#blogjune 2013 Day 17: In which I sacrifice my potato ricer on the altar of learning

In an attempt to make learning some spelling words more "kinesthetic" and "visual-spacial" for Mr9 I made play dough.  It's been a while since I made this for the kids.  In fact, in a fit of declutter fever I'd moved on a bunch of baby toys including the play dough tools to Miss6's old day care. 

My theory was that by forming the words with something tactile and manipulative it may help Mr9's brain to store the information in a way useful to him.  I have no idea if this is good pedagogy but he seemed to enjoy it. I remember a colleague of mine telling me about her son who has microcephaly and how she spent a lot of time making him feel textures and saying words about them to help him learn to associate the word with the sensation. Now obviously Mr9 is not severely disabled with microcephaly but I have always remembered my colleague's devotion and conviction that it was helpful as a learning tool.

Having discovered I had given away the "worm maker" to daycare, Mr9 was indignantly upset so in order to allow him the joy of creating words out of worms, I let him use my potato ricer. It works a treat actually and fortunately the play dough is a good recipe and is easily cleaned off while soft.

Naturally Miss6 was soon in on the action, making pizza and cookies and taniwha. Mint green, peppermint scented taniwha... the best kind. :-D

#blogjune 2013 Day 14: Five things Friday

1. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Look out for ... the comfy chair!



2. Jelly beans and lists... two good things



3. Tart cherry juice from http://www.cherryvite.co.nz/ is my current obsession. The freeze dried cherries are awesome too. I think it may be helping me sleep, or maybe it's placebo but in any case it tastes good.  It is supposed to be full of Good Things.

4. What is your preferred potato chip flavour? Mine is salt & vinegar.  DH likes plain or those new sour cream and Kaitaia Fire ones. 

5. Spent the evening shopping for birthday presents for other people's children. Not sure what it is about October, but it seems like it's a good month for making babies! (As well as Christmas and New Year... We have 4 family birthdays in September).

#blogjune 2013 Day 13: In which I display my cookbook collection

This Cookbooks are possibly my guilty pleasure.  I read them like novels. I try and be restrained in my collection but I sometimes succumb to a new one!

This is the bottom shelf. I need to weed those magazines. The two big tomes on the right are The Joy of Cooking & Mrs Beeton's Household Management. I use the books and folders on this shelf a lot. The magazines not so much.

This shelf I use a lot too.  The Hummingbird Cafe Cookbook is being hidden by some of the thinner books but it is a current baking favorite along with Ladies a Plate.

The things on the top shelf I don't use very often.  They tend to be more for reference but the Anne Willan French one and the Thai Food one do get consulted from time to time.

Do you have a cookbook collection?

#blogjune 2013 Day 12: In which I bare my insecurities.

The following may indicate my ignorance but I always say, if you don't ask the question you just remain ignorant...

A while back I did a "self-awareness" course which was about becoming self-aware.  (As you might imagine).

For me, it is an uncomfortable and confronting thing to realise how my behaviour affects others' perception of myself.  One of the things the course looked at was "transactional analysis" and the kinds of states one goes to during interactions.  Based on the observations he made of me during the 3 hour course, the facilitator told me I move into the "free child" state a lot.

"The Natural Child is largely un-self aware and is characterized by the non-speech noises they make (yahoo, whee, etc.). They like playing and are open and vulnerable.
The ... Little Professor is the curious and exploring Child who is always trying out new stuff (often much to their Controlling Parent's annoyance). Together with the Natural Child they make up the Free Child." ~ from Transactional Analysis [my emboldening]

I took from his [the facilitator] attitude that this state is not the one to be in if you want to be a leader or considered a rational adult member of staff.  In my defence, I would like to add that on that particular day I was emotionally vulnerable owing to a number of things happening both at work and home.

The questions I find myself asking are these.  In an environment where we are exhorted to be creative, innovative and disruptive in our approach to librarianship, what is the role of the free child?  What is the role of Adult in this environment?

"the Adult in us is the 'grown up' rational person who talks reasonably and assertively, neither trying to control nor reacting aggressively towards others. The Adult is comfortable with themself and is, for many of us, our 'ideal self'." ~ from Transactional Analysis

Or am I reading too much into this?  Are these things unrelated? Have I taken it out of context?

