Weather and Wins.

The weather here in Melbourne is cray-cray (I love that expression). A couple of weeks ago, it was summery. Like 27 degrees. I was wearing a sleeveless frock. Then BOOM. Winter.

Seriously! We are meant to have autumn to segway us from summer to winter. After an unusually long summer, with temperatures in the 30s until mid-march, and some glorious days after that, we are straight into winter, complete with hail, thunder, wind and temperatures in the low-teens.

In my thin wool cardie yesterday, I was shivering.

WHAT HAPPENED TO CARDIGAN WEATHER??!?!?!?

The sky today looks grey, leaden and angry. Yesterday, as the bad weather moved in, the sky was a mix of blue and cloud. Here is a cloud-specimen. It is a lovely cloud. Look:

But I am thoroughly a glass half-full kinda gal. This kind of weather is good for

• slow cooking
• wearing boots
• wearing wooly things
• wearing scarves
• wearing leather jackets
• bold lip colour
• going to bed early and schnuggling with my (very handsome) fella
• having the heater on full-ball and warming the tootsies.
• eating mandareenies to ward off colds (scientifically, that is crap. Avoiding colds is all about hand hygiene. Trust me.)
• drinking red wine in front of a fire. 
• Planning holidays to warmer locales.

I have had a few wins recently. Important to bask in the glory of small wins.

Yesterday, I had a 4km time trial at running group. The weather was crap, but the worst of the rain held off. I started back running training 6 weeks ago, and had a 4KTT then. In 6 weeks, my time had improved by 54 seconds. WIN. I am not about to break any land-speed world records but it is a WIN.

On Tuesday night, the fella bought around a bottle of red wine. It was a variety I had not tasted, dolcetto and langleis or some such. I initially moaned, saying "you KNOW I am trying to avoid wine during the week" but then I thought, well, nobody is forcing me to drink the stuff. So I had a mouthful to have a try, then took no more. WIN.

On a similar note, yesterday I knocked back post-lunch-dessert, of the warm brownie and icecream variety. Will save the yummies for the weekend. WIN.

Got a journal article manuscript back from the reviewers. Their comments were positive, and only minor changes need to be made before it can be published. To borrow the phrase from Smaggle, I have a writer-boner. It is great not to have my hard work trashed by a reviewer. WIN.

I have booked some leave the week before my conference. That means I go on leave in a month. In a month I am OUTTA HERE. WIN.

Have a great day. Stay at a comfortable temperature. Hope the wins come to you.