Week #6: Capoeira and rice

Another week down and it wasn't completely wasted. A return to Capoeira on Monday set things off to a flying start. I took the weight vest off for my two hours of intensive exercise, hoping that perhaps that would spare me complete muscle failure at the end of a two hour session. It was a nice idea, but that extra weight would have just hastened the inevitable.

I'd missed that feeling of muscles collapsing beneath their own weight. It sounds unpleasant, but it's actually invigorating. Like the feeling of floating when I take the weight vest off, the end of a Capoeira class brings with it a feeling of ease. Walking, running, pushups... all seem that much easier compared with a few rounds of switching legs from Negativa. Think doing your normal exercises, all while remaining in a low push-up position.

There was another session on Wednesday night as well, followed by a nice relaxing forty minute uphill walk back home. Once more, I removed the weight vest as the lesson started and donned it again when we slowed afterwards. I think next week I'll try keeping the vest on with most of the weights removed. It may be an insanely stupid idea but, if I can manage that, a mere bushwalk should present scant little problem.

I also returned to my previous habit of balancing on bollards at lunch. Again, I seem to have a knack for only doing this when it's extremely windy. This time it wasn't my legs that gave out each time. Instead, I would remain balanced until a gust arrived that was powerful enough to shove me straight off. Only one of the bollards was reasonably sheltered, so I took to swapping legs on that one rather than working my way along the line.

Next week, I'll have three nights of Capoeira. Maybe wearing the weight vest for them isn't such a good idea if I'm doing that many. It would be sensible to take it easier... Sensible? Me? Not going to happen!

I've got no further with planning what meals to start preparing. We have to sort out for sure who's going and meet up to work out that and myriad other details soon. In the meantime, I've started preparing some complete basics. Since longer cooking times mean more fuel and weight, just carrying bags of rice is a terribly bad idea. Quick-cook rice tastes really odd, some product of its commercial production. But it's very easy to make your own tasty quick-cooking rice. Take rice, cook it (steam, boil, simmer, soak or even use a rice cooker. The choice is yours), spread it on baking trays and put it in an oven with the door jammed slightly open. I find that 75 degrees fan forced works pretty well for my oven, though its dubious thermostat means that probably translates to anything from 65-90 degrees on a normal oven.Turn it and break up the lumps that form after an hour or so, then again after another hour. I can completely dehydrate white rice in a little over two hours. Brown rice is up around 4 hours. The result is rice taking up the same volume and weight as raw rice, but which cooks by pouring in some boiling water and sitting for a couple of minutes while you prepare to dish up. Since we're sure to need some, I've started drying rice en masse. Whatever isn't needed for the walk can go into the pantry for when I'm feeling hungry and don't feel like waiting for our stove to potter its way through cooking the rice.