Challenge.

So in the end all it took was a pep talk by Anna last night while I was rocking my second Bikram Yoga class for the day (to make up for having time off over easter) for everything to be OK. For most of this week I have been a very reluctant starter for class and was beginning to wonder if my peevishness was ever going to evaporate. After all, the 30 day challenge hasn't even reached the half way mark yet (it's still three days away not that I'm counting or anything). Anna reminded us that when Bikram says to 'kill yourself' before class he doesn't only mean physically. He's saying kill yourself with a capital 'S' for self. Kill your Self. You have to remember to leave everything at the door including your ego so that your mind and body can work in harmony. And let me tell you, my mind had been giving it to me big time. Yet, last night in the hot room, Anna's words made sense to me and somehow I managed to defeat my pessimistic voice - miraculously my outlook on the 30 day challenge and on life during the school holidays seems much better.

It also helped that today I initiated events which saw me have an hour and a half all to myself. Oh the decadence. It was exhilarating, and not only because I squandered the time in a cafe drinking strong gunshot green tea which gave me a serious buzz since I have been abstaining from caffeine.

It hasn't all been yoga and school holiday torture, I have been having a bit of fun. We spent easter here:

 There was no tv let alone wi-fi. Our children got back to basics including park equipment challenges:

playing under the sprinkler:

long walks in the countryside:

and by night, serious scrabble competitions:

 Oh, and the easter bunny came:

Luckily he has a predilection for Lindt.

We got back to town in time to celebrate our thirteenth wedding anniversary. Here we were on our wedding day, way back then:

We celebrated by getting a babysitter and went out to dinner a deux at Ethos:

I can't believe we have never been there before. The food was delicious in an unpretentious tapas style way:

My dessert had two of my favourite ingredients in it - rhubarb AND quince, although you can't really tell from this photo. It could be almost anything really:

And seeing that I'm on the subject of food, it was a red letter day today when I opened the post to discover a jar of foie gras sent all the way from the south of France by our fabulously considerate friend Nicole:

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you. It's more than just foie gras though, its with armagnac and has toasted fig seeds to sprinkle on top. Can you imagine how delicious it is going to be? But wait, there was more as Nicole also thoughtfully included nougat, chocolate olives and samples from her children's afternoon tea supply:

Australian quarantine had obviously had a lovely time opening it to check that there was no risk. Happily they didn't confiscate anything. So Toby got to eat his individually packaged crepe which he was deliriously excited to discover came ready rolled with Nutella inside:

I wish we could buy those in a packet at the shops here.

R