General Update

Things are chugging along here, and I figured I'm overdue for a update.

The Flat

I've furnished the living room area of the flat as all the old furniture was my old flatmates. I ended up simply making a couple trips to Ikea and am pretty happy with the results. My flat has blue carpet so I was pretty limited with what I could use without making the room too dark... so it is a very black and white decor which surprisingly works.

I allowed myself the luxury of the chase as I figure I'll more than justify it during my recovery time

My favourite part is the new HD TV :)

The second wave of furniture will come when I am able to pay down some more of my debt, so for now I still have the old dinning table

As far as flatmates go - I have a new one (obviously) and while it did take me a while to find one I also stepped out of the mold a bit. My new flatmate is a lawyer from Perth, who just moved to Sydney in January. His name is Raury and so far we are getting along great. The new part is that I typically live with girls, so this is a bit of a new adventure. So far we've sorted out the cleaning schedule and are getting all the little things sorted out so things are going well. :)

Swimming

Monday is the last swim of the season - a 2.4K swim at Bondi beach. It is a different course (picture below) and has us swimming out further than normal so that will be interesting. The group which swam today said they saw large sting rays and some other sealife before they hit a large pod of stingers. So my hope is that the sting rays and fishies are around with out the jelly fish.

The typical swims stay inside the two points, so it's quite a bit further out...

My Knee

My knee has been bothering me a bit more these days - so I am taking drastic measure and not drinking. I'm also noticing certain things which make it ache/hurt like crossing my legs. So sorry mother, but I won't be able to sit as lady like as I should as it hurts my knee. I think it has something to do with the whole fact that it puts pressure on my knee in the direction in which I don't have the ligament supporting.

I have my surgery scheduled for the 23rd of June after I get back from the states and luckily my mother is going to be able to come take care of me/keep me company while I'm recovering during the 2 weeks off.

Until then, I am allowed to swim, cycle, and run (but only in a straight line). Which makes things interesting, but at least I have some things I can do.

The Verdict Is In

I have torn my ACL. :(

If you are like I was and have heard about this surgery but have no clue what it means... allow me to enlighten you. The ACL or anterior cruciate ligament is the ligament which essentially the ligament which holds the femur and shin bone together when you bend your knee forward - so it's kind like your brakes. It also provides you knee with support when you do any sideways or pivoting type motion. Without this ligament I have to be extremely careful with any sideways movements especially when my knee is bent. If I'm not careful the bones can slip out of place and cause all sorts of pain and suffering on my part.

Lovely I know. I feel like I'm an old lady who could break with any wrong move - literally!

So what does this mean for me... I can almost walk normally. I say almost because I know I'm not extending my knee completely but to everyone else I look normal. No soccer, basketball, or virtually any other sports... but the worst of all is I can't dance or wear heels (especially no heels when drinking as this typically leads to dancing). I can swim (as long as I am extremely comfortable going in and out of the ocean), cycle, and run in a straight line. So again at least I have my swimming. :)

I do, however, need surgery if I ever want to do any of the above again without the potential of my knee giving way. As it is it feels unsteady and every now and then it feels like the torn ligament bits are saying hello to their friends in places they aren't supposed to be, and I can tell you it is as uncomfortable as it sounds.

The challenge comes in that I have a trip back to the states end of May early June, so if I do the surgery now I could be almost normal by the time I go home. However if there are any complications with the surgery it could compromise my ability to fly. Additionally, there are 3 of our 8 team members from work currently on vacation for the next 3 weeks so if I leave our team will be severely strained in a time when i can do some good stuff. So, I have scheduled my surgery for the Wednesday after I get back from the states.

Until that date I'll be playing it very carefully to make sure I don't do anything to make the situation worse.

Today in Sports News.....

So for over a year I've been involved with a couple basketball teams and all has been well and fine - not injuries, good fun, etc.

A couple months ago I decided to join the Deloitte soccer team which plays at the same building as my basketball league - in fact on the basketball courts. However since I've been playing there have been a couple too many injuries for my liking. It all started with the first game where I was kicked in the calf which cause a massive bruise and knocked knees with a guy which caused a bone bruise and fluid to form... The next couple games I was a bit more tame with no injuries.

Last week we had a bye so played a just for fun game against the Partners and Directors at Deloitte. During that game one of the Partners forgot he was wearing glasses and did a header - promptly cutting a gash on his nose which got blood on my jersey.

This last Monday it all went down hill.... I knocked knees with someone again - prompting a swift return of my previous bone bruise. Then to top it off I managed to do something to my knee when going to play defense against someone and something just wrong happened.

