2nd Christmas & Birthday In Perth

I haven't been doing much since last week. I had 21st & 22nd off since there wasn't a list. I went jogging round the neighbourhood on the 22nd, with every intention to do a 5 km. But for some reason, the going got severely tough from the 2 km mark & I only managed to complete 3 km. So I went home & did 1 hour of yoga. I had a full day's work on the 23rd, after which, I went to the gym. While I was at work, I felt light headed every now & then but my BP was in the normal range, though bordering on the lower limits (101/66 mmHg). Since it would probably be my last gym session of the year (unless I drive all the way to my work place to use the gym), I decided to do my Ironman training. It was so, so bad. After the rowing, I could barely cycle & had to stop at the 2 km mark though I had intended to push for 15 km. Sweat was pouring off me like never before. In fact, I dripped a small puddle on the floor where the stationary bike is. While I'll most definitely sweat, I never sweated this much, not even when I'm into the jogging section of the Ironman training. Something definitely wasn't right. It felt extremely tedious but having dropped out of cycling, I pushed to complete 3 km on the treadmill.

It could have something to do with me having my period but I've been to the gym & trained while I was having my period before. I couldn't find an explanation to my sudden decrease in stamina. I tried jogging again on Friday round my neighbourhood but it was the same thing. 3 km was hard. I started having backaches on Monday when my period started. That was pretty normal. But it probably was the precursor to my old injury flaring up. Becoz I haven't been able to bend over for several days. It was so hard to even put my underwear on. That's how bad it is. 

About 6 years ago, I sprained or pulled some muscles in my lower back while at work. I suffered terribly for it. I couldn't sit down & once in the sitting position, I couldn't stand back up. After 1 month of that, hubs finally dragged my ass to a 跌打 but it took another month before my back fully recovered. Ever since then, my back has never been the same. It'll ache badly when I'm having menses or if I've been in the same position for too long (standing too long or sitting in the cinema for too long & occasionally waking up from the pain becoz I've been sleeping in the same position for too long).

It isn't as bad as it was back then but probably halfway there. Hubs rubbed my back twice but it didn't really help. So that was how I spent my 2nd Christmas & birthday in Perth; with debilitating backache. I had my usual yoga session on Sat & that was the last time I did any form of exercise. After the yoga, having stretched it out (after informing my instructor about my back who then modified the session to include more back stretching poses), my mobility increased. But it was back to square 1 the next morning. My back is now aching too badly for me to do anything. I had no choice but to book a remedial massage which is going to set me back $90. :( But it is something I have to do to speed up the healing if I want to go back to training.

We didn't do much over the holiday period. D&J had house warming with house blessing on the 26th. It's beautiful to watch them be surrounded by their family, some of them flew over from Sydney, some from Sg. I saw some photos posted by J where she & her daughter huddled around the kitchen island, learning to make sugee cookies & pineapple tarts from her mother. This is something I've always wished I had. My grandma passed away when I was in Primary 3 & I don't even know if she can cook. My mom can't really cook & she can't bake. I'm the 1st in the family (even in my extended family) to really cook. So there's nobody to pass on some heirloom recipes to me. Watching the priests bless the house touched me to my core. I can feel the love of the family & energy gathering there. It really is beautiful & I'm thankful to have been included.

I ate so much over this period, coupled with the lack of training, I know there'll be hell to pay when I finally get back to gym-ing, hopefully when I start work next Tuesday, pending condition of my back. But I've gone back on track diet-wise since yesterday. I'm somewhat bored at home & I can't wait to get back to work so I can train. Despite my backache, I sorted out the guest bedroom, put the bed frame together again & tipped the mattress back on all by myself. I also managed to stuff as much stuff as I could into the wardrobe in the guest bedroom. I tidied the house somewhat & when I get home from the remedial massage, I'll get onto cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming & mopping the floor. I've harvested my chives & my plan is to bake parmesan & chives bread sticks. Yums!

Christmas eve dinner: Poached giant prawns!

Christmas Day: Roasted duck which turned out very tender to my surprise. My 1st time cooking duck. Had half for lunch & half for dinner. 

Rocky Road I made to bring to D&J's housewarming.

Dim Sum brunch on my birthday.

For those interested to try but doesn't want to head to Northbridge or SOR. Very long queue, reservations recommended. But if it's only for 2 pax, you can just walk in & usually a table is available immediately.

Difference Between Weight Losses

I've lost 6 kg to date. Like I've mentioned, the entire loss came from fats alone. This is a vast difference from my multiple attempts at weight loss in the past. I used to achieve weight loss by dieting alone aka calories restriction. The weight loss that followed was a combination of fats & muscles loss. I didn't realise how much difference it made until Sharon pointed out that I looked like I lost a lot of weight. My response was, "It's only 6 kg." So I went & dug out this old photo of me from over 6 years ago. I can't remember how much I weigh then, probably about 59 kg. I know I dropped to 57 kg when I met hubs just few weeks later.

Left: 59 kg, 6 years ago.
Right: 61 kg now.

Goodness me! Putting the 2 pictures side by side, the differences are obvious. I definitely look slimmer now, especially on my face. I haven't worn that orange dress in 6 years. Seeing this photo prompted me to go try it out. I can wear it again! But best if I wait till I lose a bit more coz when I sit down, the gaps between the buttons are pretty pronounced. Other than weight loss, exercise also gave me lots of other benefits. This is definitely the way to go.

I haven't pushed to do a full 5 km jog on my Ironman training this week becoz I wanted to go home earlier. But I'll definitely give it a shot next week. During my routine training yesterday, I had completed my resistance training & had just started jogging when I felt, in Singlish terms, "How come like no kick?" The beauty of jogging on a treadmill is having an even gradient & constant speed. When I 1st started, I was jogging at a pace of 7 km/hr. At 4 weeks, I've increased that to 7.5 km/hr. So I thought, "Alright, I'll put it up to 8 km/hr to see how it'll go." I completed my usual 3 km at that pace. It's actually quite enjoyable. Doable yet enough "kick". 

I do feel lazy most days where I feel like just heading home to rest. But once I get started, I just want to keep going. Knowing that, I still go to the gym even when I don't feel like it. But once I hit my 3 times a week, I allow myself to rest the other 2 days coz I do have yoga on Sat to make up for it. But yeah, it's great. I hated exercising. Seriously. But if I can come to enjoy it, I think everyone can. Give it a try. 

Almost Christmas

It's end of the year again. Like last year, we're shutting down for 2 weeks for Christmas period. I have 1 more day to work on Wed & that's it for 2015. & like last year, we started receiving presents from the surgeons. For all the bad I've done in my life, I must have done something good to have such good fortune. I am very thankful for all that I have today & all that I've received, not just monetary or material but the inner wisdom growth as well. May we all continue to strive to be a better person & gratitude fill our hearts always. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

Top left: Champagne, chocolate & $100 Myer gift card from Dr AG. (Only 3 of us received the additional $100 Myer card.)
Top right: Champagne from Dr AA.
Bottom from left to right: Champagne from Dr MTK, Champagne from Dr AG (anesthetist), Red & sparkling white from Dr IM.

Top left: $50 Coles group gift card from Dr JL.
Bottom left: Birthday card from my colleagues with $130 cash.
Top & bottom right: $35 Coles group gift card from Dr ADG, $50 gift card from company, special gift (lip gloss) from a colleague wanting to thank me for all my help.

A box of produce from Barossa Valley from Dr GC.

A box of Koko Black chocolate from Dr FC to share. A colleague went online & found out that the chocolate was selling for $2.30 per piece. There're 64 pieces here. This must be the most expensive chocolate I've ever eaten.

Our New Addition To The Family

After the failed attempts at adopting another dog, I came across this rescue group, Wish Animal Rescue, on FB. While going through their website, I saw this profile of a dog who tugged at my heart strings. Named Rocky, he was rescued from Kalgoorlie pound by this group after his owner's marriage breakdown. I made arrangements with his fosterer to view him. She suggested Lake Gwelup as I wanted to bring Ton Ton along for a compatibility test. Like I did with Bronson, I made connection with Rocky via distant Reiki. I wasn't expecting much but to my surprise, I got this feeling that Rocky wants to come home with me. We met up for the 1st time on the 6th.

