Checking in

Happy Australia Day! (26/1) Three day weekend!

On Monday, I'm going to Ferntree Gully with some people from my class (or without them, if they can't go) to do the Thousand Steps. Apparently, there are just short of 800 steps, but I reckon by the time you've done the entire 5km walk, it'd feel like 10,000. My first big training challenge for 'The Trek'.

Somehow I've also managed to get myself roped into doing a 14.2km run at the end of March, for charity, with my class. With the debacle of my brother's run in the back of my mind, I'm wondering what I've signed myself up for. But I have 8 weeks to train. Hmmm...

I've been busy setting up a blog for donations to raise money to get our airfares and equipment for 'The Trek'. I've also set up two fundraising pages for the charities for whom we want to raise money. Be forewarned - I'm not posting details here, so there are no link backs or search engine hits, but I will be spamming everyone I know with links to the pages. I hope everyone will be kind enough to forward the links to anyone they think might want to help in some way, or at least come up with ideas to help me promote this thing (keeping in mind I'm time and money poor right now). I've not done anything like this before, and it's a little overwhelming at the moment. But...I'm determined to get what we need, get ourselves there, and raise as much money as we can in the process.

I almost had to use my newly acquired first aid knowledge this morning. I was reading my book on the tram and half sleeping, when a girl across from me suddenly stood up and said, "Oh shit!" Across the road, a guy was lying face down on the footpath. He moved just slightly, like he was shaking, but then just lay there. The girl got up to call the emergency line and the girl beside her went to make the driver stop. I got my shit together to get off the tram. It's funny, my mind was racing, but I played out in my head exactly what I was going to do without having to think about it. As it turned out, I didn't have to get off the tram - and I don't know why, but the driver didn't open the doors or stop anyway. Three people on that side of the street ran over to help the guy just as we were working out whether to jump the tram or not. Still, my heart raced for a while afterwards. It was interesting - and disappointing - to see the lack of concern from most people on the tram. We were only two blocks from a major hospital, so I'm sure the guy got whatever help he needed. I've seen much, much worse, but the feeling in your stomach is always the same.

I finish my temp job on Tuesday. I'll have money to pay the rent, which is good. Also good is that I have an interview with the head office of that company on Wednesday. They sent around an internal email about an admin job. I enquired about the salary and got the usual 'depends on experience, send us your resume' response. I did, and I told them the salary I wanted and that I assumed it was a lot more than the position is offering. They replied back asking to see me. That can only be positive. And it's in the city. And it's close to school. And it's on the 9th floor, so I'll have plenty of stairs on which to train every day. I wish I didn't need something like this so much, coz I don't want to push my luck with the universe right now. Still, I'm hopeful.

That's all for now. I did a kickboxing workout on Wednesday night and now it's kicking my arse. Every time I moved last night, my whole body hurt, so I didn't sleep well. Laughing or coughing today? I felt like I'd been operated on all over again. Good pain. But it's made me tired. I'll be recovered just in time to hike on Monday. Lucky me, huh! ;-)