No pain no gain

So what does it mean if i'm in agony? My arms hurt, my thighs hurt, my ass hurts. It hurts to walk down the hill, it hurts to walk up the hill, it hurts to sit, it hurts to shampoo my hair. Apparently having a hot blonde yell at me while I exercise makes me do things my slight frame wasn't made to do. IT HURTS.

After a few wines last night I also decided it was an appropriate time to perform minor surgery on myself and changed my belly button stud for the first time. As I was lying completely starkers on my back on my bedroom floor looking at this angry red gaping hole in my flesh while I tried to insert the new stud, the wine brought out the philosophical in me and I asked myself why? I would propose it's another symptom of my raging quarter/third life crisis, except I never would have had the kahunas to do it but babiest sis got it for me for a Christmas present. We were butchered together, butchered being a pertinent word. The girl doing the piercing was most put out by the fact I had my arm in a cast (man i'm getting a lot of mileage out of your post jimmy old chap) and had to insert the HUGE needle into my navel painfully slowly as supposedly the cast was in the way. But i like the new stud, it's a blue daisy. I'd post a photo, but I'm conscious intentional infliction of emotional distress isn't covered by ACC provisions in New Zealand (unless the law has changed in the last four years or so) and I don't want to blind anyone....

Notwithstanding the fact I could barely walk I made it to the vege market this morning, fingering and smelling produce the closest thing I get to a spiritual experience on a sunday morning. Then I followed Bear over the Miramar ranges to Schorching Bay, groaning with each step, and I was all fired up for a swim, until I dipped my toe in. Was simply beautiful there though - the bush-clad mountains across the harbour sprinkled with coffee and cinnamon and sandy-coloured veins beneath clouds whipped up in a milky blue sky, and a smokey green ocean to drink up if i lifted my head off the sand and dads playing with wet-suit clad sprats amongst the rocks. Camera was flat unfortunately.

But here's a photo of a goat up a tree that we spotted after a hike out at the base of the Rimutakas several weeks back.