Publicerad 2014-01-04 04:09:03 i Allmänt,
So one of my best friends from Sweden finally decided to do a trip down under, resuting in moi being the tourguide for the next little while. And which place is better to start at than Lone pine Koala Sanctuary?
Never get tired of hanging out with the roo's in the park...
Calle taking a selfie with his new friend...
Chillin out with Mr Emu =)
Finished the day with a coffee on Mt Cootha Lookout.
First few days of Calles time here finished with a run along the river
Publicerad 2013-12-30 11:28:09 i Allmänt,
Here comes the rest of Sydney in no particular order.
Me and Annabel watching the Sydney to Hobart race from Kirrabilli pier.
Went for an 85km ride through the Sydney traffic, which was scary but so worth it when ending up at places like this =)
Also did a few laps in North Sydney Olympic pool which was located just under the Harbour bridge.
Overall, this was an amazing little mini holiday, landed in Bris again on the the 28th and then I got my next visitor arriving on the 29th. Time for a new roadtrip!
Happy new years everyone!
Publicerad 2013-12-29 05:21:55 i Allmänt,
My weekend in Sydney was very Christmasy and it definitly felt like a real Christmas, despite the fact we had no snow. Annabel's family welcomed me as a family member rather than an orphan and Annabel had prepared the best Christmas surprise I could imagine!
On Christmas eve, we succesfully made Lussekatter, which everyone loved! Must admit they were a bit of an experiment as they were gluten free and made with way less saffron than recommended.
So dad is responsible for the star even down under. But must say the Christmas decoration looks a bit different...
Posing with our Lussebuns
Reading Christmas letters from home that my Pears and Tina (thanks a million, you totally made my day!) had posted to Annabel in Sydney. Never thought I'd have a gift from Sweden under the Sydney Christmas tree.
I'll take a break there for now, photos are to be continued...
Publicerad 2013-12-22 12:09:08 i Allmänt,
Nu är fjärde ljuset tänt. På Australiensiskt vis. Inte för att det behövs mer ljus direkt men för att det är tradition. Så så firar vi advent här. På balkongen med 32 grader utomhus. Nice!
Publicerad 2013-12-21 12:31:52 i Allmänt,
Why not put your alarm on 4.25am on a normal Saturday to do a Christmas Riverloop with your Triathlon Club and your bike decorated with Christmas tangles? Yeah...why not. So I did=)
31 km on the bike was followed by running to Parkrun and Parkrun itself ofcourse, so totally 8km.
At the 30degrees start line
Running makes me smile=)
And so do my friends Danny and Terry who were doing the entire brick session in bikinis to raise money for RSPCA (Aus version of Hundstallet)
Good motivation trying to run faster than these guys, who also were 4.30min/km pace setters =)
The session ended with a BBQ back at the store at 8am in the morning. Such good feeling to have been so proactive already at 8am. Fell like you deserve to do nothing for the rest of the day=)
I'm also on Holidays now. Friday was my last day at work for abt 2.5 weeks and headin to Sydney on Monday morning for some Christmas celebration with Annabel and her family who have adopted me as an orphan this year. Looking forward to a little trip =)
Publicerad 2013-12-19 07:26:54 i Allmänt,
Running club this morning had a Christmas theme, ofcourse. With a Rum-relay (bascially means a team of 4 in a relayhave to finish a can of rum and coke while running). With Zelda as our little mascot, my team won! woot! Nothing but the recognition but a competition is always fun.
Zelda had to sit most laps out though but she still beat the other dog (Riley) at Thursday running club so good on her! (Im to the right in the front row if you can't see me)
Lil Zel was so tired so she fell asleep on my handbreak on the way home. Cutie pie!
Have just finished the second last day at work before Christmas holidays. Very exciting. Now off to the yearly Moritz's lab Christmas get-together. Fun....
Publicerad 2013-12-17 22:15:36 i Allmänt,
Zelda längtar så mycket till jul nu att tomteluvan åkt fram redan!