Yesterday someone tweeted this blog entry:

"The antidote to consumption is play: physically and mentally. We have stripped many of our institutions of play as we became heavier with the burden of information to pass on. It is inevitable. But play is not what happens at ‘recess’ or ‘lunch’. Play is not mindless, in the same way not all information is mindless. Compelling information coupled with playful experimentation, helps us create meaning and improve processes." - Consumption Mentality

 While coming from a different perspective, the part about play not being a mindless activity but rather helping us build meaning and improve processes intrigued me.

There is a part of me that wants to justify allowing the creative side of myself to appear in the work environment - this I freely admit. But I do wonder if I'm shooting myself in the foot to let it do so if I wish to be seen as "professional" and having worthy leadership qualities.

On the other hand, I see a real risk of librarians stagnating into starchy, un-interesting creatures with no flexibility if we do not provide a space for playfulness.  Or perhaps I'm just equating "professional" as boring... certainly the times I've been accused of being "not very professional" is when I have been expressing humour or playfulness.

This is very deep. I am interested in your opinion.

#blogjune 2013 Day 10: in which I reveal my first attempts at crochet

A couple of worm like things that I hope will end up as a kind of dish cloth!  I had some difficulty holding the bits but I think I have that sorted now. My mum also showed me I was doing something working with where I was inserting the hook too - something I didn't actually realize I was doing having watched some videos.  Is this an instance where face to face teaching is better? Or did I just not choose the best videos? :-) 

#blogjune2013 Day 9: In which I meet some unexpected issues

A few posts back I mentioned Mr9's tentative diagnosis of dyspraxia. Since then we have been trying to move forward with testing and finding ways to help him.

We have been helped by the SPELD association who gave him a comprehensive test that revealed some strengths and weaknesses. He now has a SPELD tutor who works with him once a week.

A friend has screened him for Irlen and we see a diagnostician this week.

I am still trying to find an OT for him that will help him and hopefully give a definitive diagnosis. The closest one is too busy - too many ACC cases.  Another recommended one has yet to get back to me so I fear the same will hold true of her also. I may yet have to find someone myself. As this is one of the key things he needs I am feeling frustrated!

It has not been cheap either and he doesn't qualify for any funding.  It worries me that it will be difficult for us to get assistance like reader-writers when his condition is not considered "severe" enough.

One good thing is that the school have been very helpful and co-operative.  His teacher has a 2 other students with learning difficulties so she is open to exploring ideas and ways to deal with this.  Additionally, she is trying to incorporate some elearning into the class which is a challenge in a small school with limited funding.  She approached us about the possibility of purchasing Mr9 an iPad as she has found some of the apps useful in assisting her to teach her students with learning difficulties - the other 2 in her class have them.

We were hardly a "hard sell" given the geekiness of our family so we agreed and today Mr9 got an iPad2 (wifi only).  It will live at school most of the time, locked away in a secure place when not in use. It can come home when he wants to bring it home though.

Here he is "unboxing" his iPad.

We needed to set an email for him as some of the work he will do on the device will be emailed to his teacher rather than submitted on paper.  We assumed a gmail would be fine, but we discovered he is too young for one!  We went back and forth about options and in the end we found Yahoo! allows a child account if you set up a "family account" arrangement.

I am just hoping we'll be able to find a similar thing for gmail because I suspect he will need to use some of the Google apps like docs.  Perhaps the school has Google for schools?  I don't know but will have to find a way to work around this.  In the meantime, the Yahoo! address will have to do.

One of the apps I installed for him is the Overdrive one for borrowing library ebooks and audiobooks.  Of course, it needs to have an Adobe ID.  Mine has been used on too many devices so I had to make one for him as well. 

It both amuses and alarms me that Mr9's digital footprint is already growing as a result of this purchase we've made.

Here are my loves heading out to this morning's fellowship. Miss6 is not impressed she didn't get an iPad.  Mostly because she wants to play Fruit Ninja.

#blogjune 2013 Day 8: In which I fall back on a bullet point post

Because I am tired and sad.

