Runners' Lingo

I read this completely random guy's blog every week, because it's his running training diary, and an inspiration and motivator for me. Sometimes I have no idea what I'm reading because he appears to be using some sort of code language reserved only for the super serious runner.

People comment on his posts, even on the ones that only contain said language, which confirms to me that such a language does indeed exist.

Random Guy's most recent post has inspired me in several ways:

1. He sure can get a message across in a succinct way - the post has only a title and no body text, and that title only has four characters in it (one of which is a space): E 8K

2. Wow, I must be picking up on "Runner's Lingo" because I actually understand what this means!

3. This year, my main running achievement was completing an 8km race. However, Random Guy ~ whose real name is Martin ~ runs 8km on his easy days ("E 8K" means "Easy 8km") and about 20-25km on a normal day. One day maybe I'll be doing that too...

Martin, you will probably never know I am reading your blog, but thanks for being able to inspire little ol' me with two letters and one number (and a space, of course!).

Silly me

For two entire weeks now my most recent dream diary post has made a fool of me to the entire world, and not one single person told me... until today.

I meant champing at the bit! James is sitting right in front of me now laughing his head off.

On a blog roll

Four lengthy posts in two days. Can you tell I'm on holiday? In the meantime, James has advanced about ten levels in Ultimate Alliance on his new Nintendo Wii.

I've been productive, at least in the sense that I've produced a lot of internet stuff this last few days. Fixed up the layout of my MySpace Music site. Uploaded some new stuff on my Multiply site. Done a lot of catch-up reading on various friends' sites on Multiply. Listened to my new CDs that I got for Christmas.

I think I'm just about all blogged out... well, for two days at least. At times I have to consciously make the decision to stay away from my blog so that people can at least keep up with reading without having to log on daily.

I've taken lots of photos and videos lately so it's time to leave the blog for a bit now and upload some stuff.

I have this ulcer in my mouth that makes any form of eating or drinking highly painful because it's in a really bad spot, under my upper lip. James has one too in a very similar position. Between the ulcers and being caught up in blogging/uploading and Nintendo Wii respectively, we've not really been eating proper meals when we get hungry because a) it's painful to eat, and b) we're too distracted by other things.

Old Friends, Old Times

Just before arriving at the shops on Boxing Day, I received a text message from my friend Dave:

"hi fi, merry christmas to you and j :) sorry i've been so bad at trying to meet up this year. anyway, if you're free me and my mates are having a bit of a musical jam tomorrow at my parents place, [address]. 11 onwards :) cheers"

How random was that!

Dave and I go way back to the days when we were both year 8 students at Caulfield Grammar School (CGS), over a decade (!!!) ago. You know what's scary about that one? Chris, who was with James and I at Carols by Candlelight on Sunday night, graduated from CGS only last year!

Dave and I first met in math class. I sat next to him, initially because he was smart (still is - he's a doctor now!) and I could get help with my math, but eventually because we were (still are) friends. Thinking back to those days, I think that he might have thought I was smart too, but all the rest of us knew he was (still is) the smartest, even if he didn't (probably still doesn't) know that himself.

Dave is one of the only people from CGS that I am still in touch with because after I moved to Hong Kong he was one of the few who kept in touch with me. That was back in the day when email was not as prevalent (I'm dating myself aren't I?) and snail mail was the main form of intercontinental friendships. So I was delighted to discover yesterday that Dave has a blog! And just like his letters, his blog is heartfelt, witty, highly intelligent and definitely a read recommended by me.

Dave, you were always several years ahead of me in maturity, and your writing shows that you still are. ;-)

Needless to say, I didn't need much convincing to join Dave and his mates yesterday.

It is at this point that I have a confession to make: I must have become too Australianized or something because I was totally expecting Dave's mates to be Caucasian and thus found myself internally reacting with surprise that everyone at Dave's place was Asian. Then again, maybe it was the use of the term "mates". Do Asians have "mates"?

James' comment to this is that maybe I'm racist... hmm, wouldn't that be an interesting dilemma to find myself in every time I look in the mirror.

Funnily enough, I should have felt like I fit right in, considering that for the first time in a long time I was not the only Asian person in the group. Instead, I felt like the odd one out. Do you want to know why? Because everyone there had black hair except me, so I felt like I didn't look Asian enough! LOL.

