Two clubs

Yesterday I joined not one, but two clubs. Now these are metaphorical clubs; they aren't the kind of clubs that demand membership fees, a uniform and a sworn allegiance towards lifelong memberships, but they are clubs that I am proud to be a part of nevertheless.

Club # 1: the sore bum club

On Sunday I took myself off for a long overdue bike ride along the Bay Path to Beaurmaris and back, retracing a route I took earlier in the year.



The day was gloriously clear and perfect riding weather. Lovely and sunny, but not too warm to overheat and get all sweaty. It felt good to be out on the bike again, after a way-too-long break over winter.



Beforehand I was worried that I'd have forgotten how to ride with my fancypants shoes. Instead I should have worried about how my bum would fare. The last 15km or so were not pleasant indeed. Why oh why didn't I wear my padded shorts?

After a day or so, I thought I'd recovered as I was able to sit down without too much discomfort. Then last night, 4 days after the initial ride, I attended my first ever spin class at a local bike shop (cool idea hey!!). Getting up on the bike at the start of the class proved that my bum had not yet recovered. Ouch! My bum needs to toughen up, that's for sure!

Club # 2: the sandal booties club

Yesterday I received a package from Urban Outfitters containing my first summer shoe purchase: sandal booties.



After a fruitless winter-long search for over-the-knee boots I decided to give up and focus on building up my sandals wardrobe. Despite living in sandals for many months of the year, I only own a few different pairs. This is a vast improvement on a few seasons ago when I basically livied in Birkenstocks for 6 months of the year. Thanks to youlookfab my sandal wardrobe has expanded a bit, but still has a long way to go.

Enter the latest addition: a cross between a sandal and a bootie. Talk about the best of both worlds!



It's too cold to wear them out at the moment without my toes getting frostbite and dropping off, but I'm looking forward to the weather warming up soon (please Melbourne?), and these coming out to play.

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One non-metaphorical club I am thinking of joining is some kind of bike riding group. Although I love heading out by myself, it's also great to ride with a group. To find new routes, to get encouraged as you go up hills, to chat as you ride down them, and then to stop for coffee at the end. My bike buddies are one thing I miss about Wollongong a lot!

I've searched on the internet and found a few prospects. My varied schedule makes it a bit tricky, but really it's just me being a big scardycat that's prevented me from actually trying out a ride somewhere. If I don't post that I've done so soon, can someone please keep me accountable and nag me about this?

Where does the time go?

Yet again it's been an inordinate amount of time between posts. My excuse is that for the last 3 months I've been back on the Monday to Friday grind of ward work. With a good helping of weekend cover shifts thrown in as well.

But as of this Friday afternoon I'll be back on shift work. Is it strange that I can't wait? I love having random days off during the week even if it does mean working a lot of weekends. I'm also looking forward to working 40, rather than 70 hours per week.

And who knows, maybe as well as giving me more time for blogging, it will also give me more time for doing something to blog ABOUT!

Depending on what (if any) job I end up getting for next year, I may never have another ward job again. We shall see!

I shouldn't complain too much though. I've just had a lovely weekend off. I was technically on-call all weekend, but didn't have to go in at all. Instead I went and saw the Tim Burton exhibtion, then went out and drank waaaaay too many cocktails, then slept in and caught up with a friend visiting from Sydney at my favourite cafe. So it's not all work and no play.

Today when I got home after 11 hours at work, I was tempted to kick back and bludge around the apartment (yet again). Instead I dragged myself out for a walk along the beach. Wandering along, I ran into 2 seperate people I know and stopped to say hello. While I still don't feel exactly "at home" here, it is nice to see familiar faces and feel like I have some connections here.

Next challenge is to go for a run after work, or maybe actually make it to a yoga class or the pool. I'm working 15 hours tomorrow though, so it certainly won't be then!!