Finally stopped walking ...

... long enough to post.   I seem to have been on the go ever since I got up from the Thanksgiving table this time last week and headed east across the pond.

While staying with brother John I walked round Cobham (shopping), Shaftesbury Theatre (saw "From Here to Eternity" a new musical - don't rush to London to see it), Wandsworth Common

261 Trinity Road - some extensions but otherwise the same since I lived there in 1950s

National Gallery & Trafalgar Square area (sightseeing and checking out an apartment hotel),

Taking a break from walking

Oxshott (around the estate)

Jill, John, Toby, Amelie, Marisa

Then, Heathrow airport (as usual, my gate was the furthest away in the Europe section),
On to Stockholm (with Ulla and Kaj),

INSIDE Stockholm School of Economics

and now in Gothenburg (only walked a bit of Vasagatan so far).

Sunrise (about 9:30am) from the train

My leg and foot have stood up week - but I feel some discomfort (can't call it pain) on the pad of my heel so I know the cobblestones are stretching my ability to the limit.  I've hardly done any exercises apart from the occasional foot pump, so I plan to be more vigilant this week.  Hmm, we'll see how it goes.

Veering from the course

I've just competed my last planned set of exercises.  Now it will be "catch as catch can" - and I'm a rotten catcher - for the next month, until I check in with the Sebastopol advisors.
I wonder if non-compliance will make any difference.

But for the record, here is my scar as of the 18 week mark. I WILL continue to "keep it moist" as everyone advises.

Gobble Gobble!

Virtue continues

I am proud to report that I have been completing my designated exercises each day even as I pack simultaneously for four destinations:
- 3 months in sunny 70s Sarasota - packing the car before leaving on Thursday for
- 4 days in rainy 40s London - with meetings and social events planned, followed by
- 2 days days in chilly 30s Stockholm - with research interviews, then
- 9 days in freezing Gothenburg - with research, seminars, meetings and co-hosting an open house with "glögg, saffranspannkaka, & American egg nog"

That's assuming that the right outfits for the particular temperatures go into the designated bags - if I end up hosting a holiday party in Gothenburg in shorts I will no long appear virtuous!

The difference between laziness and virtue

Is doing my exercises!  The last couple of days I've been very busy and didn't manage to do my daily allotment.  Today I started early and completed the whole set - both odd and even days.  Afterwards I felt sooooo virtuous!

Further progress

On projects other than me.

First our landscaping project.  The driveway paving is almost complete.

Though there's clearly lots more work to be done.

Then the EdX Science of Cooking MOOC.

We'd fallen behind on lab experiments waiting for a fancy fast digital thermometer to arrive, so today we completed two experiments in time for our evening meal.  First heat transfer in steamed molten chocolate cakes - Jack has already measured the temperature and now is measuring the crust.

Then viscosity of sauce for macaroni and cheese.  Four conditions to test by leaving one of the ingredients out of the sauce: butter, flour, milk and cheese, then making the control sauce with all four.  In each case pour the sauce into a glass filled with cooked macaroni and time how long it takes the sauce to trickle down to the bottom.  We had good results here, then made some more of the "control" sauce and had excellent macaroni and cheese for supper!

We followed it with whole (dry baked)  chocolate cupcakes, served with vanilla ice cream.

Delicious, but dinner preparations took a long time and made a lot of dirty dishes!

So much like normal

... that I forget to write my blog post!

Thinking forward

I'm about to enter one of my phases of no more than two weeks in the same bed ...  gathering stuff together for the first phase: heading for London on Thanksgiving night, 4 nights there, 2 in Stockholm, 9 in Gothenburg, back to Stonington. Meanwhile Jack returns to US from London then heads south, taking the car train to Florida and returning by air.  

So I'm gathering stuff that goes by car to FL and will pack the car next week, plus stuff for Europe.  It will be low 40s - and rain - London and low 30s - and "wintery mix" in Sweden. I shall think of Jack sampling low 70s and sunny in Sarasota!

I'll leave planning for Christmas in Sebastopol and New Year in Laguna Beach (both California) until after I'm back from Europe. Then there will be less than 2 weeks to prepare and to pack up the house.  Good job I've forgotten about my injury (except when I do my exercises!)