Charlie's Bird
living the dream with Charlie and Thandi and chirping all the way back to the nest.Archive for August, 2020
The Covid debacle
…so Charlie has been working hard with a ship in the local port – they have been in port for about 8 weeks, since there departure has been delayed. Because of covid and its restrictions, the sailors are not allowed off th vessel, so Charlie has been getting a lot of stuff for them – food and supplies, cricket bats and table tennis sets etcetera… They sail any day now – they have finally been allowed to load their cargo, and should depart in the next day or so. So obviously they have put in a huge order of provisions to see them through their voyage. Charlie has been running around like crazy from one wholesaler to the next. So, what happens next, dear readers? Yes, he gets the sniffles, which progress to a congested nose, a sinus headache and a cough.
Covid test results awaited…
And awaited….
Finally I called the lab – because Charlie’s was the only test they had, they needed 3 others to fill the machine before they can run the test….
12 hours later – he is negative! Thank heavens! With incredible relief and joy – Thandi was dispatched to school to a spelling quiz and I am at work. And Charlie has been instructed to pull himself together, He-bola never killed anyone!
Ouch!
…my sacroiliac joint is complaining to me after a hill session this morning, damnit! I have been settling back down into my routine of running again (I am 10 days into another 5km/day streak) and I am desperate to not be derailed! I really need the discipline that streaking gives me. Anyway. I have stretched and stuck a transact patch onto it, so I’m hoping that helps and I will give my friendly Chiro a call and see if he can manipulate me back into shape.
exploring
…trails! So this weekend I got to explore some trails with friends. But, you know, we all have those friends, Come along, it’ll be about 14/15 km – 5 to the trail, the trail is about 4.5km, then back to the cars, another 5. I should have smelt a rat when the rest of the crew arrived with camelbaks, and I didn’t. 7km and we made it to the trail…
A teeny bit of water was around, we need some rain! Come on Spring!
The Coral trees are in full bloom – so lovely!
The trail was beautiful, but the hills were a bit brutal! They are thinking of it as a new potential park run – its going to be a very tough one, I must say! The views were beautiful though, and just being out on the trails is just the best feeling! I did start to have some sense of humour failure when we ran up a monstrous hill (for the second time) to just finish the trail, and then turn straight around and run back down the hill to start to head home again. But still, it was nice. The return journey was brutal for me. No water, no nutrition, and another 7km to get back to the cars, and it was getting hot! Anyway, I made it back, sort of, and just rehydrated and rehydrated for the rest of the day. I was also seriously needing some nutrition – I had to sit down in the shower because my muscles were protesting and I felt completely drained. It took a while, but I perked up by the evening. I do hate that shaky feeling though.
The rest of the weekend was fairly quiet, nothing too exciting to report. Here’s to a good week!
Happy Birthday!
…to my Charlie!
My favorist with my other favorist! Love you madly!
(an easy day at work meant I got to have lunch with these 2 beauts, 
and then we have just had a quiet little evening together with Mac cheese and chocolate cake!)
In recovery
The weekend started with me looking a little like this strelitzia – battered, bashed, and dying.
It ended better!
We escaped to the wild coast for the weekend, I desperately needed some time away, and I was able to just unwind and enjoy some uncomplicated downtime.
I ran, I slept, I ate well, I breathed and for 5 minutes just let the weeks complications rest without my thoughts stirring them up. It was restorative.
Here is to getting through another week!
Okay, okay,
…universe, you have me beat. Thank you for the repeated kicks in the teeth this week. The teeth are now all broken, you can maybe mash my tongue a bit, but there’s not much left. Can I hide away from you somewhere now? Probably not, you’ll just keep kicking, no doubt.
TFGIFF! (and if you need an explanation, refer to TGIF and add in a few F bombs)
Once again
… this week has demonstrated to me that there is very little mercy in this world.
Sometimes I have the best job in the world, this week it has been the absolute worst…
Long weekends
…you know, when you’re on call, a long weekend is for the birds, especially when the call goes horribly pear shaped at around midnight of your last night on call… Damn. After a reasonable weekend, everything spiralled out of control last night, and after a caesar turned into a hysterectomy at midnight, I am a tad tired this morning. The worst part is I know exactly how long it is going to take me to recover from a night of minimal sleep. Getting old is for the birds! Yawn…
The weekend ticked over at a reasonable pace – I had 2 babies, saw a couple of emergencies at the rooms, but on the whole, things ticked along. I managed to get some nice runs in and even arranged some cover for 2 hours while I ran a trail run – so beautiful to get out into the countryside, some fresh air (even though there was a gale blowing!) and to stretch the legs.
The rest of the weekend was quiet. I was uninspired in the kitchen until last night, when I made a Vietnamese beef and lemongrass dish, so good! 
And now a new week (a short one at that) awaits us.
Let it rain!
…we’ve had a lovely cold and wet cold front arrive and its raining! It has been so so so dry, we are thankful, even though we are shivering, and the wind howled and shrieked us awake during the night. Let it rain!
looking for moments
…in this craziness. So that’s what this weekend was all about – trying to find some good and positive moments in amongst the worry and stress. I am carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders – I have had a headache on and off now since I went into isolation and its all from my tense stressed out shoulders and neck. Despite this and not feeling great at points through the weekend, there were good times.
On Friday night I made my first attempt at a ramen bowl. Wow! It was super super delicious! For those who don’t know, ramen is a Japanese noodle broth dish; mine had chicken and pot stickers in this delicious broth with noodles of course. It was so good that I think I will make it again tonight! Or, actually, it’s going to be a scorcher at over 30 degrees today before the cold front arrives tomorrow morning, so maybe not tonight. 
Saturday I woke up with a rather migrainous headache, but I managed to do my 21km virtual race. My friend LE and I headed out early, Charlie seconded us, and we ran back into town on one of the major roads, and then wended our way through the suburbs until we got to our end point. We had arranged to run with friends, but they are way faster than us, so we modified our route to do our own thing for the first half and then joined their route, fully expecting the speedy girls to catch us and pass us, but we were astounded to finish before them! Anyway, coffee and muffins afterwards and a catch up was lovely! 
Saturday evening saw us popping past a friend’s farm – Charlie needed to drop something off and I had never seen the farm, (they moved during lockdown) so it was good to have a walk around and see what lies ahead for this family – its divine, but they have a helluva job on their hands…
Sunday after a socially distanced breakfast with my sister-in-law, (a belated birthday breakfast) we headed off to our picnic spot above the beach – so so divine! I even managed to catch some sun! And then there was an afternoon on the couch with this beaut! 
The week lies ahead of me, I am on call this weekend, so its always a challenging period, as I mentally prepare for this.
Charlie's Bird 