Are men really necessary ?

This is not my cake, it is the Chubby Hubby's.

Summer is just around the corner here in South Australia and with our summer comes intense heat and BUGS !
Now ladies have traditionally been reluctant to go bug and spider hunting in their homes. Preferring to allocate this task to the " men of the household. " Not because we can't do bugs I might add but because our heroic menfolk need to feel wanted and useful.
However with the development of high impact bug sprays I find myself pondering on whether men are now really necessary.

Let's consider their previous uses;
- Heavy lifting : well we have forklifts now which girls do operate.
- Babies : reproductive medicine has now virtually eliminated their role in this process. Not to mention the variety of battery operated do it yourself toys now available.

Of course man's original role was as hunter and gatherer. Now any lady watching her man trying to find something in the refrigerator will understand that the gathering instincts have long been bred out. When my chubby hubby goes to the fridge, if the item required does not jump out and say " here I am ", then there is no way he is going to find and gather it.

Now back to the bugs ; watching the chubby hubby trying to hunt and kill a fly is poetry in motion and akin to a Greek Tragedy.
Hunting tool required : Rolled up TV guide.
Now like prehistoric man DH treats his hunting tools with utmost reverence. It is his life line don't you know and his entire life is guided by it.
Chubby hubby's guide to fly squatting;
- take rolled up precious TV guide.
- raise left arm 90 degrees and take a practice aim.
- announce to the entire household including said fly that he is about to make a KILL.
- aim and swat, halting the killer blow just before making contact so the TV guide is not damaged.
- fly in question escapes.
- DH looks at Moi; " you get it if you're so good ! "

I REST MY CASE.

So now I'm thinking there is only one possible role left for our menfolk. That being the taking of moral responsibility for ordering desert when out for a meal.
We girls know that if we order our own deserts we are inviting a catastrophic expansion of our hips and waistlines. So we simply do not do deserts. BUT: if DH orders a creamy pie the size of Ularu and we eat most of it with a long spoon from his plate, the calories are lost in transit.
And we are innocent of the crime of desert eating.

The Twisted Sisters have now commenced summer training and I have now recovered from whatever I had that led me to retiring from the Yurrebilla ultra.

Moi in the Yurrebilla Ultra just before retiring.

This week we moved from the trails to avoid the snakes and went down to Largs Bay to train in the Snake Pit. Go figure !
This is a tough, very soft sand 500 metre hilly circuit and it's hard, hard work. I don't know why it is called the snake pit and I don't want to know.

Tracey running the snake pit.

The snake pit.

Moi, about to tackle another lap.

The Twisted Sisters on the beach.

We did 5 full laps, 5 sets of soft sand hill sprints, alternated with sets of step ups, push ups and tricep dips. We then went on to the beach and did a 30 minute sand run in bare feet.

Last Friday night I competed in the West Pac Stair Climb race. This was a race to the top of the West Pac building here in Adelaide up the stairwell.




I completed the full 30 stories and 135 metres of vertical height in 4 minutes 26 seconds and won first placing for my age group.
Each runner started in 15 second intervals and the average finishing time was 6 to 8 minutes.
Some people did the run in teams taking 10 flights of stairs each. Because I have done so much hill training I actually found it quite easy although a little hot and stuffy in the stairwell.




The sewing machine and I have also been having some deep and meaningful time and have not come to blows too often.




This is a quilt I hand stitched and which DF Amanda of Sea Breeze Quilts is Quilting for me. The pattern is Meg's Garden by Kelly at Dont Look Now.




I've also had a bit of a play with a Tilda Design and these bunnies are to be a wall hanging.



This hexagon pillow has been a lot more work than I thought it would be, but i'm totally hooked on hexagons right now.

These bags are also fun to make . The pattern is by Lorraine at Hetties Patch.

Happy running and stitching to all.
Til next time
Cheers Karen.

Humble Pie.

Okay, so a seriously big slice of Humble Pie needs to be eaten today.
For months I have been banging on and poking fun at the Chubby Hubby's, and for good reason I might add. But yesterday both DH and Mike both proved themselves as ultra marathoners, whilst I was a non finisher withdrawing from the race at 21 km.


