March?!? Already?

Hello again! Just realized I skipped past February and did not even see March approaching! Time seems to run faster in 2018…

After the Christmas and New Year’s holiday it took me a few weeks to get back into the groove of things, but I eventually managed to get back on track. I started running and jogging again, which felt good but it’s so different running here in Namibia than in Finland, due to the heat. It felt like I could not run longer than 20 minutes without being completely exhausted. The heat is the reason I run early in the mornings, usually at 7 am, before the sun gets too high in the sky and it becomes unbearably hot.  I run in the community sports-ground close to our house. The size seems to be close to the normal athletics track, so I am assuming my laps are about 400 m long. I started to run 4 days a week, one long run (45-50 min.) and a few shorter jogs in between. This all depends on the traffic at the track… The sports-ground is also used as a driving school parking lot. The driving school students usually come there on the weekends and some weekdays early in the morning to learn how to do reverse and parallel parking. I also have to fight for my space with the many donkeys and horses roaming around there with not to mention the goat herders that bring their pack of goats through the sports field onto the riverbed to feed.

 

In January I also started to do my TapOut XT program again since it’s been years since I completed it last time. The program XT1 will last for 3 months and then I will move onto XT2 which is a grueling exercise program to further push you into shape. TapOut XT is a exercise program created by Mike Karpenko who used to help UFC fighters with their conditioning. He then went onto making this 12 CD program for “normal” people who also enjoy the MMA style workouts with striking and kickboxing moves. The program comes with a calendar and a schedule so all you need to do is check which CD you are doing everyday and pop it in. The workouts vary from legs to arms, with cardio days and abs, so overall it’s really tough and you only get 1 day off a week.  The videos also have real UFC fighters as well in there so you can learn the correct form for your strikes and kicks. If you are willing to commit to it, it works! Trust me! My favorite CD is Muay Thai because I am a Ninja! 😉 Just waiting on the call from the UFC to see my potential in the octagon…

My exercise routine went pretty well until three weeks ago… I was stupid enough not to pay attention where I was walking and hit my foot against the chair in the yard. I thought it was just bruised until it turned blue and purple and swelled up like a balloon for a week. The little toe bent completely to another direction from my foot. (you can imagine the swearing coming out of my mouth at the time…!)  I don’t think it is broken because this week I can actually put weight on it and walk, but there might be a hairline fracture of some kind. Last week I tried to start walking the dog along the riverbed but the uneven sand hurts the foot if I step a little wrong on the ground. So at the moment I am only doing mainly arms, core and abs from my TapOut program, since I can’t do any of the jumping or running CD’s. It’s so disappointing and frustrating to not be able to do a full workout which is the reason for my depressing moods and lack of motivation at the moment! 😦 Aside from all the exercising, I have been doing a lot of reading (going through my books I brought with me from London when we moved), some cooking and a little bit of experimental baking.  I am not great at baking but will make more of an effort this time, because our local mini market really does not stock that many products. Just the basics: chicken, mince, white bread, butter, milk, can foods, soups and some frozen veggies. You are lucky if you can find some cabbage, iceberg, cucumber and tomatoes!  The lack of fresh vegetables and fruits in our small village is normal, but you do get some street vendors along the main road but mostly they’ll also only have is onions, corn, potatoes, apples and the occasional oranges. Luckily there is a bigger food store (OK Groceries) in the next town Karibib where Richard works, so we usually give our food lists to him and he will bring groceries from there after work.

Lettuja!

Banana Bread

I miss our home cooked Finnish food so I have occasionally made some classic dishes like mince-macaroni bake, cabbage casserole, carrot casserole. Also Swedish style meatballs and last week a spinach/beef lasagna and a few stir fry’s along the way…  I was thinking of trying to make Karelian pies  this week as I have a huge craving for these with egg-butter. I have made them once or twice from scratch, starting all the way with the rice porridge,  but I remember it was a mission and a half!

Kaalilaatikko!

Rieskat

In February we also had some relatives here for a few weeks so it’s been busy. Richard’s aunt visited us for one week. Then Richard’s little brother also came down to cheer us up for a quick visit from Germany, where he is working at the moment. It was great to see them both and I think it was really nice for him to be home for a little while, under the Namibian sun, after a long cold winter in Germany. We had many BBQ’s outside and enjoyed having him home.  I have watched the news everyday and am aware of the cold snap Europe is having at the moment. I remember the days from London when you were stuck on the train or bus on one of those snowy days, trying to get home from work. The whole town just shut down after a few snow drops and -1 degrees!

I Skyped home the other weekend and even in Hanko we are also having extreme cold temperatures. As we are so far down south of Finland, we don’t usually get the coldest temperatures which north Finland does but this winter it seems to be extremely cold with -16 degrees last week. But I think spring is on the way with plenty of sunshine! Here we are heading for winter when summer comes down to your side… We also had a few mornings last week with really chilly temperatures of +12. That’s cold here! I needed to put on a long sleeve shirt and long pants for the first time since arriving in November. As soon as the sun starts to warm up the temperature will rise up to 32-35 during the day, so you can ditch the jumpers by 11 am. At least we seem to be done with the hot days like +42 for the time being, and we also had a few drops of rain yesterday evening. Usakos is still one of the driest part of Namibia and we are still waiting for the rainy season to start here. Up north they have had plenty of rain by now…

In the middle of February a miracle also happened. Our tortoise Big Momma, laid her first eggs to the ground! In previous years she has also laid 1 or 2 eggs but because she is so heavy and the ground is hard with too little soft sand around, the eggs have always broken underneath her weight. This time I counted 4 eggs in a big hole she dug next to the flower pots in the yard. She carefully covered them with sand and there they will stay until it’s time for the little ninja turtles to hatch. I googled tortoise hatching and depending on the weather and temperatures they can hatch anytime between 5 -14 months. If it gets very cold, the eggs will stay unhatched over winter and only hatch when it is warmer in the summer. Also the temperature decides the sex of the ninja turtle. Lower temperatures produces males and higher temperatures females. There’s a bit of tortoise facts for you…!

I will try and not to skip another month!  Also a lot of public holidays to come in the next month so hopefully we can think of something exiting to do if Richard gets these days off! Perhaps a camping trip would be in order…  🙂

Cheerio! xxx