After a while, this didn't matter, because it became evident to me that Dave's main intention in inviting me to said "musical jam" was to get me to sing stuff. Yes... stuff. This exercise quickly unveiled my sorely lacking knowledge of music in general. I often know a song, but can't sing any lyrics, let alone tell you what it's about or who sings it. However I can hum or "la" along.

This is why I don't want to try out for Oz Idol ~ choosing a song to sing every week would just be way too stressful, and anyone who watches that show knows how often Mark Holden stresses the vital importance of good song choice. Waaaaay too stressful.

The result yesterday's hanging out in Dave's parent's garage stuffing around (ah... how cliche... and what I would give to be 17 again... ) was this one song recording. Not an original, just a cover. Yes, yes, I know you want to hear it. The link is on Dave's blog.

Boxing Day Bargains

I am a happy chappy, I've done it all this year. Christmas Eve carols, Christmas Day lunch, and now Boxing Day shopping! And it doesn't end there... we've still got New Year's celebrations to come, yay!

And so the Christmas Season Saga continues...

I wake up on Boxing Day morning excited to hit the stores. My December allowance has barely been spent because I have been too busy with Christmas shopping and card writing. There is no better day to spend it ~ a day when all the stores are having sales, a day when my $$ is going to go further than any other day!

So I arrive at Knox with an agenda in mind ~ I am ready to hit the stores in search for a denim skirt. I've been looking for one for over a year now. Something about going shopping with my husband James makes me less likely to wander through clothes racks aimlessly looking for any random item of clothing that I might like, so of course we find a denim skirt (chosen by him out of the selection I've tried on) in the first store that we visit, which happens to also be one of my favourite clothing stores.

I go on to purchase two other tops... not long after purchasing these three items, I re-evaluate my position, only to realize that not a single one was a sale item! Such is the hype of Boxing Day shopping. Lots of stuff may be on sale, but there also appears to be an underlying ploy to get aspiring sale-hunters into the stores ~ because once there, these shoppers will madly buy other goods that they see too without realizing they aren't even on sale!

This means that I have to find proof that a good bargain can be picked up. Where do I head for such proof? To Australia's Biggest Stocktake Sale, of course! So James and I head to Myer to check out their wares and see if their sale really is as big as they claim it to be. Are all the stories I've heard over the years about fantastic bargains and $1 fridges true? Is there really a good reason to line up 7 hours prior to opening time in order to get a prime entry spot into the store and grab the best deals?

The lines at Myer are so long, both at the registers and the changing rooms. But I decide to brave the changing room line in the women's wear section... for a total of about 10 minutes. Every woman in line has 4 to 6 items to try on, and in the space of 10 minutes two women have entered the change rooms. There are still 6 more ahead of me. Based on my calculations, that means an additional 30 minutes of waiting (not including the line for the register) so I give up, return my items to their racks and leave.

Not ready to be defeated, I head out of Myer in search of a store containing a bargain worth the crowds of Boxing Day. I find it at BnT! This is, of course, another of my favourite stores. The lines for changing rooms and registers are equally as long as the lines in Myer, mainly due to my impeccable timing ~ whilst waiting in the long line for the changing rooms there are only two people waiting for the register, and by the time I am ready to line up at the register it is the longest line I have seen in the entire 1 1/2 hours I have been in BnT. But it is worth the wait. Myer was boasting 30% of marked items, and in BnT I have received a discount of just over 50% on my purchase, a fi-nominal deal for items which in my (and James!) opinion are prettier than Myer's wares.

And of course, finally, I stop in briefly at another favourite, Diva. About half their already well-priced goods are 50% off including a gorgeous pink necklace that I've had my eyes on for months. I have a gift voucher with which to purchase said necklace, and so don't even spend any money on it - double bonus!

All in all, my nomination for Best Boxing Day Sale Store goes to BnT. Valleygirl and TEMT didn't fare so well ~ they had no sales in addition to their usual any-other-time-of-year sales ~ but their prices are always so reasonable anyway that I have no complaints and they still remain on my list of favourite shopping stores. As for Myer and David Jones, well if you can bear with the lone lines I've overheard plenty of conversations that commend their stocktake sales greatly ~ maybe when I'm a little more grown up and buying for my household, these department stores will hold greater value for me.