Yes the two Chubby Hubby's successfully completed the 56 km. Yurrebilla ultra trail marathon in 10 hr 45 min, their stomachs crossing the line first in 10 hr 40 min.!!! This is a very gruelling and tough cross country run with lots of steep climbs and rocky descents through the Adelaide Hills. Many participants do not finish this run.

My run started well and whilst I felt I had over trained I was confident as I had successfully completed this run last year. I covered the first 20 km. in 90 minutes, well ahead of my race plan. However at 15km. we descended into a steep gully where it was very hot and humid.
I'm always totally crap in the heat and so within a few minutes in this gully I became quite nauseated and light headed. I pushed on through the nausea for another 3km. but by this time I was also experiencing severe hamstring cramps and excruciating back pain. With only 3km. to go to the next check point where I knew I could get help, I knew I had to make a quick and sensible decision on whether to continue or not.
However by the time I neared the check point my legs were very weak, wobbly and shaking so I really had no choice.
I also believe I was in the wrong mind set for the event. For some unknown reason I simply didn't feel motivated or interested. I must add that if this had just been one of our training runs I would have canceled, pulled the blankets over my head and gone back to sleep.

Daryl and Mike with only 6 km. to go and about to tackle the steepest climb in the run.

Susi found this particularly tasty but distressed Italian runner on the trail and they finished the run together.

The race marshalls try to make the day fun and go to a lot of trouble to make us laugh.

The event this year was very difficult for most competitors. Runners who usually do very well withdrew with severe cramping, heat exhaustion or just crawled across the finish line. DF Cathy and Judy who are new to trail events both struggled through severe pain and exhaustion and finished although not in qualifying time. DF Cathy when she crossed the finish line said if any one ever says the word Yurrebilla to her ever again she would KILL them !

Twisted Sister Tracey fell into the grass at the finish line and there she stayed for some time.

Susi no Bum has been given a very stern lecture from me for continuing the event whilst severely ill with a gastrointestinal problem and palpitations. Sheer bloody madness. No event is worth killing yourself over.

Chubby Hubby Daryl and Moi at the finish line.

Mike and Daryl after finishing.

Daryl, Mike , Susi No Bum and Kym.

Judy crossed the finished line and fell into this chair.

DF. Cathy with her daughter Georgina.

And so The Twisted Sisters and The Chubby Hubby's racing season comes to an end. We've had a very successful but tiring season, and we are all now ready for a rest as most of us are completely Burnt Out.


AND SO CHUBBY HUBBY'S DARYL AND MIKE, I SALUTE YOU,
WELL DONE TO BOTH OF YOU!
PS: YOU ARE BOTH STILL CHUBBY LOL !

Thanks for dropping by;
Cheers Karen.

A Run and a Funeral.

Today I have reluctantly held a funeral for three of my sadly departed toe nails.
Their death was quick but relatively painless and two of their close friends are likely to join them soon in toe nail heaven.

Life is short and brutal when you are the toe nail of a long distance runner. Farewell my sadly battered and bruised friends. May your next life be on the pretty little toes of Paris Hilton in her dainty little shoes and not in my muddy, smelly runners.

Susi No Bum with the two Chubby Hubbys. Nuff said !

Last Saturday's Trail.

Said toe nails received mortal wounds whilst supporting Moi's Barge Arse during the Sydney 100km. event, with the final blow being struck during the 32 km. Sea to Summit Race.
They had a good life ; never squeezed into those high, stiletto Tart Trotters some girls wear, nor painted layer upon layer like a Sara Lee Struedal. Nor did they suffer the indignity of having plastic pretend thingy nails glued on top of them. Nope life was good for them. Well travelled, dont you know , and treasured.

Our bush trails are already starting to dry out now Spring is here.

The trail running season for the Twisted Sisters is now coming to an end. Next Sunday is the Yurrebilla Ultra and in November The Black Hill Challenge. Then aside from our monthly social trail runs with SAARC most of our runs will be shorter 10 km. events.
Our extreme heat in South Australia , snakes and bushfires prevent us from doing any lengthy trail runs in Summer.

So we are now discussing some options to keep our training and fitness up during Summer and have decided upon;

• competitive bike riding.
• indoor rock climbing.
• beach running.
  
• road running.
• ?? triathlons.

