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Published: December 2nd 2010
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Day 26 Friday. Finally, I managed to get up early and go for a long swim. As I’ve probably mentioned already, the local pool here is a 23m long open air arrangement, water is nice and warm but it can be quite chilly wandering around the poolside early morning if its windy! I also don’t really like swimming that much so it’s a real effort to drag myself out of bed and head to the pool for its opening time of 6am!! It IS only about a 5 min drive, so its not a major effort to get there, just an effort to get out of bed. Anyway, today is the first time I’ve done the pool early enough to allow for a long swim session. By long, I mean 2.4km of swimming, which was on the plan for today. The issue with the swimming is all about the time I have to be back with a car. With Tigger working 2 days a week, and Mark working most other days, this means there is just one car around at the house, and this has to be back by around 8.30am to ensure Maia can be driven to school, so if
the swim program is likely to take me 2 hours, I’ve got to be in the pool and swimming by 6.30! Pool is open 6-9am, for lane swimming, and again 12-1 for lane swimming, so shorter sessions can be done at lunchtime, but otherwise I’m stick, swim wise. So, today was 2.4km, or 122 lengths in total, and also had the added bonus of meaning that by 8.30am I’d done all my training for the day and, with my rest day tomorrow, and the fact the next planned event is a long ride, it’ll be at least 48 hours before my next training session, so a good long rest, which I so need! Finding the diet tough going as breakfast, which always used to be a bowl of porridge, is off the menu so its fruit salad on a fruit day but when it’s a soup day its kinda hard trying to have soup for breakfast, I find. Still, more weight off (will reveal all when ive done the whole week!) so getting there slowly but surely.
After breakfast, Helen and I decided to venture out for a bit of a trip, and we also decided to book ourselves
in for the massage and spa session which Mark and Tigger had very generously got for us as a wedding present, so Helen rang up and made the booking, which worked out ok in terms of cars being around, and then we decided to head out for a trip to the zoo! This is a very small location which, despite its size, has a pretty impressive array of animals to look at, including white tigers and lions. We got the map out and plotted our route and headed out for a short road trip. Helen drove, so I was able to concentrate on map reading but it was a fairly straightforward drive and we soon arrived. The place was pretty empty, with only 3 or 4 other cars in the car park, and I’d equipped myself with the camera and all lenses so I was happy to just wander around in the sunshine and take pics. We did a lap of the zoo, having noted that feeding time was at 1.30pm for the lions and tigers, so we checked out all the other animals first. There was a right mix of animals on display. From ducks and chickens with their
babies wandering around looking for food (animal feed was $2 a cup at the entrance!) through to a peacock, some emu, goats, sheep, cows, monkeys, parrots, the biggest rabbit I’ve ever seen, macau, meercats (sadly hidden) and other birds, right through to pigs and llamas, as well as a donkey. Was a family friendly place, lots of opportunity to feed some of the animals, and soon it was time for feeding the lions and tigers, which became clear as they started to pace up and down waiting for food. The process involved one of the keepers with a massive bucket of what turned out to be horse meat, and she would throw bits into the cage for each cat. Several bits of meat were followed by a large rib for each of the cats, which they set about devouring with consummate ease, and then it was time for us to head back and get ready for our spa treatment!
We found the place OK, and parked up and headed inside. What we’d been given was a 30 min soak followed by a 40 min massage with a private pool for 2. What this entailed is a large bath which
looked liked a Jacuzzi without any jets in it, set it its own room, for just the two of us. This was filled with warm mineral water which automatically drained after 30 minutes, and you then wandered out for the massage, which was two of us side by side in the same room. The bath was lovely, the water has a negative PH value and drinking it is supposed to be good for you, as well as bathing in it being good too, so I made sure I drank as much water as I could (no, not from the bath, silly!) and then we headed off for the massage. I mentioned ive got a sore right thigh, and, despite it not being a sports massage session, she managed to have a good bash at it to see if she could ease things up and, when our time was up, we both came out feeling a lot more relaxed than we had before, so that was really good. Interesting diet day today as it was up to 8 bananas and as much skimmed milk as I wanted! This was basically banana smoothie day and, because I’ve not cut out coffee, I
was also able to make myself a cappuccino today which was good! In the end, I only had 4 bananas, so it wasn’t the banana fest I was expecting, but I definitely seemed to have a lot more energy later in the day.
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