Saturday morning and what a great sleep I had – the whole night in a bed – yay that’s progress – it was a good sleep too, not sporadic at all. The hip is feeling good and so it’s off to the gym to meet Lexi.

As I come out of the Manhattan building where we are staying I see Phil Harding (my Personal Trainer) waiting on the opposite side of the road. He queries where I have come from and I explain. True to form, Phil has a story about absolutely everything and he tells me that the apartment we have as an Airbnb used to be the home of Renata (another PT at Fitness First). Renata had to move as they were told the owners wanted to take back the apartment to upgrade fit for an Airbnb. They have done some renovations to it but have missed the mark on some things for example, the oven has two dials on it but there are no markings at all so you have no idea at what temperature you have set it and no idea what time the timer is set for. To top that off, I believe it’s a very dangerous oven as it appears to get as hot on the outside of the door as on the inside. The cutlery they have supplied is cheap and bends when you attempt to eat ice cream!!!

Lexi and I do a chest session at the gym, not often we do a full session of chest – normally tag one or two exercises onto a shoulder day but not today.

I spend some time doing emails and applications for other house sits in Europe and then we’re off to do grocery shopping – Aldi is my new favourite store, they have amazing stuff in there. The rest of the day is spent just hanging out. We are off to a Mexican restaurant in Newtown tonite with Larissa and Lexi. It’s got a great atmosphere and is really busy, the food is good but it’s so noisy that you can hardly have a conversation. It’s an early night as everyone seems to be exhausted!!

Sunday was intended to be a growth day but Lexi and I feel we both need to go to the gym – but we’ll leave it until the afternoon and then Lexi is going to come back for dinner and maybe a movie.

I was given a voucher a while ago for Matteo in Double Bay and we haven’t yet used it. We decide to go over for lunch. It’s a beautiful day and we hop on the bus. We’re a little early for our booking but the staff don’t mind and we have a lovely table outside. We decide to go tapas style for lunch so order a few entrees to share and a nice bottle of Prosecco. It’s a great way to spend a sunny Sydney Sunday lunchtime. It’s the bus home and a snooze for me but David decides to go for his walk – in this heat!! Anyhow, he’s back in time for a cup of tea in the afternoon and then it’s time for Lexi and me at the gym. Lexi pops in first as she has brought some Ben and Jerrys ice cream for dessert – hmmm hopefully the spoons can stand up to the challenge?

Gym session is a soft one – we do abs and some cardio. Back home for a nice glass of wine, cannelloni and ice cream – thankfully not all at the same time. We watch a movie and then just before Lexi falls asleep on the sofa she goes home on her trusty Ninja.

Monday is here and I’m working again this week as the new EA has Monday and Tuesday off and the boss thinks it will be good for me to hang around for the rest of the week. I’m happy to do this, every little extra helps. A memory pops up on Facebook – a year ago today I won my first competition. The photo is with Lexi, my trusted training buddy and my amazing coach and PT Phil Harding.

Monday is quite busy in the office and time flies but I have to go to rehab at Wolper for 1 pm so trying to fit a whole day’s work into half a day really. So off to Wolper. I spend 30 minutes filling out paperwork and checking in with the Doctor. She asks all sorts of questions and looks at the scar etc. I then spend 30 minutes with the Occupational Therapist who goes through a raft of questions that she knows I have answered before but ‘needs to complete the forms’- do you live alone / do you have stairs in your home / do you have rugs on the floor / do you know how to sit in chairs / low chairs etc?

All the admin stuff done, I meet my physio (he’s only my physio today, I will have different ones on different days as they are cramming three sessions in this week and three next week). Today’s physio is James. We do some functional movement work just to see where my hip is at and then there’s a lot of stretching. This is something I’m not accustomed to doing – although we all know how important this is, it’s the first thing that gets cut from the training routine when time is short.

After about an hour with James, it’s off to the hydrotherapy pool. Matt and Natalie (both physios) are down there today. It’s great exercising in the pool, it’s so warm, just like bath water and it takes the weight off the joints. There are a few of us in the pool – different ages, different operations etc. Seems like the men mostly have knee replacements and the women hip replacements. It’s an hour worth of exercises in the pool and by the end of that, I am absolutely starving and can’t wait to get back to the office to eat!

I’m pretty tired on Monday evening and feel that my movement is a little easier so rehab seems to have been helpful.