The fosterer told me that his rescue was pretty dramatic. After the marriage breakdown, the wife (perhaps out of spite) dumped him in the pound. 2 weeks later, the husband went to the pound wanting to retrieve him but wasn't willing to pay the 100 odd dollars for his release. He went back later that night with a mate, broke in, trashed the place, beat up a worker in attempts to get Rocky back. Of course, he was charged for it. That was when Wish stepped in to rescue him. His name was actually Junior but somehow he was accidentally renamed Rocky. The fosterer has been calling him Basil in the 2.5 weeks she had had him. It seemed that he had been kept outside most of his life for his elbows & underbelly were rough & hairless, most likely due to lying on hot concrete for extended periods of time. He was also very filthy when he was 1st rescued. 

Perhaps it was the park & not a shelter (where the energy may not be so good), Ton Ton was quite inquisitive with Basil. While they didn't play, they did calmly sniffed each other. Basil went straight to hubs for scratches & cuddles. After that, he came to me for hugs & licked my face. We knew then that he's the right 1. 

But before I could bring him home, the volunteers with Wish needed to do a yard check. So I made arrangements for that to happen the next week. The lady took some pictures of my yard (to make sure that it's secure) & sent them to the fosterer & the founder of the group. They okayed it & I was told I could bring Basil home anytime. I had a day off last Friday so I decided that it would be perfect since we would have the entire weekend to see how he goes at home. Becoz he's had so many names, we decided to keep him as Basil since he's already responding to it.

The adoption process was pretty straight forward. I was handed Basil along with his vaccination card. In the card, it was stated that his year of birth is 2001 which makes him 14 years old. (On their website they had him down as 13.) It's great coz at this age, he should be living out his days in a home where he is loved. He's good in the car except that he kept climbing back & forth from the front to the back of the car. He didn't disturb me while I was driving apart from that which is a good thing. He was a bit unsure but settled in nicely when we got home. 

1 week later, he's pretty well adjusted to his new life with us. He's very savvy. I only had to show him once where he's supposed to sleep & he got it. When I let him out into the yard on the 1st day, he wanted to mark but now, he knew to just empty his bladder in 1 spot while half squatting. He still marks when we go on walks but I must say I'm really amazed.

Lake Gwelup on the day I brought him home.

He took to the lounge chair while indoors almost immediately.

He's such a sweetheart.

My 2 gorgeous boys.

Onward To The Next 5 Kg

As of this week, I've completed 8 weeks in the gym. I've always felt I'm terrible with exercise & that no matter how hard I try, it just doesn't work for me. It's amazing how a change in mindset can have such tremendous effects. I started wanting to lose weight without it being the sole focus. I told myself that fitness is what I should be aiming for & not to be disheartened if my weight remains the same. I've just lost my 1st 5 kg from gym-ing, with a 1.8% muscle gain & 3.9% fat loss. Based on the stats, I guess it's safe to say that the entire 5 kg loss came from fats alone. When I 1st started, jogging 2 km was a struggle. Now, 3 km is my norm & something I aim for every gym session.

Since this is a milestone for me, I decided to go celebrating by trying out for my 1st 5 km jog in 1.5 years. It was before I got my job. Right smack in winter, it was 8 am & 4°c outside. It was very hard & my muscles were already aching even before I completed the 5 km. Of course, that was also the 1 & only time I went jogging until the recent weeks. So all along, I knew I can do a 5 km jog becoz if I could do it back then without training, I can do it again now. I just didn't want to do it too soon but rather slowly learn to enjoy jogging. I made it in 40 mins, shaved 9 mins off from the timing 1.5 years ago. It wasn't super hard but it did require a fair bit of mental pap talk. I started counting down right from the beginning. One fifth down, four fifths to go (at 1 km mark), two fifths down (2 km mark), 50% there (2.5 km mark), you've just completed your usual distance (3 km mark), just 1 more km to go (4 km mark) & then it was counting down by the 100 meters. 我既然没有要死的感觉。So that's really good.

I don't know if I'm going to ache tomorrow since I've pushed myself beyond my routine. I did some resistance training for my arms before I left the gym. I wonder if I can do 5 km jog for my Ironman training next week. That will be awesome. That will also mean I'm left with additional 10 km of cycling to pick up. I'll see how I feel when I get there. My knee is still purple from the fall last Wed. It doesn't hurt as much anymore but I'm not too sure if I can get on my knees for yoga this Sat though. 

My manager shared with me her experiences with marathons. My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when she told me she could finish a 42 km run in 4 hours. From FB, all my friends are clocking 3+ hours for the 21 km run which could only mean that my manager is really really fast. She also did ultra marathons where she had to run 56 km & she could do it in 5+ hours. She also took part in the 1000 km challenge which she had to complete within a year. During the year, she had to run 3 marathons a month so she could complete it. I had to pick my jaw from the ground. She told me that 5 mins per km is a good pace. But she wasn't fast compared to the others. The Africans (she came from South Africa) can do 3 mins per km. That's literally sprinting from start to end, isn't it? That's more than half of my 8 mins per km.

My motto these days is "Some day I'll get there". So yeah, some day I'll get there. Maybe not 42 km. That's way too far out. My aim is currently for 10 km. But 1st, let me get to the stage where 5 km is a comfortable distance. 

Thursday Night Home Alone

Not really home alone. Only that hubs will be home much later. He's gone to Crown for a buffet dinner sponsored by his company. In fact, he just called me, informing me that he could only eat 3 plates of food compared to his colleagues who were already on their 6th. He suggested going with me some day. Erm... better don't waste the money. It's $80 per pax & I'm absolutely positive I won't be able to eat much. His boss told him that the hotel is nice for a staycation & hubs wanted to do it with me some day. That, I'll be interested in. We used to do lots of staycation in Sg for anniversaries & birthdays. But WA is big & we're still in the early stages of discovering its beauty. His boss suggested walking around, exploring the hotel & casino after the dinner. So basically, he rang to tell me that he'll be home late. That's alright. It's nice to have a little me time.

Jazz went straight into the garage upon returning home with me on Sat & wasn't driven till Monday. We headed to the shelter on Sun but either the dog didn't like Ton or Ton didn't like the other dog. There was 1 dog I was really interested in. Using distant reiki, I "spoke" to him prior to the viewing. However, I got the message that he's happy where he is & isn't really interested in going home with me. On the day itself, the volunteer informed me that he was returned after being adopted, reason being that he reacted to other dogs in the park. I went to his kennel to see him but I couldn't get a response from him. He just wasn't interested. Another dog the volunteers were suggesting was in foster & wouldn't be back till Monday. So we left without having successfully adopted 1. It's alright. We need to make sure we get a perfect match. The right 1 will come.

Hubs drove Eba to work on Monday. It was also when I realised that I forgot to transfer my e-tag which will allow me into my workplace car park. I ended up getting a visitor's ticket to gain entry & swapping it for a staff ticket at the end of the day. The plan was for me to transfer it when hubs drove home with Eba. But he got home late as the mechanic had problems getting the distributor but finally got it fixed after 6 pm. He was told to drive his car home to "work the distributor" so that it doesn't die again. Eba was left at the warehouse overnight. Hubs then suggested that I follow him to work on Tuesday morning before driving Eba to work. So that was what transpired & Jazz sat in the garage for another day.

I get crazy ideas from TV shows all the time. When we were chasing Masterchef, I used their mystery box ingredients to create dishes of my own. Chasing TBL, I got the idea of doing a mini Ironman. The contestants ran 1 km, cycled 5 km, kayak unknown distance, then ran the final distance to the end point. I went online to find out more about Ironman races. Naturally, I won't be able to do a full Ironman which involves 4 km swim, 180 km cycle & 42 km run. But I can aim to do the sprint version of the Ironman which involves 750 m swim, 20 km cycle & 5 km run. I can swim but I'm not very good at it. If I have to swim in the open sea, I'll probably drown. So there's no way I can take part in the race. But I can certainly make use of the distances as a challenge to myself in the gym. Copying TBL, I swapped the swim for rowing.