1. Saturday is a day for the kids to have swimming lessons.

2. A friend in Japan died yesterday - she fought cancer for 3 years, 8 months. Far too young to go, she leaves a son and daughter my age. Cancer sucks.

3. Spent some time helping DH chainsaw up a tree for firewood for my sister and ourselves.

4. Went out to Muriwai so DH could take photos of kingfishers and sunsets.

5. Made home made fish and chips.

In memory of Reiko:

In blossom today, then scattered;
Life is so like a delicate flower.
How can one expect the fragrance to last forever?
Admiral Takajiro Onishi

#blogjune 2013 Day 7: Five things Friday

1. Good to see the recycling bins are up at MPOW.

2. Hot pink slugs - awesome.  If you had to be a slug, this is the colour to be.

3. It takes a library: It is time to change the tone of the conversation about the future of libraries - agree 100%.

4. I watched a film on dyslexia today.  I sure wish there was as much awareness of dyspraxia as there is of dyslexia.

5. I tried some new food related things this week. I made a coffee and walnut cloud cake.  It's based on the angel food cake idea but I don't have a tube pan so I made two cakes instead.  It was delicious but I'll only be making it on special occasions as it's quite a bit of work.




I tried some buffalo sausages from the Whangapiro Buffalo Cheese co. Also delicious!  I think it's marvellous that we can get things like this here.

#blogjune 2013 Day 6: In which I share a Hamster powered machine

Hamster powered machine a video by pdugmore2001 on Flickr.

Made by Mr9 using his sister's Zhuzhu pet. Miss6 can be heard exhorting me to put it on Facebook in the background. Also in the background is DH playing the piano.

#blogjune 2013 Day 5: In which I present one of my bookshelves

Someone mentioned recently the sadness they felt when visiting a home without bookshelves.  This is a feeling I share.  One of the first things we got when moving into our house was a shelf for our books. Admittedly I don't have quite the number that some people have - looking at my Dad here... But I have a limited amount of room so I need to keep the collection smallish. 

 I dream of a house where I could have a "library". I'm sort of embarrassed to admit it because it seems I am, once more, a living cliche.

Top two shelves featuring a mixture of mine and husband's choices. Plus some kid ones that gave ended up there because of lack of room on their shelves. 

Next shelf contains taller books. Asterix and Tintin to the left - they get a beating these days - they originally belonged to DH and now the children are at a stage to enjoy them. This shelf also includes some gardening and craft books.  These tend to be crafts I am currently not pursuing, like stump work and marbling.

 The next shelf down is mostly DH's stuff.  Bill Bryson, "Day walks" series. 

The bottom two shelves are devoted to photography books, photo albums, dictionaries and atlases.  I have a weakness (inherited from my Dad) for dictionaries and other classic reference books.

I have to admit I don't buy so many books these days. If I do, it will be books I intend to re-read or they are harder to find non-fiction books.  I do buy ebook fiction and DH buys ezines though.

You will note there is a singular lack of "classification" happening here. That is because the shelf height dictate what goes where for the most part. I did try and alphabetise the fiction a bit.

What's on your bookshelf?

#blogjune 2013 Day 4: In which I begin my Drupal course online

I logged on to begin my online course in Drupal today.  The LMS is a familiar interface - the same we use at MPOW.  Looks like my colleagues and I are the only participants outside of the US/Canada.

I first heard about Drupal back in 2009 or so when we were reviewing our website, looking for a suitable CMS to manage our pages. In 2010 I went to VALA (a library conference in Melbourne) where there were quite a few presentations/workshops related to Drupal.

I really like the flexibility and open nature of the beast.

So far the course has been easy to work through and I'm looking forward to mucking about under the hood of my sample website.

Hi, my name is Penny and I'm a geek that finds this stuff fun.

Also, thanks to Claire...

Penny's Dewey Decimal Section:
699 [Unassigned]
Penny = 65445 = 654+45 = 699

Class:
600 Technology

Contains:
Health, agriculture, management, public relations, buildings.

