Falling off the wagon...

...or is it on the wagon? I've never been quite sure what that expression means. Does being "on the wagon" mean you're abstaining or indulging?

Anyways, as you probably already know, I've been extremely stressed out about a situation at school. It was completely awful, not only because the situation itself was crappy, but also because I was losing precious time to work on my thesis while it was all getting sorted out. It used to be that one unproductive day would ruin my week, so you can imagine what one unproductive month did for my sanity. If you're not sure what all the stress is about, go back to this post.

In an attempt to stay sane, I've been trying hard to stay physically healthy though yoga, good food and a steady dose of organic vegies and fruits, even doing the Kath-challenge, thinking that all this healthyness would spill over into my mental health. Well, this past weekend, when I was finally able to see that I was getting close to a solution, my head started saying: no more need for all this healthy stuff, time to celebrate in food-form. Listen to this: I picked up some 5-fruit bread from Shepherd's Bakehouse and ate it almost continuously throughout the weekend, toasted, with butter and honey.

omigod, it was soooo good, there were big chunks of dates in it that got all melty after it was toasted. mmmmm. I also had big bowls of chips on Friday night and Sunday night, (I would normally stop after a small handful - I usually save my calories for something in chocolate form, as I'm not much of a salty-snack fan). And this morning, pancakes slathered in maple syrup.

So now my thesis problems are over, we've settled on a solution, and I can get back at it. I am so relieved. Except that now I feel fat and guilty about all those chips, and I'm craving more chips (as you do once you start eating all that yummy stuff).

There be dragons

We got this gorgeous dragon fruit in our fruit & vegie basket last week. Gus thought the colour and name of the fruit was very cool. It was my first dragon fruit (I've been eyeing them in the markets for a while but haven't been brave enough to pick one up). It was delish. Sweet, but mild. Kinda watermelon-ish. Gus thought it tasted like dragon, and ate up most of it. I guess dragonflesh is tasty.

Stormy weather

It's been storming here for what seems like a whole week. It's been raining alot, with torrential downpours at night and we've had these huge winds. The ocean by our place has been looking like something out of The Perfect Storm. But today, the sun was out and the wind's died down, and the surfers were back out this afternoon after having stayed away for the past few days.

The meaning of life

Recently, I've been trying to find a better balance in my life as a way of keeping my PhD woes in check. The idea is that if I have a broader focus on all the things that I value, love and enjoy, that I'll be better able to deal with any stresses that I'm having on the school side of things (btw: I owe this attempt at a new outlook on life from 7 Habits, which I'm really getting into). So, as part of this broader focus, I've decided that I'm going to take up meditation. I've known a lot of people who swear by it, and I've been meaning to integrate it into my life for some time now. I'm still trying to sort out where to fit it into my daily schedule (ideally, I'd like to do it in the morning before I head off to school, but this might cut into my yoga time...). As a first step I dowloaded some guided meditation podcasts. I'm pretty stoked about it, especially since I noticed that one of the first meditations is called "The meaning of life"! Ha! Who knew the meaning of life was just a podcast away?

Also this week, I started ordering bread through the Thoughtful Foods co-op. If you know me at all, you'll know that I have a weakness for all things baked, most especially good bread. I'm not talking about those sad loaves of bread you pick up at the grocery store, I'm talking straight-out-of-the-oven artisan bread with a crusty outside and light, chewy inside. Unfortunately, in Sydney, bread - like everything else - is through-the-roof expensive. A regular, substandard loaf of grocery store bread is about $5! And the good stuff is double that. So you can imagine how pathetically excited I was to discover that my new organic food co-op does bulk orders of bread from Shepherd's Bakehouse. As a co-op member, the prices are reasonable and the breads are phenomenal. For my first order, I picked up a baguette and a blueberry-apple loaf. Gus and I inhaled the blueberry-apple loaf the first night I brought it home, and we're still working away at this amazing baguette. Although Gus bears little physical resemblance to me, I can tell he's got my genes by his love of good bread.

My hero

So today I was having this completely unproductive day at school, and decided I might as well go home and get a few things done around our apartment so that I can salvage the day. But then I remembered that I saw this guy above the door on my way out.

I didn't want to be alone with him, and I didn't feel brave enough to do the old capture and release (which I've done only once before with a huntsman when I was alone with Gus because I wanted to prove to him that women can catch spiders too), so I stayed at school a while longer and got caught up on all my blog reading. When we got home later in the day after Gus' art lessons, Vic, my hero, captured him and set him free.