So on Wed, I did a 1.5 km row (doubled it as rowing is easier than swimming), 10 km cycle & 2.5 km jog. 500 m into the cycling, my thighs were burning. But I just kept going, forcing myself to complete at least half of 20 km. I finally did after 25 mins which I later found out was terrible timing. A cyclist friend can cycle 18 km in 30 mins but of course, he's been doing it for a few years. It's definitely something to aim for. By the time I got to the treadmill, I was pretty worn. Even without the other exercises, I haven't jogged 5 km yet. I had just completed 2.5 km in 20 mins & promptly took a tumble on the treadmill. Yeah, I know, I'm so clumsy. I actually missed a step, had my right foot on the side unmoving panel & my left foot still on the moving treadmill. Yep, ended up with a big bruise on my right knee & shin but otherwise unharmed. I got back up & went to carry some weights before heading home. When I told hubs what had happened, he had the cheek to laugh at me some more. Bleah!

Here we are, Thursday night. I resumed my normal gym routine before heading home since hubs is having good food at Crown. I reckon I'll do the Ironman training once a week with remaining gym days doing my routine. Hopefully in a few month's time, I'll be able to report that I successfully completed my 1st Sprint Ironman in the gym.

6 Years Of Couplehood

We've just recently celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. Today, we celebrate 6 years of couplehood. So last night, we had yet another degustation, this time at Print Hall, a restaurant in Perth City. Print Hall has won restaurant of the year for a few years consecutively. Going into the city is always a nightmare as we're unfamiliar with the roads & they often split or change into turning lanes which isn't shown on the GPS. Nevertheless, we still reached our destination with 15 mins to spare. It feels a bit like Clark Quay/Orchard. 

When we got there, 1 of the bouncers (yes they have bouncers for the attached bar) showed us to the maitre d. The street where we parked on had broken glass all over. Coupled with the fact that there were bouncers, I reckon they see plenty of rowdy drunks all the time. We were shown to our table in a nice little corner. The dinning room is smallish, probably holds about 20 odd tables for varying group sizes. They offered matching wines for $115 but I knew if I had to drink 7 glasses of wine, I probably would be flat on the floor. 2ndly, I didn't want to consume so much calories. So I ordered just a glass of red.

We could see the bar from where we were sitting & hubs kept telling me that we should come back for their bar food 1 day. The restaurant filled up slowly. I always love to make reservations for dinner at 6 pm, when they open. That way, we'll be served promptly & finish at a decent time. At 7 pm, the restaurant was probably about a quarter full. But by 8 pm, it was mostly full & we were almost to the last course already. I had a dessert wine right at the end to finish off. It really is interesting to taste how different chefs come up with different sort of flavours & combination of ingredients. Next up, Amuse in December. Hehe.

Canapes of cheese & fruit, bread & butter, camel tartare, blue manna crab.

Stinging nettle & potato, pan roasted coral trout, iceburg salad, wood grilled beef sirloin.

Cheese, palate cleanser, desert lime vacherin, raspberry shortbread/marshmallow/jelly.

So Drama

I didn't want to mention this until I actually got it. But after all the drama on Friday, I might as well. You see, even though Eba (my 1998 Honda Integra we bought for $2350 as a replacement for the Mits Lancer that was written off after a woman crashed into me 1 month after we arrived in Perth) was in a pretty decent condition when we bought it, I've always thought I'll drive it till it's no longer drivable or gets too costly to fix. The previous owner is a car mechanic & he does the servicing himself. He told us that he kept the car in good condition as  his wife is the 1 driving it & he wants her to be safe. We've not done any repairs to it other than having my front tyres changed just 5 months ago. A month back, during a routine check, hubs discovered that my engine is now leaking quite a bit. It wasn't leaking when he last changed the oil 5000 km ago. I don't know what's that called but it's leaking from the gap where the top & bottom half of the engine covers meet. I haven't got oil stains where I usually park which means it isn't a terrible terrible leak. That was when I start to seriously consider getting a new car.

I've been checking out some of the cars since early this year, thinking, that way, when Eba does decide to die on me, I'll have already made up my mind about which car to buy next. I never did come to a conclusion though. But the news of Eba's engine leaking prompted me to really look into it. I was weighing the pros & cons of getting it fixed versus buying a new car. I know just to get the mechanic to open up the engine to check where the leak is coming from will cost over a grand & that's excluding parts & labour for fixing it. Also, Eba's approaching 200 km which means I'll need a new timing belt & water pump which can easily cost over a grand too. On top of that, I noticed that when I come to a stop, my engine rpm is swinging rapidly between 700 (the usual) to just below 500, causing the engine to vibrate (as if I've not accelerated enough on half clutch & the car is going to stall on a manual). It occurred once perhaps 3 months back & has been increasing in frequency. I don't know what the problem is, but it sure will cost money to fix. I know my CV joint is also leaking which means it's at the end of its lifespan too. If I were to fix everything up properly, it will probably cost me anywhere from 4 grand upwards. That's not including my shock absorbers which were already worn from day 1. I drive avoiding all uneven surfaces as much as I can. But there's no preventing the squeaking sounds when getting in & out of the car. I thought if I were to spend 5 grand fixing Eba up, I will want it to last another 5 years (going at the depreciation of $1k a year). Will it, can it last 5 years? It's anyone's guess.

When I decided to convert to the full time position, I thought, I might as well buy a new car. I decided to go with Honda since I love Eba so much. The cheapest car in the Honda range is the Jazz. So that's my final choice. It all comes down to the money, isn't it? I get to do this thing called Novated Lease through Smart Salary (my salary packaging company). Though the fortnightly installments for the car is post tax, the running costs are pretax. It means that my fuel, servicing costs, tyre replacement, rego, insurance etc are all pretax. Upon calculation, I will save about $2k on tax a year. As Smart Leasing frequently sources cars for employees Australia wide, they have the buying power & they can source the cheapest car. I know Honda is offering free CTP, extended warranty, free roadside assist as end of the year sale bargain. But the price of the car remains the same. My homework showed that the original Jazz manual is selling for $16999, $19200 for the auto transmission. Sports version costs $22600 & the Luxury version costs $25388. They secured a Sports version for me for $19k, which is the price of the original auto Jazz had I gotten it from Honda direct.

The drama came when I was contacted by the dealer at 9 am Friday morning, informing me that my car was ready to be delivered to me & that he would be sending me an email of a form to be signed which I can emailed back together with my driving license. I requested for 4 pm as that would be about the time I could get home. Past 12 noon, he called back to inform me that the delivery team can only do 3 pm & I agreed. At the same time, I informed him that I would send the documents when I got home from work. That was when he told me that it must be sent to him or the car is not considered registered & the police will tow it away. Why wasn't it mentioned that the documents are urgent?

Immediately, I tried to print the licensing form but alas, the server at my work place was down. I was unable to log on at all. I resigned myself to the fact that the car won't be delivered on that day itself. Then 1 of my colleague asked me to use her computer which was already logged on. I managed to print the form but I couldn't scan it as that computer doesn't have a printer/scanner. I thought I'll just bring the forms home to scan & rearrange for another delivery next Friday when I'm working half day again. Another colleague then suggested faxing it. Alamak! Why didn't I think of it? My colleagues are obviously very excited for me to get my car given all the suggestions they gave me.