Two doctors later I have an appointment for an MRI next Thursday and the surgeon estimates I have a 70% chance of needing surgery. NOT COOL!

I've obviously not playing soccer or basketball but my doctor does want me to do a bit of swimming - sorry at this point I have to look for the bright side, even if it is one of those small sunny patches on a very dark day.

As I know more I'll post more, for now I have an xray of my knee which looks normal from what I've been told and am attempting to walk normally without hurting myself (which was the doctor's orders).

Ocean Swim Update

After my initial swim I have continued to train for and participate in ocean swimming. As it's been a bit part of my free time I figured it was about time I wrote something about it. :) Today was an amazing swim in the actual Harbour. The swim started at the Opera House and ended at the Opera House. For those who know Sydney it essentially went to Mrs. Macquarie's chair and back in the little inlet/lagoon area next to the Opera House.

The race started and ended from the pier just below the Opera House

It was funny because when you look at the water the waves look pretty small, however they were actually pretty big when you were in the water - or they at least felt big. Through my training group I've managed to find a girl who swims at the same pace as I do and we were swimming by each other the whole time. The only annoying thing was that there was a guy swimming between/around us that was swimming drunk. He literally kept bumping into both of us and it was very annoying.

Now there are couple unique things about swimming in the harbour. One is that the water is very murky. We can typically see the floor of the ocean and fish swimming around, however I don't think we could see more than two feet in front of our hands.

One of the earlier waves

In terms of providing the times they were very prompt... Now my first time pretty good by most standards and I finished 2K in 41 minutes, so when I saw a time of 31 minutes I knew something was off because I did not swim that much better. Across the board all the times were fast so the course must have been very short.

Final Snapshots from Tasmania

To pick up my very drawn out story... we left St. Helens on Sunday morning and set off to the Bay of Fires before heading to Launceston. Now when you plan our trip to Tasmania there are certain things which people rave about seeing. On the East coast it is Freycinet National Park and the Bay of Fires. We'd already made the loop through Freycinet so the Bay of Fires was our next thing to look forward to.

Now it's called Bay of Fire because there is a kind of algae/fungus/stuff that grows on the rocks that stains them orange. And they are really stained - I was walking around bare foot and it didn't come off on my feet.

Anyways, we were very much looking forward to some awesome scenery. Now maybe we were tired or jaded but we weren't all that impressed. We found a lookout point and snapped some pictures and were set to take off. However I will say that I do enjoy these pictures the most of all from the trip. :)

The orange rocks

Yes it was a bit cold but and windy but it was still nice
The beaches were great

We took the opportunity to take advantage of the beach when it was empty

After taking in the scenery we left to go to Launceston. We were looking forward to an easy country drive... little did we know it would be all two lane roads and about a hours worth of hair pin turns up and down the steep hills - and I wish I was joking on the amount of this kind of driving it was. There were points at which I seriously felt like I was getting dizzy from during back and forth down the road.

While the driving wasn't exactly the best, the views were spectacular.

View from the top of one of the hills I was talking about

The country side

Ok, so this is a random one... this was an information center at one of the very small towns which is very environmentally conscious

Once we got to Launceston we were happy to return to the land of nice restaurants and civilisation. After getting lunch by the water we went up to the Cataracts Gorge. This is an area where the Tamar River comes down to the ocean and was damned to create some recreational areas back in the 20's. The area was very awesome. There is an outdoor lap pool, an exquisite lawn area, and some decent hikes. Now we still were a bit over the hiking so we took the easy paths, but it was still a great thing to see.

I also learned something while we were at Cataracts Gorge. There was a Tasmanian Tiger which used to roam the area. However, like with many rare species, it was hunted into extinction and can't be found anywhere.

View of the lawn and swimming pool

The valley goes like this for as far as we could see - pretty spectacular

A painting of the Tasmanian Tiger

The city of Launceston did offer more civilisation than we were used to, however there wasn't enough to warrant too much of description. So I will close this series of posts.

Tasmania Part II

So to pick up where I left off... Friday night Marieke and I headed to what was the only open pub in the little town we were staying in or at least the only one which looked 'safe' enough to go into... or so we thought. It only took about 15 minutes for one of the natives to become curious about these foreign things invading on their territory. (Now I will pause here to let you know most of the other people traveling around were in motor homes and close to or well past retirement age.) We were going fine, and he was kind enough to answer all our questions about the idiosyncrasies of Tasmania... until he pulled out the Nazi comment. To which my German travel companion gave him the bird and informed him that it was time for him to leave.

