Right.

I've spent the past month or so getting progressively more and more lethargic and tired and unable to do things like ride my bike both to and from work on a consistent basis. The bike needing to be fixed did have something to do with it, and yet I still couldn't make it both ways twice/week like I could at the start of term.

Then I remembered something: We haven't had iron supplements in this house in over a month. We'd run out, and it was on the list of things to get, and we kept forgetting to buy it.

I finally went and got some last night, so lets hope that I improve over the next week or so. Wish me luck!

So. PRETTY!!!

I need to stop looking at bike porn. I've been reading Lovely Bicycle, and it's got me dreaming of my own vintage-look, Dutch-style bike.

I did a bit of an Internet search, and found this Melbourne-based shop. Pretty bike!!!!! Thank goodness they're out of stock until May, or I'd be in major impulse-buy trouble right now.

I've also visited this shop in St Kilda and found their bikes to be unbelievably gorgeous. Not to mention that Gazelle Bikes also seem to be retailing in Australia.

The biggest problem when it comes to buying a bike like one of those is the money. I ended up shelling $AUS 440 on my bike, including the mudguards and rear rack, and that's the most I could afford. If I got one of these, I'd have to buy the bike and then also upgrade all the gears (I can't do hills without gears), which will cost even more.

So I'm very much just stuck looking, dreaming, and drooling :-p One day, when Oolon is rich and famous, I'll have all the bikes I want!

AWOL. Again.

So, the wedding is coming up very soon.  This means that I'll be posting a lot less frequently as I'm going to be busy making sure that everything continues going according to plan. It shouldn't be too difficult, but I want to give myself that space and reduce my commitments as much as possible. I'll try to blog about once per week over the course of the month.

So, please bear with me for the next several weeks. We'll return to our normal programming schedule in May :-)

Cycling bitch-fest

Dear Pedestrains:

If you are walking on the right-hand side of a walking/cycling shared path, chances are that every so often a cyclist will be coming straight toward you (we drive on the left-hand side of the road in this country). If that cyclist is going at 30km/hr (may not have enough time to actually stop) and rings their bell at you rather than going around you, chances are that it's because said cyclist has calculated that doing so would mean crashing into the other cyclist coming toward them, and cycling on the side of the road which you should be on.

So please, walk on the correct side of the path and move when the on-coming vehicle sounds its bell at you, rather than staring ahead like a stund mullet and nearly causing what could be a fairly serious crash.

Having your iPod on so loud that you can't hear my bell or my shout is also something you really ought to avoid.

Dear Fellow Cyclists:

If you are going to overtake me, please warn me of your presence before you come around me. If I am zoned out and there is an unexpected voice in my ear, I startle. This can cause me to crash. Ring your bell or shout that you're coming before you are riding right next to me.

Furthermore,  I would appreciate it if you took care around sharp curves. If I've slowed down but you haven't and we can't see each other until we're practically on top of one another, then crashing is going to be serious. Just because you're on a road bike and wearing spandex doesn't mean you don't have to also be careful.

Dear Car Drivers:

If you find yourself in a situation where, were I driving a car, you would give way to me, then you still have to give way even if I'm on a bike.

A recent article in Ride On magazine from Bikes Victoria showed statistics that the majority of bicycle collisions were with motor vehicles, and the top 3 causes were becaues the other vehicle failed to give way to a cyclist.

So, please obey the road rules regradless of whether I'm driving a car, riding a bike, or straddled on a low-flying pterodactyl. If I'm using the road, we both obey the same rules.

Kind Regards,

Quincy

Etiquette

I think it's time I did a post on etiquette, courtesy, and manners. A lot of people forget the basics of getting around in society, so here goes:

Conversation and the conveying of meaning:

1) The words "excuse" and "me" are very useful when put together. Especially if someone's in your way. And facing away from you, so they don't know you're there and wanting to get past them.

2) "Bless you" is appropriate when someone sneezes. Just say it, it won't do anyone any harm.