On my drive home after work, the dealer called me. So I did the illegal thing & talked on the phone while driving. Halfway through I finally managed to switch it to speaker mode when I came to a red light. He gave me 2 options, to either pick it up in Melville on Sat morning or have it delivered on Monday. So I told him that I would need to speak to hubs to see if he can take leave on Monday. I couldn't do Sat as I have yoga class & I'm going to the dog refuge to see if I can adopt another dog. When I got home, I saw hub's message to call him & that he was still at his work place. I thought it was weird coz he should have been on the way home by then. Turned out that his car wouldn't start & D was on his way there to see if he could fix it. I was like, "Oh my gosh! Can this day get even more drama?" I knew then I would have to pick up the car on Sat so that we will have 2 working cars come Monday. I had to reluctantly cancel my yoga class (I was so looking forward to it), dropped the idea of going to the dog refuge & informed the dealer that I would pick up the car myself.

Early Sat morning, we left the house to set off for Melville. That was when I realised my front garden was trashed. I knew last evening, a bunch of kids were laughing & carrying on right outside the house. I should have gone out to check but I didn't. They had thrown my mulch all over the front door & it was strewn all over my neighbour's door on my right too. Then I found mulch & broken pieces of my grasstree in a heap in front of my neighbour's house to my left. I was the only 1 with the grasstree in my row so it could only have been from mine. Plus, the mulch colour couldn't be wrong. Nobody else used bright red mulch. On top of that, they stole 1 of my solar lamps. I was absolutely fuming! Not even the prospect of picking up my new car could calm me down. Hubs tried but I was beside myself. Now I had to spend money to replace the stolen solar lamp, spend more time & effort sweeping up the mess they made to my neighbours' houses & top up the mulch in the garden yet again.

But when we got there & I saw my brand new car gleaming under the shelter, everything else fell out of my mind. I absolutely love it. When we got home, hubs left with the mechanic for his work place to see if he could fix it. But it needed a new distributor & he was going to source it on Monday for hubs. When he got back, it was almost time for us to get ready for our dinner date. That concluded the mess that spanned Friday till Sat.

Gym Work In Progress

My 1st set of measurements were dated 15th Oct. At the 1 month mark on 14th Nov, I've gained 1% muscles, lost 2.1% fats & a weight loss of 2.5 kg. Not too shabby. I don't see any physical changes probably becoz the weight loss is still very little. But I can definitely feel the difference. When I started, I could barely do 10 reps in each resistance exercise I was supposed to do. Now, I've hit 15 reps & had just started increasing the weights this week by 1 kg.

Perhaps the most definitive of increasing stamina & fitness is my pulse rate. I started with a resting pulse rate of 68 on the average. It has since gone down to 62. Mid way through my jog, I would always check my pulse. I started off at 182 bpm which is almost 100% of my maximum heart rate (188 bpm). I watched my pulse rate went down to mid 170s at the 2 week mark, to the current 168 bpm mid jog. Although I'm hoping to train for endurance rather than speed, I also found that I've gone from 18 mins for 2 km jog to 16 mins now. 

Some days, jogging 500 m seems like such a chore. Those are the days I will stick to the minimum of 2 km. But on days when I feel I can go further, I'll push to go 2.5 km or even 3 km. Hopefully, in the months to come, I'll gradually be able to stretch it even further. The only exercises that didn't seem to get any easier are the crunches & planks. 15 crunches are still hard. 30 seconds planks are still hard. That's alright. I'm still very happy with my progress.

This evening, I'll start my 1st ever yoga class. I'm so excited that I'm finally getting to do it after so many years. I've gotten a pair of tights (as requested by my instructor). As expected, I look terrible in them. Tights are meant for skinny people. On flabby people like me, every single bulge shows. Oh well, if I keep this up, the flab will eventually go.

I watch what I eat on a daily basis. But I still eat a decent meal once a week. By decent I mean bigger than usual. It's good. It keeps me on track. I also listen to my body. Some days I feel like having just that little bit more & I do.

I've also overcome the insomnia that came with exercising. I couldn't sleep coz I had so much energy at night. I still am energetic but now, I have no problems falling asleep. Even if I wake up in the middle of the night, I no longer toss & turn for another hour before I can go back to sleep. My body is obviously getting used to it. Yay!

Work Can Be Rewarding

When I 1st joined my company, I wanted a full time position. But I was told that all staff in Day Surgery are on permanent part time positions. Recently, my manager informed me that the HR is allowing staff to convert to a full time position. I wasn't too keen on it initially as I was working full time hours even though I'm on a 30 hour a week contract. The other thing is, if I don't hit 37.5 hours in Day Surgery, I'll have to go work in the clinics to make up the hours. After thinking about it though, I've decided to make the switch, mainly for financial benefits. At the moment, I'm earning leave based on 30 hours a week, even though I may be working 40 hours a week. My employer super contribution is also based on 30 hours a week which means I'm getting much lesser. I officially start on the 30th this month.

I handed the new employment letter to my manager to bring over to HR (they're in another building to which I have no staff access). During that period, we had a big hoohaa in the department. We have a staff in recovery who can be quite negative & her comments can be sarcastic. She's gotten into arguments with my previous manager & they didn't speak to each other for half a year. Recently, we have a new staff & they were working in recovery together. I don't know what happened, from what I heard, it seemed that some not so polite words were said to the new staff & she was seen crying in the change room. My manager took them both to her office & they were trashing it out there. My manager then decided to put me in recovery instead. With this staff, I've never taken offense regardless of what she said to me. I know it's her character & I just let the comments bounce off me. But the new staff obviously took it to heart. As the new staff can't scrub yet, my manager had to. It was quite a bit of a mess with the roster there.

Anyway, when she came back from the HR, she told me that she had requested that I be given an additional jump on my salary on top of the yearly increment. Her exact words to me were, "You're worth every single cent we pay you." I was shocked speechless. All along, I've never said no when she wanted me to learn work in a new area, not becoz I wanted recognition or anything but rather, I've always felt it would be beneficial to know more. I liked being able to go to which ever area where I'm required. Most importantly, if I ever lose my job, it would be easier to find a new 1 if I'm not so restricted that I can only work as an ophthalmic scrub/scout nurse. I can always look for a job as an aesthetic nurse, a recovery nurse, a laser theatre nurse or a clinic nurse. I never expected to be rewarded for it.

I don't know. Maybe what prompted this on was becoz of this big hoohaa that we had. I've always tried to choose my words carefully so as to not hurt other people's feelings. If I don't feel like I should comment, I will always smile & nod my head in acknowledgement. Perhaps that is why I don't have clashes with my colleagues. Life can be so hard, so why make it harder on yourself? We spend so many hours a day at work. It will only make us miserable if the work relationships are strained.

I'm very thankful for the way things had turned out for me. The extra money will be of great help. If we stay true to ourselves & have good work ethics, even if we're not rewarded, we'll feel good about ourselves & our outlook in life will change positively. I think that beats any other kind of rewards we will ever get.

3rd Wedding Anniversary

Just realised that I started this post on the 7th & completely forgotten about it. It's about time.

5th November this year fell on a Thursday. 3 years ago on this day, we exchanged our vows at the Registry of Marriage in Fort Canning. That date was chosen by a feng shui master who, after calculation told us that it was an auspicious day for both of us. 旺夫也旺妻。It was an unlikely union. Read any of these feng shui books & they will all tell you that the fire snake (1977) & the water pig (1983) is a terrible match, the marriage doomed for failure. But I didn't care & in Nichiren Buddhism, we're taught that regardless of your situation or karma, you can turn it around & achieve victory & happiness. She said that although the fire snake & water pig is usually an awful match, we're actually not too bad after taking into account our 八字.

We didn't do anything special on Thursday becoz we both had to work. But I did get home earlier since I skipped gym due to my 1st bout of hives. Even then, it was just dinner & off to bed. After our pleasant experience with degustation at Mandoon Estate, I decided to book degustations at different venues for all near future celebrations. Since our anniversary fell on a Thursday, I booked us a dinner for Saturday, the 7th. This time it was for Petite Mort, a contemporary french restaurant just a short drive from my work place.

That morning, I went out to buy a pair of heels to wear with my dress. Nothing fanciful, just $20 as Big W was having sales on shoes. Heels are not my thing. They hurt my feet too much. So they're reserved for sit down dinners. I chose 1 of the dresses I brought over during the trip back to Sg in March. I can no longer fit into some of them but I told myself I'll get there someday.

