Catching up on February……….

February was busy month.  It started on the 1st with my first duathlon for the year….  The last MORE FM triathlon/duathlon to be held in Hamilton run by Shane Hooks.  It was a good day and I finished in a great time.  Unfortunately I think both the ride and the last run were shorter than they should have been!  The following weekend was both my birthday on the Saturday and Cameron’s Weetbix tryathlon on the Sunday.

Cameron did well. Last year he had problems at the start of the swim and ended up being pulled for the whole swim.  This year he swam just about the entire two lengths of the pool.

READY!

In there somewhere!

Off to transition

This year he also had no problems finding his bike, and was soon off.

Found It

Racing

Running

And Finished…………………….

Photo from SuperSport Images

He was thrilled as 2 All Blacks had signed his shirt

The weekend after was WET.  It rained and rained and rained, and for some fun Rob & Tim went off and did THE BLACK STUMP.  They had to stop a couple of times to clear the mud from between their back wheels and their frames to enable them to keep riding!

a bit of mud!

more mud!

already had a wash!

The following weekend was the REAL Duathlon.  It was a lovely day! It was the first time that the family had managed to come and see me.  I took longer than I wanted to, but I had a great finish!

Photo Courtesy of Marathon Photos

And the following weekend – WE DID NOTHING!!!!!!!

Brown Belts……….

Cam and Miss D had their first grading for Taekidokai today.  They did very well and have both moved from white belt to brown.

Sensei came from Australia for the grading, and was fantastic with the kids.  It wasn’t all serious, they had some fun, but hopefully they also learnt some lessons…… At one stage, he got some of the  brown belts do do their kata with as much effort as they could, and then with as little.  Of course with no effort they all felt silly – he asked them which felt better, training hard and trying to do your best, or being silly and making no effort.  They all answered “training hard”, and he talked to them about how it was the same with everything in life, if you trained hard and gave it your best, it usually felt better.

He also told them to fix their mistakes as soon as they could – again this was in relation to their kata, but he also said that the same thing applied in life. That was Cameron’s lesson – he got his kata wrong first time and he went “Ooops” and stopped – Sensei encouraged him to keep going (reminding him that he may not have seen him if Sensei and Hanshi David had been looking at the grading sheet, so don’t say “oops”!!!) and to correct his mistake as quick as he could.

The photo’s aren’t flash – made the mistake of using the Screen instead of the viewfinder and not a lot is in focus, but here are a couple of shots…………….

"Yame" - Stop

sitting stance

Bart - front stretch

Miss D's - front stretch

Front punch

Punching

Press ups

Sit ups

Side splits

Brown Belt #1

Brown Belt #2

I was also impressed at how they sat for the next hour as everyone else did their grading!

Mmmmm Cereal

I entered a competition through one of the duathlon’s I did – and looky what I won!

YUMMY!!!

Don’t think it will quite last us 3 months, but it will last a while, and gives us some different flavours to try – like Feijoa Lite – who would have thought of putting feijoa’s in a cereal???

Tryathlon Practice

Cam did the tryathlon training at Waterworld again this year.  They had a tryathlon yesterday and the Weetbix one is next week.

Ready

Set

GO

Swimming

Cycling

Running

And the BEST part - FINISHING!

Camping………. part two

We spent two nights camping – the kids had a great time.  We swam (mum included) in a freezing river/stream…… we did 2 small walks…………… we toasted marshmallows…………………………the kids collected cicada shells………….. and befriended the neighbours – with Ablie managing to score a second breakfast one morning!

Camping……….part one

We tried our first camp trip this last weekend. We were extremely lucky to be able to borrow a heap of gear from friends the Goldsworthys. They lent us tents and solar showers and a lantern and pots and an air bed and stretchers and water containers and get the idea – oh yes and not least a trailer to carry it all in!

No cozy campground with a tv lounge for us – no – Rob had us traipsing off to the Coromandel Forest Park – Kauaeranga Valley. We stayed in the Whangaiterenga Campsite. It was recommended as the best with kids because of the easy walks and the swimming hole – the flush toilets had me sold!

The road in was interesting – after a few k’s on gravel, we came across the following sign:

Uh huh – the pot holes were not large – just endless! Rob asked the lady at information centre if the road got any better – and she just laughed!!!! The sills on my car had a teeny layer of dust:

And the bridges looked like this:

_

We were expecting the camp site to be fairly empty – but it was chocka – however we ended up in about the best spot in the site.  It was sheltered and shady, and we had neighbours who were experienced campers, and lent us stuff!  They had a trailer that Rob nicknamed “The Tardis” as it seemed bottomless!

Nordic Walking

Last Sunday I finally got the opportunity to try Nordic Walking with Sandrine, our next door neighbour.

Sandrine is a qualified Nordic Walking instructor, and during the term takes classes from the local neighbourhood house. But I got my own one on one lesson, and I needed it. I didn’t  find it easy to do.  Sandrine said not to think too much (that part should be easy!) as you tend to do it wrong if you think too much about what you are doing, and that was true.  I need a lot more practice, and only got it right some of the time, but it was fun, and I would like to do it again.

If you get the chance – give it a go!!!

Early birthday present

Last week I got my birthday present a month early.  Rob felt sorry for me as I was the only one without a new one……………….

Avalanche….. Hopefully not a indicator of things to come!

It has knobs on the up and down thingys on the front…………….

They make the suspension hard or soft or something in between!

I apparently have the best spiky things out of all the bikes…………

Disc brakes….

That need to be bedded in – so I am avoiding narrow tracks with sharp bends! and steep downhills! Oh hang on – I avoid th0se anyway!!!!!!

And it has very good advice on the handle bars….

Aside from all the smart comments, it is very nice and I find it way better than my old one to ride and much more comfortable – I am very spoilt….. As for my old one… Cameron has been riding it all of this week – and what is scary is that it doesn’t look too big for him!

Christmas Dosh – All Spent

Cam got a warehouse voucher from Nana & GUB and dollars from NAL – what he really really really wanted to buy was a bean bag……  So Rob took him to The W.are.ho.use and of course they “usually have them, but had sold out!”…..

So Cam paid for Dad’s potplant pot to cash the voucher and get the change (Dad repaid him later Nana – IN FULL) and Dad took him to B.un.nings and S.po.tlig.ght and nobody had any he either liked or could afford to buy ($50 to $75 for an empty bean bag!) AND fill with beans as well!

Mum and Dad suggested Tra.de Me – which went down like a lead ballon, because he thought it would be second hand and dirty and take for ages to arrive…………………….

But, we actually found a brand new, in the packaging one, that he liked on an auction that was closing that day.

Four days later (long holiday weekend) the bag arrived, but all the stores in Hamilton that we went to were out of fill.  Off to Nana’s Cam went for a holiday, and the morning he came home, Dad found filler at M.itre. 10 M.ega B.ris.coes. Yayyyy

First question in the car on the way home – has my bean bag been filled?

And if he feels lke it, it is big enough to share…..

Now he wants a RAT!

Barts Mishap

The Story