Yup....retirement sucks! plus 2011 plans

there's only so much gardening and learning Italian I can do every day before I become stir crazy and recovery from a day's hard training is only marginally better for not being at work.

So the answer is...I've accepted a long locum job from Nov 22nd to the end of January..6 hours a day max and hours flexible and negotiable.  Same place of work although at a sister campus and same type of job..but just the clinical work..nothing extra....yay!

The veggie garden, which is flourishing despite hail, single figure temps and my black fingers (the tendency to weed the seedlings and leave the weeds is a skill I'm trying to lose)....anyhow these first 2 pix are what the site used to look like

then with the help of cat and son it started to take shape

and more recently

first edible crop..Cos lettuce  aka by some... rabbit food:

Italian...progressing but frustratingly slow..the brain just isn't  the sponge it used to be.

Training..actually going well although mostly track based at the moment with 2 sufferfest sessions on a Tuesday and Saturday..puke-worthy fast stuff that is giving my aged body a real jolt.  Haven't thrown up yet but am getting closer.

2011.... 
June 30th...fly out
July...........Italy and UK..European road and track champs if they are on in July..
August......Masters week in Deutschlandsberg and Road worlds in St Johann then the Dolomites
Sept 12....fly home 

and for those of you who have read right to the end yet another word for the day/blogpost....

Polynesia (n) Loss of memory in parrots 

It's official!

Yup! it's official that:

1. I have black fingers...nothing seems to be growing in my veggie patch except for weeds.  For example what I had thought was a potato seedling and which was lavished with special attention is looking more and more like a dandelion and of the bits of green that have emerged where  I planted ~100 carrot seeds 3 weeks ago, only 1 looks like a carrot..I think the others are all grass or oxalis .
2. Retirement is  not for me...well not yet anyway..so I'm going back to work for 6 weeks starting on November 22nd.
3. I'm not osteoporotic..a fall on the track yesterday proved that, although I'm just a bit stiff and sore today.

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a refund from the Taxation Office, which lasts until you realise it was your money to start with

Wow! a blogless month!

Seen and giggled over from the Alternative dictionary, Washington Post style:

Abdicate:  To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach!

So what have I been doing this past month?   in no special order

• riding my bike-back training
• creating a vegetable garden
• trying to learn to use my smart phone and once I learn how to get pix from there to here you'll be bombarded with proof of the veggie patch
• planting and weeding...all that squatting has to be good for my hip flexibility
• killing slugs and snails
• learning Italian..gotta keep the brain healthy
• Master road nats..2 gold, 1 abandon (road race)
• watching the World  Road champs in Geelong
• watching the Commonwealth games
• weight training
• catching up with friends
• getting bored
• buying a new computer, a dishwasher and a digital TV - retail therapy for the above
• sort of looking after Phil following his fractured hip ..."sort of" 'cos despite being retired I retain the characteristics of a Physio...what pain?? I feel no pain, and he for his part totally ignores all my  professional advice.

Recent signs of rapidly approaching dementia:

• I got new SRM speed sensors for track and road bikes and took ages to work out why they wouldn't work...I'd put them on wrong way round.
• I changed the cranks on my training bike from compact crank 50/34 set up I'd used in Italy back to the SRM 53/39 set up and hopped on the bike to ride to Fed Square to watch the start of the men's world road race.  It wasn't until I tried to move into big chain ring that I realised that to complete the task, I also had to shift the front derailleur up......
• I've lost my keys so many times in the past week I'm thinking of getting a homing device on them

 Plans are afoot for next year...I'm looking at a few weeks in Italy..Cinque Terra, Tuscany and Veneto interspersed with competitions on road and track as and when I can find them.  I have to make some plans fairly soon as early bird offers are finalising.

Pix to follow..not only am I still learning the phone, this new computer lacks my photo library....

Finally..and I hope this link will work....here's a utube type 15 second laugh out loud vid.