Nu är det sluttampen på jobbet här (3 dagar kvar!!!) sedan en helg bestående av mkt träning. Därefter bär det av till Sydney för min del för julfirande med min fina Annabel o hennes familj som tagit sig an mig som sin orphan denna julafton. Så Annabel har ett hektiskt schema för oss som innefattar cykel, sim, shopping, sightsing etc. Ser mkt fram emot detta och årets julklappar är inhandlade och klara så allt är redo=)
God jul önskar Lil Zel till alla hemma i kylan!
Publicerad 2013-12-17 06:22:29 i Allmänt,
24 seconds from a 3rd place is very cruel when you spend half a minute looking for your bike in transition. But shit happens and at least I improved my PB with 7 minutes compared to my last race at this distance (Swim 750m, ride 20km, run 5km) so I guess I should be happy.
Coming 16th out of 28 up from the water and 2nd on the bike sort of tells me what I have to work on though. Swim swim swim for me the coming few weeks!
Elisha me and Mel before the race. From the front...
'and from behind (everyone loves my brading skills!)
Me and Hamish at packing up.
Quite proud to see my time at the leader board.
SWIM SWIM SWIM ON!
Publicerad 2013-12-12 23:31:12 i Allmänt,
For the first time in a very long time, I went to a church.
My friend Li was singing together with Scandinavian singers in a very traditional Lucia-tag. Made me quite homesick but it was so nice. I had no idea there were so many Scandinavian people in Brisbane, especially so many older once.
A group of Finnish men also sang along in a Finnish Christmas Play. I have never seen anything worse! Not that they couldn't sing but the whole act itself was just the weirdest thing so do as a traditional Christmas play. They came in with swords and stockings over their face as if theyt would rob a bank. I guess this confirms that Finnish people are strange. Hmmm... Still very intresting!
Publicerad 2013-12-08 23:45:25 i Allmänt,
Its been a fairly busy weekend with plenty of things on the schedule.
On Friday, it was both my German friends Karstens and my lab mate James's graduation and they were happily posing with the ugly UQ PhD hat:
Saturday morning was parkrun morning for me and I almost broke my PB on the course. (Almost). Finished on 22.31 which exactly was my best time on this course before. Dissapointing but at least I felt good on the run:
In the arvo, it was Southbank TriClubs Christmas party at the Surfclub with the very defined dress code: Garden party, casual but classy and not too beachy. Come on! I hate dress codes, think everyone should have gone dressed up as santa...
This was the first time I drank since June so slightly tipsy and hangover. What is better to do then than to have a swim in a freezing waterhole?
Mt Glorious secret waterholes =)
App the snakes needed a cool down as well =S
Sunday evening weas spent with a take away at the cliffs of Kangaroo point with Marc, Zelda and Karsten.
Karstens last sunset before returning to Germany
Picnic for lil Zel.
And that marks the end of a very nice weekend.
Back to work!
Publicerad 2013-12-04 08:43:10 i Allmänt,
People always seem to think that I am so lucky (maybe beacuse you only really tend to tell people about things that are going well). However the last little while, most things have been quite unfortunate. For example, I ordered 4 new items of race wear from 2xu and 3 were way too big, I smashed my thumb when changing pedals on my bike, I spent two weeks in the histology lab cutting liver sections that were impossible to stain, and I wasted 500AUD worth of insulin assay when the centrifuge decided to tip 1/4th of my samples out. To make that sound even worse, the assay was radioactive so had to inform the radioactive workers to come out and check the spill, plus I don't have any more samples to repeat the assay. So remember that next time you call me lucky! :)
Did Kingscliff olympic triathlon on the Sunday. Here, just racked and ready to go
Sadly, I didn't end up on any of the race pics (and Im saying sadly because the photographer for the race was amazing and all his shots incredible!). Anyway, this is the outcome:
SWIM (1500m) - 22.26min (11 out of 37 woot!) (with the current hence the good time)
BIKE (40km including T1 and T2) - 1.18.26 (9 out of 37)
RUN (10km) - 49.29 (20 out of 37)
TOTAL: 2.30.22
And I must say I am so pleased. Everything under 2.40 is a very respectable time and I did 2.30! This race is also a qualifyer for worlds which means all the best triathletes aiming to represent Australia in triathlon 2014 entered the race. Plus it was only my second race at this distance and extremely windy on the bike. I went out on 45km/hr on the bike and back, while putting the same effort in, at 25km/hr. But. Same for everyone and good training!
