Last minute

Well it's as I had said - I am getting there and Christmas will happen as planned in our house.  I think I'm almost there - got to go and pick up a couple of last minute things this afternoon and of course a bit more food shopping during the week but the main things are done - tree is up, kids presents wrapped and under the tree - all good.

I managed another 400g off this week leaving me with 800g to lose this week for me to make 5kgs.  But I don't think it's going to happen.  We had a work morning tea on Friday and I had to take savoury stuff - so took lots of chopped up vegies, some rice crackers and a couple of dips - one tzatziki and I nibbled away on them and managed to leave the rich home made slices alone.  So far so good.  But then last night after everyone was in bed I got a chocolate urge - doesn't happen very often these days thankfully - but there were some Lindt balls in the fridge - and they were screaming my name!!! So I ended up eating four of the little devils just to shut them up!!  Anyway I'm going to try and have another couple of hundred grams off before Christmas.

Got a nice surprise on Tuesday morning when Clive called from Perth to say that because of the cyclone off the coast of WA, the accommodation barge for the rig was being demobilised so he wasn't going offshore as planned that day - instead he was flying back here.  So he's been here since Tuesday and could be here right up to almost Christmas day - or beyond - just depends how things go with TC Laurence.  It crossed to land and weakened to a low but has gone back out to sea and re-intensified and is now predicted to cross the coast again on Tuesday as a Category 4.  It would be lovely to have him here as we haven't all had a Christmas together for 4 years.

Bloss is now on holiday for the next two weeks but I'm just having the public holidays off - I always have to hoard up as much of my annual leave as I can.  It's Ok for him - years of shift work means he has literally months of leave and long service leave.

On Friday night I was meant to be going to a farewell for someone at work - but it was in town and I decided that I'd rather stay home and have a couple of glasses of wine.  Grant had his work Christmas do for a couple of hours from 4 till 7 and he had been looking for someone to mind the boys. So after I got home from work I rung them and told them of my change of plans and so they brought the boys down while he and Tiff went to the Christmas do.  We were all playing on the Wii - it's sad when your 4 year old grandson can beat you at Mario Karts!  But also had lots of fun with the ski jump and the heading footballs on WiiFit.  Thinking I'd like to get Wii Sing - that should be good for a few laughs after a drink or two!

Wakened at 2.30am this morning by a massive thunderclap and went toddling downstairs to rescue Zanna who hates thunderstorms but at the bottom of the stairs heard Clive's voice calling that he had already taken her in.  We had a few very big bangs and a bit of lightening over the next hour or so and quite a decent bit of rain.  But all dry again this morning.  Clive left at 5am to go out fishing so hoping for some nice reef fish for tea tonight!!

Right possums this will probably be my last post before Chrissie - so here's wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas and may 2010 have many wonderful things in store for you all.
Love Z xx

Can I get to five?

That's kilos off before Christmas. I've got two more weigh ins but based on my current rate of loss I doubt if I'll quite get there .... but I'll keep trying. 400g off this week so steady, steady. I'm calling this project Inching to Italy - my plan is to be at an all time low by the time we leave - plus I'm tracking measurements too - so a bit of a pun really.

On the holiday front Shaz and I are starting to do a bit of planning - I've been to see my wonderful travel agent and picked his brains inside out. Given that we only plan to be there for 3 weeks we need to look at how best to see as much as we can in that period - without spending an arm and a leg. It looks like there are some quite good flight prices on offer through Emirates - Brisbane to Rome via Dubai and then leaving from Athens on the way back which would suit us nicely. We've spotted a nice 16 day tour - Rome, Florence, Venice, then the overnight ferry to Greece - tour around Athens, Tolon, Olympia then pick up a four day cruise of the Greek Islands with a brief stop in Turkey. Now we need to sit down and pin actual dates to this so we can get firm prices and see how it all hangs together.

I got my calendars back from Snapfish on Friday - really quick turn around - order online one Friday and at my front door the next Friday. Once again really delighted with them and posted them off to Scotland yesterday. Have ordered my Serendipity Europe 2009 book from them - that's what I titled it, and it should arrive this week - can't wait to see it.

Here's a view of the three calendars

I managed to get a bit more of my Christmas shopping done yesterday - it's starting to come together now - and I even  wrote and posted some Christmas cards.  I had no excuse this year - I haven't sent any for 2 years - don't know why anyone is still bothering with me to be honest - my friends are obviously persevering and forgiving!  2 years ago my excuse was that I was racing off to Scotland because Mum had her hip surgery and last year I was too busy as she and my sister and BiL were here.  But no excuses this year so needed to pull my finger out!!

Ok troops - here's to another week without too many excesses and a sizeable weightloss would be good! Have a good one folks.

Love Z xx

Beautiful Sunday

Well I'm still in bed - even although over on Face Book, Briony has told me it's time I was up and at it!

Another week has flown past and it's so near Christmas and I'm not very organised but I suppose I'll pull the stops out and it will happen. I'm really busy at work.I support two sites and spend two days at one and three at the other so Monday I'm at the one closest to home, then Tuesday and Wednesday off to the other one, then Thursday and Friday back here again - it makes the week just flash by. I was sick on Friday - copped a really bad migraine about 1am on Friday morning and although it had eased a bit by 5.30am I was scared to move in case I made it flare up again. So spent most of Friday in bed and was OK by night time - just had that totally washed out feeling. Josh and Curtis were coming to stay overnight so Clive went and picked them up for me and once they're here they're no trouble and in fact a lot of fun.

Weight wise I managed another 300g off - and starting to feel not quite so podgy round the middle! Still not managing to get into much in the way of exercise - which I know would help it to move a bit faster not to mention help the saggy bits - but I keep telling myself the awakening will come - wish it would bloody hurry up!

Spent a bit of time on Friday afternoon putting together calendars for my family in Scotland - there's a really good site called Snapfish where you can upload your photos and make a personalised calendar.  I did one for Mum and my sister last year and they just loved them.  Mum has hers on the wall beside the phone and quite often when I phone she'll tell me who's smiling at her from the calendar.  You can also put people's birthdays on the appropriate space on it too so makes it easy to see whose birthday is coming up.  Anyway they had a special on so I was able to get each calendar for $13 instead of the normal $24.95.  Then they sent me an email thanking me for my calendar order and offering me 20 per cent discount on photobooks.  I've been in the process of building one of these for a while now.  While on holiday in Europe - I took lots of pictures of doors and doorways - they fascinate me and Bloss has the same fascination for signs and streetlamps.  So I'm building us a coffee table type book with all our pictures of these.  So just about to order that now and can't wait to see how it turns out.

Well it's now almost 9am so I'd better move myself - this is the week I make all my little containers of jelly and fruit to take to work and I'll also make a monster bowl of salad to last me through the week to take to work.  Need to make one to take to Grant and Tiff's tonight  too.  We're going there for tea and Clive too - he's staying there tonight as it's close to the airport and he's off to Perth on the first flight.  I'm going to miss him - he's been with us for 8 weeks this time and he's such a good help round the place.  However he's back again for a couple of days at New Year, then again at the end of January and after that will be based in Perth for a while - working offshore in the North west.

A few photos

Grant, Tiff and Clive at a wedding recently

Josh

Curtis

Josh - no teeth showing - think he's a bit self conscious about them at the moment.

Have a top week possums
Love Zxx