City 2 Surf

Today I run a 1/3 marathon (14km) with 85 000 others. Well done me! :)Run started from the city and finished at Bondi beach. Although I wasn't in as good as a shape that I was with Helsinki 1/2 marathon in may, I did well and bloody well enjoyed it! :) Here is another list (yes, again) of the stuff that I will most probably remember from this day..

1. I had to stop twice during the run, but hey, these were awesome reasons to stop:

Stop 1. I decided (didn't have time to decline the invitation) to participate on a mass fall on a slippery hill..some ass was rushing past me and some others and knocked us over, so there we were, a good 6 of us on the ground! This resulted in bloody knees and palms etc. but didn't stop any of us continuing, thank god! After coming home I had to clen up my wounds, but the only anticeptic we found was this alcohol-gel that you use to desinfect your hands (käsidesi), which hurt like gazillion stinging bees so ended up having a glass of scotch to calm me down (it was past noon already, no worries!)

Stop 2. There was lots of entertainment on the side of the road all through the race. Occacionally they made me smile, like these 3 really gorgeous transvestites who had their little stage and were singing Tina Turner like no tomorrow, and some of the musiciens were amazing, like some big bands jamming it out, but this one scene made me actually stop..there were these loudspeakers playing dubstep and 20 dudes (partisipating on the run) dressed up as Star Wars Warriors (the white robot type thingies) had gathered around and were jumping to the beat; it was so awesome I had to join them for a minute or two! :) I actually laughed out loud and it was soooo much fun I think I started running twice as fast after that little session. Didn't have my camera with me, but found a picture of them from the event's page today..

2. Running gives me such a huge boost, who would have thought. Me loves to run.

3. Running up the hardest part of the race, a steep rice (cleverly named Heartbreak hill) with Prodigy's "Breath with me" on my headphones worked like magic..I felt like I was flying up that hill

4. If you have a nasty cut on your right palm, on the back of your left hand and on your knee, taking a shower without getting water to these sore wounds, but actually getting showered properly is a bloody challenge.

List of thingies

It's been a month now in Australia and I've noticed there are some things that make me smile like a mad hatter and others that make me frown. Here's a short list(oh, how I love making lists! :) ) and I have intentionally made the smile-list longer just to keep things on a good balance, the annoying things take up so much more room in a persons mind anyway.

Thingies that make Unni smile..

1. Encountering exotic birds in everyday life.

2. The option to cross busy roads diagonally. They even have their own traffic lights, how wonderful is this!

3. Cappuccinos. The possibility to get a cappuccino from almost every corner. The quality of cappuccinos. The feeling of buying yet another cappuccino. The efficiency of the baristas making cappuccinos. Going to a lecture with a cappuccino. Writing the word cappuuccino.

4. Spending time with myself. I came to realize I haven't really spent too much time alone before, and must say, I'm kind of liking it. I'm not too bad company after all.

5. Random conversations with random people. Must give an example of possibly the randomest conversation with an attractive young man at a bus stop last tuesday.

It went like this.
M(man): Hello.
U(Unni): Hello.
M: I just need to tell you something.
U: Yes.
M: I just need tell you that the bus 621 leaving from this stop runs until midnight 6 days a week. Until midnight!
U: Okay. (...????)
M: You must forgive me. I'm sorry. I'm a little nervous.
U: Don't worry. (...????)
M: I have been nervous a lot lately.
U: That's ok. (...???)
M: I'm so nervous. Please forgive me.
M & U: (handshake)
M: Thank you! Thank you for saving me!
M: (exit)
U: (...???)

Thingies that make Unni frown..

1. Prices.

2. Not beeing able to decide if I'd like the plural of a computer mouse being 'mouses' or 'mice'.

3. Realizing (yet again) that life is short.