Rock. And Roll. And everything in between.

We are very good parents, in that we gave our son a good private school education, a chance to go toUni and live in the halls of residence, and we encouraged a great love of music, we bought him a guitar and an amp and then a bigger amp and a subscription to "Guitar Monthly" magazine, some strings, guitar picks and let him listen to all our old vinyl and taught him his New York Dolls from his Iggy, his Bowie from his Mott the Hoople and a whole lot in between.

Well yesterday he taught us a little bit about rock. 

Which brings me to be sitting here, with a bit of Slayer playing in the background, typing this and thinking what a funny world we live in.

For Christmas we bought Curt and Fin tickets to Big Day Out - Fin got sick and couldn't go (but we all went anyway), and they both wanted to go to Soundwave, so I duly bought us all tickets for that too.  Well, I had to supervise, didn't I???

What a totally awesome, fantastic, rocking day!!!!  I really thought there is no way I would enjoy any of that shit, but hey, I will go and have a look, having one band that I really wanted to see (which Curt had introduced me to) but I really wasn't interested in much else.  Funny how forking out nearly $700 can make you a bit keener to get value for money, so I started researching some of the bands that were playing - and I don't profess to be a total metal head although I do love my music loud and thumping.  So next thing I am downloading Slayer and the guy from Slipknots new band and before I know it, I am humming "Reign of Blood" or whatever it is called and playing air guitar on the vaccuum cleaner.

Anyway, Festival Day dawns and we take a very cool, old person approach and rock up later in the afternoon, but as soon as I set foot through the door the old heart rate inched up a bracket.  What is it about loud pumping music that makes your insides churn and your normal reserved demeanour fly out the window???  We held it together nicely in the big stadium watching some rather cool bands (mr red haired ranger man from Stone Sour I think you are just fucking marvellous) but take me to a small, sweaty, intimate stage and leave me there, because I forget I am forty, I forget I have a job and a mortgage and I forget that I have any kind of responsibility at all except for ENJOYING the music put before me - and I let the whole experience engulf me and I become someone else.  Fuck knows who, I just forget everything and it is one of the most bloody awesomely marvellous experiences you can have.  So that's just a band that are good and I don't know.  But I have to say, I died and went to heaven when my FAVOURITE band Coheed and Cambria finally got their shit together to play a few tunes, and when I realised they were playing Gravemakers and Gunslingers I suppose it was the music equivalent to an orgasm.  But then they played A Favour House Atlantic.  And then Welcome Home.  I could have just died happy then.  Fearfully awesome, me, forty years old, yelling the words, dancing away and grinning like a great fecking eejit.  Fuck it was MAGIC!!!  Seriously, I had a forty minute smile on my face, reminiscant of someone not quite right in the head. 

But there were other highlights.  Gang of Four.  Old dudes from England that John remembered from our days hanging around punks in Belfast - and I thought they would be shite.  They rocked!!!  In fact, we had planned to leave after 2 songs  but stayed for about six, we were entranced.  Anberlin rocked us.  Murderdolls rolled us.  Slash played Paradise City.  Someone else did a cover of Billy Idols White Wedding.  Bullet for My Valentine did Advance Australia Fair.  It was just good times.  We finished off with a serving of Iron Maiden - who doesn't love The Number of The Beast?   Although I always thought it was "Whoa to you oh Earth"....when it is really "Woe to you oh Earth"....slight difference..  Whoa is wayyyyyy better!!!!!

Came to work Monday morning smiling like someone not quite wise, wanting to tell eveyrone and anyone about our marvellous experience in various moshpits....still grinning like someone let out for the day.  Love my music.  Totally love it!!!!!

Time Trials, Trials and Tribulations, Cape Tribulations, Batman

See the link in the title?  No?  Never mind....

Ok so tonight was the SIL time trial and there was me thinking with all this madzer running I have been doing that I would KILL it, after all, it was only 4km.  But not a flat 4km mind you.  Well I added 5 seconds to my last months time, so that was shite.  Which is pretty much like every other damn bit of my life at the moment.  Ok ok slight exaggeration, but it is certainly not progressing as I had intended, specially on the job front.  I now have a total of five weeks to find a new job before my contract runs out.  Yes I have been talking to agencies and applying for stuff but as yet, A BIG FAT NOTHING.  Which means that I am well placed to go to Bali with Karina for her birthday to shop and lie around the pool and hopefully retain both kidneys.  And then most likely have some time off (which, after 20 years of hard labour, I don't really mind) and then hopefully when the weather gets colder and the beach is no longer an option, I might actually get a job and be respectable again.  Or I could become a professional athlete and be a kept woman.  Somehow I think neither of those things are going to happen, but I can dream.....


So, apart from that, we did big hot run at the weekend which left my kankles feeling very sore all week, but the more I ran on them the better they became.  Hoping my new feet settle into the new orthotics quickly.  Actually, I didn't get new feet, I am still flummoxed from the last paragraph - I got new orthotics. 

