Last month I posted about the caterpillas living on my citrus trees. When we came home from Wilson’s Prom most of them had disappeared and I couldn’t find any chrysalis so I guess they were eaten by predators. There were two caterpillas left, one disappeared about a week later and then I was left with one very fat one. I’ve been checking it daily and this week it finally went into the pupa stage. Now I just need to see if I can catch it coming out.
Our son received his leave blackout days from work this week, which stay the same most years due to regular major events and we found out that he wouldn’t be able to take his holidays when were planning in 2024. We have a tradition in our fmaily where we take each kid to a country in Europe when they’re in year 11. Our son’s trip to Germany got cancelled in 2020 so we had planned to do it next year, and double up with a trip to the Berlin marathon. That’s not going to work now, but we worked out that we might be able to add it on to our trip later this year. The leave blackout ends the day I was supposed to fly home from Italy … via Munich. After my son checking with his work that he can get two weeks leave, husband checking with his business partner that it is okay to take more leave and their agent in the UK to push his visit there back by two weeks, we’ve managed to push my flight home from Munich back two weeks. Our son will meet us in Berlin and fly home with me from Munich a couple of weeks later. So we’ve had lots of tossing up of various options over the last 48 hours, but the tickets are booked now.
An interesting post about journaling: A Journal is a Magic Space to hang out.
The Wages of Overwork: “we have to acknowledge: the wages of overwork culture extend far beyond the working conditions of those who embrace it.”
Six weeks ago I foolishly declared this year was going to be the fittest I had ever been for the start of the cross country season … cue a vaccine reaction followed by a series of weeks feeling pretty ordinary. I think (hope?) I’m coming out of it now. Last week was my first full week of running and included the first race of the cross country season, a 5K with loose gravel, soggy ovals and some stairs, so not a fast course, the top finishes were about a minute behind their road times. It was also raining, altohugh luckily the really heavy rain came as we were having afternoon tea. My time was 27:34.42, 54s slower than last year, but 3s faster than 2021. The one good thing about a bad time is that it makes my handicap for subsequent races easier.
No cross country for me this weekend, I only do APSOC not AV races. Instead we are doing the Angela Taylor 10K on Sunday but I’ll run the 8K from home to the start line and do it as part of my longrun, we usually run it to support the cause rather than for a time.
How’s your week been? Any plans for the weekend?
Comments
6 responses to “Friday Thoughts #11”
Logistics can be such a nightmare but what a thrill to BOOK THE TICKETS. So glad things worked out and you have things all sorted!
This weekend should be relatively relaxed. My hubby flys out on another work trip Sunday morning, so we’ll have a relaxed day at home tomorrow doing some yard work and just hanging out as a family? Tonight we’re going to see a local musical production.
A relaxed weekend sounds lovely.
Yes, most caterpillars do, sadly, get eaten by predators. Many years ago, when my daughter was little, we planted a butterfly garden and had a ton of caterpillars. One of them went into the pupa, and we watched it every day. Finally one day we could tell it was about to hatch, and stayed home to see it (I wasn’t working then and my daughter was in preschool, so seeing a caterpillar emerge from the chrysalis seemed more important!) It was a cool experience.
I didn’t know you ran cross country- how cool! Cross country courses sound fun. I want to hear more!
I bookmarked that article about journaling to read later- it looks really good. Thanks!
That is so cool that you could stay home and that you did so. The running club I train with is affiliated with the Old Xaverians Athletic Club. I don’t do the Athletics Victoria Comp. but do join in more casual APSOC (an old schools group) cross-country season. It’s good fun and social with a good variety of races.
I am excited to see if you can catch the butterfly coming out 🙂
So excited that you’ll be going to Germany and that things worked out with all your rearranging of dates 🙂 this is going to be an awesome trip, I am sure. I just came back from Germany – via MUC – and had such a blast.
Yes, I’m sure the trip will be fantastic. Our son is very keen on doing some of the factory tours. I love travel, going there and also the planning/anticipation.