When we get back to Canada, I will NEVER again complain about any of the bugs I find inside my house.

A PhD in Australia

Since I'm switching gears with this blog, and planning to blog more about my PhD and my day-to-day attempts at staying healthy, you'll need to know a key piece of information about doing a PhD in Australia. There are two options here in oz, you can do a PhD by coursework, or a PhD by research. The latter is the one I'm doing. In Australia, a PhD by research means there is no required coursework whatsoever. This is the "british system" and it means that your 3+ years as a PhD Candidate are spent entirely as you wish, with only 2 major deadlines to meet: submitting your thesis proposal for approval some time at the end of your first year (check), and then submitting a PhD-worthy 70,000+ word thesis at the end. Sure, there are annual reviews and regular meetings with your supervisors, but generally, it is up to the student to keep their act together, stay motivated and stay on track.

Although all that flexibility and time probably sounds like shangri-la to all you 9 to 5 workers out there, I'm here to tell you that it is insane-making, because of these two added factors:

1. Most academics within my section of the University have gone through the British system and as a result have spent 5, 6, or 7+ years working on their PhDs and believe that 3-4 years is just not enough to produce a truly PhD-worthy thesis, and
2. I'm here on a time-limited scholarship and student visa. So when my carefully laid out 3-year plan gets derailed, as it has in these past few weeks, I seem to be the only that seems concerned. Aaargh!

Tonight, my coping mechanism for this insanity involves tea and a tim tam (lately I've been enjoying the hazelnut mousse flavour, which is just about the tastiest thing evah). If you're reading this and you're living in Australia and you haven't tried this version yet, do it! I promise you it'll make everything better for about 10 short but blissful minutes.

Gus likes them too.

Staying sane

I once shared an office with a woman, who was by far, one of the most interesting people I've ever met (she once told me in all sincerity that several people in her neck of the woods had experienced alien encounters!). Not only did she tell interesting stories, but she was a great officemate and friend, kind, generous and open. She had a very laid back vibe, and whenever I would describe a frustrating experience to her, she would say to me (in roughly these words) "you should use this as a learning experience". It was never patronizing in any way, she was just telling me not to dwell on the negative, to learn from it, and move on, as a better person.

So here I am, in the middle of a fairly negative experience with my thesis program, trying to figure out how to learn from it and move on. One way I've decided to do this is by blogging my way through it. My hope is that blog-writing on a daily basis will help keep me motivated to stay healthy - physically and mentally. As before, I'll still blog about the fun things we do in Sydney, and post plenty of pics of Gus for grandparents to view, but I'll also be blogging about the little daily things that are keeping me sane through my PhD insanity.

On a sidenote, I have to show you the breakfast that Vic and Gus made me for mother's day. Check out the chick and acorn Gus put together to keep me company, note the handprint in the toast (handprint-toast is Gus' specialty), and don't miss the frangipani perched on top of my omelette. Beautiful!


Also, I have to say that I am loving our little beach-side suburb these days. It's tiny, with just a few shops and cafes (unlike the nearby trendy Coogee and Bondi beaches). In fact, it's so tiny that yesterday, Vic and I walked down to the only shop that sells newspapers and we started complaining to the owner about how our weekend paper delivery wasn't very consistent. Well, it turns out that the shop owner is also in charge of delivery (oops!). After talking a bit more, we realized that someone was stealing our Saturday paper, and so today the paper was delivered to a more discrete spot in front of our apartment building. Yay for small towns! Our suburb is also home to my favourite coffee shop, which is warm and homey, where the owner knows my name, and where we pick up our organic fruits and vegies. Here's our haul for this week:


And of course, no weekend posting is complete without a few pictures of Gus. Here he is feeding ducks at Centennial Park. Centennial Park is one of my favourite places in Sydney, great for picnics and walks, and where the ducks are almost as big as 7-year olds.

Drumroll please....

We put everyone's name in a hat and Gus picked the winner (and sock monkey helped). The winner is... MARGARET!!! I'll get your address from Michelle and send you some Aussie treats in the mail on Monday.

Plus, I have a little something tucked away for the others who also left comments. Check your mailboxes in about two weeks.