Before we got there, I told myself that I wouldn't drink coz I certainly didn't need the extra calories. But when we got there, I was in the mood & I accepted the wine suggestions given by the maitre d. We have such different palates. Hubs preferred the food at Petite Mort while I felt that the food at Mandoon Estate are more sophisticated in flavours, executed with more techniques. Like the glass of apple cider I had at Mandoon Estate, the 3 glasses of wine (1 white, 1 red & 1 dessert) went straight to my head & I left the restaurant somewhat giggly. I'm looking forward to the next degustation next weekend to celebrate 6 years of couplehood.

Table setting.

Degustation menu. We didn't take the cheese.

The macarons & chocolate truffles were complimentary. 

Producing Hives

After my extra long gym session on Tuesday, I went back to the original routine on Wednesday. Nothing much different, except that I felt 2 km on the treadmill was tough. But that was to be expected. I usually fare a bit better if I had a rest day. It was the usual 1 hour drive home. When I got home, I took off my clothes & realised that I was red from the neck to naval, all over to the side of my body. My back was completely clear. I didn't think much of it. My face always got flushed after jogging so I thought that was the case for my body even though it had never happened before. I took my usual as-hot-as-I-can-tolerate shower. Immediately after, I started itching. It was when I finally started to develop red, raised welts on my arms (near my armpits), groin & upper thighs that I realised that these were hives, which meant the neck to navel patch was nothing but 1 gigantic welt.

In the event of an allergic reaction, antihistamine is your best friend. I did everything the same, wore the same clothes washed with the same detergent, ate the same thing everyday (it's easier when you're trying to lose weight), came in contact with the same things. I really couldn't figure out what I was reacting to. I went to bed & had another flare up between 12 mn to 1 am. I tried very hard to ignore the itching but I couldn't sleep. Sometime later, I don't know how long, I finally drifted off to sleep. Needless to say, I went to work sleep depraved & the histamine circulating in my body made me really drowsy. I already knew I was going to take a day's rest from gym so I went to work in my normal clothes.

When I got home from work, I had a cooler than usual shower so as to not aggravate the situation, had dinner & took another dose of antihistamine. Everything was fine so far, no new welts, no itching but I just wanted to take 1 more dose to be sure. Went to sleep & was woken up by incessant itching at almost 1 am. This time on my lower arms & wrists. It was crazy. I had antihistamine in my system & yet I got another flare up. I had a good look in the morning & found welts on my entire lower arms, wrists & back of my right hand. I also had new welts from the back of my thighs just under the butt all the way to the back of my knees. I was like, "What's going on man?" The last time I had hives was 17 years ago.

I had already skipped gym on Thursday so I refused to skip it on Friday too. I was asymptomatic other than feeling somewhat drowsy. By the time I got to work, the welts had flattened & the redness more subdued. Perhaps it was becoz of this attack, I felt I wasn't in tip top condition. 2 km, like on Wednesday, felt difficult. But I've told myself before that 2 km is my absolute minimum so I pushed on & completed it.

Coming back home, I was kinda apprehensive. Twice, I've flared up in the middle of the night at the same time no less. It's gone from my torso out to my limbs. I just had this feeling that whatever it was, it was leaving my body (becoz it was moving away from my core). Taking a risk, I didn't take antihistamine after dinner. Here I am, Saturday morning, no more flare ups at 1 am, no more new welts, all previous welts have faded away. I wonder if it was an allergic reaction to something external at all. For some reason, I have this feeling that my body released a load of toxins & it was that which I reacted to. There's no way to prove it since it's a psychic feeling & I don't think I'll ever have confirmation.

Up Up & Away, Stamina!

We only have a half day list today so I thought I'll spend a little bit more time in the gym. Even with the additional sets of exercises, I was done in 1 hr 20 mins. The exercises are starting to get a little bit easier. It makes me happy coz it means my stamina is improving. I guess I'll have to up my reps in the near future. To finish off, I jogged on the treadmill with an initial target of 2.5 km. As I approached the goal distance, I thought that I could probably do more. So I completed 3 km before coming to a stop.

I think there's been a shift of focus in my mind & heart. My 1st gym session was on the 21st Oct, after which, I fell sick & didn't resume until last week. Between then & now, I've only lost 1 kg. Watching the intake carefully & exercising for 2 weeks only produced a loss of 1 kg? If this were me in the past, I would have given up. I really don't know why but unlike in the past, I find these exercise sessions very enjoyable. Of course, I still want to lose the weight. But it's no longer exercising just for the sake of weight loss. Perhaps without unrealistic expectations & a shorter work week (I used to work between 55 to 65 hours a week in Sg) makes it possible for me to enjoy the process. Maybe 1 day I just may be able to attain my long time goal of doing a 10 km run event but I'm probably looking at months of work in progress.

1 step at a time. It's only just the beginning. Heh.

Advance Reiki

I've had a very busy week. It was work, then gym from Monday to Thursday. Then I had to attend a Operating Room Nurse Association seminar at The Duxton on Friday. My colleague who lives along the way wanted to carpool with me so I was up at 4.30 am to get ready. I was at her place by 6 am & she invited me in for a cuppa before we made our way into the city. The seminar was supposed to finish at 5 pm, which would give me an hour to get to East Freo, where I was about to attend my Reiki 2 course. But of course, they ran late. I was constantly checking the time & panicking that I couldn't even enjoy the fact that I had won a pair of work clogs in the lucky draw. It was 5.30 pm by the time I got to the carpark.

City driving at peak hour? Absolute nightmare. The journey was only 17 km. But it took me 50 mins to get to my destination. Everytime the light turned green, I could only inched forward 50 m as depicted by my GPS. It didn't help that I was in the lane to turn left & people who didn't want to queue would drive on the right lane all the way to the front, then signal that they wanted into the lane. I hate to be late. I hate the feeling. I like to drive leisurely & take in the sights. That's why I leave home for work half an hour early everyday. I was wound up so tight the entire drive to East Freo. I was like, "Come on! Move it!!!" Not a pleasant feeling. Anyway, I got there at 5.20 pm, where I found out that I was the last to arrive. They couldn't start without me as what Barbara was going to teach is sequential so everyone had to be present before she could start. Yikes!

By the time we finished at 11.10 pm, I was bushed. I was looking at another hour's drive home. I literally dropped dead in bed when I finally got home at 12.20 am. It was a miracle that I managed to stay awake throughout the drive home. That was a 20 hour day for me. Usually, regardless of the time I went to bed the previous night, if I wasn't awaken by my alarm, I'll wake up naturally at 6.30 am or 7 am the latest. My intention was to go for a jog you see. But I actually woke up at 9 am. There wasn't enough time for me to jog (& I had to shower coz I didn't do so the night before) since I had to leave at 10.30 am to get to East Freo by 12 noon. I don't really have to, but the mild perfectionist/obsessive compulsive streak in me wants to arrive with 30 mins to spare. So yeah.

We had a couple of exercises to practise on after the 1st energy transfer. We had to bring a picture of someone whose health issues we know & we were given at random, someone else's photo. But I didn't seem to be too accurate. I saw dark purple, I couldn't take my hand off position 1 on the right side (which is over the liver) & this pressure in my head but my classmate, the wife, couldn't think of any associations with purple, or problems with the liver or headache. But my other classmate who did hubs was pretty spot on. She received waves (loss of balance) & nausea over position 1, right ear pain, an impression of a father, loss & emptiness which gave way to joy. On the crown, she received feelings of isolation & distance. Over the liver she got swaying & nausea. Hubs used to drink so much with his friends to the point of being completely drunk & puking into the drain at the back alley of the pubs. Naturally, liver processes & breaks down the alcohol. The right side of the body has to do with male. So for her to get right ear pain means there was or is a male figure in hub's life whose words were/are nasty to the ears. Remember she got father as well. Hubs didn't have a good relationship with his dad. (I'm gonna leave it at that but it was really really bad.) I interpreted his emptiness as his life before me (again, I know his history so I can only say it's true) before finding joy (perhaps with me?). On the head was sense of isolation & Barbara asked if it could be becoz he missed Sg. That is very accurate. Between the both of us, he's the 1 who misses Sg all the time.

