November: Meals, Miles, Books and Looks

I can hardly believe that November is coming to close and that next week is officially the beginning of summer.  All the overseas Christmas gift shopping has been done and sent and now I'm looking forward to to putting up the Christmas decorations and getting the house ready for the season.

Meals:

Food has been mostly unplanned this month and therefore poorly selected for the most part.

I got some free samples of Weetbix multigrain after the Auckland quarter marathon and I've been having those most mornings.  I used to have mine with hot soy milk but a friend suggested I try hot water and brown sugar and this is now my preferred way to eat this - its easy and delicious!

Since the weather has been a bit rainy and cold at times I have been having lots of my favourite soup - Kumara and Coconut Cream.  I'm going to have to find out how to make this soup myself!

Dinners have been on the hoof and the dinner pictured is a very simple tuna pasta bake with garlic pepper.

And I finally bought the shortbread pan I have been coveting for about 18 months!  I haven't made shortbread since I got the new food processor and my goodness it's so quick and easy with one of those things.  I suspect we will be having a few more rounds of shortbread over the Christmas and Hogmanay period.

Miles: 22.9km, PBs* 1km, 5km, 10km

I ran 2 races this month and had 2 other runs to stretch the legs to make 22.9km total for the month.  I managed PBs* for 1km, 5km and 10km and I also completed my furthest distance of 11km.  So while it was a low mileage month it was a very successful month!

Books:

I finished reading "Never Saw it Coming" and "Too Close To Home" both by Linwood Barclay and I am currently reading "Field of Prey" by John Sandford.

I did a search for books about the suburbs and was definitely in a murder mystery kind of mood so that's how I ended up with this selection.  I think my next couple of books will be lighthearted summer reads so I'll have a look at some reading lists next week to see what I should order from the library.

Looks:

I am so in love with my beautiful new bike!  I'm on the look out for an equally stylish helmet to wear when I ride it.

They're not easily visible in the photo above, but I got 2 new pairs of leg warmers to wear ice skating and I got to try out my funky purple pair when we went skating with friends on Saturday.  I think it was my magical leg warmers that helped to me to get the front to back mohawk down but it's obvious that my backward one foot glides need more work as I end up going into a bit of a spin!

I got my new glasses and I've been wearing them all week instead of contact lenses as the optician thought that I still had a trace of infection so I got some extra strong antibiotics.  I go back tomorrow so hopefully I'll get the all clear.  My eyes feel totally fine but I trust the experts with my eye health.

The last photo in my little collage is of my tartan leggings!  I'm so glad I had these to wear to the Scottish night since I didn't actually have anything else to wear that was particularly Scottish (except for jewellery - I have a lot of Scottish jewellery).  Our President, Janelle, couldn't believe I didn't have anything Scottish! 

* PBs (Personal Bests) are counted from when I started running again this year.  I used to run 9 years ago and I've a long way before I can catch up to those PBs if I ever can!

Scottish Night at Lions Club

Exciting, fun, stressful, nerve-racking, eventful, entertaining - oh so many descriptors!

During this year at our Lions club we have had a St Patrick's themed dinner and a St George's themed dinner and since my husband and I are both Scottish the club decided to have a St Andrew's themed dinner as well.  St Andrews Day is on 30th November, so the November dinner meeting was scheduled for haggis :)

We've had a bit of stress, uncertainty and upheaval lately with my husband being informed of impending redundancy and he has been working very hard at securing a new job.  Initially the Scottish night sounded like it would be so much fun and I had some ideas and plans for the night but alas the best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft agley.  Thinking about the public speaking portion just made me feel even more stressed and anxious, but I think it all worked out pretty well.

In the end I didn't have much time to prepare and ended up just doing everything off the cuff and I think that worked out better.  I gave the loyal toast, from a text I found online:

Long may her Majesty be spared
to grace her high position
to rule us all, both great and small
with wisdom and discretion

and then I recited the Selkirk Grace:

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some would eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit. 

After that I told a story about the wild haggis that roam the Scottish hills (!!)  before sending the haggis party to go catch a haggis!  

Off they trotted to the kitchen and then the piper got his bagpipes going and the haggis was paraded around the room before being placed on a table with a tartan table cloth.  Then my poor hubby, who like me was a bag of nerves, and having never recited any Robert Burns poetry before, proceeded to give the Address to a Haggis.  The piper, hubby, knife carrier and drinks carrier all then downed their shots of Glenfiddich.