What it says about you:
You are creative and inspired to make the world a better place. You can work hard on something when it catches your interest. Your friends have unique interests in common with you.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

#blogjune 2013 Day 3: Monday Menu plan

Last week's menu plan

Monday - roast beef in the crockpot, Yorkshire pudding, beans
Tuesday - mini meat loaves, slater potatoes, broccoli
Wednesday - Fish with Spanish potatoes peas and chorizo (recipe from My Food Bag)
Thursday - Spinach, ricotta canelloni with tomato sauce with a rocket, pear, walnut, blue cheese salad
Friday - Chilli with tortillas, salsa
Saturday - Chicken Nasi Goreng with peanut sauce and prawn crackers, Croissant orange and cranberry bread and butter pudding for zert. *

Nasi Goreng

This week's menu plan

Sunday - pizza and Minestrone soup
Monday (Queen's birthday) - gnocchi and tomato sauce with sauteed spinach, lamb steaks, steamed carrots
Tuesday - pork chops with garlicky spinach & mash
Wednesday - Pasta puttenesca
Thursday -Tom Yum soup
Friday - chicken cacciatore
Saturday - fish and chips (homemade)

Has anyone tried My Food Bag before?  My colleagues and I were looking at it last week.  It looks interesting.

Bread and butter pudding made with croissants

* Croissant orange and cranberry bread and butter pudding

3-4 croissants cut into slices (or enough to fill your dish)
1/4 cup sugar
zest of an orange
juice of an orange
3 eggs
2 cups milk
cinnamon
dried cranberries (as many as you think are good, probably about 1/2 cup)

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C.
Grease an ovenproof dish and arrange the slices of croissants in it. Sprinkle over orange zest and juice and allow juice to soak into the croissants. Sprinkle over sugar and cranberries.
Beat eggs and milk together briefly then pour over the croissants.  Spinkle with cinnamon.
Cook in the middle of the oven until custard is just cooked (it will be very slightly jiggly).
Serve with cream.

#blogjune Day 2: In which I discuss 10 rules for winter fashion

Okay, so this isn't strictly in my "theme" list but who cares?  The newspaper had an article last week announcing 10 rules for winter fashion.  I thought it would be interesting to see what people thought about these rules.  My opinions are included below.

1. Thou shalt wear more than a skirt and a tshirt

Well doh. It's cold so yes, long sleeves are a must. But skirts are fine, especially with tights.

The original article referenced "showing off assets" and "flaunting" feminine shapes which can be done without the need for skin showing.

One style that I can't get behind is short shorts with tights and ugg boots. Euuw!  Not for me. 

2. Thou shalt wear leather

Yeah nah.  Not for me.  Except for shoes, belts and handbags, leather has never been of interest to me to actually wear.

3. Thou shalt wear something snuggly to bed

The original article suggests onesies as an option.  Horror!  I do have flannel jammies though. 

4. Thou shalt keep the noggin warm

Beanies, felt hats... yes I will wear that.  I'm hoping to make a few more this winter.


 
5. Thou shalt wear boots

Yes.  I would like some MOAR boots.  I need ones with wider calf width though.  Do you think ankle boots look ok with skirts?  I think they look a bit meh, but I wear them all the same.

6. Thou shalt own a decent coat

Working on it, working on it.  I have a pattern, just need time and fabric.  In the meantime I've ordered a duffle coat.

7. Thou shalt wear black

Really?  REALLY?  No. I'll wear whatever colour I like.



8. Thou shalt dress for a decadent 1920s party

This referred to "jewelling" and "lavish trimming".  Not sure I'm into the OTT stuff but some is ok.  Like this bag I embellished.



9. Thou shalt wear cosy jumpers

Chunky knits are "on trend" at the moment.  Times like these I wish I could knit.

10. Thou shalt wear wide leg trousers

As someone with wide legs I could get behind this one.  But not so wide I catch them on my shoes and trip over.

My favourite winter fashion things are my felted scarfs, hats and coloured tights.  What about you?

#blogjune 2013 June 1: In which I set the scene for the month

Once again, I have set myself the challenge of blogging every day of June.  You can read about this exercise over at Flexnib.  If you'd like to join in please do!  The only requirement is that you have a blog.  The subject matter and topics of blogging are entirely up to you.  There is a list of participants if you would like to follow along.

