Kickboxing is cathartic........

     I've been doing a lot of fake shopping lately.  The internet is so good for this kind of thing.  I go online, pick out what I want, fill my cart, then shut my computer and walk away.  It's not as good as real shopping, but it's much cheaper.  It's spring here now, but since it's almost October I feel like I should be buying fall clothes.  I imagine what size Nora will be next winter and I start browsing.  Some places will even ship to Australia now but mostly it's just for fun.  I did the same thing when I got married.  I had a registry with Liberty of London; I picked out every imaginable item I needed for my ultimate Liberty home and put it on the registry.  Alas, no purple boxes arrived at my door.  The wedding registry manager finally contacted me and I admitted the truth.  It was my fantasy registry, I told him.  Just a fantasy.

  I met up with a few ex pat moms last Friday morning at a  beach playground in Albert Park.  We were optimistic about the weather, but spring has taken a long time to get here this year and we were a bit windblown.  It was lovely to finally be able to complain about things without offending someone!  Aussies can get so touchy.  We just miss things like cheap books and children's shoes that cost less a day's pay.
I made Toll House cookie bars from my secret stash.  Someone else made Rice Krispie treats using marshmallows she brought over from the US.  We shocked a few Aussie parents with our vehement agreement that Australian Target is just not as good as American Target.  It was a good morning.

    Nora walks everywhere now. I had to get her some sturdy shoes so that she could walk outside easily without me worrying too much about her stepping on something.  It's a good thing she's very bouncy.  Her legs bruise easily, (like mine do) and they are covered in the souvenirs of her toddling adventures.
She loves to draw and she loves to sing.  The other night in the bath she sang about a thousand verses of "The wheels on the bus" which I can only differentiate because how she says "round and round" and how she says "beep, beep, beep" sound very different.  My husband let this go on and on because he takes his computer into the bathroom so he can catch up on the news while she plays, (and turns into a prune).  On Saturday she hid the bath plug in my closet.  I looked everywhere else but there, which sent my husband on a wild goose chase for a 40mm bath plug at 7:30pm on a Saturday.  Did I mention that the ex pat moms also complained about everything here closing early on the weekends?  I found the plug Sunday morning.  Opened the closet and there it was.

     So, I've moved on from Pilates to Kickboxing.  I'm slowly getting fit enough to climb the monkey bars with my step kids, (which I did yesterday) but I don't think could do swing outs for 5 hours straight the way I used to.  It's a slow road back, for sure.  It feels really good to hit things. Very cathartic.
I'm having good days and still some bad days but it does feel good to get some real exercise.  Nora watches me and I have no idea what she's thinking as I punch away.  She doesn't even know that I miss my old life sometimes and that sometimes Oz can really get me worked up.
It's tough being an ex pat.
     On the other hand, I'm sure glad that I'm not on the co-op board in Brooklyn anymore after that tornado swept through Park Slope last week.  What a mess, and so sad to see all of those trees knocked down.  Everything must change, eventually.  Nothing is forever.  Still, it's sad when a place that meant so much to me is transformed forever into something I won't recognize.
Ah, now, there's no crying in baseball Jennifer.  Time for dinner.