Thinking about summer...

[morsla]

The warmer months are really here. It's amazing how much difference that one hour of daylight-savings time makes... after work it was still light outside, and warm enough to head out into the park. It's something I want to do more often, although I'll have to get used to a few things if I want to practice my forms in public: small children stare, and a drunk man asked me to pray for him to find the backpack his 'friends' stole from him. I've never had anyone ask me to work miracles with Tai Chi before...

I have spent most of the day indoors, sorting out the third issue of Insurgent. I'm quite happy with the current batch of articles, and I'm even happier that I seem to be learning new things every time I prepare a page. It's a steep learning curve, but I'm much more confident with InDesign than I was a few months ago. The easy part (editing all the other contributions) is done... now, I just need to finish my own article. It's not that I dislike writing - I just enjoy editing things more. One day, I'll convince someone to let me do this sort of thing for a living.

fetnas and mousebane came over yesterday, and we planned out a route for the Overland Track.

• Day 1
  Cradle Visitor Centre --> Ross Creek --> Cradle Summit --> Waterfall Valley Hut (~7 hours)
• Day 2
  Waterfall Valley Hut --> Side trip to lake district --> Windermere Hut (~5 hours)
• Day 3
  Windermere Hut --> Frog Flats (~5 hours)
• Day 4
  Frog Flats --> Pelion Gap --> Mount Ossa --> Kia Ora Hut (~7 hours)
• Day 5
  Kia Ora Hut --> Windy Ridge Hut --> Pine Valley Hut (~7 hours)
• Day 6
  Pine Valley Hut --> day trips to the Acropolis and Parthenon peaks (rest day if needed, otherwise a climbing day)
• Day 7
  Pine Valley Hut --> Narcisus Hut --> Lake Petrarch beach (~5 hours)
• Day 8
  Lake Petrarch --> Lake St. Clair

Later in the afternoon I cooked lots of vegetarian food on the BBQ, aeliel delivered a killing blow with her six-layered Mars Bar Cake Of Doom, and we spent the rest of the day stuffing ourselves silly in the park. All in all, a good use of a Sunday ;)

I'll be heading out to Golgotha in a few hours. It's been months since I went out last - something else to add to the things-to-do-more-of-this-summer list, I guess. It's going to be a long list - I really should start writing it soon...

Comments

[virtual-munkee.livejournal.com]

mmm summertime.. its a killer day here in adelaide, already (8am!!) wish I didn't have to be inside all day. oh well.

sounds like things are going well, i am aiming to write a page of useful info before riding into uni...

the daylight savings twilight is making me work more at home, can only be a good thing *makes spare room into study* :)

[morsla.livejournal.com]

Twilight's the best time to work, as it isn't as hot inside :)

Well, early morning could work as well, but that's not really likely to happen... I'll be doing a lot of painting over the summer, but the afternoon sun comes straight into the spare room. Not good when you need to keep a palette wet.

For some reason, I still manage to be most productive after about 11pm.

[virtual-munkee.livejournal.com]

I've stopped being AS productive late at nite, unless I am mega focussed... I still get a hell of a lot done, as long as I am away from the tv and all those late nite films and docos ;)

When I say EARLY, i mean like..830 ;) i work in bursts :)

I love your new gameplan though, its about time you stepped back and smelt the flowers a lil! even though you are still mega busy, you are definitely having some ME time... yay for happiness n stuff :thumbsup:

Oh, I've started kickboxing again...Muay Thai is an awesome martial art, I aim to get good at the westernised KICKboxing and get into some proper THAIboxing :):)

Can you recommend some good stretches for my kicking balance? I know there were some good roundhouse ones at kung fu, I desperately need to work on my legs :)

[morsla.livejournal.com]

I'd like to keep working two days a week, and finding odd jobs to earn a bit of money on the side... it would be a nice pace to live at. Don't know if I can keep it up next year though, as I won't have the lab work to fall back on.

Roundhouse kicks, eh? The ones that I can think of that improve your balance don't really stretch you much - it's better to warm up, then stretch, and then work on your balance.

From a kicking stance, bring your knee up like you would for a full roundhouse - around the outside, pivoting on your supporting leg as you go. Try to control the movement enough to stop exactly as your supporting foot turns 90 degrees, and then reverse the movement until your foot is on the floor.

You can stand next to a chair, to force yourself to keep the same height in the movement... it trains your balance and gets you to use your hips instead of just your legs.

Another one that we used for side kicks had a similar hip movement in it - bring the right knee up as you pivot around to the left, and then pivot back to the right without putting your foot back on the ground. Do them in sets of ten each side - if you have any mistakes in the movement, the cumulative error will really be obvious by the end of the set.

[virtual-munkee.livejournal.com]

oh yeah, i remember the sidekick one! its the one kungfu move that i can still do, thanks to my bike riding thighs :):)

ta for the advice, i am going to start doing dynamic stretches and these ones every morn as soon as i wake up :)

good luck wit the job searching, if u ever get sick of waiting round u should come to adelaide.. lotsa work for science presenters at the investigator! ;) sounds like u have a sweet deal, would there be lab work at the uni perhaps?? if u ever wanted to do a phd, u should SO get in touch with csiro in perth...they would love u there!! nice and organised department too..

and in the meantime, i am SO jealous u are doing ur own thing *stabs phd* just cant be assed at the mo!