Achievement

No photos today - but I had to write that I completed my fourth half-marathon this morning. It was a hilly course around Melbourne, and in drizzling rain, but beautiful. Along Southbank, around the Tan, the MCG, Fitzroy Gardens, and then the same again. There was a lovely sense of comaradarie too, and with my iPod on my favourite running tracks, I nearly burst into song a couple of times.

However, I have been suffering dreadful gastro for the last couple of hours. I think it's from the meal I ate last night. My whole family met at a bistro in Ringwood to celebrate my eldest nephew, Cam's, 17th birthday. I won't recommend the Moroccan Lamb. It was a great night otherwise.

There is no good news for Louise and Gavin. He has detriorated and they thought he had only a few hours on Thursday night. He is being moved to palliative care in a hospital closer to home today. Louise and the girls are holding up surprisingly well. We are all rostered on to provide a meal for the next four Wednesday nights.

This is Greg's last week at Blackburn High - it is tempered with stress, excitement, and sadness. Like life.

Chocolate and other things

I was going to write about our lovely weekend making chocolate inspired things, but before I got around to putting fingers to keyboard I heard some dreadful news about the husband of a friend.

After being diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer, Gavin bought a Harley Davidson as this had always been something he wanted to do. In the weeks leading up to beginning chemo, he was hit by a car while riding the bike, and suffered head injuries. He has been unable to begin chemotherapy, and is unlikely to live out the year. Gavin is one of the fathers from the group of friends we made in our antenatal class, just before Zoe was born. He has two daughters, Jessie and Georgie, 11 and 9 years old. His wife, Louise, is just getting by. Greg and I have been shocked and saddened by this news. It seems that the course of our lives can change so dramatically in such a small amount of time. We wish the whole family much love.

I had been excited about our productivity, so I will include it here - Zoe's chocolate chip cookies that had almost more choc chips than dough, and a chocolate coloured dress that I made a love wearing (inspired by "A Friend to Knit With").



Love to all of our friends and family.

Long weekend

It's the Queen's Birthday long weekend for us all, and so far it has been delightful.

Greg has been busy with work, taking the role of principal during the week, along with all of the organisation and marking that goes with exam time. He has also completed most of his reports, so he has been very efficient. He went shopping for new clothes for his new job today, but didn't have a lot of luck.

Zoe went to a friend's house for a sleepover. They watched DVDs and stayed up far too late! At least it wasn't the 4 am bedtime that they all had last weekend at Mia's birthday party! Here is the very stylish cushion Zoe made for Mia. Mia learns piano with Zoe's piano teacher (and our very good friend) Leonie, so you can see she has piano keys on the fabric. She also barracks for Collingwood, as do we, so the black-and-white theme is very appropriate.

I made Zoe some pyjamas today - they are a little large! It's always hard to work out what size to make her clothes. She is quite small for her age, so I chose a smaller size, but it was obviously still too big in this pattern!

My gym hosted a premier of "Sex in the City" on Thursday night - lots of fun. It's not the cleverest or most original of films, but it pushed all the right buttons for me. It sparked a lot of discussion amongst the girls in my Yr 12 class on Friday. (The boys thought they were in heaven: Amelia had made choc chip cookies AND cupcakes, then Antra came in with more choc chip cookies still warm from the oven! It took a while to get them all on track with the task!)

Went out for dinner with my old school friend, Yvonne. It was lovely to catch up with her, and fun to see how much we've changed but how much we've also stayed the same.

I ran 21km this morning! The half-marathon is in two weeks so I left Freckle with Greg and ran along the bike path by the river into the city. I think I kept up a good pace, but I became very weary at about 16km. The rest of the day I have spent being very gentle with myself!

Besides all of this, I am keeping up with my marking, report writing and preparation, three knitting projects (!), and I have cut out a dress and skirt this afternoon.

Of course, we have all still had to keep up with the washing, vacuuming, grocery shopping, lawn mowing, cleaning, cooking....