We did some groceries in the morning and came back for lunch. I had the leftover salmon patties on soy quinoa bread, topped with a sliced tomato and a slice of tasty cheese (cheddar cheese is called tasty cheese in Australia, funny eh?), and broiled it in the oven. Plus a sliced up kiwi.


Gus and I then went out to a used book store that one of our neighbours told us about. T's bookshop in Randwick was really great, cozy and warm, and we'll definitely be going back. They had floor to ceiling books and some great comfy chairs to lounge in while you relax with a coffee from their cafe. Gus picked up Dr Seuss' "The Lorax" and a smartie cookie, and I picked up a copy of "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" (don't laugh! I read somewhere that it has some really good tips for staying organized) and I had a skim cap. I'm sure I've said this before, but one of the things I love about Sydney is its coffee culture. They've got a ton of coffee shops that all serve great coffee (no drip coffee here, it's all espresso-based drinks). There are very few chains, so each one is unique.



For supper, we had some wholewheat rotini topped with a tomato sauce of zucchini and mushrooms, and crab, mussels, shrimp and squid, and the last of the soy quinoa bread with blue cheese on it toasted/broiled in the oven.


I'm almost a little sad that this is the end of the Kath challenge. Although I had a really hard time keeping up to her standards (and fell far short in the cleaning department), it was a fun experiment, and because of it, I now:

1. Have gmail Tasks up and running, which I LOVE. If you're into to-do lists and you use gmail, I highly recommend downloading Tasks from the gmail lab.
2. Am a member of the organics food co-op at the uni.
   
3. Have made beans from scratch, which I'll keep doing, cause it's easy to do and they taste better than beans from a can.
4. Have cute bowls to eat my oatmeal out of.
   
5. Will start spelling veggies as vegies

Thanks for following along and for all your words of encouragement!

Last day of the Kath challenge!

I LOVE SATURDAYS!!! It's my favourite day of the week. I woke up this morning at 5:50 (I forgot to turn off my alarm, so I woke up way earlier than I would normally). I didn't want to get out of bed so early on a Saturday, so I laid in bed and listened to a CBC Tapestry podcast (it was an interview with a guy who wrote a book about humanity's innate leaning towards kindness and compassion), then to balance off all those grand thoughts and theories, I listened to a Q podcast of an interview with Tori Spelling.

We all hopped out of bed at around the 7:30 and had french toast with some of that soy quinoa bread, topped with Farmer's Union plain light Greek yogurt, some sour cherries and a drizzle of maple syrup.


We haven't quite figured out what we're going to do today, but hopefully we can knock off a few things from our to-do list:

1. Get some passport pictures taken so we can renew our passports
2. Groceries
3. Enjoy the day (it's another sunny day here)
4. Pick a winner for the chocolate contest - stay tuned for tonight's post!

TGIF!!!

I picked up our local organic fruit and veggie basket today and was quite pleased at the haul this week. There are times that I forget that I'm in a country very different from Canada and then I have an experience like this. It's Fall here, and today, in the basket there were kiwis, oranges and corn. In Canada, kiwis, oranges and the word "local" just don't belong in the same sentence. And corn is local for about two minutes in late summer. If you blink hard, corn season is over. So I was thrilled to get this basket. The guy who gave it to me was apologetic that they didn't have any greens this week, and I was all "Dude, there's kiwis in there, it's okay!"


I had the last of the bean salad for lunch, with some soy quinoa bread toasted with butter. OMG - it was like two slices of toasty heaven.


I spent the afternoon reading about qualitative methods theory on our balcony, soaking up some sun (it's getting chillier by the day over here, so the chance to bask in a little bit of sun and warmth feels pretty nice).

I picked up Gus from school, and we had a snack of apples and oranges from this week's basket. For supper, we had a funny combination of salmon patties, gnocchi with steamed broccoli and parmesan, a stir fry of carrots and bok choy with bean sauce and some of that soy quinoa bread turned into garlic toasts. I'm not sure what I was thinking with the whole bean sauce thing, but at least it was the end of the carrots from last week's basket.


Now, I'm off for a little slice of chocolate cake with a small scoop of ice cream that I'm going to eat while watching Journey to the Centre of the Earth with Vic and Gus. TGIF!

Friday! and Day 6 of the Kath Challenge

We had serious downpours of rain all night but I woke up this morning to a sunshiney day. I feel like it's symbolic somehow. So, I started off my day at 5:50am with a 20 minute gentle hatha class, followed by a 15 minute shivasana, both from yogadownload.com.

