Exercise/Diet update

Well its been 3 weeks since I began my well-being challenge to lose my excess Christmas weight. 3 weeks of watching what I eat and drink and exercising. My goal was to drop the 4kgs I'd picked up and improve my cardio strength.

The results are in, I've done it!! And the effort was totally worth it. I feel back to normal and in possession of my normal energy levels.

Very Awesome!!

Beware: New Rap God Alert

Before you watch this, be sure to encase your head in solid titanium concrete or it will splode baby!!
(Can you name the tracks covered?)

Kids CD Goodness

Growing up is a lengthy process, I myself am still a work in progress. When I was much younger TV was a relatively new product. When we got a TV it was black and white and rarely on (only one channel with a second added later). When we eventually got a colour TV only some shows were actually in colour! Most were still in black and white.

I listened to the radio a lot. From Casey Kasums top 40 countdown (where all Sunday afternoon he would count down the top 40 charts from the week and from the corresponding weeks in the 70's and the 60's) to the kids shows Radio National put on during school holidays. My earliest memories are associated with music and radio. I deeply treasure the stories I listened to while sitting in my dressing gown eating marmite on toast.

So for my daughter I would like to share those experiences. Which is problematic. In the first instance the majority of children's entertainment is on TV. So it's visual and colourful, but the kids are starring at the screen. Secondly when I have found a CD of stories or songs the production quality is low and calibre of the artist is lower (ABC I'm singling you out and that dreadful Georgie Parker). Tuneless records accompanied by the Freeware version of Garage Band as far as I can tell.

But every now and again I find a winner. As usual for Australia this release slipped right under the radar in this country. Probably because they didn't sign a marketing tie in with the ABC (the CD's are release by the artists in conjunction with Disney. This means Channel 9 here, which means no one at the soulless corporation would have a clue who they are).

I speak of They Might Be Giants and their CD's 'Here come the ABC's' and Here come the 123's'. Absolutely magical is my two word summary. I really enjoy the work of TMBG and these two CD's are perfect. The songs are inventive and humorous and full of wonderful imagery. In fact I was surprised to learn that at least one of the tracks was mixed by the Dust Brothers (Beck, The Chemical Brothers, Fight Club soundtrack etc).
Go looking for these CD's and find them if you can. I found our copies at an independent music store in their bargain bin. I encourage you to search them out. The TMBG albums are just superior in every way to the community theatre crap the ABC produces.

TMBG website HERE
My favourite song about 7 HERE (from the album 'Here come the 123's')

Take it off!!

I love food, as regular readers will know.
Some people like food, they way they like music (eg Coldplay, any U2 album NOT produced by Brian Eno and Rob Thomas) . By which I mean cardboard and fancy free range French cardboard will taste about the same to them. They have a narrow range of flavour and sensations and have aspirations of only slightly broadening their pallette depending on which News Corp or Fairfax media outlet they preffer to tell them what to do and think.

I love food. I agree with a passion with Brillat Savarin that a the discovery of a new flavour brings greater joy to mankind than the discovery of a new star. Replace the word 'mankind' with 'my tummy' and we are entirely of one mind. In fact definately replace those words because I hate being hungry, ordering a food favourite, only to be told that some cardboard loving-Coldplay listening-drone has eaten the last one.

I love food, but as I get older my ability to expend the delicious food energy I consume becomes challanged. Especially over Christmas, with its barbies, beer and chips and rich flavoursome meals 3 (and somestimes 4) times a day. Recently I showed some friends a picture of me 20 something years ago and we all laughed at the curly haired youth with the Pixies t-shirt. That person was about 25kgs lighter than I am now.
Some people might be upset y such a difference, I am thrilled. Growing up I was pale, skinny and nerdy. Nowadays I've filled out (still nerdy) and I am happy about that. The difference is I now have to watch what I eat and exercise regularly to combat the sedentary lifestyle of working in an office.
Awesome dosen't just happen people!

After this Christmas I gained 4 kgs, so I am on my second diet ever. Cutting back on sugary foods, processed foods and fried foods (includes beer). As I've stated previously, I love food. My challange, and I am meeting it, is to cook wonderful food from good ingrediants that meet my dietry requirements. Thankfully its easier than you think.

Hope all you Bubba's are off to a good healthy and fit start to the New Year!! Will keep you posted on my progress!

Honorable Mentions

Over the Christmas break I read a couple of John Mortimer 'Rumpole' case files. Jolly fun reading (though no exercise in the interpretation of the law). Rumpole spends his time in the courts of London and its environs, defending his clients by providing a reasonable alternative series of events that can in the very least provide grounds for reasonable doubt in a jury.

It has been a reading exercise I have enjoyed so much I have had to put the books down before the character of Rumpole subsumes me. I should mention that I was meandering with out of town friends amongst the stalls and hippies of the St Andrews market when I spied a collected works bargin. Three books of Rumpole for $3, how could I refuse!!

Killer Robots

Don't know much about the guy who made this awesome short film.
It's 5 minutes of giant murderous robot rampage!!!

Link HERE

Could Giant Robots be the new craze to replace our waning interest in Zombie hordes? I hope so, roll on battling mecha hero's and villians!!

Housecleaning

Over the weekend we cleaned out the fridge and the pantry. I know it doesn't sound like a Epic Win for the weekend but we learnt a lot from an archaeological perspective.
For example:

• Once upon a time we had a problem with the house Alpha Male eating any and all chocolate biscuits that were left in the fridge as a votive offering to his AWESOMENESS. Thus denying the Alpha Female any gifts for visitors who drop by. Solution, buy these Griffins Orange Choc Biccies that are made entirely out of an inedible industrial grade orange substitute. Result: We have 3 month old foodstuffs to serve guests.
• We have doubled up on nearly empty tomato sauce bottles.
• There appears to be no rule for when to discard jam and other preservatives that both lack mold and were placed there last ski season.
• The Back of the Fridge is a place where food goes to become a permanent resident. Once its at the Back of the Fridge, there it stays. Immortal and undying in a sleep of a thousand years or until we have another power blackout.
  

The freezer section is a whole other realm of frozen curiosities. Therein lies a plethora of leftovers and soups, empty iceblock cartons and frozen blueberries from last year. We don't often eat the food we freeze as it turns out we don't own a microwave.

To be honest we cleaned out an enormous amount of foodstuffs unfit for human consumption (but not those horrible, horrible Orange biccies) and it was at least a cleansing process. Liberating almost.

So if you are in the neighbourhood, drop by and enjoy our hospitality and eat the last of those awful biscuits so we can get some new ones.