3) "Wha?" is not the nicest way of letting someone know you didn't understand them. At least put the "t" on the end if you can't actually be polite and say "I beg your pardon" or "Sorry?"

Niceness to others

1) Retail staff rarely know every single detail about every single product in their store. They are doing their best, so don't get mad at them for things they may not be able to help.

2) If you have misread a label, then it is not the fault of the staff. Don't take it out on them.

3) Restaurant and café staff handle your food and determine what goes into it. Don't piss them off.

Courtesy

1) Think of others before you act. Actually consider whether what you are about to do will impact other people. If you are unsure, then ask them. It is better to check than to have them be negatively affected and annoyed at you for causing it.

2) Offer to help if someone appears to need it. They may not take you up on the offer but, at far as manners go, offering it is as good as actually giving it.

3) Acknowledge when someone has done something nice or helpful for you. Recognition is a wonderful thing to receive, and think how good you'd feel to get it if the roles were reversed.

Being polite isn't difficult, and it makes the world a nicer place to be. You don't have to be dishonest to be polite; you just have to think.

Photo fest!

These are some photos I took on a weekend away that Oolon and I took together last year:

Ducks!

It's like something out of a fantasy film.

Why I cycle

There are a lot of good reasons for cycling as much as possible. 

• You're saving the Earth by not creating carbon emissions through the use of a car.
• You're saving money by not buying petrol ($100/year to service your bike is far less than typical annual fuel costs).
• You're saving your health through regular exercise (after my first week of cycling, my resting heart rate went from between 85 and 90bpm to between 68 and 73bpm; that's a huge difference for just a week of riding every other day).
• You're saving money on a gym membership, because the time you would normally spend at the gym is being spent on exercise anyway.

These are all definite reasons for me to cycle, not to mention that finding a type of exercise which I enjoy and can do on a regular basis is particularly important for me because of my ADHD. I'm told that exercise is very good for it, and I noticed this before I even suspected that I had it. When I was at the gym four days per week, I was in a far better state than when I wasn't exercising. I'm basically like a puppy, in that if I don't get my daily walk I start to tear up the furinture. And your shoes.

But these reasons, while compelling in and of themselves, are not the main reason I cycle. Quite simply, I cycle because it feels good. I get a fully sensational experience - I get to see, hear, feel, and smell the world around me in ways I can't possibly get at the gym, or even on a slow walk. I enjoy the stiffness in my muscles the day after a particularly hard ride; it's a reminder that I'm doing something worth-while and that my body is responding to it.

When you think about it, enjoyment is really the only thing that works when it comes to changing your habits and doing more exercise. If you don't like what you're doing, you won't enjoy it and none of these "reasons" are going to be reason enough. So if you want to get healthier, rather than kicking yourself for avoiding the gym or the running and feeling bad about making excuses, try something else. No matter how good the exercise you're trying to make yourself do looks on paper, if you don't actually like it, you'll never get anywhere. Whereas if the whole point of it is to enjoy it while you're doing it, it'll feel less like hard work and all those benefits will be the cherry on top.

Of course, if you can't find any exercise you enjoy doing, then you'll just have to pick the one you hate least and bear it for all eternity.

Childhood influences

I've been reading Disney Princess Recovery, which is an excellent blog about dealing with media influences on children. Lately, it's had me thinking about my own Disney movie experiences, and why I didn't fall under the Princess spell as a child.

So, I wrote a list of my favourite Disney movies from when I was a kid. Here they are, in alphanumeric order:

• 101 Dalmations (original)
• Alice in Wonderland
• Basil: The Great Mouse Detective
• Dumbo
• The Fox and the Hound
• The Jungle Book
• Lady and the Tramp
• Peter Pan
• Pinocchio
• Robin Hood
• The Sword in the Stone

As you can see, none of my favourite movies had anything to do with princesses. Some of them involved romances and all but one had a male lead, but they were pretty much all just adventure flicks where the romance wasn't the central part of the story. The fact that I didn't really understand the difference between boys and girls would have helped, because while I knew that I fell into the category of "girl", which apparently had to do with what you carried in your trousers and determined whether you were allowed to wear skirts, I didn't really have any real concept of gender (I still don't feel particularly gendered to this day, to be perfectly honest, but I might write more on that later). So I had no problem with relating to the male leads in those movies.