Followed by (you guessed it!) oatmeal. The mix:

1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
2 heaping tablespoons of Farmer's Union light greek yogurt
a bunch of sour cherries
1 tablespoon of peanut butter
...and about a dozen choc bits (otherwise known as choc chips in Canada)


I'm off for my bike ride to school, where I'm going to run a few errands:

1. banking,
   
2. quick trip to Thoughtful Foods to pick up some dried romano beans,
   
3. print out some stuff for reading/reviewing,
   
4. stop by my favourite coffee shop to pick up our organic fruit and veggie basket for the week

Then back home to do some reading/reviewing till I pick up Gus from school.

A day that got better with bling

Oh what a crappy day. I met with my postgrad coordinator this morning and her comments could be summarized in three words: "suck it up". After the meeting, I got huge sympathy from fellow students but unfortunately that's not going to change any of my supervisory issues. I came home frustrated and defeated but tried to rally by doing a "letting go of your thoughts" meditation from yogadownload.com, then picked Gus up from school. We ordered pizza from Crust and I'm not even going to mention how many slices I had. Let's just say it was too many.


But then Vic came home, and when he found out what a lousy day I had, he whipped out this ring he had been saving to give me (on behalf of Gus) for mother's day. How sweet is he! Not only is it absolutely beautiful, but it's nested in chocolate. mmmm.


p.s. In trying to find a solution to my PhD problems, I found this site that said (among other things) these three very wise and pertinent things about doing a PhD:

1. Do not expect to enjoy doing a PhD.
2. Do expect to go mad.
3. If all else fails, eat chocolate.

Done and done (especially #3 and a little bit of #1 and #2)!

Day 5 of the Challenge...Almost there!

Today is a big day for me since I have a meeting with my post-grad coordinator at 11am to try to find some solutions for my supervisory issues. Wish me luck! To start the day off right, I was up at 5:45, did Dave Farmar's 30 minute sun saluations class from yogadownload.com. It's quite challenging and has some self-help-type messages worked into it, that normally I'm not a huge fan of, but today I thought they would be appropriate. After yoga, I had some oatmeal.

The mix:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 cup Farmer's Union light greek yogurt
  
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon plum spread
• some sour cherries

I love yogurt, and it took me a while to find the right brand here in Australia, but Farmer's Union is awesome. It's one of the few brands where the light version doesn't have all kinds of unpronounceable ingredients in it.

Here's the lunch I packed. Bean salad leftover from last night (adzuki beans, tomato, avocado, corn, olive oil and lemon), a pear and 2 ryvita crackers. I'm off for my usual bike ride to school (20 minutes of cardio).


Oh yeah - don't forget to leave a comment in last night's post for a chance to win Cadbury Caramellos and Fredos (unique to Australia!). I'll be picking a winner on Saturday.

Contest!

When we got back from Gus' art lessons at around 5:30, we made this very simple but tasty supper: carrot-potato soup (and almost finished up all those carrots we got in our organic fruit and veggie basket), biscuits, bean salad (made with the dried adzuki beans I picked up from Thoughtful Foods), and some oven-baked potato chips. It was all very tasty. Sometimes the simplest meals are also the tastiest.


Here's one of Gus' creations from art class (he also finished up a sculpture of a crane). He made it for me for mother's day. awwwwww! It's an aerial view of a love car, with a cannon that shoots out love arrows. I can't wait to post it up beside my desk in the post-grad room!


And, finally - a contest! Leave a comment (any comment) on this specific posting and on Saturday I'll randomly pick one person to win this assortment of Cadbury Koala Caramellos and Fredos. I'll get your address via e-mail and post it to you in the mail, wherever you are (although I can't guarantee that they won't arrive a little melty if I'm sending them to a different continent). Good Luck!

Over the hump

Here I am on Day 4 of the Kath challenge, I'm more than half way done! There's no way I could keep this blogging up for longer than a week! I woke up at 5:45 this morning, checked Michelle's latest post to find out she hasn't posted yet today (it would be evening from where she's posting). Has she given up on the challenge already??!?! Well, she did send me a link to an article in a Quebecois online newspaper about Kath! It seems we're not the only ones keeping tabs on Kath. Her readership is 5,000 strong!

