PS

I didn’t get to be home alone. My housemate decided not to go out. Boo! Hiss!

I have to tell you what he made for dinner tonight because it had me speechless. He put a heap of butter into a frypan then got two crumpets and coated them with butter then fried them and added ham and cheese to the top! Those poor crumpets couldn’t have absorbed another gram of butter if they’d tried.

Meanwhile I was making stock for my chicken soup. I’ve never made stock before. It’s damn fiddly. Well fiddly in the way that I had to keep putting down my book and walking to the kitchen to check on it.

I also made stewed peaches because I got a big bag for $1 at the market. I added some grated nutmeg and cardamon pods. They were damn fine cos I tried some with ice cream. I rock at being a domestic goddess.

Tomorrow I’m making pasta for dinner so I can carb load. I got some spinach gnocchi from the market (I actually asked for pumpkin gnocchi but she took so long serving me, I dealt with it) plus a huge bag of tomatoes for $1 and capsicums for $1 a kg, zucchinis for $1 a kg and other stuff. The market seemed to be incredibly cheap today even for the market. I spent less than $20 and got so much food.

I had my radox bath. It rocked. I got out of my awkwardly shaped bathtub and dried myself before I realised I felt no pain. Woohoo! I have a few twinges now but I think they’ll be right.

Just to solidify my resolve to be all healed by Sunday, I got out my clothes and packed my race number and stuff into my bag. I’m ready to go. I even made a special playlist for my ipod All I need do now is rest and eat carbs! To paraphrase Ralph Wiggum – that’s where I’m a viking!

I Will Run On Sunday!

I’ve decided I’m going to run on Sunday. My leg WILL be better by then. I refuse to let it not be better. I really believe that when you decide these things, it works. Like when I had my gall bladder operation, I had complications afterwards and they wanted to go back in for exploratory surgery but I was sick of people cutting me up so I decided I’d get better. I laid in bed, willing myself to get better, focusing my energy.

The next morning they came in to do tests before the surgery, but I’d fixed myself and instead of surgery, they sent me home. Of course, it would have been much better if I’d decided not to get gallstones in the first place but better late than never.

Tonight I’ve got the house to myself. Woohoo! It’s such a rare event. My sister’s gone to the footy and the housemates are going out. I’m about to cook some Vietnamesey chicken soup then soak in a nice Radox bath.

I got the Radox from the chemist and the nice pharmacist told me not to ice but to apply heat. Between the heat, the Radox, the Nurofen gel and my iron-like will, I’ll definitely be running.

***

With the phone bill, I’m waiting for Mum to send me a copy of the account then I’ll work out what to do once I can see if it’s a dodgy bill or just an horrendously overpriced plan.

Blahs

I’m feeling pretty down and sorry for myself today. My leg and hip are feeling worse to the point where I’m starting to wonder if I’ll be able to run on Sunday. At the moment, I’m resting it lots. I’m not sure if ice will help or if it’s too late for that but I’ve been using Norofen gel. The trouble with Nurofen gel is that you feel a bit better when you use it but then about 12-18 hours later you feel A LOT better so you start to think the problem is getting fixed, but it’s just the gel.

The shittiest thing is that I can’t go to the doctor because I have no money. Well I could go to the doctor but they’d just refer me to the physio or whoever and that costs $$$. And, after all that, they’d probably just tell me to rest it anyway.

On top of that, I’ve got this huge bill I have to pay. Last year my mobile stopped working – it just wouldn’t charge. Around that time, my sister got a new phone even though her old one still had about 12 months of it’s contract to go. Since her old phone was in Mum’s name I thought I’d do the right thing and just use that to save Mum having to pay off the contract.

I swear at the time they said it was on a capped plan. But instead it is on the world’s most expensive mobile phone plan ever. I had a few huge bills last year – I’m talking over $100 for the month – even though I rarely use the phone. I’d probably made about one short (5 minutes tops) call every couple of days.

I told Mum to ring Telstra and find out what was going on. I tried ringing them and they wouldn’t discuss it with me because the phone isn’t in my name. Meanwhile Mum did nothing about it. She seemed to think the bills were quite normal!!!