A Very Snarey Christmas Lunch

The Snare family doesn't busy themselves with silly debates about whether an Aussie Christmas lunch should involve cold seafood platters or hot roasted meats... we have a simple solution that does away with any form of argument ~ we serve it all!

James waiting ever-so-patiently for his lunch ;-)

By "we", I mean James' mum Kerry and his aunt Evelyn of course!

The cold seafood platters featured Prawns, Crayfish and Oysters topped with yummy Seafood Dressing ~ I need to get that recipe from Kerry!

The hot dishes featured freshly carved Ham and Roast Turkey, accompanied by Gravy, homemade Cranberry Sauce (containing home grown cranberries!) and lots of yummy Roasted Veggies.

And I forgot to take pictures of dessert! Silly me. Who could forget the individual Plum Puddings (Aunt Evelyn, you outdid yourself this year!) , Contreau Ice-Cream, Brandied Butter, Fruit Salad Cheesecake and Champagne-soaked Berries?

Lunch was fabulous. Apart from the cole seafood, which I rarely get to eat and therefore helped myself to plenty, I was pretty good about watching my portion sizes. Even James, who was sitting next to me, didn't think I ate very much - and yet my stomach told me a completely different story ~ by the end of the day I had eaten so much that my stomach hurt and sitting in the car to go home was decidedly uncomfortable.

However, based on my observations around the lunch table, at least one or two people ate more than double what I ate... what baffles me is how on earth did they fit it all into their stomachs? Even people who are double my size surely don't necessarily have double the stomach capacity! What a marvelous skill to possess.

Carols by Candlelight

My first time at Carols by Candlelight at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl!

Before my family moved to Hong Kong, we spent every Christmas Eve sitting together in our living room with all lights turned off except for those on the Christmas Tree, gathered around the television watching this annual event together and singing along with carolers with the aid of the printed lyrics in the Herald Sun.

It was such an exciting moment in my life to be able to go for real!

The event did not start until 9pm, but the lawns opened from 5pm, so James and I met our friends Chris and Sarah early for a picnic dinner at the lawns.

Unfortunately it rained that afternoon and evening! So I was a little cold and tempted to be miserable too, but Chris and Sarah had such a great attitude about the whole thing that I couldn't help but be influenced by their great example.

So we sat through the bouts of drizzle and occasional shower in our ponchos. Thankfully the rain was not heavy enough to soak through our blanket.

My favourite part of the blog - the photos of course!



Just to prove we were actually there - as if you doubted me for a moment!













Happy couples together on our picnic blankets.















The lawn area was pretty filled with people, in this photo not everyone has arrived yet.












You can't have Carols by Candlelight without a candle!


















View of the stage at night - we had such an awesome time despite the cold and rain.

Note the fashion of the evening - brightly coloured ponchos can be seen on the happy couple sitting in front of us. We had ours on too, of course!

Camping in the Living Room

Last night, when the temperature barely dropped with the setting of the sun, James and I knew we would have trouble sleeping, because opening the windows in our house would not cool it down in the usual way.

Thankfully, we have an air-conditioner! However it resides in our living room and therefore was no use to us when we wanted to cool our bedroom down last night. So we moved our mattress from our bed to the floor of our living room, blasted the room with lovely cool air, and slept there. It was kinda fun.

We've decided that seeing as we're not going to be having people over in the next week or two over the busy Christmas and New Year's season, we're going to leave the mattress in our living room and sleep there, at least for the rest of the year.

I'm actually half-seriously considering switching our living room with our bedroom. It seems like an impractical idea but that air-conditioner is oh-so-tempting, especially as the temperatures will continue to stay high over the rest of the summer months.

Random Thoughts

***You never know who could be reading your blog. Pastor Rona preached today's sermon in church and she mentioned that she read on my blog that Brett & I are starting a running group. That was unexpected. Thanks Pastor Rona!

***I miss my old house. We went to a birthday party last night in Mulgrave, the suburb I grew up in and hence the location of my old house. The party was in a different part of Mulgrave to my house. I had hoped to drive by my old home for a visit but it didn't end up happening.

***Lots of people seem to be born in December. Is there something really good about March and April?

***Right this moment, James is asking me a bunch of questions that I don't know the answer to. It's almost kind of annoying... now I know how it feels when I do it to him, and I definitely do it way more than he does.