Tonight at the time trials a freaky thing happened,  a woman came over and asked where I was from, which is standard procedure when anyone hears my silly accent, only this woman was also from Belfast, also from my part of town and also went to the same school as me!!!  So we had a lovely natter about school, and I am so jealous because she is going on a school reunion with a difference - they are going to the Greek Islands!!!  Now I wonder if we can swap our el cheapo little holiday to Bali to a few weeks on the Greek Islands.....!!!!

Now that would be FUN!!!

Shag

I've now got a "shag" (haircut) in fact, if I had a big round brush or rollers I could do the Farrah Fawcett Flick. 

And the shag behaved itself and went up in a ponytail for todays run.  Which was great.  And yes that is why I am in my nightie at 4.35pm on a Saturday afternoon and considering a glass of sauv blanc.  Just considering though. For medicinal purposes.

That scary scary hanging bridge thing over the Cox's River!!  Scares the shite out of me every time until I start imagining James Bond style moves hanging onto it and swinging through the sky.  Heart Rate of something ridiculous crossing it on the way there and even worse on the way back.

Thankfully today, not one snake to be seen but one very big "fuck arse" reptile thing.  Well, that's how Monica described it when she yelled "holy fuck would you look at that?" and leapt from the track.  I thought it was the cranky snake that we've seen before and was filled with dread, but a large, dog sized reptile was a much more welcome sight. 

I have to say, two Northern Irish women in the middle of the bush was quite funny, every stick was a snake after I told Monica my "rearing up and very angry Six Foot Track Snake" story and there were a lot of yells when leaves moved, sticks were sighted, or little geckos crossed our path.  Placed conveniently at the end of the run was a little flowing river so we got in to cool our weary legs.  It was all very peaceful and nice until Monica jumped off her rock vowing that something had bitten her on the foot - and there was much talk of sea snakes.  Despite being about 150km from the Sea. 

A nice run to finish off a wierdo week.  ANOTHER weirdo week.  When will it all go back to normal?

Goodbye Stone

There is nothing like the therapeutic powers of a good hard run, and todays effort did not disappoint.  Ran from home down to Emu Plains, did a lap of Hunter Fields then back up Mitchells Pass, along the old highway and up the steps at Lovers Walk.  All up 16km and felt good the whole way, except for a niggle from the egg shaped orthotic that the lovely physio stuck to the sole of my shoe.

Speaking of physio sessions, was it just me or was that the weirdest one ever?  He was working on the wrong leg.  And I was so busy enjoying it I only realised when he was nearly finished. 


S texted from Adelaide where he is working for a month to tell me he is running EVERY DAY and losing weight.  This means he will most likely come home from Adelaide fit and faster than me again.  Gotta step up that training!

So much talk last night at Rays about upcoming runs, I just don't know where I will be and what I will be doing, next week, next month, next year - silly to enter anything serious just now. 

This is the second day I have taken the cats to the Vets to have her put down, and they are closed.  So she got a lamb chop and some cream and lives to see another day.  We have to so something, she is not even walking straight now and her ear is completely open and she smells funny.  She only seems happy when being cuddled, so she is getting lots of hugs tonight.....time to say goodbye after 17 years.....

Quite possibly the craziest week of my life.  Ups and downs.  Massive highs and lows.  Wierd wierd wierd things happening.  Coping with running around in the 42 degree heat just to be doing SOMETHING to take my mind off other matters.  Running around in 42 degree heat requires waterproof mascara and an array of ice blocks strapped to your head. 

In other news, Mt Solitary is out of the question now because of the "entry criteria" - maybe in another life.  So I am not really training for anything but just bumbling along having fun.  Last weeks 24km run was one of the best - we set off early and it actually felt chilly at the start.  A very unusual experience of late.  I had my good friend Martin for company and between us we do talk a load of shite, but it is good funny banter and he is good because he runs off and rounds me up like a sheepdog, so he gets spurts of speed and I trundle along with my thoughts and my snail pace and it is all good.  We bumped into a speedster friend at the end who encouraged me to take a dip in the causeway - after the run I felt GREAT and was even contemplating a bike ride later.  However a nap did take precedence. 

This week I've had two early morning runs with Simon, a weights session and two Personal Training sessions, one of which involved running round and round and round the track for an hour.  So feeling good and keeping the fingers crossed for cooler temps tomorrow so I can do another long run.  Note to self - freeze camelbak.

Oh and we went to the Big Day Out - Plan B were AMAZINGLY GOOD.  Rammstein rocked the place.  Rocked the place big time.  I was up front in the mosh pit on Matts shoulders - which is the very best place to be except when the fireworks started shooting out from the stage and I was worried about losing an eyeball.  Or catching fire myself.  Those guys are fucking mad, but hugely entertaining for hundred year old Germans. 

Knapsack 6hr race was good except for my massive spew up at the finish line in full view of all and sundry.  In fact some man I have never met before came up to me in the park the other day and commented on it.  He seemed to find it amusing.  But then again he WAS English.

So - do I spend $160 on a ticket to Soundwave, when there is really only one band I want to see?  And if I buy one, I will have to buy four because Fin, Curt and John will want to come.  Dammit, life is too short, Soundwave, Iron Maiden, Coheed and Cambria and possibly a large number of Crazy Fists - here I come!!!