After that everyone settled down to enjoy their meal and enter into conversations with each other.  Some people were trying haggis for the first time, others were enjoying a rare treat, and a few (us vegetarians included) were staying away from it!  We did get some tasty clapshot as well as other non-Scottish specific food.

Once the meal was finished our District Governor gave her speech and then the piper played a few tunes and we even had some impromptu highland-esque dancing!  Then we all sang for Auld Lang Sine and us club members got to tidying up and our guest headed home after having what I hope was as much of an enjoyable, fun and entertaining evening as I had.

Five on Friday

Wow, what a crazy, full week it has been!  Here are the highlights:

One: My poor husband has been through the wringer this week but I'm so impressed with how he has handled himself.  He's an undemanding and easy going person who quietly works very hard and therefore if anyone deserves good things, it's definitely him and I'm very pleased that he has had some good news this week.

Two: As if there wasn't enough stress in our lives this week, we both had to do some public speaking (!!) but we survived and had great fun at our Lions Club Scottish Night.

Three: I ran a 6k race and was consistent with my times of late, but I have started to do the couch to 10k program again from the start since I only made it half way through before taking several weeks off due to injury.  I've done week 1 and I'm doing it in the mornings now since it's too hot in the evenings.

Four: We've been learning some fun and challenging things at ice skating and the past 2 lessons we've been trying to do mohawks which is where you glide forward on one foot and then switch to gliding backwards on the other foot - it looks so easy but so hard to do in practice!

Five: I just love the library system.  I love that I can order books online and choose which library I want to pick them up and then I can drop them off at any library I'm near.  It's such a good system.  Through the library website I found some recommendations for books so I have created a reading list Pinterest board so that I don't forget what I want read!

Currently In ... November

I've started following a few new blogs recently and seen this fun post format that gives a quick snap shot of where we are in the month.  So here we are half way through November already!

Feeling: Happy to have raced 6k yesterday, achieved my goal and I didn't injure myself in the process!

Thinking: About the upcoming Scottish night at Lions Club.  I have to do some public speaking that I am not confident about.

Reading: "Too Close To Home" by Linwood Barclay

Watching: Far too many shows as usual! My favourites at the moment are "Castle", "Grimm" and "Grays Anatomy"

Anticipating: Wrapping and sending Christmas Gifts this weekend

Listening to: Spotify (and therefore not Taylor Swift)

Planning: My outfit for the Scottish night and realising I have no tartan to wear!

Wanting: To start running in the mornings.  Its pretty difficult to get out of bed in the mornings but this is a new habit I really want to make.


Loving: Reading some new blogs and being inspired to blog again.  The blogs I'm newly following are: Love Everyday Life, Lisa's Yarns, Girl with the Red Hair and Everything Starts Here

Grateful: For my husband and our 2 cats.  I love our little family unit.

Wishing: My mum a very happy 70th birthday!

Five on Friday

Yay Friday is here again :)

Here my top 5 this week:

One: Christmas! I'm really starting to feel more in the Christmas mood since I'm almost done with the Christmas shopping.  I'm going to wrap things this weekend and write out cards and listen to some Christmas music - I can't wait!

Two: I got to catch up on some Toronto Maple Leafs games and they've won the last few games yay! #GoLeafsGo! and also it looks like my cat is a hockey fan too :) He was pretty engrossed watching the players and puck zip across the screen - too cute!

Three: I got some books out from the library by Lindwood Barclay and have started reading one of them and I'm enjoying it.  It's called "Never Saw It Coming" and I'm only a few chapters in but hooked on the story.

Four: Last Friday night I got to pick up my new glasses which are purple and look awesome, and I got a free second pair so I chose a black frame.  I'm really happy with them.  I had to get some sort of dilation thing done to my eyes which made my pupils looks massive with only a thin ring of colour around them - I looked like the cats when they are playing with their toys.

 

Five: I got my weight taken on Tuesday and I'm making good steady progress towards my goal.  I'm making small easy changes that are yielding the results I want to see and because everything is so incremental I feel that they are ingrained and has just become my new way of life.  I've still got a long way to go but I'm already a quarter of the way there.

Christmas Shopping

On Saturday I had to take my car in for it's WOF (warrant of fitness) and while it was in the garage Kane and I went into Newmarket to grab some breakfast and make a start to the Christmas shopping.