But for now the Twisted Sisters and the Chubby Hubbys are still out on the trails. We haven't seen any snakes yet, but Spring is nesting time for the Magpies. These birds are very protective of their nests and they become very aggressive. They swoop down low as you run near their trees and attack from behind pecking your head. AND THEY HURT!!
It's quite a sight seeing runners out on the trails, running and swinging sticks above their heads. As a child I had six stitches in my head from a magpie attack, so you will understand they mean business!!

Last Sunday we had South Australia's biggest fun run for the year; the City to Bay 12km. event from Adelaide to Glenelg Beach. Nearly 31,000 people took part.

The Twisted Sisters take part in this run but we do not do this run as a timed event. Instaed we use this run to support our Chubby Hubbys or friends wanting to do a run for the first time.
My Chubby Hubby ran the whole 12 km. without stopping as did Susi No Bum's Chubby Hubby. But there were complaints from both of them when we then made them turn around and run back to Adelaide. No stamina in these boys. !!!

Me trying to run slow enough for the Chubby Hubby.

The Chubby Hubby breaking the 24 hour time barrier ! You go Boy!

Me and my friend Viv who ran her first ever fun run.

And so fellow runners who pass through my blog, love and cherish your toe nails as they are not with us forever.

Happy Running,
Cheers Karen.

Sydney 2010.

Sydney 100 km. finishing line. Luckily this is not a scratch and sniff picture !!

Never run with Chubby Hubby.

Last Sunday, a crisp spring Adelaide morning saw 144 intrepid trail runners abandon their cars at Mt. Lofty and catch a chartered bus down to Kingston Park beach to begin The George Driscoll Sea to Summit Trail run; 32km. with a total height gain of 1400 metres, all the way uphill and through some very rough trails.

Kingston park Beach.

Our Leader Terry at the pre race meeting.

This is where we left our cars!

The George Driscoll Sea to Summit Trail traverses the traditional lands of the Kaurna People and we were very lucky that some of the traditional land owners acted as volunteers on the day.
All the trail runners take turns acting as volunteers for our events and for this run I was the course Sweep, AKA The Grim Reaper! This means it was my job to run the trail at the back of the pack, set the pace for the slower participants and also remove the trail markers along the way.

Of course this meant that I was not able to actively participate as a timed runner, which was ok. But what I didn't anticipate was having the company of Chubby Hubby !
Now Chubby Hubby likes to participate in our events but usually I off load him to another group of Chubby Hubbys. However Susi No Bum's once Chubby Hubby ( but now just bad knees ) was unable to join us, so I was left with DH.

Now the politest way to comment on his performance is " he had a bad day in the office ". But OMG, I was almost reduced to total despair. He made very poor pre race nutritional choices and so whilst he started the run really well, hit the wall at around 16 km. and never got his mojo back. I'm quite sure I've seen corpses move off the autopsy table quicker than he was.

I was further disadvantaged by trying to support a small group of girls at the start of the race who were first timers. They were really struggling trying to keep pace up the hills and eventually retired at 6 km. I found a group of other runners who were lost and had to set them on the correct track and then in true Twisted Sister fashion also got myself hopelessly lost. A big Thankyou to a new group of runners who thought they would remove the course markers instead of leaving them for me and left me up SHIT CREEK without a paddle!!

DH knew I was getting very frustrated with him and was ready to push him over a cliff so he then tried the Smootchey Tactic.

DH: Isn't it lovely that we are doing this together.

Moi: No it bloody well is not. Just put one foot in front of the other and Move it !

DH: I'd support you if you were struggling.

Moi: W ell I'm not struggling and you're not even trying.

DH; I'm tired , SNIVVEL, SNIVVEL. I've got no energy.

MOI: Tell some one who FRIGGIN WELL CARES !

Fortunately Susi No Bum finished her run long before us so she came back down the hill to rescue me from The Chubby Hubby and to prevent a certain murder.

All that can be said is Thank God for Susi No Bum and Lofty Coffee.

Moi, collecting the course tags.

The Chubby Hubby with a well chosen sign holding him up !

Thankyou for visiting my blog.

Cheers Karen.

Hexagons to the Rescue.

Whoo Hoo, 2 posts in a week. I'm on a roll.
Yes I'm totally hooked on these little suckers called Hexagons.
I so enjoyed making my hexagon bag a couple of posts back that I just had to find another project using them.

