Climbing on and off the bandwagon

It's not that we fall off the bandwagon that's the problem, the problem is if we stay where we've landed.

Interesting word isn't it "bandwagon" what it means and why we use it for when things aren't going quite to plan. Well I've not fallen off the bandwagon per se, rather I have had to get off it for a couple of weeks.

My partner hates it when I have visitors, I put myself through all sorts of stress to ensure my visitors have a good time and in doing so of course, my normal schedule rather takes a beating. He knows what it's like though he's a POM too, so when I say "hate" he understands all too well what happens. Thanks honey :-)

Anyway on Friday evening I did the last journey of the holiday and took mum back to the International Airport and whence it all began some 6 weeks earlier. I cannot tell you how many miles we covered, the things we have done and the places we went to. But I can tell you, I managed in the process of the 6 weeks to cross a great number of things off my to-do / bucket list. Including a visit to the Northern Territory, Alice Springs, Ayers Rock (no way was I climbing - have you seen how steep it is - besides which there were other reasons why not), The Olgas and Kings Canyon... and that was just 1 week. When I get chance to go through the massive amounts of photographs and video I will post some to the website, and will let you know when it gets there of course... but in the mean time it is time to return to whatever I can describe as "normal" for me.

Friday - it was a long day.

Saturday - it was time to get up, get ready and go to the gym. I've managed a couple of workouts each week during mum's visit, but nowhere near as many as my "normal" schedule covers - so I knew it was going to hurt. I could have delayed the re-start of course, I was exhausted and I am running a low level cold/chill. I don't like exercising when I am sick as the body usually has far too much going on to kill the germs to cope with re-building muscles as well. Then I wondered if the reason why I was running the cold was in fact because my body was complaining about the lack of exercise. So I went. It's Sunday now and my muscles are still not very forgiving in the non-aching department, but you get that. I did treat myself post gym with a walk around Perth's Hyde Park (lots of water and the next generation of wildlife is making an appearance) to do some mental filing (shame about the screaming kids and sirens going off though) followed by brekkie and then a back /shoulder / neck and head massage - ahhhh bliss.

So what am I trying to tell you in my normal rambling fashion is this:

* You do what you need to do.
* You pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start the re-climb back to where you were before you landed
* You try and understand why you fell off and hope that you can learn from whatever "mistake" that caused it and you try to do better next time.
* Understand that every day you can and do redefine the term "normal"

With lots of love and hugs for a brand new start

Elle