Well, the time has come to analyse and hopefully do things better.

Importantly - from Sunday my blog will be at a different address: http://flashduck.blogspot.com.

This is just a pinnicking housekeeping event to keep it to a reasonable size and make it more manageable for me.

I will also reset the totals on my watch from 1 January (somewhat reluctantly), erasing the 8,000 + kilometres on my cycling totals for a fresh new years start.

(to be continued)

It looks like Wobbly's (et al) get well wishes did some good, as we arrived at my sister's in Exeter mid-afternoon. It was the first time that we had visited here, and the first time that we were on the home turf of her newish (to me) partner, so we didn't quite know what to expect.

Upon arriving, two more chairs were pulled up for us at the kitchen table ~where twelve people were already sitting down and starting to serve themselves from large platters groaning with food. Rather magnificent food at that. After introductions (with all names quickly forgotten), we joined in, feeling very conspicuously under-dressed in shorts and t-shirts. We weren't warned about the 'company'. A very pleasant extended afternoon concluded with a guided tour as we walked around the grounds, already grand, but definitely a vision in progress.

And so it went into the evening, eventually saying goodbye to couples here and there, as neighbours and others continued to drop in. Finally it was apparent that there were three other house-guests that night, and we settled into our room, had a welcome bath and an early night.

Wednesday, 28 December

(but pleasant enough) sealed road. I was very sluggish to start, but, as per usual picked up as we went. Bob insisted we turn around after about 4.5 kms as I had been so crook, and I out-sprinted him (you have to pick your time for the challenge!) in the final dash.

Breakfast with the rest of the household, before changing into cycling clothes and heading out on our Touring machines (Cannondale F600 Mountain bikes with slicks and racks) for an exploration. There was a fair amount of holiday traffic, but I was keen to get onto some of the cycle friendly roads that I had seen around Lucky Legs' part of the woods and just get some time in my legs. Although hot to start the day, extensive high cloud cover meant that it was very pleasant for cycling.

Yuletide – A Retrospective

Christmas itself was something of a write-off; Christmas Eve Saturday saw me in greater sinus pain and in bed. Still hopeful of getting to Sydney for Christmas day we didn’t make any arrangements. I struggled up indecently late (I’m still like a kid and like to be up early on Christmas morning to spread cheer), and barely lasted to drink a bit (water and coffee), in an attempt to assuage my big bad sore head. No luck.

Bob rang my sister to reluctantly explain (I have a super cool nieces sister and nieces and was really looking forward to it), while I staggered downstairs once more to rest a while. Bob went over to his nephews place in southern Canberra for lunch, at which time I feel deeply and thoroughly asleep, not waking until after 6pm, many hours after he had been home. I still felt pretty crook.

Boxing Day was a mixed bag; I felt even worse if anything until about 6pm, when I picked up, and just kept improving. My sister had suggested we could join her and her partner in the southern highlands a day or two later, and it was looking feasible for once.

The now-usual every-bone-battered with a baseball-bat feeling engulfed my morning face on Tuesday, but I did try to everything I could to feel better. I realised that if we were to go away for a night or two, I needed some more medication first and drove, and then waited, around to get the prescription filled on the public holiday. It was pretty late by the time we got away, but we diverted via Aki’s place so that I could drop off my Christmas pressie that I hoped would have some use over the next few days. She very thoughtfully gave me a very nice bracelet with which I am immensely touched.

Nothing much to report (Bah, Humbug).

I was failing rapidly this week, and although I put on my running gear and cycling gear early with the intention of cycling to the shops and then do the BBQ Stakes . . . . I ended up lying down before I got on my bike, even though I had the bike ready with the garmin on to lock onto satellites.

And I lay down, and lay down and lay down . . .

When it was apparent that I wasn't getting to the Stakes, I took my contact lenses out and stripped off the layer of cycling clothes, and promptly slept for three hours or so in my running gear. My face had been aching for a while, but the sinus pain had really started to hit me overnight on Tuesday.

If Wednesday was bad, Thursday was terrible. Panadeine Forte didn't take the edge off, as I awoke with a shocking head before 4:00am. It was a shocking day of pain, only eased by sleep. Bob was able to take me to the doctor today, where I got my ?fifth course of antibiotics. I don't feel up to talking or moving - yet. So much for days 3-7 of my training!

Hopefully they'll kick in soon and I will be up and about. But in the meantime, it hurts :(

• one large pacific oyster natural with rock salt and lemon;
  
• a small demi-tasse of warm vichyssoise (almost a contradiction there) with a poached oyster in the cup;
  
• a tiny ramekin of an intensely flavoured tomato and basil consommé.

• Next came a dish with lightly tempura battered reef fish on sliced potatoes (stated to be kipfler, but more like desiree), accompanied by a mass of salad leaves with prosciutto. There was a zig zag of a creamy saffron sauce providing more style than flavour.