I did the 30min detox yoga (to relieve last night's ice cream guilt) then made me some oatmeal.

The mix:

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 1 tablespoon almond, brazil, cashew butter
• sliced mango

Then made my lunch of a cheese sandwich (to be turned into a grilled cheese on the sandwich press in our school lunch room), broccoli and red pepper, tamari almonds (pesticide free!) and an orange.


I'm off for my daily bike ride to school, where I've got this on my plate:

1. Keep working away on editing/formatting some recent work
2. Attend a seminar on Intellectual Property for post-grad students

And that's about it. It'll be a short day for me, as I'll be picking Gus up from school to take him to his art lessons.

Remember: tonight's posting is a surprise for all readers. Stay tuned!!

Taco Tuesday!

I finally bought a membership to Thoughtful Foods, the organic foods co-op on campus, after mulling it over since I started uni last year. I'm pretty excited about it. They have all sorts of bulk dried goods and other treats like bulk maple syrup from CANADA!!! While I was there, I picked up some tamari almonds for snacking and some adzuki beans that I'm going to try cooking tomorrow (I've always used canned beans and have never tried cooking them from scratch).

The tradition in our house is that Tuesdays is Taco Tuesday. Usually we have soft tacos with wholewheat wraps, but the last time we went grocery shopping Gus wanted to try out the hard tacos for a change. The mix:

• refried beans
• mince beef
• avocado
• red pepper
• green onion
• shredded lettuce

mmmmm. I also had a cup of ice cream with a Arnott's chocolate bear (Arnott's have the market cornered on crackers and cookies in Australia. Luckily they make some really yummy things, so I can't complain). No picture of the ice cream because of the guilt!

OK - if anyone out there is following my Kath challenge week, be sure to check tomorrow evening's post for a surprise!!!

Day 3 of the Kath Challenge

This morning I woke up at 6am, just a little less fired up than yesterday but still up for the Kath challenge, checked Michelle's latest post to get inspired, then did 30min of Morning Flow yoga from yogadownload.com. It was pretty good, but a little too many backbends for my taste. I really liked Dave Farmar's sun salutation class that I did yesterday, but my arms were killing me today so I decided to give them a break and do something different.

This morning, I had some oatmeal and a cuppa coffee. The mix:

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 banana
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup light greek yogurt
1 tablespoon of almond, brazil, cashew butter
a sprinkling of coconut
a sprinkling of dried goji berries


Yesterday's lunch filled me up pretty good and took me right through till 6:30, so today I packed the same with the addition of a slice of Woolworth's colby cheese to put in my wrap. I'm getting a little sick of carrots, but we got so many in an organic fruit and veggie basket we picked up last week so I've got to use them up. I love Carman's muesli bars - they're all natural, tasty and filling.


I'm off to bike to school (20 min cardio) in the rain (wah!). Once I get to school, I'll be:

1. Formatting/editing some work I recently finished up for a chapter in my thesis and for a possible article for publication (fingers crossed!)
2. Trying to meet with my post-grad coordinator again today
3. Going to Thoughtful foods for dried beans and brown rice
4. Figuring out how to use emoticons in my postings

As you can see, I've totally given up on the fresh flowers thing! Talk to you later.

Being Kath is hard work

I got back from school (biked home - another 20 minutes of cardio) and had supper waiting for me. Vic made some sausages, sauteed zucchini and onions, corn and some sliced up avocado with lemon squeezed on top. Yummers. There's nothing better than a supper that someone else made for me. No wine tonight. wah!



So, I didn't get to a lot of the items on my list, mostly because of things that were out of my control (Thoughtful Foods is closed on Mondays, the post-grad coordinator was busy all day and I have no idea where to find fresh flowers on campus or close to campus). But, I did manage to figure out how to download Tasks on to my Gmail so that I can keep track of my to-do lists electronically; meet with Student Liaison at the Graduate Research School; get some writing done on my thesis and go to my qualitative methods class (subject was ethics - interesting stuff).

I'm finding that blogging so often is a lot of work, and I'm not getting around to some vital Kath tasks, like cleaning for example (which, for me, is always the first thing to go when time is precious). Maybe it takes a few days to get into the swing of things?

