ABC’s of Me (part 3)

When I initially decided to do the ABC’s of me “exercise” I scrawled out the 26 letters of the alphabet and noted down the first things that came to mind (as I’m guessing that’s kind of what this exercise is about) BUT some letters I just for the life of me couldn’t come up with suitable words or it would have been a double up of other letters – for example using Elias (my baby) for the letter E would mean that I then couldn’t (or at least wouldn’t) use the word Son for the letter S.

Of the seven letters in today’s blog post I only had 2 entries filled on that very first day – P and S (and you’ll understand why when we get to them) whereas the others were still a work in progress and a couple I’m just going to write what ever comes to me when I get there – this could be interesting. 😉

M – Mona Lisa

James and I (pre-kids) spent some time in Paris.  First of all I’ll say that Paris took my breathe away, it’s honestly the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen and I was quite literally overwhelmed by it all (and that was just in the taxi ride from the airport to the hotel).

We spent an entire day meandering through both the grounds and the halls of the Lourve so that I could see all of the things I had read about, the Mona Lisa being one.  Alas seeing the Mona Lisa was nothing like viewing the Eiffel Tower or even the Arc de Triomphe for the first time, those two monuments are large and awe inspiring where as the Mona Lisa was kind of underwhelming.  She’s so tiny and they’re (the crowd) is so large that there was no way I could get close enough to admire the brush work, but at least I can say I’ve seen her (and the Lourve itself is amazing).

N – New Zealand

There’s no place like home. When James and I first started dating we had discussed living in the UK, it sounded great in theory, we’d earn pounds with the view to come home (to my home) when we had enough money to set us up in a small house by the beach. Although the way the housing market in Auckland is right now, we’d probably still be over there trying to save up enough money especially if we had our heart set on sea views!

In reality it never would have worked. First of all I’m a homebody and secondly we would have been on the first plane back to NZ the second I fell pregnant, because my Dad had waited so long (not even close to patiently) for grand kids that I wouldn’t have contemplated raising mine on the other side of the world to him.

O – Ocean

I remember when I was really little and we’d spend summers at my Little Nan’s house. We’d spend days on end at the beach and whenever one of us kids fell and hurt ourselves, someone would invariably take us down the waters edge and splash sea water into the wound – because sea water fixes everything.

The ocean is still a bit like that for me and I can happily spend hours on end in, on or even next to the water and yep I have often splashed my kids war wounds with sea water and informed them that “it’s all better now”.

P – Pony tail

(See I told you this one was a no brainer)

Q – Quality

I’ll take quality over quantity any day .. for everything – friends, food, shoes …

In fact the boots I’m wearing today (it’s getting chilly in Auckland) I’ve had for years, I mean yeah they were pretty expensive (for me) but they’re still perfect!

R – Research

I do find it kind of funny that I’ll decide to do something (like signing up for Tough Mudder) without really thinking about what I’m actually getting myself into but when it comes to buying something tangible I’ll research the shit out of it – I even write notes (complete with web references) to refer back too. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I’m going to part with my hard earned money so whatever it is that I’m buying has to be fit for it’s purpose.

I spent three weeks researching rain jackets! (Although to be fair, those things are EXPENSIVE). I started with this list from The Goat Adventure Run and narrowed it down from there. In the end it came down to two, The Outdoor Research Helium II and the Macpac Hightail Jacket (or the Macpac Dispatch) and on one Friday afternoon when I got sent home early from work, I drove across to Albany to try the jackets on. I tried the OR Jacket at Bivouac first, the staff were attentive (but not too attentive), the jacket fit fine and it was lightweight (it is after all only 156grams) but I didn’t LOVE any of the colors so I headed down a few shops to MacPac. The Hightail didn’t work for me, there was no way I could run in it and the dispatch was fine if not a little heavy BUT the guy in the store was a tosser talking to me like I was a child because I didn’t like the Hightail (so much of a tosser I’m not even going to link them) anyway I took my hard earned money back to Bivouac and bought The Helium II (in purple only because that color was on special).

Thankfully I’ve only had to wear it once and it worked and whats better when it cleared up it’s small enough to stow in the water bottle holder on my hydration pack .. I mean how cool is that!

S – Skirt

I used to be the BIGGEST running skirt hater EVER and I mean EVER ..

Now I’ll happily run through mud, climb mountains and generally kick arse all while wearing a skirt (with no VPL!).

Till next time

 

 

If you’ve missed a post you can find them here;

ABC’s – Part One

ABC’s – Part Two