He did sulk back later on in the night and made amends, however that was the first and not the only spark to fly that night. As the night continued more of the natives became curious and realised the foreigners wouldn't bit and began to come chat. However give it is Autumn (not fall) here it was getting cold and we eventually decided to move inside. No more than 5 minutes of moving inside one of the guy proceeds to get in a fist fight with someone else, is kicked out, the police called and all seemed like a usual occurrence! Marieke and I took this as our queue to go back to the hotel.

I'm not sure if you can read this, but to give a perspective on how small this town was the sign at the school yard said that "John Dick with repair swings Saturday March 6th"

One of the interesting things was the small beers they served

So moving onto what we were really in Tasmania for - seeing the country. :) Saturday we drove up to St. Helens and given the weather was rainy and overcast we decided to head inland and check out a couple of water falls and a 'major' dairy farm. The dairy farm was the must see spot in the area, so we were excited to get there and check it out. For those who have traveled the states, this would be more of a cozy farm type place. The food was okay, the service was poor, but the scenery was lovely and they did have a cheese cake to die for! :)

After finishing up at the dairy farm we headed on to a couple of water falls in the area. Given it had been raining they were spectacular and a great choice.

The view from the dairy farm

The first of the two water falls - St Columba Falls - this was by far the better of the two

This is Halls Falls, which was more of a brook type thing

This is me, just before I slipped and fell - luckily I saved myself and only got my foot wet

Now we were hoping for an improvement in our hotel, as the place the first night was essentially a small mobile home with a very hard queen bed. The hotel in St. Helens was definitely an improvement in the overall quality - however I think their interior design was done in the 70s as the carpet was a funky (and I mean funky) orange/brown/yellow swirl type design and the halls, rooms, and everything had this amazing wood paneling. It put me in a very Saturday Night Fever mood and I couldn't resist the cheesy picture. :)

Tasmania was Gorgeous!! :)

Last weekend I treated myself to a well earned vacation and went to Tasmania with a friend. Our initial plan was to spend the first night in Maria Island, the next at Freycinet National Park, then the Bay of Fires. I have a ton of pictures and think this is the perfect opportunity to do some proper posts so I'll be breaking this up into the different days.

Thursday Night - Friday

Weather forecast: Sunny on Friday with rain developing on Saturday and Sunday

I arrived in Hobart at about 7:45 PM and was off to dinner with my friend Marieke who arrived earlier in the week. We headed to Salamanca Market which is an area right down by the water with a whole bunch of nice restaurants and pubs for dinner. The weather was a brisk type evening which was perfect for walking around and checking things out.

After a nice dinner and quick stroll we set the NavMan for Swansea and away we went. The road wasn't very impressive given the dark night, however we managed to find the city after about an hour or so of driving. When we finally got to Swansea we began to realise just how small town Tasmania is... the main road had one phone booth, a bakery, a church, a Yield sign, and a fire station - and no hotel to be found. So we were at a bit of a loss as to where our hotel was. Luckily there was the phone booth as all cell phone coverage ended about 10 minutes outside Hobart. :)

When we finally were checked into the hotel (around 10PM) - after calling the night clerk to open the lobby to give us our key - we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the room. For $100 AUD we had a queen bed, two twins, microwave, fridge, dining room set, and a renovated bathroom. Compared to the local surrounds this place was a gem. As Friday's plan was to hike on Maria island we had an early night.

Friday morning we were off to the ferry after a quick stop at the bakery. Our hopes were that the town simply seemed smaller at night... however we were wrong. The bakery was the only place open for breakfast and the ferry that left at 9:00 AM didn't come back until 5:00 PM, and the island has no food and no roads... Given this new knowledge we decided to skip Maria Island for another (more well equipped and prepared) trip and head up to Freycinet National Park a day early (especially given the weather forecast).

Now I went to Tasmania without any preconceived notions or ideas - my friend had done the research and most of the planning and for all intensive purposes I was tagging along. However I was very surprised at the sheer beauty of this little island. In the blink of an eye it goes from farms with grazing sheep, to gorgeous beaches with the bluest water I've seen in a very long time or possibly ever, to rugged mountains which reminded me the rock formations in Arizona.

Freycinet is known for Wine Glass bay which is a gorgeous beach which is only accessible by foot or boat. So given we forgot to pack our boat we hiked in. :) Here are some of the pictures from our hike.

Marieke and I in the obligatory self portrait

The view from the sand

One of the inland lakes

Beach walk to Hazards Beach

Of all the places we stayed, Swansea was probably the smallest town, however it offered the best nigh life... so to add a bit of a cliff hanger I'll save that bit for the next post.