Tuesday, January 30, 2007
My First House.
You'll never guess what I've done today. I went out and bought my first house! Its also my very first investment property! I'm going halves with P, so we're 50/50. Its a brand new house and never been lived in. Its 244 sqm and has got 5 bedrooms. Master room with ensuite, and a double garage plus dishwasher, airconditioning in the lounge and master. It has side access and the house sits on a 640 sqm piece of land.
Well, as I've said, its an investment property so we're not gonna live in it and its a shame though, cos I'd have loved to live in such a cool house. Almost my dream home but not quite as we don't get to live in it yet. We'll be looking to rent it out once all the paperwork has been done.
I suppose my next question should be: when can I buy my next investment property?
blacksheep bleated @ 22:11
Under Water.
Back from Gladstone but still feeling lacklustre. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm on the verge of suffering from burnt-out. Burnt-out of what? Now, that's a pretty good question that I've been asking myself too.....and I don't quite have an answer yet. Burnt-out from my running routine, burnt-out from my job, or burnt-out from this life? I don't know.
Sometimes it feels like I've done so much already that there is nothing I wanna do anymore. Everything feels kinnda mundane, nothing else really matters. Just a peculiar feeling deep within, nothing more. Yet, the grass and the trees still keep growing outside, and time never ceases to go by.
Perhaps I should be less hard on myself and kick back alittle. I should just leave myself on a longer leash and get out there and party abit and be less rigid. Oh, this is all tearing me into half. I must hang on and ride the tide, keep my head above the water.
blacksheep bleated @ 16:57
Boring Gladstone.
I'm still away and my thoughts have been incoherent, as you do when you're away. Alot of energy and brains have been spent planning and working on these shippings and we're not done yet. Just 2 more sleeps to go and we hope to be driving 6 bloody hours on our way home on Thursday morning, even if it means we might have to work till some ungodly hour the night before. Good grief.
With abit of luck, we're looking to spend the long weekend back in our own homes this year.
Weather here has been hot and humid, in the high twenties or low thirties, which is of no help at all. I'm as lazy as ever and not quite as motivated as I should be. Well, what do you expect? Being stuck here away from home in such a boring place! Nothing is open on a Sunday!
Anyway, I just can't wait to be home again.
blacksheep bleated @ 20:39
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Heading North Again.
Ok, its that time again when we're due to go to Gladstone. I've been in a sorta cranky mood for the past few days because of this trip. Probably a waste of energy anyway...why should anyone be bothered to be cranky about something they can't change or have no control over??? I hate this. We leave tomorrow and I'm packing afew things for the trip. Its gonna be a another close one....one more change and we'll have to work through Australia Day again this year, like we did the last. Sigh. Grumbles grumbles.
The weather up here has been really hot and muggy in the past week, with temperatures rising in excess of 30 degrees. I wonder what its gonna be like up in Gladstone. I won't be packing any warm clothes so hopefully it doesn't go crazy on me.
For the first time in a long time, I don't have to take my textbooks with me or worry about my uni assignments. It feels great to be free and without worries but hey, didn't think I'd say this but.....at the same time, it feels like something is missing! Ok ok, can't believe I just said that! I'd never ever thought that I'd miss doing assignments, deadlines, wrecking my pea-sized brain, or miss the many nights when I had to give up my precious sleep. Well, I suppose it was a part of my life for so long that it was somewhat inevitable to come to this. Shrugs.
Gotta get back to packing.
blacksheep bleated @ 20:17
Thursday, January 11, 2007
90 Degrees in the Shade.
My sleep-debt finally caught up with me last night and I, or better to say, my sleep-deprived system, decided to shut down on me. I needed to catchup bigtime on sleep and hauled myself off to bed at about 2130hrs. I could do no more and my brain just froze. I knew it was payback time.
It was 90 degress in the shade today. Bloody Brissie weather! Its a love-hate relationship we've got here but mostly, I love it. Spent all day working my butt off in my van onsite, with beads of perspiration pouring down non-stop. I made sure I drank sufficient water as I had intended to go for a run after work.
Was later than usual when we arrived home. Fortunately its summer and it doesn't really turn dark until almost 7.30pm. I left the house at almost 1830hrs, feeling quite lousy and tired. I didn't take my music with me as the damn serial sex offender has been quite active in the past week. Its on the news everyday for the past few days and so I needed to be on my toes even though the last reported case did not occur anywhere close to here. But who knows? He might have decided to migrate after all the hype and a $50k ransom has been put on his head. Its always better to be alert in such circumstances.
I found it really tough-going and decided to call it a day after one loop of the JB circuit. Made a mental note of some lower back soreness when I started the run. The soreness seemed to disappear gradually as I went on. Come to think of it, my glutes have been feeling tight of late. Could they be related? Shrugs. On the other hand, the tightness on my left hammy seemed to have gotten better. Good.
My Asics Cumulus have come really good. Initially, it had felt alittle stiff but i think its been broken in now (almost 100km already! Unbelievable!) It feels really comfy and I love it! Thanks to Dreamie who had introduced me to this wonderful pair of shoes! I had almost given up on Asics' shoes as I'd found them to be abit too stiff for me. With the discovery of the Cumulus, I'm just delighted to have a cushioned shoe in addition to the NB900 series, which is a performance shoe, hence less cushioned and therefore, unable to last longer. Cool kats!
I feel like I could still use afew more early nights. So I will again make an effort to repay my sleep-debt tonight. You know, its never easy for me to have early nights....not for a nocturnal one like me. It just feels like a waste of time to me, not that I've got anything really important to do these days since my uni days are over. Yet I realise that my running tends to suffer abit if I don't get enough sleep.
