Sporty Stuff

Affa-letix

...which is how you say "athletics" if you attend Upper Hutt College.

Man, today went off - what a fabulously organised and well attended event. After being stuck in third place for the last two years it was a relief to finally break the trend and come second. YAY Hillary house!! Now we have to kick butt all year in the other events and take the house trophy off smug old Blake house. Our leadership team (Year 12 and 13 kids) did an excellent job of signing people up for events and organising them to be in the right place at the right time. I'm really proud of them. The tiger outfit growled its way to being the most awesome staff costume (IMHO of course!), and I didn't get sunburned.

Netball

Netball sucked last night. We were within a whisker of winning but the opposition sunk a lucky 2 pointer on the buzzer. And they only had the ball cos I missed a pass from Sam, so really, I lost the game for us. And I was on C when I had no legs left (4th quarter). And we were top of the table - we shoulda kicked ass. But we didn't. Poos.

I have two games tonight in Petone. A good way to purge my netball demons.

Spot the difference

What difference?? They look identical to me...

Roll on athletics day.

GO YELLOW!!!!!!!

Oh yeah, Sam has already pointed out that tigers are orange not yellow. I plead colour blindness.

Back, Black, Black Caps

Back
I'm back from sunny Auckland - with 32 Waipuna pens to prove it. I had a competition with a teacher from HIBS - I lost - she got 38. I learned lots of new ways to teach the same old things kids have trouble with: algebra, fractions, decimals, percentages and ratio; and I am looking forward to trying it all out with my guinea pigs back at school.

And an old guy from the Ministry of Education made a pass at me. Flattering, but also weird.

Black
We went to a funeral today for Sam's boss's wife. Gone just a day after delivering her first daughter. Stink. I keep thinking what it would be like if it was me (or Sam) and just don't even want to go there. I cannot imagine how awful it is for the boss guy right now.

Black Caps
About time we gave someone a thrashing. Yeah.

One Love

Yeah baby. What a lovely day.

After leaving the beer at home before learning you *could* take your own, and then going via the petrol shop and the beer and food shop and then mum's place to drop off my car, and then to Kate's place to pick her up, we FINALLY made it there just in time for me to sit on my butt and soak up the sun and eat and drink and read my book.



And I got a henna tattoo on my foot.
Before (note the stick on tattoo also on my ankle):



After: (the henna has to dry then peel off, leaving a stain on the skin):

And this chick forgot to put her pants on, I think. There was definite cheek action visible when she walked. Oh Dear.

Training Notes and other things

400m swim, 12km bike, 4km run

I thought I'd better check the actual distances today and was pleasantly suprised that the run and bike legs were less than I had thought. The swim leg is longer than I thought, but 400m is a warm-up for me so no problem there.

Training Diary

So far I have been very active:

Feb 3 - walk down/up the hill
Feb 4 - walk up, run down the hill; bike ride up/down/up the hill; walk to the mall (4km)
Feb 5 - walk up, run down the hill; 1km swim; 2 games of netball
Feb 6 - walk up/down the hill; 1 game of netball

Tomorrow I will take it easy with only a walk up/down the hill in the morning. There may be a recreational swim in the river if the weather stays as fabulously hot as it was today.

Back to work (finally!)

The students start tomorrow - lots of course changes to make, and new faces to meet. We don't start teaching till Friday actually. Then next week I go on a conference for three days in Auckland. Yay! Although stink for my classes - I have to set relief when they have only just started learning stuff; not an ideal situation. I will be taking the laptop with me - be prepared for an interruption to your usual off-black service next week!

It is done

I have officially entered the Sun Latte Women's triathlon which is on 25 March.

Now I have to train for it as I stopped training just before we moved house, like, late November!

Here's the plan:

• Every morning - up at 6 for a walk/run/stagger up and down the hill and back up again. As we are kinda halfway up the hill, go up first as it is less steep than the 'uphill' from the bottom, and I need to save that bit till I'm warmed up.
• Week days - take swim gear to work and go home via the pool. Less hassle than trying to go in the morning and then get back home for brekkie: we live further from the pool than we used to. Do at least 1km, work up to 2km by 25 March.
• Mondays - indoor netball.
• Weekends - ride my bike up and down the hill and back up again. (Note: just tried that and found the second 'up' needed to be on foot. This will change!)

By the start of March I will be needing to ride on the flat for longer than the 2km of Major Drive - maybe up and down Oxford/Cambridge Terraces with the odd bridge crossing thrown in. I will also need to start taking the bike to the pool to get used to transitions, or coming home from biking and going straight out for a run.

Wish me luck!