August 18 - Double Exercise

  I got up around 10am today and procrastinated doing anything for an hour or so playing on my computer checking email, facebook, posting my photo a day challenge photo, printing out a map for my next round of elephant hunting.  Even though I planned to go elephant hunting today, which is a fair bit of walking, I decided to get on the cross trainer before my shower anyway.
  The main reason for doing the cross trainer on top of the walking is that, although walking is certainly better than sitting still, when I'm stopping every so often to take photos I barely break a sweat.  Even if I'm just looking around taking in the scenery I seem to walk slower than if I'm doing dedicated exercise on the cross trainer.  So I decided I could manage both today!  I may as well do lots while I'm enjoying it!
  By the time I finished my exercise it was half past twelve so for lunch I had a shower and dressed then had lunch.  I am wearing a pair of my awesome cotton toe-socks today!  In winter they seem to keep my feet warmer than normal socks.  Also, I love stripey socks!
  Lunch today was a sandwich made of two slices of toasted Bürgen Wholemeal & Seeds Bread, about a quarter of a Hass avocado, a slice of Bega Extra Light Tasty cheese and half a 90g tin of Sole Mare tuna in olive oil.  I was still a bit peckish after that so I followed it with four dried apricot halves, four brazil nuts, four almonds, two hazelnuts and two pecan nut halves.  With hunger abated I was able to focus on the next task in hand.  I packed my bag for tonight and set off into the city once more in search of Mali!

  I planned my Mali route to capture another ten in a similar location, this time the focus was on Southbank, along the Yarra River.  To see all ten of the Mali's I found today, click here and scroll down to the August 18 heading.  I also got to see a really cool professional graffiti wall at Crown Casino on Southbank and the giant honey bees at the Eureka Tower!  I'd never seen them from this angle before so I hadn't realised how many there were!  My route took me on a walk of about 3.8km and it took me about one and a half hours.  After I finished it was time to head to Mr Smart's place so I got in the car and headed out of the city.  I'm pleased to say, despite the fact it took me an hour to get only 13km due to traffic leaving the MCG, that I didn't get lost once!

  Tonight Mr Smart and I made homemade pizzas.  Mine was a wholemeal Khobz flatbread with Leggo's Pizza Sauce topped with four slices of low-fat salami, shredded ham, bocconcini, mushrooms, kalamata olives, baby broccoli stalk and light tasty cheese.  It was yummy!  I only had four (out of six) slices of mine and one slice of Mr Smart's pizza which had achovies (blech!) but was actually quite nice.  He puts bacon on top of the cheese which is not as crazy as it sounds at first.
  Mr Smart made mugs of green tea with fresh lemon juice and we watched the first of the Bledisloe Cup matches (well Mr Smart and his Dad watched, I curled up on the couch next to Mr Smart and half-watched and loaded up my elephant pictures and wrote my blog on my teensy little netbook).  It was a little difficult to know who to barrack for!  Mr Smart is an Aussie but he's New Zealand born and is a staunch All Blacks supporter but his Dad is a Wallabies man.  Sporting results don't really affect me either way, but it's always nice to see the Aussie side win.  Alas, that was not to be.  Although I wouldn't call it a walkover, it never really looked like the Wallabies were going to get up.  Now clearly it can't be as simple as the All Blacks just being the better team (I say with hand to eye) so there must be something intimidating to the Haka, though I still find it ridiculously funny.

Image by Joseph Lee

  It's about 10pm now and we are snuggling down to watch the rest of The Fellowship of the Ring and then at midnight it's the Liverpool vs West Bromwich Albion match!  I figure Liverpool will win as they are the stronger side, but Mr Smart assures me that since it's an away game, anything is possible.  We shall soon see! (Though Mr Smart obviously has more expertise in these matters.) 
I never thought I'd see the day when I was looking forward to a soccer match but once you understand some of the tactics it's a much more interesting game that it seems at first!
  Until tomorrow!
  Jess