I hope you all have a healthy, happy and safe day and spend lots of valuable time with your loved ones.

Selina

It's been 5 years...

Since my white Christmas in Canada. I was fortunate to spend it with my two bestest friends in the whole wide world. One I was travelling with, the other was on her honeymoon and we met up in Whistler in BC to spend Christmas together. This is us on Christmas Eve wondering through Whistler Village. It was magical!

This is the view from our room when we woke on Christmas morning. The Christmas trees were covered in newly fallen snow!

This is our snowman "Rudolph". He was alot harder to build then we thought!!

Memories, memories. I would love to experience another one, but only if my whole family comes next time. :)

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I'm loving being on holidays :) Alot of my clients said "you must be looking forward to sleeping in and just relaxing and doing nothing", my response was quite the opposite "no way, I can't wait to get out and train and train and train as much as I'd like to every day!!" They look at me like I'm sick.

I went for a cycle with dad yesterday morning for 70mins, then tried a transition change and went straight into a 40minute run. Gawd, that's a lot harder than the pros make it look! ;) My legs were wobbly for the first 20mins, I probably looked a little tipsy!! Today it's off to the gym to smash the legs and do shoulder rehab.

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Tonite is Christmas mass and then our traditional party at my nan's house. It's such a special part of Christmas for us, and it means alot to her as well. One more sleep!!

In the Spirit...

I JUST LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

I've been doing the countdown for about 10 weeks now, and now there's only THREE sleeps to go!! We had our Christmas Cardio Circuit at work today (yes I know I'm supposed to be on holidays, but I had to come in today!!), and everyone just had a great time. We advertised that there was going to be a special guest, so the trainer who took the circuit dressed up as Santa! I was dressed in red and had my reindeer antlers on, and some of the clients had Christmas accessories on as well. To my disappointment, they drew the line at having Christmas music on to do the circuit to! It was a fun, festive environment! We finished off with a little party and drew random prizes for the attendees. :)

Now I'm entertaining myself as I'm banned from the shopping centre as my OH is there buying my Christmas gift!!!! I've been bugging him for weeks "what are you getting me, what are you getting me", "have you got my present yet, have you got my present yet". I'm a big kid when there's gifts around... if there's something with my name on it under the tree, I have to look, touch, feel and try to peek to see what it is... I have no patience... only three sleeps!!

Bliss...

Last weekend was great to get away from everything all and just relax. Saturday afternoon was spent in the pool drinking cocktails. We enjoyed a lovely seafood dinner on Saturday evening.

This was the view standing from the doorway in our room :) Pic taken at 5am on Sunday - body clock ticked in as normal :)


This pic I took while lying in the hammock outside our room. I spent an hour in there just enjoying the scenery after waking up at 5am. Plus, breakfast wasn't ready till later!!

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I've got to attend a funeral today. My friend's mother past away last weekend from pancreatic cancer. She was only 48. She was only diagnosed in September with cancer. It's just so so sad. The youngest child is only 16. Their father this year has lost his mother, his father and his wife. I've got a lot to be thankful for.

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Today is my last day of work for F.O.U.R weeks!! This time of year is slow so it's my only opportunity to take real holidays. It's been 2 years since I've had time off that isn't a rushed weekend, or something to do with work, so as you can imagine, I'm hanging out big time!! Lots to do today to get everything organised at work while I'm MIA :)

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I saw a sports medicine doctor yesterday for my shoulder. He pointed out that although the ultrasound showed nothing, it's only covering some bits, not getting it all. I've got to go back to rehab again - so no upper training for another 6-8 weeks except for strengthening exercises. I'll be a good patient and see what I can do. The sooner it's all working properly again, the better.

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ENJOY THE WEEKEND!!! ONLY 4 SLEEPS!!

What I cut my island weekend short for...

Came home early NOT hungover ;) to get into work to assemble the following...


There are bits and pieces pieces of what are going to be, 3 nice big sturdy machines. Right now, the boys are hard at work. I'm not required coz I have no idea how to do what they're doing :) I'm just site supervisor :P

Best Piece of Advice I've Ever Received

NOT! Let me start at the beginning... grab a pillow this is gonna be a long ride ;)
After having frequent pain in my left shoulder for about 12 months - I have mentioned (maybe I should say, whined) about it many times in this blog, I got a referral for an ultrasound. I've had fortnightly massages, had my chiro play around, done zero boxing with clients - much to their disappointment, had various months off upper body training, only to go to baby weights and it flares again, changed my computer to help my posture... etc etc etc. So after having the last 5 weeks off any upper body training, lefty was going great! So well, I thought it was better. Soooo I train upper, and helloooo here we go again. Usually only chest exercises irritated it, now it's all upper training. CRAP. So I'd had jack of it, tried everything else recommended, so made the doc's appt, and paid a fortune for a lil slip of paper to say I need an ultrasound.

