100 things you might not know about me

Idea poached unashamedly from Little Grover 1. I’m a training advisor for a large manufacturing company 2. I originally trained as a Secretarial Linguist 3. I studied French, German, Latin and Greek – now pretty hopeless on all of them through lack of use 4. I have two sons, two stepsons and three grandsons 5. My husband and I have been together for 10 years, married for 3 years 6. I'm scared of mice but spiders don't worry me 7. I love jewellery – particularly gold and have lots of it which I wear all the time 8. I adore shoes and many people look at my feet first to check out what shoes I’m wearing 9. I wear a uniform to work – shirt with reflective stripes, trousers, helmet and safety boots 10. I read lots – mostly fiction – have been known to get through 8 or 10 books in a week 11. I wear false nails – have done for about 7 years – do them myself. 12. I am the eldest of four – two brothers (one deceased) and one sister 13. I am originally from Scotland, migrated to WA with first husband who was an Aussie, 24 years ago 14. I still talk funny! 15. I wouldn’t be seen dead without mascara 16. I am known at work for having a lovely office – have added a few plants and some posters – makes a huge difference 17. I adore travelling – we go overseas at least once each year. 18. I didn’t get the travel bug until I met my current husband 19. In 10 years we have visited Bali, Hong Kong, Singapore, Fiji, New Zealand (8 times) Spain, Portugal, Morocco, France, Monaco, Ireland, Wales, England, Scotland (3 times), Thailand, Cook Islands, Malaysia, Japan, USA 20. I love dogs – have had a Doberman, Boxer, Ridgeback/ Labrador and now a Ridgeback/Boxer 21. I also love horses – had a pony as a child, then an ex racehorse, a little Arab cross and a quarter horse. Haven’t ridden for about 10 years. 22. I am a perfectionist and known for my attention to detail 23. I am a Virgo 24. I have a team of four training officers working for me – two male and two female 25. My boss and I have worked together for 7 years – without doubt the best working relationship of my life 26. I play the piano 27. I am only 5ft 3 ins – my husband is 6ft 4ins 28. I have my hair coloured regularly – I have a quite a number of silver streaks appearing 29. I used to smoke – stopped 16 years ago 30. My husband still smokes – wish he would stop 31. I used to be terrified of the dentist but now don’t mind at all 32. I was married the first time at 19 and was in that marriage for 20 years 33. I had glamour photos done at 40 – a top experience! 34. I drink far too much 35. My favour drink is white wine – chardonnay or sauvignon blanc 36. If I am drinking spirits I like rum, bourbon or brandy 37. I was dux of my primary school 38. My real name is Anne 39. My husband, eldest son and I all work for the same company 40. My daughter in law is a teacher 41. I am left handed 42. I was a waitress for many years when I was at high school and college 43. I need glasses now for reading but have had them for distance for a long time 44. My current car is a silver Rav 4 45. My last car was a black coupe (always wanted a black sports car so got one) 46. One of my nicknames at work is ‘Mum’ since I’m always fixing things up for ‘my boys’ 47. I’m the only woman in a management team of 9, and one of only a few women in my area of 200 people 48. No one is allowed to swear in my office – I’m no prude but that’s my standard 49. I’m a softy and will cry very easily watching a movie or reading a book. 50. But in real life situations I don’t cry – I’m very practical and deal with things by leaping into action 51. I was an incredible tomboy as a child and spent most of my time outside with Dad 52. I can milk a cow 53. I fell down stairs and broke my foot so I am now paranoid about three points of contact 54. I have a cleaning lady and an ironing lady 55. I have an under active thyroid 56. I suffer (not very often now) from migraine headaches 57. I love music and have a very wide ranging taste 58. I am a candle freak and have candles, incense etc burning all over the house. 59. I love perfume and treat myself every time we go overseas. I wear my perfumes day and night and don’t believe in saving it for good. 60. Current favourite evening perfume is Narcisso Rodriguez, Paloma Picasso 61. Daytime favourites – Coco, Fendi, Fiji, Black by Kenneth Coleman, Estee, Cinnabar, FCUK, Still 62. I am a writer of lists 63. I start packing well before we go on holiday – I enjoy the journey as much as the destination 64. I am a fruit bat – have no trouble getting through 4 or 5 pieces of fruit in a day 65. My favourite chocolates are Lindor 66. I wear jeans or trousers most of the time 67. I buy fresh flowers for the house every week – lilies are my favourite 68. Although I am a pretty good cook and an excellent baker I try to avoid spending time in the kitchen. 69. I can spend hours on my PC – Bloss and I have one each – side by side in the study. 70. I am an incredible flirt 71. I used to be a registrar in a primary school 72. I haven’t told anyone that I have this blog 73. I used to do part time market research – knocking on doors conducting surveys 74. I used to drink about 14 cups of coffee a day- I now drink one or two 75. I love bright colours – particularly red and blue 76. I like watching cricket and AFL but not soccer or rugby league 77. I love cryptic crosswords 78. I also enjoy logic puzzles 79. I have pierced ears – two holes on one and three on the other – one up high. 80. I don’t have any tattoos nor do I want any – have this vision of a group of old ladies in a retirement home comparing tattoos and saying ‘can you guess what this was?’ 81. I don’t watch very much television but I do watch Big Brother 82. I adore dancing 83. I used to sing in the Church choir 84. Human behaviour fascinates me 85. I’m manipulative – not in a nasty way – but I do find it relatively easy to get people to do what I want by knowing just which buttons to push 86. I’m currently having huge mood swings but over the past couple of months have taken charge of myself and made the decision that I am not going to allow my moods to rule my behaviour – and so far it seems to be working quite well 87. My friend and I who are noted for having fun and enjoying life are sometimes referred to as the ‘Ab Fabs’ I choose to take this as a compliment! 88. I am very much a people person but nonetheless value my own space and enjoy time on my own 89. I never want to say when I’m old that “I wish I had’ so this means that I’ll try most things – if it works … great and if it doesn’t well at least I had a go 90. I have no desire to either parachute or bungee jump – don’t like heights very much 91. I have a certificate of Professional Competence in Road Haulage Operations - I used to work for a truck dealership. 92. My Myer Briggs profile is ESFJ 93. My Belbin profile is Implementer/Completer Finisher 94. I don’t suffer fools gladly and lack patience sometimes – I do believe I have managed to improve this over the years 95. I used to be able to take shorthand at 130 wpm – no hope now 96. I hope I can stay as young at heart as my mum – she is 73 and still game to try anything. Bought herself a second hand computer from the man next door, got hooked up and flicks us an email. 97. Not fussed on Diet Coke but really like Diet Pepsi 98. My clothes take up wardrobe space in three different rooms – and that's after a recent clean out! 99. I had a wonderful upbringing with parents who encouraged good self esteem – you are a worthwhile person – not better than anyone else – but certainly as good as anyone else. I’ve tried to pass that on to my children – quite successfully I think 100. I’m pretty well aware of my faults and shortcomings but I can say that despite them I like me and I’m happy with who I am.

