Day Forty Eight: Not Just Me

These people are making me bored
and it's all their fault.

All of yesterday I wanted to turn on everyone and yell abusively, "Why aren't you being more entertaining and engaging?" but this is generally considered highly unacceptable work behaviour and although my family would act like nothing unusual had happened, it's certainly not something I do with any regularity.



Fortunately I know it's not just me. After the high of a weekend like the one just past, getting back to the mundane is not an easy task. As an adult I'm aware that 'weekends away' are always going to be fantastic, because they'll never run long enough to get septic. Plus we all seem to get along like a house that's on fire, rolling down a hill into an orphanage, which helps.

My point is, if you're going to do something, do it well.
Or alternatively, whatever is happening in this image.

Fitness: So I moseyed about online and yes, it would appear I have text-book variety whiplash. For some inane reason I find this rather entertaining, partly because I keep reliving the brief instance when it happened. I did some shuffling in the elevators but other than that, an hour of Aikido (gentle on the left) and two hours of skating tonight.

Aikido: Sometimes I feel like every other time I turn up to the dojo that I have some inherent brokenness that compromises my training. I am aware I've been in fairly good condition for a few weeks running, so now I am a little bit damaged I can actually indulge it a bit. I always keep training through injury though to keep my muscles from atrophying. I just take it easy on the bit that's sore. Rolling on the right, thrown only on the right. I learnt a very important aspect of a basic move today that will also make it a lot easier.

During the game I felt a little bit like this baby elephant.
Bring on the lions, they're gonna get messed up. 

Derby: I felt really good about tonight. Fortunately the whiplash is all upstairs (shoulder/neck) so my legs are still feeling fine. I don't think I got quite as wrecked in the game as my teammates, but one thing bothered me. During a powerjam, I was knocked down, but Swamp City broke apart their wall and there was a massive gap toward the edge of the engagement zone. All I needed to do was get my toe stops under me and sprint/leap the five feet to clear the pack. But I couldn't. I got my feet under me and skated slowly off instead. I was lucky Swamp City disengaged early (and they looked how I felt at this point). All because my legs weren't strong enough - they were shattered. I pride myself a little on my speed, but I slowed down far too easily and struggled to step it up when I needed to. I know I'm fast, but I need it accessible for gameplay. So when we did pyramids tonight I put it down. Looking back, maybe I could have done even better but it was hard to judge - what I know though is that when it comes to the Endurance, explosive power, acceleration and speed I have a really good idea of what I want from my legs now. A whole lot more. The 'competition' is insane as well. Breaking even with the other jammers is going to take some time and doing, and that's just the first stop on the way up.

Diet: Weetbix and banana for breakfast, plus the sneaky uplifting of enough bananas for the week from the breakroom. I know I need to eat a banana a day otherwise I exhibit low potassium, so I think it's justified - I hardly ever eat the rest of the fruit. I ate a lot of crackers today. Cheesy, not particularly good crackers. Then a muesli bar and some brie before jumping ship to go to the supermarket as I didn't have any sandwichy items left. The new Metro was intriguing, although the deli section was a little upmarket for me. I just wanted some processed meats, I don't need to be highly distracted by grilled artichoke hearts. Don't get me wrong - I love 'em, but damn they were expensive. The eternal student in me goes, "How much per 100grams? And they look heavy! Seven dollars is a lot for a one food item snack." Anyway, so I made a sandwich with two different hummus varieties, high quality ham, brie, red onion on Ploughman's bread. I had a couple of muesli bars and some chocolate milk after Aikido/Derby, then when I came home I cooked together chicken, bacon, leek, carrot, parsnip, pepper and marinade sauce into some sort of... stirfry... thing... all I really wanted was something I could eat with chopsticks (for no apparent reason). It was different but kind of tasty. Nothing wrong with it but I would not cook it again. I need to find a girlfriend to stay at home and cook me food. I think that's probably one of the top things I miss most as a singleton.

