Liz Randall's Cycling Blog - a life behind bars

"With ordinary talents and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable"



Sunday 10 August 2008

It's enough to drive you to drink

what is?...three guesses...rhubarb,rhubarb, the weather....yup, you got it..well done!

Here am I being a good girl, off the ETOH, down to 57kg, training hard, buying anSRM as they really are alot better than PT's and what happens?...England is NOT playing its part...England is definitely NOT suffering a drought. England's grass is VERY green. Walking the dog ain't much fun and why oh why don't I learn.... pack more wet weather clothing you dunderhead!

Now I've said many many times to many many people that I didn't realise I was short until I arrived in Aus and was told so. In no uncertain terms. Regularly. But even then I hadn't realised just quite how short I am since in my own mind I am BIG!!!!! however, here I am staying at my niece's home, house and dog sitting and I need some wet weather clothes...so I raid a wardrobe...I feel a bit like Goldilocks...hmmm which shall I choose...Ros or Colin's(parents)..nah too big, Harriet's at 6 yrs old...nah too small well then James'...eight years old..just my size!!!

Looking after other people's house and equipment is of course, fraught with problems and a bit panic making...for example...the dogs..what do they do all day? sleep? I think they miss the hustle and bustle of a 4 person family and I keep leaving the door open for them but they show no interest ...their bladder control is out of this world...well who would want to go out in the wet anyway!!! They keep asking me to take them for a walk, feed them..anything......but I'm afraid 2 walks/day is more than enough for this little black duck.......

Then there's the car - a VW passat, with a REALLY weird key and way of starting and no hand brake except a button on the front dash...I had a nervy turn when I had to execute a few hill starts in a very slow moving queue on the way into the shops this am and so drove a very convoluted way back in order to avoid having to do that again........the scenic route..would have stopped top take pix of thathched cottages and funny signs if it hadn't been so wet. Not that I'm complaining ..... much!

Then there was the oven. Instructions from Ros said I shouldn't use the top one as the fan had broken so a squinty look at the bottom one showed me that I could dial in the temp and opt for an oven or a grill. I chose the latter and within 2 minutes had smoke pouring out into the kitchen. Sheeeee-it. A rapid turn off and a pathetic phone call to Ros and Colin and I discovered they'd never used that option before...and I guess now they wont in the future either.....

So, here I am at 6pm and I've not managed to read the morning newspapers.... is this what retirement will be like?

Hey...I really am enjoying myself...its just that the dogs, being Pommie dogs..just can't understand what I'm whingeing about..so you get to hear it instead!

And lastly...yesteday I went into a bike shop called Corley's bikes...that's my maiden name...so naturally I just had to buy a jersey!


2 comments:

Rich Gift Of Lins said...

Oh no... SRMs! Now you will have to work out how calibrate them against your Powertap, that is if you intend to keep the Powertap. It took about a month for my SRMs to "bed in / settle down" and for the offset to become consistent. It was very confusing to start with. It's great to get real racing data though.

Liz said...

I sent out a group email mentioning that now I'd have a PT and a few other bits and pieces to sell and the PT was snapped up quicker than...well anything you can think of.....
and yes, it will take a while to bed down, but if there is logic in training with power, then why not race with it......