I did see the Princess movies and I enjoyed them. I even played mermaid games, though in those I was the Mermaid Princess with magic powers who commanded a ninja-like army of mermen, whose tails I could conjure and turn into legs at will to improve their swimming or fighting abilities. I think this is where my imagination was influenced by Heman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Star Wars and other such things. I was also brought up on healthy doses of Greek Mythology, which helped in terms of imagining myself with Godlike powers and the kind of conniving that only ancient gods are capable of.

Basically, I was a tomboy. I had girl friends, but didn't play with them much. I tried to join in a game with barbies once, and was told off for holding the doll the wrong way. I thought the other girls were really stupid for being fussy about something so trivial, so I went back to the sandpit to throw sand at boys again. I was that kind of kid. And it's not like I didn't own Barbie dolls - I did. I just didn't understand why you had to hold them in a specific way to play with them.

I guess my parents were lucky in that regard - I just didn't care about what a girl "should" or "shouldn't" do. Then again, I had no attention span so it would have been difficult for me to care about anything other than HEY LOOK A SQUIRREL!

Logic ahead!

Premise 1: I get really irritated by stupididty.
Premise 2: I like to write about things that irritate me
Premise 3: The common cold is unbelievably stupid and irritating.
Conclusion: I'm going to write about the common cold!

I've got my first one for the year, and it's stupid. Allow me to list off the things that irritate me the most:

Having a blocked nose: If you can't breathe througy your nose, you can't do a lot of things properly. You can't speak properly, sleep properly, you can't eat properly. It's pretty bad. I'd say it's the worst part of being sick. Thank goodness for pseudoephedrine and the fact that it's available again!

Body aches: Pretty bad, but at least you can breathe and eat. I tend to get these with fever. It sucks, but resonds well to paracetamol and ibuprofen.

Nasal drips: Eeeeeeergh. Not fun to be woken up by. I'm just glad I don't have a post-nasal drip; that would be worse, and it can cause the next one.

Cough: Thankfully, I don't have this yet.

I guess the main irritations are the ones that keep you performing normal bodily things, and the main ones that get affected when you have a cold are sleeping and eating. I guess that's why I hate being sick and what I hate about it: Difficulty performing the basics.

I'm just glad this is a mild one, because I can mostly breathe and do most things without too much trouble. I'm just hoping it'll be completely over by tomorrow morning so that I can cycle in to work :-)

Why I don't read as much as I used to

I used to read a lot of books.  As I posted earlier, I get extremely vivid images when I read. Unfortunately, it means I become totally immersed in what I am reading and lose all track of time. Basically, I go into what's called hyperfocus. It's not something that one usually thinks of when considering various aspects of ADHD, but it's a very real one.

It's not a voluntary state to be in but it can be extremely useful. It's how I got through exams and tests as a student, and why I wouldn't have needed any special consideration even if I had been diagnosed earlier.

There are some problems with it, though. For one, I'm unaware of anything going on around me. I hope I won't be the kind of person who doesn't notice that their house is on fire, but there's no guarantee.

The problem with it not being entirely voluntary is that I can't always get at it when I want to. Like right now. I've spent about 20mins on this post, but I keep getting distracted by everything going on around me so I've totally forgotten where I was going with it. Again.

Weekend away

So, as the title suggests, I went away for the weekend! I went to a town called Grantville, which is near Philip Island. There were boardgames, there was fun, and there are photos!

The ceiling rose in my room

Jellies in the sea!

This little guy lives on a property down the street from where we stayed. Cutest lawnmower ever!!

The celing rose in one of the living areas was coming off the ceiling. Those brown bits are the glue.

This was in the downstairs loo. I thought it was gorgeous :-)

The view from the downstairs porch

The drink that my friend made for me. After I'd had most of it :-p