***I really dislike packing for vacations. I think the thing I dislike the most about it is that I have to decide what to bring and what not to bring. The ironic thing is, I absolutely love going on vacation! My brother and I were weaned on annual family vacations. They were always my favourite part of the year ~ family time, no business trips for Dad, having each other all to ourselves. Sure, there were the "occasional" disputes but I would much rather spend too much time with my family and argue with them then not get to spend any time with them and not argue.

***Funnily enough, I love unpacking ~ I am the sort of person that, no matter how tired I am, I will unpack everything as soon as I arrive somewhere until things are in the place where I like them to be. It's probably because I am anticipating having all my things back in their normal places in my home... it's interesting that the anticipation of this is enough for me to want to unpack, and yet the anticipation of going on vacation is not enough for me to want to pack.

P.S. If you are interested in joining the running group or want to join the mailing list for this group, leave a comment or email me. I don't want to post the email address here because I hate spam and so don't want to risk listing any emails I use in a public forum.

Running Group

My friend Brett and I are starting a running group. Well, Brett is starting it ~ I'm the one getting the people along... so I guess we make a good team. :)

One day, he and I will compete against one another in the ultimate competition of all time - his Blue Team against my Red Team in the Biggest Loser Australia! I think Bob and Jilian are absolutely awesome, but it would be fantastic to have Aussie trainers on the Aussie show.

Funnily enough, I'm Chinese Australian and Brett is South African... maybe by the time we're Blue and Red Team trainers, Brett will have a more Aussie accent and the Aussie population as a whole will be even more ethnically mixed than it is already.

Of course, before that happens I need to get fitter because Brett could probably complete a marathon and then run backwards from the finish line and meet me halfway.

You'll find us at 4pm every Sunday starting on the first Sunday of 2007. We're meeting in Burwood on that first Sunday and the venue will change from time to time to keep things varied, so email or pop me a comment if you want more details!

Come on, join us and start fulfilling your New Year's resolution from week one!

A final word on Blogger Beta

Blogger Beta is in action! Four days ago, I hesitated to press that button. I regretted this not long after, because the link allowing me to switch to Beta did not appear again until yesterday!

For almost 3 entire days I was logging on to my dashboard every few hours or so to see if that link had reappeared. Every time I logged on to discover that it had in fact not yet resurfaced, my resolve was further strengthened ~ as soon as that I saw that link, I would click the thing without a moment's hesitation.

So here I am on my day off, still in my pyjamas, sitting on my bed, working on my blogs. I have been waiting for the new beta functionality to be available to my old blogs so I can customize them ~ whilst I have learnt enough HTML to be able to edit blog layouts in the old version, beta is just so much more convenient!

So I re-introduce you to my new-look, old blogs, now available in beta!

~ The Snarchives - the layout of which is a tribute to our beloved football club
~ My Dream Diary - I opted for a cool new look, actually I chose this layout only because of the look of the title bar

Now and I am relatively happy with the basic layouts of these things, prepare from some major posting action on all blogs!

How Ironic

The irony of having a dream diary is that if you are busy living out your dream, you may not have time to write in your dream diary.

I have been busy at work training the girl who is taking over my position. This week I came to the sudden realization that yesterday was supposed to be my last full-time day in the office with her ~ next week all staff are required to be at a 2007 planning retreat, at a location 3 hours' drive from Melbourne, and the following week is Christmas so the office is closed until the new year.

So in January, instead of making the clean break I had hoped to, I will still be at the office part-time (one day a week) to tie off the loose ends in the training process.

How ironic that I need to work part-time in January 2007, because I couldn't finish training my replacement during 2006, because I was required to be at a staff retreat, the purpose of which is to plan for 2007.

On a brighter note, I spoke on the phone today to the CEO of the training school with which I will be studying to get my fitness qualifications. Nice guy. The course starts in February ~ hopefully I won't be so busy tying up loose ends at my old job in order to move a step forward towards The Dream that I don't have time to submit the application form I need to submit to be allowed to take that step.

I can't wait to move on. I feel like a horse biting at the champ, waiting to start the race...

A special note...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN!!!