On the road again

I’m still frantically busy at work and too whacked to do much at home at night so it’s another short post. But the news is good – 1.4kg down this week. Mind you I’ve no idea what’s happening with my body at the moment. As I’ve said already I’m a daily weigher – and one day I was actually 2.4 kgs heavier than this morning – I’ve been up and down like a yoyo, so thought I’d better blog quickly in case it goes apeshit again tomorrow! My eating has been pretty good this week – have only had alcohol on two days. One of those was Saturday and I had too much and was a very quiet puppy on Sunday! Nothing exciting – just our neighbours popped over for a glass or two which turned into a bottle or six! Exercise has been rather ordinary – have only walked three times this week. Note to self – do better next week. Looking forward to Friday night when both grandsons are staying overnight. Their mum and dad are going to Brisbane for the Cold Play concert. I’m taking a half day off work and will go to their place and pick them up then bring them back to us. It’ll be wonderful fun! Sounds like No 2 son will be home in a couple of weeks – he’s currently in Thailand heading today to Vietnam and Cambodia. He’ll probably only stay in Queensland for a couple of weeks – his last email said he was looking forward to roast dinners – hint hint! – then he’ll be going back to WA as that’s where the work and the big money are. But it’ll be soo good to see him. Hope everyone’s having a great week.

Taking the Pledge

I just don’t seem to have a minute to spare at the moment. Mind you that hasn’t transferred itself to not finding time to eat and drink what I shouldn’t!! To clarify – have been incredibly busy at work – doing a major overhaul of some our documentation systems, collecting and collating information and documentation for a major incident investigation, rehashing our training plan for the remainder of the year and trying to bring two new team members up to speed. Hence how I come to be writing this today – a public holiday in Queensland – but it’s an ideal day when no other day workers are around to get some serious stuff done. It’s lunchtime now so I’m trying to clear my rapidly fogging brain before starting up again and thought it a good time to finally update my blog. And on the eating front – have been pretty so-so over the last couple of weeks – not too bad – not too good –and that’s fine if I was trying to maintain but I really want to lose some more. But the weekend just gone was bloody terrible – I just went nuts! But it’s Monday and I’ve packed myself a good lunch and I’m drinking water and away we go again! I’ve been doing a bit of self analysis – the reason, I believe, for the half arsed attempts to lose over the past few weeks is that I’m feeling quite good about myself again – everything fits nicely and I can walk into a shop – select a pair of size 12 pants and know they’ll fit! So what this means is that I’ve lost the urgency to get on with it and lose those last 7 kgs. So I’m having one of those introspective talks with myself – I do want to be a few kgs lighter before I go on holiday – and that’s only just over six weeks away. I need to find that focus I had during the lead up to Easter and sustain it for the next six weeks. So my pledge for the coming weeks (and I need to DO it not just say it) is to get out there walking again and leave the grog alone. I think 7.2kgs in 6 weeks is a bit ambitious but I think 4.5kg is possible so here goes………………