On the 3rd day, which was yesterday, we received our 2nd energy transfer. This time, we were doing on fellow students. Everything I received about my classmate (D) was accurate as confirmed by her. But becoz those are her problems, it isn't appropriate for me to share here. A different classmate did me. She received thumping of the right temple (I was having a bit of a headache at that time). She had ringing of the right ear which, as previously mentioned, had to do with a male figure. Probably my dad. She also started tearing but she had the sensation that it was tears of gratitude. Ever since my move here, I've really been very thankful for everything. I've been saying that on my blog for ages. This is a stranger who knows nothing about me. Similarly, I know nothing about my fellow classmate. Even the cynic in me has to concede defeat. Lastly, when she went to the head, she had a feeling that I need to do deep breathing. (When we move to the head, we would ask what would help this person to a better good.) Knowing my inclination to be wound tight, this is probably a very good advice which coincidentally, I will probably do when I start yoga. She also got the feeling that I need to trust in my journey in Reiki. This also came very timely becoz as I was doing my classmate, D, I held back some details coz I doubted what I saw. When D probed further, she realised that what I saw in totality made sense & told me to believe in myself. Finally, she felt that my 3rd eye (the area in between my eyes) was pulsating & that my clairvoyance ability is coming to the surface & will continue to develop.

Barbara has always said that all of us are psychic. It's just that in most of us, it is latent. As with everything in life, you'll get better the more you do it. I wonder where this journey will take me. But 1st thing 1st, I can now do distant healing on my mom. Yay!

P.S.: On the drive home yesterday, the police was stopping everybody at a road block for breath analysis. There's always a 1st time to everything. I wasn't the least bit worried coz I hadn't been drinking of course. Pretty exciting way to end the evening.

Gym Bunny

That's what my colleagues call me these days even though I've only been to the gym regularly for a week. Everyday after work, I'll head off to the gym. Although I've imposed upon myself a cut off time of 5.15 pm, there was a day I still went even though it was already 5.30 pm. The reason for the cut off time is becoz I don't want to get home too late. If I follow the trainer's exercise plan for me, it'll take me an hour to complete it. Add another hour for me to drive home equates 2 hours. I'll like to be home by 7 pm so my aim is to leave the gym by 6 pm. On days when I couldn't get to the gym before 5 pm, I've been dropping a couple of resistance exercises in favour of an intensive hit of jogging. Erm... well, intensive to me that is.

Over the weekend, I'm trying to jog at least 2 km, with a rowing warm up. I've got this cheapo rower which even on resistance level 1 requires quite a fair bit of effort to pull. Well, at least I've gone from being able to pull only 20 times to the current 50 times. Then, I'll follow the warm up with crunches, planking, more crunches, back raise & finish off with another set of crunches. The last is the jogging part. I've pushed myself a little bit more yesterday, jogging 2.5 km instead of the initial 2 km.

So I've been to the gym 4 times this week, plus 1 session at home. I've lost 1 kg and based on the built in body analyzer in the weighing machine (if it's accurate), the entire 1 kg came from fats. I even gained 2 grams of muscles. Lol. This is exciting news. When I used to severely restrict my calories without exercise, I would lose fats, sure. But I would lose muscles as well since they're the 1st to go as they require more energy to sustain & it's the body's way of self preservation.

I'm looking forward to going back to the gym this week. Although I've requested for a day off today, I didn't go jogging. It was too humid (93% rh) & for some reasons I was nursing a headache from the time I woke up. Somehow, it's also easier to get going straight after work. When I'm at home, I don't feel like heading out. Ok, back to the gym tomorrow.

Mostly Recovered

So I went to the GP on Monday. It was my 1st time seeing a doctor for illness here in Perth. When I saw the GP in Sg with a URTI as severe as this, I would be given 1 day MC. If I went to the staff clinic, I would be given 2 days. The GP I saw gave me 5 days! I voiced my concerns about missing work as I'm the sole scrub nurse for that particular surgeon. He told me that I'm working with vulnerable patients so it is important that I be well. That really threw me off. All along, I've been told that I must show up for work unless I'm too sick to get out of bed. I've been conditioned so well that it didn't even occur to me that I'm putting patients at risk.

With plenty of rest, vitamin c, I'm mostly well again. I even went jogging yesterday. Colleagues in a different department (but on the same floor just down the corridor) had URTI as well & they haven't even completely recovered after 4 weeks. So I'm considered quite lucky. In fact, I'm going back to the gym next week.

I met up with J & J in Northbridge for lunch after work on Friday. It was my 1st time in the city. Just a few shops down from the Japanese restaurant where we ate was a shop that is a baker's dream shop. They sold different types of flour, grains, dried fruits etc from sacks. Now I know where to get the fanciful stuff if recipes call for it.

We'll have to clean my car tomorrow becoz I'm to ferry my colleague to a seminar next Friday & it's not nice to sit her in my dirty car. Then it's off to the Soka center for the Women's Division Friendship Meeting. I guess I will fit my jog in when I get home coz exercise before dinner somehow kills my appetite & I end up eating less which is a good thing. I've even made arrangement with J's DIL to learn yoga from her. It is something I've always wanted to do but never had the time for. I'm busy but I'm happily busy. I'm no longer living to work, work & work. Like I said before, moving to Perth has allowed me to regain my life. I'm forever thankful coz I know how blessed I've been.

Nasty Bug

I just called my manager informing her that I'm too sick to go to work for the 1st time. I felt so guilty. Calling her took a lot of thought. I decided to wait till evening to see if I'll get better. I'm the scrub nurse you see. If I don't show, she'll have to find someone else to scrub. There're only 3 nurses who can scrub at my work place. 1 is away in the countryside assisting another surgeon & will only be back tomorrow evening. So she can only ask the infection control nurse to scrub. Luckily it's only 3 cases & the surgeon is pretty easy going.

But I definitely have to go back for Tuesday coz that is "my" surgeon. Meaning, I'm the only person who scrubs for him. He's not nasty but he's really fast & it's a long list. I will feel so bad if someone else who isn't familiar with his steps to have to scrub, rush like crazy & finish work late.

Funny huh? When I was in Sg, I wish I could be sick so I can take sick leave. Here, I wish I can be well so I can go to work. Looks like gym will have to be put off yet another week to give me time to fully recover.

This is 1 nasty bug. I was still well on Wed, feeling on top of the world after gym. Thurs morning, I had some throat irritation. By Thurs evening, my throat hurt so much I could barely swallow. By Fri afternoon, I was getting the aches & runny nose. Then I spent Sat & Sun in bed for most of the day, sneezing my brains out, coughing my lungs out & hugging that box of tissue paper that I stuff my nose with.

I've already made an appointment to see the GP tomorrow. Hopefully I won't have to suffer for much longer.

有心无力

My plan was to successively follow Wed's workout with Thurs & Fri. Neither of which happened. I really wanted to go. I wore my workout attire to work. But on Thurs, I finished work at 6.30 pm & by the time I walked out of the building, it was already 6.45 pm. Plus 1 hour session, plus 1 hour drive home, I could have easily gotten home at 9 pm. I wouldn't have minded if it was a Friday. But it wasn't & I had to work the next day.

Thurs morning, 12 hours post workout: The muscle aches were starting to set in, just as I had expected. Only I thought it would be worse. On a scale of severity, this was probably about 3 to 4. But the pain grew progressively & by evening, it was probably about a 7. I also had some throat irritation in the morning which became a full blown sore throat by evening.

