“Walkin’ ‘round the rainy city” ... well, suburb
Monday, 17 January, 2005
This morning I woke up at 8 to call Centrelink about our Austudy forms and decided to go for a walk instead of going back to bed. During the holidays I always fall into really bad habits of staying up until the wee hours of the morning and getting up at around lunchtime. But I ought to be more proactive in doing exercise and fight my natural inclination towards laziness.
Our neighbourhood is really lovely to walk around—lots of interesting and sometimes hideous houses (I'm one of those people who likes looking at houses ... drives Ben crazy). Plus it's right next to the river and, in certain streets, you have an excellent view of the bridge.
I remember when I was in Year 9 I started getting up at 6 am to go walking up to the point and back. There were other reasons for doing this apart from exercise but I won't go into those—you don't need to know. I did this pretty much until winter set in and it got too cold. This morning I walked down to the post office to send off Little's package and then to my mum's house. She gave me a nice pair of Italian leather sandals, a photo and her Christmas newsletter. She also showed me her latest artworks, pictures of Ernest Pignon's murals and other public art, and old photos from her childhood that she had scanned in—a birthday party, a picnic, a baptism group photo. Aunty Mary was very pretty when she was younger. I wish I could have known my maternal grandmother but she died when my mum was 18.
It was also nice seeing the faces of people who had been good to my mum when she was a kid—like the lady (a Westerner) who urged my grandmother to keep my mum (she was the sixth daughter) and not give her away because she and her husband could provide for the family's needs with employment at the Peninsula Hotel. Seeing where my mum is today, it's such a contrast to the poverty she used to know.
Blinks:
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Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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I like looking at ye aulde family photos, too. That’s a great story about your mum and the lady from the Peninsula Hotel.
I should get back into regular exercise, too. It’s so much easier to stay in bed when there’s someone else there with you.
Hey I thought I was the only one naturally inclined towards laziness.
When I’m not working 13 hours a day like yesterday I try to walk from North Curl Curl to Manly every morning.
Why not do a 40 min walk every morning? its not so hard.
Laziness, Philip, laziness; I’m not a very active person normally and all the things I like to do to relax are generally not active.
Elsie, you and me should form a club!
It this Western culture. I come across Chinese friends of mine who work so hard day and night and struggle to make a good life, working as cleaner, studying at uni and think, wow - how easy I’ve had it, I’m a fat cow.
No, Philip, it’s not just Western culture. I grew up with an Asian work ethic. But I am a passive person, rather than an active person, and I’ve always hated exercise because of the physical pain—mostly around the heart. Pain breeds avoidance.
I dislike exercise because I’m incredibly competitive and don’t like to do stuff that I’m no good at.
But I could walk in the fresh air forever.