swimming 25:00 [3] 0.5 km (50:00 / km)
For no obvious reason I was marginally less uncoordinated than usual. Have to do something about going to work with panda marks from my goggles, though since apparently Adelaide is mad about pandas at the minute (even Julie would cringe at the panda-related puns made by the daily tabloid) I could maybe get away with it? Or not.
Housebreaking 101 30:00 [0]
I clearly need to rethink my very bad habit of nicking home at lunchtime (5 min walk) to grab my lunch because I'm not organised enough to prepare it before work. When it came time to leave work today I realised exactly where my house/car keys were: home on the kitchen table! And I had to be across town at a meeting by 6.30...
From past experience I knew that it's possible to slide open one of the windows in the back sunroom, but the problem was getting into the back yard, because the gate is taller than me, and bolted horizontally on the inside, logically. Quick call to George (currently in Mildura, so not home for a few hours yet) and he advised stacking the bricks from the garden border until it was possible to reach over the gate - he's done this before, it turns out. Also turns out that the distance from the top of the gate to the bolt on the other side is longer than my prehensile little arms (George called me T-Rex when he stopped laughing) so I had to improvise with some wire I found in the garden, bent into hooks. Even that wasn't straightforward as I could get the bolt up but couldn't slide it while my weight was leaning on the gate, and it would keep slipping back down... Doesn't help when the metal has expanded in the heat of the afternoon sun. Meatloaf was watching my efforts with great curiosity as he couldn't understand why I didn't just come inside the easy way. Eventually, with one piece of wire holding the bolt up, and the other used as a lever to wedge the bolt open, I achieved Gate-opening 101.
The window in question was open already (yay) but that's the one where it's hardest to get the screen off because of the light fitting outside. Also, skirt-wearing doesn't make for easy window-climbing. Still, I made it to my meeting not more than 10 minutes late. And if anyone else wants to achieve house-breaking the easy way, the spare key is now outside again!