Happy birthday also to Shayne, Ken, Kundai and Eden.
I love you all too, but Brian is my brother so he gets the extra special wish ;)

Heat Wave

This past Sunday, we residents of Melbourne endured our hottest December day since 1953, according to news headlines. The temperature hit a maximum of 42 degrees Celsius at about 3pm. A cool change then swiftly took place not long after, causing the temperature to drop 12 degrees in about 30 minutes.

Anyway, I'm not really here to report on the weather today. After all, James and I missed the experience because we were driving home from a weekend getaway in Daylesford ~ more on this later this week ~ and the cool comfort of my air-conditioned car. Thank God we weren't driving in James' car!

Although we didn't experience this heat first hand, we definitely felt the disastrous after-effects of it. Last night, I discovered, much to my horror, that all the chocolate in our house had melted and re-hardened.

I was mortified.

If you have ever tried eating chocolate that's melted and re-set, you'll know that the chocolate is not nice anymore ~ it loses its lovely creaminess and becomes dry, brittle and sometimes tasteless. It's all to do with the couverture or something like that.

I haven't even taken a peek into one of my many unopened packets of Tim Tams that I keep stored in the cupboard for special occasions.

New house rule: when Springtime arrives and hot weather is imminent, transfer all chocolate from cupboards into refrigerator.

Blogger Beta... yay, yay, yay!

The day that I have been waiting for is finally here! My blogger dashboard is telling me that I can switch my blogger account to the beta version. That means I can finally only have all my blogs on a single dashboard. Yay, yay, yay!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am the Queen of increasing efficiency through streamlining systems and processes. So the thought of having a single dashboard now rather than two give me the goosebumps. ;-)

So what am I waiting for? Well, I guess I am a little nervous to do it... what if it totally mucks up all the hard work I've already put into my layout? Even worse, if it does muck it up it could take quite a while for me to fix it, given that my brother helped me a lot with it due to my limited knowledge of HTML.

I can't believe that after writing an entire post on how I can't wait to switch to the beta version, I am now hesitating to push that button.

I wrote a song!

Entitled Praise Your Name, I wrote this song back in May. It's a fun, rocking praise song and my main goal (apart from praising God, of course!) was for people to have fun singing and jumping along to it.

We've already sung it in church a couple of times. It was also included as one of the tracks on our church's first Praise & Worship album, Consecrated, which was officially released two days ago.

Why am I telling you this now? Because I couldn't tell you about it with you not being able to hear the song! So now you can actually listen to it! Check out the MySpace Music site for Consecrated, where you can hear a selection of four out of the ten songs on the album, including my song, which is the second one listed. I also started my own MySpace Music site which has an additional song from the album, written by my friend Keira and sung by me.

If you would like to purchase a copy of the CD, let me know. They're AU$19.95 each plus postage and handling.

Fi-isms...

Today is my parents' anniversary, so happy anniversary to you both, Baba & Mummy!

Here's a random thought (otherwise known as a Fi-ism):
Earlier this week was my Dad's birthday - 27 November. This morning I was thinking about how he and I have something in common ~ we both celebrate our birthdays close to our wedding anniversaries. My birthday is on 25 August, followed not too long after by my wedding anniversary on 5 September.

Fi-ism #2:
James' birthday is 6 July, the month prior to my birthday month. So our two birthdays and our wedding anniversary take place over consecutive months ~ July, August, September. That means that when we start having kids one day, I would need to birth them either between January-June (excluding April) or October-November, in order to spread our celebratory occasions evenly over the year. I exclude April and December because they have Easter and Christmas. In case you're wondering, for the purposes of this Fi-ism, my definition of "celebratory occasion" is anything involving presents. This is, after all, my primary love language.

Fi-ism #3:
The funny thing is, I have thought Fi-ism #2 many times already, including every time we've celebrated a birthday or wedding anniversary (that's six times in the last two years). It's just that only today I've published it in a public forum for the world to read.

Another friend of mine who also thinks a lot of random things told me yesterday that she used to set aside time each day to just think. For people like her and me, that's probably a great idea. It would probably help someone like me to sort through my mind and prevent me from imploding due to too much random brain activity.

I still remember a specific incident when I was younger ~ I was going somewhere in a car with one of my cousins. I was thinking all these random things and told her one of my thoughts out loud. Her response was, "Fiona, you think too much!"