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phd by stealth my youngest started high school this year and i ve started as a full time lecturer in education i haven t finished writing my dissertation yet but that milestone is very close i m tipping within the next week or two i m not sure what life will be like after finishing my thesis i m hoping to resurrect some neglected aspects of life the novel reading for pleasure and entertaining the only novels i ve read in the last couple of years have been the millennium series a spot of bother the slap couldn t finish it but still trying and frankenstein frankenstein i ve been reading over the past week rosie daughter number 2 is studying it for english she s in year 12 doing the international baccalaureate i m reading it because she said mum can you read this please i really want to talk about it with you my kids keep me grounded likewise i m not sure what life will be like as an academic so far its started off wonderfully i m very happy in my office and i feel well supported to face the new challenges the first of my international conferences for the year is in vancouver in april i ll post a little more on this as the time draws near posted by ejenne filed in women 2 comments a parent s lament october 23 2011 when the light mist lifted this morning in melbourne i had already been riding for half an hour i d met two girlfriends and we were cycling a route that one of them had discovered through balwyn and lower plenty the morning slowly warmed up and before we knew it we were riding in perfect conditions we cycled for two hours i hadn t ridden since last sunday s around the bay in a day in fact i hadn t done any exercise other than the odd walk instead of drive around the bay was a 210 km ride and i d been too tired afterwards to get straight back into running and swimming it felt good there was a pinch of a hill just over the half way mark that got my heart pumping the endorphins kicked in and i finished the ride feeling pumped i arrived home at 10 30am i don t think my daughters were even aware that i d been out i had a shower and was standing there naked in my bathroom when kat called out to me muuum yep i m in here but don t come in i m naked just hopped out of the shower oh okay have you got any money i only had two fifty dollar notes i d taken them out yesterday doing the cash out option at target and it was nice to have some money in my purse her boyfriend was visiting from brisbane and they were heading out for the day she spent too much money for a uni student but i d rather her have fun than be too restricted because of cash problems take one of the fifties out of my purse i said to her still naked in my bathroom i was cleaning my teeth when emma barged in and quickly back tracked saying arg i wish i hadn t seen that mum close your bathroom door she waited while i threw on a summer dress and some knickers what did you want to talk about emma can you drive me down to foodworks i said i d meet shari fifteen minutes ago and i can t ring her because my phone s busted okay and can i have some money to buy lunch with um all i have is this fifty dollar note well i have a twenty emma said give me the fifty and i ll give you the twenty if i have change from lunch i ll give it back to you later foodworks is only a 2 minute drive i turned around and drove back to our home in less than ten minutes as i opened the garage i found sally waiting for me she gestured with her hand a stop gesture to indicate don t bother driving in mum can you drive me down to the local shops beck is meeting me there and i m running late its just straight down the hill sally why don t you scoot i m running late can you just drive me okay we pulled out of the driveway can i have some money to do kid things with what sort of kid things and why do you need money to be a kid sally is twelve at the end of this week i might get a soft drink or icy pole oh okay but i only have this twenty dollar note well give that to me and i ll give you fifteen dollars change this morning i had one hundred dollars i now only have fifteen this is my lament i m sitting down now munching on fruit and nuts drinking formosan tea and reclining in my comfy chair by the window the house is very quiet but rosie is still upstairs i haven t seen her yet today i m wondering whether she might need fifteen dollars before she steps out this morning ah here she is what are you doing today rosie homework but i m going to go for a run first its beautiful out there i feel love and pride for all of my daughters and i get to keep the 15 posted by ejenne filed in cycling in appreciation of my friends living in melbourne my life with four daughters women leave a comment highlights of lyon october 9 2011 i travelled to lyon from exeter conference hopping on the little flybe aircraft across the channel i sat next to another conference goer he was leaving exeter and returning home to france rather than continuing to another conference like i was when you have flown the 25 hours to get to europe from australia you may as well make the most of it he was a phd student originally from pakistan who learnt french to obtain a scholarship at a french university he knew lyon i dictated notes onto my iphone as he told me what to see and where to go in lyon things to see and do in lyon bellecoeur beautiful heart city square biggest in france vieux lyon old city museums free restaurants cathedral biggest in lyon close to cathedral climb up small tower and view of whole of lyon statue of mary near cathedral also rhone the bigger river on bank quai claude bernard walk on bank in evening popular promenade in the evenings close to this is the old university conference is in new part near parte dieu there are two towers 1 pencil tip 2 like a half pipe shopping centre center commerciale parte dieu beautiful not expensive fountain biggest park in lyon parc tete d ore beautiful lake underground and come up in centre of the lake public cycling stands 6 euros for seven days there are machines for hiring select how many days if you return to any stand within half an hour there is no extra charge there are cycling tracks i can now add my own reflections to the list lyon is the second largest city in france it was the centre of commerce for a region in france settled by the roman empire some time bc the ruins of the largest amphitheatre i ve ever seen are on the hill in lyon if you climb the stairs to the top of this hill you have a vista back across the whole city and can even see the alps in the background this is where you can go into the cathedral 3 the old town 2 is back down the hill it has wonderful shops to browse i had a crepe dinner here on my last night in lyon the delicious crepes were cooked on a cart and we sat out of doors i found the city bikes 9 on the first day and i m glad i did its unusual when you are in a city for a conference to have such freedom in your travel i rode the bikes everyday and enjoyed not being reliant on transport timetables the ride along the river from the city centre where i was staying to the conference venue was spectacular 6 the river is wide there are beautiful public spaces from fabulous children s playgrounds to picnic areas to fountains to grassy enclaves where people in bikinis tanned i didn t go to the shopping centre he recommended 7 but the parc tete d ore 8 is wonderful i was surprised to find in the park a free zoo i came upon the animal cages before i realised i had entered a zoo wtf is that a giraffe