"Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." – Mary Oliver

Friday Randoms

Riley, looking very handsome after his recent bath and trim

I’ve been on a recovery week this week for training, although I missed yesterday’s run because of a migraine that came on Wednesday afternoon and has had a long tail. I’m still not feeling great but just have a short session of intervals tomorrow which I should be able to get done. Next week is the big one and then I’m on taper —yay! I should be able to get through one more week without injuring myself. Then I just need to avoid any viruses until the race.

This weekend we are heading down to Point Lonsdale. The weather looks like it’s going to be dreadful, but we are going down for my parents 60th wedding anniversary. It will be all the siblings, neices and nephews plus some of my aunties and uncles so should be fun. I’ve made Chicken and Chickpea Stew with Chorizo for add to the potluck dinner tomorrow night. I haven’t made it before but it looks great and seems to be tasty. You fry up the chorizo and add it last so that will add even more flavour.

I also have a batch of No Bake Chocolate Pretzel Peanut Butter Squares which a so yummy and very moreish, but not a cheap recipe to make. I only used 1 cup of icing sugar because 1.5 cups seemed like a lot and I usually find that recipes from the US are too sweet. They were plenty sweet enough.

In other news I did my first test from the Built to Move book. I first got my hands on the book a few years ago and worked my way through almost all the chapters but have fallen off some of the wagon since then. Each chapter has a test and then offers ways to improve your score on the test. I’ve decided to rework through each chapter again and the first chapter is the Sit to Stand test. Which involves standing with legs crossed and sitting down on the floor cross legged then getting back up to a stand. You start with ten points and take a point of for every hand or knee touch you need to get up and down. Last time I tried it was before I had my stress fracture and I knew I’d lost a bit of strength and mobility through that process which I’ve been gradually building back up. I did the test last week and managed a 9 which is the same as last time I took the test. I just needed to put one hand on the ground to get myself back up to standing. I don’t think I was a close to 10 as last time I tested, but hopefully I’ll get there.

A little sneak peak – driving through a whole lot of nothing. Jokes aside, I find the outback beautiful.

I enjoy reading Chris Arnadale Walks the World. He’s back in Australia and he had another interesting post: Riding the Aussie Dog. Again and What Makes Australia Australia. I broadly agree with his conclusions apart from his opinion of Alice Springs, although that is largely due to the fact that we visited to see the sights and not the bus station. Anyway that has inspired me to do a recap of our family Central Australian Roadtrip on my blog … but time has got away from me, so realistically I think that will have to wait until we are home and I’ve recapped our upcoming Europe trip.

Ormiston Gorge

And a few more things:


Comments

15 responses to “Friday Randoms”

  1. You had me at peanut butter, haha. I don’t think I’ve ever met a peanut butter recipe I didn’t love.

    Riley DOES look especially dapper <3

    1. I think this recipe might be a bit much for your frugal ways, although if you went and bought a slice like this it would be more expensive than making it I guess.

  2. I can’t get off the floor without the help of hands and knees and it frustrates me a lot! It’s one of those things I should work on – that book looks like a good source of inspiration.
    Nearly done with all the training! Now just stay away from sick people as much as you can…

    Enjoy a nice anniversary celebration with your parents! 😄

    1. I was closer before my stress fracture with getting back up. You are allowed to rock back and forth first to pick up momentum.

  3. Happy to hear marathon training is going well. Enjoy your family reunion and I hope no-one has any viruses there.

    The recipes do look yummy. I usually cut the sugar in half for every US recipe but even in general I add always less sugar.

    The outback looks soso good. I just read the Songlines by Bruce Chatwin (again) but I had wished for more insights. I am so intrigued by Australia.

    Also, that book sounds awesome. I have saved it in my TBR. And I just had to try (right out of bed) – going down easy, but getting up no chance without one hand to the ground. Interesting.

    1. Yes, US recipes are so sweet usually. You will have to come out one day but it is a big trip.

  4. Your postcard arrived and I was thrilled! My son was like “oh, where did that come from” and I was like “THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD!!!” How exciting.
    The chocolate peanut butter pretzel squares! I am bookmarking that recipe.
    I think I’m going to order that book. I am very thoughtful about functional fitness these days. I want to just…keep going! Thanks for mentioning it.
    Sorry about the migraine, I hope you are feeling better today. Good luck with the rest of the week – stay healthy!

    1. Yay, so glad the postcard arrived. The book is good, with sensible benchmarks.

  5. That chocolate pb pretzel square recipe sounds awesome. Good call to cut the icing sugar by 1/3. 1.5 cups IS SO MUCH!!

    I did not make it to Central Australia when I was studying abroad but some of my classmates that stayed longer made it there. For side trips, I went to Sydney twice, Melbourne/Great Ocean Road, Cairns/Port Douglas, and the Gold Coast region south of Brisbane. I wish I could have gotten to the west coast as I’ve heard Perth is stunning! I do hope to take an extended trip to NZ/Australia when we are retired!

    1. There is so much to see in Australia, but the US is similar with the big variety of landscapes. We have done a bit up the top end of WA, Perth but we are keen to see more of WA. We want to drive across the Nullabor at least once.

  6. Oh, sweet Riley. He looks a lot like our neighbor’s dog!

    I am super intrigued by the Built to Move book. I’ll have to check it out.

    1. the people who wrote built to move also have heaps of good mobility videos.

  7. I have the same issue with trips, in that I get behind in my recaps! You do a much better job than me of keeping up or of doing them eventually whereas I, after a certain amount of time has passed, just give up! Hah. Ormiston Gorge looks cool! Can you swim in that pond?

    1. Ormoston Pound was really beautiful and yes you can swim there

  8. […] through the chapters of built to move and retest every 6 months – I did the first chapter […]

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