Fri morning, 36 hours post workout: Full blown sore throat still present, muscle pain is now 8. I didn't even have to go down the stairs to feel it. I had to hold the toilet seat & slowly ease myself down to sit on the toilet bowl. It was aching so much even when I was walking. Still, I went to work in my workout attire. I still wanted to go. But by lunch time, it was evident I wasn't going anywhere but straight home after work. My nose was starting to run. Body aches started to set in (the flu type of aches). I quickly took 2 neurofen from our stock. Believe it or not, I was actually sent home by my manager who asked me to go home & rest at 3 pm. (No such thing in Sg. We were actually told that we should take MC only when we're so sick that we can't get out of bed. Of course, nobody listened. If we waited till that stage, we probably would have gone into pneumonia & died.) I felt it would be counter productive if I still headed to the gym so I went straight home.

I badly craved hot chicken soup (I have no idea why) so hubs drove us to Coles to get the ingredients. Passing the supplements aisle, I saw that chewable Vitamin C was on 30% discount so I grabbed it. Immediately after paying for it, I popped 2 as directed on the bottle. As I was reading the information, I saw that it says Vitamin C is good for assisting athletes to recover from their training. All the more better. I also took a sachet of Lemsip left over from previous infection as the neurofen had long worn off.

Sat morning, which is now, muscle aches mostly gone. It's like 说来就来, 说走就走. Muscle ache is now down to 1 to 2. But on the URTI front, things had moved south. Literally. I can feel that the soreness in my throat had moved down & I'm very certain that very soon, cough will set in. My brain feels fuddled like it always do when I'm down with severe URTI. I must aim to recover by Monday. We only have 3 cases in the morning & nothing in the afternoon. I had planned to do an extra long session in the gym & I'm hoping I still can follow through with it. That's the way it is, isn't it? When I had the time, I didn't have the motivation. Now I'm raring to go, but conditions are not right. Oh well, I'll recover. Hopefully soon. 

Day 1: 1st Gym Session

It's 2 am. I can't sleep. I've been awake since 12.40 am after a trip to the toilet. I've started my gym training. My list finished at 4.30 pm. I changed into my workout attire & headed to the gym. There were about 10 others in the gym. I just followed the exercise plan my assessing trainer did for me. But I think from next session on, I'll add triceps work.

I started off with 15 mins of rowing as my cardio warm up. The trainer told me that the key to fitness is doing what you enjoy. So no treadmill for the time being since I hate jogging. But I know it's something I have to tackle at some point since I have this "dream" to complete a 10 km run event 1 day.

Next, I moved on to resistance training: squats with 4 kg dumbbell in each hand, chest fly with 2.5 kg dumbbell & lastly, lateral pull downs. I was supposed to do 3 sets of 15 reps for each exercise. But I could only do 10 reps for 2 of them. It'll be a while before I can hit 15.

Then I moved to mattress work. 15 crunches, 30 sec plank, another 15 crunches, 30 sec of back raise. He asked me to do back raise to strengthen my lower back since I have intermittent low back pain from previous injury at work. The back raise was the hardest for me.

This was followed by 10 mins of cardio which I completed on the elliptical machine. My heart rate actually hit almost 100% of my maximum heart rate at 182 bpm (my MHR is 188). I was asked to target for 75% which is more like in the 140s zone. Very very unfit.

Last was cool down with stretching exercises. By the time I completed everything, an hour has passed. I drank like 1L coz I was just so dry. Then I drank another 500 ml on the drive home. Which explains my interrupted sleep. I think due to the amout of water I drank, I wasn't hungry & I wanted to consume more protein post workout so I chose to drink my meal replacement.

I'm still trying to improve on the process. I found that I had to juggle 2 sets of clothes & 2 pairs of shoes. So from now on, during workout days, I'll simply wear my workout clothes & track shoes to work. My work place is undergoing lift upgrading so I had to take the stairs. My goodness! My legs felt like jelly. It wasn't hard climbing up but when I was coming down, I felt like my legs were going to give way.

I actually felt good after the gym session. I feel excited about doing it again soon. So I guess not forcing myself to jog is really the way to go. If I'm going to do this 3 to 5 times a week, I'll need more workout wear. Shopping this Sat it is.

Prediction: Hell Of A Summer

We're barely at the halfway mark of spring, even lesser if you go by true spring marked by spring equinox. We're already in the 30s & my indoor temperature guage read 31°c. I've long switched to shorts & no blankets at night. But still, I'll wake up in the middle of the night covered in sweat. I don't tolerate heat well at all.

So I believe this summer is going to be a very long & a very hot 1. We got off lightly last year with summer mostly being in the mid to high 30s. Oh well, take the bad with the good right? I enjoyed months of nice cool weather. So I'll endure a few months of hot hellish weather. I'll just stay indoors as much as I can.

Hubs had arranged for my car to be re-gased on Sat & the aircon is blowing cold air once again. At least I get to park under shelter at work. Poor hubs has to park in the open & it'll take forever for the car to cool down. Even then, the car won't be truly cold, just tolerable with the sun shinning in.

We sort of discussed going to the beach 1 day for a soak. But we don't have any concrete plans as yet. I will love to go snorkeling though I've never done it before. It also means doing homework to find out which beach is best for snorkeling & buying the gear. We'll see.

Gym Appraisal

I was early for my appraisal, as I am for pretty much everything in my life. The trainer was doing a circuit class with 1 guy when I got there. I sat outside the group fitness room & spent 20 mins passing time playing games on my phone. Promptly at 8 am, the trainer came to meet me. We spent some time doing measurements before I was given an orientation to the gym. I had to complete a series of tasks which is the main assessment of whether I'm fit enough to join the gym.

I had to cycle on the stationary bike between 85 to 95 rpm until I reached 75% of my maximum heart rate. Then, he taught me a few exercises with weights before going back to the assessment. I had to do crunches for 1 min & plank for 30 seconds. I thought it would be extremely strenuous but it wasn't so. When we got back to the group fitness room, he wrote an exercise plan for me which I will have to follow for 3 times a week. If I can make it to the gym more than that, I am to do cardio for the rest of the week.

Now I'm just waiting for my application to be processed & the gym pass to be given to me. Looks like I'll need to have a gym bag permanently in my locker at work. I can't wait to get started.

Power Of 5 Km

I don't know how much a gym membership costs here. But I heard from my colleague that her daughter signed up for $800+ a year. We were toying with the idea of joining a gym but hubs felt that it's too expensive. That's why I say working in a hospital is good. I knew we have a gym so I made enquires. It only costs $12 a fortnight which comes up to $312 a year. I can join their free circuit classes & I can join their yoga/pilates/zumba classes for $3 per class. I won't be able to go to any of their classes as they require prebooking & the last class is always at 5 pm. I won't know what time I'll finish work until the last case itself & bookings for classes close the day before.

But gym is good. It's open 24/7 so regardless of my finishing time, I can just head to the gym. I'll need to go for an inital appraisal with the trainer (free) to gain access to the gym. Subsequently, I'm entitled to a free yearly appraisal. The appraisal sessions are all fully booked till tomorrow when I attempted to book mine last week. Since I'm not working tomorrow, I just booked myself in even if it means driving down just for that.

I was feeling gungho yesterday so I went for a 5 km walk. Not jog, just walk. But I woke up this morning with aches. Shows just how unfit I am. I'm looking forward to the appraisal & see what the trainer will plan for me as an exercise plan.

Power Of 5K

It's always great to be working in a hospital. Especially more so in Oz. We're entitled to Smart Salary, which is a company doing salary packaging so you end up paying less tax. Sure, you pay $200+ a year for their services but you save thousands in tax. Great trade off if you ask me. It works by packaging either your living expenses (you get a "credit card" that you use to pay for your groceries or bills), mortgage or rent. Different hospitals have different yearly limits. This amount is $15900 where I work which equates to $611 per fortnight. The company take this amount off before your salary gets taxed. Say I earn $2611 this fortnight. Rather than get taxed for the entire sum, I'll get taxed based on $2k.

There's more. I can choose to take up an entertainment card which is a debit card that I can use to pay for my dine in meals (not applicable for take away). I set the amount that's to be deducted every pay day. At the moment, I've set it at $200. So using the same scenario, I now get taxed based on $1.8k.

