It's been a long
week at work for me, as the first week of a school term always is, but it's Sunday evening and I'm sitting relaxing with Caroline, our 2 cats Alice and Candy, and our Budgie Beau. I'm splitting the evening between chatting on social media, reading, talking to Caroline and laughing at our pets who are going crazy then crashing out.
(Anyway, here are some gratuitous cute cat photos to grow readership on my blog!)
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| Alice |
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| Candy |
I'm getting more and more into
Twitter these days, and I use it rather than a newspaper or TV news station as they are all terrible in Australia. I subscribe to a load of world news feeds and follow stories that interest me. The story that has been plastered all over Twitter the past few days has been the expenses claimed by politicians, with especial treatment coming for Bronwyn Bishop, the current Speaker of the House of Representatives. There's been a call for her resignation as it came to light that she spent over
$5000 to charter a helicopter to take her 75 kilometres down the road to Geelong, claiming it in expenses (tax payers money) even though it was to attend a private party fundraiser. Since then, a whole range of expenses claims have followed, and not just of Bronwyn Bishop. The most amazing in my mind was while on a European trip, she and 2 aides racked up food and accommodation expenses of about $25,000 in 2 weeks.
The whole trip cost around $88,000!
I'm looking forward to my European trip with Caroline which will be in September, and will cost less than a tenth of that of the expenses hungry politician. We plan to hire a car, drive round France, nip into Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and Spain on the way and go visit relatives in England. Just like any holiday I've been planning, readers of this blog will probably get bored of hearing about it before I've even left the country! By the start of September, this blog will become a very Francophile place, as I'm looking forward to experiencing the culture, food and history of rural France. The current
Tour de France only helps to whet my appetite and it is great to see a tough battle being fought with the British SKY team leader, Chris Froome in the Yellow Jersey.
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| Warming up and putting on the tights is usually enough for me! |
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| At the end of Puffing Billy, I'm in the green looking one step from death, and that was only 13.5 km! |
Of course my own endurance effort is coming up soon. Next Sunday I will be running the
Age Run Melbourne half marathon. I went for a short jog today, but that is the last run I'll be doing before the start next Sunday morning. This week I'll be having some light cross training on my exercise bike, and then stocking carbs at the weekend. Hmm, maybe Bronwyn Bishop's food expenses were due to her carb stocking for a marathon! I wonder just how many carbs you can stock for $25,000!
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