I didn't participate last year because of reasons, but I missed the fun, the pressure, the sense of community around the event.  This year I am going to give myself a few themes to focus on so I have some impetus to blog.

The themes for this year's Blogjune at Walking Upside Down will be:

1. Food - including menu plans, recipes, trying some new things
2. Crafts - which will include me learning how to crochet
3. Reading
4. Reflections on doing an online course to learn Drupal
5. Five things Friday
6. I will attempt to blog over at Diligent Room for some days
7. Photos of things

Speaking of which...

These are things which make me happy

My reading rules

As much as a cringe to admit it, I am a librarian who likes to read.  There.   I'm a living cliche.  Oh the embarrassment!

Side note: this is not an admission that will get you very far in an interview for a librarian job.  Just so you know. Customer services skills are much more relevant.

Anyway!

Reading rules, do you have them? This is a kind of meme coming from Bookriot, via Bookshelves of Doom and Flexnib.

The writer at Bookriot says,

"...I thought about it as just a list of my (many!) seemingly arbitrary rules for reading. Once I got started, though, I discovered that those rules actually tell you so much about me that they double as personality traits..."

So, in the interests of delving into my personality, here are my reading rules.  What are yours?

1.  One book at a time.  I do occasionally break this rule, especially if I pick up one I must read AT ONCE and I'm in the middle of another.  Or, I'll sometimes read a fiction and a non-fiction at the same time.

2.  Must read before turning off the light. It's a conditioned reflex for me.  Reading is relaxation and so reading before going to sleep is signalling to my brain to turn off. 

3.  I rarely re-read things.  Only a few books will be revisited. 

4.  A good book is one where I emerge from it with a book hangover.

5.  Don't mark the pages.  I'm not sure where this one comes from since I have no issue with writing all over printed out journal articles and other documents.  But, books?  No.  On the other hand I do highlight non-fiction if I'm reading it as an ebook.

6.  I rarely use bookmarks, preferring to turn the book face down at the page I'm reading.  Bookmarks are used for ebooks though.

7. I usually prefer the book to the movie.  I can appreciate a movie as a separate interpretation but most of the time the book resonates more.

8.  I will read the "in" book if it appeals.  But some genre's don't appeal.  Fifty shades?  Nope. Life of Pi? Okay.

9.  There are some books I won't read because I find their content too much to deal with.  For example, dystopian books rarely appear on my reading lists.  Harrowing books about children don't work for me right now. E.g. Sarah's Key is not something I can face reading right now.  Unless there is some kind of Happy End, I can't deal with that sort of story.

10.  I like Happy End.  Please give it to me.

Sew-a-saurus maximus

Finished this project - Simplicity 1882

 

I started this 2012 but struck a number of issues - inflicted by myself!

 Firstly, I was impatient and got the pattern a size smaller than I should have, planning to grade it up.

Then, while I was cutting it out I had someone chatting to me which distracted me and I ended up cutting too small. Fortunately I had enough fabric to re-do the back bodice and add some to the back skirt. It's not perfect even now but it is what it is. I ended up binding some of the seams that were fraying because I didn't overlock them ... you know when you haven't got the right colour on the overlocker and can't be bothered re-threading? Yeah that.

 

I also finished my coffee sack ottoman - yay!



It's stuffed with 5kgs of fibre fill and a plastic cube made from two plastic crate things that DH dissected and fused together.



I have heaps of projects planned and am trialling mysewingcircle.com as a means to keep track of the patterns I want to use with which fabric from my stash. I have heaps of stash. It really needs to be rationalised... *hangs head in shame*

However! One thing I can't decide is which blouse to make from some navy polka dot cotton I have. So dear readers, what do you think?

This one? View E (the green gingham)



Or this one? A retro bow blouse.

 

So many patterns and fabric.. so little time.

We've ended up in Holland

You may have read this little story before.  Now I find it even more poignant because this is now our journey.  It looks as though Mr9 has dyspraxia.

Welcome to Holland

taken from this site

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this…

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!" you say. "What do you mean, Holland?" I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy.