Afterwards I slept for 12hrs straight :)
Publicerad 2013-11-25 02:58:23 i Allmänt,
Had a pretty quiet weekend with not too much happening, at least not for a restless person like me.
Friday evening was spent on IKEA as Nicky just bought an apartment and needed some input to what her new kitchen will look like. OFCOURSE I volunteered to keep her company at IKEA. Felt at home for just a few hours =)
Saturday morning started out with a little brick session, rode 70km and ran 6km off the bike in a SUPERHOT and humid brisbane! Gotta be done for race training before Kingscliff Olympic next weekend. Here we have a little break waiting for the road ferry to transfer us across to the other side =)
Have also been caring much for lil Zel who is so scared of the dayly thunderstorms. Plus looking after my friends Martina and Greg's lab Dex for a week. Luckily he doesn't seem to give a shit about the storms and lightning.
As I realized a long time I basically have no other clothes other than training clothes. I decided to hit the city on Sunday and try to get as much out of 100AUD as i possible could, in terms of tops and singlets and summer dresses. Ended up with one pair of shorts, three singlets, two tops and a 2014 calendar so now I don't have to work in training clothes every day =) Not that I mind but anyway...
Brisbane Queenstreet is doing an NK. Although the windows are far from that spectacular.
And guess who slept ON me last night. The benefits of being scared of thunder, you got to sleep in the bed. (Although she would have anyway) =)
That's it, time to start a new week!
Publicerad 2013-11-21 23:33:11 i Allmänt,
Woot woot woot!
I can now type in my name on Pubmed.com and find my very first paper as a first author published! I can ensure you that is a pretty pleasant feeling!
If anyone wants to read the full version, here is the link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24239160Must say it's probably a bit boring (so I only really expect mum and dad to read it!!) but I promise the next one will be more interesting (Cliffhanger).
I also had an oral presentation at the Australiasian Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Conference on Tuesday this week, which went very well. And I was so happy to be done with it and relax for a bit. But. What happens, well Karen nominates my name to present at the molecular pathway seminar at UQ on the 10th of December =S
Not much rest!
On the other hand, just a month until my little mini holiday to Sydney is coming up so that will be my motivation.
Publicerad 2013-11-18 02:04:07 i Allmänt,
So I managed to convince Beau to come and do a little triathlon with me this stormy Sunday. Despite long lasting injuries etc he did very well in his little tri-it-out ditsnace triathlon. Although I'm not sure he will come and do another one in a while =)
For me it went alright too. My splits for this one is as follows:
Swim (400m): 07.44 (11 of 26 in my age group)
Bike (16km incl T1 and T2): 33.12min (6 out of 26)
Run (4km): 19.47 (6out of 26)
Overall: 6 out of 26 in my age group, 48 out of 241 female cometitors
Unfortunately I had a crap run and crap transitions. But my bike (which has got new fancy race wheels) was very happy to roll fast on the streets of Robina. Very nice course. Looking forward to do it again!
Publicerad 2013-11-10 11:42:58 i Allmänt,
Nu får jag nog skäll av pappsen för att jag inte har skickat något kort på fars dag i år =S. Får försöka gottgöra detta med att gratulera världens bästa papps på bloggen med ett foto från våran vandring i Wales =)
Ps, om du kommer hit så kan vi vandra här med!!
Publicerad 2013-11-04 10:59:50 i Allmänt,
On Thursday, I spontaniously signed up to do the cool night classic run with Martina. I had never heard about that run but apparantly it was quite big, as around 4000 competitors lines up at the start. Unfortunately, I didn't have the run of my life this Thursday evening and finished on 23.44 (23rs female out of 1297). Quite dissapointing when you are aiming for 22 or under.
On Saturday morning, I got a second chance to brush the 22min at parkrun's 1st birthday, in which they tried (and did) break the australian record for attendeces in a park run. 944 competitors turned up to this free weekly event and it was great. Again, unfortunately I did not run under 22min but finished on 22.41min (13th female out of 466).
