Day Eight – Lockdown Two

“Start Your Impossible”

That is the tag line for NZ Olympic and Paralympic teams.  When you hear some of the athletes stories it makes sense.  The Paralympics had their opening ceremony last night (not that I watched it) but I did watch some swimming and track cycling this afternoon.  The swimming this afternoon was the women’s 100 m backstroke.  I didn’t hear the impairment the s had, but the commentators did say they didn’t have use of their body below their mid-drift even though they have their legs.  They could only swim using their shoulders and arms.  At the start of their race they were on their backs and each swimmer had an attendant who held their feet against the end of the pool until the gun went off.  It was incredible to see how fast they could move their individual arms, and couple of the swimmers used both their arms at the same time which was acceptable.

Then I watched a couple of New Zealand women competing in the 3000m individual pursuit on the cycling track.  Anna Taylor came 5th.  Some of the cyclists had only one leg and raced at incredible speeds (40 + km p/h) and power, some had an artificial leg, others brain injuries. An American cyclist Clara Brown had a gymnastic accident several years ago and suffered an major injury – now can’t feel the left side of her body.  Imagine living with that let alone riding a bike!  The Paralympics are live on Duke all day.  If you get a chance do have a look, the people are inspirational.  Imagine the hardships they have had to overcome over the years.  Sophie Pascoe is swimming tomorrow afternoon and wheelchair rugby is on, NZ vs Great Britain.

The Difference between Olympics and Paralympics

Thanks to the “Press Las Vegas” this article explains the differences between the two Olympic competitions and how they classify impairments.

At the Olympics, in most sports competitors are grouped by gender and/or weight class.

At the Paralympics, classifications are a way for organisers to group like-with-like athletes, so people of roughly equivalent levels of impairment — or roughly equal functional ability — can compete together fairly.

Classifications are eligible to be assigned to a range of physical, vision and intellectual impairments.  To read more check out this article.

Family favourite recipe – Barb’s Lemon Cake

When Barb and Pats are entertaining Barb regularly makes this delicious lemon cake.  I had hoped to make one today, but …..

Ingredients:

• 1¾ cup of sugar
• 2 lemons
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup canola oil (or something similar)
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup plain / Greek yoghurt
• 2 – 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 cups of self-raising flour

Method:

1. Process sugar and lemon zest
2. Add oil, eggs, salt and process
3. Mix in yoghurt, lemon juice and flour
4. Bake 180^c for approximately  50 min – 1 hour.
5. When cool ice with butter icing or simply dust with icing sugar and serve with either yoghurt or whipped cream.

Update to Rosie’s blade steak dish: the soup should have read ‘concentrated’ tomato soup not  ‘condensed’ tomato soup.  The recipe has been updated.

Pruning Hydrangeas tips and tricks

As promised here is a handout in PDF format for Hydrangea PRUNING.  Thank you Jan for sharing your knowledge and expertise. I gave one of my hydrangea bushes a prune this afternoon – here is the before and after.  Bring on the summer!

Daily Dingbats

Here is something to get you thinking differently.  See answers below.

COVID results for today

I don’t listen to the daily 1 pm broadcast with Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Chris Hipkins and I wonder if you are the same?.  Hence I’m putting the daily results here.  As I said yesterday it’s mainly for historical record purposes.

Answers to Dingbats

1. Bad spell of weather
2. An inside job
3. Back seat driver
4. Nothing to worry about

Thank you for your comments and feedback today, they are appreciated.  🙂  That is it, trust you are keeping fit, well and happy!  Don’t forget to share this post.  Take care out there – GoldCard Gal 🙂

Neighbourhood scenes

These are the scenes I saw this morning while out walking.