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to some horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy a new guidebook. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

The pain of that will never, ever, go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.

Written by Emily Perl Kingsley

While this story was written with more severe disabilities in mind, it does reflect the feelings that have been running through my heart.

Don't know what dyspraxia is?  No, we didn't either.  It's not something that is discussed as much as dyslexia, autism, or ADHD.  The incidence of dyspraxia in New Zealand hasn't been determined but could be between 6 -10%. 

This is the explanation for children on the Dyspraxia Support Group of New Zealand's website.

The human brain is made up of lots of connections that are like power lines. These also connect with your body.

When you have dyspraxia some of these connections are not working properly.

This means your body can find it difficult to do what your brain tells it to.

In order to make your body do what your brain is telling it to, you may have to practice doing things a lot.

This is why you may find it difficult to:

• learn new things
• concentrate
• handwrite
• speak clearly
• speak your ideas
• get dressed
• think fast
• play sports
• organise ideas

Having dyspraxia does not mean that you are not intelligent.  A lot of people who have dyspraxia are very intelligent.

It just means it may take you longer to learn how to do things and to remember how to do things you have already learned.

How does it happen? This is unclear.  The books and websites I've been reading don't have a definitive answer. 

"According to the Dyspraxia Foundation, dyspraxia is said to be the result of an immaturity in the development of the neurons or nerve cells in the brain, rather than brain damage.

For most people with the condition, there is no obvious cause. There are many suggestions as to why this might have occurred – perhaps lack of oxygen at a crucial period in pregnancy, or even a viral infection at the time, around the fifth week, when the baby’s nervous system is beginning to form. A genetic element may be involved. There could be an inherited tendency in the family towards similar neurological disorders."

Eckersley, J., (2011). Coping with Dyspraxia. London: SPCK, p.2 

How did we find out?  Mr9 met all his developmental milestones in terms of crawling, walking, talking etc so it wasn't until school that we came across some indications of something awry because his learning is affected.  His Kip McGrath teacher was the person who picked it up.  Looking back I can see now there were indications prior to school, but we didn't recognise them for what they were.

Photo Credit: Plamen Stoev via Compfight cc 

At this point in time we are gathering information together to get some assessments happening.

I am still learning about what this will mean for us.  I am very grateful that this is not a life threatening disease.  I am grateful that in most areas Mr9 is a normal healthy, happy boy.  He just faces some challenges that other children don't.  Because it doesn't show on the outside, it is difficult for others to realise there is something different.

I don't want to over dramatise the situation or begin to define him by his dyspraxia.

I don't want other people to do this either. 

My research so far has indicated that on the spectrum of dyspraxia, Mr9 is probably not too badly affected, but until the assessments are completed there are a whole lot of things I don't know.  Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) keep coming round to bother me.  I'm not sure how this is going to work at his school, with his teachers.  It would seem there have been instances of other children at school picking on him because of his clumsy ways and his differences. What about higher education? What about...

I'd appreciate your understanding while we learn about Holland. It's not where we expected to be.  It's not where we chose to be. But it is where the lines of our lot have fallen.

Photo Credit: Vainsang via Compfight cc

Robo-me

One of the difficult things when sewing for myself is getting the fit right. A sewing mannequin assists with the process but they are very expensive and not something I can consider at the present time. So I decided to make this.

DH was enlisted to help me. Much joking about kinkiness ensued.  Wearing a garbage bag isn't the nicest thing to do.  It gets very hot!  Just after this photo I ran out of duct tape, so DH had to go on a mercy dash to get some more.  

He did offer to drive me in my semi-naked-duct-tape-suit but I could barely walk. Actually, I couldn't even bend to sit.  Just as well no call of nature was required while he was out. I lay on the bed like some zombie with rigor mortis to await his return.

 

Once the duct tape supply was replenished, I somehow got myself upright again and the wrapping continued.  Until finally, the Robo-me version emerged. DH decided to use a colour over his flash to make me glow.  I think I look like something from a 60s sci-fi movie!

Here she is, stuffed as hard as I could get it with plastic bags. There are heaps inside there. I don't want to think about how many!  But better inside Robo-me than released into the environment.

What to call her? Any suggestions?!

