
That guy is just cool! He has this kind of video blog at youtube.com where he tells the whole story of his life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_YMigZmUuk
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=geriatric1927

Class Reunion

We are having our first class reunion 6 years after we left high school. But I will not be able to be there unfortunately :( The travel costs are just too expensive...
But I hope I will get to know all the gossip anyway ;-) Who is married already? What are they doing? Where are they working? Who lives outside of Germany like I do? ... I am soooo curious to get to know all this :-)

Hast Du eine Tochter haesslich und schlau-
schicke sie nach Ilmenau!

... und das muss ich mir von einem Typ aus Baden Württemberg sagen lassen :-)

My First Honours Student
I 'got' my first Honours student today!! I am going to supervise his Honours thesis!! I am so excited! It is my first supervision!
And the best thing is that he is working for me and my PhD thesis!! I am so excited!! :-)
But they are all sooo bloody young! Over here they finish high-school at the age of 17 and therefore they start uni with 17! They get their first degree (Bachelor) with 20!!
After that you can do an Honours for 1 year. Within this year the students have to attend some courses and write an Honours thesis. After they completed their Honours they can do a Master or a PhD. It is all so exciting!! :-)

Today is Census Night
"The Census is the largest statistical collection undertaken by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and one of the most important. There are two broad objectives that underpin the Census. The first of these is to accurately measure the number and key characteristics of people in Australia on Census Night and the dwellings in which they live. The second is to provide timely, high quality and relevant data for small geographic areas and small population groups, to complement the rich but broad level data provided by ABS surveys." (http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/d3310114.nsf/Home/census)

Or see Wikipedia

Ian Back Home

Ian is finally back home after 2 weeks in Europe! I picked him up from the airport early this morning (1am). But this guy is CRAZY!! After just 4h of sleep and still jet lagged Shane picked him up this morning (7am) and they drove down south for a bike race. 80km after being back in the country for only a couple of hours… I don’t need that :-)

Rock Climbing

Last week I went indoor rock climbing (http://www.thehangout.com.au/) for the first time! And it was really good fun! Thorsten is already really good in it and went up the walls in no time. Serge also just started a couple of weeks ago but you increase your skills really quickly!

I started with walls that leaned forward, which are the easiest because you kind of lay on them. Followed by walls that were just straight and I even tried walls that had a little “step” in the middle. It was really good fun but me arms were soooo sore the next day!! :-)

Home Alone

Did I mention that this is the second week that I am home alone?!
Ian went to a wedding in London 2 weekends ago and I had to stay here :-( [No, this is not because his family doesn’t like me ;-) but I just can’t effort it…]

I miss him! The house is really lonely without him, the bed is sooo cold and all the noises I hear now that he is not here are quite scary! And why do I have to get sick NOW that he is not here?! Oh, maybe I am sick because he is not here…

Ian finally gave me a call yesterday! He went hiking for a week in the French Alps and is now back in London. The hike was really good he said but also quite tough – really hot and lots of thunderstorms and lightning.

I am sooo glad that he will be back next Sunday!!