18 - day spa

otherwise known as a D-A-I-Y-E spa.

went to daylesford for a weekend of pampering - late afternoon drive through scenic towns such as woodend (twinge of townal-inferiority on benalla's behalf), gorgeous holiday cottage with an outdoorsy indoors spa in which we soaked whilst watching zoolander, bric-a-brac shopping, awesome chowder, mini golf, lookout tower at wombat hill, dinner at the swanky lakehouse where i had the best cocktail ever (bombay blossom if you're interested, it's a gnt with elderflower and coriander), and finally the day spa treatment the next day.

how was it? meh. nice, but i didn't feel thaaat much better afterwards. the massage wasn't hard enough on my neck and shoulders, the jets in the spa were nice and strong but only lasted 20 mins, i realised i prefer diy facials and the scrub was good but not $280 good. conclusion - i'm glad i did it, but i don't think i'll be going again. i'll just rent a cottage with a spa and spend the rest on a good physio.

 

the daylesford day spa

our own spa at 'home'

ps. i still like benalla.

37 - read 20 new books (2/20)

"George's Marvellous Medicine" - Roald Dahl
** 1/2 interesting, but i don't like reading lists much so it lost half a star.

good to know i have approval to continue indulging my inner child. you may be wondering, 'why roald dahl?' well, apart from his sheer brilliance and the delightful associations with my childhood, it's because we have a discounted books catalogue at work and i recently bought the box set of 15 for around $50. i shall treasure them for ever.

i thought this book was a little rude actually :P i mean, sure grandma was an unrepentant meanie, and there was a disclaimer about how most grannies are actually sweet old ladies, but it still seemed a little harsh. oh well, i guess she brought it on herself.

37 - read 20 new books (1/20)

'The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me' - Roald Dahl.
*** very amusing.

is it cheating if i read kids' books? i am arguing that the genius of roald dahl is for all ages, thus it is not...

anyway, i just read 'the giraffe, the pelly and me'. it's about a super-efficient magical window-cleaning company and a boy with dreams of owning the best sweets shop in the world (admirable aspirations).

i wonder how much roald dahl influenced jk rowling?

33 - learn US states

will you forgive me for the lengthy absence? i have been busy.

just realised that a lot of my goals actually require quite a lot of effort, though are inter-related so i can kill a couple of birds with one stone (eg run 5km lose 5kg), but very difficult because it requires consistent prolonged discipline, eg a change in lifestyle such that i drink water instead of caffeine/alcohol, and not just on days when i eat chinese takeaway or kfc where the msg/salt content impels me to do so.

anyway, something somewhat more achieveable is learning the names and location of the states of the united states... i've been testing myself with this cool online game and set myself the target of consistently getting 90% + on level 7 over several weeks before i could tick it off.

i'm pretty sure it's now in my medium- if not long-term memory now. so whoohoo!! now all i have to do is learn where major cities belong :S