I Tri'd

I you were looking for me on March 2nd 2013, you would have found me at Lake Tikitapu, Rotorua, for the Bissell Women's Series of sprint triathlons.

I know... if you'd told me that this time last year I would have said you were bonkers.  But back in January a friend created a Facebook group to encourage us to join in.  I mentioned this to Husband who laughed.  I'll admit, that made me a bit cross.

I've been trying to get to 5km in running for 3 years now.  It's ridiculous how long it's taking me but I have all kinds of excuses that sound perfectly reasonable.

So I joined the group and committed. I turn 40 this year so it seemed like a good way to welcome in the new decade.  I had 6 weeks to train; people told me that this was do-able.

And so it began.  The training I mean.  My plan included doing something everyday except Sunday.  I mostly achieved that.  I started cycling to work every day I could.  The weather has been brilliant from that perspective!  I got a concession card for the swimming pool. I ran with the C25K app.

March 2 dawned after a fitful sleep and by 7am we were at the lake setting up transition.



There were 8 of us in our group.



After a brief warmup the triathlon participants traipsed down to the swim start.

 

I was in Wave E. We had to swim 300metres. It's not a long swim and I'd done it several times in the pool, but the big red buoy seemed very far away that morning!

 

This was the first time I'd done a swim like this and I found myself beginning to panic due to nerves, the proximity of everyone else beside me and behind me, and I couldn't see very far in the water. My heart was pounding and I couldn't get my breath or swimming rhythm right. The closeness of the other swimmers meant I swallowed several gulps of water instead of air. So I turned onto my back and backstroked for a while, then breaststroked most of the way. This slowed my swim time down but meant I stopped freaking out so much.



Heading out to transition I felt pretty bummed but had to keep going. Next was the bike part. It was 9km, the same distance I bike to work. We headed down Tarawera Rd and turned around at the Buried Village to come back up. There was a pretty steep hill part on the way back but I pedaled all the way up.  My time for this part was around the same time I do for the ride to work.

 

Back in transition again I gulped back some watered down powerade and headed into the running/walking part (5.5km). My plan was to run in 20 minute blocks broken by fast walking.



As it turned out I ended up walking about half, running about half. It is a lovely trail around the lake, mostly shaded with big trees and glimpses of the water. There are some uneven parts and small steps which I walked over because I was afraid of hurting my ankle again. As it was I nearly fell twice while running by tripping on roots. I was so happy to see the big red arch! The organiser of the Facebook group, CP (who had already finished 15th), ran with me part of the last stretch.



And I made it!

 

Will I do another? The answer is yes, but maybe not in the next few weeks! It would be quite fun to do as an annual thing. I'd like to improve my time, especially on the swim and run part.  Maybe you will join me?  The good thing about this kind of event is the nice non-competitive vibe.  Both DH and I commented on the huge variety of women participating.  There were all kinds of ages, shapes, sizes and abilities.  It was a very positive atmosphere with lots of encouragement.

My thanks to CP who got me motivated, the other girls in our group who gave encouragement, the 2 lecturers in sport from MPOW who gave me encouragement and advice.  And biggest thanks of all to my dear husband who despite his initial reaction gave me lots of encouragement, got my bike sorted out, drove me down there and back and took pictures. He is a keeper for sure.

Vintage Patterns

Some time ago my Mum went back to Australia for a funeral of a relative.  In the cleaning up that goes on after such an event she salvaged some vintage patterns for me!  Thanks Mum!

As far as I know, these are from the Australian Home Journal, a publication that the marvellous Trove has accessible online in digitised form.  (If you are looking for vintage knitting instructions, this is an excellent source by the way).

Unfortunately the digitised record only goes up to 1952 so I can't work out what date these patterns are from.  I think they are most likely from the later 1950s but I can't be sure.  If anyone knows, I'd love to learn the details.

This one is a blouse and skirt combo.  I think the blouse has kimono sleeves.  The detailing on the skirt is neat.

This one didn't have an envelope. The sweetheart neckline is lovely.

The sizing on the pattern is too small for me regrettably but I'm going to attempt to draft a version in my size.  That will be a major learning curve!