i spent time wandering the gardens with friends from the conference here as well because it was within walking distance from the conference venue but the list did not include recommendations about finding good food firstly i would add that any bakery in lyon is a great start and there are numerous secondly i highly recommend an eating institution which everyone in lyon seemed to know about brasserie georges luckily i have colleagues who always find fabulous restaurants in faraway cities the restaurant was a wonderful french experience the ambience the food the service getting to the restaurant also turned out to be a french experience for me i rode a city bike from my hotel to a bike stand that i now realise was opposite brasserie georges except that the road was split between where i parked and the restaurant was a wide motorway and nearby a large rail terminal not realising this i walked my half of the road without seeing it and became lost my french is poor to non existent but i had a little routine that i could use for emergencies upon realising i was lost i approached a woman at a bus stop and said in french bonjour i am australian i don t speak french i showed her the address of where i was going but it was not until she read brasserie geroges that her eyes lit up ah brasserie georg geh she said i m trying to capture the accent and you need to pronounce the g softly with an h sound in there as well she pointed me in the right direction and told me how to get there in french i followed the direction she pointed but because i didn t understand the directions soon became lost again i approached another person this time i used my routine but added brasserie geor geh to it with a little palms up shoulder shrug the recognition was instant again i was pointed in a direction and given instructions in french of course i walked in the direction pointed but soon became lost again i went through this routine with four more people before finally arriving an hour late i had walked a large three sixty to appear upon the restaurant from exactly the opposite direction to which i had parked my bike but i made it my friends had saved me some of the antipasto entree sensational poured me a glass of wine also sensational and i ordered duck sensational and coffee icecream parfait for dessert magnificent but it kept me up way too late that night i was proud of myself as you know its quite stressful being lost i consciously calmed myself down and thanks to the friendly french people had a wonderful experience of it rather than tears the view from the top of the hill in lyon the beautiful rhone in lyon my first day on the lyon city bikes eating the sensational antipasto at brasserie georges posted by ejenne filed in people travel women 2 comments fate brought me to karlos b october 8 2011 yesterday i fell off my bike how the bolt holding my seat on broke in half and my butt was connected to the seat when it hit the ground are you okay i took the impact onto my hip it hurt and i have a fist sized bruise there now i m noticing other bruises on my legs where the frame landed but they re just bruises i m perfectly okay really i had ridden for two hours and had arrived at mordialloc it was when i was hopping back on my bike for the return trip that i fell i d only made two or three pedals on a low gear and was going quite slow luckily i landed on a flat surface and not in the midst of oncoming traffic although a few seconds later the bus parked at the stop i was passing would have been right behind me how did you get home true you can t ride a bike without a seat knicks are heavily padded but not padded enough for that four gentlemen came to my aid when i was lying on the ground in shock the bus driver and three bystanders from the cafe in the area once they d collected all of the seat bits off the road they established the cause the broken bolt and we realised that more than an alan key was needed to solve this one i was directed to a nearby bike shop the bike shop was less than 50 metres from where we were i hobbled off in the direction i was told to go reassuring the kind people i was okay and making some sort of joke about the size of my butt given that i d just snapped my seat bolt in half in the bike shop i met karlos firstly he examined the seat and responded quickly to my repeated joke to compliment my shape and say that my butt size wasn t the cause of the broken bolt which was sweet and entirely the right thing to say to a woman whether it were true or not he told me it was the fourth broken seat bolt he d had to deal with that day and showed me the marks on the seat that indicated it had been fixed too far back this put pressure on the bolt no wonder it snapped secondly he ascertained that it was an aluminium bolt and not very strong while he was explaining all this to me in a gentle and caring tone i started to feel like we all do when someone is sympathetic a little sore and sorry for myself i couldn t help it a few little tears escaped and ran down my cheeks what s wrong he asked i just fell off my bike i replied he gave me a hug i dug out a tissue and pulled myself together i carry a snap lock bag with cash credit card bandaids a tissue and my garage blip in it he was impressed with my organisation where did you learn to do that oh i ve been riding road bikes since i was 18 i told him he started work on my bike did you feel like you were reaching too far for the handle bars he asked i told him that i had i d only had the bike for one year i bought a carbon fibre bike with ultegra gears as a package from melbourne cycles it was a lovely bike but i had always harboured doubts about the way they d set it up for me because i felt as though i had to stretch on long rides i experienced back pain as never before and i couldn t comfortably reach the drop position a position i d been very comfortable in on my previous bike set up by ivanhoe cycles i d even asked my bike guy at uni to check the set up he improved the situation but only slightly karlos history was in bike manufacturing he d been head hunted for the job at mordialloc bicycle centre where i found him and he d only been there a few weeks his sport was downhill mountain bike racing he was 35 but had the demeanour of a man much younger he was an adrenalin junkie compared to the spills he d had in his downhill career my thud onto the bitumen was pretty lame apparently he is fairly famous in that circle known as the jackal despite the thrill seeking he had a wholesome philosophy about cycling and life maybe that s because he was essentially a country lad apparently my handlebar stem had been put on upside down by putting it the right way up karlos brought my handle bars closer to my reach coupling this with the adjustment of the seat position i felt as though i was on a different bike one that had been sculpted around my body shape i was ecstatic but that s not all he did you do realise the seat you have on is for males don t you no it was sold to me as a female seat have a look at this this is a female seat it has this little gap here do you think that would make a difference to your comfort karlos didn t realise that he was talking to someone who for a year had been putting up with too much pressure on a very sensitive part of her body thinking it was just down to getting the angle right who at the end of every ride regardless of the seat angle felt as though she d lost a layer of skin from that area and who had g...
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