Sleep: What the what? It's 1.20am and I just got out of the shower. I've asked for a standard late start on Wednesdays to cover this unavoidable lateness - (home at 11.30pm at the earliest, requiring at a minimum dinner, a shower and faffing about) totally bed time. Alarms off, sleep till I don't needs it no more.



Tonight really helped, getting a good skate on. It was a little subdued owing to various injuries and borderline sniffles but part of me still finds it a little incredible how much I enjoy all the aspects of Derby at the moment. Every corner I turn, every mile stone I reach, for some unfathomable reason I expect there to be a softening of Derby fever as I become more capable, more in control. The complete opposite is happening, the more involved I become, the more involved I want to be.

And I thought popcorn was moreish... 

Day Forty Seven: Awww, Snap, Reality?

Despite the fact I had a most amazing time on the weekend, it felt like a lot longer than three days. That amount of fun would normally be spread over maybe a week or so, and it's left me a little detached from my daily obligations. 

How I feel about work / family

If you need to be told this is probably not good for you...
maybe you need more schooling as much as a new diet.

So I spent most of today re-learning what it's like to be a vaguely responsible member of society. I bought a grabone coupon for a sports massage (yuss please!) and laughed at the NEEDNT list (luncheon sausage? What, people over the age of eight still eat that?). I only really eat 13 out of 49 foods I'm not meant to and even then, they're treats, not dietary staples. 

That sounds a bit elitist. In all reality I care very little about my diet, which is the reasoning behind it being on the 'goal' list. Because I probably should care more. Let me just put that out there because I scoffed a bunch of chips today. 

Fitness: It's hard to even feel vaguely motivated about exercise when bits of you hurt to move through half a rotation. It's probably a good thing I don't use my left arm for much other than leaning on. I can't even play wii as the TV up and died. I have to wait until Friday before it's replaced. First World Problems.

Aikido: No training today.

Derby: No skating today. I looked out the window as I was leaving the house - and it was sunny. Part of me said, "C'mon, take ya skates in today. What else are you going to do?" the other part of me responded with, "Nurse my whiplash until I don't hurt so much, you can damn well wait until tomorrow." So I left my skate gear at home. Because I'm a little scared of myself when I get angry. 

Diet: Two weetbix with a banana - I've used light blue milk for over a year now, but thanks anyway NEEDNT - two cream biscuits and tea, sushi bowl for lunch as I caught up with the wife and exchanged weekend stories, and then for some unholy reason I came back upstairs and consumed vast amounts of peanuts and crisps. Dinner was pork, salad, cauliflower cheese, potato cheese (yes), and a fruit salad with yoghurt for dessert/starters. 

Sleep: I think I have developed possibly the worst sleep habit imaginable. I know my alarm still works, I've tested it. That being said, my alarm hasn't woken me up for the last couple of weeks. Instead, I have a sneaking suspicion that the below sequence of events occurs in the morning.

6.45am - alarm goes off

6.45am and 0.3 seconds - I turn my alarm off without coming completely awake

6.45am and 0.6 seconds - I am asleep without imprinting any memory of the last 0.6 seconds

7.15am - I wake up properly, confused and unsure as to why I slept through my alarm again

Considering I need to leave the house by 7am to be 'on time' for my daily schedule it's kind of annoying - fortunately Mondays don't matter so much. It's always the time spent at work that gets compromised rather than my after school activities, which is fine as "work" isn't on my goal list. Anyway, I got around seven hours last night, which is great because that's all I really needed.





It's actually insanely early for a Monday to be wrapping things up (only 9.30pm) but it feels like time for a shower followed by cartoons. I wanted to do some push ups but my neck/shoulder area is very against the idea. Maybe in a few days... for now, it's hot water and wheat bag time.

Day Forty Six: Wonderbolts Weekend Part 3

Despite another severe lack of sleep, Sunday started quite well, obligatory accommodation clean up, followed by meandering through Taranaki with a sneaky aside of some mildly illegal activities, product placement shots, a huge-az amount of ice cream, dogs and slight detours... I'm still pretty amped about today.

What else can I say? I think I mentioned it in Day Forty Five. Let me reinforce that

I am this happy.