• A couple of large Prawns were on a platter with another salad of small arugula, thin slices of chorizo and mildly melted buffalo mozzarella. This was also good.

• Two final plates rounded out the tasting lunch menu – one had two moderate sized tarts of a light puff pastry and a (rather too eggy for me, but fine by Bob) filling of feta with a side of stunning caramelised onions.

• A dish shaved sweet potato chips accompanied two small medallions of kangaroo, on segments of pink grapefruit. Although described as a ‘rocket and soft herb salsa’, the attendant sauce had the consistency and taste of a sophisticated guacamole – certainly avocado was a star ingredient.

• On the other side of this platter was the other red meat – similarly small medallions of beef, with a flavourful mash of potatoes and capers, and a stunning jus of red wine and sage butter.

• Taking centre stage was a fan of finely sliced pear, roasted with vanilla and saffron with 2 melon ball sized scoops of a rose scented semi freddo.

• In the East corner were two gems of chocolate and chassis pudding, the blackcurrent flavour coming through the fudgey chocolate orb.

• To the south were the same tiny handled ramekins used to serve the vichyssoise. This looked somewhat like a raw egg had been cracked into it ~~ a slightly opaque clear liquid surrounded a yolk coloured ball. This dish was amazing! Intoxicating and intense in flavour, much more would have been too much. The ‘ýolk’ was a seedless passionfruit sorbet, suspended in a albumin of a White Port and champagne Soup, still with the slow rise of bubbles rising in the mouth. Stunning.

• Pots of Crème Brulee were not caramelised on top, and had an orange liqueur escaping through to the base, served with small wedges of dark chocolate wafer.

• The western edge of the plate was the chocolate fix – although my decision to leave it to last was perhaps a mistake as it was (an originally) frozen terrine of lush valhrona chocolate. Napped in a toffee sauce, it stood better on it’s own, and should have been eaten earlier rather than melted. The intensity of the flavour was fantastic though!

I feel l much better physically, although am still under the hammer time-wise and slept for four hours or so yesterday afternoon.  I’m sleeping my life away!

Another biggish night sweat last night, with horrendously dry eyes which prevented me from sleeping for long tracts of time.  As a result I am really groggy and tried again today.

Bob and I cycled down to the hospital yesterday morning to see max and his Mum, however she was understandably exhausted and visitors were off limits.  I spent the afternoon asleep.

I took the last of the current course of blunderbuss antibiotics today ~ hopefully it shall improve from here.  We have just found out though that the car needs a new power steering pump (or some such).  We negotiated to have the car on the weekend to get to the Tour de Mountain on Sunday.  We are likely to be without a vehicle for the whole week, not ideal before Christmas, so will need to be organised.   I’ll do my best to get to Customs at lunchtime today, and stay awake!  

Some more of Bob’s computer equipment arrived on Tuesday morning and he needed quite a bit of assistance in setting it up.  I could have done it quite quickly on my own, but he wanted to see how and what to do which took ages.

I have been having drenching night sweats again which mean that I wake tired and groggy, and can’t get going all day.  There is also so much washing to do each morning as well . . . . sigh.   I had an afternoon appointment in Civic, and we were keen to get as much Christmas shopping done as soon as possible.  Bob’s namesake nephew was also expecting his third child and she was already a week overdue.  

I cycled in and dropped by the National Gallery of Australia shop to pick up a gift for my sister for Christmas, thence to my Civic in the nick of time for my appointment.  Locking up my bike and changing from lycra to floral dress was quick and without drama.  I stayed in my frippery to knock over most of the rest of the shopping for extended family, leaving much of it at the store for later collection with the car.  It was a long, long afternoon, but I felt pretty damn impressed with what I achieved (especially as shopping is not my favoured activity, I missed out on that female gene).

Home late from Christmas shopping, I still had to stock up on groceries, so showered quickly and headed down to the local for the boring stuff.  Not an exciting day, with little exercise to speak of (and NO running!), but I feel satisfied and virtuous.

Baby Max finally arrived that night, which was pretty exciting.  A great big bruiser like his sister, he is going to be a handful.  

A relatively early night for Bob and I on Sunday resulted in a better night’s sleep, and neither of us were feeling not too shabby on Monday morning.  We had arranged to meet my sister for lunch, and we had to make the executive decision about what to do earlier.  While we both wished to go for a run (Bob had gone for an exploratory run west of Kirribilli on Sunday), however we knew that we couldn’t fit in that and get to the Pissarro exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW.  

