Hi Folks,
It's the countdown to national championships, and I'm practising most of the time now.
Nevertheless, I have time for this!
Sunday was good. Had marching practise on the torrens parade ground in the morning and marched down rundle mall in the afternoon. Had a stand-up concert, played thriller, copacobana and other uptempo tunes. I was on the bass drum and hit it between 112 and 138 times a minute for 35 minutes, with breaks of 2 mins between tunes. that's about 4500 hits, all between loud, louder, and loudest.
Met friend Helen for lunch, laksa at the food plaza. walked to victoria square, sat for a while, a coolish breeze on a sunny autumn afternoon in our faces. Quite nostalgic as we walked past the bus stop where we met in 1969. That's 42 years ago! so that's what 42 years feels like. I'll be 98 in another 42 years! I think that will make me the longest living Martin, but the others have come close. I might be the healthiest to date.
Worn out that I was, I was in bed at 4.00.
On Monday, after bass practise, I went for a run. Armed with my new garmin gps monitor, I ran 12.5 kms in 1:10:00. this is another personal best time, and takes me to the 'local' level of running, others being regional, national, and world levels.
Unfortunately I slightly strained a groin string, and it didn't recover adequately for the following run.
I had decided to do a speed set and set off at pace. Slight mistake, groin string became painful, so I slowed down and started walking. Thoughts of what to, turn back, or continue, the pain subsided so on I went. did some speed walking, jogged a little, back to a walk. 4.2 kms in 38 mins.
There was a slight sensation - not pain, but slight heat, coming from the string when I woke up on thursday morning. it felt a bit stretched. the sensation disappeared as I moved.
Inevitably I decided to stop running for a while. As it turns out, my efforts are needed for national band championships in just over a week, and I need to clean up my house for 2 french guys who are staying over.
I was thinking that some cross training might be in order. such as the pushbike mounted in my gym. given that the events I'm training for involve walking up hills, that's another option,
so, moving along, motorbike to market for shopping and lunch, I'm full of glucosamine avec condroitin, 'elasticity' , combination 12 , omega 3 and brahmi ginko. I head for the best salad in town. tabooli, chic peas, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, fetta cheese, olives, a sprinkle of spices. "that's so healthy it's disgusting!" said Chris.
Coles Adelaide is the best supermarket in my world. smoked cod, yoghurt, tomatoes, tomato juice, milk, chilli beans, sardines in tomato sauce. that reminds me! I love tomatoes, and onions (very complimentary vegetables) yum!!! I had a glass house once. bought it for $250, dis-assembled it and re-built it on my 12 acre hobby farm. I grew the best tomatoes! Roma Tomatoes, I salute you! Unfortunately 'man cannot live by tomatoes alone!' I ate so many tomatoes that their acid burnt my mouth and I had to stop eating them! so sad ! many years later, last monday, my salad girl - Mary, owner of the best salad in town, told me to sprinkle sugar on tomatoes, as well as salt. Hmm, thanks Mary!
out of the supermarket, into the veggie market for coffee and bacon, and back to the food plaza for a medium vietnamese beef noodle soup with corriander, mint and wheat sprouts, I am in heaven, metaphorically speaking...
there's a new chinese medicine shop inside the entrance to the food plaza, full to the brim with stock. all sorts of exciting stuff, I bought some fungi you make tea out of - good for tonnes of 'ailments', including stretched groin strings. Tastes fine to me but others use honey with it.
I went into cash converters in gouger st, a regular pitstop, and found a thigh trainer! this thing is like walking up hills! and at $25 a bargain! Woo hoo! big tick on the cross training scoreboard! I've been looking at steps but can't really justify buying one, especially with a flight of stairs in my house. So the thigh trainer was exactly what I was looking for.
Today (friday) has been spent playing bass. our band is rehearsing tonight, tomorrow, sunday, monday night, and wednesday night. probably over next weekend too. we are in 3 competitions over the week end - a marching band comp - we are currently aussie champs, a B grade concert, we came second last year to a band from Singapore, and an A grade comp. No one makes mistakes in A grade, and it tends to be dominated by wind ensembles, 70+ players. They usually drop into B grade to steal our prize!
On stage, my bass and amp can be felt through the floor. you have to play loud enough to fill the space in the hall without producing a reverberation. In Magdalena Church (paris) it took about 3 seconds for the music to stop after we finished playing.
We are playing in Elder Hall next weekend. Very high ceilings, and a brilliant place to play. Hot hot hot!!!
Cheers Dears!
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