Hit the gym last night and all went well.

Run: 3*(1.5km @ 10kmh, 100m @ 6kmh)

Swim: 10 * 50m on 1:00 (Avg: ~40sec)

Run was OK. I can run for 30mins at 12kmh, but I want to build up to runs longer than 30mins, so I’m taking it pretty easy. It’s hard to hold back at times. As for the swim, that was a disaster. It’s so long since I’ve been swimming fit that it feels all wrong. My arms felt like lead on the last few 50s, and I wasn’t trying to swim fast. There’s a long way to go!

I just finished Bill Bryson’s A Short History Of Nearly Everything at the weekend and I enjoyed it immensely. In the words of a varnish commercial “it does exactly what it says on the tin”. Starting with the question of how the universe formed, and finishing with fossils of ancient man, this book is a meandering stroll through scientific history. The tale details both our knowledge of the journey so far as we know it, and the people who discovered that knowledge on our behalf. The whole thing is told in Bryson’s usual semi-irreverent style and while I knew a fair bit of the story already, his slant on it made it an enjoyable read, with never an equation in sight. Tom owns the copy I read, but it’s so good that I’m going to buy my own copy.

As I’d pulled out of going snow boarding, I spent my first weekend in Canberra for a long time. It’s amazing how quiet it is and how little there is to do. I suppose we could do some touristy things, but most of the time we can’t be arsed. Back in Bondi, there’d be nice weather, people to see etc. Down here, nothing.
Started doing a bit of J2EE study in the hopes of swinging a job in Sydney in January. Job market seems to be picking up a little, but it’s a bit early to say fir certain. Surprisingly hard to get used to studying again. Must also do that Java Certification exam sometime soon as well.
Went to see 28 Days Later last night too. Great movie. Well thought out story, and a refreshing change from the Hollywood blockbusters.

Right, I’m now officially better and am off to the gym this evening. The journey begins. I’ll have to take it easy though. No point getting carried away on my first day back.

Today’s the second anniversary of 11-9 and the media is full of tributes to the 3,000 or so who died in the towers. Why does no-one remember the estimated 5,000 civilians killed in Afghanistan, or the estimated 7,000 civilians killed in Iraq?

No snow boarding this weekend after all. Forecast is for wind starting on Saturday and continuing into Sunday, which means most of the the chair lifts will be either closed, or running so slow they will piss me off. It’s just no worth the cose to go down and be restricted to Smiggins Holes, so I’ve decided to stay home.
Bloody typical. Late snow falls mean we get a nice long season, but wind won’t let us use it. Seems fine during the week, so may have to skive off work.

The dreaded chest infection doesn’t seem to have materialised so far. Fingers crossed. Still have a dodgy throat, so am dosing that with various concoctions in an effort to get rid of it. Will still be out of the gym for the rest of the week though.

Had a good weekend boarding. Perisher wasn’t great, but Thredbo was fun on Sunday. Better snow conditions and better weather. More advanced slopes too, which I can now handle after the trip to New Zealand. I reckon we’ll be spending a bit more time there than we did this year.

The only downside is that my lift ticket fell off the tag holding it to my jacket. I spoke to some asshole in ticketing who acknowledged that I had bought a ticket earlier, but still wanted me to pay another $50 for the remaining two hours of the day! I tried making the point that it’s not my fault if they provide a sub-standard method of attaching the ticket to your clothing, but he claimed that that was my responsibility. So much for “The customer is always right”. I told him to stuff it and then went back on to the lifts anyway. It seems the lifties realise how easily the tickets come off and weren’t too fussed about it that late in the day.

The general idea was that the month of September would be when I got stuck into the gym on a regular basis and started a training program. As luck would have it, I seem to be coming down with some sort of infection.

John got a chest infection a while ago, as did Neil. Tom’s not feeling too good today, so bad in fact that he’s not going skiing this weekend. Now, Tom claims that what I feel like is what he felt like a few days ago, so it could be all downhill from here. I’ll just have to OD on vitamins for a couple of days in an effort to stave it off.

On a positive note, it will be interesting to see whether my body can fight off the infection any quicker, now that I’m no longer a smoker.

Well, in the words of someone else, ‘Everyone else is doing it, so why don’t we’. Hence, I now have a blog. The general theme will be swimming related, in that I used to be a pretty good swimmer, but, after a couple of years of being a couch potato, things ain’t looking so good any more.

I’ve decided to do something about it, and regain some semblance of fitness. Also, there’s a nebulous idea of maybe doing some ocean swims, or a triathlon in the future, but I’m not making any promises.

So, let the journey begin…