Tuesday morning and because I had a couple of hours at rehab yesterday and have to do the same again today, we skip training at the gym. The morning at the office is the usual mix of emails, phone calls etc and then rehab at 1.30 pm

I have Cecelia today. She’s a lovely physio originally from Sweden. Some great exercises and a bit of walking. I have been experiencing some pain behind my knee cap – there’s a connection there somewhere – but after some exercises with Cecelia, this seems to have subsided. I am even able to do 15 minutes on the treadmill on an incline – feels good to do this. The pool has different physios again today and we do new exercises, the last one of which is to balance on an unstable inflatable ball with your eyes closed for at least 10 seconds – sounds easy – definitely not easy.

I am absolutely exhausted when I get home and by 8 pm am asleep on the sofa!

Wednesday is a PT session with Phil – my favourite day, back. Kath Vaca has a session with Phil afterwards and has a bikini check in as she is competing at the fitness show on 21 April. Kath has been on a meal plan for a long time now and she had a slight slip last night so is feeling pretty bad about that but she looks good. I think her mind is back in the game and she has such a short time to go she needs to try and dig deep – we tell her how good she is looking. Her back has amazing definition and she is pretty shredded everywhere.

I don’t have any rehab today so it’s a day in the office and Victoria is back from her holiday – she’s been busy with her Dad here and like everyone, she feels she needs a week off to get over her holiday.

Run of the mill day and then it’s home to collapse in front of the TV. My knee is very sore today – may have been putting too much weight on it so will introduce the walking stick tomorrow to see if I can ease that a little. It’s good to have work during the day, I think it curbs my frustration with not being as active as I normally am – when in prep we complain about huge amounts of cardio but I’d give anything to be able to do 2 hours of cardio. Slowly does it though as I really do not want to mess this hip up – can’t afford to.

Wednesday night is disjointed – David seems to be restless so is up and about and as usual, he’s not good at being quiet so we are up having a cup of tea at 2 am. Thursday morning sees another PT session with Phil today, we do shoulders although he thought we would be doing legs or glutes. I have rehab tomorrow and that will be 2 hours of legs and glutes so I don’t really want to do them today.

David can check in today – wow – it’s really happening now.

The office is quiet as Peter plays golf on Thursday mornings and as Victoria still has her Dad staying, I get in for 8 and she can have breakfast with her dad and not rush in. No rehab today so a full day in the office.

I catch up with a dear friend for coffee and he brings a long a mate – this beautiful puppy – such a gorgeous temperament and what a handsome looking fella he is.

I am getting some pain behind my knee – I think it’s the weight that it’s bearing so I have started to use my stick again when I am walking any distance and it seems to help so I’ll talk to the physio at Wolper tomorrow morning and see what they suggest.

The evening is spent with a take away and a discussion as to whether David should actually try and change his flights to fly the same day as me. It’s a bit of a quandry as he should be sorting out cars etc when he gets there to save some time when I get there before our first house sit – anyway, we decide to see what we can do tomorrow in terms of maybe changing his flights. We decide to have take away tonite so David goes in search of something yummy to eat. He returns after not too long with a Vietnamese meal from a local restaurant.

Friday and it’s my very last day at the office here. I send an early email to my lovely travel agent to see if we can change David’s flights. They say they will look into it. The short story is that there is no availability on the day I go so we decide to leave things as they are.

Rehab is early today – 7.30 am start. I have a different physio and we go through some different exercises and stretches for over an hour and then it’s off to the pool. This is the worst session in the pool I have had. The physios there today just seem to be going through the paces and ticking off the sheet, no real interaction and it’s pretty boring.

Finishing at Wolper and off to the office. Peter is taking the whole office to lunch today – a farewell for me and a welcome for Victoria. We go to Verde where Peter often goes with his business associates. It’s a smallish restaurant in Riley Street with a limited menu but the food is really great and the service too. After lunch we go back to the office and I pick up my stuff and say goodbye.

Back at the Airbnb to pack – David for his trip to Spain and me for my move to another Airbnb tomorrow. It doesn’t take too long before everything is ready. Lexi comes over after work to say goodbye to David. We have a drink and a chat and they say their goodbyes. It’s a quiet dinner this evening before David departs tomorrow.

Hippy Times 🏋🏻‍♀️