Shamu!

After a week of gray and wet weather, the sky cleared up again today and the weather returned to the normal winter day in Hervey Bay - dry, sunny, and warm. I felt like I was coming down with cabin fever after a week of being indoors - I tried to study but I couldn't sit still and had the attention span of a nat. So I went to the pool and had a swim to get it out of my system.

The Hervey Bay Aquatic Centre, with a 50-meter pool open for the summer and a heated 25-meter pool open year-round, is where I go for a splash every few days. A lot of people consider swimming pretty boring. In a way, I guess it is: all you see is the black line at the bottom of the pool, all you hear is water sloshing around, and you don't get to listen to your tunes during the work out. But that's the appeal for me; it's a sort of sensory deprivation that I find therapeutic. Also, you don't get sweaty as your sweat is constantly being washed off. No music? No problem. I just set my mind free and let it wander. At some point, a soundtrack would come out. I don't pick the tunes, it just plays. Today's soundtrack consisted of the leitmotif of Requiem for a Dream, which morphed into Carmina Burana, which then turned into Santana, and then Branford Marsalis popped up, which carried me through the cooldown lap. See, who needs an iPod when you've already got one built in?

Feeling spent after the 2-km swim, I made myself a protein shake, then started making dinner. I know I am going to sleep like a coma patient tonight.

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Dinner: simple but tasty stir-fried lamb and broccoli