That was close

I nearly didn't get to walk up a hill today.  But luckily I went for a walk from Sue's place down to the gourmet burger bar to get something for tea, which meant walking back up.  It's not very far or even very steep, but in my present condition it got my heart rate way up so it must have been good for me.

Getting technical for a minute

I hate spam.  The stuff that arrives as email, that is, not Spam which comes in a tin and I've never tasted. Anyway, I've just found www.spamblogging.com in which somebody called Eric has posted a lot of useful information - some of it deeply technical, but some of it useful for home users too - and various bits of news.  Seems like a handy site for keeping up with the latest. Also, thanks to Eric at Spamblogging, I found... possibly one of the weirdest sites on the net... Spam Radio where spam emails get sliced and diced, and converted into an audio channel through the magic of voice synthesis.  The only trouble is, it needs a better network connection than mine to listen to it.  But it's a fun concept.

An uphill battle

It's a bit depressing.  It's been so long since I stopped seriously walking that my fitness level has dropped off very badly.  So today I did a walk that should have taken no more than half an hour, and spent about an hour on it - and although part of that time was spent standing quietly and looking for birds, there was a fair bit of waiting to catch my breath too. I went into the Colonial Knob reserve at the Spicer Park entrance, and took the side track that stops at a stream where there might once have been a bridge and carries on over the other side.  I didn't feel like getting my feet wet and scrambling up the bank, and time was getting on so I went back.

Back into it for real

After spending time at the Family History Centre this afternoon, I finally started walking again for real.  I parked in the first carpark I found at Hataitai park, and started walking uphill. First I encountered a rugby practice.  The team were mostly wearing yellow and black horizontal stripes so I'm guessing it was a Wellington rep team of some sort.  I carried on up the road to the velodrome.  Behind the velodrome is the start of one of the many walkways on Mt Victoria, so I started along the track and wandered around among the trees for a while then came back.  Next along the road is another rugby club, and then it loops around and comes back down towards the tennis courts, and back to where I had parked the car.  About an hour all up - not bad going, for starting all over again.

Having finally kick-started this blog again, I want to write some more, but it will have to wait, because my next priority is some work I have to do for InternetNZ's anti-spam project.

Well it's a start

I have to confess, my fitness level has dropped way down.  I stopped walking when I caught a dreaded lurgy, and totally failed to start up again.  So I have to start again from scratch, and just when winter's starting to close in, too.  So, don't laugh, but when I was in town today I walked as briskly as I could manage, everywhere I went, and that's my way of starting again.  Tomorrow I must do better!

Long time no see

Oh dear.  It's been a while since I've blogged.  It's been almost as long since I walked up any hills.  BAD GIRL!  I'll start again soon, I promise. So here's what I've been doing instead: Genealogy, sewing, fixing up computers, Easter camp, running a club. Genealogy Among other things, I've been trying to find out more about my Swedish great-grandfather who was born in Göteborg about 1862 and came to New Zealand in 1895.  Right now I'm trying to find his birth record, which means hunting through Swedish record books on microfilm at the LDS. Sewing (1) I signed up for a pattern-making course, which is giving me some useful skills, but requires me to spend time at home sewing between the weekly classes.  Most of the time this is okay. Sewing (2) I came up with a nice design for bottle bags, and made a few to sell at the Easter camp.  The idea is that, at medievalist events, you don't want nasty modern drink bottles and suchlike spoiling the atmosphere.  So you put your bottle inside an appropriate-looking cloth bag, and although it's not really period to drink out of cloth bags either, it doesn't look quite so egregiously wrong.  More people should use these things at events. Fixing up computers The usual stuff, more or less.  They don't work quite the way they're supposed to, so people call me.  Much more of this and I'll have to start charging - but then it would be a job and I don't want that kind of job exactly. Easter Camp This deserves a whole blog entry to itself, so it's going to get one. Running a club Okay, so it doesn't take a lot of time normally, but there is a feast planned for June and the time to start swinging into action is now.  More about the feast later.