Fitness: We spent most of the day in the car again. Aside from some very animated discussions at various points it was quite a subdued day. Probably unrelated to the lack of sleep or copious amounts of alcohol consumed. I didn't mind too much, I didn't have any plans to be particularly adventurous or active. Admittedly my left shoulder where my neck attaches is completely buggered from the mild whiplash I incurred by slamming into Hannah at speed yesterday (You're alright...). My right knee is sporting the worst bruise I've had in a while from tripping on the dance floor last night as well. I think I may hurt a bit more tomorrow... 

Aikido: No training today

Derby: No skating today. It was definitely a hot topic for discussion with all the curtain raisers yesterday and I do thoroughly enjoy learning some of the intricacies of the leagues and individuals throughout NZ. I'm looking forward to this year a lot, there is so much exciting stuff lined up it's hard to remember I have other priorities like work and family (side yawn).

Diet: I ate a plum, lots of chips and some chocolate milk and muesli bars for breakfast. I didn't really have a strong supply of breakfast stuffs at my disposal and wasn't about to cook anything while we were tidying up the accommodation to leave. We headed to the food court where I grabbed a Tank and finished Pixie's butter chicken (food Jew moment) . A couple of tomatoes, a precooked sausage, ice cream, and a plum got me up to Auckland, and after depositing everyone home I caved and got maccas when I headed back to my own house, deluding myself I'd make prawn fried rice later that evening. Instead I prepared some eggs on toast when I got hungry around 10.45pm. Classy. That rice is gonna have to wait until Wednesday. 

Sleep: I should be feeling significantly more tired than I am considering the level of damage and sleep I'm currently circling, but even at 11.30pm I feel alright. I can tell I'll crash soon and I'm sure my body will appreciate it. Alarm set. Seven hours keyed in. 

I can see I just threw most of the goals to the wind while I was away but I'm happy with the outcomes and had a fantastic time - I wouldn't have changed anything (aside from maybe running into Hannah, but if getting a faceful of chest hard enough to jar my senses is the worst thing that happened to me, the bar has been set pretty high). Half of me would be happy to set this P90x aside (Day Forty Six? I'm only half way and this feels like I've been doing this forever) as I can see looking ahead that more things are going to fall into place, leaving me even less choice about 'Doing The Right Thing'. I was offhandedly complaining about having a handful of spare moments a week (in which I generally chose the 'collapse on the bed and FB/watch Ponies' option) but I think I can pencil in those times with more constructive tasks and be done with it.  

Day Forty Five: Wonderbolts Weekend Part 2

The day is finally here, my first game. I'm a bit jittery but surprisingly focused - it helps we have a lot of things to do in preparation and once we're allowed out to test the track I can put some of my tension into the floor by pounding out a few laps, jumps and the like.

It occurred to me at some point when teams have a shoutout it's often hard to understand what they're yelling, especially up in the stands. I wondered briefly what "Focus" might sound like to the crowd. And then went back to focusing before losing myself in mirth

Maybe something like "Hocus Pocus"?
Nothing untoward crossed my mind instead, I can assure you.

Fitness: We spent most of the morning skating, warming up, playing and dancing. All and all, lots of movement today.

Aikido: Ah, no. WAIT. No. Attempting to use Cheng Hsin and my one and a half Judo moves in a light hearted but determined impromptu wrestling match doesn't count. We only played five rounds anyway.

Derby: Yes. All the ridiculous things my old league said to me were washed away in the clear light of the lineups and support from the Wonderbolts. I was in the first line up, and alternating line ups with occasional double outs and I had turns jamming. I had a run as jammer, a straight from the textbook power jam, and with some amazing support from the team I clocked up an easy 15 or 20 points. Honestly, I can't remember how many scoring passes I managed, I only checked the score intermittently as time wore on as I became more embroiled in each step as it came to pass. I happy with this - possibly the best way to play would be jam by jam. I don't even know what else to say. I'm thrilled, everything that happened today let me know I made the right choice. Playing a game has helped me identify focal areas for improvement, but overall, for a first game I think that's one I can be well proud of. I had so much fun.