After that, I stopped using the phone except in emergencies. The bills were still high but a bit better. Now the contract is run out and I’ve been meaning to get it changed over to prepaid. I’d really like to get rid of it altogether but we don’t have a landline here because the phone has never been connected so I need to have a mobile while I’m looking for work.

So this month’s bill came in and it’s $170. Yep, for one measly month. The only call I remember making was to Mum to return a call she’d made to me and she wouldn’t stop talking and get off the bloody phone.

I have no idea where I’m going to get $170 from. A couple of weeks ago, I felt positive I’d have a job by the end of the month but now everything seems to have fizzled off and there is nothing promising at all. I’m so angry about this phone bill and really don’t want to pay it. I wish I’d just gone out and got a new phone in the first place. I used to have a prepaid phone with Three and I’d get $50 of credit every 3-4 months and that worked fine. Every time I think about this bill I just want to punch something. What a waste of money. If I wanted to spend $170 on something nonessential I could have bought clothes or running shoes or something good!

Donuts

I do not like donuts. I can’t remember even the last time I tried them. I can remember going to the Dandenong market with my mum and sister as a kid (so I must have been in grade one or two since that’s when we lived in Dandenong) and she’d buy donuts for herself and my sister and I’d chuck a huge spazz because I wanted a different treat. I’d never, ever eat the donuts because I hated them.

So tonight Andrew bought over some Krispy Kremes and I decided to try them. I had a bit of one with vanilla icing and a bit of one with apple cinnamon filling. The icing was yummy and the filling was okay. The donuts were disgusting.

I’ve eaten food that I don’t like before but not like this. I felt like some slimy parasitic hellbeast had taken root in my stomach and, even after a cup of coffee and water, I can’t get the gross taste out of my mouth. It’s not even the taste, it’s the waxy, icky coating.

How can people eat those things? If I’m going to put a pile of fat and sugar into my body, I want it to be a superlative pile of fat and sugar. No more Krispy Kremes for me, next time I’ll just chuck a huge spazzy fit because I want a different treat. Of course, it’ll probably have the same effect on Andrew as it did on Mum and I’ll end up with a clip around the ears.

***

My back and left leg have been awful sore since the weekend. Not just sore but stiff and sore. I’ve been hardly able to bend over or squat to pick things up off the floor. It’s strange – I often have problems with my right leg but that’s fine atm and now the left is being dodgy.

Luckily I found a great cure. I went to go-go dancing tonight figuring if it didn’t kill me it would make things better and it worked. All that shimmying and shaking the hips loosened everything up and I feel fine. I’m still going to take it easy tomorrow then go for an easy run on Thursday.

***

Why did no one tell me they have a Prison Break ride at Luna Park? I’m so there. This weekend. Actually it’s not a ride, it’s an ‘experience’, an intense, exhilarating, live interactive ’scare’ experience!

The ‘prison’ includes a holding cell, followed by a disorientating chain link, cage maze, filled with dynamic audio and strobe lighting, intense and scary special effects, plus a cast of very hungry inmates. Join Michael Schofield and his brother Lincoln Burrows in your attempt to escape Officer Bellick and the guards of Fox River penitentiary. It’s the scariest place on Earth! Find your own way out!

How good does that sound? Apart from them using the words ‘intense’ and ’scary’ too many times in the copy, and apart from it sounding like a crappy maze with some lighting effects. Other than that though…

I haven’t been to St Kilda in ages so afterwards I can partake in St Kilda type activities like eating ice cream and wandering the streets bitching about how the place is a shithole now the yuppies have taken over.

Weigh In – 76.3 kg

Argghhh, I’ve put on a kilo this week and I know why… too many snack foods. We’ve been watching Angel on dvd pretty intensely (like a whole season in 3 days) and snacking out on sugary treats while doing so. Not good. I can’t believe I’ve never watched Angel before. Andrew also said it was better than Buffy but his reasoning was that the fight scenes are better. He never mentioned psychic karaoke or anything important.

So this week, no snack foods. I’m cutting down on my running before the Run for the Kids on Sunday so I can’t afford to be sitting around eating all week.

Yesterday I went on a 10 km run. Well it started out that way. I didn’t run far when things started hurting – my leg and hip – so I stopped running and walked for most of it. My hip and lower back have been a bit dodgy ever since my massage and I didn’t want to push myself.