After some delicious eggs benedict with mushrooms and avocado we went into the mall to see if we could get some ideas.  A short while later I got a call from the garage telling me car had failed its WOF for a frayed seat belt and it would take a week and $400 for the part to come in.  Sigh.  We headed back to get the car, sorted out the details and made another appointment for the following week to get the work done.

After that we headed to another mall to continue battling with Christmas shopping plans.  Both our families live overseas and if I mail things to them I have to try and do this sooner rather than later, and inspiration was being very elusive!

Feeling a little defeated, we had to stop for lunch to refuel, give our feet a rest, and plan our next attack!

After lunch we headed into a shop and that's where the brainwave hit!  We then blitzed most of the shopping and had plans for the rest.

Last year I had agreed with my family that since there were now so many of them that I would send a hamper for them to enjoy at my parents house on Christmas morning.  (I really wish they would do a Secret Santa as I would certainly prefer to spend my Christmas budget getting something wonderful for one person instead of having to stretch it across 18 people.)  This year the hampers didn't quite seem worth the money and I went back and forth over this but in the end a solution presented itself and I hope everyone in my family enjoy the gift I have planned.

To celebrate what was eventually a very successful shopping trip we went to Starbucks for a one of the special red cups drinks which is always a highlight of Christmas shopping for me and I got a toffeenut latte and Kane had a peppermint mocha and then we went home very happy. 

Five on Friday

Happy Friday!  Here are my top 5 things this week.

One:  I ran a quarter marathon!  I'm so happy about this.  I tore a muscle in my calf a few weeks back but I went to the Osteo clinic at Unitec as soon as I could and Naomi was able to work some magic on me to get me to the start line of the quarter.  Not only did I manage to finish, I was pretty close to the time I expected to run before the muscle tear.  I have a few other niggles and pains now but I'm confident that between Naomi and the exercises she gives me I will be a well oiled machine in no time!

Two:  Seven weeks 'til Christmas - eep!  I still can't quite get used to a summer Christmas and it's so easy for me to forget all about it until December.  Back in the old country I would have finished my Christmas shopping in September and that's what I should be doing again if I want things to arrive on time.  I'm going into full Christmas planning mode this weekend!

Three:  My husband is the love of my life and I'm so proud of him right now.  He has a very full plate and he's working so hard but I never see any of his current stressors get to him.  He is my inspiration.

Four: My mum's 70th birthday is next week and I have sent her a nice gift that I hope she likes.  I really like it and I'm considering getting the same thing for myself! 

Five:  My nephew and his fiancée had a son.  I'm so happy for them as I think it's something that they've wanted for a little while.  And it's very fitting that the first boy in the family has had the first boy :)

October: Meals, Miles, Books and Looks

I've see a few of these monthly round ups and I'm really loving this format so I thought I would give it a go!

Meals

October gave us the start of the NHL hockey season and since we don't get any televised games here in NZ we decided that we would splash out on an NHL Game Centre Live subscription so we can watch games whenever we like but we can usually watch live games at midday on Saturday.  So for game day lunch I made us a small feast!

* Peri peri corn on the cob, * Breaded mushrooms,

* Hot chips with cheese and gravy,

* BBQ dip, * Ketchup

 It was a lot of food but very tasty!

On Halloween we went to pick up our race packs and decided to have dinner at a place called Miss Clawdy's.  I was so happy to finally get the bottle of bud I'd been craving and the popcorn they put on the table was amazing!  Cinnamon, cumin, sugar, coriander was a few of the flavours I remember the waitress telling us was on the popcorn.  We then had tacos, hushpuppies, ceviche and thick street cut hot chips - all highly recommended.

Miles

34.6km in total for October which isn't too bad considering I tore my calf muscle 1km into my 8km Ekiden relay leg.
This month saw the last race of the Unitec run series and our girls trip to Rotorua to take part in the Ekiden rely (which is a marathon split into 6 legs and ran as a relay).  We all had the best fun!

Books

I didn't read anything in October!  I must rectify this in November.

Looks

Stuck in a slight fashion rut.  I did buy myself a few new t-shirts from Dotti and Esprit.

And I did get some awesome new bluetooth headphones just like Kane's and I customised them a by wrapping them in yarn to make sure we could tell ours apart.