Back on the Workout Regime... Sort Of

After beginning my physio on my ankle last week (consisting of writing the ABC's, making circles and repeating a series of point and flex with my ankle), I was given the go-ahead to do a bit of swimming as well. Eager to for a good cardio workout, I headed to the pool after work today. The physical therapist said I could swim slowly, only if I used a float on my legs to keep my ankle still.

When I first arrived to the pool, it was fairly empty with clearly marked "slow" and "fast" lanes. I met a nice girl (while gathering the courage to get into the water) who was there for a water aerobics class. She also had broken her foot and said swimming was a great workout - this made me feel better about being there.

I hobbled up to the edge of the pool, took my boot off and lowered myself in. With a giant purple noodle in between my legs, I began an awkward, stiff-legged free style down the length of the pool. The few other people in my lane had to swim around me, so I opted to switch to the slowest moving lane (and I figured this much because of the 85 year old lady in her white bikini slowly making her way down the length of the pool doing a frog-crawl. She was zig-zagging across the entire lane, attempting backstroke, by the time I reached her. I tried to stay against the side wall to let her pass all the while trying to keep the noodle from slapping her in the face and despite my attempts to pass by unnoticed, she whacks me with her arm, which startled her more than me. She then proceeds to flail hopelessly for the lane rope while screeching in a raspy voice - "pay attention, I'm old! Why don't you watch out? I am an old lady!" Glaring in a confused and utterly disgusted brow-furring way, I continued my swim and immediately moved back over to my original lane.

I got down a routine, but without using my legs, I was wearing out fast - its a tough workout! Stopping for a rest at the far end of the pool, a guy walking along the edge asked if I would be so kind to move out of the way - his water polo team was now using the far two lanes for water polo practice. If I had to get out of that lane, then the old lady should have had to get out too - she began to squawk at every water polo zipping by her as well! By my last 50m lap, I was having to rest with a little side stroke from time to time. So I hoisted myself out of the water - too tired to move over two more lanes to one of the two free lanes left in the pool - ever filling up with more people who would have to swim around me and my purple noodle. Sitting on the edge of the pool, a nice man retrieved my boot for me - and as I sat recovering and warming up, the cocky water polo coach wandered over to inform the lifeguard that the old lady "had to go."

Leaving to head back to the locker room (and being cut in line for the water fountain by a 40 year old squash player) - I of course got all sorts of looks for my mighty boot - but felt good for having finally done a cardio workout.

Despite a cranky old lady, a pompous water polo coach and a line-cutting squash player, I am happy that I am able to become active again, a little at a time. Here's to recovering and beginning my triathlon training!

Sleigh Bells Ring...Are You Listenin?

Michelle and Eric arrived a few weeks ago. They both know Scott through working at Manhattan and just recently engaged, decided to start their life together, in Australia. Eric had to return to the US for a bit, leaving Michelle behind to find an apartment and furniture. Knowing how hard it is to get all settled in, I decided Michelle needed a nice dinner on the town - and we decided upon Cookie. Situated in a multi-level building, Cookie is one of the 3 restaurants, taking up an entire floor of a building with one slightly hidden entrance. The other floors of the buildings are other restaurants, boutiques, pubs, and a rooftop terrace that plays movies during the summer. Cookie is a Thai inspired restaurant (we order savory and crunchy cabbage rolls to start, then a white fish curry to share - which we both sweat through, so were happy when the waiter brought us cucumbers to cool down our mouths). The bill came to us, not in a traditional waiter book, but in a Little Golden Book! Just another quirky Melbourne discovery.

Leaving my apartment this past weekend, our garden was all abloom, so I am happy I captured this moment before the heat of summer set in and all the gorgeous flowers wilted.

Onto the CBD for the Christmas tour around the city:

Town Hall

The Famous Gingerbread Town

Australia Post HAS to deliver to Santa too

Entering Federation Square - turned Christmas Land

Bourke Street

Myer is the large department store I mentioned in my Horse Race blog. At Christmas, they hire a team to create entire scenes in the store windows (think NYC Macy's). Mid-November, the windows are revealed. This year the theme is "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" - The Nativity Scene takes up one window, then all the others are different scenes of Santa with his elves.