Sleeping helps me to recover and get myself ready again for the next day's run. Yea yea, I've been through this so many times in my head that its not funny. It justs never seems to get in and stay there though. I'm gonna have to work harder at this.
blacksheep bleated @ 19:59
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Plan 2007.
I'm having a bloody hard time, trying to settle down at work or at home or adjusting to my new running schedule. I've been feeling really tired and awfully off-colour in the past week. Perhaps its because I've built up a sleep-debt from all the late nights I've had. Now its time to pay the price. Not a good feeling, its terrible. Only managed a pathetic 21km last week.
My (running) plan for 2007 looks like this:
- Great Ocean Road Marathon, 20th May
- Gold Coast Marathon, 1st July
- Noosa Half, 19th August
- Melbourne Marathon, 7th October (TBC. Will attempt only if colleagues in Melbourne needs support. If not, will pass)
- Auckland Marathon, 28th October
To spice things up alittle this year, we'll be attempting the Area51 adventure races. 5 rounds in all, with the 1st one on the 9th February which we've already signed up. Apparently, our team's name is....Rampaging Raptites! Thanks to BG who came up with this for the team. We're unsure if we'll be taking part in all 5 rounds at this stage as we can forsee that some of us might be away for 1 or 2 of those races, which is fine. Gives me some time to slack....hehehe.
I've already booked accomodation at the YHA in Apollo Bay for the Great Ocean Road (GOR) marathon. Yea, I know its still awhile away but I figured it wouldn't be bad to book ahead, just in case all the cheapies get booked out too soon. Don't feel like stressing at the last minute for these sort of things.
The highlight of the year undoubtedly will be the Auckland marathon. I'm hoping to take some time off for a holiday to do some bushwalking in the North Island after the marathon. I'll be looking forward to hopefully matchup with some Sgrunners who might be attempting this. Cool!!
blacksheep bleated @ 18:28
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Woo Hoo! Weekend!
Thank God the long-awaited weekend is finally here. Was a busy week at work, albeit short and full of tension since its the first week of the year. I was like a tightly-wound spring all week.
Yea, its that time of the year again. We just spent 2 days at the abattoir, servicing their gear. Lucky thing was that its their maintenance week so there were no blood-dripping, gut-spilling cow carcasses hanging off the rails on those giantic hooks. Phew.
Things not looking up. I'm not feeling particularly motivated at work or at play.
blacksheep bleated @ 11:43
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
First Day at Work.
Last year, I managed a total of approximately 1337.6km of running. The total time taken for me to run that distance was equivalent to about 5 days 9hrs 11mins 51secs. How amazing is that ??? You felt as though you've spent so much time out there running, pounding the asphalt or concrete pavement when in actual fact, all I've really spent is 5 days of my life ?!?!!? Its incredible, don't you think?
This year, I'm not sure how much I will do. I've decided that I'll include swimming, once a week, as part of my training in the hope that it will help keep me flexible. I'll give it a go and see.
Training officially begins today. After all the Christmas foods and delicious italian cuisine down in Wollongong, I thought it best to get back on the road as soon as possible. Can't believe P gained a total of 4kg! Luckily, I remained the same. I did a 12km run today wearing my short "skins" tights, in anticipation of sore legs after having just crawled out of my cave from hibernation in the last 3 weeks, not having done very much at all. Yawnzzzz.
Might need to skip the swimming tomorrow as we need to do some shopping to stock up the house again, lest we starve to death....can't have that. A new year, another new beginning. The thought of having to start all over again can be quite intimidating at times. Then again, having new opportunities and the potential for greater things makes it so exciting all at once.
I laid in bed most of last night, trying to catch some shuteye. It was almost impossible because I was so psyched up to get back to work, my adrenalin rush overwhelmed me. Not that I was keen to get back to the first day at the office, but I knew I needed to psych myself for it. You know how it is returning to work after a week of holidays.
Today was really busy at work, spending all day doing last year's leftovers. I spent all day hydrotesting cylinders. Nope, not very interesting at all. Our schedule for the job onboard the Gladstone ships is starting to take shape. At this moment in time, it looks as if we're not gonna have to miss Australia Day, as we did last year. Phew. But nothing is confirmed, and everything is subject to changes.
Fingers crossed.
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing" - Helen Keller
blacksheep bleated @ 22:19
Happy New Year, World! Yes, I'm aware that I'm like 2 days late. This is already the 2nd day of this brand spanking new year. Bloody hell. But you know how it is when you're away without your own lappy, things just aren't quite the same. Anyway, this is my first post for the new year of 2007.
I was actually feeling alittle sad on New Year's eve, the last day of the year 2006. I thought that I'd had a good year and accomplished quite afew things that I've set out to do. I finally finished my studies, which I've set out to do approximately 5 yrs ago. Then, I also fulfilled my goal of wanting to run a marathon....which I ended up running 3 in the end. I successfully converted my driving license without too much grief.
At work, we also attained our budget for the year, which was no small feat considering that it got almost doubled from what was the year before. Not to mention that I succeeded (at least from my own point of view) to put my heart and soul into everything that I'd done. I could cross my heart and say that I'd given it all during the course of a year. There was nothing more that I could have given.
With all these thoughts swimming around in my head as I watched the fireworks on tv, it made me feel almost desperate that the year was gone. For one moment, I would have done anything to hold on to it and prevent it from ending. Yet I realised that there was nothing I could have done to change things. Life has to go on and time, time has to go by despite my desperation.
That's just the way it is, that's just how it is. The world goes on.
blacksheep bleated @ 20:15
THE SHEEP
please play with the sheeps on top :)
name: blacksheep
location: australia
loves: animals
detests: hypocrisy
races: ironman australia 2010
herein charts my life and times and my endeavour towards trying to achieve more than I dare to dream (apr 2009).