When the Cheshire emerges...

Soooooo... who just watched Big Fat Gypsy Weddings?

WOW.

I had it on after Big Brother so thought I'd give it a go. And I've not seen anything so bizarre in some time.

Incase you missed it, this is Josie. An Irish traveller (aka gypsy), 17 and oldest of nine.

Looks a bit like Linsday Lohan in this photo and fits the apparently typical traveller bill of dressing with her boobs out all.the.time.

And this is her on her wedding day to 19-year-old English traveller Swanley.


The story with this is that she could hardly walk in it and that frustrated me. What's the point?! But the whole time I just couldn't figure out HOW they have the money to spend on these big days... if they're travellers they don't have a normal level of stability do they? The whole thing was just... oh, I don't know. Weird.

From watching this though, the whole concept of travellers' morals seems a huge contradiction. They walk around looking like prostitutes (the dressmaker's words), but can't drink or have sex before marriage, and they're also anti-careerwoman. So you'd think there's some good values in there but it comes across SO tacky.

Does anyone agree?

What did you think Australia? I'd love to hear some opinions!

I am allergic to running.

This is not so much a revelation as it is confirmation, with my first-ever run in Dubbo confirming after runs in Adelaide that I can't handle much in the way of basic endurance exercise.

That's part of my left shin. Can you spot the red patchy bit on the left side? Well, that happened to be all over me like a rash, and rather than being puffed out and stopping I had to go to a walk purely because my legs were numb, sore and itchy all at the same time.

What's worse is that I found myself doing the following, all because I'd gone out the door intending to go to the gym and then realised it was a public holiday for everyone else:


Not the smaller loop you can see there (I thought I was fine at that stage, ha) but the big, newly completed part of the Tracker Riley Cycleway. Starting at the top right 'corner' of the loop where the CBD finishes, I thought it was only 6 kilometres or so but I was told it could be up to 17. So for now I'm confused, but what I do know is that I was out there for 90 minutes, I ran (re: jogged) for about 35 minutes of that and I'm SORE AS HELL. I can hardly walk. For goodness sake, I got out to the ZOO! For Dubbo, that's pretty far. Can't you tell?

But this is what it looks like - really pretty. I cursed myself for not having my camera, this one was online.


While the mystery of the allergy continues, in the end I was really proud of myself for getting there and now I can say I've done it. Although if I do a run again I'd be much safer with the smaller loop - I'm not looking forward to having to move tomorrow.

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This all stems from habits over the last two months, when I returned to Dubbo after my birthday in July feeling a little bit heavier, having indulged in plenty of good food. In the weeks between that visit and my time away for a work conference (aka cadet camp), I made a promise to myself that I would really knuckle down and get into good shape for summer.

Went to Curves as per usual and I meet a new staff member who's really enthusiastic about the job and wanting to get me on goal plans and whatnot. I get my monthly measurements done and explain how I've been home, eating too well, and also how that hadn't changed at work. Let's just say there's always a cake around waiting to be eaten, we have some good bakers in our midst.

She took that to heart, bless - I still laugh looking at it.


Getting back into it was hard because I was preparing for my latest two weeks away, but now I'm back from that I can start my do-over. And finally blog to you all about my recent adventures, it's coming!

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To end on a different note, I hit 10,000 pageviews today. Excitement! Although I'm sure the majority of those are just people Googling images. So if you DO read it for real and like it, share it to others who you think might benefit from my musings. And let me know what you think of course!