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Aussie Expats Update – 15 Months In!
Hello hello world! Well, it’s been a while since I posted about what James and I have been up to—in part because (again) it’s mostly been the boring stuff, like studying/working, eating, training, sleeping… Casual life stuff. That being said, there have been a few cool adventures we’ve been up to lately that are worth sharing. The last weekend in August saw James’s first big endurance event, the three-day Hotter’n Hell Hundred, a mammoth effort across Friday-Sunday which constituted an event each day: a 20km trail ride on Friday, a 160km road ride on Saturday, and a half marathon (21km) on Sunday. Talk about some distance covered! No one will…
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Developing Mental Toughness as an Athlete
Happy Friday everyone! For someone who actually spends a lot of time training in different forms, I never really talk about training on here… I mean, I spend more time in the gym than I do writing, so surely it deserves some airtime?! Anyway, I’m remedying that today and talking about something that’s been on my mind in the gym lately and which, while it might seem training-specific, is actually very easily translated to other areas of life as well. So today I want to talk about mental toughness. But what is mental toughness, and how do I get it? How do you, if that’s your goal as well? Mental toughness is…
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Aussie Expats – A 2016 Recap and The Year Ahead
HELLO EVERYONE!! Well, it wouldn’t be the end of the year without an obligatory ‘look at everything we did’ kind of post, so I’m going to do one, mostly because it wouldn’t be an understatement to say that 2016 was a big year. Mammoth actually. Those always seem to happen when you’re getting ready to put up your feet and tell everyone that ‘last year was huge, we’ll take it down a notch for this one’… Actually, as you go along in life (it seems to me), there’s nothing but big years. And they speed up, until they’re flying past and slipping through your outstretched hands. At least that’s how…
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Aussie Expats Update – The Long Slide into Holidays!
Happy Friday people everywhere! As we slowly slip and slide our way down the final path into the break (James is off from the 17th), it seems that the days are far too long, and the mornings far too cold, for continuing to do anything more than hibernate, drink eggnog and eat fatty meals like oxtail stew and braised beef short ribs. Sadly, until the break, we’re stuck with early morning PT sessions for James… Though I really can’t complain because my brain has been creating some strange and fascinating things in my early morning free-writing sessions. For those of you who’ve been waiting and chewing their fingernails to the…
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Aussie Expats Update – America, Five Months In
Five months, human beings. We have been living in America for FIVE MONTHS. I’ll lay it out straight for you: I’m not feeling very warm towards America right now. By that I mean, I’m feeling pretty cold. The reason? This morning, I took a friend into hospital early in the day. For reference, she’s about three or four years older than me and also for your information, I’m pretty hungry: which as anyone knows, is dangerous ground. Anyway, we get into prep and I’m just sitting off to the side, doing some work, when one of the nurses goes to me—“Oh, so are you Mumma?” OH MY EFFING GOD: NO. …
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Aussie Expats Update – Our First Halloween Party!
Well peoples, It’s been a bit of a mishmash week. Getting back into uni again for Trimester 3 has seen me chasing my tail a bit (and I only did one other blog post this week: what a sissy!), and James is working his butt off to finish his last essay for his Masters, plus we’ve recently started a new training program in the gym involving a lot of (very, VERY) basic bodyweight movements… And I’m fried. It’s really hard work, but also pretty cool. That being said, if I can’t do the splits, a full static handstand and a couple of other seriously epic things in the next week or so, I’m going to…
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Aussie Expats Update – Uni Break Fridays!!
Helllloooooo beautiful people! I know, I know… I didn’t put up a blog post last Friday. Oops. I’m sorry, but it’s a complex iss—ok, to be honest, it’s not that complex. Having (officially) finished Trimester 2 of uni on Thursday with my political ideologies exam done and dusted, I wasn’t overly keen to do very much. Plus, I made the mistake (or brilliant decision) to pick up a new book after my exam and I powered through it… Then the sequel over the weekend. If you haven’t read Erika Johansen’s The Queen of the Tearling, I highly recommend it: it was an awesome read that (obviously!) I struggled to put…
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Aussie Expats Update – Hiking, Swimming, The Perseid Meteor Show and THE ARMADILLO
Another update and a big Happy Friday everyone! Well, this week has been another rollercoaster ride of adventures, weird animals, ice cream, burritos and training. We went for a hike up Elk Mountain last Saturday with Kim and Frankie and, as you can see from the view below, it was worth it.Though reaching the summit was an effort, and we were soaked by the time we got there, the view was incredible. Frankie had the best approach: with the sun was out in force and the climb feeling like hard work, she sussed out any possible shade and had a lie down whenever she could. We went and had delicious…
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Aussie Expats Update – Prairie Dogs, Gym Equipment and Lasagna
Well fellow humanoids (and any who identify with other species and still use technology to read this blog), Welcome back again to our American Life! This week has been the first one where James has really been teaching American Army students as part of his new position, so we’ve been busy. Luckily, we haven’t been tooooo busy to have some adventures! [Disclaimer: what normal people call ‘everyday living’, I tend to call adventures. I make no apologies for this fact, but I want to ensure I’m not practicing false advertising.] James’s mum and brother we were with us over the weekend, leaving on Tuesday evening, so we wanted to make the most of…
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Aussie Expats Update – Fourth of July and Visitors
Welcome back to the weekly update! I’ve been busy studying this week in an attempt to wrap my head around some new ideas and forty-page readings for uni, and have to admit that it’s a lot of work! I’m studying two writing subjects, a political ideology subject and an introductory psychology subject; there’s a bit of variety and some interesting stuff to learn every week. I can only hope that I will get more effective and efficient at the whole business! I’ve also managed to do some work on my novel this week, which is really exciting. I’ve decided to write for at least thirty minutes every day from now…