When I go out for a run and can’t actually run, I get all snarky. Snarky at myself because I should be doing more. It’s like if I plan to run and can’t, I’m never going to be able to run again. Strange thinking, I know, but that’s what goes on in my head. The truth is that if I’d tried to run those 10 km, I’d probably have really screwed things up.

Still a 10 km walk is better than no exercise at all.

The back and hip still feel stiff and sore today. I’m going to rest and maybe do some yoga later to see if that helps.

Thoughts

Is there some legal defense you can use when killing your housemates? Like say if they are drunken yobs who come home EVERY night around 2 am and wake you up so that you get to the point where you can’t fall asleep before 2 am any more? Say if they walk down the hallway ogre-like shaking the house on it’s foundations?

And why is it that our water pipes make the most godawful racket whenever you use the washing machine except this morning at 7 am before I went running when I really wanted them too? The housemate’s bedroom is next to the laundry and I figure if he doesn’t care about waking people, neither do I.

The training run went well this morning despite the interrupted sleep. I think the drunken yob housemate bought a girl home last night. I didn’t see her, thank god, cos I’d hate to imagine the kind of desperate skank who’d sleep with him. He lacks any redeeming qualities.

I’m feeling quietly confident about the run next weekend. I’ve put in a lot of hard work over the past few weeks and I feel good about it.

A few weeks ago I posted about how I hadn’t been progressing with my running but, when I get honest with myself, I hadn’t been trying very hard. I thought because I went running a few times a week, I should be getting better at it but in reality I’d gotten slack. I’d go out and do an easy 5 km around the block and that would be it. I started taking walk breaks, thinking I’d build on my distance but then I took more and more breaks and did less running. It’s not enough just to put in the time – you’ve got to put in the effort too.

The past few weeks have been good. I’ve really gotten much stronger. All up, I’m happy with myself.

Massage

I had my massage this morning. It was a good massage but not a superlative one. I’m kinda regretting not going to my old massage place still I’m all relaxed and about to drop asleep now.

It’s awful windy outside. I hate the wind. I have to walk down to Fitzroy which bugs me. One of the reasons I didn’t want go to my old massage place was so I didn’t have to go to Fitzroy. Arrgghh! Fitzroy is full of posers. You know what I hate, people who call themselves Fitzroyalty. How much of a wanker do you have to be to use that phrase? Those people should be lacerated with a zillion paper cuts then dunked in salt. Go be a poser after that, wanker.

The reason I have to go to Fitzroy is to go to Snooze, which I doubt will be full of posers. Snooze used to be Cap’n Snooze but now it’s just Snooze. I wanna know why… was the Cap’n court martialed? Did he get a dishonorable discharge? Questions will be asked. I bet Cap’n Birdseye is laughing now.

No exercise today, I’m just going to vege out and chill after my massage.

I felt shockingly bad after my run yesterday, totally washed out. Later in the day I wanted to nap but my sister told me to drink water – der! I hadn’t drank any all day and think I’d got a bit dehydrated.

I had another dream about the Run for the Kids last night. This time I got there and I didn’t have my run number or other things. I went to see about it but got told the run was starting and to run without it then I couldn’t get my ipod to play my playlist. It was all extremely stressful.

I think the reason for the dreams is not so much that I’m panicking about the run, it’s more getting to the run. It starts at 8.30 and, because it’s on a Sunday, I’ll have to catch the very first train. Public transport on Sundays sucks. If I miss that train, I’m rooted.

Awful Run

This morning I had the most awful run. The plan was to run to Princes Park, meet Simon and do 3 laps then run home, making it 16 km in total. Well I run to Princes Park okay but when I got there I could have quite happily gone back home to bed.

The first lap took forever with walk breaks and stretch breaks and toilet breaks. I didn’t time it but it felt like a long, tough time. The second lap wasn’t so bad and the third one I just wanted to get done so I could go home.

I don’t think early morning running is good for me. Late morning isn’t so bad but this morning I practically got up, got dressed and headed out the door. I think I need waking up time to get all the body parts working. Plus I didn’t eat. My new fave pre-run breakfast is english muffin with banana – gives me lots of energy without sitting heavy in my belly. I skipped that this morning and went straight out running. Well okay, I’ll be honest, since I didn’t have any muffins, I had a handful of tiny teddy biscuits. Not at all a good idea.