The weekend ended with a 12 Pubs of Christmas crawl. A group of us, dressed from head to toe in Christmas attire made our rounds to different locations in Fitzroy, spreading Christmas cheer! (My hat may or may not have sung and danced - it was pretty much the life of the party).

One more week to go of feeling like a cross between an Oompa Loompa and a Christmas Elf (all I have been doing the last 3 weeks is packing Corporate Christmas orders and eating chocolate for lunch because I do not have time to stop to eat a real meal). By this time next week, I will be making my way to Perth for 2 weeks on the beach, celebrating Christmas and New Years, with a trip to Margaret River and Monkey Mia in between.

I will miss home, family, friends and traditions terribly - too much so that I try not to think about it. But all in all, I am happy to start my own memories of the holidays and cannot wait to share them with you!

Springtime in South Yarra

Springtime in South Yarra is well underway and I can't help but feel that I am walking down some quaint street in Europe every morning I leave my house (now that I am walking again!) I wanted to share with you just a few of the great architecture and beautiful greenery I get to see right next door to me.

It might be hard to tell, but also every morning (well, on sunny mornings), there is are streaks across the sidewalk, glistening in the light. Only recently did Bec find out from our neighbors (Dave & Pete - who are both divorcees and obsessed with cycling, hence the reason I have gone to them for bike buying advice) that the same magical creatures who form these glistening lines are also the same magical creatures who have been shredding our mail inside our mailbox: snails. They live in the "garden" around our building and leave a trail behind when criss-crossing the sidewalk down to the mailboxes. Apparently they also enjoy eating paper, especially all the hospital bills that have been coming in.
Despite the snails, I am happy to be on my feet again. To easily walk down to the train station (this morning there were carolers inside the station showering all the train travelers with Christmas Tunes!) It's beginning to feel a lot like April but look a lot like Christmas around here! Christmas pictures to come.

Golden (*Champagne*) Birthday

I could have never imagined in a lifetime that I would have spent my Golden Birthday (turning 24 on the 24th of November) in Australia. (They call it Champagne Birthday in Canada - and Australia just doesn't celebrate such a thing at all). If anything, I had always had visions of going out in Atlanta in some fabulous gold dress with my closest friends. Instead, it went a bit like this:

Wednesday night before my birthday, Bec came home and surprised me with two blue sharpies (thank you KPMG stationary supply room). Over a glass of wine, we proceeded to graffiti my soon-to-be-removed cast with mantras that have become standard conversation since this whole ankle fiasco began. We dubbed this night the "trash the cast, party of two."

Feeling slightly like a 4th grader, I donned a large, black athletic sock up over my cast the next morning to head to Alfred Hospital Round 3. The day of Freedom had finally arrived! Bec and I had a quick pit stop at a cute local cafe right at the end of our street and she treated to a skinny flat white coffee, my new favorite (can't drink skinny caps ALL the time!) We toasted to: A Golden Birthday, American Thanksgiving and Cast-Off Day. What more could I ask for on this very special day!? Literally I day I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa. I was so giddy and happy and the sun was shining, it was a great day.

This Round 3, a slightly more competent taxi driver took me the rest of the way to the Alfred and after a slight panic attack in the X-ray waiting room (the nurse said I might not get the cast off that day), I hobbled over to the second waiting room filled with 100 other patients all sporting variations of bone injuries. A nurse I recognized from the "plaster room" during Alfred Hospital Round 2 came to escort me back to the plaster room where I then had to....remove the sock. Bear in mind, I am now in a small room, with 5 other people, all over the age of 40. So the fact that I am in my 20's, in a cast... which is covered in graffiti, does nothing to help my: "I broke it in an innocent accident" claim.

Waiting for about an hour (all the while being harassed by the 40 year old show off/know it all across from me) the nurse finally wheeled over a large shop-vac looking machine equipped with a rotating saw blade connected to a long tube. This was the cast removal system, the ONLY cast removal system (unfortunately for Mr. Know It All who was keen to just rip it off himself.) She assured me the cast would only cut through the plaster but would stop automatically if it came into contact with skin (how a blade knows such things is beyond me, but I trusted her.) She also assured me that mine was one of the most tame and 'G' rated graffiti job she had seen and sent congratulations my way. A few cuts later, the cast peeled away, I look down to a hairy, pale, crusty, sorry excuse for a lower leg. The nurse brought over a wet towel for me to wash away what grime I could, which really just took off an entire couple layers of skin. To have the cast finally off my leg though felt fantastic.