We walked across the bridge, and through the Botanic Gardens to get to the gallery, and got to the exhibition without too many crowds ~~ there was a group of girls’ school students (which was pretty amusing to watch) and we made our way from one chronologic period gallery to another.  Frankly, with the benefit of 200 years, the early stuff left me fairly cold, however once we hit the print /etching room I was transfixed.  The later work though was fantastic.  Both Bob and I were impressed with the same elements in similar works, and we unfortunately had to rush through the best stuff in order to get back to the hotel in time to check out and get to my sisters for lunch.

We had a very pleasant lunch of a small portion of the mountains of leftovers, before we headed back to Canberra.  We didn’t arrive home until quite late  . . . a run tomorrow!!!  Please

Customs on Friday was excellent as usual, despite the fact that Aki was there looking resplendent in her civvies, (having left her running shoes at home), and me going very, very slowly. ‘A’ for apple, allrounder and I were each slated to leave off the handicap of 13:30 . . . their form was so much better than me at the moment, and this was to be proved true within a few minutes.

I stayed with them for about 600m, before they drew away, allrounder in front followed by ‘A’. The gap continued to increase, however I kept working at it. A steady stream of other runners managed to pass me at regular intervals, including the distinctive huff-puff of Bob bearing down within the first two k. I was secretly delighted to see ’A’ gaining on allrounder (who went out too fast in the first kilometre or so). Not far after the turnaround at the willow tree she overtook allrounder. Allrounder has just been going from strength to strength, improving with every run, and I knew that ‘A’ would use allrounder to run another PB.

My lack of fitness was testament to my being passed by an increasing stream of runners from behind. Despite my best efforts, I finished the slightly amended course in a pitiful 24:17, a full 75 seconds behind ‘A’ and allrounder who battled it out for a sprint finish. I was fairly pleased with my run, regardless of the slow time and the lack of training in the last two weeks. The antibiotics are still knocking me around, so maybe I shall have to take life (and training) somewhat more soberly.

Bob had arranged to meet a fellow M55 triathlete who was visiting from Adelaide for the Half Ironman on the weekend, for a coffee at The Deck at Regatta Point. Aki, ‘A’ and I all ended up there joining them, before I whisked Aki away to assist me on a number of errands around Canberra including picking up my ‘refurbished’ orthodics from the podiatrist. They were marginal before the six foot track, however since the rain, and the river and creek crossings they were very sorry indeed!

After picking up my gift for Claire’s 21st, we stopped for a restorative gelato. Mine – a catholic combination of caffé and bacio was excellent.

What a frustrating five days . . . sparkling new computer with no legit connectivity. We did occasionally hit upon (quite unintentionally) some unsecured neighbourhood wireless networks, but in this time I have done NO exercise (despite some good weather), eventually and reluctantly ringing the tech support people.

Can't complain about the attitude or helpfulness of the techies. Unfortunately the result yesterday after heavens knows how much time, was to contact the computer manufacturer. I was exhausted by the end and decided to sleep first. I am on another course or two of mega-antibiotics for the continuing sinus' saga, and am still sleeping a lot.

Without Centrino support offered by Bigpond at all, and nothing performing according to Hoyle, I slept on it and decided that I would cut some losses and purchase an authorised' wireless adaptor to get at least one laptop up and connected. Another phone call to Telstra didn't prove too fruitful, but I went to a Telstra shopfront and (eventually) managed to find one.

It didn't work. I had all the original disks, keys passwords etc, but no dice. Ggggrrrr. Really nice techie guy helped me this time. Confirming that I was doing all the right things instead of stuffing it up was consolation at the time, but not lasting. After much farnarkling, we got one laptop connected with an Ethernet cable, But that was it. Advice: go to supplier and get them to help.

I had a nap.

Embiggend with the restorative powers of sleep, I twiddled and twitched. Then; Ay Curumba! This is looking good. I was so excited as I was prompted for the WEP key and saw the flashing of the wireless LED on the router that I kept emitting little noises of excitement. I was connected!!!!

Got the printer set up to the network without too much drama, and spent another half an hour or so tweaking Rob's laptop. Woo Hoo! I feel really proud of myself, and all without (an outdated version I suspect) Wireless Adaptor. Centrino up and atom.

Gloat Gloat Gloat.

Now to catch up on others blogs and do all those other important things in life!

(Wobbly Man ~~ this is a reference to both the 80's band and the original Plath poem).

I haven't posted for a while, although I am alive and generally very well (sinus infection again, but that doesn't count). I am just busy trying to configure the new computer, and not having much success with setting up the Centrino Wireless Network with Bigpond. Everytime I get to stage 2,386 (actually I'm exagerating. There are only 47 steps), I stuff something up and need to restore to an earlier point and start again.

Very frustrated. Don't want to ask for help. Techno Spouse.

So, little or no access to update. Or time. Gggrrrrr.

Good meal last night at Chill at Campbell shops. Review later.