I found this project in the current edition of the Australian Quilters Companion no. 44 and just had to begin it straight away. The process of making these hexagons is so relaxing, and I love working by hand. I'm not the best of friends my Bernina.

I'm thinking this project has come just at the right time as my feet have been very sore and battered since the Sydney 100 km. event. It's been good to have an excuse to sit and quietly sew with a Jane Austin DVD

Isn't it lucky my feet can't talk.

There are 48 very tiny little diamond shapes to be paper pieced and I was quite happy to sit and stitch them. However DF Lorraine at Hetties Patch introduced me to this little glue pen.
Now while I'm thinking gluing fabric is cheating, I must admit it has made the process much easier and quicker with the smaller pieces. Only a small dab of glue is needed, it dries invisible and the templates are very easily removed after.

I've fallen badly behind with my goal of doing one block a month of the Shores of Hawk Run Hollow. Lost my mojo a little bit with it. I enjoy stitching it but am finding it very intense. Also I am very new to cross stitching and when I kitted this project up I didn't really understand the different counts of fabric. I'm doing it on 28 count instead of the recommended 40 count, so it's going to be huge when finished.


Me thinks it is going to be too expensive to have framed so I may cover a European Sized pillow with it. And well betide if either of my 2 boys; DH or DS get any where near it.

Despite sore feet and general fatigue the Twisted Sisters are back out training for our next event. We are all still running a bit like epileptic caterpillars , but need to get our act together by Sunday for the Sea to Summit. 33km from Brighton to Mt. Lofty, elevation over the course 1,4oo metres. OMG.

Thanks for visiting my blog.
Happy Stitching or Running.
Cheers Karen.

Hawkesbury to the Harbour.

Moi, Tracey, Babette and Sue.

Eye, yai, yai, yai, yai, The 100km.trail run from the Hawkesbury to the Harbour in Sydney was definitely not what we were expecting. NO FRIGGIN WAY!! The advertising write ups told of a pleasant trail run through the bushland of Sydney. The grid maps we studied showed elevations of only 300 metres and as we have been training on elevations of 700-8oo metres we were confident. So you can imagine our concern when soon after the start of the event we were confronted with little more than narrow goat trails full of rubble, steep drops on one side, and a significant amount of rock climbing to be done. OMG.

Our wonderful support team; Kevin, Dianne, Daryl and Mike.

Kevin made this banner for our support vehicle.

Tracey and Moi early on in the race.

The hills were quite piddly compared to what we are used to, but we were definitely not prepared for this rugged terrain.


Twisted Sister Babette dislocated both her hips early on in the race falling on rubble but in an act of truly astonishing bravery was able to click them both back in by herself.


I experienced unanticipated night blindness on the rugged terrain in the dark and my reduced vision together with a chronic balance disorder meant that I struggled badly on the rocks and boulders at night. Tracey and Sue became my guide doggies and DH also joined in to give me extra support.


The night temperature dropped below zero and many runners needed treatment for hypothermia. One runner needed retrieval by helicopter and several others were stretchered off the course with various fractures and injuries.


Despite the rugged terrain the scenery was amazingly beautiful, the Hawkesbury River provided some spectacular views as it meandered around the Sydney coastline.


A Twisted Sister Team finally crossed the finish line in 27 hours and 13 minutes. That was a placing of 212 out of 497 teams. The fastest team finished in 12 hours 7 and the slowest in 46 hours 25.

Seriously who would put this in just before the finishing line?

Our support team were truly wonderful and nothing was too much trouble, even when we were feeling somewhat grumpy.
The official checkpoints were also brilliant with plenty of food supplies plus access to medical, physiotherapy and podiatry services.

Twisted Sisters Sue and Tracey are now keen to tackle the 100km. North Face Adventure race next year. I say they can have it to themselves. DH and I plan to do the 100km. in Melbourne or Sydney again next year, but take down time during the night hours to avoid me needing to run at night . Interestingly many teams stopped and camped over night in Sydney and resumed running in daylight, which I think is a pretty smart move.

All in all the event was a brilliant experience and I was very proud with what I was able to achieve and that we raised over $4000 for Oxfam.

Our next events coming up are;

September 12 : sea to Summit. 33km.

September 19. City to bay. 12km.

October 3. Yurrebilla. 56km.

Thanks for dropping by. Please leave a comment if you visit as I value your comments.

Cheers Karen.