In the count down phase

It is now only 5 weeks until we go to China and Vietnam, and I feel my preparations need to step up a notch. So far I have bought some shoes, got immunizations and learnt to count to 5 in Mandarin. This should take me quite far, but there is a growing list on the fridge of things I need to get collect prepare gather buy do.

The plan is to visit with my friend Keryn in Wuhan for two and a half weeks, then visit Beijing, then have ten days in Vietnam. There are real concerns here, like how many jumpers to pack.

But probably what I should be doing most is talking with Kerryn, finding out what we can help her with, and praying for her. I'll put that on the top of the list on the fridge, then everything else should fall into place.

And get hand sanitizer.

And an international plug.




And...


Okay that's enough.

the trust you put in the postal system

All four of our passports have flown south to get a little stamp in them to say we are allowed to visit Vietnam.  This means the China Vietnam trip is getting closer and closer.  We have had immunisations and we have bought shoes.  I think we are set.  As long as the passports fly back to us.

I love the post.  It is a faith based system.  I popped our little blue books into a piece of paper trustingly at the Mt Gravatt post office - they will appear on the desk of a Vietnamese consulate worker - and then they will appear back at my house.  There is almost something Harry Potter about it.  Harry Potter in a slow motion kind of way.  My mum posted a card from Croatia, and it arrived five days later.  Magic.  People have taken that card and read it and sorted it into a little box that says Australia, and put it on a plane, and gave it to a truck who gave it to our postman, who drives the unmistakable sound of a 50cc past the house at 1.30 each afternoon.

On the other hand, I recently sent a package of goodies to some friends in Tanzania - lollies and games and milo.  I have my doubts if it will make it.

In other news I have started a little garden in a bath.

I started with 8 lettuce seedlings.  Now there are four.  See that chicken in the foreground?  I think its eyes look shifty.  And there may be a lettuce leaf hanging out the side of its mouth.

But I have fortified the surroundings with more wire - so now only birds on the wing can get the seedlings.  I look forward to crisp garden salads.  In ummm about ten weeks.  Assuming the lettuce reaches maturity and the chickens do not work out how to unhook the canny wire gate fence thing I have made.

I am watching you chicken.

coming of age

My exceptional husband has turned forty this month.  There has been a month of celebration - including a festival of forty with school friends down in Armidale, out for a curry on the actual birthday, and a party held at home.  A 'C' themed party.  For crazy cats to catch up and carry on eating canapes, chips, chocolate, cheese, crackers, cake and celery (all the good foods start with 'C').

I love a party.  It is maybe because I am a social vampire and like to SUCK PEOPLE'S ENERGY. That's right,  I am an extrovert that feeds off the social vibe of others around me.  If there are no people I am like a zombie.

Charlie Chaplin

My husband is calm, co-ordinated, competent, caring, compassionate, cuddly, cute, confident, competitive, courageous, constant, cool, Catriona-lovin' and Christlike.  I like him.

Shhh - don't tell him - he's looking this way.

I dressed as a cricketer as a homage to my cricketing husband.  As an added bonus I got to wear sneakers and super comfy clothes all night.

Two cats and a cow.  Gab insisted on going as a cow.  She rang a little cow bell around her neck all night.  Fortunately about nine cowboys came to the party, so she wasn't a cow on the loose.

It was a very fun party.  Worth all the cleaning up in the house.

Geocaching again

Today we went geocaching with Aunty Katie. I think we are the only people on the geocaching website without our own GPS. We knocked off finding 5 caches around Mt Cootha. We clambered under fences and scuffled around in the dirt under permanent structures and there was a slightly awkward moment at the lookout when the clue we were looking for (a survey number) was under the bottom of a tourist sitting having his lunch.

And we logged them in all on the iPad - a very handy device.

It was awesome having Katie and Ella up for the weekend from Sydney - she managed to find 8 geochaches in Brisbane and get her tally up to 150, we had a great 40th birthday party for my wonderful husband, and we saw the final Harry Potter. I wish Sydney was closer. Maybe I will leave a trail of geocaches from Sydney to Brisbane so she has to come and visit us a lot!

bloom where you are planted

I have spent the last week participating in the kids holiday program at church.  It was a fantastic week of people pulling together and using the gifts God has given them - from baking to talking to playing with kids to crafting to singing to organising to wiping snotty noses to making coffee to praying to acting ridiculous.  I used what God has given me in spades.  Which is the skills to completely overact with a puppet.

Dizzy meeting her fan base.  I really like this picture - I never usually get to see what the kid's faces are like.

Lisa and I really got into a rhythm of performance this week - very very funny. We had a script as a more of a general guide, and went on secret spy missions every day.  I think this year we overdid the props and preparation a bit - but we now have a new appreciation for scriptwriters.  We even did fingerprint scans using an old scanner.  And had a secret tunnel with a hair dryer for wind effects.

I also learned three new chords for the ukelele as we used the Zaccheus song transposed up a fourth and added a djembe for 'spice'.

So what has amazed me over the last week is the ability people have to grow in the space they have.  I have watched young people blossom and children grow in their faith.  God planted us all together in one space for a week, and the sowing and harvesting was plentiful.  I feel blessed to be in a place and around people where my creativity can flourish.  And even though I have itchy feet from time to time and think the grass is greener in a different job, a different town, a different place - I know now more than ever to bloom where I am planted.

lactic acid love

pre run smiles

It is two days post 5km run.  And there is not too much build up of lactic acid in my muscles. I distinctly remember a physiology exam in second year uni when the 30% question was 'what is lactic acid?' with an expected essay style question of two pages.  I wrote 'it is in muscles'.  That's it.  Four words.  And that is still about all I know about lactic acid.

I know I have some in my muscles now.

The Gold Coast marathon fun run was pretty good.  I even ran about a third of it - a huge improvement on my triathlon running leg effort last year.  Maybe my training is paying off.  The atmosphere was great.  It was an early start for our family and we paid for it later with tired girls.  But I have now competed in an international event.  With 25000 other people.

The guy who won the marathon did it in 2 hours 10 minutes.  That is ridiculously fast.  That is running at 20km an hour for 2 hours.  That is faster than some traffic.

I don't think I can ever think I would run that fast.  Unless it was running away from a monster.  Or running for a plane.

and we start!

I am running.  Catherine is laughing at me.
Is it because I was only running for the camera?

crazy person in the fun run

200 m to go and we are still smiling

Striding into the finish!

we are fun runners.  we have medals.

cheering Sam on - doing the full  42km marathon.
My sign was fairly generic -
it gave many runners encouragement - GO MAN!

Sam at the 32km mark - keep going!  (he made it)

the horrible feeling I have overcommitted...again

Well, it is the eve of the marathon.  The Gold Coast marathon.  And while I have only committed to running an eighth of the course - it is still looming up tomorrow morning inevitably.

My training regime has been....well....not as intensive as I had planned when I paid my entry fee for the 5km fun ruin run in March.  By this point I was planning to be able to run most of the course.  I can probably run the first part as I am pushed on by the sheer force of mass numbers expected at the event, and I will run into the finish line.

Although sometime in the last month I cracked the three digit barrier.  That's 9 kilos down since January.  Who knew exercising more and eating less cake and chips would do that do a girl.  I need to get a belt for my jeans before the plumbers crack from loose fitting pants becomes way too offensive.

Tonight during my final tapering period before the big race I have prepared by eating meat nachos for dinner and having a beer.

And I am under strict instructions not to break my puppetting arm during the race as there is kid's holiday program all next week at church.  The show must go on.

Off to bed.  5.30am start.

Gulp.