Nationals - my take

This is going to be a long one, so bear with me!
After having an awful migraine on Thursday which left me feeling bloated and rather strange, we jetted into Melbourne just after midnight. After an uneventful ride to our hotel, Anne and I decided to apply the first coat of contest colour on Friday morning and went to bed.
We have got the Contest Colour down to a fine art now, so it was oats, low sodium protein and distilled water for breakfast, a coat of tan, quick shower and off to organize ourselves for the day. It was rather chilly in Melbourne, so first port of call was a sports store, where I snagged a pair of trackpants for only $18.00, my first Melbourne bargain. Then we hit Coles (supermarket ) and bought so many vegetables that we were seriously considering hiring a trailer to cart it all back to the hotel with. We then spent the afternoon prepping all of our meals - we decided to make a nice low sodium marinade of lime, ginger and garlic which went rather nicely with our many packets of stir fry veggies. For that added carbohydrate boost, I added in some potatoes. We applied more colour, then it was off to bed.

Saturday was comp day and we started off the day with oats, low sodium protein and distilled water and as I looked very flat (after hoofing around Melbourne for hours on end), it was time to up the calories on the way to the venue with a tube of Carnation Condensed Milk and honey and rice cakes. I will use the latter of the two next time as the condensed milk tasted terrible!

I was unfortunately still bloated from my migraine, but that did not stop me from stepping out
onto the stage with my 16 fellow competitors, including Deb and having a good time. I knew that I had no chance of placing, so I just concentrated on having a good time and enjoyed the atmosphere thoroughly. We had symmetry and muscularity rounds in the morning and the routine round at the evening show, though only the top three competitors performed their routines. It was great fun backstage as well. In fact, the highlight of the day was meeting up with every other competitor that blogs here.

Let's see - Lia - you couldn't meet a nicer gal who comes across exactly how she blogs, full of passion and enthusiasm for the sport of Figure and wow, was it fun having a Koko Black Belgian Spoil with you! Yummo!

Deb - my kindred spirit at the other end of the line up. Wow, have we both travelled a long way this year my friend! It was so great to share dinner with you and our awesome line up!

Ali - absolutely gorgeous "in the flesh" so to speak. Your blog photos don't do you any justice my girl. You are stunning and so much fun to talk to!

Di - wonderful to see you, you look so radiant and happy being Mrs B, thank you for your faithful encouragement and support, looking forward to seeing you again next year and yes, I'd love your "shack"!

Alicia - great to finally meet you and feel some of your intoxicating enthusiasm for life rub off on me. Hey, we may get to "sass it" in Figure Intermediate next year! Looking forward to seeing the muscles you create in the off season.

Rae - I enjoyed every minute we spent talking - I wish you didn't live in Perth - I'm just going to have to enjoy our online friendship until we see each other again!

Sam - what can I say - you were amazing, poetry in motion! And so much fun to be around backstage. Again, why do you have to live so far away - that's so not fair. I'll be sending healing vibes and prayers your way for a speedy recovery.

Em and Meggie - it was soo cool to meet you girls. Em, I'm so glad if I have inspired you in any way. You will see, and you will get back into shape and have another member to add to your family. You are a very special lady as is Meggie - I, too was doing a mixture of Combat choreo in my head to some of the routine music.

And great to meet Miss Jaime-Lee and Cherie!

I hope I haven't left anyone out. I just had so much fun and wish that I could do it all over again - the socializing part that is, I'm enjoying well earned recovery this week.

After the comp had finished we went to Lygon Street and I had a beautiful Veal Tortellini with Amatriciana and parmesan topping. Then a few doors down to Koko Black (thanks Lia )( www.kokoblack.com ) for an exquisite "Belgian Spoil", a series of five petite chocolate desserts and a real hot chocolate made with melted chocolate leaves. One cannot help but rave about the food in Melbourne, it is indeed the culinary capital of Australia.
We have spent the last few days taking it easy and enjoying the culture and culinary style of Melbourne ( ) - not to mention doing some hard shopping! I got to check out the Nike IPOD transmitter and buy some beautiful clothing (one size up, which totally puzzled the sales assistants). Yes, it would be nice to be this lean permanently, but the reality is that maintenance for me is about 8 pounds heavier than I am now, so I am going to work on slowly gaining weight. Weird indeed.

And plans for next year? If I compete, given my geographical restrictions, it won't be until October next year at this stage. I just want to keep adding muscle to my upper body!