There's always more. If I go on holidays, I can package the entire sum of my accomodations, regardless of the cost. So if I spent $1k on hotels, I can package the whole sum or choose to have it done over several pay periods. The campsites I book when I go camping? Yup, packagable too. But if you go on a holiday with a tour group, you'll have to ask your agency to separate out the cost of accomodation for you. If you go on a cruise, there's no way they can spilt it. So they just package the entire sum. My colleague went on a cruise for $13k. Can you imagine how many months where she doesn't have to pay a single cent of tax?

We also get novated car leasing. I'm not too sure how it works, just that they calculate the cost of the new car, how much fuel you use, insurance etc & take this sum pre-tax out of your salary. I've used their calculator before & say if I buy a new lower range car, like Jazz or Yaris, I'll be packaging $300+.

Can you see where I'm going? If I have novated car leasing, I'll be paying tax based on $1.4k of earnings per fortnight based on the initial scenario. I was paying close to $1k tax before Smart Salary. Now I'm paying about $600. In a year, I'm saving about $5k in tax. Not bad eh?

Aviation Diaster

It was a clear sunny day. The perfect weather for outdoor activities. We gathered on a grassy field, whipped out our camping chairs, cold beer in hand & sat catching up with a few friends.

A shadow rolled over us & I lifted my head for a look. It was a plane flying by. Something wasn't right. The plane was way too near, way too low. We watched, horrified as the plane rolled belly up to the left. It kept turning. And turning. The pilot seemed to gain a moment of control & righted the plane. Only to over compensate & rolled belly up to the right. They ran out of height. The plane crashed into the field just hundreds of meters from where we were sitting.

I did something I would be ashamed of. I took out my phone & took a picture of the flame engulfed plane. I finally came to my senses & dialed emergency services as we ran towards the wreckage.

The nightmare occured on Saturday morning, just before dawn. I'm fretful of such dreams for fear that they'll come true. I'll never forget my premonition of a dream many years ago, just 1 week before the tsunami hit. I knew it was very near my birthday. When I searched online, it stated that the tsunami hit on 26th Dec 2004. When news broke of the tsunami, I was shocked beyond words.

I had dreamt that I was standing on the beach with my ex (he wasn't my ex at that time). The shoreline suddenly receded with alarming speed. But all of us on the beach just stared. The huge 12 storey high wave came at us just as suddenly. Everybody was screaming. We tried but we knew there was no way we could outrun it. I was swept away & only managed to save myself by hanging onto the top of a coconut tree with my life. When I came to, I was in a straw hut. I remembered my panic. Was my then ex still alive? Were any of my family alive? The uncertainty, the emotions felt so real.

Till now, I've not had another nightmare of such a scale that came true. Who knows where these dreams come from? How do they come true? Coincidence?

Camping Trip Down South

It was long weekend last week & that means camping. So I've been away camping in Binningup, about 35 km north of Bunbury. When I returned to work on Tuesday, it was busy busy busy all the way till Friday. I knocked off earliest at 6 pm with 1 day at 7 pm. I'll be paying a lot of tax for this fortnight of work, clocking in 90 hours, my highest so far ever since I set foot on Ozzie land. What I'll be earning this fortnight is what I earned in a month in Sg, including overtime. It's good coz my car needs new rotors. Anyway.

Who else but Mr Ton?

We were much more relaxed (or bochup is more appropriate) this time round. We took our own sweet time getting ready, leaving at 5.30 am in the morning. The main difference between the previous trip & this 1 was that being spring, it was already bright by the time we set off. It also stayed bright for longer & we didn't once drive in the dark. We got to the camp site at 8.15 am, with 1 stop over at the 100 km mark in a Caltex petrol kiosk for meat pie, sausage roll & coffee. Setting up the tent also took much shorter than the previous time. Heh. We must be getting better at it.

The campsite is just 5 mins walk from the beach.

It is hard deciding which pictures to put up from the hundreds we took throughout the trip. But I can never go past Ton Ton. There was nothing quite like sitting there, doing absolutely nothing after the tent was up. I may not be born Ozzie but I sure love the lifestyle. The kids from the other families were all loving Ton Ton & I've received a lot of requests to pat him throughout the 3 days we were there. The adults couldn't believe that he's almost 10 when they asked me his age. It seems that everywhere I go, everybody calls him "puppy dog". I don't think it's becoz they've mistaken him for a puppy but rather, an endearing term for him.

We set off to Harvey Cheese in Harvey but skipped Harvey Beef, also in Harvey (lol). We got some cheese & crackers which later became our lunch. Next, we stopped at Harvey's town center to get some food for dinner. I waited outside the IGA since dogs are not allowed. Then came a woman who tied her big dog outside IGA. She told me, "Don't worry. My dog doesn't eat much." Ton Ton naturally went over to say hi. She obviously didn't like that & barked at him. My timid dog hid behind me with his short tail down. Haha. That is just so him.

So, we sat down to cheese & crackers when we got back to our camp site. I was feeling really sleepy so I went in & had a nap. It was too hot & too noisy to really sleep though. Before we started our dinner barbie, we walked down to the beach for the sunset. By the time we sat down for dinner, it was completely dark. There was not a single mozzie the entire day. But omg, once it started to cool down, we were swarmed. I had the repellent but by the time we realised we were mozzie dinner, it was already too late. Needless to say, we sprayed the repellent early on the next day. When we got back home on Monday, I counted 37 bites, with 32 concentrated from my ankles down (coz I was wearing 3/4 pants).

It wasn't as cold at night compared to the previous camping trip which kinda surprised me. It was absolutely freezing even though we headed up north & it was barely winter. This time round, it was barely spring & we headed down south but it wasn't even anywhere near cold. We went off to sleep at 7.30 pm (coz it was dark & we had nothing to do), waking up at 6 am in the morning.

Next stop, Bunbury. Our 1st stop was the Marlston Hill Lookout. Once you get up there, you get panoramic views. The wind was so strong & whipped my hair all over the place. That was when I realised I left my scrunchie in the tent. I also left my jumper in the car. While the cold was bearable, it certainly would have been more comfortable if I had both my jumper & scrunchie.

Bunbury Farmers Market. I didn't know what to expect. It was early so it wasn't hot yet so we left Ton Ton in the car with the window down. I fell in love immediately. They had beautiful produce & there were products I can never find in supermarkets here. Like coconut yoghurt, perfect for vegans. Like the strawberry & cream nougat which was like nothing I've tasted before. They also sold raw paleo products. I wish we have such products readily available to us in the metro area too. Oh well...

Hard to see but there's a house in between the trees. If I have a choice, this is where I'll love to live.

Next stop, Gnomesville. Coincidentally, both my colleague & Nix told me about this place on the same day. It was Monday, we were sitting around having tea when my colleague suggested I visit Gnomesville. Later that night, Nix said the same thing to me. The drive to Gnomesville yielded spectacular views. How I wish I didn't have to leave.

There isn't an address for Gnomesville. It is actually situated around a roundabout. The place is huge with so many gnomes that people have placed there over the years. The moment I got out of the car, I got this intense feeling. This place is very 阴. The energy I was getting was not malevolent. But I won't say it was benevolent either. (I've been to very old catholic churches & they give off a holy energy which I will describe as benevolent.) Definitely something there in Gnomesville. 

Cheeky little naked gnome.

He's fascinated with the cows just as they are with him.

An unusual brew so definitely must try. Lemon lime lager. 

On our drive back down, we went to this brewery on the side of the road. Hubs had beer battered fish & chips while I opted for just a wildberry parfait. He seems to have taken a fancy to black beers (not stouts) so he had a black ale while I had a lemon lime lager. I'm not so much of a beer person but the lemon lime lager was good. Then it was back to the campsite.

On our drive back to Perth, we stopped over in Mandurah & Rockingham. I was surprised that Mandurah is pretty bustling for a town so far away from Perth City. But it was the long weekend & people probably came down for a short getaway. That concludes our 2nd camping trip. 

Mandurah marina. Apartments overlooking the marina costs over 1 million.

Cape Peron, Rockingham.