I hate grocery shopping.

 I’ve got to that crazy stage before going overseas. Basically I’ve got too much to do and not enough time to do it.  Last week was too early to start all my tasks, but this week I’m stressing that there isn’t enough hours in the day. It would be a piece of cake if I didn’t have to be super fit on top of everything else, but that is essential to the whole trip.

Here’s a sample of my list of jobs: Mammogram to have, visit the doctor to renew prescriptions and get cortisone injections in my feet to ward of pain for at least a few weeks, I have a court hearing about my ACC claim, a load of winter firewood is arriving to  stack in the shed, I have to get all my last  minute stuff for the bike  i.e. tires and tubes, chain and cluster and brake and gear cables – these need to be fitted and test ridden, at least one more mini tour, and lots of 200 km rides for training, the garden needs to be winterised, pruned, sprayed and new vegetables in for spring eating, I’ve just been told that I have to tell the newspaper what I am doing, and then there is the last minute stuff like a haircut, and dismantling and packing up my bike. That is just what I can think of off the top of my head. It doesn’t help that I am working full time. And when I do get a day off - it rains grrrr.

Very tempting goodies at work.

I have managed to keep the weight off that I lost over summer doing my mini - tours; it’s a miracle really when I am surrounded by such yummy food at work every day. Most of the weight loss has been from my backside and legs, which isn’t surprising considering the millions of pedal revolutions I have done in the last few months. I worked out that I turn those pedals about 10,000 times on a ride of 200kms. How many times in a year I wonder? I have no idea, the numbers would be amazing.

Niel helping me with the weekly nightmare of grocery shopping.

My biggest problem I have when working full time is finding time to do the weekly grocery shopping. Most people have a car and can slot the shopping in after work, when you don’t have a car it takes twice as long by bicycle. I simply don’t have the 3 to 4 hours to devote to do the shopping, and I can’t leave it at work all day and ride it home after work – it is such a curse. I have to ride in to the supermarket on my Vespa scooter early in the morning, because the Vespa is faster than my bike, do the shopping and meet Niel outside with his bike and trailer, load his trailer bags, throw down some food and rush off to work. Then on finally getting home – I have to put the groceries away. Yes Niel does attempt to put them away, he has lots of skills – but putting away groceries isn’t one of them. That is my weekly nightmare called grocery shopping.

3 more weeks of full time and then 2 weeks of part time, and then Trans Am here I come.