So off I went today. Got naked almost and let them rub a cold thingy-me-jiggy over my arm whilst I performed various movements. It was quite interesting to see it all on screen, reality TV at it's best. ;) Anyway, mr radiologist #1 got mr radiologist #2 to come in and ask me further questions. I explained what hurt etc. He said "Well the ultrasound shows up nothing there". My face falls - I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP! I tell him what movements I can't perform (ie I can't undo my bra clip with my left arm, I can't do tricep dips let alone real dips as it 'catches' in that position) and he comes out with "Just avoid anything that aggravates it". Like what... anything to do with my upper body?? I almost laughed, and then smacked him. Then I almost cried.

What do I do now?!?

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Santa came early today. Santa in the form of a Qld Rail employee.... with... *wait for it*................. ALL MY NEW EQUIPMENT!!!!!!!!!
So there's 3 new machines in a kazillion pieces on the studio floor at the moment, with............... NO instructions. So I call the supplier who says "That's because there are no instructions. It's all self-explanatory". HELLO?!?!? Self explanatory for who?? You who puts them together all day, or me, who has zero patience, and can hardly do a puzzle, let alone BIG 3D ones?!?!

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On a better note, I'm getting away for the weekend. Going to an island for my OH's Christmas party. Best part, is it's all paid for. I don't even have to take my wallet. Except I probably should for ID purposes incase I'm found passed out in a garden from drinking too much free alcohol.
I'm kidding about that part :P Serious :) I've got to come into work on Sunday to assemble the self explanatory machines...

Meet my new best friend...

We spent 1hr and 50mins of quality time together this morning. I just love this time of year, there's so much sun, and thanks to my reliable body clock I start becoming conscious about 5am and spring out of bed not long after. :))

My ankle is doing good, ice, compression, small doses of elevation and anti-inflammatories did the trick. Still sore to move, but can walk normal. Should be right to run in the next few days :)

I joined the club today!!! I fell off my bike!! LoL *(see previous bike posts if that makes no sense)* The fact that I don't even wear the 'proper' shoes and clippy thingy yets makes it not quite legitimate though!!
Imagine: Girl feeling like an elite athlete on new bike, flying round corners, on the same bikepath as ankle incident yesterday (I think I need to get off that path!), debris still everywhere, mis-negotiates a turn on the path, ends up with tyre wedged between path and soft dirt, runs into tree and headbutts a branch (incident #2 where I owe my life to my helmet!), screams and falls into the dirt, taking the tree branch with her. Couldn't get up as was cracking up laughing!! Little Miss Klutz is at it again! Worst injury was to the bike with the chain coming off, but easy fixed.
No better way to start Sunday!?!

LUNCH!!

Tuna, Cottage Cheese and Pineapple Lettuce Wraps

The tuna has cucumber and red capsicum mixed through it and placed on top of a pineapple slice (which you can't see). Topped with cottage cheese and tomato. YUM!!
Eating it isn't all that graceful but worth it all the same!
I like have lots of time to prepare yummy lunches!!

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We had a whopper of a storm last nite here, it was an open-air disco, all nite. We lost power at 12.00am, it didn't come back on till 5am. Not fun trying to sleep with no air-con or fan, and having to close all windows from the strong, horizontal rain! Of course at 5am when I just got comfy again my alarm went off for a run.

...which was very eventful. I came across street signs that had been knocked down in the storm, there was debris over the road everywhere including lots of dead toads...

The birds were out, so this time I armed myself with a stick. Luckily (for them!) today I didn't need it. Should of held onto it thought - a rather large dog scared the bejeezus out of me - decided it would be funny to come charging at me from it's hiding spot down a secluded pathway (don't know where it came from, but wasn't impressed with the owners not keeping it in the yard). I screamed, and probably woke a few people up. I'm terrified of big dogs. I just don't like them. It liked me though and I couldn't get rid of it. Until I had to out-smart it by running round a shop - when it got excited and took off, I quickly did a U-turn and got outta there and down the next street. Nothing like a little bit of sprint training :P

At exactly 59mins and 45secs into the run disaster struck. The path I was on was covered in pine needles and pine cones, all blown off in the storm. The path was hardly visible. Of course, Miss Klutz had to step right on top of a pine cone, rolling her ankle. Man it hurt. I limped back home which took 20 mins. Lucky it was on the way back through at the end of the run and not the beginning. It's big and fat and sore, but I'm tough.

Tomorrow will be a bike ride and maybe even a swim :) I love weekends!!!