A light eating day

It’s day four of my holiday. I had a pretty lousy sleep. My recent weight gain and allergic rhinitis have teamed up to make my snoring worse. I should have brought my CPAP machine along for the ride. It would have ensured much better sleep. I’ll know better next time.

I woke up and felt cold, Geelong has its own little cold snap, it was like waking up in Canberra except I didn’t have my winter doona to keep me from feeling the chill.

I spent some time in bed and watched Thunderbirds are Go on Go! and then turned over to watch the coverage of G20 in Brisbane and the arrival of Air Force One into Amberley RAAF base.

After a cup of instant coffee and a shower I felt alive enough to forage for breakfast. I walked for about half an hour only to return to Rio Café where I ate yesterday. I asked for bacon and poached eggs hold the toast and was offered an extra rasher of bacon or an extra egg. I asked for an extra egg but I forgot to mention I like my yolks runny. The coffee is good at Rio Café however, when the eggs and bacon arrived I was disappointed to see two of the three eggs had solid yolks. Oh well I’ll know better to ask next time.

Bacon and eggs Apple + Pro HDR iPhone with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/30sec, ISO 32

Apple + Pro HDR iPhone with iPhone 5 back camera 4.12mm f/2.4 at 4mm and f/2.4, 1/2000sec, ISO 50

So today was day two for Miss13 and the Level 7 competition for women’s artistic gymnastics at the nation club championships in Geelong. The good news was Delta Gymnastics Brisbane was leading after day one but the margin was a very tight two points. DGB had scored well in the uneven bars and the balance beam.

The placing was more profound when Miss13 also explained they lost two team members recently and two L6 girls got promoted. So this team is technically inexperienced at this level. I’ve blogged before about my admiration for the coaches at Delta Gymnastic Brisbane. John and Wendy coach more than gymnastics, they help coach life skills. They are truly awesome people.

Miss13 did well today there were some wobbles on the balance beam and uneven bars but she went well on the floor and nailed her vault. Throughout the competition I’ve been text messaging Miss17 who can’t compete because it’s her last week of high school. We joked by text when Miss13 nailed her vault because the usual understanding is that Lums can’t vault lol

Balance Beam NIKON D810 with 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 at 100mm and f/5.3, 1/500sec, ISO 6400

Balance beam dismount NIKON D810 with 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 at 100mm and f/5.3, 1/500sec, ISO 12800

Vault handspring full twist NIKON D810 with 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 at 180mm and f/5.6, 1/500sec, ISO 12800

In the end Miss13’s team won overall L7 national champions. They also won the uneven bars. She looked so happy on the podium as she was grinning from ear to ear with her team mates.

After a short break we came back for the evening session to watch the L10s compete. This is Miss17’s team. Miss17 wrote each friend a note and Miss13 handed it to them before they took to the floor. I am so proud of all my daughters. They are truly caring humans.

So for lunch I had potato gems again. You can see I used a fork because you know I’m sophisticated and I didn’t want to mess up my going out flanny.

Potato gems Apple + Pro HDR iPhone with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/15sec, ISO 125

For dinner I chose room service because I didn’t get back to my room until late. Given Miss13 was going back for a pizza party in their motel I asked for pizza too 🙂

Zenith pizza SONY ILCE-7S with FE 55mm F1.8 ZA at 55mm and f/2.5, 1/60sec, ISO 2000

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Wow 0 vanilla slices today

It’s day three of my holiday. I put on my jeans and felt the snugness that comes with eating too many vanilla slices (amongst other things).

I’m now on belt home 3, I had hoped not to revisit belt hole 3. Belt hole 3 signifies failure, a lack of discipline, a life of fun and games and not enough physical effort.

So what to do? Well I’m on holiday and I’m still going to enjoy myself, after all my Victorian friends have told me how good the food is here so it would be wrong not to enjoy myself. Discipline and hard work can wait for when I get home.

The deeper question is why have I let myself go after losing a few kilograms at the beginning of the year and keeping to belt hole 0 for so long.

The reasons are manifold and include a general lack of motivation to maintain discipline and a greater lack of motivation to exercise. In previous years I’ve got out and walked for about 40 minutes at least once a day even in the dead of a Canberra winter.

I’ve still been waking up early but this year I’ve just not felt motivated. I need to get back to getting out and walking. I also need to get better with portion control.

So what happened on day 3 of my holiday? I spent most of the day sitting on my well proportioned arse at the Geelong Arena watching women’s artistic gymnastics. For a portion of the day I enjoyed watching Miss13 compete for Delta Brisbane in the level 7 competition. Most years when I can get to this event it’s been Miss17 who I’ve watched but Miss17 is in grade 12 and in her last week of high school. Miss17 is as always carrying a reasonable injury at the moment too so she sensibly elected not to compete. For Miss13 though this is her first national club championships and it’s great to see her in competition.

For readers not familiar with gymnastics the event is broken up into two days of competition for each level. The first day it’s like heats of a race. On the second day the best clubs compete.

Watching gymnastics can be pretty boring, there’s a lot of warming up and for each apparatus a competitor may only spend a minute or so doing their thing. The vault is over in the few seconds but they get two goes. I find the beam the most nerve wracking to watch. Balance is such a fine thing. After losing my hearing in my left ear I find balance even more precious and watching these young competitors wobble and regain balance, occasionally performing flawlessly occasionally fighting gravity and losing, I am in awe of how the human body can with skill and training do amazing things. All hail the vestibular apparatus.

The Geelong Arena is surprisingly small. Having watched the same competition at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra and having attended other competitions I’m surprised for a national championship such a small arena has been chosen.

For the spectators this is fantastic. You are very close to the floor and you get a much better appreciation of the competition. I’d happily come here again.

So what did I eat today. For breakfast I went for a bit of a walk and found a café close to the hotel. The Rio Café is a small friendly looking place that does a basic breakfast which is served all day as well as sandwiches and fairly good coffee. I asked for poached eggs and bacon and also enjoyed a couple of flat white coffees.

Bacon and poached eggs from the Rio Cafe Coffee Lounge, Geelong Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/40sec, ISO 32

The eggs were poached nicely. The yolks we’re runny and there was no taste of vinegar in the egg white. The two bacon rashers were cooked well, not over cooked which is a cooking crime. The toast was white bread with butter. I elected not to eat the toast.

For lunch there is a tuck shop at the arena and they served potato gems with tomato sauce. It was very diffuse to go past them.

Potato gems Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/20sec, ISO 200

As I wrote above, I find watching the balance beam the most terrifying. Especially when there is a handstand involved or spinning. I watched some amazing ‘saves’ today, bodies on the edge, Gravity winning but human determination and strength winning. The emotions are high and low for the competitors and spectators alike. We all watched an amazing floor routine and at the end the gymnast fell. She cried, we cried.

Miss13 had a good first day. This is her leaping on the balance beam. She nailed the landing 🙂

Miss13 leaping from the balance beam NIKON D810 with 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 at 82mm and f/5, 1/500sec, ISO 8000

After the afternoon session I went to get something for dinner. I found a greasy spoon called Scooby Sue and got a burger. It had lots of coleslaw and sour cream. It did the trick and hit the right spot!