Vic is tucking Gus into bed, so now I'm going to:

1. Tidy up
2. Make myself a cuppa Twinings Chai tea with an Arnotts tim tam (I can't help myself)
   
3. Watch Desperate Housewives
4. Make lunches for tomorrow so I have more time for blogging in the morning
   
5. Write a to-do list for tomorrow
   
6. Sleep

Good night!

Day 2 of the Kath-off

OK, I admit it - After my post last night, I didn't exercise or write up my to-do list. I actually had a tea with one tim tam and watched The Office before nodding off. But today is a new day - and I'm feeling really good about channeling Kath today.

I woke up at 6am and after checking Michelle's blog, I felt extra-psyched about making today a Kath day. I did 30 min of a sun saluation class from yogadownload.com, then ate some oatmeal, Kath-style. Here's the mix:

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 banana
1/2 cup light greek yogurt
1 tblspn of almond-cashew butter
1 tblspn of plum spread
about a dozen bitter cherries

I made myself some lunch of carrots, an apple, some wrap fixings (wholewheat wrap, tuna in springwater and lettuce) and a Carman's muesli bar. These are about the only granola bars you can buy in aussie grocery stores whose first ingredients don't include sugar. Plus, they're yummy.


I'm off to bike to school (20 min of cardio), and I've got this to do once I'm there:

1. Meet with my thesis supervisor
2. Meet with the post-grad coordinator for my centre
3. Talk to the Graduate Research School
4. Squeeze in some thesis writing
5. Qualitative Methods class from 4 till 6pm
6. If time, drop by the uni organic foods shop to pick dried beans and brown rice, and find some fresh flowers.
   

See you later!

Becoming Kath

I've had a real downer of a week. Some serious problems with one of my thesis supervisors came to a head on Friday and left me feeling frustrated and a little depressed. If you ever pick up a guide to doing your PhD, you will always find a chapter on how to develop a good relationship with your supervisor and what to do when things go badly, because the supervisor-student relationship is fraught for most. I'm not sure why this is, but I can tell you that it sucks! I've taken certain steps to sort it out, and will hopefully have some resolution this week (my fingers are crossed for a supervisor that is better suited to me and my research), but in the meantime I think I've come up with a good strategy for dealing with the stress of it all.

Michelle and I are followers of a blog called Kath Eats Real Food. We sorta make fun of her (like "why won't she just eat a bag of doritos or drink a whole bottle of beer for once?"), but we will also be the first to admit that we are kinda in awe of her too. She's always upbeat, sunshiney, eats well, exercises all the time and her house is immaculate. This morning, while I was google-chatting with my sister, we speculated that maybe the reason she's so upbeat all the time is that she eats well, exercises and has such a clutter-free house. So, to test it out, we've decided to take the Kath-challenge for one week.

Here are the rules for the next week:

1. no junk food for a week (or just little bites)

2. lots of good food, especially raw food

3. clean our houses and keep them clean

4. 1/2 hour of exercise every day

5. blog about the food we eat every day

6. use place mats and buy fresh flowers

Number 3 is no easy task. Here's a picture of my living room pre-Kath-cleanup.


But I'm up for the challenge. So here goes, the rundown for the day (in Kath style): Today, I woke up at around 7am, made myself a bowl of oatmeal (no pics because this was pre-Kath challenge), chatted with my sister and then ran out to Target to buy cute bowls. Kath always eats out of cute bowls and they may just be the secret to her happiness.

When I got home, I helped Gus make a birthday card for a birthday party he was going to. Then I had a lunch of some leftover pumpkin (it was really butternut squash but they call it pumpkin here) potato soup and some bean salad. (check out the cute bowls, which actually did make me pretty happy)


Vic then dropped Gus off at the party, and he helped me get into the spirit of Kath, by cleaning the bathroom and bedroom while I cleaned the kitchen and living room. When we were done, we watched Twilight (I know Kath would have gone out for a run at this point - but Gus was at the birthday party and what better time to watch a girlie-teen-flick about vampires??) and had this snack of oranges and ryvita crackers.


After the movie, I made supper, a big veggie stir fry, some basa fillets and basmati rice. I also had a glass of wine, but only drank about 2/3 of it, then gave the rest to the husband to finish.


The day is slipping away from me, and to do this right, I'm going to need to work on my to-do list, fit in some exercise and pick up some fresh flowers. I'm thinking I might just get to those first two, but the fresh flowers will have to wait till Day 2 of the Kath challenge - it'll have to go on my to-do list for tomorrow!