Already discouraged by the state of my leg, the Doctor came back to announce I could keep the cast off but would have to use crutches for 6 more weeks - and then he disappeared (have I mentioned yet though that he is a young, charming, very attractive doctor??) - therefore mustering up every ounce of charisma in me when he returned, I convinced him to let me go straight to a "moon boot" so I would at least be able to walk, on two feet, without crutches - it was "my birthday after all!" (Actually in the back of my mind, all I cared about at that moment was the gathering of friends later that evening for my birthday and seeing all the disappointing looks on their faces when I would walked up on crutches instead of both feet - that would just not do.)

Scribbled prescription in hand, Dr. Charm wished me a Happy Birthday with a grin and sent me on my way to the Ortho equipment rental center to have my 'Cam' boot fitted. 20 minutes later, I was outside, on two feet, with a huge grin on my face.

Meeting at The World Bar was the plan for the evening, arranged by the fabulous Bec. After work, my friends met me here after work and I could not have ask for a better birthday celebration: right on the Yarra River walk, looking out to the water, sitting on the patio with great food, drinks and warm sunshine. It was perfect. Topping on the cake, my Birthday card from the Irish guys (this was inspired by a REAL sign on a tram in the city encouraging passengers to offer their seats to cripples - how appropriate!):

The Packed Car

Celebrations continued on into the weekend (and this time a drawn out Birthday was actually warranted because my birthday in the US was not until my Friday.) After work 5 of us piled into Bec's little Holden Hatchback loaded down with gear for a weekend at the beach in Fairhaven (literally a little strip of beach houses between Torquay and Lorne on the Great Ocean Road.) 12 of us met at a fabulous beach house, in the hills overlooking the water. Although it rained the majority of the weekend we still had an excellent time with home cooked meals, dance parties in the living room, swimming in the ocean (yes, I got in with my boot on - the other option was standing in the rain with FOMO (fear of missing out) and that just really wasn't even an option) and a trip to Koala Cove after a nice brunch in Lorne.

The most exciting part to the brunch (minus my amazing fluffy scrambled eggs on thick cut, grilled sourdough bread) was the people watching. "Schoolies" as they call them here are the high school graduates. (A bit odd to think of high school graduation in November/December, but this is Australia summer time - so their academic calendar follows suit. ) Schoolies are the 18 year old, but "I think I am 25 and cooler than you" type of kids. Donning outfits I that should be illegal to wear (worst offense: high waisted jean shorts with a 1/2 an inch inseam - worn by girls of ALL shapes and sized), these kids come to the beach to celebrate graduation and just wander up and down the beach. Bec and I had to restrain to keep our thoughts and judgements to ourselves.

The Great Ocean Road

Onto Koala cove (and only having to stop once for directions) we finally found the turn off. Rumored to have 100's of koalas sitting in the trees, this is a popular tourist attraction. So popular it even has a cafe named after it at the bottom of the hill required to climb to see the fluffy little guys. After hiking up the hill we saw one, not 100's, and it was asleep. Quite disappointing but after such a tiring weekend, I was envious of the little fella. All I wanted to do at that point was to curl up with him in the tree. Much more exciting were the enormous amounts of colorful birds. Entirely accustomed to tourists, a handful of birdseed would attract one of these parrots and they would eat right out of your hand. We each had a go (Lynsey and Rigel had more than they bargained for with birds landing on their heads), but this brought us entertainment for much longer than it should have.

Koala Cove

Saying our goodbyes then, all three car fulls headed back toward Melbourne, back to reality of Monday work day. I could not have asked for a better birthday. And although I missed Thanksgiving dinner (I had my moments of home sickness - especially after attempting to call my Mawmaw on her birthday, the day after mine and receiving emails from back home about a family effort to make heaps of mashed potatoes and pies), I could not have asked for a better way to spend my Champagne/Golden Birthday.