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Wellington, New Zealand
welcome to my corner of the blog world! i love step, boxing, zumba, scrapbooking, photography, watching movies, walking the hills of my suburb, my family, and life in wellington. take some time to have a look around and be sure to say hi!

Friday, May 16, 2008

strangely satisfying

inspired by the sass-e mum's strangely lush fitness plan, i decided to incorporate my errands into a lengthy walk today this morning.

firstly, i ran to the chiropractor. it's mostly downhill. when i say 'mostly', i mean ALL, but i still ran! when i got there the chiropractor was waiting with the receptionist, so they had a good laugh as a i staggered through the door. if that wasn't bad enough, when i lay face down on her table, my nose started running. oh yeah sue, way to be cool. (why DOES your nose run when you exercise?) just wondering.

why was i at the chiropractor you ask? well, she was attempting to re-arrange my groinal muscles after monday night's netball coaching clinic. it was one of those 'hands on' sessions where they show us the warm-ups, ball drills and skills and we learn by all DOING THEM TOGETHER. (in turn we use them when we're coaching our girls).

look! this strangely lush fitness plan is working already! look how thin i am! this fitness plan also serves to make my legs longer. awesome plan SASS!

i should point out though, that i am not sporty. i can run and walk, but that's about it. i ain't that co-ordinated either. check out my school report from 1977 (i was 14, and the pair of "C"s were for progress and attitude). if you can't read it, it says "in spite of her handicap [i had asthma], susan has worked extremely well". excuse me? i feel like tracking this guy down and showing him a picture of me finishing my triathlon. IN YOUR FACE, BAD TEACHER MAN!!!
his comments don't particularly stand out tho.

my school reports make bart simpson look like albert einstein. they're a rap sheet of mediocrity.
  • 'better test results were expected'
  • 'satisfactory'
  • 'trying hard'
  • 'seems to be making progress'. 'seems?' are ya not sure?
  • 'disappointing assessment results'
  • 'poor results in tests'
  • 'good average standard'
  • 'seems to be keeping up with the others alright' (spell right much?)
  • 'handwriting untidy but due to lack of muscle co-ordination' (thanks doc!)
  • 'susan's written work is disappointing as she makes an intelligent contribution to class discussions'
  • 'can be lazy with this area and could do better'
  • 'listening skills may be limiting her full development'
  • 'must settle down in class'
  • 'could be more attentive'
  • 'talks too much'

and here's the kicker - "susan's only fault lies in her lack of self-confidence" (that's from my typing teacher!!!). screw you lady - i'm awesome!!!


this is the part where i tell you i had a killer personality to make up for my lack of academic ability. but i would be lying. no-one can say i don't have personality now tho! something my grandparents used to say to me comes to mind: "all good things come to those who wait" (and i don't mean guinness).

thank goodness my barely average public school results and uninspiring teachers did not stop me from finishing in the top 10 at polytech, holding down some great jobs, then going on to be a roaring success at marriage and parenting. toot toot!

BUT I DIGRESS - back to the coaching session! we were shown a warm down, which was in actual fact a race to the death. it's like musical chairs, with two groups at either end of the room and a small plastic cone for each person in the middle. on the command "GO', everyone rushes in and grabs a cone. cones get put back and everyone returns to their end of the hall. one cone is TAKEN AWAY. (can ya see where this is going?)

"GO' is called again, everyone rushes in. one sad person is left standing there without a cone. NO, NOT ME!!! (well, not yet anyway).

so i get down the final THREE! ME! me and two 14 year olds....let's hear it for the over 40s - WAHOO!!! i tell myself i'm not going to make a prat of myself coz those girls are just way too young, lythe and fast for me. final 3 - i'm happy with. MORE than happy.

so i run in. i know i'm not going to get to the cone before the teenagers, but as i'm throwing on the brakes, my left leg slips out from under me and i do the splits, pulling a muscle in my groin. oh yeah. way to be cool sue.

that was monday night. today (friday), i made it to the chiro and i'm on the mend. here's some more pics from my walk.
i live right THERE!

i was forced to buy these on my travels. really, i had to! there was a lovely man collecting for the local hospice and i didn't have any money to give him, so i bought these and got some cash out with the purchase. i figured they'd travel better than the single piece of blueberry cheesecake brownie i was eyeing.

i'll probably only have 1. or 2. i definitely won't hide them and eat them all myself. probably. how's this for a weird house? 'welcome to our fish bowl!' the street is literally right by that lamp-post. freaky.
home again jiggity-jig

the weather forecast is good for tomorrow - a belated start to winter netball. can't wait! miss 10 is playing for BOTH her school teams (they're short a player) and i'm umpiring THREE games. basically, if i don't have a whistle in my mouth, i need to be muzzled on the sidelines. i'm just a little over-enthusiastic. in a good way. people just don't always see that.

10 comments:

Amanda said...

Looks like you had a good walk. Good for you for being on the plan. I think the brownies are ok as long as you took a few days to eat one, right? Or am I all confused on how the plan works?

scrappysue said...

the rules with chocolate are, that if no-one sees you eat it, there are no calories. luckily (or unluckily), they had walnuts in them, and i just couldn't eat around them, so the rest of the family scored big-time.

Trish said...

Hi ScrappySue, Thanks for visiting my blog -- and I must say I completely enjoyed visiting yours.

I live in the U.S. and had to Google netball and am proud to report I learned something new today.

Heather said...

You always look so energetic in your photos. It really gives me hope that I may have some energy some day, when my kids are no longer toddlers. If that is not it, where do you get it from!
I need to come back and read some more and then I will make a better comment :) I have to go clean like crazy. It is Jody's birthday tomorrow and I need to get ready for the fam we have coming over to celebrate. I always love hearing from you, so thanks, and I will do better, I promise :)!

scrappysue said...

you DO get more energy once your kids grow up and you're not getting all that broken sleep. exercise helps too! don't get me wrong - i hate the thought of exercise, but once i'm actually doing it - it's great! if i had a penny for every time i thought 'i really must exercise today....' lol

AudreyO said...

I found you through the MommyFest. Even though it's over, I'm still meeting new people and having a blast.

I am not a runner. I can walk forever, but once I start running, I'm exercised out after 3 minutes LOL.

Anonymous said...

Oh I love those long shadows..... I really am tall and svelte according to my shadow. Trust that over a mirror ANYday!

Anonymous said...

You live in a bee-ooo-tee-fooool spot. You come here, we'll go see the flowery trees & drink coffee... Then I'll come there, we'll take long walks & eat desserts. Is it a plan?

Anonymous said...

Oh! And I forgot to say that I didn't do well in school either, until high school. In fact, I'm fairly sure I almost failed grade 8.

In grade 4 my teacher had a wall in the class with a series of bird pictures... At the bottom was a buzzard; at the top was an eagle. As we learned our multiplication tables, we moved up to better and better birds. I was a buzzard all year long. My mother was really mad about it when she found out. She thought it was bad for my self-esteem. Oh well.

The school system just doesn't work for everybody. Some of us are just to fabulous & beautiful & smart for it. (That would be you and me, obviously)... Lol. Seriously, though, school system - it's geared towards one type of learning & anyone who is a bit different kind of struggles.

scrappysue said...

that is a TOTAL plan mel! maybe we could even find flowery desserts?! lol. i totally agree with you on the school system. it certainly never suited my style of learning (whatever that was!) i remember one teacher having writing groups numbered 1, 2 and 3 (with 1 being the best). because we used fountain pen ink (i know, i'm old) and i'm a lefty, i could never write neat. i was the ONLY person in the entire class in group 3. oh the shame...