Painful 700m left to the finish line in park run.
Other than that, it was Noosa triathlon on last weekend, which is the northen Australia's biggest race. I was for once, only spectating which I was quite happy to. Way too crowded and it was about 33 degrees at 8am.
After work today, I went to use my free massage voucher I got in Bribie Island race price draw. OMG! I don't think I have had a massage in about 3 or 4 years and it felt like a 30min visit to heaven. The day I start to actually earn money I promise myself I will treat myself to massage once every second week.
Publicerad 2013-10-30 21:35:52 i Allmänt,
Queensland does not have daylight savings (summer/winter time) although all other states does.
It is said to be due to a lot of various reasons, the three most entertaining ones being:
- Many rural families close the curtains when they get home from work to keep out the hot sun, then open them again after the sun goes down to let more air in. Given day light savings gives you one additional hour in the evening after work, this increases the fading of curtains.
- The farmers are worried their cows will give less milk. Cows don't read clocks, so when they give their milk at 4am, each morning, ready for the trucks to pick up by 4:30am to get into town for us to drink. When daylight savings starts the cow's 4am is now 3am and the cow gives less milk. That is – the reason cows produce less milk in daylight savings because they are unaware of the change.
- The kids get out of school at around 3:10pm to walk home. This is fine as the core UV times are 10am to 2pm. But in daylight savings, they are heading out in the peak UV period (which is now 11 am to 3pm) causing more UV issues. Hats, creams etc help a little – but with 16 or 17 UV ratings the only real protection is to get inside. Sadly, the kids will get run over by cars due to poor light conditions later on in the afternoon.
However, although QLD are said to be "the smart state", you can ask yourself how smart they are when this can be find in the newspapers:
Publicerad 2013-10-29 23:22:17 i Allmänt,
Last week, I was lucky to get a free 3D bike fit as cadance performance cykling needed 2 volunteers for a student education. Normally, this bike fit is about 350AUD (!!!). And the benefit of being a PhD student is that you can make yourself free any time of the day for oportunities like this, when noone else can. So. Lucky me!
The whole thing took about three hours and I just recieved a whole booklet of information about my position, vertical and lateral movement of every limb of my body over the bike. It was sooo interesting I almost considered to become a bike fitter. However, the market for that in Sweden would probably not be that great...
Anyway. After pushing my saddle back and up and down and changing the position of my aerobars etc, I should now be way stronger and faster on the bike! =) So that's good.
Apart from that, Europe is not the only continent with storms. We had a massive storm last night with tropical rain. Judging from the colour of the sky this morning, we will probably have one today as well.
Last two days we've had an internal conference for the school of biomedical sciences at UQ. A few good talks but I'm happy to be up running in the lab again instead of sitting down from 8am to 8pm.
Publicerad 2013-10-26 03:39:43 i Allmänt,
This is my breakie after riding up Mt Nebo with an elevation of almost 600m this morning. Totally 67km, 3hrs5min and plenty of elevation. My legs are happily screaming in agony...still! What a great way to start the day!
Happy to almost be at the top of the mountain!
Birds keeping us comany for coffee at the top.
Bike (or my legs) are greatful for 20 min rest.
Truly amazing ride. I will def do it again =)
Publicerad 2013-10-25 04:31:12 i Allmänt,
Bring the weekend please! Not that I have too much on but after sectioning rat livers on microscopic slides for the last (and coming) 3 hrs I am indeed happy to get a break.
Plans for tomorrow is to get out on a long ride, if the weather allows. I haven't been on a long one for quite a while so planning to join a friend on a 90km loop. If my legs survive, it will most likely be a market trip after that and some relaxing.
Sunday I will be headin down to Burleigh and participate in Burleigh open water swim only by spectating this time =) Not that you can see much more than splashing water but still, any excuse to go to the beach is valid!
Went back to the dentist yday. She says the nerve has been damaged and I will most likely never get the feeling back in my inner lip and will most likely always have the weird sensation of bottom teeth being num, unless it dissapears within half a year =( I really wish I never took that tooth out. But happy for the little sensation that I still have. At least thats something... So that's the end of the wisdom tooth story.