Diet: Some fruit for breakfast, a muesli bar and a helping of freaking out a bit. After the bout I ate several more muesli bars, a bite of subway, then we headed off to find some deep fried victory chips. Possibly a punnet of victory chips later, the evening disintegrates into beer, more chips, pre-packaged chicken meals, cocktails and something from a classy (and vaguely leaky) cask bag. Serious celebrationary energy reloading. Or something. Hell, we had one heck of a party. We'd earned it.

Sleep: We hit the sack around 3.30am, got up again at 6.30am - who needs sleep when you've had a can of victory instead? Actually, I was just having such a fantastic time all weekend that ran over my need to get any proper nap time.




What can I say?  Nothing seems to even begin to encompass the level of inclusion, fun, awesomeness and just... just... I don't know how to describe it. Ultimate warm fuzzies. This year is going to be amazing.

Even more fantastic than puppies playing grass hockey

Day Forty Four: Wonderbolts Weekend Part 1

Taranaki today for Carmageddon! Tonight we make the miles and tomorrow we play the bout. Be cool Dashie, be cool.

Fitness: Left packing to the last moment so I ran up/down the dual flight stairs several times as I was packing to get away. Plus I did three loads of washing in the morning which also involved more up/down the stairs- other than that we spent around six hours sitting in the van and only minimal running around in the intervening breaks.

Aikido: No training today

Derby: No skating today

Diet: I figure I'm not going to be able to eat much tonight or tomorrow. So, best to load as best as possible while I'm capable of still eating. Three weetbix for breakfast, a bacon/chicken/avocado sandwich for lunch and various fruits. We snacked on a little bit of everything from more fruit, rice crackers, lollies and chocolate milk in the car ride to Taranaki. Burger Fuel for dinner, just a basic chicken and cheese burger.

Sleep: What sleep? Aside from being in a strange house, in a strange bed, I was a box of nervous energy. It didn't help that I was more or less just waiting for Pow, Pixie, Special K and Peku to turn up, (which they did at 1.30am) I think I got to sleep some time around 3/30am but people started to get up at 6/6.30am. Ah well. Nervous energy will out.

Day Forty Three: Slow Systems

My mind is mush today. And by mush, I mean there appears to be almost no comedic value left. This is what happens when you spend months clearing invoices...

The excitement! It is... not noticeable.

Anyway there was some sort of catastrophic train malfunction so by the time I had gotten into Sandringham it was pretty late to be heading into Aikido. For an hour long class, I was going to be missing the first fifteen/twenty minutes. Other sports - you turn up, you make a blithe comment about the trains crashing into some cattle and you're away laughing. Protocol in the dojo is different though, and after a certain level of lateness I can't bring myself to attend. Sensei mentions punctuality a lot, and even though I don't control the trains I understand the example I set if I turn up half way through a class, especially to the beginners class. So I didn't go, and went straight to skate training instead.




Fitness: Skipped the Aikido, and had two hours on the track instead. Some of the drills we did the pack set what I thought was a slightly unreasonably fast pace. Looking back on it, if I'd been skating a bit lower it might not have seemed so fast (thoughts to myself for some minutes).

Aikido: oops.

Derby: It hasn't really sunk in that my first game is in... oh, one and a half days? Anyway, after the warm-up we went through more strategies - I love the heavy focus on strategy. Developing quick feet isn't going to help me a whit if I have an empty head. Plus, I skate. I skate as much as I can. My individual skills will develop without too much drive from the coaches, although they are very useful to have around to ask technical questions. We wrapped up gently to assist refocusing the team and had a bit of a positive projection for the game. I liked how it was all done - I admired the soft skills I saw tonight. They can push and be blunt when they need to, but when someone needed a hand reached out to them, it was already there. In case you can't tell, I got a case of the warm fuzzies. I'm really looking forward to Saturday - it'll be interesting to see how everyone comes together. I have to admit I kinda assume we'll win, I just wonder how much I'll contribute...?

