Sunday, October 29, 2006

Home sweet home


Long time no blog but much has happened, from team presentation in Berlin to back ‘home’ in Sydney…My last week in Germany was great, the weather was trying to impress me after the yucky spring weather and it was good to have so much blue sky and sunshine. I did some running, a little study and a lot of procrastinating and had a chance for many a long sleep in…very nice. We traveled up to Berlin for the team presentation, 10 days ago now…it is a new German team called ‘Getranke Hoffman’…unfortunately I don’t have any photos to share just yet so I can’t show you the team colours. I am the only non-German which is interesting and challenging in the language department but it is exactly what I need to kick me in the bum and really start to learn a language. So I am trying, I figure even 5 mins a night is better than nothing, but I have a terrible memory and so it is a slow process, but worthwhile J

I have been home just under a week, I arrived late on Wednesday night to be greeted by Kate and Richie and a lovely big bunch of flowers. The flight was long…you always forget just how far we are away from everything…and I completely messed it up, staying awake the first flight and then crashing out on the second. This has led to a week of the worst jet-lag I have ever had. I had 1.5hrs sleep the first night, and since then I am better but still awake early. It is amazing how productive I can be between 4 and 9 am! I have been cleaning the house, walking the dogs, doing washing…in fact I am so efficient that I put Kate’s wallet and car keys in the recycling bin…whoops ;)

The first night home the family came around to celebrate Nana Heather’s 81st birthday, it was so good to see everyone, hear Pop’s stories that I haven’t heard for at least 7 months and have a good laugh. Poor Richie is still puzzled by Pop’s riddles….we haven’t managed to solve them in 25 yrs so I think he has no chance. Richie was blessed with a cheerful rendition of ‘Patty McGintie’s goat’ – hard to explain unless you’re part of the Bates family ;)

On Friday night Kate and Richie took me out for a ‘surprise’, something they had planned and of which I had no idea. It turned out to be Cirque du Soleil which was a fantastic surprise. I have seen one before in Rotterdam, the Drallion show and this one was Varekai…it blows me away, I think you can never see it too many times. It makes me feel a bit of a joke that I call myself an athlete after seeing the strength, control, flexibility and skill that the ‘performers’ display. Very inspiring!

I had a great weekend catching up with friends, going down to Manly beach and going to watch Kate and Rich race. I am now back on the bike and it is not as scary as I would have thought after 5 weeks off….the running has done me some favours. Time to cook dinner in time for Robbie to get on the rollers. A lot coming up…hopefully I have time to blog it J

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Nat,
Just found your blog via India's. Great to see that you are going well. Libby