On top of that, I saw my physio yesterday and she did a lot of work on my hips so not the best day for a long run.

Oh well at least I’ve got my run done since it’s going to be 33 today. It was nice and cool this morning and quite a bit foggy.

Run

The other night I had a dream – I went to the Run for the Kids and they made us do the entire course as a practice before we started. My feet hurt after that and I wanted to go home and change my shoes but I didn’t have time. Arrrgghhh! Talk about stressing out.

Yesterday I went for a run at Princes Park, mostly nice and easy with a few fast bursts. Ended up doing 8 kms with two 1 kms @ 5.12 mins. I used to always try to maintain an even pace when running but my physio said it’s better to vary my pace so my body changes posture and I’m not creating impact in the places when I run – of course, that’s what she said to ME so if you try it yourself and get an injury, don’t come crying to me.

I’ve got a physio appointment today and then the massage on Friday. I’m a bit iffy about the massage timing – I want it close to the run day but not too close. I had the choice of Friday this week or Wednesday next week. I’m thinking of changing it but maybe I’ll just suck it up.

I was supposed to go to go-go dancing last night but a friend was giving me a lift and we had a mix up over the class time so I didn’t get there. Will definitely be going next week.

Weird Morning

It’s one of those days. I got up with morning planning to go for a run but it was raining and I don’t want to run in the rain so thought about going back to bed until the rain finished when I heard a knock at the door.

When out and it was the owner’s grandson (just to confuse issues, I think the dude at the door is actually half owner of the house but they don’t say that because they like to play the sick old granddad card). Anyway apparently he’d gone out last night, got shitfaced and picked up some chick who lives in the area. This morning he was stranded and couldn’t get a cab because of the rain. He offered me $50 to drive him home.

Normally I’d be happy to help someone out without payment but then I remembered that this is the same guy who a few weeks ago was on the phone yelling abuse at me because I was late in paying my rent – even though the reason I hadn’t paid was because his sister hadn’t come over to collect it. If you remember my past entry, this is the dude who wanted to come to the fun run at the zoo to get the rent money.

I took his cash. I’d have taken his cash and ditched him halfway except he knows where I live.

Actually I nearly ditched him halfway anyway because he wound down the window and leaned out, hoiking up spit balls. Then got back in the car and told me he’d almost spewed. Charming. He’d have been paying a lot more than $50 if he’d spewed in my car.

It was an entertaining trip, especially after all my talk about this house being haunted, because he told me about all the people who died here. I thought the house had belonged to his grandfather but it actually was his grandfather’s brother’s. The grandfather’s brother was an alcoholic and one night his wife was sick of him coming home drunk so locked him out and he died in the gutter. That’s just one of the eleven people who’ve died here.

Yep, the scum lords are a truly classy family.

It’s weird. Despite all this crap, I’ve never felt creeped out by this house even though it’s a big, old house. I’ve lived in a few places that have really creeped me. I don’t really believe in all that stuff but some houses really do have a bad vibe to them.

Anyway, since I’m relatively cashed up at the moment (I also got the cheque for my article yesterday), I booked a massage. I’ve had a mini dilemma – normally I go to a wonderful place in Fitzroy that are $65 but the local health food shop have a clinic upstairs and they have had a $50 special. I know that my usual place is guaranteed to be good but decided to give the local place a go. Not only am I saving $15 but I don’t have to go to Fitzroy and that’s a bonus cos Fitzroy bugs me.

So the rain’s stopped and I should go running. I’m not sure where I want to run today. I skipped the R4tK training yesterday because I couldn’t be stuffed going into the city and went to the gym instead for some cross training.

Oh yeah, tonight is Go-Go Dancing night. Woohoo. Tower Hotel, Collingwood @ 7 pm.

ETA: I forgot to mention the weirdest part of my weird morning. I had a pair of handcuffs in the back of my car – they’ve been there for well over a year since my friend gave them to me and I’d forgotten all about them – but the landlord dude just happened to see them and pick them up. He held on to them and played with them the whole way home then, when he was getting out of the car, asked if he could have them!

I was going to say, ’screw you buddy’ but then realised it would be one less bit of junk in my car to worry about and anyway, if I were tempted to play bondage games with handcuffs, it wouldn’t be with the cheap novelty ones in my car.