Diet: I had a nectarine on the way out the door and then a stack of tea and biscuits for breakfast. I was quite late into work again and that sort of ruins me as I'll get stuck into a big pile of invoices and then it'll be lunch time before I think about stopping to get some fuel. I met with my brother at Food Alley and ordered some pho beef noodles from the Vietnamese place (not as good as the pho in northern Vietnam but still quite nice), then more tea and biscuits for afternoon tea. Chocolate milk after skate training - it wasn't too demanding as far as trainings go. Then I had some pre-cooked chicken when I got home. No need to go into why that filled me with rage. Hint: there was plenty of food in the freezer / fridge.

Sleep: I slept in, but only mildly (7.20ish) but that really ruined my get-to-work-on-time timetable. I forgot to reset my alarms because I turned on the later one on Wednesday - fail. It's just gone 11pm now, but I have the day off tomorrow and only a few things to do. I don't want to sleep in too late though as I'll need to still be in full sleep cycle to get up at 7.30am on Saturday...


Whoop! Taranaki tomorrow. My first real game on Saturday. Flying with the Wonderbolts. Did I mention I never expected it to happen so soon?

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee......... (girlish squeal)

Day Forty Two: Driftwood

God knows what happened. I've continued to drift into a holding pattern, and part of me finds it immensely lazy that I'm putting almost no effort into achieving any goals. Another part of me is fiercely vying for more rest time so my muscles are actually usable at some point rather than just being in a constant state of fettered exhaustion. It's probably not a good thing. 

Although it's as easy as falling in a hole.

If my legs do fail, it'll probably be when
I'm carrying important files.

It's difficult I guess because a lot of my time is already dedicated to 'training' of one form or another, then once you fluff out the week with sleep, work, social obligations, washing, crap like car maintenance and a little bit of 'me' time, I'm probably left with about seventeen seconds. I'm impatient as all hell though, and willing to put in the effort to start seeing results sooner. But when? When am I going to find time and space to fit it into my timetable? And if I did, would my legs just go on strike until I offered them more favourable work conditions? 

Quite possibly. Who knows. I'm just feeling the bite of time at the moment - I have a million things to do and I'm off to Taranaki with the Wonderbolts on Friday - I am actually just looking forward to some time away! 

Fitness: Nothing today. Probably a good thing as I believe my legs are still pretty miffed (I mean resting) from last night.

Aikido: No training

Derby: No skating. I idly thought that I should take my skates into work regularly and hit the streets at lunchtimes. But then it pissed with rain all day today anyway. But every flat surface inspires a piece of me to sit up and go, "Hmm, if I had my skates..." followed by "That security guard would attempt to chase me off..."

Diet: I was into work about midmorning, but I'd had a plum and some tea/biscuits for breakfast around 10.30am and then it was lunchtime quite quickly from that point so I didn't have any weetbix but made myself a mammoth sandwich instead (gasp, but I'm out of hummus!). I had a punnet of blueberries for afternoon tea to tide me over until dinner at Cassette 9, which consisted of pizza, garlic bread and beer. As much as I'm not exactly proud of such a dinner I also don't feel bad about it either. I feel sorry for people on diets who make themselves feel bad for enjoying a night out with friends because of things like this - either don't feel bad or don't have friends. 

Sleep: I awoke at 7am despite having gone to sleep just past 1am and knowing I could sleep in as I had pre-arranged a late start. Guess my body knows when it's meant to be awake these days, which is a good thing... I rolled over and sort of managed a mix of resting and napping until 9.30am when I made a go for work, feeling pretty refreshed and ready to face the day. It's just gone 11.30pm now but I've been yawning since just before 9pm. I can't seem to get enough rest this week, which normally isn't an issue. I can only assume it's partly due to the mounting anticipation of this weekends' game, but I'm not consciously feeling the stress at the moment so it's hard to judge. Probably is though. Nothing else is really bothering me.

Posted this 'tomorrow' as internet failed - Steve Fry is right people - we put up with some atrocious service.