Ferrets, Farmer’s Tans, and a Trail Note
In case you’re wondering what happened to CouchCam, it’s currently facing the wall to avoid offending your delicate sensibilities with the sight of a half-naked Scotsman. That’s right, folks, Ben (aka WeeB, aka The Ferret) is visiting us in Sydney for the first time. He flew in Thursday night and we immediately took him out for a Nepalese feast at House of Kathmandu. (The best part was the complete lack of guilt I felt, given that I’d had a run that morning and watched my Points all day long.) Friday was devoted to giving Ferret a tour of our fair city. We walked for probably five hours all up, taking time in the middle of the day to join the Snook and his co-workers for lunch. It was a bright and beautiful day, and despite my slip, slop, slap I still ended up rockin’ the farmer’s tan. (Check out DeskCam; only a true Midwestern girl could get a line like that.) I snapped a couple pictures not realizing that my camera was in some weird overexposure mode, but I kinda like the results:

   

In the afternoon I went on my longest run yet: all the way down Cleveland Street to the Sydney Cricket Ground, around Fox Studios past the horse stables and up to the start of Centennial Park, then back down Anzac Parade to Cleveland, turning right on Chalmers and running around Central Station before heading back down Broadway to home. Elapsed time: one hour five minutes. Distance: 8.5km (which, due to the fuzziness of my pedometer’s calculations, I’m dubbing “Kristy Mystery units”). I can definitely tell I’m improving though. Once I get warmed up, I don’t really need to stop and walk at all. (What rest I need I’m getting at traffic lights.) I’m also enjoying myself more, and I think I’m starting to get into that mental state runners talk about where you just seem to be able to brainstorm and work things out and solve the problems of the world. Maybe it’s a rhythm thing and I’m getting consistent enough that I go into a kind of self-hypnosis. *shrug* At any rate, it’s nice to finally be able to think about things other than the screaming aches and wearinesses of my own body. When I came to the cricket field at Sydney Boys’ High, I headed to the right intending to skirt along the footpath, but then impulsively I decided to head right across it instead. Nearby a young guy was teaching a little kid to skateboard, and an old couple were throwing tennis balls to their dogs, who were rolling around on the grass in doggy ecstasy… and I just couldn’t help smiling. Some days Sydney just won’t let you be in a bad mood.